Fairtax4me

Your cruise control may not work, and you may not be able to exceed a set speed. VDC should not be affected.

No, you can't use a cracked piston. Crack = bad. Those scars at the top of the cylinder aren't good news either. The piston comes right up to that point, and if the rings go past those marks they will leak compression and probably end up burning out. Generally that type of mark is too deep for machining. With that type of top end damage, the rod is probably bent as well. Talk to whoever you bought it from, and tell them the engine is damaged beyond repair, and you need your money back. Wash your hands of it, and go to car-part.com and find another engine.

The Outback lift is only about 1.5" higher than a regular Legacy. The struts give 1" of lift, and the slightly larger tires give another 1/2" or so. I think people get the extra 3" from the overall height, which includes the raised step roof on the Outbacks. The blocks between the chassis and front and rear cross members, a little less than 1", are there to lower the drivetrain to keep the working axle angle within acceptible spec. And yes, it can be lifted more. There are strut top lift kits available, or they can be made pretty easily with a little effort and a welder. Fuel economy will get better with a lower car though. Castrate, I mean, reverse it to regular Legacy height, and the closer to the road stance will yield an extra mpg or so on the highway. (is it worth it though?) :-p

Yep. I believe there are exceptions in some states for people with independent dealer licenses. And obviously a dealership can do safety inspection on inventory vehicles. Seems like you could have talked them into throwing a sticker on there for you. Glad you got something. That 2.2 is the last year for the non-interference design. With a little TLC here and there, it should run very well for quite some time. Mine is still charging hard at 183k. And it's still young by EJ22 standards.

Agreed. For the most part, factory Navi systems (on any car) are a waste of time and money, expensive to update, and difficult to use.

FSM pinout for the Coil has only 3 wires. One (yellow) is power with ignition run/start. The other two (Red w/green, Blue) go to the ignitor module through connector B22. It's a large grey 16 pin connector on the passenger side top o the bellhousing. Check those for continuity. Visually check the wiring for cuts/cracks in the insulation. Also check all the connectors (especially B22) for corrosion/dirt in the pins. Spray them with some contact cleaner to ensure cleanliness. Sometimes unplugging and plugging them back together a few times get's them cleaned up. The Crank and Cam angle sensors can only be checked with an analog multimeter or Oscope. Doubtful it's either of those since the ECU would not see the signal it wants from those sensors. I would think it would not fire at all if that were the case.

Will it start at all now? Is the "new" coil pack brand new or used?

I'm still skeptical, but I don't think we can discount the fact that multiple people are having problems with excessive vibration when sitting still after replacing axles. This seems to be limited to only automatic transmission vehicles. So maybe it has something to do with the axles being under load? Gonna ask some of the guys at the shop if they've heard of anything like this.

It's actually a very common practice. Some engines it works out fine, others not so fine. Personally I've seen it cause more problems than it prevents. Especially in the case of the new style MLS gaskets, which already have a thin coating of sealer on them. From Cometic's FAQ section: More information about Viton based compounds can be found on DuPonts website. Another problem... Dust. Dust will not stick to a dry gasket. It will stick, and glue itself, to a gasket covered in wet spray on sealer. Now your average household dust, in small quantities, isn't a big deal. But if you're doing this in a shop or outside somewhere and you have pollen or other "large" (in comparison) particles of various types of dust flying around in the air... you can see where this is going. Dust gets between the gasket and the sealing surface and creates a pocket where air can be trapped, air expands and contracts with heat cycling. If the pocket is near the combustion chamber seal ring, it will eventually open a path for combustion gases to get under the gasket, and after that it's all over. Sealer gets burned out, gasket gets burned out, leak begins.

I'm going to read up on that axle stuff tomorrow. Incorrect axle length is an interesting theory. I just can't concentrate on it enough to read through the multiple threads right now. Need to make a few of these first... zzz

It's not that hard, but it is good to have some experienced guidance. There are a handful of members up there in the PNW that have more than enough knowhow to teach a novice a few tricks. Whether they are willing is a whole other story. :-p

This is a common problem on many 4 cylinder engine vehicles. To an extent it is considered normal on many cars, Saab, Toyota, VW, anything with a 4 cyl engine, most of the time FWD, but some RWD cars will do it as well. Most of the time (when excessive) it can be attributed to incorrect (too low) idle speed. Cleaning the intake and idle control system may help. It can also be caused by incorrect cam timing. A worn/stretched timing belt/chain can cause the timing to be off by just enough to create problems at idle. Ignition timing is another cause of this, but the ECU controls the timing on all modern cars. No adjustment there. You can check it to see if it is out of spec, but that's really kind of pointless. I fail to see how an axle would cause this, unless it's flat out broken. The axles don't move when the car is sitting still. No movement, no vibration.

I think I know what you're talking about. Last year I had some ice down on top of the rocker panels that would freeze the door shut at night. I figured it was from me kicking my boots against the rocker to knock the snow off before I got in the car. Might have come from somewhere else though. Didn't pay much attention to it honestly. Just learned to knock it off with the scraper when I parked the car for the night.

Accessory belts are supposed to be done every... 60k these days? Of course they can usually go for longer, but most of the time they start screaming after a few years. Yours has done well to still be in one piece after 6 years. I'd bank on the belt first. If that doesn't fix it then Ac compressor pulley bearing is probably going bad.

You might be able to get PO info from a Carfax report, but I'm not sure (never bothered to try). Piston slap is benign. Every 2.5 does it. Pilot bearing is not a big deal. I think you meant the Throwout aka Release bearing though. Again probably not a huge deal, unless it really starts screaming. A friend of mine has had one whirring in a Volvo 240 for 125k miles. The rest of the car has worn out, TOB still sounds the same.

Carbon fiber. Lightest, strongest hoods you can get. Probably the most expensive too. Doubt you can find one for a Legacy though. Not much out there for lightweight options on the Legacy. Especially the Outback. The Outback is heavier by nature. More ground clearance from the taller struts, has lift blocks in the sub-frame, more goodies inside the car (leather seats, door trim, more sound deadening material) all that nickel and dime stuff adds up. If anything, the best way to lose weight, buy an Impreza. The 6 speed trans (one of them anyway) is marginally better top gear ratio than the 5 speed. The other 6 speeds are the same or worse. And at that, any 6 speed is gonna cost you big $$$, where any 5 speed more than 5 years old will be like $500 or less. A trans and diff swap isn't that hard, but the fdr change will get you ~300 rpm lower revs at 60. Hardly worth the money unless you get the parts really cheap. 99 OB will have 5x100 lug pattern wheels. Only way to see the weight of the wheels, is to look them up. Tirerack.com has a decent selection, there are plenty of brands out there that make very light rally/racing wheels that will fit Subarus. Team Dynamics Racing is a pretty big name in the Rally world. I have a set of Team dynamics wheels I need to sell listed in the Classified section here. Check in the vendor forums, and Classified sections here and at some of the links at the top of the page. You may find better info for your weigh loss plan at some of the more performance oriented forums. This board has more of the keep it stock, or add weight so it can off road better crowd. edit: we've had plenty of fuel economy threads here. Click the search button and you should find a few with plenty of hints/tips for better mileage. Might check out the links at the bottom of the page here under "Similar Threads".

Being RPM related, can you replicate this noise with the car sitting still?

You might be better off to start a new thread for your issue. But here's my 3 cents. You just did some work on the engine, now a few hundred miles later you have trouble. Coincidence? Go over anything you touched while you were doing the work. What did you have to remove/disconnect in order to get access to what you worked on? Hoses, clamps, wiring?

The definition of a drive cycle varies. For some systems it is just time with the key on. Others needs a whole string of conditions to be met in a certain order before the monitor will be set as "ready". 95 and 96 Subarus have exceptions for emissions testing because several of the monitors reset after each key cycle, which means they will never be "ready" during testing. After that Subaru fixed the issue, so all models 97 and after have to have monitors set "ready" to pass testing. IIRC the Evap system has the most difficult monitor as far as completing the proper drive cycle in order to get it to set "ready". Just keep driving. You may need to make several trips of various duration from 5 to 30 minutes to get it to set. I haven't had the chance to look into the deal with the O2 sensors. Though I'm not entirely sure I could find anything useful. :-p

You said it was a 99 in your other thread. A 96 outback could have the 2.5 with automagic trans. 2.2 with manual trans.

Yeah check the wheel sensors and wiring. Make sure there aren't any metal shavings stuck to the sensors. The wiring for the rear sensors is routed a little strange where it starts to run down the trailing arm to the hub. Check up by the body to make sure it isn't pinched/cut.

Well as you may know, the 2.5 is prone to head gasket failure. The SOHC 2.5 is prone to external HG failure, they will leak coolant, sometimes for years as long as you keep the level full and prevent it from overheating. But it's not something that will leave you stranded with a boiling engine like the DOHC 2.5 will as long as you keep the coolant level up. Anything 2.2 or 2.5 after 96 is interference design so timing belt maintenance is a must. If you can't find out when the belt was done last, and that all of the idlers, tensioner, and water pump were done along with it, plan on doing that soon after you get the car. The manual transmissions do tend to wear out around 250k miles (seems I've seen quite a few threads about MT troubles lately). Replacements are easy to come across, but it's still going to cost on the order of $1000 - $1500 if you have a shop replace it. The ATs are hit or miss, but overall seem to be a little more robust than the MT. Fluid changes make a HUGE difference in the life of an AT, and one that has had the fluid changed regularly will cover 300k+ miles before it gives up the ghost.

Drill/dremel oval out the hole in the sub-frame where the link attaches. Your adjustment plate for the cam-head bolt is gone anyway. Also did you check to see if the sub-frame had shifted any? Hits like that will usually make it move a little, and loosening the bolts that attach it to the chassis will allow it to just slip right back into place.

Ah well, you gave it the good ole college try at least. Now at least you know it's hosed. :-p Honestly a good 4EAT shouldn't cost much at a junkyard, ($150ish from a picknpull?) and they don't take that long to swap.

You did that much on the first torque step?!?! Suppose it could be worse, but I'd plan on the heads being warped out of spec for sure.