89Ru

For a quick shield, use aluminum foil wrapped around the hot wire insulation, tie the foil to the (-) battery or some clean connection to body with some alligator clips. If this works, a more robust shield can be made using heavy gauge ground braid, either the wrap method or thread the hot lead through the birdcaged center of the braid. Maybe you have an electrical supply store in your area?

In addition to above suggestions, to snuff RF that may be picked up by this wire, you could add 1 uF capacitors between the hot lead and body. Experiment with this, at the battery, across the relay terminals, and at the lights. In all cases, the capacitor should be across the hot (+12V) and return (body) or shield if you go that route. I kind of doubt this, since your car's wiring is just a big antenna anyway, and just driving from place to place changes the fields that it sees from time to time...so the signature comparison would be like chasing a moving target... Here's a thought, maybe the anti-theft has a time domain reflectometer (puts out a narrow pulse and then listens for the reflection, like an echo detector). Kind of like if you tie a string tight between two trees and then strum it, you can see the echo 'wave' bouncing back and forth between the tie points. Any changes in the stored signature echo and bingo, your thief is caught. Yes, the existing wiring puts out a chorus of echoes like frogs in a pond, but any new frog, you get it.... If this is the case, a series power resistor (10-30 ohms) placed at the take-off point of the new hot wire (i.e. battery...) will dampen the reflection (in effect hiding the wire somewhat from the wire-sniffer), but it will lower the brightness of the lights, so not a great solution. Any amount of tinkering may not defeat the anti-theft, if it is really sensitive. How about contacting SOA and seeing if your hunch is correct? Or any friendly anti-theft installer? If you are right, then the anti-theft should have a mode where it can store the new signature, and off you go.

Tried free rotating the cams with wrench? See if one turns noticeably harder than the other. Woodruff key intact? sidenote to casual readers: Try this ONLY on non-interference engines please!

Try a new tensioner from the dealer (repeating someone else's wisdom here)

Original post mentioned pumping the gas pedal, does this do anything helpful in a fuel injected car?

Checked the timing marks (w/o crank mark yet, still covered) and with the driver side dohc cam double marks lined up top/bottom, the pass side marks are one tooth offset. Will begin searching whether this can cause all the symptoms in this verbose post...still unknown how the cams skipped a tooth but I'm betting on a partial cam seizure, hoping not! Could have skipped during the last hard start (haven't cranked it since), sounded like chj-jeeeeeeer chj-jeeeeeeer (low compression?) Need to save this car from its worst enemy (me!) Storm last night knocked a branch down that clobbered and spider-webbed the windshield, insult to injury! The house is divided whether this car will survive the blunder, and my future handiwork :-\

Some clarifiying questions. What you are doing with the return (-) lead? i.e where you make the connection to battery (-), back through the body? When you connect a wire to the source (battery or alternator) am I correct to say you have just a single wire (flying lead), or in other words, an antenna? How long is this single wire? By chance this single wire (antenna) is radiating some interference that is being picked up by your car's electronics, try twisting the wires together, this assumes there is a second wire (ground, back to battery) that you can in fact twist with the 12V (+) wire. If you are going through the body, this won't work. If I read correctly, it sounds like the lights come on as soon as you make contact with the battery, i.e. the relay is closed all the time. Is this true?

The obdii format started in subarus in '95, my guess is that earlier models were not readable via serial cable, so the flashing led is the only way to get codes. Scratch that, just reread your post re: OBD1, there are a few websites that support it. I use 'OBD Gauge' software (free) maybe they have a version for OBD1. With OBDII, you need a converter box to convert to RS232 for the laptop. Can't speak for OBD1 though.

More info: Yesterday when it stalled there were no bad engine noises, and no obvious coolant from the tailpipe. Checked codes and saw P0301 / P0302 (misfire) which I've seen before and (whether wrong or not) attribute it to corrosion on a connector (somewhere there's a helpful post on this topic) This morning took off both outer tb covers, belt is tight. Spun the crank around two full revs of the pulley and it feels ok (same as the ej22, compression and release past tdc at each half-turn of the crank pulley) nothing appears seized. Despite this, first time I'm hesitant to turn the key on a subaru! I'm thinking the car had a stroke causing low oil pressure (clog in some narrow passage) somehow related to the bungled thermostat Tear down to oil pump and check o-ring?

The saga continues, gets worse. Mystery solved: I discovered that I'd bungled the thermostat (put it in backwards, what was I thinking!?) I finished the new radiator install (that I didn't really need), did a 'proper' coolant fill, and started the engine. It cranked a while like it had sat too long without running, not firing, and I heard one knock sound as I let off the key, didn't turn over. Next time it started and there was immediate engine noise like low oil pressure (loud knocking). I'm not an expert in EJ25 DOHC engine sounds, all I know is my EA82 and EJ22 when they have various non-death noises, so that is my frame of reference. I let it run at idle, and the knocking sounds quieted down significantly, and I continued the air bleeding process. After a few minutes I increased rpm slightly, and it quit. Seized? It wasn't long enough for the temp needle to rise to its normal position, thermostat wasn't open (lower radiator hose cold), upper hose hot. Recall that this car was briefly driven highway speeds and at least twice (10 min each) at idle (post-highway drive troubleshooting) with a backwards thermostat. Since this is an interference engine I may have caused major damage but I'm not sure the cause. While waiting for the radiator to cross the country in shipping, the car was moved around the yard a few times without engine noise (cooling system intact). Since the oil pump is crank driven, can it be low oil pressure? If the timing belt skipped a few teeth, would it explain these symptoms? I don't have a lot of history on this car, just bought it last fall. As far as I know PO had a JDM engine installed at 170K with new head gaskets, I've put 5K on it with no problems, now has 210K. I'll check codes but I don't think CEL was on during any of these incidents.

check the little metal spring clips that hold the pads in place, one or more may be missing

rumbling...maybe you are losing one (or more) cylinders? does it sputter constantly or just once in a while? any ecu codes?

Punting, going the new radiator route. Its probably time anyway (210k miles) Anyone have a way to translate the VIN (last 6-digits) sequential production number into a manufacturing date? Two parts places in town want to know whether its before or after 4/97...

Thx for ideas. Got a new cap but I don't see flow like I'm expecting (turbulent with the neck level dropping slightly as rpm increases, this isn't happening, in fact the opposite, no turbulence, calm as a pond, and level rises as the temp increases and I have to repeatedly siphon off the top). Ran at 1800 rpm but it never got foamy and at the point when the fans started running it was hard to tell whether air was still bleeding out or coolant was boiling at the bleed port near the upper hose. The lack of flow makes me suspect the thermostat isn't fully opening or radiator is clogged. This time the lower hose was warm. Still no appreciable pressure, upper hose soft but then again I may be capping radiator and bleed plug too late (coolant already boiling...) Temp gauge in the middle. Tomorrow may try running with all plugs sealed from the start to build pressure. If I have a huge air bubble that I can't clear because of the flow problem, am I running the risk of hg damage by continuing this process? Or is the flow problem going to clear itself as I slowly bleed air out? Or should I punt, drain the system, test the thermostat, replace the radiator for good measure and start over? If I have hg issues, I guess the fun is just starting

thanks for that affirm this '97 obw (new to me) has a single bank radiator, will a double bank fit or is it not worth the cost/trouble? sometimes I pull a trailer, had no probs in the past with the single bank or while running a/c (until now of course) also will try a new rad cap just to say I did it

I don't get a 'surge' when the tstat opens so I'm thinking its not opening...but wouldn't the car overheat with a closed tstat? Nipper writes: FYI how to refill a subaru (or any car for that matter). Make sure the car is on level ground or nose uphill. Open air vent if equiped. Start car. SLOWLY pour 50/50 premix into the radiator till it is full. Wait for the T-stat to open. The coolant will surge out when it opens. Let the car run a bit more then top off the radiator. You can goose the throttle if you want. Fill the Overflow tank to the hot line. Place cap on the radiator, drive the car around the block. Let the car cool off. Check the coolant level in the radiator. Top off radiator in the above manor. Repeat if needed. During this procedure always monitor your engine temp. If you see it rising on the test drive, go home and let the car cool off and topoff. I have never ever had an air bubble in any car using this procedure .

Been a reader of this post below for my '95 ej22 but maybe missed some key details and now I'm fighting ej25 problems. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=21681&highlight=Setright+radiator This is my first ej25 coolant flush, a '97 DOHC. Things went well at first yesterday. I replaced the t-stat and gasket with parts from the dealer, and subie green coolant (after choking on the price). Fill through the top hose, slow then into the rad with the bleed port open. During the warm up saw the characteristic bubble every few seconds from the overflow tank, overnight cooldown, and top off this morning with the bleed port open (took more water than expected...3/4 tank was sucked in overnight). During the test drive the overflow tank overflowed, the top rad hose was sucked flat during cooldown, until the overflow tank was sucked dry and then a huge gulp of air :-\ when I didn't catch the empty tank in time. Looks like I'll be bleeding for a week! Didn't incline the car nose up during the fill, will next time after this incident. Some slight deviations from the post above, I remove the tstat, backflush with distilled water with a drill pump first into the top hose to flush the heater and block, draining from the tstat inlet, then backflush into the lower hose to flush the rad draining from the top rad port. I also did the initial warm up with closed radiator and bleed port...that has worked for my ej22, will try the open port 'burp' process next. Also ordering the spill-free funnel below for the burping... http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/lis24610.html Any other obvious things I'm missing? When I start up after the cooloff the first thing I'll check is the dreaded stream of overflow tank bubbles... Update: I know this is a well worn out topic... Started up, no overflow tank bubbles, so hg ok i presume Inclined car nose up Run with rad cap off (plenty of air bled out of the fill point, looked like it was boiling at one point...) used an old turkey baster to siphon rising fluid into overflow tank Top off and cap radiator when fans started up Fans didn't turn off as expected Upper rad hose hot, soft even with cap on (run too long with cap off? no pressure??? or still too much trapped air...) Lower rad hose cold Radiator generally cool on drivers side temp gauge in the middle, normal place heater blowing hot My take on this is either the rad is clogged, maybe the backflush stirred up some crud and plugged it? or my new tstat isn't opening... will try again after overnight cooldown, ej25 newbie

Thx for the procedure. Wouldn't have touched the IAC without it. Take care when removing the top portion of the IAC, the valve is driven by a magnetically coupled shaft that is brittle and its top can shatter if the housing comes off at an angle. The housing should come off straight vertically, not easily done since the housing is secured into a channel in the valve base, don't know with what, some type of glue. Just my 2 cents. Here's a pic with the shaft top buggered...still works tho after de-chipping http://i444.photobucket.com/albums/qq166/89ru/P1040145.jpg

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=54555 try this one

I agree, bought one of these low-mileage creampuffs unseen from an outfit in Texas in 2002. 80k later, still running. Wish my 5-year old sieve radiator was as good :-p

I spent what seemed like hours bleeding brake lines after a newbie strut job on my '89 5spd D/R (left the front brake lines disconected for the better part of the morning). After a never-ending stream of air bubbles from all the bleed screws, I finally decided to put the wheels on and drive it (carefully, squishy pedal nearly to the floor) and then re-bleed. Stuff a rag in the center of the fitting? Maybe someone makes a plug? BTW, whoever posted the method of sealing the threads on the bleed screw with dielectric or vacuum grease, my hat's off. Makes the Harbor Freight vacuum bleeder tool mostly easy to use to pull the air out of the lines.

While driving, '95 Legacy tach and speedo went to zero and radio cut out. Came back right away. Hasn't had trouble since (couple of days ago). This is my brother-in-law's Suby and I'm heading out to look at it. Figure fuse loose but my '95 fuse panel shows one fuse for the radio only, could it share with these gauges? ??

If you are talking about locking the cam to remove the bolt so you can get the cam off (presumably to replace a seal) then use a chain vise grip over old belt to protect cam teeth.

According to edrach you need to loosen the two bolts holding the hub to the lower portion of the strut, then you'll have enough play to get the axle out of the tranny- since you mention stub I'm assuming you have an auto. Should just pop out once you have enough room. There are other ways to do this by removing more stuff -stick to edrach's since it seems simpler.

Where are you in the process?