Rooster2

Glad the Trans-X fixed your problem. I added the product to my '99 about 10 months ago, and the trany continues to work well. I am not surprised that SoA publically denies any knowledge of this. They don't want to accept responsibility for anything outside of warranty, so acting dumb is their course of action. Keep us posted on how your trany continues to work using Trans-X. This particular Subaru problem seems to affect only '99 and '00 models with automatic transmissons.

A massive electrical short in the dash of any 13 year old car with 175K on the odo is a guaranteed trip to the Pick a Part store. With cost of labor these days, there is just no way to economically repair that car. It is best that it is a donor car.

nice looking after market steering wheel. That shift knob is strange. I see why you want to replace it. By the looks of it, I would say that it was owned by a kid. The ricer muffler really adds to the thought that it was owned by a kid.

Or maybe for a wiper if you have one on the rear tail gate.

how about getting them powder coated?

In this situation, I would recommend a Jeep Wrangler. They have heavy frames, and designed to drive on any road or non road surface without breaking. As said in an earlier post, Subies are still cars. Their 4 wheel drive system is really designed for added traction on real roads with ice and snow slippery conditions.

For a 2.5 phase 2 motor that you have, HG leaks are usually colant leaking to the outside of the engine. Subaru dealerships offers a coolant additive to your model car to specifically stop that type of leakage. Lucky for you it is not a serious problem like what is found on the earlier phase 1 motor.

Low voltage from a bad battery could still cause the turn signals to do strange things. Low voltage can cause relays not to work properly. Try this.......with the motor turned off, turn the head lights on. If the head lights are dim, I would continue to suspect a bad battery.

I have used Seafoam, and found it to be a good product. However, multiple write ups on another car forum say that Seafoam is hard on engine seals. As a result, I never leave Seafoam in my engine for long.

I once had something similiar happen in my car, the dash guages went nuts, and drive ability was poor. The car continued to start okay, but then the wierdness. Turned out to be a dying cell in the battery. There was still enough power in the battery to start the car, but with voltage down the guages and accessories performed poorly and strangely. Suggest testing all the battery cells with a hydrometer to see if all cells are good. In my case, once I found a bad cell, I replaced the battery, and all was well again.

They look good in your car. Hard to tell how well the color matches the rest of the interior or the exterior in your picture post. Big thing is that they look comfortable. Take comfort over looks any time. I have a 99 OBW with an uncomfortable driver's seat. Don't know if it was designed uncomfortable, or if the padding has crushed down over time. My butt aches if I sit in the seat for any lengthy drive. Wouldn't mine having a pair of seats like yours.

In my opinion, repairing a motor with 285K miles on the clock is throwing good money after bad. Suggest replacing motor with a good used one with a guarantee makes better economic sense. I bet cost and labor for repair vs replacement comes about to be about the same.

It is possible that it is a bad water pump, but I doubt it. With the 2.5 phase 1 motor, which you have, the head gaskets go bad by allowing exhaust gas to enter the cooling system. It is not a problem with coolant getting into the oil. The exhaust gas can cause the car heater to work poorly because of poor coolant circulation, while the added exhaust heat causes the temperature guage to spike quickly to "hot." This also causes such poor coolant circulation (because the cooling system contains some gas, not liquid, that the top hose will be hot, while the bottom hose is just warm. Air "exhaust bubbles' are sometimes seen in the overflow tank that sits off to the side of the radiator. It is common to have a bad head gasket, but it only presents itself when the engine is being driven. It will idle all day without over heating, but just drive it, and put a minor "load" on the motor, and it will over heat. Hopefully, you have not driven the car long with the engine being over heated. If not, replacing the HG will solve your problem. Also, it is not uncommon for the bad head gasket problem to cause such heat and pressure problems, that the radiator springs a leak. Replacement head gaskets from Subaru have been improved. The revised design seems to permanently solve the problem. Since you just bought this car, I suspect that the previous owner may have known about the HG problem. Perhaps that person will pay for some of the cost of a HG repair. Can't hurt to ask, or maybe return the car and get your money back.

Recently my wife broke the passanger door mirror on our 98 Leggie OBW. It is the Limited edition with heated door mirrors. I had no luck finding a used heated one in a wrecking yard, so had to settle for a non heated model. It is just one wire in the factory wiring system that heats the mirror. I don't know if all Leggies are prewired or not. Prolly best to pull off the door panel to look at the wiring. See if a single wire inside the door panel is not wired. That should be the one that you need to hook up. I can't remember where the switch is on the dash, or how exactly the heated mirrors are switched on. That may be an issue as to find the switch.

regarding the sun roof........I had a VW some time back. The sun roof began leaking on that, or the tract drain hose/tubing got clogged with gunk. I don't know which. I could never get it to stop leaking, so I gave up on using it. I used clear cellophane wide packaging tape to seal the entire sun roof edging to the car roof. That worked great to keep the rain out. Recommend going this route permanently, or until you can fully repair. Have fun with your $100 project car. I had a 91 Leggie L Wagon. It was a great running car. The 2.2 motor runs forever!

When my wipers freeze to the windshield, I pour cold water on the windshield and wipers to melt the ice. Cold water has enough heat in it to melt ice, but not warm enough to cause the windshield to crack. Just my 2 cents worth!

I have had a gasoline engine described as an air pump. It pulls air in from the atmosphere (intake) and pumps the same air out the tail pipe (exhaust). The result is horse power. So, horsepower is increased when more air is pushed out the tail pipe faster. Super chargers, turbo chargers, and four valves per cylinder are all designed to increase air flow for more hp. In addition to working on increasing exhaust air flow, suggest thought and work be put into the air intake system. There is a fresh post by someone working with the air intake box for hp increase. Suggest reading that post for some ideas.

Any chance it is something as simple as the wiper blades frozen to the windshield?

Yes, I have a '98 OBW. I will remember you as a parts number resource. Thanks for the offer, and posting your story

That is a really nice find. Change the trany fluid, add some diff lube, maybe a tune up, and you could be ready to go. I suppose you are way ahead of me in the thought process. Keep us posted on, on what it takes to put this car back on the road.

Reading above posts............I guess it depends on the intensity of the heat from the fire.

I have been to enough wrecking yards to see exactly what you are talking about. Something shorts out the electrical system to start a fire and toast the engine bay and maybe more. I have never bought a motor from a fried car like that, but would think that the motor itself would be unharmed. An under hood electrical fire does not get that hot to damage the motor in my opinion. The reason the car sits in a wrecking yard is because the labor to install a new wiring harnass, and all other damaged under hood components is beyond the value of the car. Now that I think about it, I remember talking to a guy shopping in a wrecking yard years back. We were both looking at a car that had suffered an engine bay fire in the yard. In conversation, he said that he bought a car from a wrecking yard, and painstakingly rewired what was damaged in the fire, and put the car back on the road again. He said the cause of the fire was a leaking fuel injector, or fuel line that sprayed or leaked fuel on the exhaust manifold to start the fire. So, I guess that is a testimonial that the motor is prolly not damaged. Guess, I should also add that the engine fires that I have am talking about have not been catastrophic. Only wiring has been burned, not radiator or heater hoses, valve covers, or any belts burnt off the car.

That's a decent buy at $2800. What approach did you use to get the price reduced from $4900?

Suggest opening the hood, check to see if the plug wires look new? If they look old and dirty, then maybe the plugs and wires were never changed. Rough idle and poor gas millage is a sure sign that combustion is poor. Pull the codes, as someone said, is a good first start to diagnosing the problem.

Agreee, it would be great if Subaru created a Brat to your description. At this time about the only vehicle currently for sale that comes close would be a Jeep Wrangler.