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Mileage isn't so much the problem as age compounded by environment. A garage kept car will be less likely to suffer the extremes of temperature, and humidity. Also where in the country the car lives, and there's a significant amount of luck involved. But the solder used and many of the components like electrolytic capacitors will eventually fail. It's only a matter of time. The ECM in my 86 Trans Am worked fine when it was parked but 11 years later when I pulled it from the back of my friends property to resurrect it the ECM would barely function at all and had to be replaced. It wouldn't pull codes, and though the engine would run it wouldn't idle most of the time and smacking the ECM housing would result in better/worse operation depending on the moon and the stars. GD

Yes, I thought, hey this is familiar. Had to go look. Glad to hear you fixed it. Our 95 RHD 473k miles third tranny and is still using the same TCU.

Hey there...sorry I missed your post. I replaced the TCU and it corrected everything. I see that is that is what you are doing in your other post. Todd

Make sure the Idle switch is working on the TPS.

I guess you checked the oil in the front diff. There is no dipstick for the front diff on the CVT. You have to get under the car and remove a plug to check it. Get the FSM here http://jdmfsm.info/Auto/Japan/Subaru/ 200 meg PDF download. It does cover the CVT disassembly and assembly and adjustments. It is quite a job. I did a diff replacement on a 4EAT in my driveway and it was not that bad. You might want to do this first. You have to get under the car. Remove the oil filler plug on the side of the diff and see if you can touch the oil with a finger through the hole. The oil level should be right at the hole. Since the gears are already complaining, I would drain it and replace it with 75w140 synthetic gear oil. 1.4 to 1.5 quarts. Then look in the FSM on how to adjust the carrier using the adjusters where the front axels go into the diff. This might buy you a little time to get ready to change the diff. The front diff ring gear carrier assy. is mounted inside the torque converter housing and does separate from the tranny housing. The pinion gear is mounted in the tranny section. On assembly you must use a dye on the teeth of the ring and pinion gears and first adjust the pinion in or out for the proper alignment. Put it together, take it apart several times. Then when when the pinion is where it belongs, you adjust the carrier to specs spin the gears, take it apart and look at the marks from the dye to see if the teeth mesh properly. The FSM will tell to watch for O-rings on removal of parts. I did not look to see if the front housing on your CVT is like the 4EAT and does not use a gasket. The 4EAT on final assembly you use a tube of gasket compound.

Thanks to everyone responding to this post. We figured it out! I replaced the single wire sending unit, that was not the problem. The gauge itself was the issue. I pulled the cluster, and then pulled the temp gauge off. Swapped it with my other '99 Legacy and did tests with those gauges. The gauge from the '95 was bad. Went to the wreckers and snagged a gauge off a 95 Legacy, cost me $10 and about 4 hours trouble shooting.