I have a 2003 Legacy sedan with a manual transmission that I bought new in March 2004. I like the car but it was initially bedeviled with a bad throttle tip-in situation that made the car very jerky and uncomfortable to drive at slow speeds (25-30 mph). Of course, I've gotten no satisfaction about this from my friendly Subaru dealer, who told me that there is no adjustment for it.

Well, this is crap... there is an easy adjustment to reduce some of the tip-in problem.

I wrote a review of my Subaru on a Web site called Epinions, which is dedicated to consumer reviews of products. At the end of my fairly long review, I explain in detail how I adjusted the tip-in problem. You can read my review (and see the adjustment procedure) at www.epinions.com/content_138754100868.

Let me know if you have any questions about this and I will answer them either here or on Epinions. If anyone has any thoughts about working out the remaining quick tip-in, I'd like to hear 'em.

Thanks!!

--Bob

bob,
were you feeling this "jerkyness" while at constant speed + throttle position or when you were trying to accelerate? I think i may be suffering from this as well, but i feel it more when i am going like 5-10Mph. do you have any photos of what you did?

The "jerkiness" that I refer to occurs at all speeds but lower gears tend to magnify the engine's acceleration and compression, so it's worse at slow, constant speeds. I described it pretty well in my Epinions review, but the situation is like this:

When I drive in my neighborhood at 25 mph (the posted speed limit) in third gear, the car slightly accelerates. If I back off the throttle just a tiny bit, the acceleration snaps away and the car lurches against the engine's compression. Ever-so-slight pressure on the gas pedal again causes acceleration, making it impossible to maintain a slow, steady speed.

The throttle sensor switch that I describe in my Epinions review has an adjustment and it is easy to adjust. This made the situation better. However, I've driven my neighbor's 2005 Baja Turbo and it had no such throttle tip-in problem, although it was also a manual. (I also reviewed this 2005 Baja on Epinions, by the way.)

I will try to fine-tune the throttle sensor switch to see if this will help some more. In the meantime, I also get some hesitation between 2-3K rpms, which may be another reason why my engine is somewhat intractible. There is apparently a fix for this that involves grounding but I haven't been able to find any information on it yet... I'm still learning this site!

I hadn't thought about posting a picture of the throttle switch adjustment. I'll see if I can get a good picture tonight. I haven't posted a picture here before, so I might need a little help.

--Bob

use photbucket or some other web hosting place.
then link to the photo in the message you post.
as for grounding, check this out:
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/search.php?searchid=331822

Its a search for "grounding mod"
the topic has been covered quite a bit in the Normally Aspirated forum.


BTW, welcome.

Thanks for the info and the welcome!

--Bob