dgoodhue

I wished hadn't posted about the P0303.  I swapped coils, the miss-fire stayed with #3.  I pulled the plugs, and #3 looked brand new and didn't smell like gas.  I pulled #1 to see how that one looked since it had new plugs.  Clearly #3 was firing or atleast it didn't seem like it was getting fuel.  I looked at diagnostic for P0303.  It 1st started tracing the fuel injectors.  I went immediately to check the injector. Sure enough #3 injector connector wasn't fully seated.  I am usually better than this with my attention to detail.  The engine now purrs like a kitten.

I just have the air bag light.

Today, I checked the timing belt marks behind on the driver-side. It lined up perfectly. I knew the issue was with the driver intake cam.  I followed the P0018 diagnostic table.  I looked at the logs in my Cobb Accessport for the drivers intake cam and it was AVCS was 0 and the OCV duty cycle was 9.4 which lined up with the service manual ~0 and 10%.  It said to change the oil and check the oiling to that side. I pull the OCV valve and it was clean and moved freely. I had thought I had cleaned all the oil line, I was going that I didn't forgot.  In order to check the oil giving the oil control valve,  I would need to pull the timing belt, driver-side cam gear to access the banjo bolt behind that cover.  I decided to reset the ECU.  The P0018 went away and P0345 remained. I started following the diagnostic, which has you checking wiring to the intake cam sensor.  The driver intake cam sensor is the one cam sensor that isn't very accessible, while tryin got touch I figure out the sensor electrical  was not fully plugged in.  I plugged it and the engine ran much better.

 I reset ECU and the P0018 and P0345codes went away. I did notice that I have an airbag señor light was on. I will have to figure that out. The low TPMS light was on too but I already knew the sensors were bade bacuse my TOMS tool couldn't read the back 2 sensors and I had already bought new sensor.

After letting it idle for a few minutes, I got another check engine code, P0303. This is an engine misfire on cylinder 3.  I am going to let the engine cool down and swap the coil between 1 and 3 to see if the code follows the coil.  I purposely put the new coils that I bought on 2 and 4 because I know those are more difficult to change.  The car had 2 aftermarket coil that had been replace previously probably a few years. One of them did have some rust. 

2 steps forward, 2 steps backward.

All those lights illuminating just means that you have a check engine light.  It may or may not be relative to the low oil level.

The alternate locations are for pulling the motor for additional clearance. The factory service manual even tell you to put the strut in that location as one of the 1st steps..

I got this Legacy up and running this weekend.  It was a hot weekend to be working a on the car but I really want to get it running.  I spent 3 hours on Saturday morning and 4 hours Sunday.  The good news is that it runs, it basically started up  immediately.  I have check engine codes P0018 and P0345.  I went through the troubleshooting diagnostic and it looks like I either have the driver intake cam off by a tooth or the solenoid for the cam gear is bad. I will check the timing belt marks this weekend.  I bled the power steering. The hood wouldn't latch so I pulled that apart and grease it up, so it work properly again.

The good news so far  is that I didn't notice any other leaks or any major issues as of this point. 

I should have the motor bolted all together and ready to start this weekend.  I put it together 2 weeks ago to to figure out what was missing. My misc parts order came in yesterday. 

The JDM 5th Gen motors have high compression pistons. You have to swap the Pistons or have it custom tuned for higher compression for it to run properly. 

I think you're missing one of the turbo shields. This are 4 shields totals, one on the turbo itself, top, middle and lower. The top shield has 2 bolts to the middle and one to the shield.  I don't see the shield around the turbo in your picture. The lower shield which you aren't installing would also tie them all together as well.  

Almost 30 years ago, I bought a mid 80's Corvette. One of the mods everyone said to do online was to remove the screen and heat sink from the MAF sensor to reduce the airflow restriction. I actually went to the track 2 weeks apart and gained .1 and 1mph from the mod. Sure enough it work as everyone claimed. Around 2000 I got into tuning, one of the highly respect tuners said the mod was worthless and recommended not doing it as it changed the calibration of the sensor. He explain that the gains were from leaning out the sensor. I tried it, with a stock sensor and tuning the ECM for both. When they both were tuned, the car ran the same and seemed smoother with the stock sensor. It was eye opening in that best way to measure a change in a performance parts effectiveness is to tune the ecm from each change (including the stock engine)

 

If your car was tuned and optimized for the stock intake with the intake funnel, it may explain the loss for the aftermarket part. It would not surprise if they made similar power and I would guess the loss was mostly from the tune.

I align the motor up on Saturday and installed the short block. I went to torque the bellhousing bolts and one of them stripped out.

 

The motor has to come back out and I will have to helicoil the block for the bolt.

At this point of owning my 2.5i 6mt for a little over 2 years (my first Subaru 4 banger), I think the stumbly nature of the engine is 'normal'. It's like the crudeness of the ancient SOHC engine design and modern DBW control system just don't jive well together. My '09 3.0R Outback makes the Legacy feel like an absolute turd in comparison, and I don't mean because of the power difference.

 

I think it is Subaru trying to maintain the minimum rpm for fuel economy reasons, it sometimes dips below the threshold 25 or so rpm and it gives a rough idle for a moment.

Honestly it seems normal to me. I bought my 2012 2.5i brand new and occasionally the rpm would slightly dip and the engine would run rough when coming to light. The was a service bulletin about it. It seem to be do it more often different parts of the year more than others (less in the summer I think because of the AC and less in the winter).

The dealer called and said the oil level sensor is back ordered until late August For old oil level sensor, I soldered a new ground to the wiring to fix it (this is what is broken). I used silicon to seal the wiring and keep the elements off wiring. Hopefully this fix works, if I not I can looking into using a resistor to bypass it as I don't went to waiting 2 months for that sensor.

 

This weekend I rolled the Legacy into my garage and the motor is in the engine bay. The clutch slave cylinder is leaking fluid, so I need to order a new one of those.

My 1st instinct would be to check the intake track for leaks.

I bought 2 coils in November from one of the online Subaru discounters, they were $120.60/each.

I finished assembling the long block this weekend. I just have a few bolts and oil level sensor that I am waiting from the dealer. Next step is to put the engine back into the Legacy and then finish connecting the rest of parts up. I wish the engine wasn't so dark in the picture. (The engine is actualy pretty clean). It feels pretty good to not have so many parts all over the garage.

After cam slip, you can just realign the cams with the marks. It only aligns one way.

Personally I would buy the company 23 tool, it will make your life easier when realigning the cams. Otherwise you going to be fighting 2 cams that want to spin to get them in place to put on a vice grip.

It looks like a tooth off to me. It isn't paint marks, it is the notches that have to line up. At least on my 5th Gen, if you are off by a tooth, it causes a error code and the check engine light will be illuminated. The 1st time I did my timing belt I made this mistake and I had to redo it.

you think they would say it is a common issue for this generation, but i guess if you do why would people buy the car then.

 

I have had this fixed at the dealer all 3 times, so if there is a pan tray underneath, hopefully the mechanic put it back.

 

And, to answer the question 2 posts up, i am only doing 1 at a time because $300 is easier to swallow 1 by 1 than $1600 all replaced just to happen again in 5 years

 

 

The OEM coils are around $125 per coil. $1600 for 6 is overpriced. I can see the $300 for one coil, diagnosis time plus labor. If you are just replacing one coil at time I would expect to have intermittent coil failures. 5th Gens driven in the salt belt will have coil failures. They should be good for 6-10 years.

If the all the coils are all rusty then it can make sense to replace them all rather then have coils fail one by one of over a relatively short period of time.

 

Coils rusting is a common issue for this generation. It looks like this issue happened in 2018 for 2012 model year car. The car was 6-7 years old at that time (depending on if it was an early 2012 or late 2012). This is a little early for coil failures but not unheard of. It has been 4 years since that fix. This is really early for additional coils failures. Your either missing the plastic under pan tray to keep the salt and road off the underside of the engine and/or the mechanic used cheap aftermarket coils.

Didn't the 253 get AVCS (or maybe AVLS?) in '06? If so replacing the motor in an '05 would require a pre '06 motor, no?

 

This

There is another thread where the admin mentioned that we dropped a ton of archived messages and third-party hacks (thanks button was one of them) to improve the performance of the site.

 

Thanks

Two bolt after the catalytic converter is how the service manual instructs to remove the engine. If those are rusty the end of the pipe where the cat back exhaust attaches

Sorry to hear about the rod bearing. If my GT had an engine failure like that right now, I would pretty much do the same.

I wonder if your transfer case is locked or locking up. I have another AWD vehicle and broken front right CV axles are almost always a locked viscous coupler (transfer case) usually from different tire circumferences. It could also just be poor quality aftermarket CV axles.

 

Has anyone replace 1 tires or a pair of tires? Are all your tires tread depth within 1/32 to 2/32nds of each other.