JPX

This is a more likely scenario. Diffs are tough little assemblies. But wheel bearings on these cars are a royal pain. 3 of 4 wheels replaced on my 96 Legacy around 100K miles.

I've changed by auto trans fluid A LOT. But I admit *sheepish cringe* I have never pulled out that filter.:-\

This is exactly how I resolved my starter "click-only" problem. But Cougar is right, a bad cable with corroded terminals or wiring will make a good starter act bad. Photos of the worn contacts (89,000 miles) in the solenoid and the new ones before installation.

A reference photo of the torque converter in place with the engine removed. Mine stayed put when the engine came out.

Seadoo HX is about 400lbs. Single trailer is a little over 225lbs with the cargo tote I stuck on it. Figure another 50lbs when you throw a couple of tanks for gas in the trunk. Double trailer is 500 lbs - haul more gas, stuff and a total of 800 lbs of jetskis and it really works the car hard. Shorelander.com The only thing you will notice with a <1K lb rig is the normal clunking from the ball/hitch. Driving experience is really not much different unless you are on a steep grade. Braking holds up pretty well. Post a pic of the fishing boat!

1996 2.2L pulls single jetski easily. Just don't count on being the fastest guy on the highway (and would you really be anyway with a 2.2?:-\) This was the typical towing configuration for a better part of 4 years. But pulling a double trailer which is a lot heavier plus another 400lb ski was a lot more work. Glad I didn't do this too often. Unfortunately a failed water pump lead to a blown headgasket at 135K miles. I would have thought I'd kill the automatic transmission first. But the transmission seems to be holding up pretty well. I made sure to change fluid much more frequently.

This is interesting to me as well. My Autozone alternator runs really hot as well. And I suspect the bearing is starting to make noises it shouldn't. I'll have to check out the Subaru alternator option. Thanks for the tip.

I had bought the SeaDoo before buying the car. I did the hitch thing on my 96 Legacy - Class II. Worked great for a hitch mount bike rack too. One famous trip for us was a Yakima RocketBox and a Pounderhound on the roof with bikes on the back. Here is a very light duty hitch on my friend's WRX. This holds a hitch mount bike rack very nicely. But the rear hatch does not clear the current rack's pole. This is where a swingout rack would be more convenient.

I had to use an offset 12/14mm box wrench to get them out on the top side. get a friend to hold the crankshaft so you can put both hands on it to keep it straight. They weren't on all that tight on mine. There was no combination of u-joint extensions I could come up with that would take those things off from underneath.

Well, there are two factory "coatings" I can think of. The first is something that looks like typical undercoating. The second is this blue waxy stuff that I had never seen before until we started to install a trailer hitch on my friend's 2006 WRX. If you want hardened coating, you could Rhino-liner or Line-x on there. But that gets expensive for this application.

You should just put on a new belt. For the amount of hassle it is to take off the belt in the first place, it is not worth having to get back in there again.

Cleaning the throttle body can help a little bit. I just sprayed carb cleaner at the throttle body while running to blow it out a little. It did change the way the rough idle in gear felt - although it never really made it go away.:-\ Now that my entire engine is out of the car, I can really go to town on cleaning the entire intake manifold.

As suggested above, if it looked anything like this underneath, then it is probably coming from here: And you'll need a new one of these:

I used the rear loop by the O2 sensor and main engine harnesses for the rear lift on my 2.2L just yesterday. Then the front loop where the previously mentioned AC bracket goes - take only the compressor off, not the entire bracket.

No need to pull oil pan for a water pump change. And I agree that OEM seals are the best choice. I hate the idea of paying a lot more for these parts. But I hate the idea of going back in to replace stuff again even more. My factory water pump died around 90,000 miles. Whatever pump the repair shop put in gave out at 135,000 miles - and it has cost me my headgasket.

What tires are you running? This has a major influence on how the AWD will react. I have all-season tires that tracked well in ice/snow. But you could break it loose if the tread got gummed up with packed snow. I imagine snow tires could produce more controllable results. Rain is a different matter - the tires pushed water out of the way quite well and the AWD tracked super predictably.