Stphnhrrng

I tried to upload a picture but it just says “invalid file”, so I made an album with the picture in it. (In case anybody wanted to see it)

Well, my ‘08 legacy, N/A ej253 with 225,xxx miles is gonna need some work. woke up to some slurry under the rad cap. If I pull my heads off to do the head gaskets, what parts should be replaced at that mileage, or should I just go off of how stuff looks? Don’t have much money to play with right now so cheaper options are best. And are there any recommendations for higher quality head gaskets with a link? Thank you

 

Also, I had posted a thread a while ago trying to figure out a cylinder 2 misfire, I had changed the plugs, wires, coils, injectors, vacuum & compression test, MAF, and still couldn’t find the cause. What are the chances that the bad head gasket could be the culprit? or should I look at anything else for possible causes of misfiring while I have the engine out and open?

Hi,

 

Excellent Suggestions, all! I've a cracked head gasket for now about 30K miles. I use the coolant additive from Subaru and all seems well. With reference to having the Valves adjusted, is that complicated enough to have SB do it?Secondly, what about replacing the Fuel Injectors? Never did it before either...BTW no errors in days now...

 

Do you have a link for said additive? I believe I have a bad head gasket causing a cylinder 2 misfire as well. Need it to last long enough to save up money for a rebuild :/

I agree but again wanted to give a potential culprit (with weak ignition coil at high mileage) even though it's most likely something else.

 

So I have to concede, I went to the dealership here in Salem and asked about the plug gap, stock gap is 0.039-0.043. I just wanted to apologize for doubting/arguing with you, and wanted to let people know that they shouldn’t trust the owners manual. That being said, I doubt a couple 1/1000ths of an inch would make much difference, but you were right either way

I'd have an independent shop check it out, I wouldn't bring it back to the dealership. I'd also just try cleaning the maf sensor for kicks as mentioned in post 8. If the car isn't properly detecting how much air is coming in, that could definitely cause your issues.

 

Yeah, I had a mobile Subaru mechanic come take a look after the dealership, wish I had waited and looked myself first cause they just didn’t plug the cylinder 2 injector in properly so after about an hour it fell off the injector. I’m waiting for him to be free so I can have him try to find the original problem now, in the meantime I already replaced the MAF, and it didn’t change much. No vac leaks, cylinder 2 compression is perfect, new plugs, wires, coils, injector. all of the above either I or the dealership swapped with another and nothing changed. (with the exception of the coil I think). At this point I have no clue what could possibly cause it. Dealership pulled timing cover and looked in there and said it looked normal, no missing teeth or anything. Valves haven’t been checked but I would think it would effect the compression if there was a problem.

I read that low idle was because of the battery being disconnected and it needed to re-learn. So I was driving to work this morning and about 30-40 mins into the drive the check engine light started blinking, car was shaking really badly, and lost most of it’s power. Pulled over at a nearby autozone, cylinder 2 misfire. Called the dealership that was just looking at it, they said it was shaking because of a bad wheel bearing, and that if I brought it back in and paid for a couple more hours they’d check valve clearances and the ECM, even though they told me that they would check valve clearances when I had them working on it last time. Thinking about finding a smaller subaru mechanic in the Salem, OR area if I can’t figure out what’s wrong with it.

So' date=' in diagnosing the misfire, have you tried swapping parts to other cylinders to see if the misfire code moves to another cylinder? That's usually my first step in diagnosing a misfire. I know you changed a lot of these parts, but it still might be worth it to try. At least that would rule out if one of the plugs/wires/injectors isn't working properly. Next I would do a smoke test. I understand that it's NA, but vac leaks affect NA cars too. I'd also run a can of seafoam through the intake to see if that changes anything. 200K could have a bunch of carbon buildup on the valves. Just my thoughts on cheap or free things you could try before firing the parts cannon at it.[/quote']

 

When the dealership was tearing through it they checked for vac leaks, there weren’t any. they also tried switching around all the parts even if they were new. They visually checked the valves and stuff, I might try seafoam anyways to be safe but I kinda doubt it’d do anything. How do you run it through your intake though? I always thought it was a liquid you put in you gas or your oil before an oil change

So I got fed up trying to chase down said misfire, took it to the Subaru dealership. They couldn’t find anything wrong with it. Did swapped all plugs, wires, injectors ect, nothing. They did a compression test, Cyl #1: 180psi, Cyl #2: 197psi, Cyl #3: 175psi, Cyl #4: 205psi. They noticed the compression varied a bit so tey did leakdown, no psi jump wet. Checked valve clearances, all good. Pulled timing cover, all good. Said at this point the only things they can think of are something wrong in the cylinder, or a ECM problem. Any of you have any bright ideas? Or any idea how to check if the ECM could be messing up?

Side note: Since I got it back, whenever I press in the clutch to come to a stop the rpm’s drop to about 500 and it even died once. It’s happened a couple times before I took it in but it’s a lot worse now. Does anybody know what might cause this? Or if not, could I just buy a tuner and set the idle control to 900 and would that help? Also thinking about getting a tuner just to get rid of the CEL light if I can’t find a way to fix the problem.

Ah I didn't realize you had a MT. Just out of curiosity, all four tires have roughly the same tread depth, within 2/32"?

 

https://www.subaruoutback.org/threads/tire-circumference-spec-confirmed-by-subaru-techtips.30110/#lg=thread-30110&slide=0

 

I believe so, they’re all the same kind of tire put on at the same time, I haven’t actually measured them though so maybe they wear a little different. Tread is getting a little low so I was going to have Les Schwab change them all since I have a set of 4 brand new tires just sitting here. There was no noise until I changed a wheel bearing on the rear driver side though, so I figured I messed something up, but I've taken it apart and out it back together again when I changed the bearing and CV axle again and I didn’t see anywhere that had any wear or see anything that was out of place. The only thing I know for sure got messed up was the ABS sensor broke in half when I pulled it from the hub the first time around, I made sure no pieces of it were still in there though and Idk how that could make any noise

Edit: I just realized instead of pulling a fuse, you actually install one into an empty spot.

 

I can't identify it. But just for grins sometime if you get bored, I'd be curious to see what happens when you go for a spin with the awd fuse pulled.

https://legacygt.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5066134&postcount=4

 

I didn’t know you could do that, that’s actually pretty sick. I wonder if I could narrow down the possibilities by doing that

 

Edit: I just read somewhere that it’s only for the automatic transmissions. That’s the first time I’ve been bummed about having a manual trans

Ok, my 08 legacy non turbo again. I changed the rear driver side bearing and must’ve screwed something up because it started clicking afterwards. Took it to Les Schwab and they said it’s the wheel bearing, I didn’t think it sounded like a bearing, but maybe a CV axle, but to be safe and rid of it, I bought a new bearing AND a new CV axle and changed them both. 3 hours later, I finished and lo and behold, it’s still ******* there. I’ll attach a video of the sound, if anybody could identify it, I will love you forever.

 

 

I just left my car off and put it in neutral, and pushed it. It doesn’t make a sound like that, nor does it make noise while on, but idle. Only when the car is turning the wheels itself.

In the factory service manual, go to "Engine", choose the "H4SO" engine, then choose "Ignition" and finally, "General Description".

 

 

Idk man, you totally may be right. From my perspective though, every auto parts store, along with the manual for my exact car says to use a plug that comes gapped at 0.044, vs a factory service manual that lists a plug that’s gapped at 0.044, but then says 0.039-0.043. Both manuals say to use the same plug, but the FSM lists a different gap from both the owners manual and the plug they say to use. You even recommended using a plug different from their recommendation to correct them, so I find it hard to put my faith in with they say on there. Either way, I doubt a 0.001 gap difference will have any affect. I do appreciate trying to correct me before something potentially gets messed up though

I will admit you’ve made me doubt it enough that I plan on calling a subaru dealership tomorrow to ask them and clarify once and for all, LOL

I saw you reply in another thread that you're using plugs gapped at 0.044". Parts stores will sell you these because their system says so but they aren't the correct spec. On N/A models, the fsm calls for a gap of 0.039-0.043" (1.0-1.1mm). You want NGK FR5AP-10. These are gapped correctly out of the box.

 

Straight out of my owners manual: FR5AP-11 (NGK) non turbo models. gap is 0.044

I saw you reply in another thread that you're using plugs gapped at 0.044". Parts stores will sell you these because their system says so but they aren't the correct spec. On N/A models, the fsm calls for a gap of 0.039-0.043" (1.0-1.1mm). You want NGK FR5AP-10. These are gapped correctly out of the box.

 

I don’t know where everybody finds gap size but I checked subaru’s website and that’s what it said for the 08 legacy 2.5 non turbo. and it has a brand new ignition coil for a 4 cylinders, and if it was a gap problem I would get misfires on cylinders other than just #2. If you can send me a link to the correct gap info though I would appreciate it

Have you verified the ball joints are ok as asked above ?

 

Make sure you didn't bend the dust shield behind the brake rotor, it could be touching the rotor...?

 

I checked the shields, they aren’t touching anything. And a ball joint that makes a noise that sounds like a stuck caliper+ a bad cv axle? I haven’t checked the ball joints but wouldn’t they just make a creaking noise or something? The brakes all looked fine I think but Idk how to tell if one is stuck. I’m about to just take it to les schwab and ask them for a quote so I know what I need to fix

You're making me wonder about the maf sensor not reading the amount of air coming in properly, and running rich, too rich. Wouldn't hurt to inspect and clean the resistors in the maf sensor. When you pull the maf sensor the air intake temp sensor is most visible (Pic 1), and the wires/resistors that meter the air are down inside the body of the sensor (pic 2).

 

 

See I thought the same thing at first bc of it being dark, however, if the MAF was bad, wouldn’t I get misfires in other cylinders occasionally? And wouldn’t it throw a code for something besides just a misfire?

Well yesterday while I was idling my car waiting for it to warm up the CEL came back on, cylinder 2 misfire again. I got some new plug wires to try out even though the pretty new NGK ones on it looked totally fine. If it comes back then cylinder compression test time.

I've got the squeaky bushing disease. Any recommendations on bushing kits? Should I just replace all the arms?

 

Wish I could help, this is my first Subaru and I haven’t had to mess with those yet. Who knows though, my car is already in the “Holiday Dashboard” setting so maybe I’ll need new ones before the week is out:)

I did the rear driver side bearing, no change. it’s actually developed a clicking sound in addition to the “washing machine spin cycle” noise. The clicking happens the whole time I’m driving from what I can tell, and it doesn’t seem to make much difference whether or not I’m turning like you would typically expect from a U-joint And it really does sound like it’s coming from front driver side even though it has a brand new bearing, I’m going to trade in bearings with my warranty and pick up a new CV axle just in case. Ah, and my CEL just came back with a cylinder 2 misfire again. I’m really glad it did, I was starting to miss the pit in my stomach while worrying if I have a bad piston ring

Yes, check your rear wheel bearings, but how did you go about adjusting the parking brake? I was under the impression that our parking brakes were supposed to be adjusted similar to old drum brakes: drive slowly backwards and set the parking brake repeatedly, gently to more moderately. I used to have to yank the f*** out of my parking brake to hold the car on a hill and no longer have to do that after doing what I described.

 

Also, if you haven't checked your ball joints (another common suspension point of failure on these cars), then I'd recommend doing that as they're probably going to need to be done soon. Little bit more common of a failure on the Outback than Legacy, but a good thing to check nonetheless.

 

I popped the cover off the e brake in the center console and tightened the screw just enough till there was a little resistance when I pulled it

So, I'm in complete shock. I swapped the Bosch copper plugs with the new NGK Laser Iridiums and changed the positions of the coil packs, and currently have 0 codes.

 

The car runs MUCH better, with no noticeable misfire, but I just don't understand how changing the plugs to Laser Iridium and switching the coil packs around fixed the issue.

 

I just took the car down to fill it with gas and came home and everything feels good. I haven't done a compression test yet, but will run one just so I can know where things stand.

 

So is the problem completely fixed now? I have the same problem in my ‘08 legacy non turbo. cylinder 2 misfire. Changed plugs to NGK iridium, new OEM coil pack, new injector in cylinder 2, still have CE light. It already had newish NGK plug wires but I just replaced them as a last ditch effort before doing a compression test and having to tear apart my engine. A couple days after the new injector, I cleaned both connections for cylinder 2 plug wire and a few hours later CE light turned off and was gone for a couple days, and ran better during that time. But it just came back on so Idk. I’d like to think it could be a sensor or maybe a wiring issue but I have a hard time believing there wouldn’t be more codes. Does anybody know if there’s a way to check the wiring connections with a voltage tester or something?

You can also use the scope to check the signal to the coil, though trying to measure the voltage to the plug will probably fry the scope. You could try a spark tester at the plug. On a related note - how did the plug that came out of cylinder 2 visually look compared to the others?

 

All of the plugs were fairly dark, but cylinder 2 was straight black, I assumed bc of a rich mixture, but who knows. CE light turned off today on its own, so Idk if it was the new injector or me cleaning wire connections. Hopefully it stays gone

Figured I’d update. Today the CE light just randomly turned off on its own. Not sure if it was the ecu taking that long to clear the code after the new fuel injector I changed a couple days ago, or if it was because I cleaned the connection points on the wire a couple hours earlier, but so far it hasn’t come back. Fingers crossed that it stays that way.

Hey guys, I just recently had the drivers side wheel bearing go out in my 08 legacy (non turbo if that matters) and I changed wheel bearing and it fixed the problem, I just had a whirring type noise start up that changed with vehicle speed not rpm’s, and it would stop if I turn towards the left while driving, it sounded and acted a lot like the wheel bearing so I changed the passenger side bearing just now, but noise is still there. Usually can’t hear it unless driving 25-30+. I think the parking brake pads are needing replaced because even after adjustment they still don’t do much to hold the car in place, but the fact that I can make the sound stop by turning the wheel makes me kinda doubt it. I know it’s due for some new gear oil in both diffs, so I’m going to do that tonight, just wondering if anybody could point me in the right direction. Thank you!!!

 

Edit: I was so sure the noise was from the front I didn’t even think to check real bearings. I’d bet money that’s what the problem is. That being said, if anybody can tell me how to delete a post, please let me know

I read another post of yours just now, and this stuck out to me.

"After the coil pack the CE light went away for a couple weeks but just came back today. not really sure what the next step is"

 

I remember buying ngk wires back in like.. 2014, and returned them because they didn't click/snap into the coil pack the way oem wires did, and it felt like they wouldn't maintain a solid connection to the coil pack. I would push them on with my fingers, and the boots would just slide back off the coil pack a bit. I'm also not sure if aftermarket coil packs have the the ring/groove to snap into either.

 

So I wonder if that's what's going on. Would hate to see you go and replace those parts and have it not fix the problem (oem plugs and wires, or an ngk coil pack like me which is oem subaru/diamond with ngk painted on it).

 

So what I might do first in your shoes is maybe clear the code, firmly push the #2 plug wire onto the coil pack, and see what happens. Looking at pictures online, I think #2 is the top spark plug wire going to the coil on the driver side.

 

I don't think our non-turbos are prone to ringland failure or burnt valves

 

See the wires to me seemed like a hint that the previous owner had been trying to solve the misfire problem and sold it because he couldn’t figure it out, or because it was going to be expensive. I actually triple checked that both sides of the wires were pushed on all the way, so unless there’s something fundamentally wrong with them Idk. I was still thinking of changing them anyways but I’m doubtful it’ll help. I’m relieved to know the N/A legacy’s don’t have those problems as often, but suppose I get OEM wires and it still has the misfire, how would you narrow down the potential problems? I’m assuming since the misfire is exclusive to cylinder 2 it couldn’t be a general sensor or anything, but more like an internal, mechanical part. If I do a compression test or a leak down test (?), I don’t know how to use the test results to figure out what the probable cause is. I’m going to go buy a compression tester and check that, I’ll post the results when I do.