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I have been toying with this idea myself. Or maybe putting a turbo in my 96 outback.

Welcome to the world of Subaru! These are great cars, very durable and if they break they are easy and cheap to fix. The best Subaru book for early Subaru’s is How to Keep Your Subaru Alive: A Manual of Step by step procedures for the complete idiot. By Larry Owens Very good book with great illustrations and humorous to boot. Early Subaru’s tend to leak, unless it is huge amounts just learn to live with it!!

I put this in my 96 last night, works great. Very smooth shifting now when cold, used to be hard until warmed up. The redline dealer, (actually a SCCA racing shop), told me a Subaru story. He had a customer who was having manual tranny issues, took to dealership, they said needed a new tranny and would be $1500 dollars. So first try the put in some Mobil 1 GL5 fluid, this made the shifting even worse. So a racer at her work told her about Redline. So she put in some 75W90NS first to see if that would help. That was 50,000 miles ago and tranny is still working fine. FYI

My outback has the cold weather package, the passenger seat does not seem to be heating properly. It looks like there are three wires under the seat that plug into the console area into the switch. Anyone have a service manual that can tell me what wires do what? It seams like the back heats up a bit but the bottom of the seat gets nothing. Thanks

Good advise on all other responses. Very little chance you have a bad HG the 2.2 is one of the best motors Subaru has every made.

Yep that was my fix. I have done this on lots of cars. But that will not fix the CEL light that is on. If that is on you automatically fail.

Was this a dealership?I only ask this because dealerships are notorious part swappers. I had this same issue on a Toyota Land Cruiser, there is a know check valve issue on 3rd generation Cruisers. The Truck was under the dealerships 90 day warranty so I took it in, they ended up changing out over $4000 worth of parts. (Starters, Flue rails, fuel pump, etc.) After three trips I said never mind, purchased the $15 check valve and fixed it myself but got a lot of nice new parts for free!! Dealerships do not do very good trouble shooting or diagnosis for the most part. They are used to swapping parts and this is they way they make $$$

What is the largest (height) size tire I can run on a 96 outback? I am just looking for a bit better fit in the wheel well. 205/70-15 is stock and Discount says I can run 215/70. Thanks

I did understand. There are communication signals from the auto transmission to the computer. Since the computer is not receiving signals from the Automatic transmission it will not start. You need to have a Manual Transmission computer in place and not a Auto Transmission computer.

Nice!! OK now I am impressed!! My old CJ had a non-synchronized first gear, had to be a total stop to put in it first after double clutching! But this was never a daily driver. That is true; I grew up driving stick Subaru’s on dirt roads in rural Colorado. I was like a rally race every day between me and my friends on who could get to school first! There is also the ABS argument; a skilled driver can stop faster with the ABS turned off, than letting the computer do it. But very few people are able to do this, and then again why when you can just put your foot to the floor.

I would love to take the challenge to!!! This is a huge argument in the Off-roading world also, between stick or auto. I can tell you that here in Colorado we get snow and my driveway is nicknamed K2.(really steep) Anyway I can pull my stick Subaru’s up it with no problems because I know how to manipulate the clutch, my father-in-law has an auto ob and has issues at times pulling up it. I think it really boils down to personal preference. And in emergency situations sliding or avoiding other vehicles, I will take a stick any day over a slush box. IMO

You are welcome. The motor was out of a 93 LS Wagon with 90K on it. We were actually able to get a lot of nice parts off this vehicle, not usually such low mileage units in the yard. Anyway I would be shipping from Colorado zip 80401

I have one I scored from the junk yard. My brother though he needed one, but did not. Let me know if you want it.

I could not agree more. err I just did. It is funny here in the US the over use of Automatics. You could not give away an auto in Europe or Australia. They think we use them because we are too lazy, and want to have a free hand to eat our fast food!! I think that if you can drive a stick, get a stick, you will be happier in the long run, and be able to control you vehicle much better than any auto will.

Alternator sounds like the cooperate to me, or possibly voltage regulator.

I would tend to agree with most comments on this report. But I can say that with synthetic oil I get 2-3 more mpg and no noise at start up no matter how cold or how many days since the car was driven.

I had the same issue with my 96. Check out this thread I was able to fix the issue on my wagon.

And an independent Subaru shop would have been able to diagnose the issue and fix it for about half the cost, fyi. When you hear people on the board reference independent shops rather than dealers, we are referring to independent specialty shops that specialize in Subarus. Not just random independent shops out there.

A M/T computer and A/T computer are not interchangeable, there are contacts and messages that go to and from A/T to the computer. I am sure this is why it will not start, not getting correct info for the A/T tranny so will not fire.

Can anyone tell me what the factory spark plug gap is for a 96 2.2 outback? Thanks (NKG plugs btw)

I run mobil 1 in my subies, got an extra 2 mpg out my 93 2.2 when I switched to synthetic. Have not tracked my 96 since switching.

That is me too!!

HA I would agree about the bettle and the miata!!

Just the cylinder, you can have it re-keyed for you lock, or have a key made for it but then you would need one key for lock, on for the ignition. It is really easy getting the door pannel off, need smaller hands to get the door handle off from the inside.

They are really easy!! plus it flushes the block also!!