Were these cars built to be crap?
 

Okay what's the deal.. my headlights and interior lights flicker, idle goes up and down +/- 100rpm with it, runs like crap when I turn any kind of air on, and sometimes dies at idle. I've seen a hundred threads like this but nobody's ever had a solid solution. I replaced the spark plugs, air, fuel, and tranny filters, have a gigantic tranny cooler, and cleaned my maf with all kinds of cleaners including the vinegar-soaking thing. This car also randomly hesitates and jolts while driving at any speed and throttle position. It's a 92 LSL and all the fluid levels are good/clean until they all leak out. This stupid car is pissing me off.

:mad:

i know how you feel...i also have a 92 LS~L and it just seems like i bought a car to rebuild....because that's what it feels like...and the bills that add up say the same thing too.

unfortunately there's going to be a sh!t load more money going in to fix the motherf:mad: cker.

however....i still like the car

:mad: :mad:

:mad:


........have you replaced the fuel pump?

Maybe a bad ground or something?

or the stupid wire in the drivers visor........

Alternator??

I don't think that this is normal or that many people have the same problems. :)

Yeah alternator and battery tested fine, and I scrubbed the chassis ground wire coming off the battery too. I was going to replace the fuel pump because it seems the hesitation is from a lack of fuel more than a tranny problem, but I don't see how that would cause the lights to flicker. I ran seafoam through the vacuum lines as well as the fuel tank so it's probably not an injector.. Basically I've spent all kinds of money and made zero progress. I've got a whole new exhaust and O2 sensors sitting in my garage waiting to be put on, maybe that will help. Sigh.

Did you pull the engine codes?

Uh, your car is 14 years old.

wanna sell
 

Im right up the road if you wanna get rid of it :D

Sounds like a vacuum leak to me. Have you replaced all the 14 year old rubber lines under the intake manifold, most of which have probably cracked?

Todd

BINGO!! Give that man a cigar!

Glenn

how much would new hoses cost?

I think cars especially newer ones are only made to last like 5 years then be replaced seems like once you hit the 5 year mark thats when the s$#t starst breaking

Also, have you checked the TPS voltage at idle?? Should be at .5v. Might want to replace the MAF with one that actually works.... If you are getting this fed up, sell it to someone else and buy a honda and let me know how much you hate your life after that. Your car i 14 yrs old. You need to take care of it at all times... My 92 LS-L has 128k on the clock and runs like a top

Tom

Thanks Glen :)

I'll pass on the stogie however. They always make me feel a little green the next day. How about a fine gin or maybe a Merlot?:)

Todd

what size hose goes on these cars for the vacuum lines where can i buy them ? kragen ? auto zone?

No I haven't but I looked and they all seem alright.. I guess air can still leak through a seemingly good rubber hose though. Thanks for the replies.

Some of the vacuum hoses not under the intake manifold may seem fine, but I guarantee that the ones under the intake manifold will be hard as rock and/or cracking. The engine block and the intake manifold work together to bake everything down there better than a Betty Crocker oven. :-))) Its a chore to get under there to replace the hoses, but that may be what's neeeded. Before diving into replacing the vacuum lines, I'd first verify that the TPS and the MAF (and probably other sensors) are working properly. Have you pulled the engine codes yet?
BTW, I just looked at pics of your car in your locker. Your engine looks brand new! How many miles are on it?

I second that, that is the cleanest SVX engine I have ever seen!!!

thanks.. I bought it with 85k, has 89k now

Everything that's ever tore up on one of my SVX's, I tore it up. Except the tranny on the 94... Now that turkey went south mostly for being a cold climate designed car living in a blazing hot desert. No one did the tranny filter, and at the time, I didn't know there was a problem with them and the heat.

When it comes right down to it, they are pretty dog gone dependable as long as a person keeps the hotrodding to a minimum.:)

I agree. My car needed typical maintenance items when I bought it, but since then, in 30,000+ miles, the only surprises have been a wobbly crank pulley, a balky coolant temp sensor, and a dead battery. Only the latter left me walking. (Knocking on wood...)

dcb

Agreed! Cleanest SVX engine I've seen to date!!!

http://www.subaru-svx.net/photos/fil...chet/28554.jpg

-Chike

Intake Manifold Leak...???
 

After getting my SVX back (almost $4000!) from a head gasket job...with some replacements thrown in...like water pump, knock sensors, etc........
I pulled into my garage about 2 to 3 weeks later...and THE IDLE WAS IRRATIC AND VARIED A COUPLE HUNDRED RPM! Took a peek..to find out the mechanic (actually his flunky trainee, who he sublet labor out to...even tho I was paying $85/hour!)..had overtightened the intake manifold bolts (holding the mod phenolic spacers I also opted for at this time)....CRUSHING THE TOP GASKET (Outlaw Engineering constructs their phenolic spacers with gaskets top and bottom now!) of the phenolic spacer....ALLOWING AIR TO SEEP IN (UNDETECTED BY ELECTRONIC CONTROLS) CAUSING A LEAN CONDITION....AND ERRATIC IDLING! :mad:

Maybe this could be part of your problem? Torque bolts to 7 to 14 ft-lbs to insure proper sealing....(Beav says low torque figure is for old bolts...so, 7 ft-lbs for old bolts ..and 14 ft-lbs for new bolts (as with Outlaw Eng. phenolic spacers) :D

I don't know about you guys, but I use wd-40 to check for vacuum leaks. If the idle increases when I spray the hose it's a good indication that there is a leak. I've found the same works for gaskets.

I don't know how good the WD-40 is on the hoses though. Doesn't it affect them adversely? I guess it wouldn't matter if you were going to replace them anyway. :)

Does this car ever get driven? :eek: :eek: :eek: That is impressive. :)

I only use the WD-40 when I suspect a problem. It worked well on my
'69 SS396 Chevelle. I was always replacing vacuum lines on that.

I checked all the hoses around the intake manifold and they're all nice and rubbery.. I'm getting a whole new non-rusted out exhaust with new O2 sensors installed Monday, maybe that will help. If it doesn't I'll try spraying some hoses with WD40. I don't see how a lubricant can mess them up.

wd40 is a penetrating oil isn't it? I do believe it has corrosive properties that effect rubber. At least that is my understanding of them. I could be completely wrong

Tom

That was my understanding too. I have been told not to get it on rubber products. I will have to check my can. :)

Here's my 2 cents.

I'm suspecting an electrical problem somewhere. I know you cleaned the ground wire, but it sounds like a wire, may be slightly pinched somewhere allowing a power leak to ground making the electronic ingnition fluctuate.

Does the engine RPM's go up and down only when there is a load put on (lights or A/C) or just anytime.

Have you had someone put a meter on to check the alternator? You should get 14.5 volts off the battery with the car running. Recheck with a load on (lights or A/C). It should still be 14.5.

The voltage regulator, inside the alternator, may be going.

I don't mess a whole lot with electrical systems in cars, my deal is the normal electrical work, but it's the same in theory.

Good luck.

Yes I had the alternator and battery both checked.. both are perfectly fine. The idle goes up and down always, but the car runs noticeably worse when I turn on the lights, heater, or especially the A/C. Having the radio on/off doesn't change anything though. I have no idea where a wire could be pinched since this car is completely bone stock and never really been messed with except for maintenance.

Brian - have you check the sun visors to make sure there are no wires that have been damaged? Believe it or not, but that will make all sorts of wierd things happen if they are damaged. Good luck. :D

Being stock doesn't much matter when it comes to wear/pinching/or rubbing through on electrical wires.

I went to a house one time, 5 years old newly built, that had a circuit that suddenly started flickering then just kept popping the breaker.

After HOURS of tracing the circuit back, it ended up being a staple that rubbed through the romex sheath. The feeder was run above the garage doors. 5 years of vibration of that garage door going up and down finally put the staple through to the conductor creating an arc at first (flickering) then finally just a dead short.

New doesn't matter. If something was just not quite right from the beginning or placed wrong, all these years of vibrations from running the car could have rubbed through something or pinched something even if just under a wire tie. Or a wire in a connector is loose....it could be a million different things.

The rest of the symptoms you described could possibly go back to hoses and blah, blah....but not headlights. There is no connection between the mechanics of the car and the headlights. It's electrical.

And it ain't gonna be fun for you to try to do on your own, if that's what your left with really considering as the fault.

What you should do, is see if there are any auto shops around that specialize in the electrical systems. A regular auto mechanic is just that, a mechanic and it's probably over their heads. You may need a specialist. I'm not knocking mechanics, not by a long shot, so any mechanics please don't be offended by this.

Electrical problems suck!

No I haven't. Where exactly do the wires run for the mirror lights? Is there a fuse I could remove to disable that circuit to help narrow down my problem?

Yellowbird, thanks for the help.. guess I'll start tracing wires :o

WD40 = Water Dispersant #40.

WD40 contains a light oil which is a mild solvent. The oil is intended to get rid of water, and is very similar to paint thinner, which is also excellent at repelling the wet stuff. It might have a slightly adverse affect on your rubber hoses depending on what they're made of, but unless they were constantly exposed to fresh solvent, they won't suffer anything more than surface damage.

The oil contained in WD40 is a lousy lubricant, which I believe is primarily because it has a low surface tension. People often use WD40 to re-lubricate things such a bicycle chains, but the solvent-like properties of the oil often destroy and displace whatever original lubricant existed, and when the oil in WD40 finally breaks down and dissipates (which doesn't take long), the lubrication problem is made worse unless more lubricant is promptly added.

I refer to WD40 as the "magical evaporating lubricant" because that's how it performs. When the proper tools are unavailable, I usually use it as a solvent because people seem to have a can of the stuff kicking around more often than they have any proper solvents. It sounds like a cheap and readily available tool for checking for cracked hoses though, and since it seems to magically disappear, that would make it a good choice in my book.

Like you said it evaportates quickly. This is where the rubber will be damaged as it will suck the moisture out of them and make them more brittle and prone to cracking. I was not suggesting that it would eat through it but merely dry them out.

Tom