porcupine73

Are they putting in oem replacement?

Are the spark plug wire connections on the coil pack corroded at all? Sometimes certain ones will disintegrate over time due to the waste spark setup or whatever it's called.

Hm...well I would pull the caliper lock pin and swing it up. Might have to pry it a little if it is hanging up. Then try turning the wheel. If it's free, then the caplier probably is siezed/sticking. If it still is hard to turn, could be parking brake hanging up. Sometimes the backing plates rust and start rubbing against the back of the rotor, but maybe not enough to make it hard to turn the wheel. If caliper, just pick up a reseal kit for it or get a rebuilt. It may have gotten water past the boot or something. Sometimes when they are siezed it is nearly impossible to get the piston out of the bore with compressed air. In that case I have had luck with pounding it out with the biggest pin punch I can fit through the banjo bolt hole. The piston is pretty tough and even with me pounding on it like crazy there was only a little mark on the piston.

Yah I think the Subaru '05+ was the upgrade I saw...wow I didn't know they were 110+ amps that's cool. I think I saw it on another board, but can't remember the name. The admin I think is Peaty and it's Subaru Mods or something like that...

Maybe 60-70 amps? I think I remember a few posts where people fit other similar alternators in. I think one was some GM alternator and another was like an '04 or greater Subaru 90 amp.

Check strut mount. Sometimes they rust out. Not sure about the grinding. Check wheel bearing freeplay and maybe give the suspension a good general shake down for looseness.

To me that thing looks a lot like a fuel filter. I used a perma-cool filter mount from SummitRacing.com (about $16) and then you just find a nice Wix/Napa Gold/Carquest filter that fits the mount's thread pitch, generally 3/4" or 7/16". Just pop that baby inline with 3/8" hose barb fittings and you are good to go. Have to make sure your flow direction is correct since most oil filters have adbv anti-drain back valves.

Hm...anyone know what states are left, if any, that don't put ethanol in their gasoline? In NY it's supposed to contain 10% (instead of MTBE).

OEM is typically recommended for the front o2 sensor. Some members use aftermarkets; some work ok some don't. Some aftermarkets you have to cut the connector off your old sensor and solder on to the new. It's not too hard to change. A 22mm or 7/8" wrench works pretty well. I haven't found the special deep socket with the slot in it to work too well in this case because of clearance. The hardest part can be freeing up the old sensor. It's usually easiest if the exhaust is a little warm, like run 1-2 minutes first. Apply kroil or pbblaster or something as soon as possible before the work. Hitting the end of the wrench with a deadblow hammer usually frees it up for me. Disconnect the old sensor first, then feed the wire through the end of the wrench, then you can get the wrench on the sensor. Same when putting the new one back in. Don't overtighten. Usually the new ones come with antisieze on the threads.

Ok received my KYB's for my '00obw from eBay's jdmwerks today. That's about 9 days after I payed for them. They appear to be in good condition. SummitRacing does have excellent customer service, and depending on how far you are from ibe if their distribution centers, you may get your order overnight. From Summit these KYB's would have cost: (2) each 341276, $49.95, (1) each 334275, $89.95, plus (1) each 334276, $89.95, plus Summit is out of stock on these until 5/22/07, plus $10.95 s/h charge = $290.75. Price with shipping from jdmwerks was $265.99. So not a huge difference, and if Summit had them in stock, I'd probably have went with them.

OK received my scorpion lift springs for my '00obw and '96 Legacy today from Renick. Looks to be in good condition. Actually they came yesterday but Renick shipped via Fedex with 'signature required' so someone had to be hom to receive them. My KYB's for the '00obw also arrived today...now I need to get to work!

Go to http://www.endwrench.com, click 'archives', then enter your search term. In this case 'fifth', then click search articles. And poof: Popping Out Of Fifth Gear, summer 2003 I don't know about the dohc vs sohc MT's; sometimes the turbos have some differences in the AT's. If for some reason you do change out the tranny, you must make sure you get on with the same final drive gear ratio as what you have, or get the rear diff from the same vehicle and swap that in too.

Depends what they're talking about, and whether their diagnosis that "the computer burned out" is correct. I don't think the MT's have a TCU, whereas the AT does. But don't worry, these computers are just a fad. If it is the ECU and the connectors and wiring match up, then it should just be plug and play.

But there are so many possible variables for fuel mileage that to get a good reading they must be minimized. i.e. same grade at the same pump from the same gas station driving in similar conditions with similar ambient temps, etc, averaged over a number of trips. But maybe you're already doing that. The EPA or whoever authorizes sale of winter gas in certain areas from November I think to sometimes in spring. The first time I heard of it was when there were those gasoline shortages from that hurricane in New Orleans and they allowed winter gas to be sold early.

On mine the top layer of the backing plate still looked black, but it was like some kind of black coating. It got rusty between this coating and the metal backing plate, thus moving this coating out a bit and letting it rub against the rotor. A little noisy, but quiet after I scraped off all the offending material.

It may just be the change to summer gas and increased ambient temps. Even if the AWD is just in FWD it does not give increased mileage. All the AWD sundry is still turning and dragging. My all time best record on summer gas in good temps on 2.5L '00obw is 30mpg on a 200 mile trip. Average is 27-28.

Good point. I did have a grinding on mine previously and it was the backing plates. The black top layer got rusty and it was rubbing against the rotor. I scraped all that junk off and it's quiet now.

Did you lubricate all the contact points and clean and relube the sliders? Bed in for street type pads usually consists of 3-8 slow downs from 60mph to 20mph or so at maybe .8-.9g, a bit before lockup or abs activation. Though for just plain 'ol street use where the pads won't ever get overheated bed in may not really be needed. How did you remove the rusted on rotors? I beat mine off with a 5 lb sledge but it didn't seem to damage anything, other than the old rotors....

Limp mode is what the TCU does to keep the vehicle driveable (rather than leaving you stranded) when it cannot properly control the AT for shifting. It could be the VSS (vehicle speed sensors) or other issues.

I think I've seen other posts where people claim their vehicle has been 'de-chimed'? Maybe that means finding that little chiming thingy and yoinking it out with a pair of vice grips; I don't really know...or

It sounds like maybe it is in limp mode.

It wasn't a recall. It was in a technical bulletin from '99 describing some of the 'characteristics' of the (then new) Phase II 4eat.

Hm....ok is that what this thing is?

Here is what I think you are talking about from my '00obw. It has it for the center rear seat.

Yep. I had same problem on '00obw. Here's a pic comparing my old hard as a rock shrunken spark plug hole oil seals with the new supple OEM seals: