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.

Update: I took my car to a friend of a friend who has a small garage out in the sticks. He works at a very reasonable rate and routed all new rear brake lines under the car. He also replaced the spark plug wires (fixing my stuttering engine problem) and replaced the front O2 sensor (fixed my CEL problem.) He charged $450 for everything. I'm pretty ecstatic! It was so worthwhile. My car drives practically like new again.

I'm actually living in Western Mass. now, but I drive through NH frequently. In a year I might be ready to get rid of it if I move. I think that's what I'm going to do. Looking at new(er) car prices, I think that the dollar-value ratio of fixing the bake lines is pretty good, especially considering that I don't want to get a new car now. Thanks for looking at the photos

Well I took a look down there and it's pretty mixed. Some components are looking allright but there's a big helping of good old fashioned New England rust. Realistically speaking, I think that the best option for me is to get someone to replace the brake line as cheaply as I can. It sounds like an entirely new line is the way to go. Tomorrow I'm contacting a more inexpensive mechanic that has been suggested to me. While it might be possible for me to do the work myself, I think that it's going to be too much of a mess. Not having the space, equipment or experience is going to put me at a big disadvantage on such a possibly ugly job. I would then deal with caliper rebuilds, engine tweaking or whatnot myself as necessary. The goal is to keep driving the car through the next winter. Given the 50% or so chance that I will be moving westward next summer I don't want to sink $6K or so into a new (well used) car with all of the rust issues that I'm used to when I might in fact prefer a 2WD rust free economy car from my location of choice. (Possible move locations are Denver, SF and Seattle.) Can you tell I'm a 20-something recently out of college with a budget to match? Here are some photos of the underside of the beast for reference. Thoughts and suggestions are always appreciated! Offending brake line to the right: Rear right drum brake and the leaky brake line. Plenty of rust. The rest of the photos edit: I got rid of the image links. You can see the photos by following the above link.

You are correct about removing the gas tank. That is indeed why my mechanic declined. I will be checking out the overall rust situation and taking that into account. Perhaps I'll put some photos on here for advice.

I have considered it. I problems are: A) I live in a downtown-ish area without much extra space and I may be moving across the country in one year. This is also what makes me not want to put the money into a newer car, since I may be ditching whatever I have for something new or for no car at all depending on where I move. It does sound like a whole new line might be the way to go. As for the bucking problem, that's definitely more complicated, but it can wait. (I actually have a code reader already. It doesn't show up until I drive for 2-4 hours so the car is still very much useful to me if I can just get the brakes working again. You're talking about when you flip the back seat bottom up and fold the rear seat backs down, right? Today I'm going to crawl under there and doa little recon to see exactly how bad it is and where I might be able to rerout a new brake line. Thanks so much for everyone's advice!

There are 132K miles at present. Not high miles for this vehicle with the 2.2L engine by my understanding.. Clearly, many parts of the car are still in good condition. I have very little experience working on cars, but have a good mechanical aptitude in general. I've managed to fix a few things just by winging it. You bring to mind a few good points: A) I have little to lose. The car isn't worth much without functioning brakes. I have access to tools C) I have some time on my hands. (In the summertime I commute by bicycle out of choice.) Space to work on the thing might be a concern. This would definitely be a shade-tree operation. The deal with the calipers is that there is just a lot of winter induced corrosion throughout. Unfortunately, this IS the quote from the good independent shop. He said it was going to be so much of a headache because of the intense amount of rust that he would just prefer not to do it. Perhaps it's worth taking a crack at it anyways. The car is only worth scrap in its current state.

It breaks my heart to say this, but I think my beloved 1997 Legacy Brighton may be nearing it's end. I've only had it for 2 years, but I put about 30K on it as a daily driver, ski roadtripper, and even drove it across the country and back. The coup de grace appears to be the brake lines. I lost all brake pedal pressure the other day and dropped it off at my local independent subaru mechanic. He checked it out and apparently the part of the brake lines going to the rear right caliper is rusted out so badly - especially where it goes intot he body of the car - that he declined to do the work. Something about having to take out seats, the gas tank, etc. Apparently he had only seen this about 3 times in 20 years of working on the things. He pointed me towards the dealer bus guestimated it would be $600+ of work. What I'm curious about is, how often does this happen? Most of this cars miles were put on in salty northern VT and NH. Perhaps that was the culprit. Unfortunately this isn't the only thing. I'll need new calipers and pads in about 20K ($600) and I've been having a hard-to-pin-down engine problem on long trips that causes severe bucking. It could be the catalytic converter, fuel injection system, anything. Also there's the CEL which has always been on (from the cat.) As much as I love the damned thing putting $2,600+ into a car I got for $4,000 that may not be readily fixable. (Who knows what the engine problem is.) Thoughts?

Bingo. That'll do! Those sold out but I found another pair from the same people. "liftgate" was the keyword I was missing. Thanks!

I *may* be ready to eat my own words. This has the look of what I want, but I'm thrown off by the fact that it says "Trunk Strut" with no mention of a tailgate. Perhaps the struts are the same? I haven't been able to find a full parts list anywhere. Hmmm. http://replacement.autopartswarehouse.com/parts/autopartswarehouse/wizard.jsp?year=1997&make=SU&model=LEG-4WD-002&category=All&part=Trunk%20Strut&dp=true

So for the last year or so I've been living in fear of my tailgate. The car is a 1997 Legacy Brighton wagon. I originally noticed that the left strut (not sure if that's the proper name, some call it a "gas stay" I think - the two things that hold the tailgate up) was rusting out at the "ball" part of the socket joint where it attached to the vehicle. My mechanic said the part was around $100 and so my poor behind said forget it. Eventually it rusted to the point where occasionally it would slip off when I shut the tailgate, chipping the plastic casing of the tail light. Ouch! Eventually on the other side of the country halfway through a road trip the socket was rusted out completely and just wouldn't catch. We junked it there and I've been propping the thing up with a long piece of wood ever since. So sketchy! The real question is, where's the best place to get one of these on the cheap? A junkyard I assume. I'm not sure which model years would match my car. The install looks rediculously easy. I've attempted to find a generic replacement via the intraweb without and luck. Suggestions are appreciated!