ra_der

I had the same noise on a 91 legacy after a brake job, drove me nutty until I figured it out. I fixed it by loosening the two bolts that hold the caliper frame, or the part you had to take off to remove the discs, pryed the frame out with a screwdriver and retightened. It only takes a bit for the needed clearance.

If you think the splines rust in place... just wait until you try to change ball joints.

No cable, all electric. You'll have to pull the code to see what the cel is trying to say. I had a 96 that the speedo quit working on, changed the sensor at the tranny, no luck. Changed the speedo, no luck. Car ran fine with no cel on. Finally ended up at the dealer who traced it to a bad connection in the harness, deep in the dash,,, $180 deep in the dash.

I'm retro-fitting a vanagon westy only because subaru never had a model you could sleep comfortably in.

I've only come across one bad ECU, and that was when I revived a junkyard car. It would run and idle, but would only rev to about 2500 with no power. Totally unacceptable to drive. And it threw all kinds of wierd codes that would change every time I checked them, no matter what I changed or plugged it had no effect on the codes I would get. I changed the ECU and it was magic.

Get a can of starting fluid, (and a fire extinguisher) with the engine running spray short bursts of starter fluid around the manifold and hoses. Engine will rev when you hit the leak.

I just fixed an annoying squeak on the front of a 91 legacy, recent brake job, aftermarket rotors, subaru clips. Would not squeak until warm, but would squeak at low speeds independent of whether the brake was applied or not. After two attempts to fix, clean and lube, didn't work, this is what I figured out. When the rotor was warm it would expand ever so slightly in diameter and come into slight contact with the very hard metal of the brake shoe clips, and the squeal would resonate through the rotor and fender to sound alarmingly loud. I loosened the two bolts that hold the caliper frame to the knuckle, pryed it away and retightened. Noise gone

You have to replace it. And since the struts have to come out to get it out, you might as well replace them. I'm saving my pennies and living with it for now. The first time I had this happen on a legacy I tryed jamming a bigger washer in to take up the slack, and that one squeaked more than clunked, so I tryed greasing things up. Didn't work.

Our 2002 outback sport currently has a clunk in the rear that I've traced to the rear top strut mount. Only evident when the cover is off, you're touching the mount and gently rocking the car up and down. Can't hear it with the standard push the fender up and down test. I've had the same thing with two legacy's I've owned, has any one else had trouble with rear strut mounts? Though to be fair our cars see a lot of gravel and I'm usually in a hurry.

The ECU will only tell the valve to open when the car is in motion. What the check engine light is really saying is that it has detected an open circuit when it signaled the valve to open, usually the fine wires in the solenoid have broken. If the valve is stuck open, possibly from debris from the cannister, the ECU won't know it. We've run across this code about three times in the last half dozen years, always a failed solenoid that just keeps the CEL on and will fail your emissions test.

All the purge valve does is suck out the vapors from the gas tank that have collected in the charcoal cannister, It won't affect performance at all. However your check engine light will stay on until it is fixed. I just bought one for $80 and change. Easy to change out.

The way I've loosened the crank bolt many times is with a shallow 7/8" six point socket, an 18" craftsman breaker bar and a 3lb rubber hammer. Roll it until you feel compression and then whack away. It's a poor mans' impact wrench. I've only had to lock the motor a few times. Unless you used fresh loctite I bet this will work.

97 minutes start to finish, all connectors were right where they were supposed to be, airbag didn't explode, only real bugger was bolting the cruise computer into place. I had to take a couple of bolts out of the dash to move it enough to get the new bolts in.

Go to Autozone or Advance Auto or some other major chain that offers to read your check engine codes for free. Then post it here or search for that particular code, and be amazed at the helpful advice that appears, I am.

My cruise kit arrived yesterday, and I am quite impressed with the instructions. Other than probably having to make my fingers bend backwards while I'm under the dash it doesn't look too intimadating. Thanks for the heads up about missing plugs.