Desperate help needed with 1996 2.2L

[USDM96SLI]

Hello all,

Today has been quite the day and hopefully SL-i can help me out. A little history on the car, I got it at 130k miles, its at 164k miles. Since then I have done a ton of work/maintenance including pulling the motor and doing rear main seal, valve cover gaskets, timing belt, air & fuel filter. Recently I have done new plugs, wires, cam seals.

Today on the way to work my car start smoking really badly. Luckly I was one block away from a gas station so i pulled in and they were nice enough to briefly take a look at it. Oil or something was leaking on top of my exhaust manifold and causing it to smoke up pretty bad. from looking under the hood, I did not see anything leaking or out of normal. It was under the car, there was a bunch of oil or something coming from the timing cover or oil filter. I had thought it could be front main/crank oil seal. The one seal I had not replaced.

Got the car towed to the shop that i work for/at and got it taken a brief look at it. I had left before then but I recently got a call from my friend who works next door and said they couldn't figure it out but his co worker said its not the seal, its the crank bearing because there is play in the crankshaft, being able to move it by hand side to side. Now keep in mind this friend of his is very jokeful, he often times is messing with us and has a very "I dont care" attitude.

I wanted to check with professionals, you guys, to see if this is a known problem on this car, if anyone has had this problem or know if it happening Or, if the seal could be infact bad or this guy is being serious and there could be a problem.

Next steps prematurely are 1) do a motor swap and keep the car 2) part it out and get rid of it.


Any feedback on this problem would be great, I am car-less at the moment and need to figure out what my next steps are going to be.


Thank you
Nate

[r3v_v3ng3]

Have any pics of where you guys think its leaking?

Off topic, Just browsing SF Craiglist and it sounds like your selling your car

[96LegacyWagon]

My first guess was Oil Pressure Sensor, but yeah, I have a 96 Legacy Wagon as well. I ended up having to replace the valve cover gaskets because they hardened up at one point and cracked, leaving me adding about a qt of oil a day... I wish you the best of luck on it, and if you do decide to part it out, let me know what parts you have available, as I need a few things (like a fuel filler tube).

[Thomistopheles]

his co worker said its not the seal, its the crank bearing because there is play in the crankshaft, being able to move it by hand side to side. Now keep in mind this friend of his is very jokeful, he often times is messing with us and has a very "I dont care" attitude.

Uhhh... pretty sure you'd be hearing lots of terrible noise if that were the case. I'd be looking at the oil pump and front main seals, and check to see if your new cam seal popped out. It happens.

[harrymaneuvers]

Are you sure that it is oil? Is it dripping on the ground? Does it drip when the motor is off?


I was trying to track down an oil leak recently on the WRX and ultimately figured out that my CV boot had torn... throwing grease all over the exhaust components which in turn smoked heavily.


I vote that you get some UV dye, put it in the oil and start looking for where the UV shows up

[NickTej22]

Two of the most common things for you to check now would be the oil pump seal, and the oil separator plate on back of the motor.

Sent from my SGH-T679 using Tapatalk 2

[USDM96SLI]

thank you all for your replies!

Talked with my mechanic and said the cam seals are fine, oil pump seal seems okay, but the longevity of the crank seal is unknown. I am going to have them put in a new seal, drive it home and sell it as soon as I can. Its on craigslist for 4200 obo. Which yes, is very high but with the amount of work and mods on the car, I would like to not take a total loss on the car. but if it comes down to it, I may need to sell it for much less than what I want to.

For you subaru guys, this has been a great car to me, I love it. One other guy I spoke to at a different shop said if the bearing is bad, the crankshaft will move, which is not good. I have no problems driving the car, no odd noises or any driving problems so thats why Im feeling annoyed and frustrated, yet sad that this happened.
I am going to see the car today, check things for myself and see if its okay to drive home. It should be, but i just have to be easy on it.
It is being posted for sale here, I hope the car will still bring a decent amount to someone who wants to take over fixing the bearing problem.

thanks again all for your help, i will respond when I see the car and find out 100% whats wrong with my own eyes.

-Nate

[USDM96SLI]

UPDATE!:

My friend who is there right now said the crank walk isnt that bad, everyone has made it sound like its worse than it actually is. Their going to replace the crank seal and cam seals and put it all back together. So the issue isnt as bad as I made it seem, but something to still be aware of. But I should be able to drive it no problem. Still want to sell it because I need a reliable car and any possible issue with it, wont sit right with me when Im driving it.

Of course still want to be honest with you guys if Im selling the car. Don't want to be one of those guys who temporarily fixes the problem and doesnt say anything just to sell the car.


1133am:
Got to the shop and saw the car. The crankshaft has 1/100 of an inch of play, it moves just ever so minimal when tugging on it. the seal was starting to crack, the cam seals that were put in recently were leaking again so changing those out as well. so the damage isnt as bad as i had originally thought and making it seem.

The car will be fine to drive, Im still considering selling it. If the right buyer is willing to pay the right price, ill sell it.

6pm:
Cam seals and crank seal were replaced. drove it around the block and it was fine. bring it back into the shop right before I decide to take it home and it starts to drip again. mechanics take a look and soon enough it starts to smoke up again, pretty bad too. coming from front of the motor and with the heat, burning and smoking. the car will be there for another day. said they are going to take it all apart again, but this time take off the back timing cover and check behind that. as well as the cam seals again.

fingers crossed!

another update!
checked over everything again, did a oil UV die trace kit and it was leaking from the cam seal. due to improper installation. So they re installed it, both sides, and ensured it was okay. they drove it around the block a couple of times and it was good. they checked the valve cover gaskets as well, that wasnt the problem.

so the car has been fixed. Still considering selling it however.

[r3v_v3ng3]

Glad its all fixed. I was just amazed that I see an SL-I member selling their car locally. BTW thats the first time I've seen your car! looking good and good luck with the sale

BTW what did you do to install the rear wrx wagon seat on your legacy? did you have all the wrx wagon rear upper seat brackets?

[98legacygt22]

I'd keep it after putting in all that work, you won't find a more reliable car than a Subaru. Unless of course you buy an old Chevy or Ford.

[USDM96SLI]

I probably will end up keeping it at this point. With all the work i've done to this, i dont want to start over with another (used) car. But if i dont feel like its going to be reliable, then I may have no choice. Ive only had the car back one day, so I will drive it around normally and see how it does. My biggest frustration is I have tires and (coilovers arriving tues) in my garage for this car. Took 2-3 weeks to get and now I dont know if I need to sell or install.

For the wrx wagon rear seats, you lose the folding functionality, I am trying to find a way to make them fold but have put that project on the side for a while. I used my bracket for the backs from my stock legacy seat. The bottoms fit under the backs, you just have to squeeze them in so your able to bolt the bottoms on the floor (the 2 bolts). The side brackets you also need from the stock legacy back. pull out the pin so your able to remove the hinge) re install pin and hinge on the wrx seat. this way the brackets still bolt up in the stock location. in other words, your re using all the stock hardware. the problem is the seats arent quite the same size. they are just ever so much longer so they squeeze the sides a little, trapping the side seatbelts once in a while. they are very tight next to each other and they cant fold because the bottoms are too long, it ends up hitting the bottom floor where the backs are. its hard to explain but in my members ride, i should have pics of the install.

let me know if you have any other questions about it.

[98legacygt22]

Good, a buddy of mine bought his 98 outback for 2800 then 2 days later figured out the head gaskets were shot... he dumped a substantial amount of money into the car but it's very reliable now. Only time its died was because the gas gauge is on the funk haha