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Well, I think the inevitable has happened to the 3AT in my wagon. I took a 100-mile Memorial Day road trip from LA to Oxnard down Pacific Coast Highway, and it ran great as usual. I parked it while we ate at a restaurant, but as soon as I started driving back, it began slipping in first gear. The fluid level is good and doesn’t smell burnt. I was able to manually engage first gear by shifting into first and then back into drive. Where should I start troubleshooting? Transmission vacuum modulator Band adjustment I want to go through some diagnostics and see if it’s something simple. Or is it time to bite the bullet and swap in a 5-speed manual with dual range? The car has 111,000 miles on the odometer—14,000 of those were driven lifted with 27" tires

Sorry for the late update on this Issue. I'm pretty sure the contacts in the ignition switch are bad. I installed a push button that gives the starter a direct 12V upon press. So when the issue pops up, just key on and Push button.

I've replaced the brake-pads (front & rear) on my 2017 Forester. And with no problems. But my Forester has the old-style hand-brake lever - no electronic brake gizmos.

I purchased a Gearwrench scanner tool (GWSMARTBT) for $145. It promises to reset the Electronic Brake System. After that I should be able to clear the codes and dismiss all the warning lights on the instrument cluster. If not, then I will have to remove the EBS gear units, loosen the parking brake tension, and drive the car to a Subaru mechanic with the professional scanner. Worst brake job ever.

The system was empty when I got the car and was burping a huge air bubble it doesn't lose coolant, but I ended finding the issue and it was the ecm had a buddy come down with his and it lit right off thanks for all the suggestions

Best bet would be to buy a set of heads or an engine that’s thrown a bottom end through the new skylight - if you can find one. All the best, Bennie

I replaced the intake gaskets when I was there. The one I replaced looked perfect and water got into the cylinders after the new one so I don't think it's the gaskets but maybe it's the mating surfaces. We were thinking head gasket as well and we might get to that point but I'm trying to eliminate anything else before we pull the engine out. Couple things make me think it's not the head gaskets. 1. the cylinders on that side have good compression and the exact same compression as the other side and 2. I would think if a head gasket was leaking it would be a slow leak. This basically filled the entire cylinder with water in like 2 or 3 rotations... that seems like a pretty severe leak like water is just dumping into the cylinders. Anyway I'm going to pick up the intake manifold tomorrow so I run my bore scope through it to inspect it for cracks or anything. I'll post and update after that. Thank you guys for your help!

There are two ports in your intake. One for air/fuel mixture and one for coolant/antifreeze. Sometimes that gasket under the intake goes and even sometimes just a bad moment as you’re installing etc. There’s no crack in the gasket your dad put on previous? Left bank only I’d be thinking head gasket. Maybe the shop messed up somehow. Let us know what you find.

So my Dad pulled the carb off and the coolant passage was blocked off by the gasket. He also took off the intake manifokd and said he plugged all the ports in the manifold filled it with water through the heater hose. He then saw water dripping out of the intake side. So in summary we are pretty sure the water is leaking into the intake somewhere in the manifold. Has anyone had an intake manifold leak and suck in water like that? Is there a common place where a crack could form between the water and air passages? We will do some more testing and hopefully we can find exactly where it is leaking if it is and hopefully it is repairable.

I’ve done front and rear brakes on my ‘15, ‘17 and my sons ‘17 Legacy’s and I’ve never had any issues afterwards. Maybe an Outback thing. On these 3, I replaced pads and rotors.

Hey all. I'm needing new front suspension assemblies for my 86 BRAT, and of course have been unable to find any new assemblies. However for those of you that have gotten suspension from GorillaOffroadCompany, have you looked at their offerings for the subaru Sambar? The assemblies look shockingly close to a BRAT's. So has anyone ever tried fitting any kind of Sambar suspension to a BRAT? Are the upper mount spacing and lower tube diameters right for direct bolt in? I bought a set of silverback limited coilovers for my STi some years ago and love them, so if anyone has tried this, I would be extremely curious to know how it went. As always Thanks in advance for any help.

Oh boy, I didn't see that coming. I have done a lot of brake jobs in my life and never ran into this before. Definitely not DYI friendly.

LIkely so 😅. I do own a reciprocating saw, but it is a battery powered model, and the sole remaining battery i have for it is tired. I got through one support rib with it before it decided it had had enough. Probably time to start consolidating to a singular brand of battery tool anyway, so that'll probably get replaced sooner rather than later now. In other news... I'M BACK TO ONE PROJECT CAR. I bought this brat from an enterprising young man who runs his own scrapping and junk removal service. We kept in touch a little after I brought the Brat home and he offered to pick up a load of scrap from me including the impreza hull last week. Later in the afternoon the day of loading he sent me the following: Bittersweet, but now I've reclaimed a great portion of my workshop floorspace. Granted I've still got a huge pile of parts in the place where the roller once sat but at least now I can walk around it, and that pile will slowly and steadily decline as I shift pieces over to the Brat. I suspect this is going to be the last major step achieved for a while - it's fixing to get really hot here for the forseeable future and I'm working on this in the driveway, so I'm going to have to start getting up early and invest in a shade tent to get much done on this for a while. As long as I'm making baby steps in a forward direction though, it'll get done.

Hey Bennie thanks for your quick response! we didn't think about water getting in at the carb thats interesting. My dad is going to pull the carb off later today and let me know what he sees. The car is over an hour away in my dad's shop... We initially thought it was water getting into the intake through the gasket so we replaced the intake gaskets. The old ones looked fine no tears or anything obvious and the mating surfaces look good from what we can tell. Next time I'm over there I'll pull the intake off and give it a better look. Any slick way we can test if there is a crack in the intake manifold? Maybe somehow pressurize it with water... For the compression I read that an EA71 can read up to 160 psi I think? I couldn't find a lot of references to that. When they rebuilt the engine they had to bore 40 over and used ea81 pistons (I could not find ea71 pistons). So I was thinking the ea81 pistons probably lowered the compression overall but each cylinder was exactly 120 so I figured that was pretty good and it seemed to run well and idle briefly even without adjusting the carb or timing. if I had a leaky head gasket on the passenger side at least that side would be significantly lower you'd think but it isn't. Thanks, Dustin.

No transmission work done this weekend, I had a graveyard shift Saturday and Sunday so I stuck to interior work. Also going through all the nuts and bolts. De-rust, ultrasonic clean, and sorting the damaged ones out. And cleaning all the emissions and coolant plumbing. The pedal box is also getting cleaned up and lubed. I just stuck to work I could do in my pajamas and not get all greasy. On a transmission note - One thing I did notice was my two Loyale ('91 & '93) SR4WD also have those two upper dowel holes. Even more interesting that the '85-'90 parts manual I have doesn't show those dowel holes on any of their transmission diagrams. I found a shop in town to get my D/R resealed and synchros bead blasted. I had to go through and make a list of all the seals, o-rings, bearings, and bushings. I bought all the seals and o-rings I could. Pretty cheap to buy all the seals (sans 2 o-rings and the weird "top hat" seals I believe). Think it was around $50. I'm taking the transmission in this week. The RTV on the spare trans is going to be an issue. They really laid it on thick, I cannot get the T-case cover off. :]

I vaguely remember a youtube video about having to hook a computer up to the car and set something before installing the brakes. I'll see if I can find it again...

I feel your pain. 2006 is the newest I will go. Yes, I'd start with the codes.

Any autopsy pics? My popcorn is going cold Cheers Bennie

I’m not overly familiar with the EA71, but with the Weber carb did you block off the throttle heater coolant passage at the base of the carb? This could possibly be an issue, I don’t know for sure. Only thought as to why it’s the passenger’s side is the car is parked on a lean towards that side of the vehicle, allowing the coolant to flow only that way. Long shot. Worst case scenario, you need a new head due to corrosion or cracking somewhere that fills both cylinders (I assume) very quickly. Sorry I can’t be of more help. My initial thought was the intake manifold gaskets leaking. Did you check that are out thoroughly when you replace the gaskets? No signs of leaking or deformity on the mating surfaces. For a rebuilt engine I would’ve expected a much higher compression. Running it for that short period of time without coolant would not cause any damage. I’ve seen (and cringed) people run them for up to a minute without coolant! Not cool. Hopefully you get this sorted and it’s a simple issue to fix. Cheers Bennie

Thanks, I have some extra head gaskets included in a gasket kit i bought. When we have a 120 psi I assumed the head gaskets were good but maybe not... Also I didn't mention we pulled the intake and put new intake gaskets on to see if that was the problem but we put more water in the radiator and still sucked water into cylinder 1 and 3.

If that’s the case I have a set of new old stock headgaskets for only $20 on eBay right now. I’m kind of beat right now but I’ll give this some thought.

Hello all, I want to start by saying that I am new to subaru and working on their engines. I have a 1979 Brat EA71. When I bought it it had a bad cylinder. The EA71 engine was rebuilt by a local Subaru shop. My Dad and I installed the engine with a new weber carb. First we checked all 4 cylinder compression and each was exactly 120. So we decide to try to run it with the radiator out still so no water in the engine. It basically starts right up and idles for about 10 seconds before we killed it. Didn't want it too get too hot. It sounded great actually. So now we are excited and we hook everything else up and fill it with coolant etc. We turn it over and it turns over twice and immediately locks up and won't even turn by hand. We pull the plugs and turn it over again and coolant shoots out of the cylinders on the passenger side (nothing on the drivers side). The cylinders were completely full of water. What the heck? This can't be just a leaking head gasket can it? Could this be a crack in the head? It sucked in so much water in 2 turns of the engine it seems like something bad... If it is sucking water that bad through the head gaskets it wouldn't read 120 psi on those cylinders (1 and 3) would it? Any help would be appreciated we are struggling.

Hi Everyone. I am tired. My 2018 Outback was in the garage for three days and I am doing the work, and I am too old for this BS. I replaced both rear CV axles, both hubs, both rotors and the brake pads. The goal was to correct a grinding sound in the rear. One brake pad was worn to the steel, but otherwise would be quite. I think the noise is from worn bearings after 98,000 miles. As a tangent - I could NOT remove the hubs from the knuckles on the car, and eventually removed the knuckles entirely and took them to a machine shop to be separated. It took them over an hour on each knuckle to part them - paid $240. Once the knuckles were removed, replacing the axles was a no brainer. The frozen hubs cost me a lot of time on the hoist. When the repairs were complete, the parking brake was locked, and the Outback would not go forward or backward. I friend was near (long story) who had experience in this, and we removed both rear tires, removed two small bolts, and removed the 'motor gear unit', exposing a star pattern stub. He turned this and released the parking brake pressure, and on the hoist, both rear wheels spun freely. I drove home, but unfortunately all the nasty indicator lights on the dashboard were on, including "Brake", and "Park" indicator lights. I got home - car drove fine if you didn't look at the dashboard. I unplugged the negative battery terminal and left it overnight. After a good 16 hours I started the car. It would drive forward and back, and the Brake light was not illuminated. I thought 'good', we are making progress. While the Brake indicator light was off, many other systems such as Eye Sight were NOT engaged, and all those warning lights are ON. I pulled up on the electronic brake handle, which had been off (not illuminated or the brake set), and pulled it up to set the electronic brake. It set the brake, making the Outback immobile, and now it will NOT reset to release the parking brake. In summary of the current situation: New brakes, pads, bearings and CV axles. Outback electronic emergency / parking brake engaged, and the car is immobile. Neutral battery terminal off. When driven to house from garage, all the major systems were disengaged, but the car drove normally. I didn't try it, but I am sure cruise control would not engage with all these indicator lights on. So, how can I correct this ? At this point it looms a pretty significant problem, hopefully one of you mechanics can help. I do have an OBD reader and can reset some codes. I have not looked at that yet. What do you think smart people? I need the car now and am at a loss. Thanks, Craig. PS: I am saving you a lot of reading by skipping over significant parts of this story line. What I did write is accurate and to the point.

Hey everyone, I'm trying to find a copy of COBB Accesstuner Pro version 4.0.0+20900.25111 — the last release before the Green Speed update in April 2022. If anyone still has the installer and is willing to share it, I’d really appreciate it.

Try steering with the fill cap off and see if tiny bubbles apear. If so, likely the S shaped hose from the reservoir to the pump has gone brittle and sucking in air at the pump nipple.