maestro

The other day i had an incident with my 2000 subaru outback that concerns me and have no idea what to make of it. The outback has the 4 cylinder engine and manual 5 speed. A Couple of weeks ago i was making the 8 mile trip to work and while in city traffic i noted the temperature gauge went hot. Like nearly to the top. I got it to a road clear of traffic and stop lights, turned the heat on high and when possible let the car drift to get it to cool down some. This did bring the temp down. I only had a couple of mile to get to work so i hopped on the interstate. While on the interstate the temperature slowly crept up. When i got off the interstate i used the same drift techniques to cool the engine to make the last mile or so to work. I made it with no indication of over heating. I went into work. 12 hours later i'm off and bring a jug of water to my car. I checked the coolant reserve and its at the proper level. I opened the radiator cap and there is coolant there as well. I'm starting to wonder about head gaskets at this point. I cranked the car and let it idle with the radiator cap off. My intention was to let it warm up and see if the thermostat opened then look for air bubbles in the radiator or steam at the exhaust. The top radiator hose did slowly get hot so i assumed the thermostat was working. No steam at the tailpipe. I revved the engine a few times by hand under the hood to watch for bubbles in the radiator. Upon revving i got a couple of bubbles at first but not enough to convince me of head gasket failure. I thought maybe it was just a little air that had been trapped in the system. The fans never turned on while idling but i turned the ac on and the both worked. The whole time during this testing the car never got over its normal temperature range. Here is where my story gets interesting and the real reason i'm posting... While standing in front of the car revving the engine all of a sudden the car lunges forward a few inches and bumps my leg then dies suddenly. It was as if someone dumped the clutch while in gear. Now i am absolutely sure the transmission was in neutral. Not slightly in neutral position but absolutely in neutral position. Before getting out of my car from cranking it in the first place i had put in neutral with engine running, released the clutch and shook the shifter to ensure it was in the neutral position as i always do before getting out of a car with engine running. My parking brake was up and tight which is probably what saved me from getting injured. Needless to say this scared the you know what out of me. After i composed myself walked from in front of the car to the driver door. Then i smelled a burning rubber or clutch type smell. I got in the car and checked for neutral. The shifter was able to move freely side to side but felt as if it were positioned back towards the rear of the car a bit. With clutch in i started the car. I released the clutch slowly and the car behaved as if in high gear like 5th. I took the parking brake off and revved the engine and released the clutch slowly like trying to take off but the car moved forward and the engine tried to die again like starting in 5th gear. Mind you I'm still in neutral position. I then pushed the clutch back in and move the shifter through all the gears. All the positions were tight and hard to get in and out of. While in first gear position i attempted to pull forward. The car did move forward but it was not able to move smoothly. It was as if moving over lumps or like when you have a really loose universal joint on a driveshaft about to come out. Same results in reverse. I kept playing withe shifter an clutch and after only about 30 seconds everything started behaving normal. The shifter felt as if t had moved forward to the correct position in the car and moved freely again. The smell went away and i could shift and move the car as normal. I replaced the radiator cap and drove to a nearby autoparts store without incident. I let the car idle in neutral and revved the engine occasionally for a few minutes while there. No heating issues occurred and the transmission behaved correct. Since i was at the end of my work week i decided to go ahead and risk the 100 mile trip to my real home. I have a place i stay that is close to work i stay at while in the middle of my work week thus the short drive into work at the start of my shift. During my 100 mile trip i experienced no heating issues and the drivetrain behaved properly. I'm thinking the the heating issue was probably an air pocket in the coolant that caused a temporary air lock or a thermostat trying to stick closed but haven't looked further into it yet. I have no idea what the drivetrain issue was and that is what I'm mainly asking about. Anyone else ever had an experience like this or any clue as to what is going on? A little history on the car. Its a 2000 subaru outback, 5 speed manual, 4 cylinder engine and has all wheel drive. I can't remember the mileage off the top of my head but shortly after getting the car the clutch was slipping so i replaced the clutch and bearings with a sachs brand clutch kit. While the engine was out i replace the timing belts and pulleys and water pump with a Gates kit. I also replace the front main seal and i think a couple other oil seals that had been leaking. I did this work about 2 years ago and have probably only put about 10000 miles on it since. This is usually a car i just use around town when I'm home and rarely drive it to work so it doesn't see a lot of mileage.

That was it. I didn't even know there was a switch there as this is my wife's vehicle and I am used to older subaru's. Thank you very much. You probably saved me many hours of hunting down a ghost.

Anyone else ever have this issue? They won't turn off with the switch off. The even stay on with the ignition off and keys out. Also, headlights not turning on. I haven't started looking as I just arrived home and my wife told me about this.

Just a shot in the dark but I used to have an 84 that would do this. Turns out I had a small hole in my exhaust pipe before the catalytic converter. Somehow if you have a small leak in the exaust at certain points it causes a backfire situation. Mine would mostly pop when shifting gears or letting off accelerator. Scared the piss out of this one guy I backfired next to on the highway. I looked to my side when it happened, he screamed, then looked like he was going to cry, then he just pulled over to the side and put his head in his hands. Never saw him again. Got the pinhole diagnosed and welded the next day. Check for exhast leaks especially catalytic converter and forward to the engine.

Well, I pushed the plunger into the slave cylinder and watched the fluid level rise in the master cylinder. Then I sucked the master cylinder near dry and refilled with new fluid. THen I loosened the bleeder valve and put my vacuum to that. I let the mc run near dry twice filling it with new brake fluid each time. I topped it off and just drove it about 30 miles around town today. The pedal feels better and is returning to the top as it should. We'll see if it lasts.

I could try bleeding the air out like I do with power steering systems. I put my vacuum to the reservoir in place of the cap. Put vacuum on it until no more bubbles. But yes, I will try what you suggest and if it doesn't work I can get a new master cylinder. It does seem strange that this only occurred immediately after I replaced the clutch. Is the rod from the slave cylinder always supposed to remain in contact with the fork? When I let off the pedal the two remain in contact. When I pull the clutch pedal the rest of the way up the rod pulls away from the fork. It would be difficult to measure but just guessing its moving away 1/8 to 1/4 inch.

I finally got around to this job Friday. I am glad I decided to do the timing belt. It appears a near disaster was avoided. It looks like the thing was rubbing on the guard that is over the camshaft. The gates kit came with a plastic spacer for proper installation. Everything went off without a hitch. Almost, now that the new clutch is in I have a new symptom. The clutch seems to be fine except now the pedal only returns about 2/3 the way up. If i pull the pedall all the way to the top and check the fork it is not touching the piston from the clutch slave cylinder. If I release the clutch pedal and let it rest where it wants to stop on its own and check the fork is touching the slave cylinder piston as I feel it should. I've never had any experience with hydraulic clutches so any advice on adjustments, if there are any, on the clutch system to make up for the slack I now have. BTW, this slack was not present before the clutch replacement. I plan on bleeding the clutch tomorrow. I assume its as easy as using my vacuum connected t the bleeder valve and sucking the old brake fluid out while filling with new fluid. Is this correct?

I changed my knock sensor a week ago and have not seen that code since. Like the others say, it is a breeze to change. Just use long extensions and be sure to take note of the orientation of the knock sensor before you remove the old one. Put the new one back in the same way or you risk cracking the new one. However I am still getting the P0420 catalyst error code.

Update: I have all the parts. Few other things going on right now. I'm planning on starting this job on the 18th when I have a week off work. Just in case there are any snags.

Very good info guys. Thanks. I won't touch that rear main seal unless it is leaking. I would have had no idea what to call that oil separator plate after I pulled the engine and saw it leaking. If the oil separator isn't leaking and it is the aluminum one should I mess with it or leave it alone? Just from reading this I'm feeling like I should go ahead and replace it with a steel one and reseal. BTW I did a quick search on the oil separator plate and came up with this: http://allwheeldriveauto.com/subaru-seperator-plate-explained/. Very informative. Another question; I think I read there is an o-ring on the oil pump that leaks. Just in case does anyone know the part number or size for replacement? Also, head torquing sequence and ft/lbs specs?

I ordered a Gates timing belt with water pump kit, Sachs clutch kit, camshaft seals, front crankshaft seal, rear seal, oil pan gasket, and valve cover seal set. I'm going with the idea on the head gaskets if it ain't broke don't fix it. Probably jut re-torque them and add the headgasket conditioner from Subaru. Am I missing anything I should do while the engine is out?

I cleared the code with my actron code reader. Did a search on amazon and yep, $15. I think I'll go ahead and try replacing since it cost way less than I thought it was going to. I'll post whether it works or not.

I've got the P0325 knock sensor code. I separated the connector and read 3.2 volts from the open connector. I put the connector to the knock sensor back together and put a pin into the connector and read 2 volts. Is this the correct voltage readings? I am using a digital volt meter. I pulled the knock sensor and it doesn't appear to have any cracks in the casing. I cleaned the metal surface on the sensor and the block where it attaches. Put it back and cleared the code. Did a couple miles driving and the code reappeared. More tests or replace? Also, the heat shields are rattling at certain rpm's an I need to secure them better. Could they be triggering the knock sensor for some reason?

I just picked up this car for my wife. It is a 2.5L with 5spd. I was going up a steep hill in 2nd gear and at one point the clutch started to slip. I backed off the accelerator and it grabbed again. Looks like the clutch will be due for replacement soon. Unless there is some adjustment to the clutch I can do. I have limited to no experience with hydraulic clutches. Is there a clutch adjustment? Anyways, the car has 173k miles on it and no way to verify if the timing belt has ever been replaced. I'm thinking since the clutch slipped and probably needs to be replaced I can just pull the engine to do that and then get to the timing belt components easier. I want to change all of the seals as well. I think I read somewhere there is a special tool need to get to the cam shaft seals. Is this true? I've also read that these head gaskets were prone to going out. Since I will have the engine out would it be a good idea to yank the heads and do the gaskets as well? Anyone know of good write ups for: timing belt, pulley and seal replacement; head gasket replacement? Also any advice on part brands for the listed jobs I'm about to do i.e. clutch, seals, pulleys, head gaskets. This car is going to be a dd so high performance isn't on the menu. Thanks in advance. I have plenty of experience on the ea71, ea81, ea82 engine models. This a new world of subaru to me.

Now if I could get hold of a NOS set that would be fantastic. Put the R1134 connectors on and wham! No worries about mixing the coolants.Sub78, no worries bro. I'd never want to jinx a fellow subie enthusiast. Enjoy that ride for a long time.

Those pics are sweet. It looks like that's as factory as it gets. Now I know what to look for if I want to stay factory in my restoration of my 78 brat. If something ever happens to your wagon I got dibs on the a/c. They sell aftermarket units I've been looking into but a setup like this would be preferable. If you have a line on a guy that will do your R12 then go for it. The only reason I'm converting my van to R134 is the system is bone dry. I will keep you posted here on my results from the conversion.

Cool moosens. Maybe you can answer a question or two from me. Since this is an add on setup does the evaporator sit in the factory heater box or is there an aftermarket box and controls set up it sits in? Is there a kit still available for sale anywhere?

Probably a misprint. Never heard of that before.

Okay I'd hear some of the old compressors have the charge ports built on them. I guess yours is one. I would say the port next to the line that goes to the firewall is the low side and the one from the front to the condenser is the high side. When you get your retro connectors they should only fit one way so you can't mix them up and the same goes for the manifold gauges. You definitely have R12. Since you probably just have a small leak you could probably get a shop to top you off if you like. You can buy the R12 and not have a license. If you are really worried about being legal and ozone safe keep this in mind. When you switch to R134 you wil have to remove all of the R12 from the system. You say it is cooling some so you have R12 in there. When you remove the R12 you will be releasing it to the air. Shops have the recovery machine. They can be $1500 or more for one of those units so picking one up is probably a no. I'm just saying so you know all of your angles. If you go the R12 route and do it yourself pick up the dual manifold gauges and some R12. Hook up the gauges and run the a/c. Let me know the readings on the high and low side. We can go from there. If you decide to convert then get the regular gauges and a few cans of R134. There is some R134 oil by Interdynamics called Ester oil with o-ring conditioner. It states on the can it is compatible with R12 residue. Your system will need the oil. Also you will definitely need the vacuum pump. You have to hold vacuum on the system for about an hour to get everything out and you have a pure system. Get the pump I showed you it is better than the other ones they have. I have read getting a new drier is a good idea. Your hoses should be fine once the vacuum has been applied. My wife's GC was R134 to start with. My van is the one I am about to convert. My van has parts that are readily available to replace if I blow it. That's why you may want to wait and see what my results are before you convert yours. That way my mistakes aren't yours. I can tell you what I did right or wrong. My R12 system was bone dry. I found my schrader valve on the high side won't close and that is how it escaped. It is warming up now so I will start the conversion very soon. As far as the clamps on the hoses go, it may be that that was standard on some old vehicles. I've never seen it though. Since R12 is supposed to be nasty stuff you wouldn't think they'd make the hoses with clamps which makes it easy for someone to just take the clamp off and release the R12. Every a/c hose I've seen is made as one piece. The connections bolt down and seal with o-rings or hold together with compression fittings. I will PM you once I get the conversion underway. Will you post pics of your dash where the a/c controllers are? I've never seen one and would like to know if I need something different from mine. Thanks bro. Here's to keeping cool.

I would think the 175/70's will fit. They are only a centimeter taller and 7mm wider.

Whoa! I just did a search on the SD-507 that is on your compressor. Apprently the maker is a company called Sanden. It is an R12 system, unless someone has converted it so still get those pics. Here is a link to there service manual. http://www.sanden.com/originals/images/SD_Service_Guide_Rev.2.pdf This is good because if you do have to convert to R134 and something goes wrong they can probably help in replacement options.

I will start by saying... I have never, ever ever, ever ever ever, seen an a/c hose with a standard hose clamp on it. It is unthinkable. It isn't done. Subaru master designers, you sirs, live in bizzaro world. Now that my dizziness has passed thanks for the pictures. Follow those hoses that connect to your compressor and you should see somewhere on them service ports. They will possibly have a black cap that screws on to them. Whether they have the cap or not it will be hard to miss. Take pics of those as well. When you unscrew the caps you will see inside a schrader valve, just like the ones on tires you put air into. Here are pics from my 89 Chevy van that has the old R12 system. The low side port is directly on the large cylinder. That is the dryer. Yours may or may nor be on the dryer but you will know the low side because it will lead off to the firewall. Inside the firewall the hose goes under the dash and into the heater/ac box and into the eavaporator. You can see the box from insode but not the evaporator. To see the evaporator you'd have to probably remove the box and open it up. You don't do that unless you are pretty sure the evaporator is leaking. 90% of leaks are in the schrader valves on a/c systems though. More on that later. You will know the high side because the hose it connects to will run out in the direction of your radiator an connects to a thing that looks like a radiator but smaller. This is the condensor. For R12 charging the connectors screw on. R134 uses quick connecto adaptors. Connecto is a typo and I meant to say connect. However connecto looks cool to me so I'm leaving it there. HA! Here is a picture of my R134 retro adapters. Here is a picture of them screwed onto my R12 ports. There is a bit more to converting from R12 to R134 than just putting these adapters on and charging. Apparently if you mix the two coolants they are not compatable and you can lock up your compressor. So don't do that yet. I am in the process of converting my van over so I can report back on my success or failure later. However both systems work exactly the same and I can help you troubleshoot yor issue. I have hunted down and reaired my wife's Grand cherokee a/c. We had to replace the evaorator, accumulator and hose, drier and an inline filter in the ac system. For about $400 for tools, parts and refidgerant I repaired her ac that the shoptold me they weren't sure what was wrong and were going to charge me over $700 in labor to fix. No parts included in that price and I wouldn't be able to keep the tools. Tools you will need are: a/c manifold gauges and an a/c vacuum pump. I got mine at harbor freight. http://www.harborfreight.com/a-c-manifold-gauge-set-92649.html http://www.harborfreight.com/two-stage-3-cfm-air-vacuum-pump-66466.html THese gauges and pump only for the R134 though. Don't go out and buy the pump yet because you may be able to get away without it if you don't have to actually replace parts. They do sell a dual R12/ R134 guage. http://www.amazon.com/Dual-R134a-Brass-Manifold-Gauge/dp/B0040H8KDI But you still need the R12 and it is expensive. http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=m570.l3201&_nkw=r12&_sacat=0 Once I convert my van I can report back on that and help guide you through converting to R134 and diagnosing your system. Or you can buy the Dual guages and some R12 an I can help you though diagnosing and charging your system. Or try to find an indy shop that will fix your R12 system without converting. I like fixing things myself because my experience is that shops don't do as good or as thougrough job as I will because I actually care about my car. Yours is a very rare and specific vehicle so I know you care. Again replacement parts for you are going to be rare if not impossible to find. If a shop locks up your compressor or bursts a hose, evaporator or condensor they are going to say, "Sorry, can't get the parts. It can't be fixed." Then take your money and leave you with nothing. Still I am not 100% sure which refridgerant you have so hunt down those ports and post pics. Think about which route you want to take to get your a/c going and let me know. I wish like crazy I had factor a/c on my brat. My options are probably going to be getting an aftermarket system an they are expensive and most of all don't look factory original.

I am fairly familiar with working on car a/c's. You may or may not know this already but I'm going to start by saying it anyway. If your a/c is factory original then it used R12. Lordy if its worked that long then it is a miracle. Finding R12 can be a pain and if you do find it the price will be hefty. What they use now is called R134. Supposedly safer for the ozone. They use different connectors on the hoses so you can't mix the two. In other words you can't connect to your system unless you use an adapter that goes from R12 connectors to R134 connectors. You may already know all of this and have already converted to R134. Please post more info, i.e.; Has it been converted to R134 or is it still R12? What kind of recharge kit are you attempting to use? What a/c tools do you have? And go ahead and post some pics of the a/c hoses under the hood. Maybe I or someone else can help you locate your ports. I've never seen an a/c on the gen 1 subs so I wouldn't know locations unless maybe I saw them. That being said almost all a/c's, no matter what type of coolant they use, are basically the same. It sounds like most likely you are in fact low on coolant and do need a recharge. Since its still cooling some then the leak is probably slow and that is a good thing. I'd recharge and go on with life. But it may be something else, like a blockage somewhere in the system. That in mind please don't just hook up and charge hoping it works. With the rarity of replacement parts on these you'd hate to damage something. With the proper tools you can diagnose and fix it yourself. The money you spend on gauges will be way less than a new compressor or the heartache of effort pulling and replacing an evaporator that may not have needed it.

So I have a topper in need of lots of love, as most are nowadays. The gel coat on mine had yellowed and someone got some, what appeared to be, roofing tar on it and let it sit. I got the tar off but it left a stain. I tried everything to get the stain off when finally using a scotch brite pad and bar keepers friend I scrubbed through the get coat an into the fiberglass. http--,,--// DANG!!! From there I decide an entire re-application of gel coat is in order. I took it to a local place called C&S Fiberglass. I went in and asked, "Hey I have a fiberglass camper top, can you do a new gel coat on it." "Is it fiberglass?" "Uh, yes." Wait a minute I will ask." While the dummy who met me inside, after I was in the front for a bout 5 minutes, went in the back to "ask if they do gel coat on fiberglass" I looked around the front and wasn't impressed with some of the work I saw up there which included 2 fiberglass pieces and lots of muscle car fenders and what not. After a few more minutes the guy came back out and says, "Well he says we can do it but we can only do white, and it may take a while. We don't do that very often." "Okay thanks." And I left the shop, probably to never return. Keep in mind the place is named C&S Fiberglass and they are not sure nor do they often deal with gel coat. My confidence is low with these dudes. So I decided it is up to me. Crap! I located some chips and cracks on the gel coat, I filled them in with some gel coat and sanded. Of course I removed the windows in prep of coating the entire topper with a new layer of gel coat after a prep sanding occured. Windows out; Now cleaned and sanded; This is my first attempt at putting a new coat of gel on. It went bad. I used foam rollers. It has lots of "orange peel". I got dried gel coat in the new gel coat due to the stuff hardens in about 5-10 minutes and came off the roller pan and onto the new roller with my second coat. After that I learned to wait a bit longer between coats and peel the dried stuff out of the roller pan, it comes out easy once you let it dry good. Then pour and mx and roll. Yeah it was pretty ugly. Since then I have sanded, sanded and after sanding I sanded more. This stuff requires lots of sanding. If you didn't get that already. However so much sanding was required to get all of the orange peel and the trash out I actually went through again in some spots. So a new coat will need to be applied. Anyone know of a type of foam roller that won't break down and the gel coat won't cling to so bad. Most of the orange peel seemed to be from it sticking to the roller. But I feel it is ready for a new layer and am waiting for warmer weather. This stuff stinks to high heaven. I need the garage door open for application an curing time. So for now I've been polishing on the windo frames. This was a start. This is finished polishing but before I painted the centre strip. More to come. Anyone have a good idea for a new seal that fits between the topper and the truck bed? Mine is dead.

I took my camper topper to a local locksmith and he took it apart and made a key for it. However that is true about the seal. I have two toppers and the seal is bead on both. Anyone know where to score new seals?