keith3267

Start with the radiator cap as it is definitely bad. If it was good, you would have pressure. Most of the time, that is the cause of overheating especially when going uphill. It is cheap and easy so do it first and see if that solves the problem.

Finding good quality taller/narrower tires is getting difficult these days.

If you are going through a lot of light bulbs, you should take it to the dealer and have the alternator voltage checked. It is probably putting out a higher voltage than it should. Actually if you know anyone with a voltmeter, they can check it for you, just check the voltage across the battery terminals with the engine running at idle and at 1800 rpm. If it is over 15.2 volts, it is too high although I would prefer it to be no more than 14.8 volts. The alternator output is controlled by the computer now, they don't have their own regulators anymore. If the DC voltage is within spec, switch the voltmeter to AC to see if the alternator has excessive ripple. It will have a little ripple, less than 1 volt. If it is too high, that would indicate that the alternator has a blown diode in it.

I wouldn't weld it either. You can fill the hogged out keyway with a hard epoxy, but once that is use, the next time will require a new crankshaft. This situation is usually caused by a loose crank bolt, so make sure to torque that sucker down to specs.

You need to get off as much rust as you can through a wire brush or sanding or a nylon flapper wheel on a grinder or high speed drill. The nylon flapper wheel is the best way. The clean and degrease. As soon as you rinse the degreaser off, you need to apply a solution that contains about 50% phosphoric acid, which the por 15 metal prep is. http://qr.absolutecoatings.com/QR-assets/downloads/POR15/POR-15_TD-MetalPrep.pdf Phosphoric acid is available from other sources and is probably less expensive than the por15, but even the por15 isn't that much in the scheme of things here. If you have any rust remaining, it will take the phosphoric acid about a half hour to work, with rust free bare metal, it works in about 5 minutes or so. Rinse it off and then dry it as fast as you can. A hair drier or heat gun would come in handy here but even compressed air would help. As soon as it dries, it needs to be coated as the iron phosphate coating the phosphoric acid forms will crack as it dries. There is a micro sealer that is available to industrial users for this, but I don't think it is available to consumers in small quantities. My preference for coating would be a Zinc Chromate primer. I think you can still get one at NAPA. You can get it at Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Moeller-Green-Chromate-Primer-Outboard/dp/B000N8LR24 Or you can use the por15 coating if you want. I believe it is a good product as well, I just have a lot of experience with the zinc chromate on aluminum and magnesium in a salt water environment. BTW, you never win against rust, you can only prolong the battle but in the end, rust will prevail. But you can prolong the battle for a very long time if you are willing to do the work. Edit, I don't think the zinc chromate is a sealer and it is old school. The por15 is new school and may contain a sealer. I would still use the zinc chromate over the por15 though as the zinc forms a sacrificial barrier to rust. The metal underneath will not rust as long as there is some zinc to corrode first.

Hard to tell by the picture but has the slot widened or is the woodruf key just partly sheared? If its just sheared, then its an easy fix.

Check your brake lights to see if they are working.

By misfire on all four, do you mean that you are getting a random misfire on all four with a P0300 code? If so, I would start looking at the crankshaft position sensor or cam position sensor, but I'd bet on the crank. If you are getting stumbling with no code, then I'd lean to the MAF.

I second getting another opinion, and get it from a reputable mechanic. I can make any front wheel wobble, even on a brand new car so the second I hear of a mechanic showing a customer that the front wheels are wobbling, I see a snow job in progress. There is no valid test or diagnosis for any front end part that involves making the wheel wobble. There are a lot of tests, but that is not one. Wheel bearing make noise, lots of noise long before there is any detectable end play in the axles or hub assembly. The sound varies from a roar similar to mudder tires or other off road tires to a sound like a propeller on a small aircraft. Often the sound will vary if you are turning right or left. The variation in the sound during a turn is the biggest giveaway to a bad bearing, but I have had a bad bearing that did not vary very much, barely detectable, but usually it is very noticeable. If you are not getting a clicking sound when cornering, then your CV joint is good and you can just have the boots replaced. The cost to just replace the boots is often the same as a reman axle, but I find most remans to be junk. If yours are not clicking on turns, then I would recommend that you save the axle, but you have to act quickly because once the boot is torn, the CV joint can be ruined in a matter of days. Edit: once you get a good independent mechanic, use them for everything, even oil changes. Keep them in business.

Just because a state does not have any laws regarding diminished value, does not mean that you cannot seek compensation for diminished value. You can sue for whatever you want. Whether you win or even get enough compensation to be worth the trouble is another issue, but it does not stop you from trying. The diminished value won't be covered by your collision insurance and the other parties insurance may not cover them either, that means that you will be suing the other party and if you win, then you must figure out how to collect directly from them. This is where lawyers really make their money, often leaving you with nothing. Unfortunately with diminished value, you probably won't be able to pad the claim with punitive damages. Pain and suffering are totally out of the question.

Neither are the operating system. You definitely will have the protocols for OBDII, that is required. CAN is a buss architecture used starting sometime mid 2000's. If you have throttle by wire, then there is a good chance your buss is a CAN buss.

I have not rebuilt a Subaru engine, but I have rebuilt plenty of others and the maximum piston wear is at the top of the cylinder. But in most cases, a failed leakdown test is due to a burned valve or a broken piston, not due to cylinder wear so crankshaft position doesn't really matter much. 100 psi may blow down a piston that is anywhere in the 120 degree arc from TDC -30 to TDC -150. Anywhere in the top or bottom 30 degrees will not have enough mechanical advantage to move the piston. All you need it the valve for the cylinder under test to be closed. If you suspect a cracked cylinder wall, then do the test at BDC.

I bought a MAF sensor from eBay for about $40 recently. A reman Nissan MAF sensor cost $460 from NAPA and the dealer claimed he could not get one, even though the same sensor is used on new Nissans today. I noticed about half of the comments for the part on eBay and the same part on Amazon stated that they did not work. But in each of those cases, they stuck it in and started the vehicle and it didn't run right, so it can learn the new MAF sensor. Do this by disconnecting the battery while you are changing the sensor and by the time you are done, the PCM should have forgotten the learned parameters. It will take up to ten minutes before the engine really starts to sort itself out for the new sensor.

Do you use any additives in your oil? The stuff on your finger resembles molyB which is used in a lot of additives and in oil made for diesel engines. It is also possible that it came from your oil filter. If any maintenance was done to the manufacturing equipment, such as greasing it, some of the grease, which is usually a MolyB grease, could have gotten into your filter when it was made. If your next oil change comes out clean, I wouldn't worry about it.

Stick with the OEM type filter. A low restriction filter could give you 1 or 2 extra HP under WOT (wide open throttle), but under any other conditions, the main restriction to air flow is the throttle. The computer will calculate the right amount of fuel to inject based on inputs from various sensors like the MAF, MAP, inlet air temp and feedback from the O2 sensors. Changing the air filter will not affect the air fuel ratio on a modern car like it did on old carbureted cars. But, the K&N filter is an oil impregnated cotton filter. The oil can and does migrate to the incoming air stream and then coats the MAF sensor. If you can't clean the MAF sensor yourself, then you will find this to be an expensive and frequent repair. The K&N is also suspected of passing more dirt into the engine and contaminating the oil. I don't know if it is true and if it is, if the amount of dirt will actually be significant enough to have a measurable effect on the life or performance of the engine. But I can tell you from experience (my son uses a CAI which has the same type of filter element as th K&N) that the MAF sensor needs frequent cleaning for the engine to run at peak efficiency.

To all the Fram bashers, Fram is a six sigma company. That means that any filter they recommend has to meet the manufacturers specs and cannot have a deviation from any one of these specs in more than 3 filters per million manufactured. There are many filters out there that boast specs well above the manufacturers specs and so in a way are better filters. For example you are building a house and the engineer specs 2x8 floor joists. You decide you want 2x12 joists and you make the upgrade. The 2x8 joists would have worked just fine and would have lasted as long as the house was expected to be there, but it was your choice. Now lets say that had you bought the 2x8 joists, they had fewer knots, no splits or cracks so none were defective. However, the 2x12 joists that were hyped up by the salesman at the lumber yard were delivered with severe cracks, large knots and other defects to the point that several were not good enough to use. The 2x8 joists had better quality than the 2x12 joists even though the 2x12 joist had better specs. Now if you plan on going over the mileage the manufacturer specifies for oil change intervals, then the Fram may not be good enough for you. You may well need a filter with higher specs, but make sure the supplier of the better filter has good quality control or those specs won't do you any good. I do not work for Fram and I don't ofter use their filters. I usually use Purolator because for most applications, they are cheaper than Fram. I have seen a lot of those internet "proofs" of Frams poor "quality" and all I see are ignorant people talking about something they simply do not understand. Now, about the overpressure valve. That valve is technically a delta P valve. All oil systems have two dP (delta P) valves. One is to control the system oil pressure and it is usually built into or located at the output of the oil pump. This dumps excess oil back into the pan and is usually around 65 psi. I've been working on cars for 50 years now and back in the day, most, if not all oil filters did not have a bypass valve in them. The bypass valve was built into the oil filter adapter, and that only in engines that had a full filtration system. It was not uncommon in the 50's to have the pump send some oil to the engine and some oil to the filter where it was filtered and returned to the pan. In those days, oil filters were an option. I have seen quite a few instances of the bypass valve in the adapter sticking open as they aged so essentially the oil filter would not even get wet. My 97 Nissan recently had that happen and when I did an oil change on it, the filter never got a drop of oil inside it, it was as clean as new. I guess this is why more manufacturers would rather have the bypass valve in the filter where you get a new one every time you change the filter. I had noticed that some filters had these and some did not, but I didn't really pay that much attention. Now delta P or delta pressure means the valve opens at a difference in pressure, not an absolute pressure. It does not set system pressure, it just says that if the goesinta pressure is a set amount higher than the goesouta pressure, then the valve opens to insure proper oil flow. A higher dP would cause a lower system pressure on the goesouta side of the filter, meaning less oil pressure and oil flow to the critical elements like the bearings. With a 0w20 oil, the oil pressure and flow rate to the bearings is more critical than the heavier 5w30 oil. For this reason, a lower dP would be better. BTW, that answer on Amazon that said the 15A filter has a higher pressure valve has been removed by Amazon. I don't know why but its gone now. I plan on using only the Subaru filter in the future, but barring a really good valid argument, the Fram will stay on for now.

matt are you saying the Fram 7317 should not be used? Since Fram lists that as the filter for my Subaru, I would think that would open them up to a lot of liability if it caused engine damage.

Thanks for the torque spec matt167. The Fram may not cross over to the Purolator, but the Fram is the exact size and it has the same type of PRV (pressure relief valve) that is in the OEM filter. I can't see the PRV in the Purolator, it only has a flat end cap. A flat end cap can still have a PRV, sort of. I can't say for sure if the relief pressure is the same though, can't find those specs. One of the guy's that answers questions on the Amazon site claims to be a Subaru parts person and did list the relief pressures for both the 12A and 15A filters and the 15A is a LOT higher, if he is correct. That means that using the H6 filter is a no go on the H4, so that answers my original question. It looks like I was wrong on Subaru only having two filters. It seems that the new 2.0 turbocharged engine has a different filter so that makes three. The 12A filter replaces all previous Subaru filters so there are other filters, but they are obsoleted by the 12A.

I did the oil change today. I used the Fram XG 7317 filter and Mobil 1 EP 0w20. I had to reuse the washer. What a PITA. First, the front bumper is too low for me to use my ramps so I had to jack it up and use my jackstands. I got a little misinformation from some of the answers on Amazon about the washer. One of the people providing information said that the 16 mm washers were too big for the new Legacy's. That person must have had one of those repair plugs put in because it absolutely is a 16 mm washer. The parts store did not carry 16 mm washers or gaskets, but based on what I had read, I had bought some 13 mm (1/2") washers. The dealers mechanic had installed the drain plug WAY too tight. I had to use a 24" breaker bar to get it loose. I don't know the torque specs for the drain plug but every other car I have worked on called for somewhere betwee 14 and 22 ft/lbs. Granted that most other vehicles use a 12 mm, 14 mm or 1/2" drain plug so a 16 mm can tolerate a higher torque. But I have seen and heard of many cases of stripped threads in oil pan drains due to over torquing. I suspect that is mostly caused by the use of impact wrenches in the hands of ignorant, rushed and uncaring oil change "technicians". I also replaced the air filter and the cabin air filter. Most glove boxes today are pretty easy to remove, but the Subaru's was quite difficult. Usually you almost close the glove box and lift, but on the Subaru you have to squeeze in a pair of wings that ride in a groove, but these are at the back of the box where the back of the box provides a lot of stiffness. I managed to squeeze them in with a 16"x 1/2" flat blade screwdriver. The box goes back in easy enough though. After I got it apart, I think that it might be easier to spread out the panels with the grooves than to squeeze in the sides of the box itself. The owners manual shows squeezing the box but it wouldn't be the first time an owners manual, or a factory service manual for that matter shows the hardest way to do something instead of the easy way. Happens when the tech writers don't work in the same building as the engineers. The air filter wasn't difficult, not as hard as a Honda anyway. Next time it will go a lot easier, I will be prepared with the right parts from the start. Now to find a pair of ramps that are a little lower that fit under the bumper. Only needs about a 1/4'

Did you use zinc oxide anti-sieze this time?

I posted this question on CarTalk.com and one of the regulars posted a link to Amazon for OEM Subaru filters. I read through all the questions and answers and found out that there are only two filters for all Subaru models. They are physically interchangable but all the engines that take 5w30 oil use the filter whose part number ends in 12. That is all engines before 2007, all Outback and Legacy engines before 2011, all turbo engines and all the 6 cylinder engines. The engines that require 0w20 need the filter whose PN ends in 15. I know that engines, all manufacturers, that require 0w20 have different specs in order to control the flow around the main and rod bearings so it is possible that the xx15 filters have something to do with controlling the flow. I also found out that the drain plug uses a crush washer that has to be changed every time. Something else I did not know. I will hit the parts store tomorrow to get one, but I am going to use the Fram filter I bought for this oil change. I will order OEM filters and washers from Amazon from now on.

I looked into this a little more today. I perused through the Fram catalog and for a number of years, all Subarus used the same filter. The 6 cylinders still use that filter but the 4 cylinders have seen two changes. I opened up a package of a Fram toughgard filter and a Fram ultra synthetic filter for the 4 cylinder and both had a built in over pressure valve, but it is plastic. The end caps appear to be metal though. I bought the Ultra filter and will use it tomorrow. I'm going to try to did up more info on the Purolater filters and I may use the 6 cylinder filter on a future oil change depending on what I find. I will also check the oil filter adapter to see if it has an over pressure valve built into it. The dealer is quite a distance from me and I am not on very good terms with them right now due to some issues with how the maintenance was done. I did not give them very good reviews on the Subaru questionaire.

Using a hard to find battery for the FOB has nothing to do with the engineering of the vehicle, it is simply poor engineering. Same for the oil filter. When I remove the Subaru oil filter, I will check for the bypass valve but I don't see one on the Purolator filters. Edit: the decision on the battery was probably made by the purchasing department rather than engineering. As for the warantee, if the engine fails, Subaru will have to prove that it was the oil filter that caused the failure. They cannot deny a warrantee repair because a non Subaru part was used.

Gold colored was just a joke. The Pureone oil filter is consistantly the highest rated filter in most of the filter comparisons that I have read. However, it doesn't seem to mean that much anymore as oil filters just don't have any where near as much work to do in todays sealed up, high efficiency, synthetic oiled engines. The oil ressure bypass is usually built into the engine oil filter adapter and not in the filter. I have seen a few filters with a built in relief valve, but I didn't see one in either of the filters for this engine.

How do you make paragraphs at this forum? Most places require that you hit the return twice, I did that here but my post came out one long paragraph. It looked OK in the edit.