Crazy_Pilot

Well the issue seems to have vanished. I drove the car home from work (brought like 4 bottles of water with me as fire extinguishers ) and caught a whiff of the same burning smell a few minutes into the drive, but nothing after that and no horrifying smoke show. :confused: Guess it was just something I spilled on the exhuast? Or maybe that I drove through and got splashed on the DP? The axle boot is fine and there are no signs of leaks or fluid loss. Nothing on the ground under the car, nothing on the turbo... *shrug*

Idle was perfect with the new gaskets installed! It was around -15 celcius this afternoon and the car ran like a champ.

So I finished up the work and took the car to work today. Car runs and drives perfectly, although the garage is heated so the real test will be leaving work after a day out in -15 temps. However, I seem to have a new issue: The turbo hot side is smoking like mad. So much so that I stopped the car almost on top of the door at work so I could run in to grab an extinguisher if needed. I'm still looking out the window to make sure all is well.

Any thoughts what could be dumping something on the turbo? It didn't smell like coolant. There was a bit of that (expected) when I first started the car, but this is almost like campfire with a bit of chemicals thrown in.

I'm been getting the airbag light 80% of the time in the past couple months. This weekend I took the overhead panel apart and soldered the little board back together. No light this morning on the way to work!

Edit: I snapped a few pictures while fixing mine, for anyone who worries this repair is beyond them.

1. Remove the map light cover (pry on the sides with your finger nails)

2. Remove the two philips screws holding the panel to the roof.

3. Remove the panel (it has 3 prongs that hold it against the headliner on the front edge)

4. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v252/crazy_pilot/2008%20Legacy%20Spec%20B/IMG_1214-1.jpg

5. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v252/crazy_pilot/2008%20Legacy%20Spec%20B/IMG_1213.jpg

6. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v252/crazy_pilot/2008%20Legacy%20Spec%20B/IMG_1210.jpg

7. Re-solder any other components you feel like. I did D1, R1 (the 511 guy), and all the resistors on the other side.

8. Put back together!

You don't need much experience soldering to take care of this, I've only done it a few times myself. Let the iron heat up, melt a decent amount of solder onto the tip, shake/tap to remove the excess, and then place the tip against the joint you want to fix. Once the board heats up enough the solder will flow down. I basically filled the corners with a nice little dot of solder on each one.

Second edit: I'm sorry if that last picture is sideways, Photobucket shows it straight and then upside down if I use the "rotate" function. Meh.

stuck with 2 problems. First, one of the bolts in IM came out with metal between treads. Other bolts were looking like new when out, this one had some weird oxidation and took little extra effort to take it out. Not sure if new bolt will even screw in fine. Need to get some spares from stealership first before I try good bolts and mess them up. So, worst case scenario if I can't get that single bolt in or tight enough - what are my options?

I had the same thing happen to one bolt, the one closest to the brake master cylinder. Using the picks I was able to clean most of the aluminum out of the threads, but not enough that I felt comfortable re-using the bolt. Fortunately I've got piles of extra Subaru hardware lying around and found a suitable replacement. The ideal thing would be to run a tap through the hole in the TGV to clean and straighten the threads. The new bolt went in fine, but it was clear the threads in the hole weren't perfect.

Well I'm 75% of the way through this job on my '08 Spec B. As most people have found, passenger side was (relatively) cake, driver side is not so much. I've got all but the rear driver's side seals done and will tackle that tomorrow after work. I was getting the P0171 code and a rough idle at below freezing temperatures, typical symptoms.

It's quite obvious that the old gaskets weren't sealing well though. When I had the manifold lifted off the TGVs I couldn't even feel the lip of the gasket, it was like a continuous smooth plastic surface. The old ones were hard, and even have little creases and depressions that could have been leak paths. The new gaskets should make a world of difference.