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DIY: Rough idle in cold start/cold temps LGT 07-09


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An update for anyone that has been suffering/following along with my experience trying to get the dealer to replace the faulty intake mani gaskets.

 

In my previous wall o' text a few posts back I mentioned that I had replaced the Throttle Body to Intercooler elbow hose clamp with a T-Bar style hose clamp to fix a leak on a replacement elbow the dealer 'fixed' in what they determined was the cause of my crappy idle and CEL errors. I had a pow wow with the service manager and the service writer and was told that the svc mgr had called some Subaru Techline and confirmed with an actual SOA tech that indeed there is an issue with the intake mani gaskets. The SOA tech said exactly what all of us know in that the gaskets pucker up when cold and let unmetered air into the combustion chamber and causes the crap idle which freaks out the ECU and throws the CEL. Once the car warms up the gaskets enlarge and flatten out that issue goes away... Yay, Subaru itself knows of the issue but for some reason hasn't issed a TSB on it yet :confused:.

 

To get IMGs parts fixed under warranty, the svc manager said we had to make sure that intake path was fully OEM. That means the t-bar clamp I used to fix the leaky replacment elbow clamp (and fixed the leak) broke the OEM parts chain. To get warranty coverage for the IMGaskets I would have to suck it up with another brand new OEM TB to IC elblow :) and clamps. Once the CEL shows up again drag the Leggy back up to the dealer and get my IMGaskets replaced under warranty. So, the problem wasn't fixed, but my wife's car was "reset" to OEM stock...:rolleyes:

 

Of course Murphy's Law dictates that weather in Nebraska will stay above zero for the rest of the year and it will be months and months until the conditions are in place that will cause the CEL to rear it's ugly head again. In the end, it would have saved me hours of headaches to just replace the dang IMGaskets myself, but now it's the principle of the thing to get the dealer to do it...

 

specB Dream: thanks again! My wife had a baby 10 days ago (mine! :lol:) and once I get parolled from husband house arrest I'll try to get to a J-Bird meet!

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i have the very same issue with random misfire on #4 did everything to resolve the issue. only occurs when the car is cold -- i just replaced the intake manifold gaskets myself -however the cel was still on. something to look at too is the injectors and the gaskets that go on them. they also expand and contract depended on weather. i bought new gaskets from friedbean and the check engine light has not come on since. knock on wood. it wouldnt hurt to use seafoam - works wonders. good luck
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I've been experiencing the exact same thing. I did a search on Nasioc and came up with several possible causes but since it's mainly a "WRX" site I didn't find this information. I've since cleansed the MAF and ordered a new primary O2 sensor that will be here today. But just in case I've ordered the O-rings from the dealer and will be replacing those hopefully this weekend. I've only had the car for a week and this popped up the next day. The dealer I purchased it from has been more than willing to fix the problem. But I want to make sure it fixed right the first time.
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If that's the case, i'm wondering what could be causing the problems i've experienced. Which is exactly what was described by the OP.

 

Did you spray with carb cleaner to check it? I did and was able easily to narrow down the leak to between the intake manifold and the TGV's on the driver's side. Haven't fixed it yet.

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I had a wheel bearing replaced and had it looked at since it was at the shop. It turned out be be a cracked up pipe. The mechanic said that it was common. Although i've never heard of any Suby having that problem.
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The starter of this thread deserves a huuuuge pat on the back, ran into this exact problem over the last winter and finally it got very bad just in the last few weeks. Went to the dealer, $25 in gaskets a few hours of my time and i was done. Its really not a hard repair, just take your time, disconnect whats in the way and restricting the movement of the intake manifold and this will be no problem. Honestly getting the gaskets in was one of the easiest parts in my opinion. Took me 10 times longer to remove all the bolts and disconnect the intercooler and turbo coolant than it did to change the gaskets. Thanks for the great thread, car runs flawlessly again now!
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I have a good relationship with a local Subaru dealer whhich is just AWESOME to work with. I know the service manager and I sent him this thread a few weeks back. He had his lead tech look at it and he tated he would do this job for me for FREE under warranty even though my car has over 50k miles on it.

 

I am not sure if I should just have them do the job now or do it when it starts acting up when its fall/winter. I never got any CEL's for this issue however when its cold out the car stumbles and does almost stall out but it catches itself before that happens.

I was 0.

 

 

 

And I'm still a zero.

 

:lol:

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You may have a similar issue, but this thread is specifically for the 07-09. The 05-06 have different gaskets.

 

wrong. subaru used the same orange round gasket up until 09 when they changed to a square-edged round gasket which provides more sealing surface area opposed to the round-edged type. they don't even supply the old gaskets at the dealer anymore.

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So I picked up some "Intake Manifold Gaskets" today from the Subaru dealership and they don't look at all like the one's listed here. Granted I have an 05, but mine are o-rings laid in what looks like an aluminum outer gasket. Does this sound right? Or is this a gasket for the TGV?

 

Oh, and they ran me 90 bones that were price-matched to Fred Beans.

Updated parts list since original part-out here.

 

Original Full part-out of my LGT HERE!

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