CNY_Dave

I have an wide assortment of 'stuff', I've always been able to fully support the knuckle right at the end of the bearing housing proper. Having seen the force required to get pretty much every one of those out, I can see the risk of distorting the knuckle. I finally broke down and bought a harbor-freight FWD service kit, just for the assortment of support sleeves, saved a lot of time hunting for just the right scrap to support things!

Do I need to get new lug nuts to use tire-rack steelies on an '06 outback that has aluminum-rim lug nuts?

I have found if you support the nose of the converter by the 'button' while trying to seat it, it seats much more easily.

Photo provided is an example of the model listed... I love that line!

For the worry-wort, park in a big open lot, chalk all 4 tires with vertical line where they meet the ground, have someone watch as you drive forwards and count any tire having the line reach the ground 10 times, and stop with the line straight down. 0.25" in circumference is now 2.5" in rotated distance of the line, furthest 'forward' to furthest 'back'.

My guess would be the trans switch (try sometimes in N) if an auto, clutch switch if a manual, or the starter solenoid just getting stuck/binding a bit. My H6 outback would do this once in awhile, never had to replace the starter, but I'm a gamblin' man. The starter motor proper does not get power until the solenoid connects the gear, at that point the contacts close to give the starter motor itself power.

Well, I'm quick to cut and splice, not really all that helpful maybe. You could cut the wire to the solenoid, under the dash would best, and measure the voltage without the solenoid. But the rest of the wiring wouldn't raise what the TCU was putting out unless it had a partial short to +12V. You know, unless the solenoid is mostly open, maybe the TCU output disconnected can drift high unless connected by some resistance to ground. Yo check for that you can pull the connector at the TCU or behind the intake and measure the solenoid ohms to ground thru the connector.

The wire can be isolated, cut, and then spliced after testing.

A good depiction of the weirdness in the quantum mechanical world... Looking at explaining how photons move through a transparent surface is even weirder, particularly time delay (index of refraction). The only way you can explain it is similar, you have to look at all the possible paths a single photon *could* take and analyze that.

I have done a number of 2003, 2005 front wheel bearings (subarus and a toyota matrix), on none of them could I even get the snap ring off with the spindle on the car! Just too much northeast rust and hardened grime. I have the horror-fright FWD service kit and was willing to give it a shot. It's a handy tool even so. How many tons of pressure can one of those hub-tamer type tools apply? I have had to lean on the long handle of my 20T A-frame press every time to get the bearing moving.

The thing to be aware of is if the studs are flexing even a tiny bit, over time they can fatigue and all 5 shear at once. That was the failure mode for when subaru published the wrong lug torque, driving along and whole wheel falls off with no warning, all 5 lugs sheared. So, use caution!

The bearing at the top of the strut can clunk, if the noise seems to be coming from high-up and just in front of the windshield. Noises can sometimes be ferreted out by applying the brakes, leaving them on, and attempting to drive forwards then backwards a few times.

Perhaps the clearance hole in the rim for the hub ring is too small (not deep enough, not large enough in diameter, or both) in the neon rims to fit over the hub's centering ring on the subaru hub?

My '03 LL bean with the H6 took abnormal pedal pressure to generate good braking power. Never did track it down, but it wasn't bleeding or calipers or pads/sliders not moving freely. The brake booster was amplifying effort, but could have been below what it should have been doing.

If it gets flooded and gas washes oil off the cylinder walls, it will crank frighteningly fast. I had this happen once, after moving the car a few feet on a cold-ish day, hours later it acted like it had zero compression. I had to crank for quite awhile with the gas floored.

Oh, man, I've seen that! Usually looking at the sky away from the sun on a clear blue-sky day. Always wondered what weird little bit of physiology caused it.

I have heard that quantum mechanics says that if you put a 45 degree (relative angle) polarizer between two crossed polarizers, some light will make it through. Weird but true, maybe a little patch of angled polarizer somewhere between the gauges and your sunglasses (or on either) would work. Sounds like there's a market for sunglasses polarized except for all the way at the bottom, too low to catch driving glare but just right to catch the gauges. I hear pilots with glass cockpits can't wear polarized glasses at all.

As a diagnostic you could disconnect the wire that goes to the transfer solenoid and try +12V on it (no power to rears), and compare to it being disconnected. (Assuming no FWD fuse on that year)

We used to call that the PRNDL switch back in the old 2-speed automatic times... I saw one of them powerglides where the case was made out of cast iron, HOLY COW I always wondered how heavy those were!

More than 15psi, straight acetylene, and it can explode. I've been using acetylene/oxygen torches for about 35 years, there are some VERY important rules to follow, following them well makes it safe to have / use. About the only thing you can't predict is the worst thing- when a tank decides to 'cook off', it just sits there getting hotter and hotter... doesn't happen without some kind of damage or ill treatment though.

An empty tank is actually more dangerous than a full one.

You work on an east-coast car with no acetylene torch? You're braver than I...

All I can say is other than needing a quart in between my at-5000-mile changes at 207,000 miles with a pretty oil-wet engine it doesn't have any other oil burning symptoms, the plugs were in there a bit too long and other than electrode wear they were in great shape- no crap on them from burning oil. That's not to say it's not burning any oil, just that I'm adding about as much as I had to add to my 2003 H6 with its similar magnitude leaks. I think my epoxy patches on the oil pan are starting to leak again too.

The leaks off the head gaskets are enough to create a blue cloud off the exhaust at a red light, it's pretty considerable. Bottom of the engine and cradle are soaked! Valve covers seem pretty tight, could be the oil filter o-ring under the cooler adding to it though. Both sides about the same. No other signs of burning oil, no crud on plugs, no pinging, etc. But as I said, the dealer oil for the first 175k miles could have been semi-synth.

I have an '05 forester with almost 210k on it, it's been dealer dino or castrol since we've owned it starting at about 20k or so. (or am I just assuming the dealer didn't use synth or synth blend in their $20 oil changes?) It leaks far more out the head gaskets (replaced by dealer at 60k) than it burns! That doesn't mean that engine doesn't have a much higher probability of burning oil if it doesn't get synthetic, of course. Could just be luck. Now, wal-mart. Doesn't mean it's true in this case, but those SOBs have products on the shelf labeled exactly the same as sold elsewhere, but it will be a special blend/model/construction etc just for wal-mart, so wal-marts required price can be met. Sometimes it literally isn't the same product when it's cheaper at wal-mart.