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?

Hello I have a Legacy 1996 Outback with 2.2L engine and manual transmission. it had some steering issues, and I had a bunch of other stuff going on in the game of life, so I parked it for a few months. I put a rebuilt steering rack in it and am now trying to get it going again. The steering still doesn't seem quite right but that's another topic. Now it overheats from just driving a few blocks. At least the temp gauge shows it's overheating, it doesn't boil over or really act like it's overheating otherwise. I noticed while it was running hot that only one of the two fans was working. I plugged the green test connectors together and turned the key on and only the right (passenger side) fan comes on. Aren't both fans suppose to come on with the green connectors mated? I wouldn't think that in itself would be enough to cause it to overheat, but that's a start I guess. The air conditioning doesn't work but it's all intact except for the drive belt has been removed from the compressor. It didn't seem to matter whether the AC was turned on or not as far as the left (driver side} fan coming on. So again, my question is whether or not both fans are supposed to cycle with the green connectors mated? If so, what do I need to check? The relays in the attached pic? I hot wired the left side fan and it came on so there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the fan itself. Thanks as always. I want my daily driver back!

Thanks for the suggestions. I had forgotten about car-part.com. Binford is where I ended up going. It was raining sideways so I gave them $25 to pull it for me for pickup tomorrow. The bushing looks like it may have been a little rough, but I need to get this car on the road ASAP. It is parked somewhere it shouldn't be and not drivable like it is. Thanks again.

Hello. I am a long time member, haven't posted in a while. I am trying to help a friend in need. She has a 2009 Impreza Sedan. 2.5i is the sub-model I guess. I have the full VIN number for the vehicle. We need a lower control arm for the right (passenger) side. FRONT She tried ordering one from Partsgeek. Five days later she gets the part in and it's the wrong part, not even close. We need to get this car on the road ASAP. I don't have the wherewithal or time now to drive out to a junkyard and yank one myself. Years ago there used to be a website or whatever that I could go to and find people to bid on pulling parts locally. I actually used the site a long time ago to get a transmission for my Legacy Wagon. That was years and years ago and I can't find the site now. Does anyone know if that's still a viable way to get this part fast, or does anyone have the part or any way to get it otherwise? I live in Renton, Washington. I am willing to drive a ways to get it, just not up to crawling around a junkyard. Thanks!

I replaced the fuel pump, inlet screen, and filter and that appears to have been what the problem was. Thanks very much, everybody. Happy Trails!

Thanks everyone for the replies. I am not getting fuel out of the filter and to the injectors. Trying to make sure I am getting power to the pump before I yank it out. Watched some youtube videos and the guy said to jump a test light between the blue/yellow wire and black wire then turn the key on. Should light up for a second or so. I have a black wire. I have a blue wire, but no blue/yellow wire. When I connect the light between the black and blue wire and turn the key on nothing happens. When I connect the light between the black wire and the red/blue wire, the light shines bright when I turn the key on. When I connect the light between the black wire and the black/red wire, the light shines dimly when I turn the key on. Does anyone know how to make sure I don't have a fuse or relay problem before I yank the fuel pump out in vain? Thanks again.

1996 2.2L Engine, 5 speed. 280K on original engine. Daily driver, been driving it 40 miles each way to work on interstate for 10 years without a hiccup. A few days ago, I noticed it started to become significantly harder to start. Would take like 2-3 seconds before starting, it normally starts right away. No other noticeable symptoms. Out of nowhere it just died today. As pure luck would have it, it died on my way to the GF's house, less than100 feet from the driveway. Starter would turn it over strong, just wouldn't start. After the neighbor helped push it into the driveway, it would actually start, but barely run. Would only run a couple of hundred rpm. As soon as you tried to give it gas it would die. Seemed to run really rough, but at that rpm, hard to tell. I borrowed her car to go home and get tools and run a few errands. When I got back to her house it wouldn't start up again at all. I would 't have expected timing belt, because I replaced it around 30-40K miles ago. But it just felt like it was out of time, so I pulled the timing belt covers off. All the pulley marks appear to still be lined up. That's' pretty much all I had time to do. Tomorrow morning I am going to put it all back together and go back to troubleshooting. Figure I'll check for spark, fuel, compression, the usual. I don't think the CEL came on, but I can't get it to start now so not sure. If my buddy is around I'll borrow his code reader and see if any faults got thrown. Anyone have any other hints on troubleshooting? This board has been extremely helpful in the past and is greatly appreciated. This sucks. I really don't have time for this, and again, this is my daily driver.

Thanks for the replies. That makes sense. Got it all back together this afternoon and it started right up. I did hear some ticking but it went away after a few minutes. Took it for a test drive and it seems like it's running a little stronger. It could just be my imagination, because there was nothing wrong with the way it was running. I only did this because I had some down time for Christmas and it has 220K miles on it. I bought it in 2006 with 57K on it. Best car I have ever owned. Thanks again. This board has helped me so much.

Sorry for starting a new thread when there are so many others on this topic, but I am tired and want to make sure of a couple of things before I finish putting my car back together. My car is a 1996 Legacy outback with EJ22 engine. I tried my best to do all my homework, read the threads, watched youtube videos, followed the FSM, etc. It went pretty smooth despite a couple of stupid mistakes on my part, but there are a couple of things I don't understand. One is the lines on the new timing belt. I got all three marks on the belt lined up with the cam wheels and crank. But after you start rotating things, the lines in the belt don't line up anymore, even when the marks on the cam wheel and crank are lined up properly. I don't get it. What is the point of the lines on the belt? As long as all three marks on the wheels and crank are lined up after you pull the pin on the tensioner you should be good to go, right? The marks on the belt aren't supposed to line up every time, are they? The belt I pulled off didn't have lines on it. The second is this line from the FSM: CAUTION: After properly installing timing belt, remove rocker arm cover and ensure that the valve last adjuster contains no air. WTF is this all about? I don't recall seeing this in any of the threads, or youtube videos. I sure don't feel like pulling off the valve covers after all I have been through, and wouldn't even know what I was looking for if I did. Can any of you help me with these two items please? Thanks as always.

Hey afterbang, I am interested and sent you a PM last week. Hit me back if you would please. Thanks!

Funny how things work out. I picked up another tranny from a 98 outback just today. Literally hours later, the tranny that is currently in my car destroyed the clutch and again left me stranded in the middle of the road. Luckily, this time it was only a few blocks from my house. A couple of good Samaritans helped me get it into a parking lot and my neighbor helped me get it back to my house with a tow rope. So my next move is to send you (afterbang) a PM. Thanks again. As I always say, this board is awesome.