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Comments
We have the benefit of living in oil country! Or as they say here "earl". ;-)
However, in Dallas, you can't find ethanol-free (real!) gas. Supposedly it's due to the air quality, but that is so bogus! Ethanol causes more pollution than real gas does. This has been a con job from the beginning.
Ethanol reduces fuel economy, so the same amount of gas gets burned - there's no decrease in emissions. Further, there is so much demand for corn that its being planted everywhere - including where it should not and heavily fertilized. The fertilizer runs off into our waters, leading to the Chesapeake Bay, already choking on nitrogen. So the feds throw money at removing nitrogen from the Bay, and throw money in the form of subsidies to the ethanol producers, who buy the corn and drive up the prices and hire more lobbyists causing more corn to be planted & more runoff - its ridiculous. Those of us not growing corn or producing ethanol are the big losers.
Any thoughts are welcome.
My daughter and SIL just moved back from MD a year ago. I'll ask them if they know of any places there to buy real gas. I understand your frustration. Ethanol will eventually ruin your engine and make your vehicle perform poorly along the way.
Or, you could join us here in Okieland! You wouldn't believe how much lower our cost of living is here.
The good news is that the replacement part is probably about $100 and takes 20 minutes to replace (if you take a lunch break in the middle of it!).
You mentioned smelling antifreeze. On a hunch, but take a look at this post and my description that follows:
jbur1, "Subaru Crew Problems & Solutions" #18529, 23 Jan 2010 1:49 pm
If you smell antifreeze, and it is leaking internally as well as externally, it probably isn't doing a lot of good for your cats or sensors. *Maybe* there is a connection?
Any chance these are related?
I'm planning on taking it to the dealer unless someone has a good idea that I can try at home. I'm decent with cars - but haven't run into this problem before.
I'm constantly getting car wax into the nozzles, degrading the flow. The opening is pretty big, so try going at it with a needle or a stripped length of fine electric wire.
The wiper issue was plain stupid me. Ran out. I thought I had just filled it - I will check for cracks.
Add it up, and I'd say you are north of 2 bills!
Your local mechanic is smart. Without the proper tools, he can only begin changing things and hope for the best. You'll pay more at the dealer, but they then have to warranty their work.
If the cat is going bad, it still had to be something upstream that let unburned fuel pass, which clogged up the cat. A new cat may just clog up again eventually.
good luck with yours.
(You are welcome, Yasu. I really need to stop promising an article. You'll just have to put up with occasional posts!)
I'm not convinced that Subaru has a specific problem in this regard, but it may be true that they have either a bit more delicate system, or less useful diagnostics that impact the ability to pinpoint the cause. I'm present, but less active on the Honda boards. Plenty of very similar OBDII complaints over there. Personally, I went thru hell with the evaporative emissions system on a '97 Dodge GC for 3 years before finally getting rid of the van. I understand the frustration.
Realize that OBDII was first introduced in 1994, but the roots of the standard (readout interface, selection of sensors to be monitored, etc.) dates back 2-3 years prior. Think for a moment about the state of computer power both under the hood, and on your desktop in 1991-1992. For me it was an 80386 PC running Win 2.0 or 3.0. Most cars still had carbs or throttle body injection. Pretty darn crude! The "P0" codes - those mandated by the EPA were locked in then. That is all that your handheld code reader tells you about!
Manufactures are free to add their own proprietary P1 codes, but you must have a manufacturers specific add-on to be able to view and interpret those. Only well equipped shops have the resources for that. Then there are the Transmission, Airbag, Controlling Network (much newer cars), and others that very few of us can read out. Some mfgrs have added hundreds of extra readouts. Last time I looked, Subaru was rather light in this area. The net is that this limitation may make it harder to diagnose and pin down the cause of a fault.
Another aspect is "what exactly is a fail"? Mfgrs must certify compliance to whatever the pollution standard was in force in that model year. OBD is then set by the mfgr to throw a code on that vehicle if the measured output by the rear oxygen sensor is 1.5x the certification limit. Honda got nailed some years back for cheating and setting it at something like 2x to cut the number of CEL complaints!
Do Subaru engines degrade faster, exceeding the 1.5x limit? Could something degrade the cat so that it doesn't do it's job efficiently? Could head gasket issues (internal leaks) come into play on some cars? Could sensor placement issues make them more susceptible to being dulled and not respond properly? Could the front sensor be seeing the unburnt gas, yet the required adjustment limits are outside of the ECU map to fix it, and beyond the cat design to clean up the mess? Could other things trick the system to logging a failure during warm-up (like an out of calibration temp sender I mentioned earlier), when there really is no failure?
Two years ago I was at a Failure Analysis conference that had an Auto Industry panel discussion, and I asked when OBDIII might be introduced given how inadequate OBDII was. They said they'd get back to me on that....
Imagine if as among their proprietary codes Toyota had included a gas pedal pressure transducer and a throttle cable rate-of-return sensor, in addition to the already mandated throttle position sensor? They would have nailed this sticking gas pedal issue 3 years ago, saving them hundreds of millions in losses so far. This could grow to a $1B issue for them (lost sales, liability, replacement costs) as the details unfold.
All mfgrs will come to realize that the payoff is great for better self diagnostics.
If the light goes off occasionally, then your situation is not dire. Here's how it works:
A misfire is considered a very serious situation. That dumps huge amounts of unburned fuel into the cat while risking internal engine damage. The light will go on immediately, maybe even flash warning you of impending doom.
Most other one time 'events' set an internal flag, called a pending code. This is the recording of a problem, but may not turn on the dash light. Three such 'events' in a short duration logs a hard fail, and a CEL. If these minor events stop happening and 40 cold starts occur with no new fails, the slate is wiped clean, and the CEL goes off. A readout will probably not show any pending or stored codes present.
So if your light occasionally goes off you are probably having very infrequent, short term 'events' in which the polution levels exceed the EPA limits. But the sky probably isn't falling.... yet.
This is where seeing the recorded 'snapshot' data can really help. Maybe it only happens during WOT, and if you simply backed off the leadfoot a little you could save $1000 on a converter. Or maybe you drive up a steep hill (high load) while the engine is still cold, and when it transitions to closed loop monitoring the cat or the oxygen sensor isn't quite up to temp for efficient operation.
Maybe letting it warm up for 1 minute before tackling the hill will prevent the CEL.
The fuel economy on my '02 OBW routinely drops by several mpg during the winter. Prolonged warmup, reformulated gasoline, etc., seem to have a big impact. But sure, a bad front sensor that is not directing the system to optimize performance could decrease this further. Still, I'd want to know more before spending a lot on replacement parts!
I would have to agree about my local mechanic. That's why he gets my business.
They're not uncommon but it's not exactly prevalent, either.
Jan 1 2010: Radiator leaking - I replaced the whole unit with a new one.
Feb 3 2010: Engine was miss firing and would not idle. I noticed a cable was hanging loose under the car. Once I secured the cable back into place - the car operated fine. I am not sure what this cable was - but it was located just in front of the front left tire, just beside the exhaust manifold, just aft of the radiator (perhaps the knock sensor?)
Feb 20: The temperature gauge went to high (after a long drive) - yet the engine was operating normaly, coolant levels normal, temperaure felt fine.
Feb 21: Went to the car in the morning, all the coolant in reserve tank was gone. Went to a mechanic and they could not find any leaks or any problems with the car - the temperature was back to normal.
March 3: Temperature went back to high (after a long drive). Took it to a mechanic and they replaced the temp. gauge.
March 10: Temperature shot up again (after about 60 km) and the mechanic played around with the new temperature gauge - have not had a problem with the temperature since.
March 14: Car started normally, but was surging during acceleration. I went under the car and noticed that the cable (that I referenced earlier) was about 1 mm loose - I pushed it back in and the car operated normally.
My question is: Why is my car continuously over heating? No mechanic nor I can seem to figure out what the problem is. Is there any relation to this sensor cable becoming loose and the enginer over heating? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Have the mechanic to a compression test on the cylinders.
As AJ said, the missing coolant and the temp rise after highway speed are often listed complaints that turn out to be related to a head gasket failure.
The mystery wire and engine performance??? Can you get us a photo so we can see where this is plugged in & routed? Or ask your mechanic what it is? '98 Outback = EJ25 series one (DOHC) engine. Front of the engine just behind the radiator, low, drivers side... cam position sensor, maybe? Knock sensor (at least on later engines) is up top on the block.
I managed to get a few pictures of the sensor - remember it is just in front of the front left tire, just aft of the radiator, right of the exhaust manifold (can see that on left of picture) and to the left of the oil pan.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Sean.in.India/Car?feat=directlink
there is 3 pictures at this link
I will get a compression check on the car soon - and let you ppl know the results
I find it interesting that your car behaved differently after you reattached it, given its role is strictly for warming the engine block when the car is off. :confuse:
Maybe there is a grounding issue with the car? It is possible that the cord on the block heater is worn or the end plug is touching metal and makes for a better ground....
My mechanic thinks its the head gasket - so I will just ride the car until the whole thing goes - then drop in a new engine (hopefully).
Both times my car was running funny was on a rainy day (and I thought it was the block heater) - could moisture effect my car in such a way?
Interesting enough (and my daughter whom I take to school every day commented on it), my '02 pulls the hill just off my driveway the best on a damp, misty morning. It tends to shudder a bit when cold and pushed to climb, yet on a wet day it is smooth and willing. Some people swear by water injection, and I think there might be something to it.
Oh, and thanks for your concern about the ever growing bald spot!
You might also consider cleaning the mass airflow sensor (large sensor located just "downstream" of the air filter). When it gets a little dirty/dusty, it can give faulty feedback in wet/damp conditions. They are very easy to clean - just shoot it with carburetor cleaner.