Today, I completed my first-ever car maintenance. I installed a new knock sensor on my 2000 Subaru Impreza. I am officially no longer a car maintenance virgin.
I bought this car two weeks ago, and within days the CEL turned on. I borrowed an OBD II code reader from someone at work, diagnosed a P0325 knock sensor and ordered all the parts and tools from Amazon (Delphi OE knock sensor, and various Tekton tools: breaker bar, extenders, metric sockets, a magnetic grabber tool, and a torque wrench). I spent about $150 total on everything.
The breaker bar helped as the bolt was really cemented in there. I also had to use 2 extenders to gain access. The old sensor had 3 large cracks on the housing, so no wonder I was getting P0325 error codes. I polished up the mounting surface on the engine block with some fine steel wool, vacuumed up the debris, and installed the new sensor. My torque wrench has markings for Newtons (who uses that?) and inch pounds, so I had to convert from foot pounds: 16 ft-lb = 192 in-lb. Finally, I cleared out the OBD error codes.
I took the car for a 5-mile drive, and I swear that it seemed to be a little more responsive when I accelerated on the Interstate. I'm also looking forward to see what affect this fix has on my gas mileage. I'm averaging 23 MPG combined but am expecting something closer to 25 or 26 MPG.
I bought this car two weeks ago, and within days the CEL turned on. I borrowed an OBD II code reader from someone at work, diagnosed a P0325 knock sensor and ordered all the parts and tools from Amazon (Delphi OE knock sensor, and various Tekton tools: breaker bar, extenders, metric sockets, a magnetic grabber tool, and a torque wrench). I spent about $150 total on everything.
The breaker bar helped as the bolt was really cemented in there. I also had to use 2 extenders to gain access. The old sensor had 3 large cracks on the housing, so no wonder I was getting P0325 error codes. I polished up the mounting surface on the engine block with some fine steel wool, vacuumed up the debris, and installed the new sensor. My torque wrench has markings for Newtons (who uses that?) and inch pounds, so I had to convert from foot pounds: 16 ft-lb = 192 in-lb. Finally, I cleared out the OBD error codes.
I took the car for a 5-mile drive, and I swear that it seemed to be a little more responsive when I accelerated on the Interstate. I'm also looking forward to see what affect this fix has on my gas mileage. I'm averaging 23 MPG combined but am expecting something closer to 25 or 26 MPG.