keeweechris

So kamineko, you know the piping I mean??!! You're the first person I've encountered who actually acknowledges its existence!! Haha. Yeah, I'm thinking its a dampening system too. But also something to catch air bubble and trap them at the top. It goes out of its way to travel up higher than the mast cyl, and has a loop which comes right down beside the mast cyl, then back up. That to me screams air bubbles. Anyway, when I install my new mega-simple pipe section, bleeding should be easy. Oh, and btw, slave cyclinders at PickaPart are $10!! The Winger I went to was Greenlane. Never had a friendly experience up there. The guys at the counters seem more interested in acting all cool for the hot blondes they employ, than being interested in your cars.

Cool, thanks keltik. It never ceases to amaze me how useless and unhelpful and up themselves Winger staff are! I went in to buy an oil filter and then talked to the service guy behind the counter, thinking he must know (if anyone did) what all this unnecessary looking clutch hydraulic piping was for. He poked around for a while, then thought it was some sort of valve, but didn't really seem very confident. I asked if he had seen anything like it before, and he said no. He then asked if it was an import... yeah, course it was, like 90% of all 199X subaru's, to which he laughed and said that explained it... the imports are strange beasts, and didn't seem at all interested to help me. So don't Winger know much about imports? Right. I went to Sterling Clutch and Brake (to buy oil) and asked that guy. He was really confident it was some sort of Hill Start mech, until I pointed out it wasn't linked to the brakes in any way. So he didn't know. Great. Thinking my car must be 1 in a mill, I went to Pick a Part to find a new slave cyl and connecting piping. Just about all their Legacy's had exactly the same network of piping! Ay? So Winger who are meant to be the Subaru guru's hadn't even noticed this, or seem to care about finding out. Makes me question mechanics knowledge and enthusiasm everytime I speak to them, especially wingers. Anyway, rant over. I'm gonna simplify the piping with one off an old Legacy RS, and replace the slave cyl from the RS too. If this doesn't fix the system, nothing will.

Yo, I've got a 1997 WRX with an annoying clutch hydraulic system. Most of the time it works fine, but occasionally (once a week) something suddenly goes weird, and the hydraulic system shifts the contact-point of the clutch. Ie, the pedal goes hard, the contact point is near the top of the pedal travel, and pushing the pedal to the floor probably over-extends the clutch spring. Then say an hour later it returns slowly to normal. Its not a complicated system, and most moving parts are in the master cylinder, so I went in search of a new one. But it seems aftermarket manufacturers don't make them, and Subaru charge over $300 for a genuine one. So I bought a used one from a wrecker, cleaned it up internally (looked ok) and fitted it/bled it. Now it is sloppy when first used in the morning, but after a few pumps it goes normal, but returns to sloppy overnight. Fcuk. OK, so does anyone know if I can buy any reconditioning kits for the master and slave? From memory there is only 2 rubber bits to the internals of the master cyl. And secondly, does anyone know the correct bleeding procedure? I've found loads on the net describing bleeding subaru's, but none which describe the exact setup on my wrx. There is some sort of extra lengths of hydraulic piping which goes up to around the drivers-side bonnet hinge, and incorporates another bleed port. I think this is some sort of air-bubble-trap (being the highest point in the system) but some clarification on that would be good. Thanks guys

Viper, I had the same problems with my 97 non-sti. I get values, but most don't make sense. I didn't go through the drama of trying to work them out though. Sounds like Subaru experimented with a bunch of stuff around 1997. Grrr.

Hey, you'll never believe it, but godamnit the bloody car works! No bent valves, no dripping oil, just nice engine sounds! Thanks guys for all the help.

Sorry, missed that. Cool, will do that.

Which one, I can't read Jap, and can't find it in the service manual. Could I also just unplug the low voltage wires from the coil pack?

Hi, where is the EFI fuse?

Getting this sort of sh1t wrong freaks me out. But yeah, I'll smoke a marley tomorrow and crank her up.

Yeah, that was my other concern, the pass side double markers don't line up properly, and the top marker is kinda 1/2 way between tooth and valley, and doesn't line up nicely with line on new cambelt. All feels a bit rangi, but any other config is worse. I've read somewhere else that this is normal. Weird tho, and a bit disconcerting. OK, re tension, the longest length between pulleys is between tensioner and pass-side intake cam pulley. Twisting this hard by hand I can almost get it to 90degrees but not quite. Seems fairly tight. The tensioner retracts a little bit (0.5mm) when I do this, but moves back when I let go. I'll leave over night, and maybe it will settle. Cranking engine over the correct way is all fine and dandy, but I'd have to crank it over 1000 times to get the lines/notches to match up again. I've read its not ok to turn it backwards... is this true? Good to know your ones boostin and dimin have done the same. I'm prob just over reacting, but its strange noone mentions this in the writeups of cambelt changes. Thanks guys. I'll stop pestering you soon.

Car: 97 wrx I'm on the homeward leg of a my 1st cambelt change, but I'm not 110% sure its ok. Firstly, when I thought I had it all lined up (lines, notches, nicks, as per service manual) I pull the pin on the tensioner (swing-arm type) and not a lot happened. I expected the tensioner arm to jump out and the tensioner idler to put more tension on the belt, but nothing happened. In fact, I can still just wedge the pin back through the holes to the back of the tensioner. It was a brand new part from Winger. But the belt isn't slack anywhere. Not sure how much tension there should be on the belt though. I'm really scared that if I leave it, and the tensioner is faulty, then... well you know what. How can I tell if the tensioner is working? Has anyone had this before? Thanks!

OK, thanks!

This is prob a stoopid question, but... I've just reinstalled my oil pump (on EJ20) and figure when I start the car up for the first time, the pump will just be turning in air rather than oil. Will the pump draw oil up from the sump, or do I have to prime it all somehow? Thanks!

Thx... I feel stink enough already :-\

Thanks for the offer Reuben... but I've been racing round wreckers at lunch and handed over $84 for the right one. Robbery I know, but only way to get the part today and car back and running for the missus tomorrow. Took one look at repco's huge tube of 3bond for $80 and bought some CRC hi temp red goop for $10. Sounded like the same type of stuff... RTV, silicone, high temp. Whatever.

So you reckon the loose screws caused the seal to leak?

Will get some Threebond 1215 from Repco (which seems to be Room Temperature Vucanising Silicone goop that likes to be around hot oil)... don't want to pull all this apart again in a hurry! A bit more major than the simple cambelt change, but at least I now know where my oil leak was coming from! (Crank oil seal). And driftrex, thanks for the heads-up on the screws behind the oil pump... 1 was half out! Whats up with using philips screws in there??!

Thanks Driftrex. Will oil pour out when I take the oil pump off? And is ThreeBond the same sort of stuff as that red silicon gasket sealant stuff you get from SuperCheap?

Haha, nevermind, I pulled it off... all good. Anyone happen to know where the Oil Pump O-ring is located? Might end up changing that aswell.

Actually, forget all that, I've got another plan... That piece of metal that the tensioner bolts into looks like it comes off. Does anyone know if pulling it off (2 10mm bolts along top, 1 10mm bolt on right, and one gold 12mm bolt to left of tensioner bolthole) is ok without oil or something else pissing out?

Hi, The standard cambelt change is turning into a bit of a major. I pulled the old tensioner off (swing arm type) and discovered that the previous "mechanic" had stripped the bolt hole and had used a Heli-coil to install the bolt back in. So after getting all the old locktight out, I've got 2 options: 1) Reinstall a new Helicoil (but I havn't got a Helicoil kit, and they cost a fair bit) 2) Or step up to an M12 bolt, machine the tensioner bush, and re-tap the hole. I've shined a light into the hole, and noticed it opens up into a hollow bit. So does anyone know if a bunch of aluminium swarf ending up back there is ok? Where does the gap go? Cheers!

Common mod, apparently. It is said that in older engines the knock sensor picks up noises which it interpretes as knock. Theres a bolt hole further up towards the gearbox-black join which you can bolt it to. Anything was worth a go for me at this stage. BTW, the gay-fart only seems to happen when engine warm, and comes from air filter.

OK, thx. I'll figure out where its coming from tonight, but if from air filter, prob nothing to worry about, right?

Yeah, did that a while back. Never made any diff. Just got the wife to check for the noise. Won't do it now... fukin typical. so its a random thing, just like every other bloody fault on the car. Just show me a damn error code bitch!

haha, tell me about it.