Rooster2

Certainly agree with you about crap getting in your eyes. I can tell you have been there, done that. That in itself is one of the biggest deterrent against a "do it yourself" exhaust replacement project.

Glad you and your family survived without injury, that is the most important thing. I don't know the answer about the engine swap for sure, others will tell you for sure. My brother got hit by a car as a pedestrian, nearly killed him. Driver took off, cops found his car at a body shop for repairs. You may want to check with the police to see if they check body shops in your area. If not, then contact them on your own. You just may get lucky, and locate that red pick up.

Will fire with starting fluid suggest a fuel delivery problem. Check fuse box for bad fuel pump fuse, and or, disconnet fuel line at fuel filter, then crank motor to see if fuel squirts out the disconnected fuel line.

Agree, however, without a lift, doing exhaust work becomes difficult. I have used the drive up, and on, ramps to do exhaust work, but still found it difficult to do any work under the car due to confining limited work space. Finally told myself to have exhaust work done at a shop. It's worth $50 to have someone do the torch off, pipe bend, and weld on new pipe.

+1 on grossgary's comments. I agree the "replace in pairs" is over kill, and prolly more of a marketing tool to sell more parts. That used to be said about replacing burned out head light bulbs. It never made any sense to me.........to replace a bulb that was not burned out. That said............I too would not replace the other strut until it fails. Why make work for yourself. Don't know where you live, but if possible go to a small family owned muffler shop that does the cut, pipe bend, custom installation work. Both of my Outbacks have had the exhaust pipe rust out at the resonator. The shop recommended simply cutting out the bad pipe section and resonator, and welding in a straight pipe. Result was great. Car is super quiet. I don't know why Subaru bothered to have a resonator in the system to begin with. Cost out the door was less then $50. Don't bother contacting Midas, Car-X, or any other major muffler chain shop that will insist that your entire muffler system has to be replaced at a high cost. Find the small shop that will fix only what needs to be fixed at a lower cost.

I had the same problem on wife's 98 OBW, when she broke the mirror on passenger door. Removing those phillip head screws was nasty. They were super tight, and the phillip heads just wanted to strip out. It would have been much better, had Subaru installed with small headed bolts instead of the phillip heads. Drilling out is the best approach, but not with a normal drill bit. Use a bit that drills when drill is turning left with a reversing drill. There is a word for this type of drill bit, but I can't remember it. Once you start drilling left, the screw will eventually un-thread and come out as though you were removing with a screw driver. I have only done this one time a few years back, so my memory of this is, is not the best. I hope some one else on this forum reading this, may be able to explain this better. Can anyone chime in??

Good to hear that the tranny is performing better. Thanx for letting us know.

Are you sure it has the 2.2 motor? If my memory serves me, all Legacys had the 2.5 motor, only the Impreza had the 2.2 for '97. With high miles, and some damage, needs tires, and possible torque bind, I am thinking $300 tops.

gotta be from the rust belt.

I have shopped tires in the past at my Costco, but was not impressed with their prices. Prices didn't seem high, just competitive with other tire stores. So, I couldn't see any good reason to buy tires at Costco. About two years ago, I put Yokohama tires on, first time I bought that brand. They have held up well, and perform well. I agree with Suzam. My experience with Michelin, is that the tires will last forever, but performance falls off after a few years. The tire rubber seems hard, and doesn't grip well in the snow or rain after 30K miles.

a tune up with cheap plugs and cheap spark plug wires will cause a miss fire after not many miles. Look at a repair receipt, or a brand name on plug wires to see what's there.

bad clutch??

My HG's went on my Ej25 at like 225K I think.. it's amazing how many people deny it's the HG's until they exhausted everything. No one wants to think about the out lay of big $$$ to have HGs replaced.

That is typical of bad HGs. Engine will idle just fine, short neighborhood drives just fine. However, add stress, such as driving the highway, or climbing hills, and the temp gauge spikes to over heat in a hurry. My 99 did the same thing, until I changed HGs.

$25 is a good price for the hub. I had same problem, with bad hub wearing out bearings on my 99 OBW. I spent $75 for a yard hub, which cured my problem.

A new radiator bought on line cost about $100, Prolly not that much more then getting the old one cleaned.

My 99 Outback, blew it's original HGs at 192K miles. I caught the over heating early, and easily confirmed that it was blowing exhaust gas bubbles into the radiator over flow tank. Bubbles looked like an aerator in a home aquarium, so it was a lot of bubbles. I could still drive short distances before the engine temp would spike quickly. I am unfamiliar with the Lisle tester to know how reliable a test it can produce. You mention installing a new Subie thermostat, and surmising that PO had removed the thermostat to address the over heating problem. That really concerns me! I wonder how much over heating has this engine endured? How long has your friends owned, and roughly how many miles have they put on this car? How many times has the car over heated? Continual over heating can warp the engine's aluminum, and damage crank bearings. Water pump failure, clogged radiator, and bad HGs are all over heating candidate components. IMHO, I think your HGs are bad.

What exactly is the "hole" in your engine??

If the 10 mm bolts break, do I need to replace them with the same??

If you prowl wrecking yards, or can check their stock on line, you may be able to source the lamps that way.

You will get a better response to your inquiry, if you accurately describe the problem in the "Topic." Simply typing in the word "HELP," is not a good way to start your post.

Thanks, I wondered if that may be the problem. I have read on this forum that this has happened to others. How do I remove the plastic cover to inspect??

My 99 OBW, threw a CEL last week. I had the code pulled at Advance Auto, and was told it related to the fuel evaporate, and most likely from a poor sealing gas cap. So, I bought a new cap, and now a week later, I am throwing the same code. I think the guy said it was the 140 code. So, if not the gas cap, what, or where should I look next to find something defective to correct the problem??

Pretty sure my last can was 15 oz. in a plastic bottle.