sparkyboy

A faulty knock sensor will cause those symptoms. They often fail after a long time My 92 leggo did the exact same thing and my knock sensor had a huge crack

What year and model? GLs and first gen legacy have enough space where you can lift the starter from the top

You can use the pos at the starter

I can post a pic once I get to my sube...

All you really need is a piece of wire and touch the 12v to the solenoid. A screwdriver works too

I wish you and I lived closer!

Here is a good thread that mentions the same problem and possible causes https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/archive/index.php/o-t--t-554472--.html

If you have an obd1 phase one ej22 (90-94) I understand that stalling when coasting to a stop can be due to the vehicle speed sensor not being hooked into anything. I have a later phase one (95 and 96, obd2) with the vss not hooked into anything and I don't seem to have that issue

Let's see some pics of your sons 2.5 rs! Surely you got some cool muscle cars too? Check out this nutty s**t I wish I could put an LS engine in my subaru http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/165601-xtv8-build/?hl=swap My 88 325ix with my 77 Camaro. My Subaru is just as quick as my bmw in a straight line and sadly, my Camaro is the slowest of my three cars, she has the 250 ci inline six with the muncie 3 speed. But at least she'll outhandle a damn lifted subaru station wagon, and holds her own with the bmw on twisty roads lol How much would you charge to build a big block chevy if I supply the block? I have another bmw that I would trade for that :-) if you or someone you know happen to like the e34 body style

Welcome! That sounds like fun, I have read about guys that slap a factory turbo on a naturally aspirated 2.2 and having good results with the factory ecu and about 8 psi. I have also read that those chinese ebay turbos can be truly awful. Your next step? Sell that turd and get your kid a nova :-) In all seriousness if he likes that car, take the turbo crap off and redo the head gasket and t belt and drive the piss out of her ej205 swap if he is serious about having some good turbo action. I have seen some early 2000s wrx parts cars for 1500-2000 complete. I would imagine that you could find a rebuilt 2.0 for around that price, maybe even a jdm one but you need a jdm wiring harness as well if I am not mistaken. That would be pretty sleeper the 2.5 rs is pretty cool, the 90s ones were the coolest imho. I have seen some beautiful sti swaps for the 90s 2.5rs before we got the wrx. I personally feel that 1999 was the last of the pretty Subarus, they got pretty ugly after that. Just my opinion. I also love muscle cars, and Subes I did the ej22 swap on my 86 GL and trust me, I drive the absolute piss out of her these cars are fun as f**k in the snow I also love e30 bmws Happy wrenching!

+1 I almost made a sweet deal with this dude in boulder because he had one too many cars This was the deal: to sell me his car for really cheap, like $800 or less Then I would do an ej22 swap and get the body back to the factory paint (she looks black primered, but that is actually rhino liner lol) Then later on, if he wanted to buy her back I would sell back to him for cheap, basically double what he paid. He was in a position to take about $600 so if and when (Hopefully IF for me) it was time, $1200 is a nice deal for a swapped sube like that. We rode to the parts store in my 86 and he was loving life, he wanted that engine in his car We were going to trade straight up, he wanted to do it, but that rhino liner was a bit of a bummer. Sadly for me, he found a place with room for all his cars. Anyway, maybe you can make a similar deal? That would be a great story to tell at car shows I'm a bit of a f**kin weirdo hippie kid and don't work a whole lot during the winter so you might have to find some fool on CL or something because a lot of the sube dudes I know don't visit this forum a whole lot... Nice work on the RX by the way, I am trying to get an 88 rx from someone here but can't get a hold of him lol EJ swap mode! I would be in subaru damn heaven if I had an rx I am super jealous of the guy doing the turbo LS swap into his rx http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/165601-xtv8-build/?hl=swap

If you have four (good!) jackstands you can support the car with all four tires off the ground and put her in gear and have a friend hold the gas slightly down and you can hopefully pinpoint the source of the noise. You say the noise goes away on downshifts?

I have had more than one girl break up with me because I spend too much time screwing around with cars, good riddance!

Just a thought and this might be a stupid question, but did you check that all three of the plugs (on the engine) for the ecu are plugged in?

i think that your biggest points here are: 1- The main relay needed replacing (a likely reason for the parking lot failure) 2- you are getting erratic action for both spark and fuel, but something at least 3- you were having a problem prior to your current problem. 4- you have an ecu, cam and crank sensor, igniter, and coil that worked in other cars. To me it seems like a bad ground that finally crapped out...particularly an ecu ground. or maybe a fusible link? I dunno, but I will certainly bet that this problem has something to do with why your main relay went bad. I will also bet that all your old sensors, coil and ecu are still fine Now someone correct me if I am wrong, but the fuel injectors always get voltage with the key in on, when the tooth on the crank passes the sensor that causes the voltage to drop to whatever injector corresponds to crank position? Thus opening the injector for a brief moment? You checked that you were indeed getting 12v to all three power supply pins in the harness with the key on The fuel injectors are getting 12v as well You checked the starter switch as well? That one is supposed to get voltage only during cranking (pin 81) Just for grins check the voltage at the throttle position sensor. It's one of the few sensors you can test without the car running and that isn't a pain to get to. If you are getting 5 volts at the positive and whatever voltage at different throttle openings then that is a good sign because the ecu is sending something. This kind of wacky electrical work is why I like using a power probe instead of a multi meter. All you have to do is touch the probe to a wire and it tells you whether its a ground, a pos (with or without voltage) or a faulty wire if there is no sound. and you can push the button to supply 12 volts instead of screwing with a jumper wire. The only con is the cord is kindof a pita If I were in your shoes (meaning in no particular hurry ha), I would just start at the top of that pinout and check as much as I can without the car running. I would take a couple of hours to look at the diagram and find the wire color as well and label the important ones so I don't have to look at the stupid pinout so much. Lol If I found any goofy readings, (especially any of the circuits that get voltage only when cranking) I would cut the wire for the grounds and ground it nearby to see if it changes. Then I would ask General Disorder if I can borrow his cool scope haha Just a side note, While stripping and testing my wiring harness, I noticed that the grounds tend to be rather sensitive. At first I just gathered them all together, I believe there were five wires and three body ring connectors to put a bolt through. Well, at first I stuck a bolt through the rings and vice gripped it to the negative terminal. That didn't work well. Neither did simply vice gripping them all at once to the terminal. Only when I separated them and vice gripped them one at a time did they work reliably. And I was kindof freaking out because I was getting weird action at the main relay, and faulty readings at the ecu. There were wires f**ckin everywhere! haha. I guess the point I am trying to convey is that by all appearances those grounds were fine and would have even tested fine, and were indeed (at times) fine! But just the slightest movement of any wire would cause one or two of those grounds to act up and it would frustrate me to no end. Until after about two whole days of struggling I finally realized that half assing the ground wires the way I did is what caused me a pile of grief

Why part one out? Just sell the unlucky one Whoever buys either car is certain to be a sube lover How much would you take for the 84? It's odd, but 2wd seems to command a premium over the dual range, it must be a rarity thing. Seriously man, there are girls out there who would support your hobby/passion/pasttime and even help you work on your cars. My chick actually got me into subes, we did the ej swap on my 86, and I have three chevys and a bmw on top of that. You only have two subarus or do you have other projects? Has she at least acknowledged how cool your cars are? This guy is looking for an fwd ea 81, although I think he wants a two door, but it's getting to the point where beggars can't be choosers with 80s subarus http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/165772-reviving-an-old-friend/

Find a new chick instead. And keep your faithful metal girls.

A faulty knock sensor can cause rough running and bucking until a certain rpm. Those often fail after a long time. But yeah it sounds like mounts. Although when I had a faulty engine mount, it helped my car to dump the clutch asap. I would get shaking when slipping the clutch, but after taking off there was no more shaking, even shifting into 2nd at 5 or 10 mph

My 86 GL is nearing 200,000 miles 10,000+ miles on the ej22 swap, mostly trouble free :-) She has never let me down

Sorry double post

Horray! I couldn't imagine having to hear that happened to my Subaru, overseas no less! My heart would drop straight to my stomach. That must have been devastating, I'd be upset as s**t. My 86 gl is a beloved car i did the ej22 swap myself. She is wonderful but not nearly as nice as your brat and not a family heirloom. Luckily the idiots who stole her were just screwing around and not someone looking to switch vins or part her out. That's the best outcome you could have hoped for. Cheers man She really is a beauty, certainly you have named her? Mine is the baby lion :-) If something like that happened to a friend of mine i would find a bunch of people to chip in and ferry your car to japan. Then call you, hey man your brat is missing again...look out the window! With such a rich history you need to drive her in Japan anyway. I would love to take my sube to mount fuji

Maybe he was traveling and stumbled upon a trans in Norway, and dude let him have it for freeee! Or really cheap :-) I would love to have a story like that, but yes those transmissions are not too difficult to find in the states A personal goal of mine is to take my Subaru or chevy van overseas, $4,000 for the ferry, but driving something with CO plates in europe or asia would be sweet! I once saw an old holden with plates from australia here. I am always looking on CL for old subes, and I have very rarely seen the 2wds for sale. But you will find what you are looking for, I just seen one in new mexico, but it looks like she has sold because the ad was old and is not up anymore

Glad to hear that it was an easy fix. +1 on not buying cheap spark plug wires, I bought a cheap set for my Camaro when she had a bad misfire, along with new plugs. She ran so s**ty that I was about to pull the valve cover off. Three of the wires were no good. The misfire turned out to be condensation under the rotor cap and the old wires (that have been on the car since I can remember) were just fine. Whoever made those made a good set because they have been on the car for 22 years. They have never needed replacing. The cheap spark plug wires are useless.

I'm glad to hear that it was an easy fix since you happened to have a spare transmission laying around haha, I have a spare engine that came in handy like that once. Would replacing the input shaft bearing be easy?

Can you hear the main relay clickwhen you turn the key to on? You should hear two clicks. The main relay supplies power to the ecu so that would be a good place to start since you checked the cam sensor already. I don't know if 2005 has an igniter before the coil, but that can fail too - although that is rare. Check your ignition system to be sure you are getting 12 v where you are supposed to with the key on and during cranking as well, it could just be the ignition switch. Have you tried going from off straight to start or trying several very short bursts on the starter? you may have to find a wiring diagram or a pinout for your ecu.