Subaru Crew Problems & Solutions

surf5 · November 2005

4MYGREY: I had the same issue with my 98 Legacy. Started the day I took it home. After months of having them look at the car and diagnose oil leaks.... They finally resolved it...it was two pinhole leaks in the radiator hoses. The subaru crew should be able to point you in the right direction.

surf5 · November 2005

Anyone had any issues with valve covers? I have a 98 Subaru with plenty of oil issues. It's had the gaskets, headers, and oil pump replaced. The oil pump has been replaced 2x. The valve covers were replaced at 42,000 and now they tell me they are leaking with 59,000 miles. Anyone had similar issues?

fibber2 · November 2005

OK, I am guilty of cross posting (better than cross dressing).... Looking to see if a slightly different audience has any opinions. For more description and exchange, see Legacy/Outback Problems & Solutions thread.

I need rotors and pads for my '02 OBW (H4 auto). No complaints about general performance of the pads - decent compromise between cold and hot stopping, so I may just order another set. But can we do better on the rotors? Way too much problems with runout (thickness variation, etc.).

Steve

lfdal · November 2005

I agree with the occasional need to cross post. We see some of the same people crossing forum lines to participate in different areas, but I've seen lots of cases where some very knowledgable people seem to confine themselves to one group or another. I think as long as someone doesn't abuse it, it can be a handy way to get to a different audience even within the same manufacturer's group.

Just my 0.02.

Larry

ateixeira · November 2005

Gaskets yes, but oil pump? I'd never seen that here on Edmunds.

Perhaps the oil pump failed because the oil level was too low?

-juice

lfdal · November 2005

Believe it or not there's an article in EndWrench about how the crews on the back plate of the oil pump can actually back out about 1/16" and force seal failures by allowing pressurized oil to get in places that should not see oil under pressure. One of the potential causes for one of the seals being displaced to the front of the engine.

Larry

reureu · November 2005

I have a 1993 Subaru Impreza with about 150,000 miles. Car used to run great but here is the problem. The car has trouble starting or has rough starts. Getting gas getting spark but it just won't kick over. Leading up to the rough or no start the check engine light comes on. If I disconnect the battery it seems to reset everything and the car goes back to normal for a few days then the check engine light comes on and eventually the car won't start until the battery is disconnected/reconnected. FYI, I recently did a tune up replacing plugs, wires, filters...
From all that I have read it seems to be a sensor problem, not sure why resetting things seems to correct the problem for a few days? Any idea?

xwesx · November 2005

I have a feeling this one is your timing sensor(s).... either crank or camshaft (or both). Is the car flooding (you'll hear the sound of the cranking shift to a higher pitch as the compression drops due to the fuel bypassing the rings/lubing the cylinder walls) during start up attempts? I had problems with my timing sensors at one point and I had to actually shut off the fuel supply / pump the peddle like it was carbeurated in order to get it running. The sensor(s) may just not be getting a good connection.

I'd read out the codes on an OBDII scanner to give you a starting point.

xwesx · November 2005

The covers themselves or the gaskets? These are very sensitive to oil overfilling, so if anything, run 1/4 quart low vs. 1/4 quart over. Also, I found that the gaskets are prone to leaks just because of the area they must cover and the low torque spec on them. This last time when I resealed them (I even reused the gaskets I had put in the time before... they had about 50K miles on them during this most recent fix), I supplemented them with NAPA Ultra Blue gasket maker. I only have 3.5K on the car since the work, but no leaks yet. I noticed ever so slight leaks reforming on them within a month last time (and it slowly gets worse).

fibber2 · November 2005

Good idea, but probably will not work on a '93 - pre OBDII period. Not sure what common protocol Subaru used with OBDI. You probably would have to go back to a dealer to get it diagnosed.

Steve

jkeegan1 · November 2005

Hello all..

Just this week, I changed the spark plugs & wires on my 01 Outback Legacy (2.5). This was my first time doing this, and got some good advice from this forum...Everything seemed to go very smoothly...had to remove the battery and the washer fluid resevoir to access the driver side plugs, so I took care to make sure the battery was removed carefully, and made sure I kept track of all the leads.

So I reconnected everything, and the car won't start. No power at all whatsoever. Turn the key, dead silence, no lights or antyhing.

So I went back and sanded off all the contacts on the battery poles, the leads and the ground contact. In my zeal to make sure the connections were tight, I broke the grounding bolt head off, leaving the stem in place. Not too big a deal, as I was able to screw down the two grounding leads onto nearby bolts going into the chassis, and I made sure to sand down the paint on those, so there are nice clear contacts.

Still nothing. So I took out a voltmeter, and tested the battery. Totally fine. The ground leads are fully grounded as well. I chacked all the smaller fuses in the hood fuse block, and they were fine. I looked closely at the larger fuses, and they also appearewd to be intact.

So I'm at a bit of a loss to explain why the car isnt starting, though it's clearly with the battery it seems. I'm planning on trying a jump start next....

Any ideas?

Thanks

-Jon Keegan
Brooklyn, NY

once_for_all · November 2005

it doesn't sound like the battery. You checked the ground leads and connections. All ok.

Probably either a connnection off the positive terminal, the wire itself, or a main fuse. Work your way from the terminal out. Play detective.

Jumping won't help if it is a poor connection, wire, or fuse. Jumping helps only if the battery is down.

John

xwesx · November 2005

Oh, right.... I suppose it would help to read close enough to catch the year of the car!!!!

samiam_68 · November 2005

Check the fusible links in the fusebox under the hood. Also - do you have an alarm with some kind of ignition kill or immobilizer?
Finally - this may sound a bit far fetched, but did you connect the (+) terminal to (+) cable and (-) terminal to (-) cable?

jkeegan1 · November 2005

Checked all the fuses in the fusebox under the hood....all in tact. No alarm, just keyless entry...And I was VERY careful to make sure that positive (red) went to positive, and negative (black) to negative...

I cannot trace much on the positive lead, since it just wraps around to the back of the engine...

samiam_68 · November 2005

You can try substituting another battery. You can also try disconnecting the battery, and use an ohm-meter on the cables to check that (a) there isn't a short across the (+) and (-) cables and (b) it's not an open circuit - there should be some resistance with the door open (dome light).

jkeegan1 · November 2005

lesson learned: always photograph / document the setup before you take it apart. I stupidly had the lead from the fuse box hooked up to the ground.

Thanks for the help and suggestions!

-Jon Keegan

miksmi · November 2005

What's the procedure to test a coil pack? Spark plug wire? The MY00 GT gets a P0304 (misfire on cylinder 3) and runs rough (always: idle, slow speed, highway speeds). I replaced the plugs, same problem.

Thanks.

..Mike Smith

ateixeira · November 2005

Hey Mike.

So you have an OBDII scanner? Or did you borrow one?

Do you have a Chase Subaru credit card? If so just use Subaru Bucks and let the dealer figure it out.

-juice

miksmi · November 2005

Hi juice,

I borrowed an OBDII scanner. What a handy tool! Correcting my earlier post, P0304 is misfire on cylinder 4 (not 3).

Coil pack lug (?) for cylinder 4 was corroded. I sanded off the corrosion, did my best on the plug wire, erased the error codes, and it's running ok. I'll replace the spark plug wires and see how it goes.

After 61,000 miles, I also need to replace the brake pads so I'll buy some OEM ones while at the dealer.

Nope, no Subaru credit card. When I reviewed it, Subaru Bucks expired after 5 years, which I dislike. I only buy cars every 10-15 years and don't buy enough parts so use the rewards before expiration.

Do you have your brake pad changing photos online?

Is this the place for maintenance questions or elsewhere?

..Mike

ateixeira · November 2005

You're in the right place.

I haven't done pads on the Forester, even though it's 8 years old and has 80k miles. They're quiet, too. If it ain't broke...

The pads are OK.

I did the pads on the Miata, not too hard. The rear discs on that was tough because of the way the parking brake is set, but I think Subies are different.

Subaru Bucks - you'd be surprised. We got hit, and used Subaru Bucks for the body shop, then kept the money the other person's insurance gave us. Ka-ching! $300.

We have another $300 accumulated.

Hopefully someone else can come up with a URL because I'll be right behind you, most likely.

-juice

miksmi · November 2005

Wow, and I thought we babied the brakes. Course, there was that FAT (Friday At the Track) at Summit Point, WV. I'm not a mechanic but maybe that affected the pad wear. :P

I've got a hair under 1/8" on the front and a hair over 1/8" on the rear.

You documented several procedures (cabin filter maybe?). Do you still have those pages?

..Mike

p0926 · November 2005

Hey Mike, good to hear from you! I was just wondering the other day what you'd been up to. Next time I'm in DC (which is fairly regularly), you, Juice, Bob, Loosh and whomever else is interested should plan a meeting one evening after work.

-Frank

ateixeira · November 2005

The dot bombs kept crashing. First, I had that site on homepage.com, they went out of business.

Then I had photos with another host, I forget the name. It was free at first. Then they started charging. I actually paid, I was sick and tired of uploading 600 pics, but still they went out of business. I think that was PhotoPoint.

Finally, I went to ImageStation, I figure Sony owns them so they'll stick around. But even they require registration and prevent hot-links to the pics. That limits the usefullness.

Lots of bad luck, and I don't have the energy to re-create the exact same photo library for a 4th time. Instead I send pics to anyone working on a particular item. Tow hitches are a popular item, for instance.

I haven't done brakes, though.

-juice

miksmi · November 2005

Hey Frank, thanks! Sounds good, drop me an email.

I feel safer knowing you regularly defend DC.

..Mike

rsholland · November 2005

Hey Mike! Back for your annual post or two?

Seriously, good to hear from you again! I second Frank's request for another feast-get-together. Getting hungry just thinking about it.

Bob

c_hunter · November 2005

Hey Mike,

You can try putting some silicone grease on those plug wire connections (at both ends) to ward off corrosion. I have a tube of Honda Shin-etsu grease and have been using it for all kinds of stuff like that (it's actually recommended to conditions the seals on frameless windows like Subaru uses).

Craig

psfod3 · November 2005

I have a 03 Forester with the same problem. It started when the car had about 60,000 miles on it. It now has over 80,000 miles. If you find the cause of the hot oil smell lease let me know.

miksmi · November 2005

Thanks, Craig. Is dielectric grease the same thing as silicon grease?

miksmi · November 2005

Hehe, I wish I had time to check in more often, Bob.

jfl · November 2005

Scooby has brake pad change pix on his mods site.

He also had pretty good instructions on changing spark plugs. Like don't forget the dielectric grease! (If you plan to change your own plugs a second time.) :P

Jim

c_hunter · November 2005

Yep, same stuff (as Jim alluded to). I have only started using it recently, but wish I've been using it all along.

CRaig

leo2633 · November 2005

A few months ago, I noticed the smell of burning oil in my 2001 Forester. It turned out to be a torn CV joint boot on my front right axle, allowing grease to be flung up onto the exhaust, causing the smell. It appeared that the boot had been torn by some piece of road debris being thrown into it. I'm glad it did smell, or I might not have noticed it until my next oil change. It may have been possible to replace just the boot, but I had the entire axle assembly replaced, since the CV joint can be damaged by dirt entering through the torn boot, and I didn't want to take that chance.

Len

jcpress · November 2005

:confuse: OK, so I'm back again with yet another problem with my '99 Forester. I'm hoping for a little insight here. I'm driving from New York to Ohio today and when we stop for breakfast in the middle of Pennsylvania, I notice smoke coming from under the hood, the smell of burning oil and, of course, a lot of oil leaking on the ground. I look under the car and there's oil all over the bottom of the engine and also apparently parts of the exhaust system. Being in the middle of nowhere, I ask around and stop at the only place around. I'm told that not only was the oil filter loose, but that oil was leaking from the timing belt cover and that I run the risk of things catching fire on the last 3-1/2 hours of my trip. Forgive me if I'm not completely accurate in my descriptions, but I'm limited in my knowledge. So the mechanic says I need to replace the timing belt, water pump and oil pump...parts and labor around $750. Anyone think this sound right, or am I being screwed? The guy seemed honest enough and showed me where the leak was coming from, but he could have told me anything and I wouldn't know any different.

Thanks all.

Joel

ateixeira · November 2005

Sounds like the front main seal gave way. It's not a bad idea to replace parts that are now 7+ years old and were probably covered in oil by the leak. If the oil pump ran dry that could have been damaged too.

Sounds fair to me, at least.

-juice

logtrail · November 2005

I complained on the other Forester site about the CEL going on in my brand new 06 LLBean. Diagnosed as a ?? and yesterday after the part came in it took 2+ hours to replace it (valve cover had to be removed). Great. Light off, until today. Back on. This is very similar to the problem I had with my 99 Forester and it took at least 4+ service calls to have it fixed.
What is wrong with Subaru in this area. My two previous (one current) cars -Mazda and Toyota did not have this probmlem. I like the car. I hate the CEL problem and Subaru's apparent inability to realize that there is a problem. Back to the dealer next week.
Who do I complain to. Is there such a person as an area service representative who might be aware of a common problem?

ateixeira · November 2005

Call them and log a complaint.

FWIW, our Mazda 626 was riddled with CEL issues and they ripped us off for an oxygen sensor ($200+ just for the part!). :lemon:

My dad took a Camry to Belize and it caught fire on the highway. I think he may have missed a recall since he was overseas, but still.

Some times you're lucky, other times you're not.

-juice

xwesx · November 2005

Hmm..... if it WAS the main seal, then sure, not a bad idea to replace the water pump/oil pump while in there anyway, but I am not convinced this is the case. If your oil filter was not properly seated and oil was spraying from there, then the oil inside the timing assembly could have been forced in from a direct spray. As someone who had plenty of oil rummaging around in the timing belt assembly for more than 30K miles, I say it can be there and the belt does just fine. When is it due to replace? If you are due soon, just clean it all up when you replace the belt and replace the pumps as a matter of principle. If you are due far in the future, do it relatively soon anyway... say the next 6-9 months.

I would not consider it an emergency repair unless a seal failed inside the timing housing. As for the oil that is already sprayed all over the place and the smoke.... either let it lie (if you must) or spray it down with brake cleaner (or other heavy duty oil solvent) to take off the majority of the residue. You can have a lot of smoke (again, been there done that) w/ no fire, but watch out for the unfriendly cigarette butt sauntering down the highway! Either way, you'll have some smoking until all the volatiles are gone - that is inevitable at this point. The most important thing is to nip the leak and not over react concerning the possible extent of the problem - it is better to isolate the real source(s).

arfhawg · November 2005

I have had the rear wheel bearings replaced on my '99 Forester 4 times and it is currently in the shop for the fifth time. The dates and mileage of replacements are:
8/00 - 21,496 mi
2/01 - 30,209 mi
4/01 - 33,260 mi
10/01 - 40,977 mi
and currently...
11/05 - 102,000 mi

My question is what is my recourse in regards to the lemon law or whatever. I think this is ridiculous that these bearings have to be replaced so much. I have had many vehicles with over 100,000 miles that never needed wheel bearings replaced. I would like any and all help and/or suggestions in this matter. thanks

lfdal · November 2005

Sorry to say, but I believe you're way beyond any Lemon Law help in terms of mileage and /or time. FWIW it might be worth calling the Subaru at 1-800-SUBARU-3(I think - its been posted elsewhere), and ask them to kick in for part of the tab. 5 sets of wheel bearings in 100lK is ridiculous.

HTH

Larry

arfhawg · November 2005

Thanks for the reply, I will attempt your suggestions

Al

c_hunter · November 2005

The first four instances indicate they did not install the bearings properly -- there is a bulletin on this. Unless they do it right, the bearings will keep failing. Bearings should go at least 80-100,000 miles if you're running wheels with the correct offset. I would also suggest a call to SOA.

Craig

ateixeira · November 2005

Make sure they are using Legacy parts. They fit and are more durable.

I would try to find that bulletin and print it out and take it to them. Or call 800-SUBARU3 and make sure they get the info to the dealer. This is pretty silly.

-juice

arfhawg · November 2005

Thanks Craig
I'm new to this message board (registered today)... not much of a computer/internet geek. Where do I find this bulletin you mentioned??

Al

slazenger · November 2005

Stopped by my dealer this morning to get CEL light checked. Dealer says Catalytic Converter needs to be replaced and will be covered by 5year/80,000mile warranty. However, he is charging me $85.00 for diagnosis :surprise: . I have 100,000mile gold plus warranty with $0 deductible. Is it normal to charge for diagnosis? OR is the dealership screwing me? If so, I would like to report it to SOA. $85.00 is not a big amount but it defeats the purpose of buying $0 deductible extended warranty :mad: .

ateixeira · November 2005

You should be reimbursed if it does end up being covered under warranty.

In high school I remember a guy that used leaded gas in his car, and the cat choked (of course). A mistake like that is user error and would not be covered.

But unless you put something besides unleaded gas in the tank, I don't see why it would not be covered. Call 800-SUBARU3 and ask them why they expect you to have to pay.

-juice

barriostkd · December 2005

My "Check Engine" light came on this morning. Do any of you guys have ideas what might have caused this? And is this a major concern? The thing is, I just brought my car to the dealership for the 45,000 mile service a week ago. I wish it would have come on before I brought it in rather than 1 week after. It's just a hassle to make another trip to the dealer since their service is only open on weekdays. Not to mention, the extra $$$$ to have this checked. Oh well.

bhoover3 · December 2005

The brake fluid light on my rusty '90 Loyale came on months ago. I then added fluid and the light would go off temporarily. I haven't noticed signs of major leaking but some leaking is definitely possible/probable. After a few weeks of driving and keeping the fluid level high enough to keep the light off, I lost braking power in three corners. Ive been driving like this for months now. (I live and work in the woods and rarely encounter traffic) A friend of mine recently looked at my calipers, pads, rotors, etc. and told me all I needed was to bleed my brakes. Which is what I did. After doing so, my brake pedal is still very mushy. I do have some braking power in the three bad corners but not nearly enough for my trip to Chicago in a couple of weeks. My question that I hope some of you can help me with is "Do I need to replace my Master Cylinder, if so does anyone have a link to a good 'how-to' website?" (I have spare parts on another Loyale) If its not the master cylinder, what else could be causing my braking problems? Thank you all very much. This discussion has helped me in the past, so Im back with another problem.

locke2c · December 2005

it is probably the master cylinder, yes.

as far as whether you can replace it yourself.. what DIY repairs have you done successfully in the past? if none, I wouldn't start right out with this particular job. it's not that expensive to have done by a shop-- I wouldn't use a dealer, though.

~Colin

ateixeira · December 2005

Could also be the slave cylinder. Basically that's the other side.

That happened to my Miata. Mushy pedal, and I was losing fluid. The brake slave cylinder is a hollow cylinder, and a piston with a rubber seal is pushed in or out by the brake fluid sent by the master cylinder.

My seals were worn, so they leaked. I got a slave cylinder rebuild kit for $10.74 from NAPA and bled the system, and it's been fine for 2 years. So let's *HOPE* that's all it is.

I took photos, but of course a Miata might be a bit different, plus it doesn't even have ABS. Any how, take a look at this album, ImageStation requires registration but it's worth it:

http://www.imagestation.com/album/index.html?id=4289876491

I have comments with each photo that explains what I was doing. You gotta be careful bleeding the system to not let air in it, that's why I use that little jar in the first pic.

Pic 3 shows where it's mounted on the Miata, again yours could be totally different. 2 and 4 show the slave cylinder itself, so you know more or less what it looks like.

Finally, pic 5 is the brake master cylinder reservoir. I used a turkey baster to remove the old fluid, added new, then bled it.

Please be careful, your brakes are your lifeline. Test it more than once before you drive off on public roads.

Good luck.

-juice

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