Rooster2

Just use a "C" clamp to push the piston back into the caliper. It prolly has two pistons, so alternate back and forth between the two, as you depress the pistons. Suggest using antisieze on the slides where the pads reside. When I changed my pads, I bled out the old brake fluid, and replaced with new. My old brake fluid had the color of iced tea, so I knew it was time for a change.

what are you paying for bosch wires? Bosch wires were something like $40-$45 bucks about 4 years ago, so prolly no savings over OEM wires. I can just recommend that Bosch quality is good, and worth buying. It is the low end cheap wires at auto parts stores that cause problems.

Yea, the OEM spark plug wires are great, but a dealer is not close to where I live. I highly recommend the Bosch wires and plugs from a parts. I have gotten great use from them.

For a car coming up on being 10 years old, and with 130 K miles, I would be reluctant to spend $800 on simply valve cover gaskets, if it were my car. But, that is just me. My experience is that every Subaru that is at, or near 10 years old is going to leak oil from its gaskets. I would try the cheap and easy way out by adding a stop oil leak product additive to the engine oil. My experience is that it will help a lot, but won't totally stop the oil leak. I have done this on both my 98 and 99 OBWs with 2.5 motors and have achieved pretty good success. The oil spots from leakage while parked on my driveway are down to almost none now. I put a can of additive in at each oil change. The additive supposedly swells the gaskets to stop, or at least slow down the leaks. For about $5, per can, it is worth a try.

It would be helpful to know what year and what model Subie you own. So, please let us know what you got. Certain Subie motors like the 2.5 phase 1 used in 96-99 year Subies are prone to head gasket trouble. The problem starts to present itself like yours with random over heating that gets worse and worse. What happens is that exhaust gas leaks into the cooling system to cause the over heating. However, you may be lucky in that it is just a bad hose or leaky radiator. Suggest you clean up the sprayed out coolant, then look for a source of the leak. Pretty hard to tell much until all the coolant mess is addressed first.

Welcome aboard the USMB board. Lots of knowledgeable folks here, who really know their Subies, and give good advise. My advise is to jack up the passenger front corner. Once up in the air, try pulling the road wheel in and out, then left and right, to see if their is any "play" in the suspension. If you detect any play (looseness), then it is a sign of bad ball joints, or bad tie rods. Also, look at the rubber boots at each end of the half shaft. See if there are any rips in the rubber boots, which lets the grease out and the dirt in. If any boots are bad, then best to change the half shaft. Dirt in the torn boots contributes to wear, which can cause the noise you hear, though it is mostly heard as clicking noise. A bad wheel bearing can also cause the noise you hear, usually identifyed as an "rrrrrrrrrrrrrr" sound when turning only one direction with some speed, as on a curved exit ramp. Lots written hear about torque bind. It is a problem associated with all wheel drive. Type "torque bind" in the search portion of this forum to read the vast archives on the subject, and how to remedy it. Struts last a long time on Subies, so even with a ton of miles on your car, the struts still may be good. Bad struts will cause a bouncy ride, and poor steering control. Push up and down repeatedly on each of your front fenders, then stop to see if the suspension wants to rebound repeatedly with little dampening action. If so, then the struts need replacing. Also, look at the strut with the road wheel removed to see if there is any evidence of oil leaking from the strut. This too, indicates a bad strut.

Good idea on the trickle charger. I have also thought of buying one of those quick disconnect clamps that attaches to the positive post on the battery. The kind that screw the knob down, and it connects power to the cable. Unscrew the knob, and all power to the vehicle is disconnected. However, doing that erases all presents on the radio, and the clock looses its memory. I use a battery disconnect on my RV when not in use.

It gets driven around town about twice per week on roughly 20-30 minute trips. I have had some trouble with the battery running down, because not driven enough to keep the battery charged.

Thanks, I was thinking the same thought, but wanted verification.

My 99 OBW travels no more then 2,000 miles per year. It is a back up car, when my one of my other two cars is not available. With that few miles per year, is it prudent to change the oil just once per year?

Rebuilt Calipers?? Are you thinking about replacing both?? If it were me, I would replace only the one that is bad.

With the cockeyed bore, I don't see how trying to work to repair it, is worth the time & trouble. If it were me, I would buy a rebuilt caliper from a parts store, and install it.

Good advise..........Thanks!

Any idea what the cost would be?

Glad to hear another Trans-X success story. I'm Rooster2 (Larry), who wrote the original thread. It is my understanding that the 99/00 Subie auto trany holds only about 9 quarts, with half in the pan, the other half in the torque converter. So, adding 2 bottles is prolly too much in my opinion. Like you, I tried the Lucas trany additive first, but it did nothing to fix the delayed trany engagement. Only with the encouragement and advisement of my local experienced (older) Autozone counter guy did I try the Trans-X. I am on my third year with Tranx-X, and the trany continues to perform well. However, about 8 months ago, the trany started to get just a little bit lazy on forward engagement. I drained the trany, and added another bottle of Trans-X, and all is well again. So, I am running a little more then 1 bottle now. The trany seems to shift gears a bit firmer now, but that is okay with me.

A clogged fuel filter could also be the source of the sputtering. You may want to replace the filter first before replacing the fuel pump. Still you need to pull all the codes to learn what they are trying to tell you.

Suggest you change the automatic transmission fluid. Subaru has a drain bolt on the bottom of the pan, so it is easy to drain. However, since only about half the ATF can be drained at one time, as the other half of the ATF remains in the torque converter. it is good to drain and change three times to get a good change of fluid. I drive around about five minutes between changes. Yes, this approach uses a lot of ATF, but still less expensive then having a pressure fluid changed at a service garage. I am thinking the fluid change will help your trany change gears a lot smoother.

If it were me, I would add a can or two of refrigerant to see if that fixes the problem. If it is a slow leak it may take a year or two, maybe more before more refrigerant needs to be added. It is an ez do it yourself project to add refrigerant. Just ask how, if you don't know how. We will be glad to advise how.

2nd the vote on possible bad fuel filter. It is cheap as a do it yourself replacement. Under $10.

All the above is good advise. Suggest also to try a battery "jump starting" from another car. Maybe the extra power will get the starter to work. Like said, clean your battery cables real good to make sure you have a good electrical connection. If you get it started, go to an auto parts store, where they will check your charging system at no cost to verify that your battery and alternator are both good.

I don't think the car is THAT heavy. I use an Audi jack, instead of the Subie jack, just because it is a better jack, and don't experience any problems. The lane jumping is a sign of bad struts, and or, ball joints, and even tie rods. Bad struts on the rear, result in bottoming out on bumps hit at speed. As good as Subie struts are, I wouldn't be surprised if the struts are the originals with a zillion miles on them. If so, strut replacement may be the way to go.

Looking at your pixs, I am thinking that you have the wrong size donut gasket installed. The two pipes should be much closer together, when the spring bolts are tightened down. No torquing is necessary. Maybe NAPA got the diameter correct, but could the donut be too thick? My experience with Haynes manuals is that their repair info is rather shallow and generic, and lacks a lot of depth on actually doing the repairs an any car they write up. It appears your experience bears this out too.

Oh you are from New Zealand. Maybe your Subies are different from those sent to North America. Send us some pictures of what you got, then maybe we can all figure this out.