johnceggleston

unless i missed something, you showed a pic and asked about timing, you say the water pump is out, and you report the dealer says it is not the water pump, but head gaskets, but you did not say what the symptoms are? the water pump is out of the car? on the work bench? the water pump is not pumping? what is the engine doing? what is it not doing? is it overheating? is it leaking coolant? more info please.

DO NOT REPLACE IT. there are lots of things that will kill your engine before that does. they usually last the life of the engine.

yeah, used or rebuilt, pick your poison. but if you are buying new, the rear disc brakes, 95 - 99 lego , GT , outback are all the same. the pads on my 95 lego L will swap into my 98 outback. wheel size has nothing to do with it.

i vaguely remember that in the 00 - 04 years, some cars, outbacks for instance, have larger mirrors than the legos. i assume they will both bolt on, but some models have larger ones .

it is entertainment in the form of car repair advice. i enjoy listening to them. but i'd rather get ''good'' suabru repair advice here at usmb.

my 01 VDC has a VDC ''off'' fuse holder, but it does not have a FWD fuse holder. actually the VDC off fuse holder is the same location as the FWD fuse but it does not make the car FWD. i think later years have a VDC off ''switch'' inside the car, but i'm not sure. i do not know if later VDC years have a FWD fuse holder?????

TIP: when takling to the salvage yards, if you tell them the car you are working on, they will only sell you the engine the software indicates is a match. (if they sell the mis-match engine they will void any warranty.) they will not sell an engine that needs ANY modification to work. but trial and error has taught us what other engines will work and what changes are needed to make it work.

the 96 - 98 ej22 (from auto trans car, impreza or legacy) is a direct swap into your car. the 96 is non-interference. if 98 is used, swap in your intake manifold , this will accommodate the charcoal canister in your car under the hood. and as mentioned, you need EGR, auto trans donor car. a 95 will work, but you will need the matching exhaust y-pipe / manifold. the ej18 will also work, 93 - 97. my understanding is they all have EGR and dual port heads, so you will need the exhaust y-pipe as well. and use your original intake manifold. this will eliminate any obd1/2 issues and or harness stuff. the later years, 96 - 97 may not need the intake swap, but better safe then sorry. the ej18 is non-interference. the ej18 may be a cheaper buy, not as much demand. but you should be able to get either for $500 or less. if i can do the swap then you can. given the fact you isolated and diagnosed your engine problem, you are way ahead of where i was when i did my first. most folks who work on subarus after time with other brands talk about how easy they are to work on. and there is lots of ''how to'' help and tips.

not the t-stat.

AWD right? the following info is for AWD auto trans. the auto trans that is compatible with your 93 is 92 - 94 legacy, non-turbo or 91 - 94 lego turbo. it is plug and play. no worries. for a FWD auto trans you can use 90 - 97 legacy or impreza. look for used parts here: www.car-part.com sort by zip code to see what is close. you will have to search each year separately.

what about the other 2 cylinders, 1 & 3?

besides, when the ej22 gaskets fail, it is usually an internal leak, exhaust into the coolant.

no problems here. as i said, i don't understand exactly how it works, and since i drive autos, i don't really need to. i just have to guard against giving advice on anything i don't know about, because i tend to have an opinion on EVERYTHING.

got it.

so it starts when the engine is cold, but will not restart when the engine is warm, right? this sounds like an ECTS, temp sensor to me. the engine is warm, but the computer thinks it is cold, wrong fuel air mixture. it is hard to believe that would happen at below freezing temps, but who knows. just saying.

another possible explanation is that they saw a late 95 build date on the door jamb, (7/95 - 12/95) and assumed the car was a MY95 instead of the MY96. this is not uncommon with uninformed sellers.

gary, i have been told repeatedly that this is not the case. i'm not clear on why, something about the viscous coupling being part of a ''center diff'', and as a result if you remove the drive shaft you will get ''no wheel drive''. this seems really odd to me, i do not understand, it seems to suggest that if you bust an axle in a manual trans subaru with open diffs front and rear you will be stranded, but this is what they keep telling me. i would love to be wrong. i do not think this is rocket science, but when it was explained to me in writing, my eyes started to glaze over and i gave up. mostly because unless someone gives me a manual trans suabru, i'm probably not going to own one.

a blinking CEL indicates a condition that could harm the cats. the most common cause of a blinking CEL is misfires. if 2 cylinders are not firing at speed, you are dumping a lot of unburnt fuel into the exhaust. the igniter is one possible cause of a ''front vs rear ''misfire, just like the coli is. but since you have replaced the coli, next guess is the igniter. but the MOST COMMON cause of misfires is plug wires, second is plugs. but if you arer sure that is not your cause, the igniter fits the symptoms. have you move the plug wires from the rear cylinders to the front cylinders? to see if the miss follows the wires?

i had a similar problem, either flashing or on constantly while driving and NO light at start up. but mine also down shifted for no reason. it would shift all the way up, but then down for no reason. if i shifted down manually, it would shift down yet again. i finally found a loose ground wire left over from the head gasket job months earlier. once i tightened that up all was good. check your ground wires. ps: i could find nothing in the manual that addressed my AT Temp light situation. nothing about it being on when the car was running. good luck.

then it is likely the igniter, mounted on the firewall. it feeds the coil in the same front (1&2) vs rear (3&4) manner.

in regards to fix or fold, one of the things you have to weigh, is the cost of the repair vs the cost of replacement. lets say it is a $1300 repair. and lets say you could sell the cars as is for $700. that means your replacement budget is $2000. so here is the question, would you have more confidence in this car repaired, or a different $2000 car that you know very little about. i know i have loaded this question to lean towards repair, but it is usually cheaper to repair than to replace. prior to this binding issue, did you have any doubts about your car? were you thinking about replacing it? if your tires are all the same, i think a replacement trans will put you back on the road. even if it costs $1300, if you drive it 13,000 miles you will come out ok. if you drive 20k , better. but what if you drive 26k? best. that = 5 cents a mile. that is cheap . but you may only need the center viscous coupling.

this sounds like the front and rear diff final drive ratios do not match. and as the front and rear wheels turn at different rates of speed, the center viscous coupling binds up making the car immovable until it cools down. was there any recent work done to the front or rear diffs? or the trans? or the center viscous coupling? or even the axles or half shafts? any recent service of any kind? however the description of the ''fix'' and the price sounds more like the center viscous coupling is bad. but that usually only causes binding in turns, not going straight. UNLESS the front and rear tires are not the same size. are the front and rear tires all the same, size? brand? model? tread pattern? air pressure? and tread wear? mismatched tires will cause binding, long term this will cause wear on the viscous coupling.

this is usually an o2 sensor issue. but there can be lots of different causes, including an intake leak. there is a great posting over on the outback forum about htis. extremely informative. http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/66-problems-maintenance/49537-p0420-diagnosis.html?highlight=p0420

a leak, exhaust or intake. have someone accelerate the engine while you listen.