dxrflyboy

Pull the caliper off and try to push the piston back with a c-clamp, large channelocks, or whatever you have to retract it without damaging anything. If the piston won't go in, open the bleeder screw. If the piston goes in with the bleeder screw open, the hose is blocked. If it doesn't the caliper is seized and needs to be replaced.

I serviced an '05 XT yesterday, molded bodycolor mudflaps and all. What a sleeper! :slobber:Hood scoop, 2.5XT badge on the back hatch, chrome exhaust tip, and some mundane looking alloys are all that give it away! And you can't see the hood scoop from the back!

Check the gauge when the cooling fan comes on at idle. You may have to idle it for quite some time or rev the engine a bit for it to come on. If the gauge moves up quite a bit from its current running position, the t-stat is probably stuck open.

Drain & refill the fluid again. If that helps the way it did the first time, have the trans. flushed.

Put a breaker bar, socket, and cheater pipe on the bolt and hit the starter!

At the back of the carb base or on the intake just under it is a fairly large vacuum hose that connects to all the air suction gadgets. Pull the hose off and plug the port. Your car will probably run better than ever. If so, you can leave it that way or drive yourself crazy trying to fix the problem with the problem that was installed on your car at the factory.

If anyone is interested, I have a set of 4 Winterforce P205/70R15 snows that I bought halfway through last winter. I put them on my 1996 Villager to deliver newspapers in a blizzard. They are one size too small for my van, but I needed something in a hurry since my tires were worn out. I have since put 4 all-season tires on it and I no longer deliver newspapers, so the van doesn't get out much in the snow anymore (it handles well in the snow anyway). They are the right size for older Outbacks and Foresters with 15" wheels. I'm in eastern CT.

Usually that cover stays in place and the entire sensor slides out of the housing with it. There may be several different sensor designs, some of which cannot be cleaned. I took an older Subaru MAF apart the other day and it appears to be made like the newer Ford ones. The wires are in the plastic housing and are hard to reach. I checked one from a WRX as well. The wires in that one were even harder to reach. It may not be practical to clean the wires in either case, but if you know it isn't working right, it can't hurt to try.

This is the most informative site I've found on oil filters so far. It's also the site that convinced me to cut open a few filters and see for myself: http://minimopar.knizefamily.net/oilfilterstudy.html

The Wal-Mart Super Tech brand filters are made by Champion Labs. Unfortunately, that line is limited and they may not carry one for Subes. The STP filters that Autozone carries are also Champ. The Quaker State filters sold here in the US are currently made by Purolator, but that can change. IIRC, Kmart used to carry Lee filters, which are also Champs.

They're not all V8s, but most aren't small. The Taurus is the first FFV I knew existed. It's a V6, but it's considered a full size car nowadays. I'm pretty sure Honda and Toyota make FFVs too, but I can't say for sure. I don't think Subaru does though.

My recommendation is also ABF (Anything But Fram). I've used Fram filters and never had a problem, but after cutting a few open and seeing the limited amount of filter material glued to cardboard end caps inside the Fram filters, I've decided they don't deserve my business. Pennzoil and a handful of other companies also sell rebadged Fram filters, but Purolator and Champion Labs make filters for most American oil filter vendors. A few others, such as NAPA and CarQuest, use Wix. Champion Labs switched to a plastic core on most of their filters, which I'm not too impressed with. Subaru was using Purolator filters but switched to a Japanese company earlier this year.

The 85% Ethanol (E85) has been around for a while now. It's fairly common in the midwest. Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFVs) are designed to run correctly with gasoline or E85. They are as common as Coca-Cola nowadays.

It's possible to get the distributor installed 180 degrees out of position if you're only referencing the crankshaft. But the engine would not run at all if this was the case. You still may have the dist misaligned by a tooth or two. You now need to set the timing with a timing light. If you can't get the timing where it's supposed to be, you will need to remove the dist. and advance/retard it a tooth in the right direction until you can get the timing set.

The part of the MAF that affects air flow readings is behind that screen. There should be two screws on top of the sensor body. Remove the screws and pull the element out. CAREFULLY clean the wires with a swab moistened with alcohol or brake cleaner.

Does anyone besides me think that the front of the '06 Forester looks like E.T.?

Jeep Cherokees with the 4.0L engine and automatic used the Aisin-Warner tranny most, if not all years (sorry to get O.T.)

Ford also uses a hot wire type MAF sensor. GM uses a film type. Cleaning doesn't always help, but contaminants can and do bake onto the wire.

I have my doubts that the short skirt design is there for fuel economy, or at least not entirely. As Subaru has added longer strokes and overhead cams to their engines, they have become wider and wider, to the point where there is no more room left between the wheelwells. In order to make an engine that still fits in the car, they've had to minimize rod length and piston height. Short rods create more sideloading of the pistons, while the short pistons are more likely to rock in the cylinder bore, especially when combined with larger bore sizes. The upside is the short pistons reduce reciprocating mass, allowing higher RPM operation. The slap is a problem for cylinders 2 & 4 because sideloading occurs on the top side of the cylinder, so the pistons shift from the bottom side to the top side during the power stroke. Revising the piston can minimize the noise, but the pistons will always shift to some degree during the power stroke in cylinders 2 & 4.

Key fobs have to be programmed using the Subaru Select Monitor that the dealers have (unfortunately - I don't know of any other way to do it). There is an 8-digit code inside the fob that has to be inputted manually. It's not just Subaru that is doing it this way. Ford used to allow programming fobs by cycling the ignition key and entering programming mode, but newer models now require using their equipment.

This sounds like flooding. Flooring the gas while cranking puts the system in "clear flood" mode and shuts off the fuel. This could be a combination of things, including a weak battery, dirty injectors (not atomizing the gas properly), clogged gas filter causing low fuel pressure, and of course, cold temperatures causing the gas to deatomize and puddle in the intake.

This is easy to do on older Ford MAFs, since they can be removed from the housing, exposing the elements. The Ford MAF problem usually manifests itself as a lean mixture code (P0171 & P0174) on higher mileage vehicles. With a Subaru, the code may be P0170, which is a general fuel trim code. If removing the MAF from the housing exposes the elements and they are a dull grey, cleaning them with brake cleaner or alcohol on a swab may solve the problem.

Brake cleaner spray is your best bet for cleaning out the old lube. Put a light coating of grease on the pin with the rubber "seal" on it. Fill up the outside boot with grease. For the "plain" pin, fill the pin hole with grease, insert the pin, and squeeze it in with a vise, C-clamp, large Channelocks, or whatever you have. If you can't get the pin with the "seal" back in after cleaning and lubing, take the "seal" off and pack the pin hole with grease the same way as the other. Make sure to put antisieze on the caliper brackets underneath the pad clips to prevent rust scale buildup. Do the same for the ends of the pads.

The oil feed can leak into the water jacket by way of the head gasket. Oil pressure is higher than cooling system pressure, so oil leaks into the water jacket, rather than the other way around. This can occur even though the combustion seal is still tight. Look for oil leaking on top of the engine, since oil feed leakage into the water jacket may also be leaking externally.

'95s had standard manual belts, but I don't know if the older cars have the correct mounting holes in the "B" pillars to install them. They may be there if non-US cars had manual belts back then. You will have to modify/replace some interior trim pieces to install manual belts.