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No issues buying on ebait if buying name-brand (AND Seller's feedback). KYB is the best. There are lots of online installs for these. Unless yours are clunking, the tophats (strut mounts) may be fine. Depending on your shopping skills (and patience) I recently bought all new for a different car. All KYB and found better prices shopping around on Amazon and Rockauto (RA). RA 5% code: 8605686777408527 and KYB's have a rebate per their site.

So after a lot of work, mailing in a set of torsion bars from my Brat, paying for the initial machine work and engineering design, and a 8 week turn around, I happy to announce that you can now order new torsion bars for your EA81 chassis from Swayaway here in California. They will run $325 a set and will offer you a spring rate that's 20-25% stiffer than stock without loosing any of the rotational limits the stock ones had. Actually, Swayaway claims their bars will out perform the OEM bar in every single matrix, and they're guaranteed not to sag or break. You can check out their web site at www.swayawaycom. They make very high end products. So what does this mean: Better handling, no more having to crank the torsion bars for heavier loads, no more broken torsion bars, better articulation, and a new parts option for our aging suspension. I will be receiving my set this week and will do a comprehensive comparison to place here and on FB. Once I do that and ensure fit and finish is good, Ill update this post with the PN. He made 3 sets, 1 for me, 2 for immediate purchase, and any orders after those will be made to order.

Disclaimer: have not driven any Subaru this new w/the 4EAT or 5EAT. Assuming this is a NON-turbo? Not an XT, correct? I'd start w/the AT service - up to date? You're in the high country so you're down on power anyway you look @ it, but I wouldn't expect 2nd to be 'that' bad. I'm confused as to why it wouldn't shift to 3rd in the mtns...see attached shows that 3rd should be good to 99 MPH (assuming that's Redline). SOHC Boxers have a pretty flat torque band, so it shouldn't have a high RPM 'kick' like a DOHC or turbo. You could try resetting the ECU/TCU by unplugging the Neg battery for 30 minutes (NOTE: you'll lose your radio presets, MIGHT have to re-program your keyless fobs, etc.). This doesn't 'fix' anything but If it runs better/different initially then you may a problem....it'll revert back to the same behavior after a few miles. But these are generally reliable transmissions. Go test drive another Subaru w/the same trans for comparison?

thanks for the advice.

Heat it up with a space heater and a heat gun before you attempt to remove any more bolts. Get it near normal operating temperature, it makes a big difference. When you reassemble, use anti seize compound. I would not use stainless steel in an aluminum block. The electrolysys and corrosion that occurs is worse than steel.

spider type feeds air in from the rear, flat type from the top side. Hmm, its with these old things you need to snap a few bolts, learn a few skills in thread repair, skin a few knuckles. Think it happens to most of us so you are not alone. positive side is that once I have fixed mine, never had same bolts threads corrode up on me as bad, ever in 20 years

Yes, it's a '97 model Legacy. I believe it is the 2.2 and its a really basic car, so if the Brighton was the base model then that's what I think I have. No difference in the steering during the screech. There's some seepage on the top side, but really the top looks pretty good. While there's more seepage on the bottom side it isn't enough that I've noticed anything hitting the driveway after sitting overnight. I did get the $11 knock sensor from Amazon and the light hasn't been on since (replaced it during my lunch break and drove it about 30 minutes afterwards). Now I have to start looking at the belt tension and the other pointers mentioned above.

Update, got my shop gauge connected today. I used the port with the square nut, and my gauge threaded right in, no adapter needed. Surprise, surprise (no one is surprised) the dash gauge is way off. At cold idle I’m reading around 55, and up to 70 with a throttle blip. After everything warms up and the dash gauge goes to 0, I’m still showing around 20. Again, with a blip of the throttle it jumps back up to 50. So now I feel a lot better, and my paranoia is satiated for the moment. I plan to mount a nice/working gauge on the inside eventually, but for now all is well.