dromond

You know that's not a bad system. I need to become familiar with the pick n' pull.

3 months ago I accidentally drained the battery on my 97 Legacy wagon. I had the charging system tested and everything checked out except for an alternator that barely met the minimum voltage and old battery. I went down to the local Carquest, bought a new battery and a remanufactured alternator. Installation was pretty easy. The next day I notice some funky behavior and when I tested the voltage I see that the alternator isn't charging properly: I had gotten an bad one. I bring it back to the Carquest and swap it out for a "new" remanufactured one. I install and test to find that it outputs the proper voltage. Yay! I drive ~2000 happy miles. Then, this morning I notice a slight whining sound from under the hood. I'm on my way to work so I don't take the time to test the alternator or anything, which was a mistake. When I park at work I go to restart the car and the dash lights are on but the starter will not turn. Oops.... Two hours later the car starts up normally. (In retrospect, I think that the battery had "recovered" from the morning's drain.) I start the drive home and 5 minutes in the speedo, radio, lights and other electrical stuff start going haywire which I immediately recognize as my alternator dieing, so I get off the freeway and get towed home The question is, are all Carquest/Autozone type remanufactured alternators junk? I would suspect something else in the system, except that I had it tested and there was no drain while the car was off or anything like that. The wiring appears to be in good shape. It's just weird to have one new alternator fail immediately after installation and than another fail after 2,000 miles. Can anyone recommend a place in my area (I'm in north Seattle) that might stock OEM remanufactured alternators for a 97 Legacy? I've read that some of the off brand ones can be real junk (as I think I am discovering) and that only the Subaru remanufactured ones are worthwhile. You'd think I would have learned this lesson after experiencing an aftermarket muffler that rusted out in 2 years.

Thanks for the advice! I've topped it up, so I'll see how it goes in the next few days. Something tells me that it's easiest to replace the rack and the broken boot at the same time, yes? Otherwise I'm disassembling twice.

I've found some good info by searching through the forums, but could still use a bit of advice. I've got a rusty '97 Legacy Brighton Wagon with 197K of love on it. I've been noticing a whine during slow speed steering that a mechanic told me was my front differential slowly wearing out. It's gone on for a month or two. Recently I noticed a leak under the car. Investigation reveals that my passenger side steering gear boot is totally shredded, fluid is leaking out and my power steering reservoir is low. Is it worth a shot to top up the PS fluid, replace the boot and hope for the best? Or, is the power steering system just permanently broken, leaking and in need of replacement. It sounds like the steering gear boot is just to keep dust out of there, but if that's the case it seems coincidental that I am losing fluid from there at the same time that the boot fell apart. cheers

Thanks everybody!

I'm giving this thread a bump because I'm looking for someone to replace all four struts on my 96' Legacy. The shop quote was about $1000 and I'm sure there must be someone near Seattle who can beat this.

Thanks!

I realize that this place is mostly a DIY operation but as an apartment dweller with an aging vehicle those options are pretty limited for me. The significant other and I happen to be owned by two elderly Subaru wagons. One is near 200K and the other just over. I've found two repair shops in town that have done good work on both of them, but the labor rates are so very high. (As are most mechanics.) In western MA I knew a guy in the hilltowns who had is own garage and would fix my rustbucket just as much as was needed and no more, and at an affordable rate. It made a lot of sense for a beater car that you didn't want to spend $400 on every five seconds. He even re-routed a rotted rear brake line for $250 when my previous machanic quoted $1,000+ Does anyone know of any mechanics like this in the Seattle area? The '96 should probably get a 200K mile service and I know those can run quite a bit.

I've managed to answer my own question: http://vehicletest.state.ma.us/about_obd_exemptions.html OBD Vehicles Exempt from Readiness Checks SUBARU 1996 ALL

So I've done some searching around on this topic (including a thread i started years ago about a similar issue for my other Subaru wagon) but am looking for some clarification. The car is a 1996 Legacy L Wagon with 197K. The state of registration / inspection is Massachusetts. The CEL comes on pretty readily and it is always code PD 420. (Yes, I know the catalytic converter.) The odd part is that even after resetting it several times and driving it for about a week or more (until the CEL comes back on) it only shows 4 of 6 readiness monitors complete. Specifically, the catalyst and O2 sensor are never complete. I've heard that the 96' Subarus had this problem where every time the engine was turned off the monitors were reset, which seems to go along with my observations. A) Is this true? If I take this car to my local inspection station with only 4 of 6 readiness monitors complete, are they going to know about the problem with the 96' year (and have an exception) or are they going to stop the inspection right there and tell me to drive it for another week? This seems impossible, since they never seem to be fully ready with 6/6 complete. thanks!

Yes we did install that as well. Still no luck :-\ I've got a 5,000 mile roadtrip coming up this winter and am really hoping to get it to work somehow.

Thanks for the tips on finding the computer and connector. We managed to get all of the parts installed. Of course there's just one problem, it doesn't work! When you hit dash button it lights up, but the cruise control won't engage. To recap: Donor parts are from a 95 Legacy wagon (MT) to a 97 Legacy Brighton Wagon (also MT.) We've checked: -The steering wheel engagement switch. The pins are the same and line up perfectly. -The clutch and brake switches. The appropriate plastic bits are on the pedals and the switches appear to be working properly. What could be going wrong? Any suggestions?

Anyone? Bueller? (bump)

First of all I'd like to thank everyone on this board who has provided me with such good info in the past. Resources like this are key for getting stuff done yourself. I have a 97 Legacy Brighton wagon that I'm de Brightonizing a bit. When I first got the car I added a tach which was very worth it. After driving 9,000 miles across the country and back last winter I'm realizing that cruise control would be a worthy addition. (I'm looking at doing another 5,000 mile roadtrip again this winter.) I've done some searching and found some good pointers already but I'm a little foggy on a few points. I'm doing this with the help of a much more experienced mechanic than myself who has unfortunately not done this swap before, either. So if I sound a little clueless please forgive me. The donor car is a 95 Legacy wagon with a 5 speed MT also. So far we've swapped over the steering wheel engagement switch and dashboard switch, but not the servo, brake + clutch switches or computer. The computer seems to be a real problem. From my manual it appears to be behind the fan - but I could be wrong. This would seem to necesitate dismantling the fan and/or heater core which sounds like way more trouble than other cruise control retrofitters on this board have gone through. I must be missing something or looking in the wrong place. Exactly how do you get at the computer? And just to make sure that I have a full list of things needed to make this work; -steering wheel engagement switch -dashboard switch -brake switch -clutch switch -servo unit -cruise control computer thanks everybody!

I just thought that I'd add a follow up since everybody game me such good advice. I ended up replacing the front O2 sensor and that fixed all of my CEL issues. So to everyone who made that call, you win! Well, actually, I win Thanks again.