jeffroid

I appreciate the response. I get that it could be a problem with the wires or plugs, that's why I want to be able to test the sensor in accordance with the FSM. I have already done all I can to test the wires and plugs. If I can test the sensor and it tests bad, I'll be feeling pretty good. If the sensor tests good, I'll be feeling pretty bad, in that I will know that I probably have an intermittent problem with the wires or plugs. Thanks again.

I have a question about getting a sensor checked. This is kind of a long story, I will try to be as brief as possible. I have a 2002 Outback LL Bean EZ30D. I’ve got an intermittent issue with the camshaft position sensor or circuit. Every so often, the check engine light will come on, then soon after it will stumble and die and coast to a halt. I can sit there for a while and it will start up and drive again. It will eventually happen again, sometimes months and hundreds of miles later, the last time it was minutes and five miles later. I towed it home because I was on a sketchy road and it’s been in my driveway since. Of course, it’s running fine now. The code is P0340, I purchased a new OEM camshaft position sensor from the Subaru dealer. I went through the troubleshooting procedure in the FSM, and (as expected) all the tests were good. As expected because the car was running fine at the time. So I installed the new sensor and it’s been running fine for 2 or 3 hundred miles or so. So here is my question. The troubleshooting procedure tells you to test the wafeform of the camshaft position sensor with an oscilloscope. I don’t have an oscilloscope, or know anyone who does. Is there anywhere I can send or take the sensor to (PNW) and have it tested for a fair price? Would this be a common request? May seem like overkill, but I don’t want the problem to reoccur at 75 MPH on the interstate, or at some other extremely inconvenient or dangerous time. I’m not going to feel truly comfortable trusting the vehicle until I can figure out the cause with more certainty. Thanks!

I just got my car home from the shop. It sounds, great, runs great, drives great. Feels to me more like a new car than a 22 year old car. Time will tell but as of now I'm happy. For some background, I have a 1996 Outback Wagon with the 2.2L engine and manual transmission. I bought it around 2005 with 57,000 miles on it. The engine finally gave out a few months ago with 350,000 miles on it. BY FAR the best car I have ever owned. At that point I decided I was going to try and find me a nicer Gen 2 with the six cylinder and the LL Bean trim. I didn't really have anything else I could trust to drive, so I was kind of in a pickle. So I got the car I wanted, just ended up paying more for it than i thought i was going to have to, due to my own stupidity. I have always freaking loved those old Outback Wagons. Before that it was GL Wagons. I think I'm going to try and find a motor to drop in that '96. But this time there won't be any pressure on me to get it done and I'll do it myself. As always, thanks everyone for the advice and support!

Thanks for the suggestions. All the suggested parts/gaskets/seals/hoses (and then some) are getting replaced with OEM with the engine swap.

Thanks for the input. if I could do it myself, I would. I just don't have the time or workspace to do it now. I'm in a tough spot now because I need a daily driver ASAP. I purchased a JDM, it's getting installed now. I'm keeping the old engine. Maybe after life settles down a little and I get that place I want with the huge garage I'll get after it.

In my mind it's a tough call. There are pros and cons to both approaches. I've pretty much decided to go with a JDM swap. It looks like it's going to be considerably less expensive and doing all that work on a motor that apparently has over 200K miles on it just seems more risky than rolling the dice on a JDM.

Thanks for the excellent feedback. I believe I have now been officially talked out of having this engine rebuilt. This is why I come here.

Thanks very much for the feedback. I guess I'm struggling with the pros and cons of swapping in an unknown motor vs having this one fixed properly. The cost aside, I am wondering if it's less risky in terms of reliability/longevity to end up with new head gaskets and a new timing chain and components on the shortblock I have now, as opposed to the head gaskets, shortblock, timing chain/components, and everything else that comes with a JDM engine.

I just got screwed on the purchase of the subject vehicle. The guy said he was the original owner and the odometer had 110K. The body and interior were in excellent condition and the car ran fine on the test drive. Everything works. That night the car died while idling in my driveway and threw an P0340 code (crankcase position sensor). It started up and ran fine aftewards. I cleared the code and it comes back after a while. I looked at some of the stuff in the glovebox that indicated the guy probably wasn't the orginal owner. So I purchased a one-time carfax which indicated he was the third owner and the vehicle had 213K. The reason that I didn't do the carfax BEFORE I made the purchase is because I can make some idiotic decisions sometimes. I fully admit it. The guy of course won't return calls or text messages now, so I fully accept the fact that I made a mistake and got screwed. Next day it was fairly hot outside. Driving it around town trying to figure out what I was going to do next it got a little above half way on the temp gauge. Using one of those bucket fillers I was able to get about a half gallon of coolant in it. Today I used one of those block test kits with the blue fluid and determined the head gaskets are leaking. I really like the car and didn't pay that much for it. So now I am trying to evaluate my options. Searching threads here I get the feel that most people that post would recommend swapping a used engine in it rather than trying to repair the engine. I'm not sure I agree with that approach. I've driven this car and it runs and sounds fine. Who knows if that's the case with a used engine. I'm not too worried about the trouble code. I've worked on my numerous Subarus my whole life but repairing it or swapping motors myself is not something I'm interested in pursuing right now. I don't have the time or garage space. I'd rather pay somebody I can trust a fair price to do the repair (or swap). When it's all said and done I am hoping I should be able to end up with a good vehicle I can drive for years to come at a still fairly reasonable cost. After all that, I guess what I am looking for is opinions, and suggestions for a shop or individual to work with in the PNW. Thanks for reading this and thanks in advance for any sincere suggestions.

That's interesting. Thanks very much. On my car, when I unhook the battery or it goes completely dead I get the flashers going off but not the horn (lucky me). I don't have a key fob, so whenever that happened I'd have to remember what I did to get the flashers to stop. Usually I would end up coming here or google. I eventually learned that if I disconnected the battery, turned the key on, then hooked up the battery that the flashers would stop. I don't recall ever seeing anyone referring to that little switch before. Again, thanks. Learn something new every day. Hooking up the battery with the key turned on doesn't really sound like something you should be doing.

I was messing around still trying to figure out why only one of my cooling fans was coming on (I have another post for that), and I noticed something that had never caught my attention before. It's this little black button switch thing coming out of one of the wire harnesses down under the dash near where the fuse box is located. It looks like some kind of a reset button or something. Does anyone have an idea what this thing is, or what it's for, or what it's supposed to do? 1996 Legacy Outback, 2.2L, manual transmission.

Thanks everyone. I have been driving it around a while now. The temp gauge has not risen above the middle and I don't seem to be loosing any coolant. I am still trying to figure out why the LH (driver side) fan won't come on. Recall please that I have tested the fan on the vehicle by disconnecting the fan and applying power to the connector pins on the fan side with a battery charger. The fan comes on and runs fine. Recall also that the LH fan does not come on with the green test connectors hooked up. I'll take a look at those wiring diagrams, at first glance it looks like it's going to take me quite a while to figure out what's going on and how to troubleshoot where the problem is. Thanks a lot for the link, but I believe I already had the PDF files for my car. Again, thanks as always.

Well I am pretty sure I have all the air out of it by now. It sat overnight with that funnel on it and I just ran it for a half hour or so in the garage and no more bubbles, even when I rev it. I can't get the temp gauge to go above the mid level sitting in the garage so I'm going to put it all back together and start driving it. I guess one thing that confuses me is that I have owned and driven this car since 2007 when it had 57K on it. I put 250K miles on it over 15 years. I have had plenty of opportunites to remove and replace the coolant over that period. I knew about getting the air out but all I ever did was fill it up, drive it, and check it again later. I never worried about meticulously making sure I got every breath of air out of it before. I also still can't get that back up fan or sub fan or whatever it's called to come on, which was the original point of my post I guess. I still don't understand when it's supposed to come on. Now, when the gauge gets to about half way between C and H, the right side fan comes on. Seems normal. Is the left side fan only supposed to come on when the air conditioner is being used? What is supposed to trigger it seperately from that which triggers the right side fan? I'm thinking I have seen the left side fan on before but TBH I'm not completely sure I have. I verified that the fan works by disconnecting it and powering it up with a battery charger and a couple of nails and I checked all the fuses. At least I think I have. Again, thanks for all the replies. Much appreciated!

Yeah I agree with that sentiment. I'll drive it around the neighborhood the next couple of days and keep an eye on the coolant level and the temp gauge. It would not surprise me at all if my head gaskets were leaking. It is a 2.2L but I've got 308K on her! I am hoping that the coolant I added today was because it just hadn't replaced the air in the system yet. Even if it were leaking coolant to somewhere it doesn't belong I hadn't driven it enough to get rid of that much coolant. I was trying to get a feel for whether or not I could tell if the bubbling in the funnel was an indication of a head gasket leak, but I don't know enough about what I am looking for to make that determination. It wasn't like there was a constant bubbling in the funnel. There was intermittant bubbling, but there were long periods of time where there were no bubbles at all. When I reved the engine it would bubble a bit. I don't know if that's indication of a head gasket leak or just pushing more air out. Anyway, thanks again. I always appreciate it.

Thanks for the replies. I checked and swapped that 20 amp fuse. That wasn't the problem. I had already tested the fan that wouldn't come on by hotwiring it with a battery charger and the fan definitely works. I was just messing around with it in the garage, and the "burping the air out of the coolant" phenomenon presented itself. I had heard that it can be difficult to get all the air out of the system. I guess I just never knew for sure whether it was critical or not. So I got one of those radiator funnels or buckets that have the funnel built in to an included radiator cap with a bunch of adaptors. I put the funnel in place and started it up. It probably took about a quart or maybe even a half gallon to fill it, even though I had tried to top it off a couple of days ago. I started it up and let it idle for a while and watched the bubbles come out. I didn't really have to add all that much to keep fluid in the funnel. I kept an eye on the temp gauge and it got up fairly close to the H. Higher than it should have sitting in my garage. The "main" fan clicks on when the gauge gets to about half way. The other fan never did come on. Here's where it gets crazy. I stopped the engine, started it again, and watched the funnel some more until I was sure there were no more bubbles coming out. Then I gave the upper radiator hose one good squeeze. I hear this "bloop" and it sucked all the coolant out of the funnel into the system. I had previously given the hose a similar squeeze two or three times previously without the same effect. It sucked in about 1/4 of the capacity of that funnel bucket. Maybe not that much but a pretty good bit. As soon as that happened I filled up the funnel again. I noticed that the temp gauge dropped back down to mid range and it's been staying there ever since. Could that trapped air actually have made that much of a difference? From running up near the H, to down to mid level all just sitting in the garage idling the whole time?