Rooster2

Since you are working on your tail gate, if the outside hatch latch is jamming and sticking,when you squeeze the handle to open the tail gate, you should be able to find a replacement from an Outback in the wrecking yard. This jamming happens with rusty cars in the snow belt, so this may or may not apply to you.

Thanks for a good explanation as to how and why the Trans-X fixes the problem. I agree with your reasoning to a point. However, since my 99 OBW had 160K miles on the odo at the time, and was approaching 10 years old, it made a lot of financial sense to add the Trans-X to the automatic transmission. Paying to have a shop do a seal rebuild job has to cost big bucks ($), maybe about $1,000, right? A can of Trans-X cost just $6. After 18 months, and 20,000 miles of using Trans-X, my trany is still performing well, so the "fix in a bottle" can't be doing that much harm to the rubber seals, or I would have realized it by now. I am thinking this "fix in a bottle" has been a good choice and good decision.

My thoughts are with the others in thinking the alternator is bad. When mine went bad it was doing weird electrical things like you described. Changing the alternator is an easy cheap job. However, use this problem as a reason to lower the price on the car, or what you would offer to buy the car. Ditto on what others say about driving it on the highway at speed for a while to see if it will start over heating because of bad head gaskets. It will idle for days with bad HGs, and not over heat. It is at speed that over heating occurs. You can be almost sure that the 96 needs a new timing belt and tensioner pully. It is very important to change these parts, because if the timing belt or tensioner break, the valves will collide with the pistons to cause major engine damage. Good luck on your Subie search. Hope you buy one!

Even an EJ22 can blow a head gasket, though the EJ25 phase 1 is famous for doing so. I know I had a 91 Leggie with the EJ22 blow a head gasket. Drive this car around for a while if possible before buying to see if it wants to over heat. Who knows, maybe just needs a good cooling system "burp" if air is trapped in the cooling system when new radiator was installed. Good luck sounds like a good price!

Does the section of the Y pipe have a shroud covering it? If so, I would suspect that a portion of the shroud has come loose, and is vibrating. I have had this problem on both of my OB Wagons. I had a friend rev the motor up to the rpm that resulted in the rattle sound, then hold that rev so the sound would continue. Then, I crawled under the car and pushed/pulled on the shroud with my gloved hand and a screw driver until I found which portion of the shroud was loose. I cured the problem by hammering in a bolt as a wedge between the pipe and shroud to prevent the shroud from vibrating. Other guys have used a screw type hose clamp over the shroud to stop the vibration. Hope this info helps!

Nipper, IMO I have had good luck with chain auto store belts for Subies. The trick is to buy the best quality belt they sell. I have not gone wrong with Goodyear Gatorback, or Gates belts. Don't waste your money on cheap belts. Like you say, cheap belts just don't hold up. For belts, I don't have patience to buy one on line, and wait days for delivery. Usually, when I need and want a belt it is "right now."

Nice work! What an improvement. Do you make road trips? My Subie headlights could use some cleaning and polishing!

Are you referring to some electric release for the hatch or trunk? As far as I know that option was not available on any Subie model in 99.

Trans-X fixes ATs on 99 and 00 Leggie models. Your 93 prolly has a different problem that Trans-X isn't fixing.

worn tires can cause the strange drifty feeling. Tires start loosing grip when they are about two thirds worn out.

Sputtering when going up hill suggests to me that it is possible that you may have gotten a tank of bad gas along the way. That has happened to me in the past, and finally I figured out the gas that I bought had some water mixed in with the gas. Suggest adding a can of "dry gas." If you don't know, that is a generic name of a product that is designed to help rid your gas tank of water or moisture. Any retail car parts store will carry the product. It is inexpensive, and worth a try to see if this will help solve your problem.

Have you changed spark plugs and plug wires? Also, add a good can of injector cleaner like TL-3 or Chevron Techron. Cost is about $6/can. Don't bother using the cheap injector cleaners costing $3 or $4/can. They don't work very well.

I have had good results cleaning the haze off the headlights using a paper towel, a little water, and toothpaste. Any toothpaste will work. Have fun with your new car. If it were me, I would just clean off the rear bumper, and not repair the dent in the bumper. I think it would be too costly, besides the dent doesn't look that bad.

Welcome to the Subie club with your new car! How much do you know about Subies? Your 98 engine is prone to blowing a head gasket to cause over heating. I hope that is not your case, and that the car has not been driven while the engine was over heating. That is very bad for aluminum alloy engines. The car is designed to run in AWD all the time. If there has been an issue, maybe the previous owner realized this, and inserted a fuse in the holder on the firewall under the hood. The fuse holder is located on the passenger side and is marked "FWD." If so, pull the fuse, and see how it drives in AWD. If it drives "wonky," then that will need to be addressed. Others here will chime in on that issue. Hope your new car performs well with some TLC!

Like others have commented, I would take the money you would be spending on an extended warranty and put it into a separate saving account for a rainy day when you need car repairs. There are so many scam extended warranty programs. Just take your money, then not pay for auto repairs. I have heard that US Fidelis is a bad scam, and under investigation by several attorney generals in several states. I guess Rusty and Steve Wallace needed their cup sponsor money real bad to buddy up with those crooks.

Thanks for the link. I always like to read about Subie engines in unique applications. Looked like a nice clean shop where they build their cars.

I have changed several Subie alternators, and have never had a problem loosening bolts. The alternator sits up high on the engine, so that area doesn't attract water or dirt, which causes bolts to seize up. The belt tensioner system uses a threaded bolt, which works really well. Since you have to loosen the belt, you may want to look at the belt to see if it needs replacing. It is an ideal time to replace it. You may want to replace that old battery. Better to replace now, before it dies on you at a bad time.

Look over your new 2.2 motor very carefully for damage. Last time I had a 2.2 motor pulled from a yard, they somehow ruined a valve cover (cracked or dented it), can't exactly remember. My guess is they prolly dropped the motor. The yard guys are not gentle with the work they do, and will not tell you what damage they created.

Last year, when I changed spark plugs in my 99 OBW, it was a bear getting the plug wires loose from the plug. Same problem as you, the plug wires were just laminated to the spark plug. I figured the plug wires were old to be that tight, so I bought a new set of plug wires. At that point, I didn't care about destroying the old plug wires for plug removal. I just ripped at them with channel locks until they either came loose, or shredded them until they pulled off. When replacing with new wires, I used the dielectric jelly (looks like Vaseline) on the ends of the spark plugs to help aid removal in the future. Read the archives here about changing spark plugs. It is not an easy job. Just no room for tools, but with patience it can be done.

Thanks guys for the comments, my OBW already has alloy wheels on it. The tires are about shot. I have the Limited model, so the cut outs on the facing of the wheel have the gold paint. I might come out ahead buying the used alloys with new tires that look less than 3 months old, then selling my gold OBW wheels. Is there any demand for the gold facing 15" wheels?

Went to a wrecking yard yesterday to view Leggies, never know what is available. So, I spot this 96 OBW with OEM alloys with near new Hankook 205 X70X15 tires on the rims. The yard wants $200 for the 4 wheels and 4 tires? Is that a reasonable figure? Don't know anything about Hankook tires, to know if this Korean tire is good or not. Appreciate any advise. Thanks!

There are two OEM manufacturers of starters for Subies. I am not positive, but I think one is Nippon Denso, the other Mitsubishi. They are somewhat different from each other in design, but are interchangeable when it comes time to replace a starter. I replaced a starter on my 98 a couple of years back. The replacement works just fine. However, it is from a different manufacturer then what was on the car. It is much quieter then the one I took off the car, and my wife kept worrying that because it is so quiet, that it wasn't working properly. However, not the case. It starts the car every time, just quietly so.

By chance did you replace the O2 sensor with a generic type, whereby you splice wires new O2 wires onto the existing wiring of the original O2 sensor? If so, when I have done this, the wire splice never seems to last long, resulting in a new O2 code. Finally, I gave up on generic O2 sensors, and only install a sensor specifically made for that model car. No more splicing, no more sensor trouble.

Suggest replacing the PCV valve. It is an easy and inexpensive swap out. A new one can help get more mpg. Do you have a check engine light that"s on? Pull the codes if so. The codes would tell you if you need a new 02 sensor. Regarding the back brakes.......I assume they are disk brakes? If so, spray with penetrating oil or PB blaster, then wait several hours before trying to wrench off. If bolts still won't break loose, then heat with a propane torch. Good Luck, nice buy! I am nosy.......how much did you give for it?

Happy to help! Actually, it was a sales guy at Auto Zone who recommended the Trans-X. Not that he knew that the product helped Subie trany problems specifically, but he said he had heard good reports from customers applying the product in a wide range of different cars. Rooster2