johnceggleston

when searching trans for 97 leg at www.car-part.com you get this, indicating 97 had FWD trans. Transmission M.T., (AWD), 2.5L A.T., AWD, 2.5L, GT A.T., AWD, 2.5L, LSi A.T., (AWD), 2.5L, Outback & SUS M.T., (AWD), 2.2L A.T., FWD (ID# TA102AACAA) A.T., AWD, 2.2L This service uses Car-Part Interchange By clicking on "SEARCH" You agree to the Web Site User Agreement.

any chance it's the abs system buzzing?

i'm not an insurance adjuster or a body repair guy and i didn't even stay in a holiday inn express last night. but, it doesn't seem to take much to total a 1996 car. 2k - 3k and you're done. i hope everey thing works out for you. that's what insurance is for. glad no one's hurt.

i'm not sure about the hydrocarbon test. i've read that you can get a kit at autoparts stores and i'm sure dealers can do it. i would start with calls to autozxone or advance auto, they're open on sunday. if you come up dry there, call a local garage or shop and ask. if you have to go to the dealer. as i mentioned before, the more severe cthe overheat the greater the risk of damage to the heads and maybe / eventually the block. but that would have to be a major over heat, i think. you may still be able to drive it around town for a while. adding coolant as needed. eventually, if it is the head gasket, you will start to get oily gunk in the radiator and over flow tank. i sent you a private message.

the symptoms you describe in the overheating event are an exact match to a over heat due to bad head gasket. however, i don't know enough to be 100% sure that something else couldn't also cause the same synptoms. a bad head gasket lets exhaust gas leak into the coolant/water jacket around the cylinders. this put "air" into the cooling system which can reduce coolant flow causing a hot spot, and overheating. coolant is forced passed the seal of the radiator cap into the overflow resevior, as designed. if enought coolant is forced out, the resevior will overflow onto the ground. when the cooling system cools down, it will suck coolant back into the radiator, as designed. my guess is that at this time, although the radiator appears full, there is an "air" bubble in the engine cooling system, displacing some of the coolant and limiting the systems ability to circulate coolant. if you leave it as it is, the next overheat will come sooner, easier, faster. just my guess. if you turn on your heater during this overheat and the air from the heater is not hot, then you have an air lock in the engine. most probably caused by a bad head gasket. i have read that when gaskets first start to leak, they don't do it all the time. so easy around town driving may not cause the overheat. also pressure testing the cooling system may not detect the leak. 9 psi is not much compared to combustion pressure in a cylinder. over time as the leak in the head gasket gets worse, the overheating will occur more often and a coolant system pressure test will probably find it. i can't remember if you had a hydrocarbon test done? if the headgasket caused the overheat, there should be hydrocarbons in the coolant now. members here are divided on the head gasket remedy. some repair the gaskets and check the heads in the process. the more severe thge over heat, the more likely that the heads will need to be reworked. some swap out the engine for a 2.2L. the better value all depends on whose doing the work and the cost of the used engine. since you have a 2.2L engine, if it is the haedgaskets, this could be a leftover from the overheat / bad radiator last year. good luck.

bad head gasket.

chech the fluid level, tension on the belt and its over all condition.

it takes a professional to do it the hard way. any body can do it the easy way.

others will have more experience than i do, but, i have found that one side tends to get 'splatered' and gives a lousy reading, i check both sides of the stick. the level on the back side is usually lower than the front. hope this helps.

i found this while searching 'backlash'. i think shawn makes a good point. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showpost.php?p=401186&postcount=3

a friend of mine recently bought a 07 outback. he moved up from a 93 ford taurus i think, which he bought new. i asked if they had told him about keeping the tires the same, he said no, (BAD DEALER). as i told him about it i saw his face drop in dispair. but as i explained if you rotate your tires and keep them inflated properly it's not a problem. he expressed concern about having to replace all 4 tires if one went bad. i asked, 'how many times on your ford did you have to replace just one tire?' response 'never'. of course it does happen that you have to replace one tire, but unless you drive like my wife, it's rare. (3 years in a row, she cut a side wall on a curb in our mini-van. was i ever glad to get rid of that car.) tire maintenence, like engine maintenence will help keep your car running a long, long time. all cars have service schedules. when you get right down to it, we're lucky they run as well as they do in the abscence of service.

i remember reading that thread, and that is the sum total of what i know about it. that and the fact that i saw an ad for a legacy with siezed front axles for cheap once. the owner let an idiot replace an axle and obvioulsy he wrongly adjusted the retainers. don't forget to count the number of turns it takes to remove the threaded retainer. position and the number of turns. i would need more information before i tore into this. it looks fairly simple, but the potential for damage is huge.

one way to measure if it's time is to compare monthly repair cost to monthly car payment. add in a figure for inconvenience and lost time ofr taking it to the shop. but i agree w/ uniberp, why sell it. you can always use it as a truck. everyone needs a truck. make sure the squeal is from the compresor and not the idler bearing or the compressor beraing. i hear those can be replaced pretty inexpensively.

half a dozen 96's to choose from within 100 miles of you, 600$ or less. 25 or more 95's to pick from, but those will require the 95 y-pipe. oh yeah, their mileage is off, way off in some cases. they say christiansburg va is 105 miles, it's closer to 140 miles. the question becomes, how far will you drive to save 50$. and generally you don't have to sweat the missing misc. parts, you'll have all parts off of your current engine to use.

it holds more than that, i can't remember how much, maybe another 3 qts. change it again in a few thousand miles, each time will reduce the amount of old. and maybe help clean out some crud. 95 and 96 AWD units tend ot 'gum' up if the fluid isn't changed, then torque bind.

since you have looked at it and we haven't, i'm sure you are right and it's gear oil coming out of the axle seal on the front differential. but, if you weren't sure, i would tell you to check your inner cv boot on the axle on that side. grease cooking off on the exhaust is a dead give away for a bad boot on the passenger side. you did say passenger side didn't you. i would think gear oil would leak down and run back along the trans housing. but since you are sure just disregard my input. good luck.

yes. i didn't realize they stayed on with floor, but defrost yes. if your winshield is fogging up maybe your side windos too. that's my logic anyway.

change the ATF , you won't regret it.

prices vary from 400$ to over 1000$. it just depends on the seller. lower miles tend to cost more, but if the place has a bunch of them the price may be lower. some places sell them high priced regardless of miles. at car-part.com you can sort your search by distance, price or quality of the part. try all 3 and see what you find. availabliity may make the decision for you. i wouldn't put an engine with 175k miles in a car with 125k, but i probably would do it the other way around. the 95 engine is referred to as being 'bullet proof' the 96 is only slightly different and is also a great engine. some owners of 97 - 98 outbacks with 2.5L engines and bad head gaskets are using the 95 as a replacement engine. i'm sure there is a member of this board who has one, but is probably not willing to let it go. you can try posting in the 'wanted ' section, but i'd be surprised if you found one. the ebay ad seems like a pretty good deal, but look around, you never know. edit: i forgot it was a 97 engine on ebay, not quite as good of a deal since the 97 2.2 is an interferrence engine. i don't know about compatibility.

sounds like a loose connection in the door, as gary mentioned. i'd double check all the connection points in the door. my haynes manual says there is a relay in the dash and to start looking there, but if it works better after fiddling with the door, it's probably in the door.

look here: www.car-part.com sort your search by distance. a $500 engine nearby equals a $350 engine you have to ship for $150. if possible you want to get a 95 or a 96 2.2 engine. they are non-interferrence engines, this means no damage if the timing belt breaks. if you get a 95 you may also need the exhaust 'y' pipe, first section of the exhaust which blots to the engine.

you've got mail at gmail. i'm sure you carry a tire plug kit and air pump. that would help with the occasional nail. not much good for that cut side wall when you drive over the waterfall.

the virgin switch? is that when you marry a virgin and on the honeymoon you find out that not only is your spouse no virgin, but you're dead meat.

one good way to check for hg leaks into the coolant, this will cause the over flow tank to over flow, is to do a hydrocarbon test on the coolant. i've not done it but i think you can get a kit. this will tell you if the exhaust/cylinder gases are leaking into the coolant and causing it to overflow. exhaust gases in the coolant will also produce bubbles in the coolant and muck in the radiator / overflow bottle. you might also look for water or coolant in the oil when you change it. (light milky stuff almost like coffee with cream.) this another internal HG leak. although much less often. but as stated above, a radiator cap is only 6 or 7$, a cheap repair. mine leaked but not until it reached full operating temp. i drove it home one day and let it idle in the driveway. sure enough, it started to drip. new cap, now no leak.

when it's my car , i fix it the way i see fit. some times it makes it easier to steal, just use a screwdriver, sometimes it means you can start it with the clutch out and the car in gear. i learned to drive on a car that you could use the starter motor to back it out of the driveway so you could roll it down the street and pop the clutch. but now that's a no-no. it's my car, it's my call. just my $.02.