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MajorWood

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Everything posted by MajorWood

  1. There is a lot of similarity in the tool sets and approaches. I was actually looking around for suggestions on better sources for rear door handles, since the last ones lasted about 3 months, and as soon as I hit this thread I started to think bout how I would get in there to pop the lock with the least damage. I recently had a root canal done, through an existing crown using an operating microscope; and a couple of pacemaker procedures. The history of how those two techniques evolved was fascinating. I spent 40 years in academic medicine solving difficult problems and I always appreciate any new knowledge from different fields, because in some way it can usually be adapted for a different purpose. I say this as a guy whose fuel pump currently runs off the accessory lights from the trailer hitch harness, because that was a much easier fix than tracing and replacing the bad wire from the fuel pump relay. And not too different than how my pacemaker bypasses the faulty AV node using wires threaded through a large vein in my shoulder.
  2. The only difference between brain surgery and car repair is the amount of force involved, with cars requiring a lot less.
  3. My gas mileage has been in the crapper recently, so I did the front sensor and got an addtional mpg. Granted, I only do short in town trips of under 3 miles max at a time. A few weeks ago i got a short P2309 code, which I believe is throttle (body) actuator, but it clreared quickly. It was cold humid icey morning and perhaps something damp was temporarily frozen. Wondering if perhaps plugs is the next thing to check. No codes have been thrown so kind of baffling.
  4. My tailgate lock has been flakey recently, but as we are in rainy season (Oct to June) in Portland I will live with it. The above repair resembles mine (5/31/2017)to the point where I thought that it was mine.
  5. Have you replaced the wiring harness? That took care of my missfires at higher rpm. Mechanic told me it should be a 10 year maintenance item even if not an overt problem.
  6. Installed new piece, used of course, of rear driver side door glass that a Portland feral human decided o knock out a couple of weeks ago. Cost was $60. Used the A1 Auto youtube vid as a guide. Also did both rear door handles that had broken while I was in there. Got them from Amazon awhile back and they were ever so slightly out of whack, needed a little sanding of the lower edge seal to open up the gap in the clips, and the rear screw hole was about a mm too high so I had to bend that tab up just a smidge. #2 went way faster than #1
  7. Spend about an hour trying to disassemble the driver-side side panel in the back to look for the fuel pump controller module. Found 2 phillips screws in back, and removed (2) 12mm bolts in the front (one under seat holding seat belt trim column, and another said column piece holding the main panel in place),but the panel was still tight and I couldn't locate any other screws or clips to remove it. Any hints as to what I missed? Are there bolts down low where the floor mats lie,and then it lifts up like a door panel. My Haynes manual gives me nothing. Having free time, and seeing the hidden rear bumper skin bolt behind the storage panel in the back,I decided to pop out a caved in corner of the skin. I had done the other side before, but this one was worse, and I ended up having to slice it to get a prybar in. I will let the plastic relax back to the pre-cave state,and then epoxy. Oh, and yesterday I replaced the spark plug wires and an infrequent intermittent "miss" disappeared. Slowly getting it back in shape. Out of the blue in the summer of 2020 I had two minor heart attacks and ended up getting a pacemaker after showing up at the ER with a pulse hovering around 30. This made them very nervous. Apparently I "walked off" the heart attacks and they were only discovered as small damaged areas in a recent nuclear stress test. End result was me not being able to work on car for a bit. Even now I can sense that I don't have the stamina for extended wrenching since not being able to swim has also stiffened me up, A LOT. Getting old sucks,but it is still better than the DRT (dead right there) I came close to experiencing a year ago. And I get to look forward to a turbo pacemaker upgrade in December. Fun Fun Joy Joy TIA Bob
  8. Got a confusing problem here in a non-turbo 2007 legacy wagon. Had a car running problem which was traced down to the fuel pump not getting power. Got it running on a temp basis by running a 12V line from the running lights wire on the trailer hitch harness to the pump. Figured that the problem was a bad fuel pump control unit as relay was swapped and the pulled relay was good. Fuel pump obviously works. But when trying to locate a module I was told that it isn't a part of the non-turbo system. It has been on-off rain for 48 hrs so I haven't pulled the molding in the back to look for it, but I wanted to have part in hand when I did, until used parts guy told me it was a turbo-only module (22648AA081). Everything on the forum seems to talk about modding it or replacing it for higher fuel flow. My Haynes manual doesn't show it for the regular model but I need to double check to see if it is a part of the turbo section description. Trying to get something in hand before weekend when it is clear and i can tear into car. TIA Bob
  9. Yeah, has happened to me twice on a 2007 wagon, ignored driver side rear as easy to open with open driver door, but now the rear passenger door went too. So I found this video and at the 5:25 mark one can see the inner side of the exterior handle. The round silver piece is what falls and makes the noise, and I am guessing that the part (dark blue) which holds it in place by the orange plastic piece is what breaks off. I have not located that piece in the bottom part of the door, yet. So the options are 1) ignore or 2) replace the entire unit. I am not above trying an epoxy repair if I can find the broken tab piece. It also didn't look like anything was broken off which was confusing. Everything else on door is fine, just nothing happens when the external latch is lifted.
  10. Had misfire issues on cyl 1 which improved dramatically when 6.5 gal of gas was added to the 6-7 gal in tank. I am thinking this was related to parking on a steep hill and that I have accumulated water in the gas tank. Has anyone siphoned theirs out to get rid of the water or is it best done with many cans of drygas? Also wondering if filter dirty. How does one do specific searches here. When I did fuel tank I got the huge "what did you do thread" but no pointers to individual posts. Is there a more specific search filter. TIA
  11. The first issue is to determine how many wires are broken. You are aware of one thing not working, but there is also the cyclops light, back-up lights, gate latch, gate closed sensor, etc. Have you popped the boot yet to look at them. Most here found several broken and several damaged. At one point, my rear wiper and backup lights were both broken, and the wiper cycled when I put the car in reverse as the loose ends contacted each other. In my mind, the labor to unclip and replace the harness is about the same as fixing (note, different than repairing here) the necessary wires. I used 16 gauge trailer wire bought at a local store in the auto department. If necessary, borrow a garage for a few hours. Some here report that the replacement harness comes with the boot in place in the middle. Just make sure that it can be reinserted once repaired, which is why I decided to fix mine in place. And welcome to the club (growing with each passing day).
  12. Is this just a 4th gen problem? I am mentioning it to wagon owners when I see them (which is pretty much an hourly event here in Portland), and one guy who'd bought the car used was told by the first owner that the wiring harness had already been replaced.
  13. My problems started a few years ago and i poked around a bit at the time but didn't have a chunk of time to really dig in. Decided to look here and I found what I think is both the funniest and most tragic thread on the boards. Reading the first few descriptions made me feel like I'd found a lost relative It needs to be pinned if it isn't. Anyhoo, after reading this I went out and popped the passenger body grommet and found 14 very nice looking wires. I tugged on them and all 14 popped out, broken cleanly at the same spot. Does this make me the winner? ;-) My plan is to pop necessary trim and add in 8"-12" long pieces of "quality" wire which will then span the gap between body and lift gate, and for the critical ones, latch, brake, etc I'll also surround with shrink wrap. I figure this will be faster, and way cheaper, than buying and replacing with either new or junkyard harness, especially if car ended up in junkyard because cyclops light wasn't working. Any future breaks will then have adequate surplus wire to work with when butt-joining. After rewiring a big house with 2000 ft of non-metallic I have learned that excess wire in device and junction boxes is a good thing. On a humorous note, after having the clutch replaced, the rear wiper started to work again, but only when the car was put into reverse. Talk about a phenomenon which fits no reasonable diagnosis. But it all makes sense now, as for a brief periods of time the backup light wire was in contact with the wiper wire. The subaru engineer/bean counter in charge of this should do the honorable thing ASAP. They did it on Billions with the non-performing smart phone screen, so I think it is a reasonable request. edit 6/5 : The honorable thing is to jump out a high window. Fixed mine over the weekend. In a nutshell, I started with all wires broken because I excel in procrastination. I pulled off boot and pulled through (14) approx 10" long pieces of automotive 16 gauge wire. In retrospect, only 5 need to be 16 gauge and using 18 for the others will make it easier, as is making the wire about an inch longer for more working play. I then put butt-splice connectors on the 14 wires from the car. I unclipped the harness from the side post to give a couple more inches of play but did not undue any connectors (just battery negative). At this point I was about 1 hr into the project and took a break for lunch. The way the rear bumper sticks out makes this tough for those of us with 60+ yo bodies. At this point I made a "happy accident" screw-up. I had intended to match ends of the pull-through wires with a multi-meter continuity tester, but in my haste I crimped one of the pass-through wires to the wire in the car body. I had only enough splice pieces to do the job (hint, extras is good) so I pulled on that wire and the other end moved, so I ended up using that technique on the remaining wires which probably saved a few minutes of testing per connect. I would identify both ends of a pass-through wire by pulling and then place a butt splice on the gate side, then attach the car-side to the car-side butt-splice, and finish with placing the gate-side free wire in the butt-splice. Again, 9 of the wires could be 18 gauge which would make this easier but I had no real problems with all the wires being 16 gauge. The insulation on the wire was pretty slippery, at least for now. The splicing part took about an hour. Excess wire can be stuffed into the lift gate side as it is much tighter on the car side above the ceiling panel. Speaking of ceiling panel, some nitrile gloves would help here as I have a few pieces of fiberglass embedded in my knuckles for the next few days. Lessons learned include having a wire stripper on the end of the tool and not on the handle part as it gets cramped in there at the end if something needs to be redone. Oh, and be sure to place electrical tape on the metal opening in the car body where the wire harness goes up through the frame (different than the opening where the grommet end of the boot attaches). A background in brain surgery (seriously) is not necessary, though I found it helpful here. And when I was finished, the sun came out. The birds didn't chirp, but the locking fob did for the first time in, well, an embarrassingly long time. edit 6/10 complaint to NTSB submitted.
  14. Pulled mine out today on a 2007 and it appears that the solenoid is now not the same type that can be repaired for $10-15, but a pressed-metal sealed unit with no access to the contacts, and I have not been able to locate this separate unit for sale yet. I think the new model differs by having screws go into it from the front of the start unit rather and having the screws as a part of the solenoid body. Arrrgggh! Good news and bad news. The bad news is that a similar and usable solenoid piece was found at a local shop, Auto Battery and Electric on Hawthorne in PDX, for about $40, but it is still difficult to locate and requires a slight mod from the factory piece (ignition pin is much smaller) to work. Still pretty annoying that Subaru doesn't make this component available separately from the starter. The good news is that even with the new solenoid, the starter didn't work, and when the clerk popped it open it seriously needed new brushes. So he sold me a brush pack for $30 and I was on my way. Hour and 15 min later the wheels were on the ground, with my original and still working solenoid in place. 30 min of the repair was just trying to get the snap ring on the back end of the rod. Hint, push the front of the geared rod with a 1/4" nutdriver handle while using either the correct tool, or in my case an 8mm open end wrench with one side pressing on the back of the "C" and the other gently pushing the open side over the end of the rod. I knew all that brain surgery training would eventually become useful. ;-) Car started on first crank, also thanks to a new batt to replace the 5 yo one that measured 12.51V. Again, shoutout for ABE for above and beyond the call of duty service. How often do you leave a car place thinking that you didn't pay enough? Reread thread and there are examples of the two types of starters and solenoids. The solenoid which has two long threaded rods out the front is likely the old type which can be rebuilt using new contacts and plunger. ABE had it in stock for $40. My type, the PITA to find model, is the one which is held to the starter body by a couple of 1" long phillips screws. BTW, these screws are soft and were tightly held, so use the appropriate full size screwdriver and apply a lot of force to keep the head from stripping
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