A few small issues and long distance reliability questions

[Fire Away]

My 98 L wagon is about to click over 181,000 miles on the ODO and I am planning on driving it on a vacation in a few months. The round trip will be roughly 1000 miles. Currently, the engine has the usual piston slap going on when it is cold. How do I know when piston slap has reached a critical, engine life ending, state? I am currently running a 10w30 synthetic oil blend. I can't remember the brand at the moment.

 

A few other issues I am having that should be addressed:

 

I need some exhaust work. What is a good replacement muffler? The PO of mine got tapped in the rear causing the muffler to be shoved down and a little forward. One of the exhaust isolators failed and the other is close to failing. I can't replace them without this work. Believe me, I tried.

 

Driver side door lock is a bit wonky. I have to unlock via the passenger side. What is a good lube to put in there to see if it is a lack of lubrication as opposed to the key/s being worn?

 

General clunking in the front suspension: What are the usual trouble points to look at for loose/worn parts?

 

Is there anything else I should do PM to or replace before the trip? I've done the fuel/air filters already and the PCV valve in addition to cleaning the MAF and throttle body.

[Ivant]

Sounds like your pretty on to it already. Your already looking after your motor with a good oil. So I suppose you just need to fix the things that you have mentioned and your good to go. Maybe a check or replace of the trans fluid. When was it last done ?

[Fire Away]

Trans and rear fluid may have been done by one of the previous owners. I got a quart of Lucas gear oil for the rear diff but I haven't had the chance to change it out yet. Last time I checked the fluid, around 5k ago, it looked pretty clean.

[Tr00b]

Change the oil before you go on your trip if its due. My car likes to have fresh oil. Seems to help the piston slap. I have been running 15-40 Rotella T3... But switched to 10-30 t5 for the winter. Going to try 5-40 T6 for the coldest months. Also a high quality filter seems to help. I like the idea of diesel type oils because the contain more high pressure additives but with the advent of SCR and dpf this may no longer be the case.

 

 

The stabilizer bar links if not properly shimmed with washers can walk and pop in the frontend. I recently am replacing a tie rod end as well. It took about a year for it to finally go bad after a lot of popping. (If that was it... if it still pops its that sway bar link)

 

For the locks liquid wrench makes a chain and cable fluid that has a moly additive that will act as a dry lube. Graphite impregnated sprays they sell for farm equipment work good too. Anything works really but that's what I like.

 

Exhaust... just go to an exhaust shop and get it done right. Usually muffler suggestions need a whole new thread.

[twisty]

for the locks on my 95 wagon, i used some good ole wd40 to get the goo out of it, spray and work the lock a bunch until it moves fluidly, then waited a couple days and used a graphite lock spray i found at ace hardware. didnt help my main issue, which is the key i have only works the driver door, nothing else on the car.

[Ivant]

Trans and rear fluid may have been done by one of the previous owners. I got a quart of Lucas gear oil for the rear diff but I haven't had the chance to change it out yet. Last time I checked the fluid, around 5k ago, it looked pretty clean.

Trans fluid can look clean, but still be no good. Trans fluid is only good for 50.000 ks, after that it starts to thicken and when that happens it can't get into those tiny little channels where it is so badly needed. Do I need to say what happens after that.... WEAR. People think if it's not dark, it is still ok. It's not like engine oil that gets dirty from combustion. Trans fluid gets dirty from overuse after it has lost all it's hyd properties. A guy at a transmission workshop once told me, if people changed their cars fluid when they were supposed to, I would be out of a job.

Take from that what you will.

[johnegg]

timing belt is due every 60k miles.

so 180k is now.

 

how old is the timing belt?

belt failure, or more likely idler pulley failure,

will bend valves and leave you stranded on the road half way home,

or in some other lousy location.

[kurtis9813]

I believe this motor is an interference motor, and If the timing belt fails, you could end up with valve salad. See if you have any records of when the timing belt was last done, and if you've had the car for awhile and haven't had it done it would probably be smart. Also try running marvel mystery oil in your gas at every fill up. My friend has a 2000 outback with a lot of pistion slap and it has gotten much quieter as he ran MMO through the gas. Also MMO is a very good cleaner and will help the car run better and you will notice a very slow and suttle increase in gas milage over time.

[Fire Away]

According to the PO at 122,000 miles "replaced timing belt, water pump, crank seal, cam seals, thermostat, and thermostat housing gasket". Should I do all of that again or just the belt and tensioner? Is there a guide in here to replacing the belt/tensioner (I am hitting up the search function after posting this).

 

I also need to troubleshoot the cruise control as it doesn't work and the pump for the rear window washer quit on me as well.

[johnegg]

the most common fail point is the toothed idler.

so i would replace all the idlers.

 

as for the rest of it,

do you think it will last another 60k miles?

[Fire Away]

Well, the body is completely rust free as far as I can tell so the body will. If the engine goes I'll probably grab another ej22 and drop it in with the help of a friend. Spending $400-600 on a replacement engine is cheaper than scrapping a wagon with a good body and buying another one!

[Fire Away]

So, is there a verdict on the water pump? I'll be ordering a kit from rockauto today.

 

I have also noticed two other things. When it is really cold outside I hear a squealing noise until the engine is up to temp. There is also somewhat of a dull knocking noise once it is up to temp. I can't tell if it is something in the bottom end or if I am hearing exhaust. There is also a low humming noise.

 

Here it is at start up

 

 

After driving about 10 miles and up to normal operating temp

 

 

Second question, how does one embed videos here?

[Stevo F]

Yours sounds a bit like mine (same year , same engine). I get a ticking sound on acceleration until I drive the car about 10 minutes or so then it goes away. Since the weather has gotten colder (I bought this car only 6 months ago) I hear the tick when I first start it, also. Seems like the consensus on this forum, was that it is piston slap, mainly because it goes away after the engine is warm (but I'm told usually it should go away quicker than that).Piston slaps seems common on boxer engines with a few miles on them (mine only has 94K miles but I believe it had a lot of city miles based on the previous owner living just outside of Washington DC for the 15 years she had it)

 

When you say you have a humming noise, I hear a hum on mine, more when it's warmed up, at idle, and I think it has to do withe MAF (it's not an issue). I did hear more of a whine in your video of the cold start- that almost seemed like a belt or something.

[Idaho subaru]

Well, that's a noisy engine. Squeaks on cold startups usually are attributed to belts/pullies/bearings. Hard to tell, but it doesn't really sound like a belt to me. I would suspect a bearing, maybe alternator or idler pulley, or power steering pump. I would pull the belts off and start it to check that theory, pull on at a time and see which one makes the noise go away. If niether of them make the noise go away, I would fear it was something behind the timing covers, like timing belt idlers/water pump.

 

Ah, to replace the water pump, or not to replace the water pump, that is the age old question! Back in the day......when water pumps were driven by the fan belt, you only changed it when it went bad, because it was easy to get to and took an hour start to finish.

 

Since they started running water pumps off the timing belt, which puts them under/behind everything, and generally very difficult and time consuming(expensive)to get to, most people replace them whenever they get to the point of being able to see it! So it is totally a judgment call on your part, IMO, it's not worth the gamble to not replace it. The timing belt is going to make it another 100k, are you willing to gamble doing the timing again in 20 or 50k if the pump goes out before the next timing belt is due?

 

As far as the knocking, again, hard to tell, but it does sound deep, but if you want to rule out valves.....they are supposed to be adjusted every 100k. It's a pretty easy job, last time I did it, it took about and hour. I'm sure it could be done faster, and I'm sure I could've done it faster, but then I wouldn't have been able to drink as much beer. Also some will say to replace the valve cover gaskets at the same time, your call. If they are leaking, I replace, if not, I don't.

 

Lastly, I did hear a hint of a humm/whistle, sounds like something could be sucking air. Check for cracks in the air filter and intake pipe, those flexible pipes get brittle with age. Is the air filter cover and all the hose clamps tight? Is the air filter clean? If it gets real dirty, the engine will try to suck air wherever it can. Other than that, check for vacuum hose leaks.

 

Lastly, one more time.... Only 180,000 miles, it's just getting broke in! I wouldn't think it would be ready for a new motor yet, unless it wasn't treated very well by the previous PO's.

[twisty]

 

Here it is at start up

 

 

After driving about 10 miles and up to normal operating temp

 

 

Second question, how does one embed videos here?

 

instead of using the links you have, use them like this

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCwkAT4o3as

 

then just paste the link into the comment box like this

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCwkAT4o3as]EJ22 engine noise - YouTube[/ame]

 

and it should embed. i just copied your video title into the youtube search field and chose it from the list to get the URL to be that format

[spooln30]

I wouldn't worry about the t belt or waterpump just remove the t belt cover and check the belt for any cracking. If none then ur good. I've had Toyota t belts with 175k that looked brand newish. LOL. Meaning no cracking or dry rotted.

Imo just change the oil/filter, check and if needed change the front & rear diffs, check the trans fluid changing if dirty same with the coolant. Also check the air filter and give her fresh spark plugs and wire set if needed. Tire pressures set to 32 psi front and 30 psi rear. Lube the door lock cylinders with a graphite lock lube. Basically a good once over only changing what's needed. If you want to try and get the most mpgs on your trip buy some mass air flow cleaner and clean the MAF and a bottle of Lucas fuel treatment. Add this before you fill your tank and drive away. The Lucas FT is the best fuel treatment I've used and I had a sticking fuel injector on a friend's Nissan, poured this in his tank and it went away he said about the half tank mark. I did use the entire bottle even with his car only being a 15 gallon or so fuel tank. It won't hurt anything.