94' legacy awd wagon has clicking in dash

[getemoutbyfriday]

Hi, Starting at the top, about a month ago at a cold start, the car cranked but did not start until 20 seconds, then ran ruff with white/some what blue gray smoke out the tail pipe, cleared up, and ran good, but then had minor hard starts when cold, check engine light stayed on.

And when the key is in the on position there was this constant clicking in the dash by the driver side door, the check engine light would flicker and the tach would jump slightly.

Went to the dealership, they said that , my coolant temp sensor, was failing intermittently, they cleared the comp. codes, the check engine light went out, no more hard starts, car ran well, but still clicking and tach jumping in the on position.
I did not replace the sensor.

Went for a month and car started to buck and jerk while driving, running ruff, check engine light came on, fuel mixture became extremely rich(smelled gas). Went back to the dealer they said the mass airflow sensor was going bad, the tech unpluged it and pluged it back in, the car was running fine again, clicking did not go away.

The tech then pluged the diagnostic while the key was in the on position and clicking was happening, it completely stopped, when he unplugged it, it started again. He threw his hands up in the air.

Drove the car out, I did not replace the sensor, drove for a couple hundred miles, and it happened again, I pulled over and unpluged the mass air flow sensor, pluged it back in and the car was running fine, check engine light went out, clicking still remains. What is going on here?

I don't want to spend $700 on sensors that work fine when you unplug them and plug them back in and what is the clicking? If any one can help, thank you in advance.

[rudgers73]

That's really strange. Is the clicking a relay? That is the first thing I noticed when I bought my 99 legacy and I never thought that I would get used to it: It seems like all of the relays for the car are located right behind the gauge cluster or something. I have always had a cycling clicking every couple of minutes from the dash area. Is this a normal thing? My car has always run without issues other than when my knock sensor went bad. It almost seems to have something to do with throttle position whether the clicking happens or not. idk man.

[Grafton]

That's really strange. Is the clicking a relay? That is the first thing I noticed when I bought my 99 legacy and I never thought that I would get used to it: It seems like all of the relays for the car are located right behind the gauge cluster or something. I have always had a cycling clicking every couple of minutes from the dash area. Is this a normal thing? My car has always run without issues other than when my knock sensor went bad. It almost seems to have something to do with throttle position whether the clicking happens or not. idk man.

is your ac on?
if it is when you hearing the clicking then its you ac relay, it will automaticly cut off the ac if you gun it.

OP:
dunno that would drive me crazy

[ilovemy96]

speaking of clicking, i've also heard this same sound as i'm driving on the highway. and it does sound like it's coming somewhere from the cluster. (not that loud) can't remember if i had the ac on though, but most likely i did.

will pay closer attention to it, next time.

[Huffer]

Hi, Starting at the top, about a month ago at a cold start, the car cranked but did not start until 20 seconds, then ran ruff with white/some what blue gray smoke out the tail pipe, cleared up, and ran good, but then had minor hard starts when cold, check engine light stayed on.

And when the key is in the on position there was this constant clicking in the dash by the driver side door, the check engine light would flicker and the tach would jump slightly.

Went to the dealership, they said that , my coolant temp sensor, was failing intermittently, they cleared the comp. codes, the check engine light went out, no more hard starts, car ran well, but still clicking and tach jumping in the on position.
I did not replace the sensor.

Went for a month and car started to buck and jerk while driving, running ruff, check engine light came on, fuel mixture became extremely rich(smelled gas). Went back to the dealer they said the mass airflow sensor was going bad, the tech unpluged it and pluged it back in, the car was running fine again, clicking did not go away.

The tech then pluged the diagnostic while the key was in the on position and clicking was happening, it completely stopped, when he unplugged it, it started again. He threw his hands up in the air.

Drove the car out, I did not replace the sensor, drove for a couple hundred miles, and it happened again, I pulled over and unpluged the mass air flow sensor, pluged it back in and the car was running fine, check engine light went out, clicking still remains. What is going on here?

I don't want to spend $700 on sensors that work fine when you unplug them and plug them back in and what is the clicking? If any one can help, thank you in advance.

1. If your coolant temp sensor is failing, fix it. When it fails completely you'll be stuck with an overheated engine.
2. The clicking if it continues to be related to the tach and the CEL then you obviously have a grounding/shorting issue somewhere in the vehicle.

[getemoutbyfriday]

At the dealership i believe the tech said that they found no ground problems, and the fact that when they pluged in the diagnostic the clicking went away, and as soon as they take it off it starts again, should be some indicator of what is doing the clicking. It seems that the coolant temp sensor is not failing much any more because the fans are not coming on when they are not suppose to. I don't think i have three different problems at the same time, but i could. It just seems unlikely, and how is one sensor working fine again and all you have to do is unplug and plug back in the other sensor to have it work again. And no one knows what this clicking is, sounds strange to me.

[chuckthefuk]

Sounds like your MAF is kicking the can. When you unplug the MAF and plug it back in you reset the "temporary" readings the MAF had been holding. As soon as the MAF starts to defect it starts giving irregular readings. This would 100% cause jerking/ruff idle and rich mixtures and is usually a good indication that YOU SHOULD change you MAF.

Like Huffer said. Change your temp sensor. Think about it as if this were "preventative" maintenance.

The clicking is 100% a relay. No other component in your car will make a specific sound like the "CLICK" of a relay.
Unfortunately I have no idea what would cause this irregular clicking, but I would start with replacing all the fuses (both cabin and engine bay fuse box)

If there's one thing I've learned about Subaru's is that when a part seems to have an intermittent problem, here one day gone the next it will definitely come back and bite you on the ass at the worst time.

Change the part and go from there. I understand money isn't easy to come by these days but reliability cost. You got to pay to play.

Good luck
-Chuck