Rooster2

"No noise" are the two key words in your post. That pretty much tells you the diff is in good shape. I wouldn't worry about it. A small amount of metal grit is normal. Replace diff lube, and you should be good for many more miles.

Looks like a nice car. Did the dealer give you paper work that showing all work done? It is nice to keep a folder on a car with all receipts enclosed. Subie engine/trannys are usually good for 300K miles, not the 100K miles you are thinking about. Subie engines are easy to work on, with the exception of changing the sparkplugs. You may need to add some Subaru branded "stop leak" to the coolant system, should the head gaskets start loosing coolant. The stop leak fixes this. The all wheel drive need to have tires that are all the same brand and model, and tread depth. Otherwise, "torque bind" can develop in the system. Enjoy your Subie...........they are great cars.

Makes me wonder what other wiring damage, and component damage is still lurking under the hood.

Same thought. I can't think of any good reason why the filter was ever designed to reside inside the gas tank. How is that a better solution then having a canister type under the hood?

Major concern is when will the head gaskets will go bad. I have both a 98 and 99 with same dohc 2.5 motor. Both eventually blew their head gaskets.....one at 156K miles, the other at 186k miles. For people who know what to look for, there is a way to visually look at the corners of the head gaskets to tell if they have been replaced or not. I have never been shown what to look for, so I am not able to tell you the difference. With proper maintenance, a Subie motor is good for 300K+ miles. If it has an automatic tranny, the 99 & 00 models are prone to suffer from "tranny delayed forward engagement." My 99 has that, but can be cheap fixed using Trans-X additive to the tranny fluid. Otherwise, beyond these two weak points, the car is great, and very dependable. I would also look under the car at the half axle boots to see if they might be torn. If so, at some point the axle will need to be replaced.

No, don't care to wager, but it would surprise the heck out of me to learn that the filter is inside the tan. It is common to have a fuel pump inside the tank, but never heard of a filter inside the tank. Every fuel filter that I have ever seen on cars in the last 20 years, has always been a good size in-line canister filter located either under the car, or under the hood.

My 99 has the fuel filter under the hood. Don't know of location on a 2010, but I can assure you, that it will NOT be INSIDE the gas tank.

Thanks guys for the good advise. At least, I know the compressor is still good. I added R-134A last week. I got plenty of cold air at the time, only to have it mostly gone in a couple of days. I can tell, as the system barely puts out any cold air now.

Suspect a bad O ring or two. Is it better to O ring the entire system, or just O rings at the compressor? I guess I could add flourescent dye to search for leaks. Does that work well? I tried accessing the "search" function here for info, but couldn't get into previous posts by others regarding A/C. Any suggestions??

Somehow you are loosing vacuum in the system. Either there is a split in a vac line, but then you replaced that. Then, there must be a tear in the vac unit itself. Easiest thing to do is to get one from a wrecking yard. I very much doubt there is any electrical problem.

If your Outback has the standard seats, then they are not the most comfortable or supportive. I found leather seats in a wrecking yard from an Outback "Limited" model. The leather seats are very comfortable.....well worth doing a swap out.

+1...........just too much rust on everything. I agree, you are much better off replacing the tank, if you intend to drive this car for any extended period of time. Otherwise, you will be replacing the tank in the near future. Lots easier replacing now, then in the middle of January.

I am thinking your oil pressure is going to be low because of engine wear at 230K miles. Try going to a heavier weight oil, like 10W-40W, or 20W-50W, could be a cheap fix the problem. However, if you live in the cold in the winter, then 20W-50W should not be used at low temps.

On my 99 OBW, I lifted 1 inch by switching to 235 X 70 X 15" size tires. Car drives just fine. Correction, I upgraded to size 215 X 70 X 15, not what I firsted stated above.

Sounds like a typical exhaust leak to me. Doubt that it comes from the cat as they are really made of tough material, and don't split open to leak. Both of my Leggie Outbacks (98 & 99) developed leaks at the end of the resonator. All Subie exhaust systems are pretty much the same design. The resonator is located just after the cat. I had a muffler shop cut off the resonator, and weld in a piece of straight pipe. The result is great. Just as quiet as can be. Don't know why Subaru has a resonator in the exhaust system. I look for exhaust leaks by crawling underneath the car the best I can. I have even driven two side wheels up over a curb, with the other two wheels still on the street. This can make it easier to crawl underneath, as the car gets raised a bit doing this. Just be sure to put on the parking brake before crawling underneath with the engine running at idle. The exhaust leak noise will pretty quickly lead you to where the leak is. Yes, the shrouds can sometimes be in the way, and sometimes the leak can be at the top of the pipe, so it is out of sight. Feel around the pipes, wear mechanics gloves to keep from getting burned from the hot pipes. Let us know what you find out.

What year and model car do you have? Knowing that, I have some thoughts.......

Maybe more of a Japanese or a European thing. I have never used mine, or have heard of anyone else using theirs. I have owned other Japanese cars, but can't remember the special parking light switch on those cars.

Welcome to this forum. Glad to have you on board. I am guessing that you may have accidentally turned on the parking lights. It is a little toggle switch on top side of the steering column. Flipping the switch the other direction should turn off the lights. This is a frequently asked question on this forum. Others have done as you have.

Yea, replace the window switch should solve that problem.

Every 98 "Limited" model I have ever seen, had the EJ25 larger motor, so I would bet the farm that the car has the EJ25 engine.

Nice looking ride........curious as to why the fender needed replacing. Did you run a carfax report on the car?

The ad says the spedo head was replaced in 2009, so maybe that is where the source of confusion started as to what model year the car is. With it being a 30 year anniversary model, and with the VIN decoded, it has to be a 1999 model. Good to see that the head gaskets were replaced. With the speedo head replace, it is impossible to know how many miles on the car. Would suggest running a CarFax on the car to see what the report would be.

I don't think the A/C system is wired into the CEL system to cause a code to come up, so trying to fix the A/C system is not going to remove the CEL. Find out what code P0534 means. Most CEL codes result from some failure of an engine polution control devies. Many auto parts stores will give you a free code read with your car in their parking lot.

Years back, I had a VW that had a rusted fuel line. A mechanic, who runs his own shop, fixed the problem by cutting out the rusted section, then inserted special high pressure rubber hosing to replace the steel line. He used 3 each worm gear type hose clamps on each end of the hose to prevent fuel leakage. I drove the car for prolly 10 more years, and never had a problem with this unique fix. I did keep an eye on the rubber hose to see if there was any deterioration, but none ever developed.