Fairtax4me

That's the only "cable" in there. There is a small ground wire for the brake light switch, but nothing else electrical AFAIK. If the brake light switch wire was glowing it would have probably ignited the insulation and lit the car on fire. The rest of the harness runs under the carpet along the rocker panels. The brake cable was clearly acting as a ground path for a large amount of current. But from where to where? My best guess... The burned battery cable shorted against one of the brake lines that leads to the rear brakes, and the power grounded back to the body through the e brake cable. That seems to me is the only ground point in the rear suspension. Everything else (lateral arms, trailing arms, springs) has rubber bushings or insulators to prevent NVH. The only other place for it to go is through the knuckle and wheel bearing into the axle housing, then through the axle shaft into the rear diff. From there it would go up the driveshaft to the transmission output shaft. Then it would have to go through another bearing before going into the transmission case. But you're talking about ~half a dozen points along that path where the electricity would have to pass through a greased joint or oiled bearing surface. Grease and oil are both very highly electrically resistant. I'd suggest carefully checking the hard brake lines under the hood near the starter/battery cable area, then carefully inspecting the rear brake hoses (the rubber ones) for signs of burning or overheating. The rubber hoses themselves will not conduct electricity, but I'm pretty sure brake fluid will. So it would be a good idea to flush the brake fluid as well. How's that for a wild theory?

Yeah and the one for 99 lists for $529, and that's for a reman part. Besides aesthetic differences, the only thing I could find vastly different on the 99 alternator was the 3 pin plug. But the harness only uses two of the pins! So what's the friggin point!? :-p

98 Forester had a different part number than the Legacy's that had all the trouble. All the parts places I looked listed a different alternator for the Forester, even though it fits the same. Subaru sells it reman for about $400.

Like BH said, raw fuel in the exhaust because of a misfire. Check spark plugs, wires, timing belt. Vacuum, PCV, and breather hoses all tight, connected where they should be. Check that timing belt ASAP, if it breaks that 2.5 will bend valves and you'll be doing major engine work rather than regular PM.

It's probably the bushings that secure the sway bar to the frame. Mine do this all the time when it's cold. I just ignore it because it goes away after a few bumps. Silicone grease is the least likely to degrade the rubber bushings so should work pretty well to quiet them down.

Yeah there's no telling when it might fail. What you do is go to the Subaru dealer and order one for a 95 Legacy. $75 and it drops right in. $50 core but you'll get that back.

I guess the guy really needs to get to work in the snow?

OBS Impreza? Dunno about those, but the projector fogs on the Legacy's work great. They probably won't fit on the Impreza though. Most aftermarket lights that are actually labeled as "Fog lights" will work pretty well without blinding other drivers. If you get anything that says it's for "offroad use only" its probably just going to get you alot of highbeam flashes.

What Noah said. They will probably fit factory wheels but aftermarket are often a little different. You should be able to buy aftermarket sensors though and have them calibrated to the car. I would guess calibration at the dealer would be in the $90 - 100 range. It's done with a computer, so should only be about an hour in labor time.

That hose should only be about $10-12. Too common of a hose for them to not know how to look it up without a VIN. Part number: 807615081 http://www.subarupartsforyou.com/cp_partdetail.php?partid=9358

Thats much easier than having to pull the door panel.

I think the whole pump (without pulley) should fit in a USPS Priority flat rate (2-3 days) medium box. $10.95 to anywhere in the US.

I literally JUST did this last week. Just cut the pigtail off the 98 and stick it on the 99. The wire colors even match, although even if you didn't have the right colors it isn't hard to figure out. Then swap the whole alternator, or go to Subaru and get one of their $75 reman. units if you need some extra peace of mind. Part number: 23700AA34ARA If you don;t have the 98 donor car, the plug from any 95 - 99 Legacy will work. Just hook the white wire to the Blue/red one on the Forester, and the black/white goes to the black/white. The black/white is the wire to the battery indicator lamp in the dash. The blue/red wire comes from the fuse panel. SBF3 I think.

You're good!

By dirt cheap I hope you mean under $100. First things first. Piston lash? Assuming its making a knocking noise. Does the knocking go away when the engine warms up? That would indicate piston slap which is a benign condition. If the noise doesn't go away, it's probably a rod knock which means you get to rebuild it, or just scrap the engine and drop in another one. Gonna guess that car has an after market header as well, which works but they can cause issues with CEL and I've heard some are prone to cracking. I'd just try to grab a whole exhaust assembly out of a junkyard like Lucky Texan Said.

You should be able to pull the mirror switch out and replace it separately, but I think the door panel has to be removed to get access to it. Door panel removal takes all of 3 minutes though if you know what to do. Roll the window down, remove one screw behind a cover under the door pull, remove the small screw under a pop out cover behind the release handle. Get your fingers under the bottom edge of the door panel and give a firm tug to pop all the plastic clips loose, then work up each side in the same manner. Pull up firmly on the rear half of the panel while pulling outward slightly, then rotate the panel counter clock-wise while pulling away to pop the door handle pull out. That's how it works on the second gen legacy at least. Then the switch assembly is held on by a few screws around the housing.

Are they Subaru wheels? Did you check lug pattern and hub bore size? No point in buying wheels if they don't fit on the car.

EBC Red Stuff. Best pads you can buy IMO. A bit expensive, but they will stop on a dime all day long with NO fade. I put 15k miles on a set with slotted rotors and I couldn't tell they had worn at all. The rotors were crap IMO (EBC Ultimax slotted), but the pads were friggin awesome. The "Bed-in" material they put on the pads makes for some awful screaching and very touchy brakes for the first 50 miles or so, but goes away for the most part after that. They did squeal from time to time on my Lincoln, but that went away after about 5k miles.

Checked your local craigslist site? Also try http://www.car-part.com. The classified section here is a good place to look too. You never know what you'll find.

I don't see why they couldn't be swapped. The wiring may be different, but usually you can just buy the right plug for the bulb from an auto parts store if a junkyard part isn't an option.

Only wiring that I can think of is for the reverse and neutral position switches. Clutch/neutral START switch (different than the neutral position switch) is a matter of hooking two wires together. There is the MT/AT identifier pin on the ECU. It just needs to be grounded so the ECU does not look for the AT.

95 is close and you can get that here: http://www.main.experiencetherave.com/subaru_manual_scans/ Some of the wiring is different, mostly just different wire colors, but I did notice a few differences in the ECU pinouts.

It's a terrible Idea to go back to that shop. Fix the valve cover gaskets, about $70 in parts from a dealer and a few hours of your time, but is easily done on your own. Keep an eye on the power steering fluid level, top off occasionally if needed. Leave the rest alone. Valve cover gasket leaks are common on these, and quite often the oil tracks towards the middle of the engine and makes it look like other parts (head gaskets, steering rack) are leaking badly. Replace the valve cover gaskets and go on your trip.

The inhibitor switch is checked just like checking any other switch, only there are more wires. Check for continuity across the terminals with the switch in each position. Disconnect the shift linkage so you can work the selector lever on the transmission by hand. 95 does not have a 4WD light as far as I know. It has a FWD light which stands for Front Wheel Drive. This light means the car is operating only in front wheel drive. Usually someone has put a fuse in the FWD fuse holder under the hood. It's located on the rear of the passenger strut tower. Black with FWD printed on it in white. Remove the fuse and the AWD will be engaged, and the FWD light will go out. If it doesn't go out there is a problem with wiring or electronics. This will not likely affect your shifting issue. However, the light combined with the shifting issue points more toward a TCU issue.

Is the trim in the Limited actually real wood? I have it on the window switches in my wagon and its just plastic with "wood" printed on it. Looks awful IMO. I always forget to grab some plain black ones when I'm at the junkyard though.