johnceggleston

true. the "it's not worth it" statement only holds when you pay to fix it and then you sell it for not enough. if you end up with less than the repair cost plus the sale price would have been when broken, then it wasn't worth fixing. but there are lots of folks here who buy, fix and sell because the value is there. of course they are not paying for the repair labor. the only way to get your money back out of a car is to drive it, put miles on it. every mile you put on the car reduces your cost per mile. we all pay to drive, the trick is to pay less per mile. at least that is part of my plan, maybe not every ones.

yes, same trans, same final drive ratio, same speedo gears. you can use any auto trans from a 2.5L car 96 - 98. outbacks are an exact match. the GTs (and LSi) will have different speedo gears because of the different size stock tires, but the trans are the same. your sppedo will bo off though. but if you found one at a bargain price it might be worth it . most folks say the speedo error is not significant, but knowing is important.

it will allow some coolant to escape, but not all and usually enough will stat to do the job. overheating is caused by the build of of exhaust gas in the cooling system which does one of two things. either it displaces enough coolant dramatically reducing the volume in the system or it creates an "air lock" which blocks the circulation of the coolant. so letting the gases out will usually prevent both situations. BUT in truth i don't know if 120 miles a day at hiway (i assume) speeds will be too much. but driving it without it being vented is deadly. you can always pull over if you see the guage start to climb.

if it gets hot enough to run poorly or erratically you will probably need a different engine. if you have to drive it, loose the "vent" plug on top of the radiator, driver's side. it will allow the "gases" to vent, escape, and save some coolant. and check the level every AM and top off if needed. this is not a fix, just a way to drive it, hopefully without damaging the engine, until you make a decision. change the oil.

true, but an online dealer is only 4 days away. not every repair requires immediate action. most of us put off repairs for a long time for any number of reasons. but i might try NKG wires next time. what are you paying for bosch wires?

generally speaking the only thing anyone can / could do to that engine to contribute to a head gasket failure iis to overheat it. drive it with out enough coolant or when it is running HOT and you can kill the gaskets. so i doubt the oil change had anything to do with it. it just doesn't make sense.

besides the indentations, what else did you address while you had it open?? duty-c, clutch discs?

assuming it has enough oil... it sounds like piston slap, but i've never heard of it in an ej18 and only maybe in an ej22. usually it's an ej25 issue. or maybe a loose t-belt.

trading it in may be you best choice as far as price, but it is always hard to know how much you got on your trade in when they are adjusting the sale price of your purchase, and vise versa. on the other hand you can have a 2.2L engine put in for less than repair, probably. at 170k and you have had it for 90k, i'd fix it and drive it. the repair or replace will be way cheaper than the monthly price of almost any other car. check with 'lmdew', larry is in colorado springs i think and a member here. he may be able to fix it for a fair price or maybe buy it out right.

i don't know about the battery. do the parking lights come on when you flip the virgin switch? almost sounds like someone wired up their own version of DRLs, day light running lights. i'd look for spliced wires or electrical tape going to the lights or in the steering column. or a bad switch in the column, maybe. still just a guess.

if you have a 96 legacy and the parking lights come on every time you start the car there are only 2 possibilities. 1. the light switch on the steering column is set to parking lights, not head lights or off. double check that. 2. you have a wiring problem. this is not standard and should not be this way.

since it gives you a blinking AT Temp light i wold concentrate on the things that can cause that and engine problems. such as TPS, or MAF, or maybe IAC, not sure about that one. when you start and stop the engine when the AT Temp light id blinking with out driving it you have passed the beyond the conditions that create a blinking AT light. in other words it blinks at startup the NEXT time after you drove it and it had a problem. if you start it and turn it off with out driving it or you drove it and didn't have the problem it will not blink the next time. the only way i know to read the TCU codes is to ground out a pin on a connector under the dash. search "transcodes" to find a how to post. or maybe "readtranscodes". i don't think advance can do it. i don't know if the TCU stores the code or it clears when the flashing is gone. but once you have learned how to read the codes, i think you can do it pretty easily any time, especially when it is blinking. i assume you will get another opportunity. TPS is a pretty good guess given the way the trans reacts, or so my very inexperienced mind tells me. if the trans does not know where the throttle is it could well be guessing what gear to be in. but i really don't know, just a guess.

i'm likely to show my ignorance here, is this thing, iacv, bolted on the intake manifold just to the right, passenger side, of the throttle body? more or less just above the pcv valve? if so it has 4 bolts, i was swapping a 2.2 and since i didn't plan on reusing the engine i was pulling i decided to remove said device for better access to the TC bolts. i removed 3 bolts and the damn thing wouldn't come off. i finally found the 4th bolt down low and recessed, and removed it and then the thing just fell off. IIRC not all of the bolts are the same length. i reattached it after i got the engine out and even then it was not easy to bolt up. so i can only imagine the difficulty with the engine in the car. probably harder than the knock sensor, at least it only has one bolt.

true and true, but you are one of the few to figure out the cause and effect of the green plugs. other wise there wouldn't be so many post about them. good work and welcome to the world of having surplus $$ after repairs, or at least not fewer $$.

a great site for part numbers http://opposedforces.com/parts a good site for numbers and parts http://www.subarupartsforyou.com/ my preferred parts supplier https://www.subarugenuineparts.com/catalogs.html sometimes the challenging thing is know where to look for the part and what they happen to call it. for instance, is an o2 sensor an exhaust part, a sensor, or part of the emissions system? seems like each site is a little different. .

the difference between r60 and r65 tires in that width is about 3/8 of an inch, a little more actually. that doesn't sound like a lot, but the difference between legacy and outback tires is about 3 times as much. i'm pretty conservative about what size to try, but i would put my fingers in between the tire and the spring perch, strut spring, and see if it has 1/2 inch of room. it probably does, but best to check. or just bolt your friend's wheels onto your car and try them. what car was he driving them on? a subaru? PS: i have heard that your ideal snow tire is a little narrower than your hiway tire. you want the snow tire to cut into / through the snow to the pavement and not ride up on top of it. but i don't really know.

what year impreza???

the internal head gasket leak works like this: exhaust gas leaks into the coolant, displaces coolant into the overflow, and beyond, (adding gunk to it) and eventually causing an "air" pocket in the cooling system and over heating. over heating can be cause by loss of coolant or from an "air" lock in the system. when the leak is new, just beginning, it will only leak a little and can cause an occasional overheat. this is usually addressed by flushing the cooling system and maybe replacing the t-stat. (when buying a car if you see service receipts for either, or they mention either in the car ad, look harder at the car). depending on the car, the driver and the leak, it could be weeks or months before it overheats again. as the leak gets worse, it will happen more often. some of these cars with bad head gaskets can be driven around town "forever" and show no sign of over heating, some will over heat after 20 - 30 minutes of any type of driving, and some only after 30 minutes of hiway driving. so "test drive" the car. in a normal car, the coolant level will vary in the overflow depending on the conditions and type of driving. usually when the cars heats up it will push more coolant into the overflow, then when it cools down it will suck that coolant back into the radiator. this is a normal process, but the cold level should be the same from one day to the next. in other words, it is not loosing any coolant. if the car pukes coolant out of the over flow it's bad news. if there are little bubbles in the coolant in the overflow bottle after the test drive, this is bad. if the coolant level when cold before you drive it and the coolant level when cold after you drive it (cold, hours later) is not the same, i would think this is a bad sign. if there is any gunk in the coolant, this is bad. if the coolant is brand new, i would ask why and look harder at the car. typically, cooling system pressure testing does not "catch" bad gaskets in the early stages, maybe never since the exhaust is leaking into the system, not coolant leaking out. there is a test which will look for exhaust gases in the coolant, but if the leak is small, and the coolant just changed it may not catch it.

typically a pressure test of the cooling system will not reveal a bad head gasket in the 96 - 99 2.5L engine. the gasket leak is from the combustion chamber into the coolant. not the other way around. the combustion chamber is under HIGH pressure. the HC test can be a good indicator, but if the coolant has been flushed, changed, diluted, or added to there is a chance that it will not show a bad gasket when in fact there is one. typically, 2.2L legacys do not have bad head gaskets. of course they can, any car can, but it is the 2.5L engines that have a high failure rate.

you only get power to that connector when the key is in the start position which is hard to do unless you have a helper. the other test you can do is splice a small light bulb on to the wire. then every time you "start" the car the bulb will light up. please disregard if you knew this.

what dan said above. plus, these seat belts were / are part of the US requirement for a safer cars. these automatic seat belts were a step the auto makers took before they started using air bags. (when you closed the door the belt you saw in the pic would slide up to the B pliar positioning it self automatically to protect the occupant.you still had to manually connect the lap part of the belt.) the whole idea was to protect even the dummys who chose not to wear a seat belt, now some 15 years later, they are giving tickets to the drivers who do not wear seat belts.

for those of you who are 12v auto electrical gurus this will be no surprise, but i have just learned something. my battery has been "leaking" on and corroding my hold down a little bit all the time, apparently for years. recently it did it so much it oozed down onto my ATF lines, the metal ones bolted to the frame under the battery. now they are corroding. i'll have to clean and or replace them. (what do you think?) so i concluded my alt was overcharging. i put my stethoscope on it and it is making some noise. not a lot but more than my GT. so i pull it off and swap in another one i had. i located a rebuild shop and off i go. well the alt i pulled is fine, 14.3v without a load and 100 amps when needed. but i was told if my battery is bad or slightly bad , maybe a cell going bad, the alt will over charge to compensate. news to me but it makes sense. also a good working alt will only produce the amount of juice the system actually needs. the greater the need the more it produces. therefore a bad battery causes it to put out more juice. turn on the headlights, it makes more juice. i also learned that if the alt doesn't have a good ground it will / can over charge, or if the block ground is missing, or the trans ground. all the wires / plugs on the alt are positives, the ground is through the housing and mounting bracket. also a charging alt can make noise, a low whining. who knew? i don't remember if i bought this battery or if it came with the 97 OBW when i bought in 12/05, but whatever it's problem, it has been around a long time. i'm surprised it has not yet failed completely. so any way, learning about alts. BTW, the price for a rebuild is $28 labor plus parts. this sounds reasonable unless the parts are 100$. but even then, less risk than a reman from the local parts store.

you need a relay. there was a good thread last mont or so that describes the fix. basically the problem is that there is not enough juice getting to the starter solenoid through the ignition wiring. or not enough to engage the solenoid. by adding a relay, the juice coming from the ignition switch activates the new relay and it then sends juice directly from the battery to the solenoid. the fix is easy, cheap and most of all it works. the other possible solution is replacing the solenoid contacts. but if you do the relay you probably do not need to do that. but as wtdash wrote today in his thread, "...so I'm thinking I had a bad ground all along." i assume you checked your connections already. try searching here for the 'starter relay fix' maybe or 'starterrelayfix' or ''starterrelay* ". i can't remember the tagline i gave it. this is a fairly common problem and there is good info on the fix.

how long have you had the car? any service history available? how many miles? i didn't really mean to give you hope by suggesting the burp. i just wanted to eliminate possibilities. there is a good chance if you fill and burp it correctly it will not overheat for a month, maybe more maybe less. but if it is bad head gaskets it will come back. the link in my post above will shed a lot of light on how HGs fail. everyone who has been through this has held out hope that it was a bad t-stat or blocked something. almost all were disappointed.

this is a pretty classic symptom of bad head gasket. it is possible it isn't but i'd bet it is . what car and year?? 2.5L engines 96 - 99 are prone to this problem. re-fill the cooling system and burp it properly (do a search for burp or burping) and the next time it over heats, check for bubbles in the radiator over flow reservoir, NOT THE RADIATOR. bubbles indicate bad head gaskets. good info here: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=104353&highlight=badheadgasket*