Bushwick

Anytime it's a simple fix, it's a win-win in my book! Glad it got sorted!

When I had a turbo rebuilt for my Saab years ago, I pulled the hard lines (it had banjo bolts as well) and sprayed the lines, banjos, and bolts with oven cleaner and eventually chased with garden hose high pressure setting. After several cleanings/rinses, everything was back to bare metal. Also, the water flow (or lack thereof) can indicate if sludging in the lines is present. Also worth checking if the drain line is getting plugged as it enters the pan, or conversly the oil feed is lacking. If you have an oil pressure gauge laying around (or just buy a $20 pod gauge at parts store) consider unhooking and unbolting the turbo (run open exhaust) plugging the return line, looping/plugging coolant lines, and thread the gauge into the oil feed for the turbo. My NA ej22 with 10w30 is usually 75-80 psi cold idle, and around 10-12 psi fully warmed up @idle, and suspect yours should be around those numbers if all is well. If extremely low and no oil restrictors, you might have an oil pressure issues within the engine itself that needs clearing.

There are ways to test the EGR. Check this vid out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT8Iww44nZM it's for a Vette, but testing should be the same. High quality and he explains in detail with EGR off the car while actually testing it.

Wanted to update to possibly save someone else the headache in the future. You definitely NEED BOTH wires going to the alt (constant 12v+ AND the "dummy light" wire ). 12v+ constant *can* be attached to the right-side (if looking down at engine from front of car orientation) terminal and will allow alt to charge but needs a key-on activated relay to avoid draining battery at engine off. After getting both wires in proper orientation and connected, no drain and car can sit w/o being dead overnight. My mistake for thinking they could be run as a 1-wire set up as-is. Connector plug was cut to get the Tribecca alt to work before, and once reverting back to the factory-style alt, saw it was charging with right-side getting fed 12v+ constant and assumed it was correct. Since the drain can take days to leave battery dead to months in warmer weather, and alt was testing OK with good diodes; like chasing a group of wild turkeys.

Out of curiousity, were both turbos dry of oil at start up? i.e. you got them back from the rebuilder, installed back on the car (manifold, oil and coolant), and engine started? Or did you add oil directly to the turbo via the oil feed, hand turn, etc. until sure it was fully primed before reconnecting and starting the engine?

I thought the nuts to a CHRA shaft were supposed to be opposite thread to the direction of the rotation? I know lawnmower blades tighten in opposite direction to rotation for this reason (less you have a 2 pound machete getting launched). Are they using a correct thread direction for the application?? One thing though, is you can't just retighten the shaft nut. Everything needs aligned to the point of where it was balanced. So if the compressor wheel is advanced/retarded in relation to the rest of the shaft (think 1 o'clock vs. 4 o'clock) and retightened, it'll be out of balance, though I suspect your shaft probably bent and can't be reused. I had good luck with a company called "g pop performance turbos" http://gpopshop.com/ You might wanna call them and see if they can help (real people answer the phone there). They have high-end balancing and can work with just the CHRA assembly vs. entire turbo to save on shipping. Prices are reasonable.

+1 ^^ Be dilligent with inspecting the car for signs IT was in a flood as well. Can't assume a vin check will accurately report flood damage, especially if it wasn't reported, or hasn't been added to the system yet. Signs of flooding could be power seats not working, sand/grit under carpet in trunk/hatch area, etc. People think rusted seat mounts are a sign of having been in a flood, but it can mean the car was in a salted-road state at some point. I think it gets tracked into the car via wet shoe bottoms, and the carpet wicks it up over time. Check underside for rust, especially towards the rear of the car, like strut towers, etc. Check frame rails up front for straightness, look through/behind the grill for signs of broken plastic, like missing/cracked mounts, etc. as well as check the headlight alignment AND housing area and under front of car for signs of heavy gouging in the metal (could mean something was run over like a curb). A light pointing squarely at the ground or sky high (when on, track the light beam while on a level road) might be a sign something was hastily replaced or wedged back in.

The overflow tank will go up/down on it's own. Is it possible the radiator was just low to begin with? Also, unsure of probability here, but I know my 95's overflow tank just has a rubber hose dropping through a hole in the top, which is kinda loose, and allows the coolant "smell" to seep out if hood is up and engine has been running (can't smell it with hood down like an actual leak or some cars you can smell coolant from 10' away). It *might* be possible you are actually smelling the overflow tank and the radiator was low to begin with, and has been pulling coolant from the overflow tank to compensate.

Yeah, like Faitax stated, a wire in the connector for the OBD port probably backed out. I've personally had this happen on a Ford and Saab, at different years. Easiest way to check is unscrew the OBD II port and let it hang. Look CLOSELY at all the crimps poking out the back. They should be in a straight line when looking left to right. Check both rows as it can happen to more than one wire. Talking a minute amount of the wire being backed out can cause this. Usually seems to happen from people inserting the reader plug at an angle. Connect the reader with the obd port hanging, and any of the wires that appear to be "out of line" as viewed by their crimping, press it back in from behind. Reader should now work.

With your engine running and at temp, pop your cover and touch that 18 gauge wire to see how hot it is. It should be cool to the touch. If not, go to autozone and buy an actual fusible link wire, which will have a silicone cover. I had to do mine after the factory one corroded, and the inital guage was causing the entire wire to get too hot (think it was the black sleeve) while the next one up (grey sleeve IIRC) allowed it to remain cool.

Why not buy one of those 12v inflators for $40 and/or carry a small tank? Avoid the ultra-cheap plastic ones. Pay a little more and get one with a metal housing. I'd recommend carrying a secondary hand psi gauge or upgrading to a better one as they can be off by nearly 10 psi. I've been using one of the metal cased units and it fits in the glove box. It'll do a completely deflated tire to 38 psi in about 6-7 minutes. One issue with onboard compressors is you'd need to find a away to air up the tire w/o the system trying to air up suspension.

You might have a pinhole leak in a hose. These are harder to find as they typically won't leak until a certain temp/pressure where it'll open, spray a fine mist or stream akin to a small squirt gun, then close after the engine is off, sealing the pinhole back up. When driving and after engine is at full temp, if you see "steam" rolling up from under the hood, pop it open and see if it's visible (leave it running). Virtually any hose holding coolant can do this, and it can spray anywhere, whether that's back onto the engine, trans area, firewall, or even directly on the ground. Plastic radiators can crack over time. Or say you replace upper/lower hoses and over tighten, it can crack the tube on the hosing, or crack and leak under the hose end. Semi-loose hoses, whether to/from radiator, to/from heater core, etc. can leak at the hose ends, or hose itself. Heater cores themselves can leak into the actual car (speaking in general terms here) and they'll often leak behind the carpeting which gets soaked up by the padding. You'll most likely smell that though at some point inside the car, and IIRC, the windows will fog up constantly. Been ages since I ran into that. IF the heater core is leaking and it's bad, on some cars you can carefully pinch the feed line to the core with vice grips, then zip tie the handle up as a limp-home or get to work temp fix, or time permitting, loop a "U" section to the in/out on the engine if you can live w/o heat for a day. Turbos as others mentioned, will typically PUKE smoke bad enough that a cop will most likely being pulling you over for it as it'll linger in the air. Turbos that far gone most likely won't boost, or it'll "howl" as it spools up, which can be from so much play the fins clip themselves off against the housing.

FWIW, running in forced FWD WILL alter the handling in turns, is semi-easy to spin the fronts, and if like mine, might make some clunking noises. With regards to turning, it'll oversteer like any other FWD and is easy to spin the fronts. AWD, it definitely understeers.

Excessive idling can hurt the cats over a long period of time, causes engine wear, and also wastes gas, but if being warm is creature comfort you enjoy, then enjoy it! Life is too short! As long you aren't flogging it after immediately starting, you can drive it right way and heat will be there in 5 minutes, though nothing worse than windows icing over as the defrost temp is too cold to keep it from forming I honestly wouldn't worry too much about your HG, though your timing belt needs routine maintenance which will fail if ignored/neglected to a bad effect. Just keep a vigilant eye on your temp gauge (some people ignore theirs). If it ever starts creeping past the half-way mark, then start being concerned with a cooling issue. TBH, I think these engines are fairly easy to work on thanks in part to being a boxer engine (the little baby 2 cylinder heads are too neat). The real nightmares are the transverse-mounted DOHC V6 and V8's in some FWD platforms where everything from the firewall cylinder head to the front of the engine being 1/2" away from a frame rail, to overly complicated and expensive timing chains are the ones where it's no fun to deal with.

If it's not tracking straight going down the road, check the end links. WHY these used plastic here is dumbfounding. 35-40 mph should be nearly perfectly straight in the snow. If it's not getting up and moving easily in the snow, and the tires are solid, you might have something else going on. If all it's doing is spinning the front tires constantly, check there's no fuse in the FWD fuse holder under the hood (should have a dash light on if it's in though I've seen people go so far as to remove a cluster and blot out an LED warning light with RTV to hide something)

Tires as mentioned make a difference. Also, check that the front and rear sway bar end links are NOT broken. When I 1st got my 95', it wouldn't track straight in the snow due to the dog bone links being snapped. Even on inexpensive tires now with an upgraded rear sway bar (either from a Forester or later Outback, can't remember) the car tracks straight and only time I ever got truly stuck, was on junk tires it came with in 6"+ snow on a grass yard which was up the underside of the car, so more of a height + tires issue vs. AWD issue. We had solid ice on the secondary roads last week in early AM hours, and even on that car was fairly straight despite sliding on braking at 10 mph. Mind you this an auto, but it's still a blast in the snow. Very predictable. I've had it in deeper street snow (last year) that was deep enough it was packing into the bumper openings while filling the lower underside plastic in the engine compartment and it just kept going. Also, FWIRW, this car has pulled everything from RAV4's out of ditches (while I was on a snow covered road) to pulling a RWD F150 out of an icy driveway, to pulling a GEO tracker out of an ice patch, etc.

I'm just guessing at the hood (for Subaru) as it is something that can trigger an alarm on some cars. In my case, it was along the driver's side fender on I think an "L" bracket and had a long rubber boot on it, and was a simple 2 wire deal (open/closed circuit) and was thankfully easy to get at. Once disconnected, it quit acting up. Unfortunately on that car, it'd flash the lights AND honk the horn; I unhooked my horn 1st as that was more offensive at 1am than the flashing. What's funny is they went through all the effort to alarm the car (only driver's side even has a key hole) and yet they mounted the actual horn in such a way you can reach under the front bumper and disconnect it in 5 seconds flat w/o removing anything else..... Had a 96' Mark VIII with a driver's side door (another plunger-style sensor) that did the same thing, but I'd get the "door ajar" warning while driving. That sensor however was a rpita to even get to as Ford decided to mount it in the door jam. WD-40 worked as a temp-fix. You "might" have a secondary battery pack in the box with the speaker. On my 9-3, it looked like a shorter AA battery IIRC.

I was actually going to say the same thing earlier!

How high was the water line? Was it running at the time of the flood or was it parked? If water got above the axles, it'd be wise to change all fluids out, including the rear diff. With battery disconnected, I'd pull the carpet, seats, and kick panels, and ideally leave fans going for a couple days outside unless you can get some really hot dry heat (temp control garage, portable oil-filled radiant heater-no exposed element) and let that just evaporate all moisture on the wiring. Everything needs to be completely dry. If it actually sucked water and stalled, it's probably trashed. If water DID seep into a non-running engine, it'll like have rust from the internal water level. Would be wise to pull plugs and check for cylinder wall rust (and water).

I had a similar issue with 99' Lincoln Continental, where it was triggering the alarm randomly (always at night) despite the alarm NOT actually having been set. In my case, I traced the issue to the hood's plunger-style sensor. Basically, car reacts the same as if someone opened the hood w/o opening the car door, etc. Door ajar dummy lights are helpful if equipped, as you'll often get a message while driving. Hatches and trunks usually trigger a message in many cars. Hoods however, don't. To avoid the alarm, try unhooking the hood sensor, and if equipped, hatch/trunk sensor if you are certain the doors have been ruled out. Either replace the sensor or leave that unhooked. On cars like Saab, they had a separate alarm "box" (usually behind the fender) with a speaker inside and it had it's own battery source that was supposed to stay charged. When they failed to keep a charge, they'd trigger the alarm. Unsure what Subaru uses, but hopefully that'll be helpful as the alarm in your case will most likely still trip, and could drain the car battery.

Think I see what's wrong. I assumed the "dummy" light in the circuit was not needed, so it was never used with the Tribecca alt. On these older alts however, it looks like it might be needed as part of the "on" circuit. Only way alt would charge was by using the right-side spade lug (if looking down at engine from front) and ignoring the left-side lug; right-side is apparently supposed to get a key-on from the dummy light circuit if I'm understanding the diagram correctly?

Diodes are not bad. They were checked before installing, and checked again just now. .457v one way, no voltage when reversed, no display change to show a short. DO later alternators have a constant hot trigger "on"? What side of the plug is constant hot ON the alt for 97'?

If donor has hydraulic lifters, might as well pull covers and hand-clean them until only clean oil exits, and verify all lifters will hold firm. My 95' had a ton of lifters that would not hold firm, even after hand cleaning. Had to swap in donor lifters from a 96'. After cleaning and priming (4-5 years ago?) I've yet to hear them get noisy, even after it's been sitting for weeks.

Mine is doing the same thing, but the large solenoid to disengage park quit working (at exactly the same time), so that means getting it out of park, then popping in neutral. Thankfully, neutral starting has been reliable. With that said, 1 time since this started happening, the solenoid worked and it actually started in park. I've tried manually working the solenoid with key set to crank, and no luck. Unsure if coincidence or not.

Finally got a bulb in my test light and tested on the neg cable. Light was bright. Pulled all relays and underhood fuses, no change. Pulled the alt "on" trigger and light went out. Triple-checked and each time light went out/on. IS there something that changed with alternators between 95' and 97'? A 95' has an always "on" trigger hot-side, right? Both alts are/were (factory 95 and 97; not referring to 130amp Tribecca one) a 2 wire plug. One is for dummy light, other is "on"?