Knock, Knock... it's FIXED! (long)
 

My saga finally ends. Well, OK an old chapter ends and a new (and hopefully better) one begins.

Almost three years ago now I posted the first message in this saga here, and the constant pursuit of this annoying error was one of the factors in my parking my car for 18 months. OK, I was having exhaust problems, wheel bearing problems and electrical problems as well... but it didn't help. When I parked her, I hoped I would either fix all the gremlins as time and money allowed and/or sell the car.

It's been a few weeks since I broke her out of storage, and I've been getting consistent and constant reports of cam and crank position sensors being bad. In pursuit of this, I have replaced both crank sensors and the cam sensor twice... once with a set of brand new sensors (at $170 each... ouch!) and once with a set of sensors from a known working car. Thanks to pearlm30 I have also been able to replace the entire wiring harness last Sunday afternoon... much cursing and skinned knuckles that day :D Still, the check engine light lit, and my problems continued.

Finally, Sunday evening I decide to drop by Autozone and get them to run the codes... just on the off chance something's wrong with my scanner. Lo and behold... knock sensor. Not just one... but both! I was actually happy that they got a different result, but I almost wanted to cry at the amount of money and time I've thrown at this the last few years. Anyway, just in case I ALSO took the car to Advance Auto Parts and got them to do the same thing... same result; knock sensors.

So, I get home and take out my frustrations on my code scanner (hammer on plastic... mmm, fun!), then jump online and order two knock sensors overnight from subaruparts.com.

Yesterday, DHL delivered both of my knock sensors and after work I get home, have dinner then go work on my car. Of course, looking at all the hoses going into the intake plenum I really don't feel like pulling all those out, so I decide to try to change out the sensors without removing the plenum.

Once the alternator was removed, the front sensor (passenger side) was easy. No problems, no issues. The rear sensor... well that took a little work. A small 12mm wrench did the trick to loosen it up, at least up to a point. There was a point at which the bolt was high enough that I could no longer get the wrench in there. Thankfully, I have thin hands so I was able to twist myself around and reach in there with my right hand and turn the bolt with my fingertips. Just. Took a while, but it finally came out.

Pulling the wire back... well that was fun, too. The plastic "mount" on the wire kept snagging on stuff... but given the sensor was dead anyway I ended up just getting my snips in from the back of the engine and cutting the wire off. When I looked at the new sensor, I just took those same snips and trimmed the plastic mounts off. Yup... that made it easier to get that wire through. :D

Getting the bolt back in and keeping the sensor upright on the mount also proved troublesome with just the fingertips of my right hand. Note that in order to get my hand in there I had to do it "palm up", so I was facing away from the car when I did this and had to do it all by feel. That took me a good 15 minutes on its own, just to get the bolt turned down enough that I could get my wrench back in there. Of course, I could only do a quarter turn at a time, but at least then I could see what I was doing :)

Finally, after 90 minutes I got everything tightened back up, alternator and belt reattached and went out for a test drive. After 30 minutes... NO CHECK ENGINE LIGHT! After 60 minutes... still nothing. I went home at that point and had a beer to celebrate :)

On my drive to work this morning... no check engine light!!! This is great. I had an appointment with a Subaru dealer today that I set up last week to look at this... and I kept it just in case it wasn't the knock sensors once I got that code on Sunday. This morning on the drive to work I was very happy to be able to call the dealership and tell them I wouldn't be coming. :cool:

Next up? Emissions test, then she's legal again. And no, I'm not selling her now!!!

That`s great , Keep it !! :D

Congrats on the progress! Good to see someone else keeping them on the road.

yeah way to go.....I can relate to your "doing it by feel" method...I had a heck of a time getting my hands in to attach and disconnect my O2 sensors at the time.
Hopefully your emissions go smooth.

AND we have an update. Took her to the emissions station today. OK... they gave me a hard time about my plates (which expired in July of last year), but I explained to them that short of towing the car everywhere at huge expense, driving it was the only way to get it from A to B. So here I am... and I now have a clean bill of health on the emissions test.

I guess it's off to the DMV after work to get my tags :rolleyes:

Absolutely awesome to hear. Isn't it great when that nagging warning light (whatever it may be) finally goes away after hours of tedious work? Can totally relate to that one.:D

What I'm wondering is how you got different codes than the Autozone/Advance guys. What did they do differently?:confused:

I'm very interested to know this as well...it may be the answer to my problem too! My check engine light has been on for monthes, but everytime I have the codes pulled there is nothing and the light won't go off even if it is reset. It initially came on when my tps was bad asfter replacing it the light stayed on just with no codes and the car drives perfect? Could my scanner be bad too? Should I change myy knock sensors?

Thumper

I'm having electrical problems myself [short somewhere, current leak]

It's really brilliant to hear a story with a happy ending. Congratulations! Glad you got to the bottom of it.

Look on the bright side. Those sensors you replaced are now good anyway. The SVX is hard on sensors with under-hood heat. So you have a clean bill of health.

Enjoy it while it's good.

Joe:)

Thanks Thumper, for spending time setting out a very interesting and worthwhile message.

Several times I have pointed out here that the unexpected, must be expected, when dealing with things electrical/electronic. You have confirmed the point in no uncertain manner.

I have likewise been driven up the wall many times and you have my sympathy. :) Also pleased that you indicate saisfaction in a job well done.:D

In my case, my suspicion is on the tool. I suspect my scanner's ALWAYS been bad and has been reporting bad codes since day one. I'm suspecting it's transposing codes... like giving me a different code from the one actually recorded in the system. I suspect it's a bug, or a "fixation" on a particular code number offset. Ah well, next payday it's a new scanner for me I guess :D

glad to hear she's fixed... Good choice in deciding to keep her and fix her up right, which it seems you are doing for sure

Tom

Yeah, I've been a sucker for these cars for 10 years... why break the habit of a third of my lifetime? ;)