hankosolder2

I once had a similar problem with a Honda. Alt would charge fine for the first 1/2 hour of driving and then poop out. Dude at the parts store SWORE UP AND DOWN that alternators are never intermittent. I finally got ticked off, pulled the alternator, attached the alternator to a 120V wall cord and plugged it into the wall, brought it back to the store and told them "I think it finally quit will test bad now." The replacement alternator fixed the problem, so my diagnosis was definitely proven correct! Nathan PS: I would not advise doing something simialr unless you are familiar with electrical safety procedures.

In a nutshell, the Phase I 2.5 DOHC was used up till around '99 (the change over year varies slightly by which model it's in) and is prone to HG failure (exactly how prone it is is a source of ENDLESS DEBATE here.) The common failure mode is overheating, often intermittent after a longer drive. The cars can often seem just fine during a short test drive, which is why so many of the used ones you'll see are bad...people unload them to pass the issue on to someone else. There's an upgraded gasket from Subaru which supposedly does a pretty good job of preventing the problem from cropping up again. The later phase II 2.5 engines do also have some HG failure issues, but it's an external leak, generally slow and shouldn't strand you. This is sometimes addressable via Subaru's "coolant conditioner" (stop leak.)

Re: that '98 outback. You are familiar with the head gasket issues on the Phase I DOHC 2.5 engine, right? If not, do a search here. Nathan

Griffenrider, I'm not going to claim that I have as sophisticated understanding of suspension systems as you do, but two "laymen's" thoughts. I may have misunderstood your point. Wouldn't a stiffer rear sway bar make the car more oversteer prone though? Seems like the wrong direction to go in a "squirrelly rear end" situation. It also seems like if it was a problem with the suspension resonating at a specific frequency, it would be very speed dependent and you could press on and drive past the "twitchy" speed. (I'm NOT advising trying that...I'm just saying that no one has noted that the problem gets better when you go faster.) I'm inclined to guess (and this is a guess) that the suspension has excessive toe change as the wheel travels up and down... so it's primarily a geometry issue. The toe would change less with stiffer springs, as the suspension would be closer to its normal position when the car was loaded, so that could mitigate the problem to an extent. Once again, stiffer rear springs would shift the handling balance more towards oversteer, so it'd probably be best to up the spring rates at all four corners and realign the car.

I did a very similar thing to build a "pump" to transfer manual trans fluid into my BMW. (Trans filler is a threaded plug on the side of the trans under the car, so it's hard to do via gravity!) I fed the output of a blow gun into the oil filled bottle and then had the dip tube down low in the bottle. Used some hollow threaded rods to build it. Squeeze the blow gun handle to feed oil (brake fluid) in. My one note is that plastic bottles blow out at surprisingly low pressures! 20 psi might be a bit high. I think the kits which use tire pressure recommend something like 12 psi. Nathan

Yes, it should be a "solid" rotating unit. A junkyard replacement is probably the cheapest way to do it. I used one off a '98 2.5 DOHC engine on my '95 2.2; they are interchangable despite slightly different appearances. I'm not a big fan of underdrive pulleys- the Subaru engineers designed the pulley size to provide good charge for the alternator, strong AC and the proper amount of PS boost. An underdrive pulley is probably fine in many cases, but if you do a lot of town driving you might be disappointed with the performance of your pulley driven accessories. You could also get a new pulley from the various online subaru OEM wholesalers.

Per the '98 OBW owner's manual: "when driving on...icy roads, over deep newly fallen snow, stopping distances may be longer with a vehicle with ABS than one without." I'm not sure that wanting your vehicle to be able to stop in the shortest possible distance is a bad thing and I understand why people defeat ABS. Yes, you can go slower, use engine braking and other techniques to mitigate the downsides of ABS, but sometimes circumstances force your hand. When somebody pulls out in front of you without warning you want a car that can stop pronto. I don't understand why they don't just set the ABS threshold speed much higher, like 15 mph or so. It would be the best of both worlds.

Does the car sit for extended periods without use? "Pockmarked" rotors sound like they have rusted.

If Subaru does it anything like some other car makers, one antenna is the rear defroster grid, and the other may be a regular rod antenna. A diversity reception tuner decides "on the fly" which of the two antennas is providing a better signal and chooses whichever is optimum. I agree that just connecting them together will not be beneficial...in fact, it's asking for multipath interference. (basically, the same radio signal will reach each antenna at slightly different times depending on the angle and distance of each antenna to the transmitter.) Nathan

I wouldn't give it a second thought unless the rod knock on startup happens again. Perhaps the oil pump had lost its prime or the filter took a while to fill...or there was an air pocket in an oil gallery. For that matter, the noise could have been a collapsed lifter which pumped up. Sometimes it's hard to tell, especially when you're only hearing the sound for such a short period of time.

I use binder clips to hold the timing belt to the sprockets during installation. It's worked really well for me. It's been a while since I've done it, but I think I just binder clipped the belt to each sprocket so the lines matched, finagled it so the mark on the crank pulley lined up and then installed the final pulley. Nathan

Emprically, the OEM size is good enough that most EJ engines last >200K given reasonable service intervals. "Superior" oil filtration isn't going to help head gaskets, valve guide wear, valve seat wear or prevent the timing belt from cutting loose...all of which are going to determine the lifetime of one of these engines more than any additional oil filtration. Nathan

I wonder if that '95 date is a rolling date--- i.e. they cover seatbelts for <15 years from date of manufacture or some such thing, or are all post '95 vehicles covered ad infinitum? Anyway, I'll try my luck at the dealer. If they don't give me satisfaction I can try SOA, and failing that I'll start fishing for secondhand belts. I'll report back here with what happens to add to the knowledge base. I have to say that I've NEVER had a frayed seatbelt in any of my Hondas or BMWs of similar or older age and mileage, so I do feel these belts are a bit sub par. (Don't get me wrong, it's an older vehicle, so I'm not all up in arms about it or anything- things do wear out and break- I'm just making a comparision. ) Nathan

Our '98 OBW is starting to suffer from a fairly badly frayed seatbelt on the driver's side. I seem to remember some thread on here about Subaru's warranty policy on seat belts but I can't find it in a search. Is there any sort of lifetime warranty on these, or a specific TSB for this vehicle? I want to be informed before I contact my dealer.... TIA, Nathan

I think you're best off addressing the clutch problem first. If it really needs to be pressed ALL the way to the floor to disengage, something is wrong and you should be able to demo this problem to the dealer, as you've said it's not intermittent. Likely suspects would be the clutch master cylinder or the clutch slave cylinder. This is a hydraulic clutch, so it's not adjustable. It's also possible that there's a problem with the release arm or release "throwout" bearing. GD's suggestion for checking the transmission oil is also a good one. If you have had an ongoing clutch drag problem it could accelerate wear of the trans synchros... you could have both clutch and transmission issues. Nathan

The easiest way to differentiate between clutch drag issues and other issues is "how does it work when the engine is off?" If it shifts OK with the engine off, it's almost definitely clutch drag. If it still binds it's got to be the trans.

Perhaps this is an apples to oranges comparison, but I once had a BMW with badly rusted tone rings. It would pulse the ABS at slower speeds on braking, but would only set the ABS warning light if you exceeded 80 MPH! I'd say to start with the known bad parts (tone rings) and work from there if you still intend to attempt to fix this. Nathan

I think nipper has a lift on his OBW. He's been a bit quiet the past few days.

I'd say that if you need a running car ASAP, the 2.2 into the '98 OBW 5MT would be the way to go, simply because installing an engine into an automatic vehicle is riskier if you're a neophyte. (i.e. you can damage the torque converter if it's not properly seated when you reinstall the engine.)

LOJACK is a decent guess- or perhaps the car was a fleet vehicle and the company needed to track their driver? Nathan

I think this should work based on the conversation I've had with car starter installers. Get some conventional copies made of your chipped key. Disassemble the steering column and secure the OEM chipped key near the ignition switch assy. Reassemble. The chipped key contains a RFID device, so it doesn't have to actually be IN the ignition to deactivate the anti-theft- it just has to be near it. For added security, you could carefully cut the tip off the key so if someone smashes your column while trying to steal the car they won't have the special bonus of finding a complete, functional key in there! Nathan

That price sounds difficult to believe, but I have a huge objection to even less expensive chipped keys. It's not as if the insurance on a chipped car is all that much less- the benefit for the consumer is just not there IMO. Why should I have to pay $50+ for a key? Also, why should I risk being stranded should any part of the system malfunction? Furthermore, you're tied to the dealer for replacement ECMs... can only use a junkyard one if you can snag a matching key. Nathan

Just to clarify- a lot of people interchange terms about the clutch being "in" or "out." If it makes the noise only when the clutch pedal is depressed, it's probably the throw out/release bearing If it makes the noise only when the clutch pedal is not depressed, it's probably bearings or other parts in the transmission. Nathan

Well, it seems like there are two camps here with strongly differing opinions! re: the green aspect of rebuilding an engine vs. replacing it with a used one. If you're replacing a worn engine with a good used engine (which is already made) you're not really creating any net gain in "junk" in the word. If you were replacing a worn engine with a brand new one, I could see that argument.

Ah, General Disorder, you got there first. What he said!