A couple questions on a 97 GT.

[Northern1]

Greetings. New owner of a 97 2.5GT here with a couple questions.

 

How normal is it to have the RPM float up and down upon a cold start? Rather it seems to do that till the engine is fully warmed up and then it flattens out at around 700-800 RPM. I'm thinking it normal but I don't know at what point I should be concerned about it. I assume if I have the A/C on shortly after starting the car that has an effect on the idle as well, correct?

 

Also the gearing seems a bit strange in that 1st and second gear seem very tall (if I'm using the expression "tall" correctly) which means at times when approaching a tight city corner in second gear the RPMs can drop too low for 2nd gear and the engine kinda chugs along uncomfortably accelerating out of the corner till the RPMs get back up. It's almost like the car would rather go back into 1st gear. Perhaps I just need to work the clutch and accelerator more but I'm curious if this is the nature of the car or if it needs and adjustment.

 

Thanks for the input.

[Brighton96]

It's typical for subarus to idle weirdly during warm up, I usually tap the gas to get it to come out of the warm up cycle. As far as the gearing goes, it's hard to tell without being there to drive the car but I'd just do a trans and diff fluid change and see if anything changes.

[Northern1]

What I've observed after owning the car for a bit is that I get a strong gas smell upon start up. Also I get a clicking sound under the hood which I think has something to do with running the A/C during startup, like when I'm trying to defrost the windows.

[doublechaz]

The A/C does activate during defrost.

 

I would say the manifold to cylinder head joint is leaking if you get a strong smell of gas and you don't see fuel visible anywhere under there. You can leave the key in run without starting it for a couple minutes to help show up an external leak in the engine bay.

[Northern1]

The A/C does activate during defrost.

 

I would say the manifold to cylinder head joint is leaking if you get a strong smell of gas and you don't see fuel visible anywhere under there. You can leave the key in run without starting it for a couple minutes to help show up an external leak in the engine bay.

 

Hey, thanks. I haven't checked under the hood yet for leaks so that I will do. At first I thought it was perhaps the nature of the car, running rich on cold start, but the gas smell is strong enough to be concerning. Will have it checked out for leaks.