DaveT

Check fuel pressure and delivery. Injector check: Once warmed up, shutdown. Disconnect the MAF. Remove the intake boot from the throttle body. Start engine. Look down throat to see fuel spray evenly on throttle plate. Open the throttle, see flow increase. Note, this will cause CEL and a code.

The CTS can also cause weird varying idle including high rpm when it shouldn't. And no code. Also verify that the wiring is solid.

There are several small hoses on these engines. Look up the cooling system diagram in a FSM. They should all be replaced at about the same time you replace a radiator hose due to age, to continue reliability and avoid overheating due to low coolant, which is death for head gaskets.

It would depend on if fog lights were an option on the original 95. If they were, it's likely the harness has the wires, and you just add the lights, switch, relay. Except with you different bumper, I'd guess different lights. The schematics in a fsm would help figure out how tricky this will be, or a few more Posts from others that have done it, or have the options.

My first Subaru was a 76 wagon. I'm in CT also.

The front tires always wear faster. They do more work. Turning, accelleration, braking. The more agressivly any or all of these are applied, the more wear.

I am n o t certain of the 01, but our 09 Forester had everything in place. I got the fog light kit from a dealer, and plugged in the parts.

Should not have to hit the axle. Not so good for the wheel bearings, or the end of the threads. Before you remove the tire, pull the cotter pin from the axle nut. Break it loose, maybe a turn. Then jack and remove the tire. I've always swung the caliper off to pull the hubs and rotors, but removing the 4 bolts should work also. Then remove the axle nut and the spring washer . The cone washer will be stuck. Hit it with a good size drift / flat end punch and it should pop loose. The hub should just slide off at that point. Spray your favorite penetrating oil into the gap in the cone washer and the axle nut even a day or 2 before starting couldn't hurt.

Oh, wait, it will idle. There might be an anti diesel solenoid, I don't know those older ones as well anymore. If that were failing to open, it could be a cause of shutdown.

Was it run regularly before you got it, or sitting for years? Check fuel delivery. There might be a list of codes for that mode on here. If you can try to get a factory service manual (ebay, etc.) Give it a 1 to 2 second shot of carb cleaner down the throat, and see if it fires momentarily. If it does, you have a lack of fuel problem.

The one cj I let go really bad before swapping never showed play. It did have a torn boot, and dirt had gotten into it. It was already clicking intermittently, and I didn't have time to get at it right away. It eventually began to cause shimmy and shake the steering, making noise etc. Swapped it out, gone. If the bearings are so bad they are causing your trouble, you should be able to wiggle the wheels and see them shift around in ways they shouldn't. You might have to remove the caliper to free things up though. It is often difficult to apply forces equivalent to those caused by normal operation by hand with the car in the air.

Definitely alternator brush worn out. I just rebuild them. Get a new brush and bearings are due.

Inconsistent makes me think more towards cvj. A really bad one. At this point, it's cvj, bearing, brake related, I would just pick a side, go through it all, then do the other.

The revving making it go out makes me suspect the alternator. The pedal trave could be a booster problem, assuming all the bads and shoes are decent.

It is not normal for the brake light to be on. The only time I have seen it on is when the fluid is low. It should be on or off. Only light while cranking for lamp check. How many miles are on the alternator? If it is original, a brush fails at about 150k miles like clockwork. The alternator light doesn't always show this, but it messes with the other lights also.

When you say it does the thumping on deceleration. ... This happened to one of mine - might be worth checking... The pinion shaft bearings failed in one of my wagons. Any engine braking would cause the pinion to move forward and hit the diffential carrier. Horrific sound and shuddering. It happened to the car my wife drove. Unknown to me, the gear lube had leaked out of the differential case, and ran dry for quite a while. Amazingly, these things can run low on gear oil and not get noisy enough to notice until too late. I drive it home when it had gotten so bad she finally told me something was wrong.... it drove fine under load, or acceleration. But engine braking was bad. Had to keep my foot on the gas while slowing to a stop to prevent the banging.

It doesn't sound like a good idea to run a welded diff for street use.

You can get to the back of the ac controls without removing the entire dash. I have removed and reinstalled a dash. Had no problems, but it's a big project.

Yes, you want the O2 sensor, as written above.

That is weird. Never seen it .

Both wheels off the ground, parking brake released, turn 1 wheel, the other will turn the opposite direction. The CV axle play - how do you mean? What part are you pulling / pushing / what direction relative to some other parts?

Run over temp when low on coolant, headgaskets get damaged. Never ignore coolant smell. To check coolant level, look at the overflow. Also sharply squeeze the upper radiator hose. Normal to hear the giggle pin in the thermostat. Normal to hear maybe a little gurgle of bubbles, but monitor this. This is a before every drive check at this stage. If there is less air each time, things are ok. If there is more, that's bad. It's also tricky to get all the air out of the system. Look for threads discussing burping. It is not as simple as just adding coolant.

That battery is likely killed. Extended over discharge will do that. Much of its capacity is likely gone. Lead acid battery chemistry just doesn't tolerate that, especially starting batteries.

Lots of things might do that. CTS? Did you replace / check both catalytic s? Although, I can't day I've seen one change over temperature - if it's blocked, it should be blocked. But almost anything electric, / electronic can developed failure modes sensitive to heat / temperature. This means anything in the ignition circuits, engine control system, etc is suspect. T in a fuel pressure gauge, so it can be viewed while the malfunction happens.

Look for loose axle nut, loose brake caliper, bad wheel bearing , bad cvj.