prwood

I think if it's just for limiting movement and not for any electrical reason, I'll leave it as is.

When I took out the battery on my 2002 Legacy, there was a plastic bracket underneath the rear tie-down nut that was holding one of the battery cables. When I put the battery back in, for whatever reason I couldn't fit everything together with that bracket still attached, so I took it off. Is there any reason that cable needs to be held in place above the battery like that, or is it just for aesthetics? I couldn't find an exact picture of it, but this one is kind of similar: Note the plastic bracket in the back holding the cable up.

Just replaced spark plugs last week. Replaced wires last year; I disconnected them and visually inspected when changing spark plugs, they looked good. Air filter was replaced last week. I pulled the PCV valve and checked it last week and it looked/sounded good. It had been replaced last year anyway. I had the battery disconnected while working on the spark plugs. If the check engine light does come on before the ready tests are all clear, then I'll look into getting the extender. It's still not on yet after I took it out for a 45 minute drive earlier today and the EVAP and CAT systems are still not showing ready, and the P0420 still remains in a pending state. I've taken it on several 30-60 minute drives earlier this week, about 50/50 highway/city driving.

FYI: I went out for another drive, putting the engine through its paces, and the o2b1s1 kept hanging pretty close to 1.5 while the o2b1s2 was all over the place.

First thing to note is that this car is due for a MA state inspection, which will require a clean report from the OBD. I am waiting to get an OK report on CAT and EVAP before I take it in, but all other systems report ok. I've reset the codes several times, and each time the p0420 comes up as a pending code. It has not yet triggered the CEL, however. Currently, when I start up idling and bring the ECT to 188, o2b1s1 generally hangs around 1.5 while o2b1s2 hangs around 0.08-0.10. Any thoughts on those values? Since it hasn't come up as a permanent code, I will try doing some more driving and see if it goes away or comes to stay.

I'm trying to diagnose a pending P0420 code on my 2002 Subaru Legacy. Right now I'm using an OBDII scan tool to read the various sensors and I had a few questions. First, I have two oxygen sensors listed: O2B1S1 and O2B1S2. Is S1 the upstream/pre-cat and S2 the downstream/post-cat? Second, from what I've read, when monitoring these sensors, I should expect the upstream sensor reading to generally fluctuate while the downstream sensor reading generally stays constant. Is that correct? Thanks!

Actually, the difference is more obvious when I line them up on the valve cover itself. I think I'll stick with the old ones, although I'm wondering why the kit would have come with the wrong width seals. Everything else was correct. P.S. I did clean the gunk out of the valve cover after taking this photo. :-)

I'm replacing the valve cover gasket on my '02 Subaru Legacy Wagon, and the kit I got came with the valve cover gaskets, grommets, and spark plug seals. Everything looks good in the kit and is fitting properly, but the only thing I noticed is that the old seals have a wider flange than the new ones. I've attached some photos for comparison. Here you can see the old on the top and the new on the bottom: Here they are mounted on the spark plug tubes for illustrative purposes, old on left and new on right: I was going to replace everything with the parts from the kit, but it seems like the old seals are in pretty good shape. Do you think the wider vs narrower flange will make a difference?

I am considering replacing the valve cover gaskets. Any recommended (or not recommended) brand for parts? Prices seem to range from $11 to $41. I can also check out the valves while I'm in there.

According to my FIL, the ECT sensor is one of the first things he replaced when he was trying to troubleshoot the issue, and he said it didn't seem to make a difference. He said it's possible the replacement unit may have been defective, but I'm not sure how likely that is. In any case, it looks like it costs about $10, so would it be worth trying to replace it again? Any recommendations on brand or seller? I generally order online from Rock Auto if it's not something I need immediately.

Is the 'engine temp sensor' the same as the engine coolant sensor? That's what I'm finding when I google for 'engine temp sensor'.

Thanks, I'll take a look at it. I'll check with my father-in-law to see if he's done the coil pack and vc (valve cover?) gasket and plug seals. I feel as though the coil pack may have been done but I don't think the other has been done. Is the compression and leak down test something I can do at home?

Thank you for the suggestions. I will do some research on the engine temp sensor and will also try the water spray test.

The spark plugs and wires were changed about a year ago, and I just changed the spark plugs again this week. The sparkplugs and wires are both NGK.

Hi all, I have a 2002 Legacy L Wagon, as described in my intro post: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/155139-eight-year-subaru-owner-first-time-subaru-board-poster/ For the past year or so, it's been having an issue where the engine sputters at RPMs below 2000. The sputter never occurs at RPMs above 2000, and it also stops once the car has been driven around for an hour or two, and will stay good between rides that same day as long as it's not more than a few hours apart. Unfortunately as it's used for a lot of city driving, it is frequently under 2000 RPM so the sputter happens on a regular basis. Also, during the winter when the outside temps are extremely cold, it takes even longer for the sputtering to stop, if it does stop at all. The engine has given the following codes: P0604 ICM RAM error P1518 starter switch circuit low input P0301 cylinder 1 misfire P0302 cylinder 2 misfire P0303 cylinder 3 misfire P0304 cylinder 4 misfire P0420 catalyst system efficiency below threshold bank 1 P0456 Evap emission system leak detected (very small leak) (I'm not sure if all of them are related to the sputter.) We've tried replacing the spark plugs numerous times (they show a black ring around the top, which I believe indicates carbon build-up), as well as spark plug cables, replaced some of the sensors (I don't have the list right now but I can probably find out if needed), tried resetting the ECU by disconnecting the battery, tried using a tank of high-octane gas, and other standard things like oil changes, but the sputter still persists. As of today, after the ECU reset and a day of normal city driving, I'm getting the following codes: P1518 starter switch circuit low input P0301 cylinder 1 misfire I've read up a bit in the forums that the engine used in this model year and the two earlier was fairly problematic, and I'm wondering if there are any other things we could try other than swapping out the engine. Thanks, Peter