porcupine73

No sealant required for the water pump. You do however definitely want a new gasket. I used some edelbrock gasginch to hold the gasket on the new water pump whilst wiggling it into place.

Good to know the cause. It always seemed a little mysterious. A popular poster has said it may be related to misbalance between the half shafts and noise-vibration-harshness analysis.

Oh ok cool. Wasn't sure the cause of the vibration, just many a post indicating it happening after half shaft replacement, also on other boards too.

Yes the recommend some three bond sealer I think it is which can be tough to find. The approved alternative is Permatex ultra grey, which you will find at nearly any auto parts store. Don't use too much though; you don't want any little pieces to break off and get lodged in the system somewhere. Also make sure the o-ring seats correctly and does not fall out as you put the new oil pump on. It is also easier to remove and replace the front crank oil seal (on the oil pump) before reinstalling the oil pump. Also, make sure your oil pump rear cover case (over the rotors) are tight; sometimes they like to back out. Loctite green (wicking type) can work well on those screws without removing them.

Yes if you can a good used salvage yard one that would be a reasonable choice (if you cna tell it too is not some parts store rebuild..). I too have seen a number of bad posts about the parts store rebuilds, including but not limited to some weird vibration when stopped in drive aftewards. Another option would be mweaxles not sure how they compare to Subaru rebuild prices but those should be good axles.

Good info. I'm pretty sure that's an Impeza/Legacy difference as I've seen that noted in other drum to disc conversion notes. Others have said in this case they have 'coiled' the extra length up along the body somehow.

No thread locker? whoops.

Not a huge deal. I would just thinly paste some jbweld or black rtv over it just to be sure water doesn't get in. The bolts often snap off and/or the covers crack at the bolt holes.

Not sure if this helps, but I got some 15" steelies for snow tires from discounttiredirect.com a few years ago. Unfortunately they weren't much less expensive than their cheapest allow wheels. How about what some people were saying about various other vehicles being very similar except maybe offset such as Cavaliers and some Dodge minivans, with the five lug pattern on a 100mm bolt circle?

From experience on room air conditioners where I have moved the thermoswitch from right in front of the evaporator to outside, what nipper says is exactly what can happen. It happens mostly if the outside air is cooler than the inside air and/or if the inside air has high humidity. The evaporator will form a solid ball of ice on it and it takes a while at low fan speed to unfreeze it. (I moved the switch because sometimes the thing won't go cold enough so I put a little heater on it.)

If you get a front o2 sensor, an OEM one is the best bet. Rear isn't so critical on brand. Get it from a Subaru dealer who sells parts online; it'll probably be less than the local dealer. Getting 80k miles out of an o2 sensor isn't too bad. Also small leaks even tiny unnoticable pinhole ones can cause this code. Though on an '02 you probably don't have that issue.

Yes these bolts are often TIGHT. I got mine off with the sears 1/2" breaker bar with a 3' piece of pipe on it. Even then it was tough. Of course only 6 pt socket, 22mm usually, flank drive if possible, is really suitable. If you want 3/4" drive, sears has 3/4" breaker bars but all their 3/4" drive sockets at least in the stores are 12pt. You can get nice Armstrong sockets individually from mcmaster.com Of course when the bolt gets put back in it needs to be the right torque b/c you don't want it loosening up later.

Glad you found the problem. Good point. I had used it in the past for jacking (with the jack cup inside the ears though so nothing bent...yet). Will try to avoid it for that purpose in the future!

Do you have a fuel pressure gauge? If not you may be able to borrow one from autozone or a place like that. Very easy to put inline after the fuel filter on the Suby's. Then tape that thing to the windshield so you can see it and see what you're getting. The deal with the coolant temp sensor is sometimes when they go flaky, they read a high temperature even though the temp is low. So warm starts = OK. But on cold startup it thinks the temp is higher than it is and makes the a/f ratio too lean. And the ECU doesn't yet have the luxury of the o2 sensor being hot to be able to use for a/f ratio control.

I'm not sure if the e-brake cable is required. I haven't actually gotten around to doing my swapout yet, but it seems the parking brake cables were the same part # for drum or disc. Yes, you need the ebrake parts from the disc equipped vehicle, the springs, cups, hold down pins, pads, etc. The disc brake parking brake is esentially a drum brake inside the disc, completely separate from the caliper and disc pads. Whereas the parking brake on the drum brake just uses the regular drum brake pads for braking and parking function. That pic I attached in post 4 shows just the e-brake components. Then the rotor goes over that, and the caliper and bracket and disc pads are over that.

Part # lookup says 27031FA130 PROPELLER SHAFT FOR 1993-2001 IMPREZA 4WD with AUTOMATIC TRANS ONLY. I did not see any other Subaru's listing this part #.

Are they sure there are no leaks in the exhaust system before or shortly after the sensors? Even a small pinhole leak or slightly leaky gasket can cause an issue. The other thing would be use a brand new OEM sensor for the front. I'm not sure if that's what you have.

It could be a few things, but a common cause can be the engine coolant temp sensor.

If you can't find the 4EAT and Outback diffs, one from a Legacy may fit. It will have the Legacy drive ratios and your speedo may read low. Other years up to '98 may fit too but the wiring harnesses for the trans might not match up exactly.

Cool. Yes for space, maybe those little pin size LED's would work well. The power dissipation for the resistor is say 20mA*10.8V=216mW, so 1/4 watt resistor should work. 1/8W would be nice because they're small but they can't take the load, not continuously anyway. Maybe there's some new fancy LED's made for vehicles that can just run on 12-14V?

Cool. Yes they verify your ownership of the vehicle with the DMV I think. I faxed them my title and registration on one of mine to speed up the process. If you just bought the car, they will probably tell you they couldn't verify that you are the current owner and ask for some kind of proof.

Hi. Good buy. The price seems good to me. That year is pretty solid. 2.2L engine is very durable. There aren't really aren't many issues with that year. Of course any vehicle needs and likes its regular maintenance, fluids, filters, etc. The most common things would be (a) torque bind, don't want any wheel hopping/studdering/jumping when making tight turns in a dry parking lot. Make sure all tires match and are the same circumference or it may cause AWD issues. Another thing I've seen a few posts on and had happen myself on a '96 is the engine coolant temp sensor. Sometimes you will get a CEL for it. Other times it starts causing cold start problems.

Maybe if you can get it lifted up you have someone run it in gear while going around to listen for the noise.

You would be able to find out at my.subaru.com but last I was on I think you can only register '96+ vehicles. But it shows all dealer service history and other stuff. I don't think dealers put any stickers under the hood showing any kind of service that was done. The other option is if you know what dealer this service was supposed to have been done at call them and ask.

LED's should be doable. Just use the right size resistor in series. R=V/I So for example if your LED wants 20mA @ 2V and you are running it off a 12.8V system, the proper resistor is R=(12.8-2V)/.020A = 540 ohms.