Dweebus

Thanks for the suggestion Commuter. That might be the next step. The issue is a little annoying right now, but not a big deal (if it doesn't get worse). I wonder if I should let it go for now before I waste too much money and time on it.

I came across a post where someone tried to clean it and ended up damaging it somehow. I have since performed the procedure and it does seem difficult to break it. That thing is a pain to get out with all the lines and stuff in the way. After cleaning the IAC I still have the hesitation issue. There was black crud in it, but I didn't think it really looked that bad. There was a very small amount of resitance that was removed by cleaning it though.

I replaced the forward oxygen sensor since it has over 100K miles on it and MPG seems to have dropped a bit recently. No change. I also replaced the wires because one of the connectors was a bit funky and they were generally ratty. I was putting off the IAC as it sounds like some people have killed it in the process of cleaning it, but I guess I just have go for it.

If you're interested in a real all-season tire you might check out Nokian WRs. We have them on out 97 Outback Sport and they're excellent. Unstopable in the snow/ice and feel like a regular all-season/summer tire in the dray and rain. They're priced around what other high quality tires are ($100 or so installed if I remember right). You'll have to call dealers for pricing, as there appears to be an agreement that prevents on-line advertising/selling of Nokian tires. http://www.nokiantires.com/newsite/tires_popup.cfm?id=6 http://www.nokiantires.com/newsite/home.cfm We also have a set of Goodyear Comfortreads (mentioned earlier) on our VW Golf. This is also a nice tire. I haven't had the chance to try it in snow/ice. I don't think it will do nearly as well from looking at it. We have a set of Blizzaks for the Golf in the winter, which doesn't even come close to the traction of the Subaru and the WRs.

Yes, that's exactly it! Cleaning the IAC does sound like a good idea. I did some searching and found a lot of suggestions to search for how to clean the IAC. Finding actual info on it was a bit harder. After 2 hours this is what I came up with (maybe it will help someone else later, who's searching for it): http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=33198 http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=7016&page=2 http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=34086&page=2 http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=40494 http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=6818 http://www.endwrench.com/current/02SpringEngineManageFT.pdf http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8080/subaru/images/injectors/DCP_2470.JPG

There seems to be lots of discussion about hesitation issues with Subarus, but unfortunatly I haven't seen any that sound like the issue I'm having. In our 97 Outback Sport (Impreza) with 2.2L and AT, when very lightly accelerating from a stop on an incline the engine feels like it's going to stall. If you give it moderate gas then the problem is barely noticable. If you are on level ground or pointed downhill then it's not an issue. This is something that has recently appeared. The car has about 108,000 miles (engine has about 75,000, do be careful about timing belts even though they are supposed to be non-interfearance). Is this something that anyone has run across before?

Looks like you never got an answer to this. I've tried a Pela 6000 (http://www.jerrybleach.com/pelapumps.html) on my 97 Outback Sport (2.2L). I did a full extraction and then removed the drain plug to guage the effectivness of top-side extraction on the 2.2. I had about 6 oz of oil (that's a guess, not an actual measurment) come out of the oil pan when I removed the plug. This was a little disappointing. The car was level and not jacked up. Since you have to get under there to chain the filter and everything is accessible without raising the car I'll probably stay with the traditional method, except for maybe in mud season when I don't want to be on the ground if I can help it. On our Golf TDI I found that it extracted all but an once or two, in addition is was able to extract the oil from the filter housing (it's a cartridge type) which you wouldn't be able to do on a normal drain. To get to the drain plug on the TDI you have to take the bottom engine cover off, which is a pain. The filter housing is on the top, so for the TDI the extractor is the way to go. If you do decided to get a Pela, I highly recomend Jerry B. Leach. They were good people to deal with and I received my extractor very quickly.