Defrost problem, I think.

[Cynthia]

Hi...

 

Well, here I am again...

 

I had a used but near new tranny put into my 89 FWD Subaru GL Sedan and picked it up this past Monday. When I drove it last night to Church, it was raining and about 36 degrees and for the first time ever in my 17 years of driving my car, all of the windows fogged up within minutes of getting going and then just got worse. My rear window defroster worked fine. It did get the back window taken care of. The heat came on fine..in fact, it got very hot and I had to turn it down. The fan seemed to work fine.

 

What i noticed: there didn't seem to be air coming from the vents at the base of the windshield. I also pushed through all the buttons ...defrost, fan, heat, bilevel ..and it didn't feel like anything changed...it felt like all the heat was coming out of the front vents..the one's right about the radio.

 

it's pouring rain right now. i'd like to go lift up the hood and see if a hose is popped

 

I am wondering --- could that work on the tranny have caused the mechanic to do something that would involve fooling with the hoses?

 

I am a total "don't know nothing about cars" older single woman. I am learning from being here. This is an amazing forum.

 

I read this: "a vacuum line under the hood probably came undone. There should be a line from the intake manifold to the clear-ish looking canister on the passenger side rear of the engine bay. There should be another line going from the canister to the driver side firewall. If this gets unhooked, you won't have any control over the vent settings."

 

Well, to a dumb old lady like me.the questions that come to mind are: a vacuum line...is that a hose? so a hose from the intake manifold (huh? ) to the canister..ok i'll look for something plastic and clear...

 

And then.... what the heck is driver side firewall?

 

I'm willing to pop the hood and poke around. I think I have to remove the spare tire right? But boys....help me out...?

 

Thanks for your patience!!! I'll mail chocolate chip cookies homemade, if you want some!

[Buddy]

mmm....chocolate chip cookies . i'm pretty sure that its a hose. the back panel (where the dash is mounted) is called the fire wall. if you look at the engine bay from the front of the car, the "wall" behind the spare tire is the fire wall. sure hope this helps (hope i get those cookies too ). let me know if it helps or not that way i can post a pic for you. well might as well add those pics to help you out. these are the two up close angles and the full view of the firewall from the front of the car.

[Cynthia]

So where do those cookes get sent?

 

I'm on my way out to my car right now. I get firewall now. I'm going to look around and see what I see and then I'll be back here to report what I see.

 

THANKS!!!!

[Buddy]

YOU'RE WELCOME !!! okay send them to my house!!! if you were serious bout' the cookies send me a PM so that i can give you my address.

[Cynthia]

Ok. I removed the spare tire. I did a visual and finger poke check. I tried to figure out what I was looking at.

 

Am I at the right place with that canister?

 

What I saw was that on the left, rear, passenger side, above the firewall, there is a white cannister tucked into that upper left corner that has two tiny hoses that come out of it.

 

It's, as I said, white. It has, I guess you could call it, a lid on it. That lid has something akin to a bulging I impression on it.

 

One tiny in circumference hose comes out of the cannister and travels up and back under this lip that follows the line of the hood below the windshield and after it travels the width of the hood, it "plugs in" on the driver's side, below what I think might be the alternator. I can see the DOT can in that area...but it's farther back from that. There's a couple of other things that seem to plug in right next to it.

 

Now, there is a second little similar hose that also comes out of that same cannister. It comes toward me, as I'm looking at the firewall from the front of the car. But it doesn't do anything.

 

I noticed that thin little hose is only about oh 12 inches long or so and it's got a flexible little clamp thing holding it flush with a thin metal pipe. The thin little hose doesn't connect to anything. The clamp just seems to keep it from dangling into the space behind the engine and above the axle.

 

Am I looking at the right stuff?

 

Help????

[Buddy]

Ok. I removed the spare tire. I did a visual and finger poke check. I tried to figure out what I was looking at.

 

Am I at the right place with that canister?

 

What I saw was that on the left, rear, passenger side, above the firewall, there is a white cannister tucked into that upper left corner that has two tiny hoses that come out of it.

 

It's, as I said, white. It has, I guess you could call it, a lid on it. That lid has something akin to a bulging I impression on it.

 

One tiny in circumference hose comes out of the cannister and travels up and back under this lip that follows the line of the hood below the windshield and after it travels the width of the hood, it "plugs in" on the driver's side, below what I think might be the alternator. I can see the DOT can in that area...but it's farther back from that. There's a couple of other things that seem to plug in right next to it.

 

Now, there is a second little similar hose that also comes out of that same cannister. It comes toward me, as I'm looking at the firewall from the front of the car. But it doesn't do anything.

 

I noticed that thin little hose is only about oh 12 inches long or so and it's got a flexible little clamp thing holding it flush with a thin metal pipe. The thin little hose doesn't connect to anything. The clamp just seems to keep it from dangling into the space behind the engine and above the axle.

 

Am I looking at the right stuff?

 

Help????

okay right now i have to log off for the night. so while i'm gone i'm gonna check under my hood and also my repair manual. i'll see what i can do . man GD beat me to it also!!!!

[Cynthia]

Thanks!!

[GeneralDisorder]

Ok - Allow me...

 

The white cannister that you found is correct - the lower of the two hoses must be connected to manifold vacuum. The manifold is.... well a picture is best I suppose:

 

Here is the supply line I'm refering too. This supplies the white "vacuum accumulator" with manifold vacuum and powers the vacuum motors that change the vent selections for you when you press a button:

 

 

Here is a typical connection to manifold vacuum where you will need to connect that supply line. Your's will look a little different as you have fuel injection, and this picture is from my carburated sedan. Trace the line comming from the bottom of the white vacuum accumulator and find where it is supposed to connect to manifold vacuum. It's usually a "T" fitting supplying a couple differen't things. I bet it has just fallen off.

 

 

For reference, the bottom of the picture shows the upper radiator hose on the passenger side - and that blurry silver thing in the foreground is the oil fill cap.

 

Post back if you need more help or better pictures. I used my phone, and probably should have just used my camera - the phone isn't great for close ups.

 

GD

[DrKrazy]

Ok if I followed this thread correctly then that hose that's not hooked to anything should be hooked to another hose that goes to your intake to provide vacuum to your Heating/Air controls. I've attached a picture that might help you (just have to ignore the fact there is a battery there, this is off my lifted rig that runs two batteries, just pay attention to the hose that my red line follows):

 

Edit: GD beat me to it....

[hooziewhatsit]

yep, you're looking in the right place.

 

The little hose that comes towards you, and doesn't go anywhere is the problem. It needs to be plugged into the intake manifold.

 

There's probably another little hose that should match it hanging loose somewhere. You'll want to look on the passenger side of the engine for a similar sized hose. It should be there somewhere.

 

Same thing happened to me after getting a tranny fluid change at Oil Can Henry's (long time ago). Found the dangling hose, hooked them up, and had defrost again

 

Edit: got beat by two guys.. who included pictures :cool:

[Cynthia]

:banana: :clap: OMG I just completed my first Subaru fix. I cannot believe it...it's such a silly small thing but for me it's a huge first step into the auto repair world.

 

OK guys, I followed your photos to the tee.. what a help. That little hose that was attached by the clamp .and that went to nowhere....well, thanks to YOUR help, which gave me confidence!!.... I went out and looked and looked and lo and behold...eureka...there's another little hose with some kind of connector inside it and it's just hanging there, too. It was coming from the engine .. i think it's manifold.. anyway, they looked to be a perfect fit... same size...with little connector.

 

I put them together ..

 

YAHOO...well, now I'm going to go turn on the car and see if it works.

 

One question...what does that hose do...the one that wasn't connected? Might as well keep learning..

 

COOKIES ANYONE??? I'm baking TUESDAY and mailing Tuesday. I was serious!

[Cynthia]

Turned car on. I have defrost and etc. now. Oh, this feels so good.

 

I'm ready to fix more things!

[DrKrazy]

It provides Vacuum to the Heating/Air controls inside your car. Actually runs right up to the buttons which in turn controls the flaps for air/heat/defrost/bi-level/etc. Hope that helps a bit, kinda hard to describe...basically an air switch system that uses vacuum to keep certain flaps in the ducting closed/open depending on the button you pushed to flow air where you want it.

[GeneralDisorder]

Well - think of it this way - your engine is a big air pump. It draw air in through the Air filter... this is called the "Intake". Make sense? And it shoots the air out through the "Exhaust". Logical eh?

 

It mixes a little gas with the air to create a small explosion (actually it's just burning very, very fast, but for out purposes here, it's an explosion), and that drives the engine. Thus the need for gas AND air.

 

You follow that?

 

Ok - so the big air pump pulls a lot of air through it - so the intake manifold is just like the nozzle of a vacuum cleaner - if you put your hand up to it you will feel the suction. Same idea here - a little bit of that suction is routed through the hose you fixed, and powers the actuators that move the vent flappers in your dash. Pressing the buttons decides which door gets "sucked" open.

 

The little cannister is a vacuum accumulator. What it does is store some of that suction for later use. Basically without getting too complicated there are times when the engine may not have enough suction to work the flappers, so the white deally stores it up for later use.

 

Hope that helps.

 

GD

[Cynthia]

I understand. THANK YOU. And I'm serious about the cookies.