mikec03

Yes, go to the junkyard! I don't really think that a new maf from O'Reilly would be bad, but you can't take a chance. They don't fail that often so the junkyard is the best place to get a replacement and make sure it's OEM. I've had to do it myself on a 90's car. As DaveT said, don't fool with the ecu yet.

The OP hasn't established that the starter solinoid is getting 12 v when he turns the key! To do this, temporailry touch a wire from the battery 12 volt terminal to the starter solinoid. You probably should buy a female spade to make sure that you get a good connection at the starter.

+1 to previous comments. The Op has a good running car and should not have any complaints. One thing that needs to be emphasized, however. I have an 02 subaru that had the oil leak from the spark plug tube gaskets just like the OP. The oil saturates the spark plug wires and eventially you will notice the engine starting to miss at 50 mph or so. So replace the valve cover gaskets immediately. The gasket kit which includes the tube gaskets is only about $40 at advance auto. There are DIY available that even a cave man can follow. If sometime later, the car starts to miss, well the OP will know the reason and replace the spark plug wires at that time. Don't replace the spark plugs. They should be checked of course which is standard proceedure on all used cars. For goodness sakes, do not pay $400 to have this done! If you can't do it yourself, find an indy subaru shop.

Everyone in Northern US has this problem with 90's subarus. I'm surprised that it is a problem as far South as Virginia but they must use a lot of droad salt down there. The corrective action is as follows: 1. Cut out the rusted paneling. You have to cut back at least an inch from the edge of the rusted hole. 2. Fiberglass over the hole. 3. Layer Bondo over the fiberglass to smooth the surface. 4. Paint it. Of course, there are more details involved, but the above is the general idea. Your friendly auto parts store will be happy to sell you all the supplies necessary. And the rust can be more serious then just a hole in the sheet metal, which would make the repair more difficult.

The longevity of a HG replacement depends on the quality of the mechanic. So you have to judge his ability and integrity. Having said that, however, in my opinion is that you don't need a 100K on this car to be a good deal. You should figure that, if a used car costs less then 10 cents a mile, overall, then it is a good deal. In your case that would mean that the car needs to achieve 36K miles. If the mechanic is guaranteeing 12 months or 12K miles, then I would say that the chances of the car exceeding 36K without major maintenance is good. So I would buy it.

The rust is not too bad. On my old subarus, I have been spaying with a product that one poster said was used in Europe. It is calld "fluid film." It's lanolin based so it sinks into the rust and protects for a year or so. I would use it on the non moving parts under your car. It's not for panels around the wheel wells. It is sold by Riellys. PS I did have a 95 that I had to junk because frame tube rusted through in the back of the car..

Great information from Coryl. Recently on my 02, the car would not restart after I drove to a local store [the starter would just click]. When I jumped it, the car started and I could drive it home. It turned out to be a bad alternator. I believe that the alternator was just good enough to allow the car to be driven 10 miles, but not enough to charge the battery. The car was dead in the driveway after getting home. So the OP needs to change the battery and then maybe the alternator. The alternator should be generating more then 13.5 v accross the battery terminals when idling.

+1 for the tensioner. You need to change all the timing components every 60K miles. If that wasn't done, then now is the time. Isn't it great to have a non interference engine!

Yes, I have made a shield[aluminum] that I attached to the 2 bolts that hold on the "lifting plate" just before the joint of the two exhaust pipes. It directed some of the oil down before the exhaust pipes and some further back on the pipe. It cut down the smell somewhat but obviously, there was still some smell after the car stopped but not when it was moving. The best thing is to pull the trans or engine and replace the separator plate. It will cost you at least $500 of course. I never had it done.

On my 02 legacy, the only time that it started to miss at normal speed, the ignition wires were soaked with oil. There are probably many things that could cause the problem, but that is one thing to check. Of course pull the spark plugs and gap them if they look OK, although its an unlikely sourse of the problem. The oil on the ignition wires comes from the tube gaskets which are part of the valve cover gasket pack.

I hope that you know that your symptoms are the classic description of a internally leaking Hg. Of course there are other possibilities. But old 2.2 engines can leak internally. I had a 1995 at 217K that ran just fine, but if you looked close, there were continuous, little bubbles in the the overflow reservoir. I had to junk it because of rust on the rear frame but it would have overheated pretty soon. So check your reservoir. ps. congratulations to getting to 285K miles. pss they are called hoods, not bonnets, in US. Bonnets are what women wear on Easter.

You are going to have to do a timing belt job unless you can determine that it has been done in last 60K miles. One of the things changed often with a timing belt job, is the water pump. The water pump gasket could be leaking and giving the occasional drops. Monitor the cooling level closely and look up the multiple videos on DIY timing belt changes. ps/ you don't have an interference engine, so if you have a timing belt break, all it will do is strand you. It wouldn't cause a catastrophic engine failure like the 1997 and latter cars would.

You should be able to find the two green wires under the drivers instrument panel. You have to work upside down of course. When you plug them together, all the car solenoids and rad fans will click on and off in sequence. It's a 90% chance in my opinion, that the solenoid that is on top of the charcoal canister needs replacement. You should have grabbed it when you got the canister.

First, as LT posted, your car could leak oil for a long time before you really needed to change the HG. But to answer your question, the longevity of the HG replacement is entirely dependent on the skill of the shop. And having it done at a dealership is no guarantee that it will last. It's a gamble. Given that you apparently can afford a new car, I would trade it in, now, rather then living with the problem.

I think that a lot of head gasket replacements fail. The replacement is very dependent on the skill of the shop. It doesn't matter if it's been done by a dealership or not. I have an 02 which had the HG replaced 4 years ago. I won't be surprised if it starts leaking any time now.

For that year you are supposed to change the timing belt at 60K intervals. So for that and other reasons, do a complete change. The you tube videos diy's are just great. It's a little strange that they changed the water pump twice at different times then the timing belt. There must have been a leak? So you need to change it anyway to hopefully stop the coolant lose. Use an aisin pump.

+1 on the 2.2 engine. I own two 90's 2.2 subarus. There are things that break down but at least head gaskets don't need to be replaced.

I don't totally understand the OP's data. When the OP is measuring the ignition voltage [0.2 V], is the spade connected to the starter? In other words, if the OP disconnects the ignition wire [spade connection] from the starter, connects it to a voltage meter, and then turns the ignition to start, will he read 12 volts on the meter?

I happened to find some of the literature on the diagnostics for the 96 model subaru. This also applies to the 95, and I wouldn't be surprised earlier models. The first step, after driving a little, is to turn off the car and put it in Drive . Then connect the "plug diagnosis terminal to the diagnosis connector number. 5 under the instrument panel." It's basically two plugs that are tapped up so they are not obvious. Then there is a few steps that need to be made and the trouble codes will then show up on the indicator light. The duty C is 2 flashes followed by 4 flashes for example. This is all on page 3-2 of the automatic trans and dis of the 96 service manual. It's important for the OP to understand that if there are no code, which seems impossible if the light is flashing, then the indicator continuously blinks at 2 hz intervals [1/4 sec]. If you don't see the continuous blinking, then you haven't varified that there is no codes. .

Im not sure that he OP has read the trans code. For my 95, I had to get under the driver dash and connect two wires. These were extremely difficult to find. Fortunately someone mentioned the color which helped a lot. They are not the green ones but I forget what the color was. The method of reading the trans code was changed shortly after the 95 model so don't be confused. And isn't the FWD option disabled when the 16 flashes are present? So putting i the fuse should have had no effect on the torque bind.

yea, I rewired the parking lights to turn them off before realizing that all I had to do was turn the switch off. Laugh out loud.

I must admit that I haven't always done it, due to laziness. But it's a good idea to do it. Tips:Loosen the bolts for the cam pulleys before you take off the timing belt. Tighten the bolt using part of the old belt to wrap the pulley and a chain wrench to hold the pulley stationary. The following Lisle tool really makes it easy to get the seal out. Don't push the front edge of the seal in beyond the face of the motor because you could plug the oil return [ look at the position of the old one before removing it]. http://www.lislecorp.com/divisions/products/?product=365

You just have to realize that 95% of the time, the overheating is from a defective HG. Make sure that the coolant bottle and the radiator are filled to proper levels and then look for bubbles in the overflow bottle during idling and after driving. You can change the cap, thermostat , and the even the radiator. You might get lucky.

I've replaced two on 90's subaru. I got my replacements from the junk yards. Really inexpensive.

My 02 started leaking at 90K miles. So I think that the answer is no.