88whitecat

Another passibillity is a harness connector under the dash near the fuse box may be loose. I had the exact same thing happen in my 98. Hit a bump and they go out hit another and on they go. Suspected the illumi-con unit also until one day I got into the car to drive when my wife was last to drive. She was already in the car (passengers seat) and the car was running. She is 8" shorter than I and had had the seat way up. While falling into the car my foot grazed the harness and the lights went out. She noticed and said "hit it again". I did and they went on. the next day during daylight I got up under the dash and undid then redid every connector I could reach. since then I have had no problems.

Just curious but can anyone tell me what that clip is for? Does it have a function when the TC is seated and every thing is together? Or is it for some obscure production\assembly purpose and people put them back in simply because they are there?

So here's the scoop. I have a 96OBW that I bought from a member with known problems.(hg's,tb,shifting issues) I had a 98 L wagon that I had smashed up so I took to swapping the engine then transmission. I swapped the engine in (i think) june of last year. I threw the expected code for evap system but nothing out of the ordinary engine wise, It ran ok. The trans seemed to get worse delaying shifts untill 6k and slamming in hard. I rechecked all my hoses,connectors and the like and all seemed ok. I had been intending to wait till spring to swap the trans but I needed to have the car reliable thru the winter so in early november I started the swap. I had some great days weather-wise but lacked the knowledge to do it fast. So then it snowed and I picked up another 98 at the end of november so I put the project on the back burner. Febuary rolled around and my dad says "get it out of my driveway or im having it towed" so I slapped the essentials together(front driveline,exhaust,rear halfshaft,fwd fuse in) and drove it to my apartments parking lot. It seemed ok other than a little noisy and a little sluggish. Now that it really is nice I want to finish the project by doing the rear diff, but there are some issues I need to address before I do. before I drove it over I filled with atf. When I went to check it last week the stick was clean. I think this might be because the screw that holds down the filler tube went m.i.a. So before doing much more I added atf,started it,let it run,checked again. still low. added more a little at a time until it read full. I turned the car off, went in for a sandwich and when I came out there was what looked like half a quart of atf on the ground? climbed under and saw it was coming from the filler tube. had a neighbor start the car and it stopped leaking. turn it off and it sounded like it was flowing from somewhere back into the pan,and started to leak again. also while it was running and i was underneath it seemed like it was making an awful chattering sound directly from the pan. I realize the first step is to get a screw for the filler tube but I worry of what damage may have already been done.Does any of this sound familiar to anyone? I think I'm needing a little guidance on what to do from here. I apologize for the novel. Any help at all is much appreciated. Have to go pick up the lady now. But I'll be back in an hour to answer any questions.

I pulled an 86 mercury cougar (heavy car ) on a tow rope a little more than 20 miles with no problems at all. And it was alot of stop and go. A week later I used same rope to tow same car out of an unshovled, plowed in driveway. Pulled strong with no problems.

Sorry to hear about the ride Andy. Hope it cleans up ok. Yep I've lived in springfield,mass my whole life and even I call them Mass-holes. There's even a mass-hole bumper sticker out there. It's worse when a bit of weather shows up, you really see who can't drive. And were supposed to be used to sudden change in the weather here in new england!

I sure its not the same guy nova is talking about but around 2 years or so ago some college kids were in our local paper. They had taken an old diesal VW Bus and converted it over to a veggie oil fuel vehicle and they drove from Mass, cross country and back,mostly on used used french-fry oil from burger joints. I do believe they were capable of running regular diesal also if need be.

How ironic! I just finished an issue of "Drive" that SOA sends out not 30mins ago and it had this guy in there!

Yeah I started with detatching the struts and sway bar but soon came to the conclusion that you just dont gain enough room without detaching the lateral links. I wanted to save as much as possible either for my personal spare parts box or to offer to the members here, but got frustrated and said "f**k it!" and cut the lateral links and tailing arm. I saved the axles and rear diff. it needs to go into the OB before snow flies. not having awd drive sux! So i'll keep pluging away at it and in a month or so the stripped carcass will be off to the scrap yard. Thanks for getting back to me though. Its a solace in my mind to know if I have problems I cant figure myself there is a wealth of info from members on the board!

So I'm in the process of pulling parts off of the 98 Lego at the moment and I'm at a point where I'm not sure what to do. I've been more or less following the Haynes manual and it tells you to remove the whole rear knuckle to remove the rear axles. Is there a better way? I know the control arm bolts are going to be a royal pain in the butt and I'm doing this without air tools. A search only comes up with front end removal techniques so any help here would be appreciated.

I'm trying to install these fans in my 86 mercury cougar. I want the clutch fan gone to make more room, and free up some 15 horses. I did intend to run a manual switch, but wanted them to have an automatic mode. They sell thermostatic fan control kits like this at the autoparts store but they cost like $80. I was looking to keep this project from costing me anything, other than the spare parts I already have kicking around. I have a wide variety of relays, switches, and other electronic doo-dads but no electronic thermostats. I guess its time to start cruising E-bay!

Darn, I was hoping to not have to spend the money on a stand alone fan control. Thanks for letting me know though. The projects continue!

Are the fans from a 96 outback thermostatically controlled at the motor, have a thermostat elsewhere in the engine bay, or are they switched on and off directly by the ecu? The reason I ask is I am looking to modify a pair of spare fans to another vehicle and want to maintain some sort of automatic control, in conjunction with a dash switch. Thanks alot for the help.

I'm actally in the process of doing the same thing. It took me about a day and a half to pull the 2.2 out of my parts car going very slowly to familiarize as I went because this was my first subaru swap. The 2.5 took about a day once I knew what I was doing and once I get home today I'm changing the T-belt, oil seals, water pump, etc., on the 2.2 and If Im lucky have it in tonight. Overall everything was damn near identical when pulling them though. Good luck with yours when you get to it!

If your state requires you to pass an emissions test on a yearly basis, any garage that performs the inspections can do it for you as they use the same machine as to check the exhaust. I just had it done last tuesday for 10 bucks. A word of caution though: this is not a pass/fail test, more like a maybe/fail test. I have a known bad headgasket yet it still turned out good numbers and the mechanics determination was that the HG was fine. Other than that good luck with it!

Hello yourself! Thats the problem with the digital age though, a member could live on the next block and and unless something area specific comes up (like a car for sale or a bbq etc) you might never know it assuming they lived some distance from you. Crazy huh?

I think both. But replace HG with engine. Maybe I might find time to overhaul the 2.5 on a stand but I need something reliable now cheap. And the FWD fuse is whats letting the car run right now. I didnt know the tranny doesn't have a filter. Time to install an aftermarket cooler and plumb in a filter while at it! The tires are 2 separate matched pairs. same size, trying to keep all the pressures the same. Fronts are on 15" alloys and rears are on steels. The alloys are leaking air though and it doesnt leak steadily. One night it went flat overnight while other nights it loses nothing. Well time to turn in. See some of you tomarrow IF the car makes it.

Just an update I did a coolant flush today and it was bad. There was the expected sludge stuff from the HG but there was other stuff that worries me more. Small bits of metal floating in the pail of what I drained out. It looked like fine gold glitter in suspension. Also the radiattor cap is bad. I dont think its supposed to leak from th edges of the sticker on top:eek: one thing after another right? At least with the fresh fill of anti-freeze it stayed cool on my 10mi test run. Only thing that bothered me was the gauge wasnt steady. It would be at normal tempthen dip low, rise high then repeat.

I want it! When can I come over? J/k Im from springfield (yeah a WESTERN mass guy) and just drove to maine for a 96 ob with a bad motor AND tranny...The headaches dont stop anymore. But it does show you how nuts i am! Seriously I wouldnt mind making it pair though.If you want it gone Pm me.

This is what I was afraid of. I just couldnt figure why it wouldnt have problems on a 95degree day then overheat when its like 70 out. And why all of a sudden? I was hoping against hope the previous owner had been mistaken; you know? like maybe it was just the water pump going instead. That I could fix today. I had already priced the gasket set and $166 is not bad but its more than I can cover at the moment. Thats why I bought a $100 car. I figured cost of car+ cost of HG = LESS than new car but if I can save a few bucks I'm gonna try. Which brings me to engine replacement. Cougar I have looked at ccr but I currently have a 98 Legacy with a 2.2 in it thats bound for the crusher after I strip it. Interference I know but you cant beat free! The task then becomes swapping it in. Now if it were my 88 Mercury Cougar(where my s/n comes from hence the pic. thx by the way) I wouldnt think twice about swapping the motor out, but a Subaru is a whole different kind of animal that I dont know enough about to feel comfortable doing something that could screw up and cost me more to fix. Anybody wanna come over and help do the swap?

I guess I spoke too soon. On my way to work this morning the car overheated.Of course this also happens on the day I couldn't find my cell before leaving. Horrible! So anyways it was full of anti-freeze as I filled it completely (on ramps and all that) tuesday and have been keeping a close eye on the level in the radiator.To note one thing: when I checked it yesterday I pulled something off the bottom of the cap and out of the filler neck. It seemed fibrous like paper or cotton or somthing like that. I had only gone about 10 miles before starting to overheat and I pulled over and killed the engine immediately. I waited for it too cool some than popped the radiator cap to check how full the radiator was but it was right up to the filler neck and when I stuck my finger in it wasnt really hot.Started the car cap off, temp gauge around normal and the fluid geysered some but didnt drop in level.The upper hose felt empty whern I squeezed it to push the air out. Also another bad clue is when I got back in I cranked the heat but it was quite cool.I limped it home 2-3 miles at a time then stopping whenever the temp gauge rose to halfway between normal and peaked. Not sure what to do now. I called out of work and have the day to figure something out. Hopefully its better soon so I can take it to Connie's tomarrow.

Well I recently aquired a 96 Outback (2.5/AT/AWD 197k mi) to replace my seriously screwed 98 Legacy. Being an optomist I shall start with the good. Body is straight with very little rust Paint is great on about 90% of the car the rest is superfical blemishes Interior is nice and clean looks like an oem replacement carpet in the rear rest is better than average Has the cold weather package The bad When I got the car it was under the assumption it has a bad hg Tranny has definite t.b. Bad missfire on #4 Exhaust midpipe seperated from the muffler. flange broke. So far I have done little to it except the following Put about 1000 miles on it Had a mechanic sniff test the anti-freeze for hydrocarbons. I dont really know what the numbers mean but thats why I'm here:grin: When test was started value was about 250; after running about 10mins value fluctuated between 30 and 50. mechanic doubted hg failure. Note on this: it seems to push out into the overflow but not return, rad. cap maybe? prev. owner reported the need to add anti-freeze daily. I have not seen it overheat at all in the 1000+ miles Ive done so far. Mikey-moused an exhaust fix, turned down a piece of aluminum pipe stock to just under 1 3/4" and clamped it into both ends. still leaks but much less noisy. Replaced alt. w/ one from 98. was looking at it at night with a friend and saw it arcing from the metal shell of the alt to ground. tested bad at advanced auto. helped more than I expected. Now I'm waiting on plugs and wires to arrive at my door (oem) to see if that clears up the missfire and makes it run smooth. If not Im considering installing 2.2 from my 98. Also debating whether to do the tranny filter and flush a couple of times or swap in the trans and rear diff from my 98. The swapping drivetrain parts is where needing help is definitely going to come into play here. Experienced help preferably:drunk: Well thats where I stand at the moment, tell me what you all think and point me in a direction please!

Hi all, I'm trying to troubleshoot a brake problem that i'll probably get into later but I cant find my owners manual and the fuse panel cover has been missing for some time now. Can anyone tell me which fuse will disable the ABS?

Is a subie newbie welcome? I would love to meet some of you.

Has the oil pump ever been replaced? How long since the last T-belt replacement? Might be time to get in there and change your oil pump, seals, water pump, t-belt, etc. If the oil pump isn't putting through enough it's a sudden death issue when a camshaft seizes. Or on the other hand if the mechanic used a silicone type sealant it may have migrated into an oil passage and is partially clogging it. Either way the outcome stinks. Good luck with it.

Watch out for that "sticker shock" effect. I felt raped walking out of the dealer after I bought 6 bushings (2 for each lateral link,1 for knuckle, 1 for the trailing arm) I couldn't believe that such small items could cost so much!