fishy

Also "eastern". How about Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia. where are you located?

Also a fine idea. I'll look into that as well but last year when the alternator crapped the bed in my 94 turbo I couldn't find a "local" place within a couple hours to do a rebuild. I'll look around again though before I order anything this time around. You're right about shipping USPS, I've been ebaying for years so I know allll about UPS and FedEx and how they LOVE to screw Canadians pretty hard at the border.

Thanks for the tip, it looks like they ship to Canada. woot!

Hey gang, My 99 is on it's way to lunching an alternator and all the local places have foolishly high prices on a replacement. 1stsubaruparts.com doesn't seem to ship outside the US and subarupartsforyou.com wants the price of the alternator for the insane UPS shipping. Anyone got a good lead on a reliable online parts place that doesn't hate Canada as much as the others?

Here on the east coast of Canada my family has always run dedicated snow tires. Most commonly they are whatever is on sale that month and we swap them off for 3 seasons of the year. We don't get massive ammounts of snow here very often but we get lots of days where it's bad driving because of a little snow. On my 94 t-lego wagon I've got a set of Micheline Arctic Alpins (I believe is the name on them) and I would rate those as a GOOD snow tire. The 99 lego wagon came with some generic wankerdoodle brand tires which say M+S on the sidewall and seem to do well enough. I rate those as FAIR. Last year my wife lovingly kissed a curb with enough force to sidewall-puncture which doomed a set of ultra-cheap re-treaded winters. They were cheap, they were noisy, and they probably wouldn't have lasted the longest but for winter performance I rated them as AWESOME. I reckon it's because the tread was just so gummy on them. they were amazing.

I also wonder this. Especially since I've got a 99 non-turbo legacy wagon(as well as a 94 turbo one) and a spare turbo axle-back section. HMMMMM

I'm thinking ignition would be a good place to check as well. I had the tip of a sparkplug burn off in my old Lumina and it acted just like Yogi has described. Replaced the plugs and she was smooth as silk again. I wonder if your wires were brittle or something and got beat up a little during the t-belt work.

I notice that you said this was your first calculation with a new intake on. I wonder if you were craving the sound of an open intake a little and stepping into the loud pedal more than you normally would have? or maybe the ecu is learning the new ammount of airflow and over-fueling?

These 4eat boxes can't be TOOO bad. My buddy's 94 turbo with 4eat went to about 470,000kms before the tranny let go. I'm pretty sure nothing was ever done to it either. poor thing.

This was my first thought too as silly as it sounds. With such a small difference in mileage over a short test period it could very easily be 100% driver.

I replaced the power steering pump on my 94 with one from a junkyard and it came with it's own pulley so I didn't worry about that. The R&R job is really very easy. I think it took me about half an hour to do. Then I did my best to bleed the system by working the steering a bunch while stationary and driving slowly, adding fluid as needed. I don't think it took very much extra fluid to bleed it after the installation.

This is a common issue on some hondas and probably other makes as well. Definately pull that rubber cover off and fill it with undercoating grease or something then slam it back on. Some people even just pull it off and leave it off but I personally think the grease option is better.

My 94's front fenders are nice and lacy down in those corners because of this exact reason. Unfortunately it all happened long before I had the car so I had no chance to stop it. I would imagine that if you blew all the junk out of there with a hose, let it dry well, and then soaked it beyond reason with undercoating spray it would keep very well for a long time.

Looks like a beauty of a find! My 94 turbo wagon gets 24-25mpg on the highway. take away my automatic and the wagon shape and your car should probably do 26mpg on the highway maybe 27 if you really keep your foot out of it

I've pulled the rusty old gnarly heatshields off of several of my cars (inlcuding on off the 94 turbo lego) and haven't run into any troubles related to not having them yet. I live in a very rust-belt type area so once the shields start to go they REALLY start to go. Unforuntately, just like the car bodies.

I've actually had very good results with the toothpaste method. Both on my 94 turbo lego wagon and my 97 civic. One of these days I'll grab some clear coat and really finish the job off properly.

I'm just an amateur when it comes to fullsized mechanics but I know on my R/C racing truck if I dial out just a LITTLE too much toe-out it'll wander like nobody's business and it needs a touch of toe-in to help it track straight. I know I've heard the same said about fullsized cars as well. maybe your alignment is at the outside of the range for toe? I dunno... just an idea:)

Hottttttttttttttt Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot!!!!

Maybe they're being sneeky and they just measured it from a different part of the underbelly

Not to threadjack or anything but I finally got this same problem fixed in my 94 wagon. Had the dealer drop the tank and fibreglass it up around where the filler neck meets the tank. Since I've got no place or tools to do a job like that myself I sucked up the dealer price and had it done. A new tank would have cost 3x as much all told so whatcanyado?

It depends on how she means sticks "sometimes". It could be the shiftlock acting up. There are probably threads on here or legacycentral.org about that and it's also well-outlined in the owner's manual. It might even been the shift linkages. I say this because the linkages on my 94AT were so dried up and gummy that it made horrible scronchy noises and moving the shifter was a feat of strength. Sometimes it even wouldn't go all the way into a gear. Some lube and a little time later and it's very slick and easy.

Sometimes the drums will develop a ridge of rust/scum/whatever around the inside edge. This is especially likely with lots of wear on the brakes. This ridge will make the drum not slide out over the shoes anymore. The drum will come loose but not come OFF. The cure for this is to adjust the shoes in away from the braking surface untill the drum clears them. If this is the case with your car you should definately have the drums turned.

Just as an aside: I was at the stealership the other day and they had an 04 impreza wagon on the hoist with the engine on a stand underneath of it. They were installing new pistons on the drivers(?) side to cure slap. Reportedly the car had about 40,000kms on it. The mechanic said short-drive owners seem to get more piston slap than people who warm the car up completely more often and also that the noise is only an inconvenience and the motors will still go forever even with the slap.

I'm certainly no expert but that does sound kinda rattly to me. I'm not sure if the belts would do that or not. If I recall correctly there's a certain ammount of cracking in the ribs of those belts that is common/acceptable. I think my Hayes manual has a page on it. I'll check when I get home from work if nobody corrects me by then. What I'm wondering is where all the clatter is coming from. You say the steering pump was rebuilt recently, what about the alternator, A/C compressor or even that belt sheild rattling? a quick google gave me this page about cracking in serpentine belts: http://cars.cartalk.com/content/advice/drivebelts.html

Because I live in a road-salt area I would personally pick the one with the best body of the two regardless of mileage (unless one of them doesn't run right or something). I think it's true that these old Legacys are long-lifers for the most part. My buddy gave up his 94 turbo wagon when the auto tranny starting failing... AT 470,000kms. I call that pretty damned respectable.