charm

The cats are NOT good. They are bad. They O2 sensors, both OEM, were analyzed by the shop. The results, plus P0420 code, point directly towards the cats. I trust the shop. If they're saying cats, it's the cats. Serves me right for going with the cheapest place. A few weeks ago I was under the car and banged on a few things just to check 'em out (while I was down there). Everything sounded solid then. Can't say they do now. I'm heading out for a vacation tonight so hopefully I won't destroy my car on this road trip. I'll pick up a vacuum gauge when I get back. Is there is specific vacuum line you hook it up to?

I'm certain the cats are done. So you think the hesitation and the cats are related? I can't tell you what the cats look like, I haven't looked at them. I can say that the O2 sensors check out good as new which is good since one is 14 months old and the other is 2 months old. I'm due for emissions in August so I have no choice but to have the cats replaced. I'll do it next week and hope that they're the problem. Man I hate the place that replaced my cats with these hunks of crap!!!!

As if there aren't enough hesitation threads already... I'm trying to diagnose mine and I'm wondering if something I noticed wasn't the problem. It's a 2000 OBW auto tranny 155,000 miles. The engine was completely resealed with new timing belt and just about everything else about 25k ago by a well respected Subie shop. I replaced the cats right after that with ones that have since died. I'll finally be replacing them with bosals in the next couple weeks. Allegedly, there is a very low rate of warranty returns on these cats and I can get them for half the price of the factory cats. I might be taking a chance here, but to save $500, I'm willing. The CEL for the cats is still on and yes, it is the cats, there is no doubt about it! New O2 sensors front and rear. Spark plug wires have more than 25k on them because, well, that's when I bought the car and I haven't put new ones on. Could be plugs and wires. The part that has me curious is, right before the hesitation started, I was driving on the freeway when it first hesitated (only time it's done it at freeway speed) and the check engine light flashed at me. I pulled the codes today and still only have my 420 code. The hesitation appears to only occur at low speeds. It feels like the car has no power. Like I mentioned above, it has happened only once at high speed and came on suddenly. Thoughts?

Didn't see anything over at NASIOC so I thought I'd add to the discussion. Don't waste your time with all of the wiring hacks. Go to your local car audio shop and, if your set on keeping the stock headunit, for $50 you can get a device that plugs in inline with the antenna that will give you your aux in. It works on the same principle as the FM transmitters, but does a MUCH better job. It requires running power and ground and a few other things. I had gone this route until my stock headunit started randomly ejecting CDs when I was driving above 60 MPH. Very strange...I decided to show that deck who was boss and replaced it.

Dealership's website was wrong. The parts department is not open at 7, or 8 for that matter. I ended up getting a whole caliper assembly from Napa and just using the bracket. I now have a fresh caliper just sitting in my garage. Everything works great now. It's amazing how much difficulty 1 little pin can cause.

I can get the pin to spin, but not move in or out. By spin I mean take a wrench and by really putting my back into it, I can get it grudgingly turn. Used a good amount of PB Blaster to loosen it up. Not sure if it's the PB or the wrench that's loosened it up. I'll bring the whole assembley with me and maybe some nice mechanic at the shop will rip that bugger out of there for me...one can hope.

It's the caliper bracket. I knew it had a name. It's one of the caliper pins and that bugger is seized! I looked like I'd be able to unscrew it but it didn't budge. Maybe I'll go give it another try before heading to the dealer tomorrow morning. Happily, the parts counter opens at 7am. Anytricks to getting a stuck cliper pin out?

Some day I'll buy myself a shop manual...then I'd be able to answer this question myself. 2000 outback wagon I'm in the midst of replacing my front brakes, much less frustrating than dealing with my catalytic converters. The part I need to know the name of is the part that the brake pads fit into. The caliper bolts to this part via 2 spring or hydraulic thingies (technical term, I'm sure). One of the thingies is frozen in place and, well, my car stops really well now. Sadly, it doesn't accelerate well since the brakes in the front right corner are always engaged. It will be much easier to go to the parts store (Napa? Dealer?) tomorrow and buy it if I know what to call it. Thanks for the help, again.

The rest of my exhaust looks great. I suspect that what has forced my exhaust to hang low and look like crap is how Bucky's welded the now bad cats in place. The Bosal unit is preassmbled and, I hope, will tuck things back up into place where they're supposed. I believe it also comes with the bungs properly located. With it built like that, I'd buy new bolts, new gaskets, and do the work myself (or attempt it for a little while, give up once I've wrenched on the bolts with no success, and then take it to my mechanic).

2000 Outback, 150k miles, auto, ltd (if that makes a difference...it does with headlights) I know the adage about only using OEM cats and I'm certainly leaning that way. BUT, does anybody have experience using Bosal cats? I can get them SOOOOO much cheaper and a local muffler shop, that's better than the last one I went to, recomended them. They said their return percentage is very low and therefore worth it to them to use. Let me know your good and bad stories about Bosal. I'm sure things will be fine with OEM cats, but $1000 vs. $500, makes this a question worth asking. back story... I recently posted about my P0420 codes coming from my less than 1 year old aftermarket cats and both OEM O2 sensors. I got confirmation today that the problem is, in fact, the cats. The mechanic spent an hour getting all sorts of readings proving no exhaust leak and perfectly operating O2 sensors. I refuse to allow the exhaust shop that installed my cats to ever touch my car. If you live in the Seattle area, NEVER LET BUCKY's TOUCH YOUR CAR...EVER! Yes, I'm bitter. They sucked, they upcharged, they're lousy welders, AND they sold me crap cats. Oh, and they got grease all over the inside of my car that took me a couple hours to clean up...there was a lot of it.

It sounds like there are several things that can also be checked...just not by me. I made an appointment with my mechanic for Thursday for a full diagnostic. Both O2 sensors are OEM. The front has about 25,000 miles on it and the rear about 250 miles. Give or take anyway. The cats were replaced with the front sensor. Even the guy at the exhaust shop mentioned how picky Subarus (and BMW's) were with cats. He did mention that he has found the new bosal (sp?) cats for the Subarus are working well. He stopped installing them on Subarus for a long while because of a 30% failure rate. His theory was that the metal content in the old ones was too low. The new ones appear to be better. He also suggested playing is safe for not a lot more money and ordering the part from Subaru. So, the muffler shop won't even tell me what I want to hear. All I wanted to hear was that there's an exhaust leak, but noooo, that was too easy.

Stop telling me what I don't want to hear. The guy at the muffler shop told me the same stuff after he told me there was no exhaust leak. He did suggest having my mechanic running some more indepth diagnostics to be absolutely certain it is the cats. But he's pretty sure it's the cats. I can also hope that I have an O2 sensor that failed before its time...that would be cheaper. I could also hope that the rear O2 sensor, the brand new one, is faulty. One can hope!

Using the valuation argument for why an OEM product is better than an aftermarket doesn't work. That would mean that there's twice as much acid in a battery. Twice as much filter in an oil filter. You name, it's twice as much if it's stamped Subaru (or Honda, or Toyota, etc). As far there being 5 times the catalyst, well, not sure that makes sense to me either. More than any other, the catalytic converter is heavily regulated and they just couldn't sell the things if they didn't do at least a mediocre job. Twice the catalyst I could probably get behind. The next question is, who builds the catalytic converters that Subaru stamps as their own? Without the Subaru stamp, they're hald the cost.

I've read this over and over again and never seen the follow up question. What I've read is that aftermarket cats don't work as well. What I want to know is why not? I could some sort of argument made for the increase in air flow with a high flow cat, which I have, but otherwise, the matrix in the cat should heat up, burn off the nasty stuff, and exhaust it out the back with the rest of the gases, right? So what is the difference between OEM and aftermarket?

The wire I broke was to the vapor recovery canister. The only reason I mentioned it was that the CEL from that masked the time frame that the 0420 code came back. That has been fixed. The runs fine with gas mileage, mix of city and hwy, ranging in the mid twenties (24ish). It's been pretty steady at that for about year not wavering more than 1 or 2 mpg and that usually from hard mountain driving during ski season. I beleive Bucky's uses magnaflow cats, but I'll double check. They rebuilt the bolt in piece without touching anything outside of that. As a result, I 'should' be able to replace everything with a new bolt in replacement. That said, with everything new (25k miles or less) in that system, it just seems like it's something else. Perhaps an exhaust leak is the answer? Does anybody know of a good, reputable exhaust shop anywhere in the Seattle area? It seems like I could save a fortune by having a good shop search for an exhaust leak. If there is one, it sounds like a little bit of welding or a new gasket could be the answer.

I know, there are tons of posts on this, I've read most of them. I just want to be certain I need to take the plunge and buy new converters. I've owned my 2000 OB, 2.5L auto for a little over a year. It currently has about 150k on it, about 25k more than when I bought it. I bought it with blown headgaskets, talked the seller down $3k, and took it to my mechanic for a complete reseal. I took it to Smart Service here in the Seattle area so I'm certain the job was done right. The 00420 CEL code was on when I bought the car as well. Smart Service suggested replacing the cats, but, having just dropped $3k for a reseal, I didn't want to spend the cash on OEM cats. They suggested Bucky's in Lynnwood. They replaced the cats with high flow, I don't recall the brand, cats and a new front O2 sensor. There was another CEL, this one my fault, resulting from accidently using a wiring harness as a place to tie something down. By the time I took care of that CEL, the 00420 was back. I mention this because I really have no idea when the 00420 code came back. I just replaced, yesterday, the rear O2 sensor and the CEL is back on. I suppose the next step is to try SeaFoam, but after that, is it new cats? I'm unemployed and the thought of replacing something that expensive a year after replacing is horrifying. Is there a step I'm missing? Is there a non-OEM brand that anybody would recomend that would save me a few hundred dollars? Is there a good exhaust shop in the Seattle area? I'm afraid to take my car back to Bucky's...the reasons for that are another long story.

Took it to the guy that did my exhaust. He suggested I fix the minor exhaust leak first. So, I guess I need to run by the dealer and pick up a couple gaskets for the exhaust manifolds! Myabe that'll fix it.

The mileage may be off by +/- 5,000 miles. The tires have been on his car for 4 years and he's a 20k per year kinda guy. I was sliding my OBW on the same piece of road that we couldn't slide his car on. Granted, I'm told the Audi has a great traction control system, and my tires SUCK, but still. I have other friends, frequent snowboarders, who haven't put on their snows because there's just no need with the triple treads. I've just heard too many great, not just good, things about this tire to put anything else on my car.

It is a genuine Subaru part up front. I have reset the code 2x now. The first time it came back about 4 hours later. The second time it took 24 hours. It's been cold here in Seattle, but not "cold, cold." To me, "cold, cold" is like North Dakota cold. Granted, the car isn't used to this kind of cold. I should also note that both times I reset the code, when I restarted the car, it stalled right after starting. I restarted and went on my way just fine. It's the only two times I can think of that the car has ever stalled on me. I suppose I could also just ride it out and see if it goes away when it warms up a bit.

2000 OBW, man trans, 144k miles After repairing the wiring harness for my vapor recovery canister, I went to clear the code and noticed that there were 2 codes, one the vapor recovery canister, and the other was the dreaded 420. The cats and the front O2 sensor were replaced at about 135k miles. My plan is to blindly replace the rear O2 sensor with a new one with the assumption that it's the only old part that could throw this code. Sound like the right way to go? Or should I take the car to the exhaust shop and let them go through their diagnostics? Thanks a bunch

My next tire will be the Assurance Triple Tread. A friend has them on his Audi All-Road. The tires are at 65k and we still can't get his car his slide on ice. I can get another friend's Audi to slide on his Blizzaks!

Can anybody tell me which of the two wires goes towards the back and which towards the front? 2000 OBW Ltd. Auto tranny. Several months ago, while tying something to the roof, I thought I was looping the rope through the hitch and it turned out to be the wiring harness that leads to the vapor recovery canister (just below the gas filler). Well, needless to say, when I tightened things up, I destroyed the plug. When I make the time, I've been checking the pick a parts trying to find the pigtail for this to splice on. Well, I give up. I just want the check engine light to turn off. I'll run the wires through the harness plug, put the right size crimps on the ends, and plug it in that way. I just need to know which wire goes to which end. So, if somebody knows, or finds themselves under the rear of their OBW and could look, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

The rear struts that folks described to me as shocks are freakin' struts. There's a spring perch, a top hat, and you need a spring compressor. That says strut to me. When I was putting everything back together, torquing my lug nuts, the rear end was still in the air, tires off the ground. The right rear wheel, when I was torquing the nuts would move, the left rear would not. Does this forewarn of a potential problem or is it nothing? Is it just that the e brake cable leading to the right rear is a little looser than the one on the left? I don't recall ever torquing my lugnuts with the wheels in the air before so I've never noticed if this did or did not happen. Oh, and the struts are fantastic. Now I need to do the fronts!

Update.... Ran past the dealer to chat with them about the leak. A mechanic pointed to the rear corners of the rear sunroof where the weld stops before the seam does. He said they put some clear silicone in that gap and the problem is solved. Silicone applied and now I just need to hit it with a hose to see if it worked.

I'm not sure, is the nut the only thing holding me up? I have no problem hitting it with heat assuming I have the rest of the procedure pretty close to correct. The torch ain't far from the car! Also, I hit it with some PB Blaster. Perhaps after 24 hours it's had some time to work its magic.