doublechaz

Cool. I don't know of anything, and sometimes I feel like I'm the only one left reading here, but I hope someone more into the JDM mod scene will come along witha solid answer. If you are really stuck you could ghetto up something like the MightyCarMods kids do in one of their videos. My thought is, that doesn't look that low, have you checked your sway bar and dampers to reduce body roll?

WT nailed it. I forgot to mention about not just the belt, should have know better. Only thing I could add would be look real close at the inner and outer rubber surfaces for tiny tiny cracks and fluid contamination as well. The rubber should not be hard or shiny but sort of dull and supple. It's hard to describe the correct almost shiny of brand new vs the aged not supple shiny of no good. If you know rubber car belts of any kind you get it, but I don't know how to put it in words. Anything other than newish looking is a fail, it just depends on if it is a "fail, don't drive" or a "fail do this as soon as you can". Don't cheap out on this kit as a failure sends you to the crusher. No ebay or amazon parts for this, too many Chinese counterfeit parts. Go to Subaru, a Napa or other serious parts store and order it in. If they have twp kits from different makers at different prices get the good one. For the thermostat if you do that, only a genuine Subaru. Even a top notch serious parts store unit will underperform. Been there, done it, limped a whole road trip with unhappy temps because of it. No damage, but I'm talking 215 on the highway where genuine Subaru is between 185 and 195 in the same conditions. As Paul Harrel would say, "Is that enough difference to MAKE a difference? In this case, YES."

Your "felt power" should roughly follow the torque curve in this image, although my cat was somewhat damaged at the time of this run, so really my high end if off in this run. If you would draw the graph for yours with the top end lower, I would check exhaust pressure. I put an extra O2 bung in front of my front cat next to the normal one and made a pressure gauge adapter from an O2 bung block off plug. You could briefly do the same by adapting a guage into your normal O2 hole. The car won't run right without that front O2, but you can at least see if you have 1 psi or less pressure for normal, or more than 1 for broken. For comparison, when I riched out real bad and plugged my cat I had up to 7 psi at 5500 rpm. Dyno

Does the engine make a good deal more power at low rpm than at high rpm? Plugged exhaust shows more and more as rpm goes up since it can't get rid of the increased air flow pumping through the engine.

Good deal. I would at least pull off the outer timing cover right away and check out what that belt looks like. If you loose the belt, you lose the engine in your year. When you put the cover back remember you are bolting plastic, not building a bridge. It is super easy to break those plastic covers.

I believe the correct idle for the MT version is 700, so we want to know why it is going up to 1000. I assume you don't mean that a cold start begins at about 1400 and drops down to 1000 within a couple seconds, and then a couple minutes later it is 700. That is normal. It is doing the job of the old choke system to enrich and fast idle when first started because engines hate to run cold and don't behave right until they get some heat in them. If, after it is warmed up, the idle hunts back and forth from 700 to 1000 I would suspect a gummed up idle air control valve. If it sometimes idles steady at 700 and other times steady at 1000 I would say there is a small vacuum leak letting extra air into the system. These leaks can sometimes come and go a bit depending on outside temp, humidity, hills, other settings in the car. The computer has to add a little extra fuel to balance the little extra air, so the engine speed goes up. I would definitely find out about that timing belt. Is it SOHC or DOHC? With a little help from a service book and from here you can do a SOHC your self. The DOHC needs a special tool to hold things in place while you work, or you can hurt the engine.

I installed the binary pedals mod in mine, so it is always full send and pretty much all city. I can get down to about 22 driving like that, so I can't see how you could get that low. I used to get 29.5 to 30.5 highway, but that was back when speed limits were lower and I didn't have 150,000 miles of WOT on it. Last I knew I could get 26 to 27 highway, but that is going 80 mph. Live engine data means you get an electronic tool and plug it in to the OBDII port and it shows exactly what the computer sees and is doing in real time. I have an elm327 OBDII to blutooth and the torque android app. It will show all kinds of diagnostic data, but you have to be fairly advanced on your theory of operation for engines to know what it all means. Still, the elm is about $10, and there is a free version of the app, (and a version for about $6) so it isn't a big barrier to starting to gather data and learn. Working on cars through the internet isn't easy, but we can help.

I fixed a friend's slipped timing belt a while back. Just one tooth off. Ran smooth, just off on power. We never check mpg before and after as the car had other problems. On my own car I jumped timing and it turned out to be three teeth off. It would run fine at some throttle loads, but miss and buck terribly at others. Idled pretty ok if you are used to V engines, but it was not as smooth as normal. And it got like 8 mpg. Testing showed it was actually firing two injectors twice for each cycle instead of once. It would be good to get some live engine data to see if everything looks normal or not.

Possibilities... Near failing front O2 sensor. Exhaust leak at or ahead of front O2 sensor. The new timing isn't correct. Car full of extra weight, roof rack, and the loose nut behind the gas pedal. I've been able to get that low with reasons 2 and 4.

I don't know if it will cross.

Within reason a correct rebuild can adjust out play, but I would go with locating an OE rack from some compatible model and figure on resealing it with OE before you put it in. I'm more of a stock as stock person, so I don't know what parts will Lego in although Subaru is the Lego of cars so I expect there are some possibilities.

Include US mail delivery in your searches. People may talk about a Subaru mail delivery unit rather than JDM or RHD. I would try to get the seals direct from Subaru and rebuild the rack, there are a LOT of junk parts out there these days. They are broke right out of the box, they fail after a few days, they don't fit right. If they are not actual originals you are risking doing the work repeatedly. Even pre Rona I got a reman rack rather than reseal mine. Within a month it was spewing and I had to return it and do the job again. Second time was the charm for me way back then. Things are much worse now. YMMV.

I'm not sure about the 206, but on mine the stock oil pressure sensor is under the alternator so it was difficult to find room to add a guage sensor. I ended up eliminating the light in the cluster, and making a little circuit that would read the guage voltage and turn on some LEDs below 15psi. But that works for me becuase I have an electronic guage, not a mechanical.

When I reconditioned all my suspension I started getting a clunk from the front end. It turned out to be the sway bar links. So that is one more bit you may have to look at to find your noise.

Looks like fun.

My inside rear view mirror got droopy. I was afraid it was the little plastic cup around the ball like it was way back when I first got the car. But lucky, it turned out that it was just the screw that holds the socket around the ball. So I used some vibra-tite on it and the other screws that hold my accessory mount and accessories. Now the mirror is nice and tight again, and same with the radar detector and dash cam.

I read through them a couple years ago and got strut braces right after. More of an inspiration to see what parts are still made than using the thread as a parts list. But the thing that makes a forum so much better than FriendFace groups is that the data isn't gone after a couple weeks.

Wow, that is embarassing. It got stupid hot for a few weeks after my last post, and then it started raining at 3 inches per hour every day, so I just now got those parking brake cables put back how they belong since it isn't currently pouring for once. Put all the interrior trim back that had to come out to do the cables. Only lost a few trim screws during that long wait. Had to get the rest from my stash. I'm about to go out and cruise around for a while since I miss her so much. Actually had a dream about driving her a few nights ago. Edit: Did about 100 miles of mountain switchbacks. I feel much better now.

I don't know about Japan, but Australian octane ratings are different from US ratings. I would do some reseatch to see if 95 Japan rating is equal to 95 US. I suspect 95 Japan would be the same as 91 US, but do a bunch of research first to be sure because detonation in a turbo engine can quickly kill it. Check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating to start, and then once you have the terminology down you can do more specific research. My ride is just a plain USDM Legacy L in silver. Nothing that would get most people excited, but I love it. I've learned a lot working on it over the years and done some mods to make it less slow.

Up shift RPM depends on the load you are trying to get. When I'm granny driving around town (about .002% of my driving) I shift up in the 2000 to 2500 range. My normal driving ranges between very assertive and race mode, so I shift up at more like 3000+ or 5500 for a full send. I rarely take it up to the 6000 where my gauge starts the red markings. I've always stuck to about 500 under red in my cars. But espcially with my Subaru with it's lower power I'm often nearing the full send. As to down shifting, I mostly don't do that in street driving as there usually isn't a need. My normal to work route has a lot of 45 mph to or nearly to a stop at a light and traffic means I can't get much engine brake in, so it's clutch blip into neutral, and then when I'm ready to go into second for a rolling start I'm typically going slow enough that no throttle blip is needed, just gently hold the shifter toward that gear and it will drop in when it's ready (meaning the synchro has matched input shaft to output shaft rpm) so a resonable clutch release is fine. I learned on a car with no synchro on first, so I basically never go to first unless I'm fully stopped. Even when I do go to first while rolling my Subaru does not enjoy this, so I just avoid doing it. If I do have to for mountain grade reasons a quick double clutch and throttle blip really helps it accept first while moving. When I'm ripping the mountain grades and curves I double clutch and throttle blip for my downshifts. About the best I can say on that topic is spend some time riding with someone who can explain it in real time, and don't do it yourself until you have gained some experience. Mostly what that experience will teach you is a feel for what rpm a given gear will need to go the speed you are going, and then you will be able to plan out throttle blips, or just a gentle feather the clutch to go along with a correct choice of gear for that speed and planned throttle load. Some considerable time ago Casey Putch did a video or two trying to explain and demonstrate this in one of his cars. I thought he did a good job for a video, but there is nothing like having someone demo it while explaining it as you go, and then swapping seats and them doing a little coaching. I think I picked it up in two sessions of about a half hour way back then, so it isn't that hard, it's just hard to really convey it in text. And of course lots and lots of practice. I probably drove stick every day for a month+ before I felt like I was really good at it. P.S. I love your ride. It's what I see when I look at mine that is a 1995 'L' trim level.

Wow, if my car was that hard to do I probably would have just bought another car instead of changing the bulbs.

Dang, I never noticed that they only show "user replaceable bulbs". That sucks. Couldn't say on what's in yours. I don't even know what's in mine as it's been too long. I know it wasn't the little rice grain things with a green condom that are in the climate control panel.

I often use https://www.superbrightleds.com/ to figure out what bulbs I need. Put in Year/make/model/trim and it shows everything. As to the dash details, I don't know, I have a 2nd gen.

Is this 0304 a constant miss, or is it mostly running? If it is constant I would pull the plug right after a run and see if it is wet with fuel as it should be if spark is the issue. If it is dry the issue is probably that injector. If you didn't pay about $100+ for the injector, I would start there, major problem with counterfeit and junk injectors going around. You could check this by swapping two injectors and see if the problem follows. Of course you have to be real careful to not roll an o-ring during all of this. I would also inspect the injector harness for the health of the pins. Also, and easiest so start here, you can use a stethescope to listen for each injector clicking as it cycles to see if the #4 sounds different from the others. For the spark side of things you can use a timing light on each plug wire to see if the impulse is happening on each of them. You can use a multi meter to check the resistance of the sections of the coil, but being a wasted spark system if the coil was bad you should get a miss on two cylinders, not just one. Same with the ignitor driving the coil. I've seen it where you don't get a connection where the plug wire goes on to the coil, especially if you are using dielectric grease. What happens usually is that the boot traps some air as it goes on and it then pushes the wire back off the post and no connection. I carefully use a tiny tool like a jeweler's screw driver or a bit of weed whip line laid along the post while I push the wire on to leave a path for the air to escape. When the wire is seated then you pull out the tool and Robert is your Father's brother. I think that should get things started and then based on the results we can try some other steps if needed.

I have one in the Prescott, AZ area that needs rebuilt. If you need it, we can meet up and you can have it. I was supposed to send it in as core when I bought another years ago. That car is gone, but this part might be kinda rare now, so if it can go to a good home...