Subaru - Outback :: 1996 - Rocky Idle And Some Smoke Coming From Exhaust At The Manifold
Aug 10, 2015
I have a 1996 subaru impreza outback. It is now dead. Billowing white smoke, coolant coming out of the tailpipe, terrible rocky idle and some smoke coming from the exhaust at the manifold. (assuming it cracked from the harsh idle) I'm pretty good with cars but I've never taken on a head gasket problem myself. I have time to fix it, I just don't really know if it will be worth it. Should i just replace the motor w/ a scrapyard motor? Should I take this opportunity to rebuild and upgrade? I have a crappy chevy to get me around in the meantime. Should I give it a try or just scrap it. I paid 800 bucks for this car and it has 220k miles. No major problems until now. New alt a few months back. Previous two(only two) didn't have any problems at all. I feel like it would be worth it.
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Recently, my car has been sounding louder than usual. It seems to be coming from under the vehicle, and when I checked, there was smoke coming from a pipe underneath. My best guess is that the exhaust is leaking. It kind of looks like there's a disconnect here....
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What's the best way to changed a EGV valve on a 1996 Ranger? The metal line coming from the exhaust manifold to the EGV valve, is seriously rusted on both ends. It looks like if I don't heat the metal line, the line will just round out, what's the best way to tackle this job.
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I've owned this vehicle since new and never overheated or had any major mechanical issues. It just hit 130,000 miles and recently completed a 1500 mile uneventful road trip running great.
The other day I noticed an excessive amount of steam/smoke coming from the exhaust while sitting at a stop light after recently starting the vehicle. Once the van was up to temperature the exhaust steam/smoke cleared up.
I checked the radiator level and found it was about a qt low, and did not seem to have any exhaust bubbling or fumes in the radiator.
Then, I pulled the dipstick and the freshly changed oil looked a bit cloudy (I got really nervous), I really can't say its milky colored because I can still see though the oil and see the cross hatches on the stick. But it doesn't look like new oil.
The engine seems to be running fine, no loss of power or missing. Starts and idles fine.
Talked with a mechanic friend and he immediately said blown head gasket or intake manifold was allowing water from one of the four corners where the gasket seals the water jacket, into a cylinder.
Since that first episode of excessive steam/smoke it hasn't reproduced the problem to that degree. It does start to steam out the exhaust after about 5 minutes of starting cold, but seems to dissipate after the engine warms.
The amount of smoke / steam in that first episode, I couldn't see the car behind me in the mirror ... I looked like a mosquito fogger.
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I'm losing coolant have, excessive white smoke coming from the exhaust, and rough idle. Doesn't over heat or even try to overheat. The oil fill cap looks brownish white. It drives fine other than extremely rough idle. I know how to check a blown head gasket with the combustion gas test.
From what I've read blown head gaskets on 4.6 fords are fairly uncommon but a blown intake gasket is fairly common. How can I tell the difference?
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Lately I have noticed a lot of blueish smoke coming from my exhaust at idle mostly while warming in the morning though it would do it if the truck idled for a few minutes. I took it to the dealer because I have fords ESP but the tech couldn't get the truck to smoke and wasn't getting any codes so he sent it back with a clean bill of health. After getting it back I noticed it smoking again so I picked up the egr valve kit pulled the valve and cleaned it as best I could and replaced the seals, that was last night. This morning it was blowing more smoke than it has before and has continued all day whether cold or warm. I just changed the oil last week and it's still full so it isn't burning any. Head gaskets were done along with studs last month, egr is obviously intact, cat is gone. I'm really at a loss for this, It's an 07 f350 scsb 6.0...
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I noticed a rough idle after driving an hour with a 6000 lb trailer and stopped at an offramp. Had no performance issues to that point in an hour drive. Then I noticed a good amount of white smoke coming out of the exhaust. The idle felt just like when I had a contribution/balance code on #5 a year ago, and a new injector fixed that. Before long (10-20 minutes later) the idle got real loud, like a big knock/loud tick every revolution.
I had a bunch of stored codes, so I reset them and later found a P0281 - Cylinder 7 contribution/Balance and P0404 - EGR control circuit range/performance were the 2 that came back. I drove it 2 more hours to get home. It ran well under load, but coasting or stopped gave the loud knock, and stopped and idling was a rough, inconsistent idle. It even stalled on me 3 times when braking for a red light (auto trans). There was a lot of white smoke all the time, plus a little dark smoke on acceleration.
What would you recommend for troubleshooting steps? I could put a new injector in #7 and clean the EGR valve, but want to have a good idea that will fix it first. Is there a good chance I have a messed up piston in #7 now?
Codes I cleared:
P0148 Fuel delivery error
P0234 turbo overboost (i know i need to pull and clean the turbo anyway, unrelated to today's issue)
P0281 Cylinder 7 contribution/Balance
P0404 EGR control circuit range/performance
P0670 Glow plug (I had the module unplugged a while ago)
P0683 Glow plug (I had the module unplugged a while ago)
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Bought a used '96 Subaru Outback Wagon w/ 175k miles a few months ago and I'm having trouble. The car always starts when it's cold. However, sometimes when it's hot, it won't start. Then wait 10 minutes or so and it starts right up.
I'll make a short stop somewhere (like to pick up milk) and when I get back to the car everything seems to work fine: fuel pump, radio, AC, lights, instrument cluster, etc all turn on. Then, when I turn the ignition switch to start, I hear the click behind the dash (starter relay?) and the solenoid clicks but the starter does not turn on at all. Then I wait a little while and it will (almost always) start with no problem. This happens ~25% of the time when the car is hot.
I replaced the starter with a new one (not rebuilt) but that doesn't fix the problem. I tried hitting the new starter with a mallet but no luck. Battery, alternator and starter checked out OK at the Autozone. Haven't been to the mechanic because that would probably end up costing more than the car is worth.
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I recently rebuilt a 97 Subaru Outback Legacy, and everything was fine however, whenever I've taken it on the highway, I began noticing a distinct odor of burnt oil. Last night I got home and I actually began seeing smoke. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that oil was running down the differential, dripping onto the power steering and then onto the exhaust. When I looked at the flywheel it had no oil on it so I'm assuming it's not engine oil, however the oil that is dripping looks like engine oil (Im using mobile 1 full synthetic). The fluid levels are all ok, transmission levels ok, engine oil is a little more than full( I added 1 gallon before starting it up for the first time) and there is differential oil, but I know the smell of differential oil, and the oil that was dripping down the differential was not differential oil.
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Yesterday I reversed my 1996 Subaru Outback (manual transmission) out of a perpendicular parking place on a hill, swung around forward and coasted down the hill. Near the bottom, I let out the clutch out without realizing I was still in reverse gear. It made a not-so-awful noise (sounding rather like engine braking) and I very quickly put it in neutral. I immediately smelled a fairly strong gasoline/exhaust aroma and the engine stalled.
The Subaru restarted without trouble, but the check engine light was on. Everything appears to function normally now, and I've reset the engine light by disconnecting the negative terminal of the battery for a few minutes.
Have I likely damaged anything? Is there anything I should check? Should I have tried to read the diagnostic code?
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I have a 96 outback which all of a sudden has no awd. The rear differential looks as though it has leaked some. I don't know if it has a bad axle, or if this loss of fluid is the culprit..... Where to start?
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The Subaru as 260k miles on it and I live in Georgia. When I attempt to start the car, it turns over and sounds like the engine catches and then dies out without getting over 200 rpms or so. Its a manual and I made sure the floor mat isn't impeding the clutchsensor.
The car has been doing this the past three days and finally today after driving around for a few hours and multiple times shutting the engine off with at least two start attempts before it fires, I get home and shut off the car.
I then attempt to restart it about two hours later and after 7 tries, all with the car sounding like the the engine has fired but not yet fully running , then the engine dies. I would push start it but am parked on an uphill slope.
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I have a 1996 Subaru Outback. There is a strange noise emanating from the center/front of the car. It only occurs when I stop accelerating over the speed of 50 mph. It sounds like a combination of a marble rolling around in a coffee can and a baby rattle. No sound at lower speeds or when I accelerate.
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A month ago, my 99 subaru outback started to smoking white smoke. I open the hood and coolant was all over the engine. I took it in and they supposedly put a new radiator in. Three days later the car stalled out and coolant was leaking everywhere. The shop told me it was a bad radiator and replaced it. A month went by, now all the coolant leaked out as though the car had a hang over a throw up out of the coolant hose(lower left hose). Leaving a huge green puddle in a parking lot. What do I do? Has the radiator die again (because the third time is not charming)? Should the shop guys have replaced the hoses when they replaced the radiator the first two times?Is it normal to have to take your car to the shop a month after it was fixed for the same thing?
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The car had no accelerating power and it was well overdue for new spark plugs and wires. I just replaced them and it's doing much better, however, the engine seems to be shaking a bit when I start it/idling, which is making the entire car shake some too ( the seats, car shifter, etc ) . It's been awhile since I've also replaced the air filter too, which I obviously should have checked but haven't yet. When I replaced the spark plugs, I noticed there was a minor amount of engine oil on the spark plug wires, where they connect to the spark plugs; more notably the front 2(of 4), left and right. I also just changed the oil and there was no oil loss really, other than any minor amounts that get burned off through the miles.
The exhaust manifolds ( y-split ) are okay, but one of the nuts seems to loosen over time, causing a minor air leak there and makes it a tad noisy. Near the back half of the exhaust system, there some water dripping at one of the connections, and at the tail pipe the exhaust smoke is chugging and isn't consistent sounding.
What is still causing this engine shaking and the chugging noises from the exhaust system. The 'Check Engine' light is on, due to other repairs I know I need to make, such as an 02 sensor and fuel level sensor; however, lately it has started blinking too.
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Why when I come to a stop with the heater on, the car smells like exhaust? I took in into our local Subaru shop and they couldn't find anything wrong. When I'm driving it's fine, but in town or in traffic, I have to keep shutting off the heater. If I forget, the car fills up fumes and I have to drive with the windows down or my daughter's asthma flares up.
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Whenever the temperature is below 20 degrees F and am idling at a stop light, if I have the heater fan running I get a horrible exhaust smell inside my car. I have discovered that I can lessen the bad smell by turning off the fans when the car is idling and then turning it back on when I start to drive.
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About a month back my wife and I were on our way home from dinner and when we exited the interstate I heard an awful rubbing sound coming from the engine compartment. I wasn't quite sure what it was or how to describe it. I was concerned it was the timing belt right away. I limped it home sputtering and misfiring and listened for a moment before shutting it down.
The next day I checked all the accessories. Nothing wrong there, so I realized it must have been the timing belt. I began striping the rest down and confronted carnage. One of the bearings had gone on an idler pulley and the gear was riding the bolt. the belt had moved out of position and began to cut into the backside of the plastic cover. By some miracle it hadn't completely snapped or jumped timing.
I replaced all pulleys, the tensioner, the water pump, and the belt. After my buddy and I got it back together it seemed fine aside from a slightly rough-ish idle for a day or two, but then the misfire got quite bad. I chugged it up to my wife's parent's place. We borrowed a car from them, and then I went into repair mode again. I reasoned that perhaps the plugs had fouled when the belt was messed up initially, so I replaced the plugs. Didn't have wires on hand. Fired it back up. No bueno. Same misfire and chugging. Still borderline driveable.
So, I tore down the belt again to find that the intake cam on the passenger side was about 5 teeth off. Seemed further out than my friend and I would have left it, but I got it lined back up within a tooth and put it back together. Still no good. Still misfiring. So we tried it a couple more times. One of us started to doubt the cause, but I talked him to try with one more reset. This time I wanted to get everything absolutely perfectly lined up. We did. I fired it up. Silky smooth, ran like a sewing machine. Put it back together and everything seemed fine. For a day or two.
The misfiring began again. It bothered me that I hadn't managed to take care of the plug wires. I had the codes pulled and I had a steady misfire on ... I think it was 4. I replaced the wires on that side and everything was back to normal. Silky smooth operation. For a couple days.
I was on my way to work and had to brake very hard to avoid an accident. Like from 70 to 0 wheel-lockingly hard. Immediately a misfire at idle returned. Doesn't seem to be an issue when not at idle, but it's hard to say. I guessed that it was the plug wires from the other side. I replaced those today, gave it an oil change. Still misfiring. I dropped by autozone. Codes read - misfire everywhere but 3, and I'm guessing that maybe a sensor for 3 is just messed up. The coil pack looked suspect, and I thought I'd do the PCV valve while I was at it. After replacing both the misfires continue.
I've yanked the battery to encourage the computer to reset. I'm at a loss at the moment. The only think I can guess is that perhaps my new tensioner is poop and I've jumped a tooth or two somewhere? I'm looking for guesses and wild theories here. Anything to try. I'm going to reconnect the battery shortly and if it's still misfiring, which I'm assuming it will be, I'm going to have codes pulled again.
Just to head this one off at the pass - I believe I got extremely lucky and did not damage the valves with the timing belt nonsense. Compression seems good, and I doubt it would have ran as well as it did as long as it did with valve damage.
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I have a 2006 Outback XT, which recently started shuddering (like it wants to stall) at idle... At least that's how it started. I noticed it for a few weeks but with no check-engine light, and no error codes cropping up, I kind of ignored it. It then started to stall at idle. Took it to my local guy, who checked all the simple stuff: vacuum hoses, mass air flow sensor, he even removed and cleaned up the throttle body. But the problem persists.
I guess the part that really has me puzzled is the lack of a check-engine light or an error code. With how computer-regulated cars are nowadays, I'm baffled as to how this isn't causing some alarm to go off.
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Finally got the car started after over a year of acquiring parts and labor. Cylinder 5&6 had misfires due to faulty injector harnesses. That issue has resolved. But I am getting a pretty distinct exhaust leak noise coming from the manifold area and i cannot figure out where it is coming from. We smoke tested it and still can't find the leak.
Things we checked:
-Head to manifold (all nuts tight)
-Manifold to turbo (all nuts tight)
-Turbo to downpipe (2 vbands both tight)
-Wastegate (2bolt manifold to adapter tight and vband adapter to wastgate tight)
-(2) O2 sensor plugs on the maniold (tight)
-All turbo hardware (tight)
-manifold and downpipe have no cracks
Picture:
Video:
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My 2011 Subaru Outback 3.6R (bought in Feb ’11, and has 4k miles) has already had several issues in its short life. In just the past week I've noticed a sloshing noise coming from the gas tank. I first heard the noise when I was backing out of my driveway. I also notice the sloshing sound whenever I go over a bump or come to a quick stop. To determine where exactly the noise was coming from, I parked the car, turned off the engine and I pushed on the rear bumper to make the car move up and down. After doing this I determined that the noise is definitely coming from the gas tank.
Is it normal to hear gas sloshing around in the gas tank when driving? Could there be something wrong with the gas tank?
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