mrfixiter

I should have mentioned it's for my 2001 Forester. From my understanding of its usage, it can be added to whatever existing R134a that still remains in the system. Thanks for your reply.

Has anyone used Enviro-Safe r134a refrigerant? I found a long list of reasons to use it such as cost and compatibility, and a couple of exceptional reasons not to use it. Mainly, it appears to have the same chemical makeup as propane which is probably something you don't want to have in your engine compartment should a leak develop. It's hard to find a review from someone that doesn't represent or sell the product. Thanks for your reply.

What happens if you're just stopped with the motor running? Is it still intermittent? The reason I ask is because it will be much easier to troubleshoot if the problem happens when the car is parked than when you're driving down the street. Youtube has some great videos on a/c systems. Though they don't apply specifically to your problem, you may pick up some helpful tips. Good luck.

I'll just buy a crush washer at the local parts store since I need the job finished today and then order the ten pack for next time. The Fumoto valve looks interesting but I'll stick with the basic stuff for now. Thanks to everyone for all the feedback.

Ok, I'll go buy the crush washers. I was hoping to be able to get by with the fiber washer for a while but I don't want to cut corners. By the way, I live on the Central Coast of California. Thanks for your reply.

So will the washer I purchased function ok at least until my next oil change when I can buy the crush washer? Thanks for your reply.

I have not had the pleasure of personally changing the oil on my 1997 Legacy m/t GT wagon. I usually take it to the local quick lube place. Today I decided to put it up on jack stands for the first time and do it myself. When I removed the drain plug, I noticed something on the threads that looked like plumber's teflon tape. The tape(?) came out easily. I'm not sure if the orange looking rubbery washer was behind or in front of the flat metallic washer. It is obviously deformed and I'm not sure if it even belongs there. See right side of photo below. I went to my local Napa store to get a replacement gasket and was shown two different choices for replacement. One was the fiber washer shown on the left of the picture which I bought. The other one was a metallic washer (not in the picture) which was slightly curved on one side on flat on the other side. Neither one had any rubbery type insert in the washer. I didn't realize that there would be choices to make about this. So is what I bought or what I didn't buy the correct part? Thanks for your reply.

Thanks for your answers. They make perfect sense to me. I would imagine there wouldn't be any reason to have so much slack in the cable. I have since readjusted it a few turns tighter. Not sure why the cruise control cable is so slack. It works so I'm not going to touch it. On the other hand, when I hit the "Set" button for the cruise control, the speed always sets a few mph lower than my current speed. What is the diameter of the vacuum hoses? Any idea what length of hose I would need to change them all? I inspected them a while ago and one was really stiff and had lost its flexibility so I just cut off the inch or two that was like that and reconnected it. In the short time I've driven the car the past two days, the idle has been fine. How much disassembly is required to clean the IACV? Or do you just spray some cleaner into it? Lastly, I'd like to post a picture of the accelerator cable because the end of it doesn't look right. How can I insert a picture into my message? Thanks for your help.

Last year I posted a question about how to test the coolant temperature sensor because the idle never dropped below 1100 rpm. Someone suggested that replacing the sensor would make more sense than to purchase a Scangauge. Since the high idle wasn't that much of a bother to me and everything else was fine, I just lived with it. Long story short, today I was in contact with a guy that goes to different small repair shops with his scan tool and reads engine trouble codes. I asked him if his scanner could read the coolant temperature sensor and he said it did. But as luck would have it, by the time I drove over there, the idle had dropped to normal. It hadn't done that in about 8 months. Since I had made the appointment, I let him inspect the car. He said the tension in the accelerator cable was too high (engine off, with nobody stepping on the pedal). His point of comparison was the amount of slack in the adjacent cruise control cable. Just for reference, I'm talking about where the cable attaches to the manifold with a nut on each side of a metal supporting post. He loosened the nuts so there was more slack in the cable and said that should do it. I was sort of scratching my head why he was even messing with that because the idle just happened to be fine at the time. He secured the nuts and I drove the car home. A couple of times when I stepped on the gas I felt a definite sticking in the gas pedal at the beginning of its travel. Once I got past the sticking point, it was fine. My question is, what are the guidelines for adjusting that cable? I cannot find anything in the manual. And could an improperly adjusted cable cause it to stick like that? There are very obvious paint marks on the threads so I assume it must be calibrated in some sort of way. By the way, the coolant temperature sensor reading was 90 degrees C. Thanks for your help.

Can you recommend a specific model gauge? Thanks for your reply.

'97 Legacy GT wagon, 99k miles, 2.5l. When the car was in warranty, occasionally the engine would not return to a warmed up idle speed of ~700 rpm. It would find a speed from 1,000-2,000 rpm and stay there. I took it to the dealer but they were unable to duplicate the problem. So I've been putting up with it over the years. Now, it frequently does not return to a normal idle speed after warm up. I recently changed the valve cover gaskets, pcv valve, spark plugs and it runs quite smoothly. However it still has that annoying high idle. I would like to test the operation of the coolant temperature sensor without having to remove it. Is there some easy accessible test point where I can check the voltage (with engine running) and resistance of the device (engine not running)? It appears wiring diagrams are hard to come by. Thanks for your reply.

I thought that in addition to the danger of having the pistons hit the valves, which is eliminated by positioning the crank in the correct position, that opening both intake and exhaust valves at the same time would cause damage as well. I mean the service manual puts a big "X" on the idea of having the cams rotate in opposite direction of which it is indicated. I would think there would be some reasoning behind this warning as seen here: http://members.dslextreme.com/users/farberbear/Fix_it_stuff/Subaru/belt.jpg

I have a 2.5l dohc 1997 Legacy GT wagon. Basically I'd like to know the proper procedure for unloading the driver side cams so the valves don't get damaged. There seems to be conflicting advice out there in the land of cyberspace. The service manual shows that the intake cam should only be rotated clockwise and the exhaust cam should only be rotated counterclockwise. But it seems to me that this only applies while you are trying to install the timing belt. In this thread, http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/2-5-dohc-timing-belt-help-120380.html?p=2616725 from another forum, I found this advice: "If you haven't taken the t-belt off yet, with the crank gear lined up the left bank (right side as you look at front of engine) cams will be loaded (valves opened), the right bank will not be. You need to be careful because when you take the belt off, and the gears unload in the wrong direction you can bend the valves. You want to turn the top left gear counterclockwise, and the bottom left gear clockwise, to unload them. Then lock the cam gears to remove the bolts." Then is this article, http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/replacing-cam-crank-seals-w-full-timing-belt-replacement-126988.html The procedure is given as follows, "The driver side cams are loaded, which means the cams are pushing against the springs to open the valves inside the cylinders. If they cams are turned the wrong way they cam close [*doesn't he mean open at the same time?*] both the intake and exhaust at the same time which will cause internal valve damage. The intake cam on the driver’s side can only be turned in the clockwise direction. The exhaust cam can only be turned in the counter clockwise direction." Can both of these explanations be correct? From my calculations, with the crank positioned with the timing marks lined up (the timing belt mark not the TDC arrow mark) Cylinder #2 is in the middle of the intake stroke and the intake valves should be open. Cylinder #4 is in the middle of the exhaust stroke and the exhaust valves should be open. If the exhaust cam is held in place and the intake cam is rotated clockwise, the next set of intake valves to be opened would be in cylinder #4 which already has its exhaust valves open. This doesn't sound like a good thing. If however the intake cam is rotated counterclockwise, neither cylinder #2 or #4 will have a conflict. Now if the intake cam is locked instead and the exhaust cam is allowed to rotate counterclockwise, then the #2 cylinder which already has the intake valves open, will now have its exhaust valves opened too and again this is bad news. Your comments to help clear up this mess are most welcome.