Fairtax4me

Where in WV are you Gary? I think you've said before but I can't remember. I know there is one place about a half hour west of me where the machinist has over 40 years in the business. He has done a few things here and there for the shop, and seems to be a knowledgeable and experienced machinist. Not sure how close the place is for you though.

Sure is!!! Spray it on the instrument cluster and voila no more CEL! Leaks can be barely noticeable. You might not be able to feel/hear them without help. Have someone cram a rag into the tail pipe (engine running) while you listen around the pipes for the leak. Often if the leak is large enough there will be carbon deposits around the source, but not always.

You just have to register the car somewhere south of Culpeper county then you don't need to do those stupid emissions tests. JK Unfortunately you go the most fun emissions code Subaru offers. It can be anything, from a bad sensor, to an exhaust leak, to a bad cat. We're in salt country, so exhaust pipes get nice and rusty around here. Rust eventually leads to leaks. (who knew?) Any leak before the front oxygen sensor (which is mounted to the front catalytic converter) can allow air to enter the exhaust stream and throw off sensor readings. The most common places for leaks are the flange before the cat, and the gaskets on the manifold pipes where they attach to the engine.

That's exactly what I was thinking. They just set it on a belt sander and let it rip. No way I'd put that on a car.

SUHWEET! Whos gonna be the first do do the 12 banger to swap into an old body Legacy? I'll take the 34"s too, re-Donk-ulous! Anybody else catch this?

Trans mount is like $65 if you check the online dealers. Ask about timing belt stuff? Any trouble with the head gaskets? Oil leaks are your worst HG related worry on the SOHC.

I haven't put the car back together yet, but figured I would update this anyway. I have new OE parts on the way, courtesy of The Import Experts. I don't think I can say enough about how well they've treated me with this whole deal. They took the faulty parts back no questions, gave me a full refund including the original shipping cost, that I had within just a few hours of them receiving the parts. They were extremely apologetic, very sincere, and dedicated to keeping me as a satisfied customer. They then put together a kit of OE idlers for me and threw in Priority Mail shipping for one hell of a good deal. I won't say exactly how good, but it's about a third what the same parts would cost at a dealer. I'm hoping to have them by this weekend so I can get it back together and running. I know where I'm going first for timing parts from now on, or for anything else they have that I might need.

Well?!?! Do you need new teeth or did this go nice and smooth for you?

The Subaru FSM specifically says not to place the weight of the vehicle on the wheel bearing until the axle nut has been tightened because the axle nut sets the pre-load on the bearing. I'd replace the bearing as well. If this is not a Subaru shop, take the car to a Subaru shop and have them replace the bearing. Bearing replacement must be done with the correct tools to support the knuckle in the press or the knuckle can deform and cause damage to the new bearing. It will also cause damage to every new bearing that is installed into the same knuckle.

So you have a loss of engine power, not electrical power, correct? I'm still skeptical of the main relay. I shall confer with the FSM to get other ideas.

I don't have a pic but there is another hole with the same bolt and thread size a few inches away from the sensor toward the drivers side of the block that is much more easily accessible. You should see it on top of the block.

Impact will help. Guessing you don't have air tools but an impact driver may get it loose. Just wail on it with a breaker bar, if the bolt breaks, get another bolt and mount the sensor somewhere else close-by on the block. It's not worth removing the intake and trying to drill/easy out a broken bolt.

Any other lights or electronics affected by this? Does anything happen if you load the system with all the lights on, blower fan, rear defogger, wipers running, etc.?

What do the valve covers look like?

I'm on the bad relay bandwagon. The main relay is right under the dash and I read about one of those calling it quits every now and then.

The manual transmission does not have a transfer clutch. I suspect that your SA was just confusing terms, or they are throwing around "transfer clutch" as a general term. I wouldn't worry about the terminology too much, but the tech recommending a fluid change as a fix for this scares me a bit. They should know that the viscous coupler is a sealed unit.

This may be true (i'm no metalurgist), but there is also the problem of galvanic corrosion of the aluminum when stainless and bare aluminum come in contact. This will rather quickly cause the bolts to seize and will deteriorate the threads in the aluminum. Makes it a royal pain to take apart later on. It may only be certain grades of stainless, I'm not sure, but I see it all the time.

Wow. Does that explain the smoke coming from under the hood too Mr. #1 car salesman? The skid plate attaches to the jack plate right? Anything on the front of the engine that might leak will end up running right to the middle of the skid plate. Without seeing it: cam seals, crank seal, wrist pin access cover O ring, oil pump seal, oil pump O ring, Oil filter, oil drain plug, head gasket.

Hmm. Have to keep that in mind. I've had the ends pull out of plug wires before. I just cram the wire back on and put some tape to hold it in place until I can get replacements. Has always worked fine for me. Never done that with a wasted spark ignition though.

You need enough strength in the shaft of the bolt to overcome any rust/corrosion on the threads when trying to remove it. If you use the cheapest hardware you can get, you end up with a broken bolt.

Sounds like your VC is toast. Even high mileage cars don't often have trouble with the VC, so I would suspect a manufacturing defect based on info you've given. I'd say it's worth a try to get in touch with SOA and see if they'll foot part or all of the bill for replacement.

There are plenty of these cars running around with after market plugs and wires on them. Some people just get the bad apple and have problems with the after market parts. Generally, your better quality parts will work better and last longer. Bosch wires should be fine. I use Autolites in my truck, they seem to work fine for the old dog. There's not much that can go wrong with your run of the mill copper plug. You do want to at least match the type of plug with the manufacturers OE plug type though. If your owners manual specifies platinum plugs, get platinums.

Just edit the title and text to "double post" or something like that and the mods will delete it later. Did you try bleeding it first?

DOHC 2.5 Overheating, rough running, sounds like blown head gasket. I won't condemn it to that right away, the cooling system might have air in it, the timing belt could have jumped due to a faulty tensioner creating the poor running/no power problems. Maybe the shop didn't purge the air from the cooling system properly, that would lead to the overheating, but overheating that engine leads to other bad things very quickly. Take it back to the shop that did the work and give them the chance to make it right. (Don't drive it, make them pay to tow it in) If they can't you start asking for some money back. Then go to a Subaru shop that can fix it right. How many miles are on this engine?

I got a few from the hardware store to replace the rusty ones on my wagon. Anything grade 5 or better should work fine as long as you get something with an anti-corrosion coating such as zinc. Stainless steel is not as good of an idea as it sounds, so stay away from that.