Fairtax4me

Besides a bad clutch (getting fixed now), and some oil leaks my 96 runs beautifully with 178k on the clock.

Place I go to charges $150 plus a core (like $25 or something) for any 4 cyl engine. ALL parts (door handle, engine, differential, light switch, plastic trim cover, whatever) come with a 30 day warranty/return policy. Some U pull it's will take out large parts if they can be sold for more than scrap value to rebuilders. Most of the time, they just drain the fluids and drop it in the yard. Some don't even bother cutting off catalytic converters, even though it's illegal to sell a used one commercially, and they can often get a fair amount of money for old ones from recyclers.

Well, I got everything cleaned up last night. Wanted to start putting it back together but I didn't have the torque specs with me. I did find another bad bearing in the extension housing. This one doesn't require removal of the entire transmission to change, so I'll save it for an after work project sometime in the next few weeks. (on a lift, warm, mmmmm it'll be like heaven )

You can do it yourself. Not really hard unless the passenger side airbag is popped too. Then I think you have to replace the whole upper dash panel. The steering wheel airbag is held on by two screws on the backside of the wheel. Remove those, the cover should pull off, then unplug the harness. Pull the fuse for the airbag system or disconnect the battery for at least 30 minutes prior to working on it.

It works mainly by opening at a lower temperature than most other thermostats. Most cars the thermostat opens around 195°F. Subaru T-stats open at 170°F. Outgoing coolant temp is monitored by the ECU and if it is determined to be too hot the electric fan(s) will turn on, thus providing cooler incoming coolant. But there is an inherent flaw in this type of cooling system design. The system has to be balanced in such a way that the radiator does not remove too much heat from the coolant. Else cool incoming coolant will cause the thermostat to close, blocking the flow, resulting in overheating. Ask anyone who owns a Ford Ranger pickup from the early to mid 80's, especially the V6 engines (me). They had a similar deal, thermostat was on the engine side of the lower radiator hose. The grille of the truck is wide open to the radiator, so when it's cold out and you're driving down the road, the coolant in the radiator gets cooled too much. The colder it gets, the worse the problem gets. The easiest solution was to cover the grille to block airflow over the radiator. But then if it warmed back up outside, the radiator might not be able to disperse enough heat, leading again to overheating.

Search for "Inhibitor Switch". That should get you a few better results for the auto trans. Do the Advanced search and select sort by relevancy instead of by date.

They sure made this thing a pain in the rump roast to take apart. Actually it's relatively simple, but actually getting the parts of the case separated is the hard part. I started by tapping around with a rubber mallot to try and crack the transfer housing loose, no dice. Graduated to pounding it with a mini sledge and it still wouldn't budge. Ended up having to pry it apart by hammering a small screwdriver between the sections of the case. Not my favorite way, but it did finally get the job done. After tapping around for 2 hours I finally got the case apart. The areas of interest: main roller bearing, main needle bearing, and input seal. Input seal was fine but I replaced it anyway. Main roller bearing is in perfect shape. No play, no twist, no grinding or crunchy feeling when I spun it by hand no matter how I tried to make it. So I decided to avoid that can of worms for the time being. If it is bad, it'll rear its ugly head by the time this thing needs a clutch again. I'll save the new main roller bearing for some other occasion. The main needle bearing had some play. Not much, but it was there. And when I spun it with my finger I could feel and hear it crunching, even though it still spun freely. Sounded kinda like it had dust in it. Not terrible, but it probably wouldn't be long before it failed completely. I put the new one on along with the seal. I got some pics of the organized mess I made but I'm way too tired to post them now.

I hadn't though about the knuckle to strut bolts. I didn't even bother to take the wheels off the car. I though about trying to undo the lower ball joint from the knuckle but I decided against it when I tried to turn the bolts and they wouldn't budge with a breaker bar. At least not from where I was. I still have to crack the case to reseal it. I was going through about half a quart of gear oil every 500 miles. And I want to check on the condition of that main roller bearing. I'm still suspicious of it from reading descriptions of the symptoms associated with it going bad.

So today the transmission came out of my Legacy. Only took about 3 hours despite having to fight it with a hammer and wedge for a half hour to get the bell housing separated. (damn alignment pins) Started out by driving the car to a friend of mines garage. He has a big jack, which helps when you're doing this kinda thing. But it doesn't do any good if it blows a seal, so the first thing we did was drive off to the parts store to spend $100 on a new jack. Get back and there's another problem, only 2 jack stands. But there are wheel ramps. So I put the rear wheels on the ramps, jack under the front cross member and lifted as high as it would go. 2 big jack stands on the lift points, and I get ~ 20" of clearance under the car. Drop (literally drop) the exhaust system first, which turned out to be heavier than I thought it would be. It pinned me. Next time I'll know better than to undo all of the rubber hangers first. Leave the ones on the muffler in place, then you can crawl out from under the car without it dropping on you. After that everything went pretty well. Disconnecting and unplugging, but it pissed me off that I couldn't pop the axles off the differential stubs. Pins came out easy, they slide easy, but you just can't get that extra 1/4" of room that you need to take them off completely until you get the bell housing separated and slide the transmission back. So I get the thing out, figure out that my transmission mount is pretty well shot, the input seal that I thought was leaking... dry. It's leaking between the halves of the case. Pull the PP and disc off, Flywheel and PP glazed. But only about half of the clutch disc was actually making full contact. There is a ring of rust about 1/2" wide all the way around both PP and flywheel where the clutch disc was supposed to be making contact. Now I get to pull the flywheel off, what else do I find? Plastic oil separator. Leaking. Add another item to the list. Gonna drop the flywheel off in the morning to have it cut. And call Subaru to see if they just so happen (though I doubt it) to have a metal oil separator in stock. To be continued... and I'll try to get some pics along the way.

No opinions on this? I figured someone would have a preference here. Oh well, Molykote it is.

Unfortunately, that's the nature of the beast. You want a shop to work on your car, you gotta pay up. :-\ Most shops don't know how to get the heads off of these engines without pulling the engine. It's possible, dealers do it all the time. But going to a dealer means spending dealer $$$$. Doubtful that you'll have cylinder wall damage. I'd try calling around to a few more shops in that area and see what you can come up with. I figured by now somebody would have pitched in with the name of a good shop in Boston, or close by, that could it for a fair price.

I don't have much experience with the anaerobic sealant. But I stuck a penny on a dab that I put on an old CD drive yesterday. I put two dabs actually, I left one open to air. The dab left open to air is still tacky, like it just came out of the tube. I can't move the penny. It's on there tight.

Not much about this to be found. Hopefully by Monday night I'll have a new clutch, 2 new transmission bearings, a new input shaft seal, and a new release lever and associated parts in my car and have it comfortably drive able once again. Now I've never paid much attention to this before, never cared I guess, but it has come to mind that I'll need some type of grease for the release lever pivot ball, the shaft the TOB slides on, and the ends of the release lever where it makes contact with the TOB. I have some stuff called Molykote CU-7439 that seems to work great for alot of things. I was thinking of using that but I'm not sure. I'd like to see what other people use to lubricate these areas, and how well it works. So if you've done a few (hundred) clutch jobs and have a favorite grease or lubricant for the TOB/release lever, What is it?

If they had those drop shipped, they probably went through Chinese customs. They rip everything open and inspect it with a magnifying glass. If they find a mark or etch that they don't like, they deny it. You really think Customs is going to put them back in the original container? Of course that's hypothetical, but there are plenty of retailers who do business that way so they don't have to store large amounts of inventory.

Your cars recommended tire size should be listed on the loading information sticker in the drivers door jamb. Not a huge difference between a 195/70 and a 185/75. The 195 is a centimeter wider, and mathematically, a few mm shorter though there is little noticeable difference visually. The speedometer is hardly affected by such a small change in circumference, which can be seen as a percentage thanks to this site: http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html The 195 will hold the road slightly better (wider footprint). TireRacks ratings have to be taken with a grain of salt. Those are consumer submitted ratings, and are often based on the consumers experience with previous tires. Frinstance: Kumho tires. I had a set on a car several years ago, two of them blew out on me for no apparent reason while driving on the interstate. (separate occasions) Tires fault? Maybe, maybe not, doesn't matter, I've never bought another set since. I know dozens of other people who run Kumho's on their DDs, and see the brand on many, many other vehicles on the road from passenger cars, to 1 Ton pickups to tractor trailers. Yet I still don't/won't buy them due to MY previous experience with that particular brand of tires. Make sense?

Agreed. Depreciation can only go so far. If the car is one of the rare breed that grows to collector status. Such as the 96 Chevy Impala, or 03-04 Mercury Marauder, appreciation will kick in for well kept low mileage cars. I've been waiting 3 years for a clean Marauder to drop into my price range. They've hardly budged. There are 03 models with under 30k miles still selling for upwards of $20k. I've seen 04s go for $25K. I'd say average retail value has dropped on those by about $5k over the last 3 years.

If it's black then it has almost certainly been resealed at some point. The factory uses Three Bond 1215 silicone sealant which is grey in color. That, RTV grey, or anaerobic sealant, will all work for the reseal. You'll find many members here who will swear by Anaerobic sealant.

Seconding this. The pump is mounted to the block ( not inside the timing cover) and is sealed with RTV in most cases (prone to leaks when the wrong type is used, and often is). There is also a little O ring that likes to go bad and will leak like a sieve between the block and the pump. http://beergarage.com/SubyOPump.aspx

I don't have any personal experience with Subaru values, but you can get an idea from KBB, NADA, or Edmunds of trade values, which pretty closely reflect auction prices. Trade value in this area for a 2002 Legacy L sedan with 75,000 miles is between $3,500 and $5,000 depending on condition. An American car to compare to. 2004 Chevy Malibu LT. 50,000 miles. Trade value is between $4000 - $6000.

I think I have seen this. Not experienced it personally in car, but I noticed something in a few of the newer Outbacks driving around on our hard packed snow streets from the 2 feet of snow we got before Christmas. There were really only 4 days or so when the streets were in really bad shape. And let me tell you they were BAD. Upwards of 6 inches of hard pack on either side and in the center of each lane. Then the tracks made by cars compressing the hard pack even further were about 2 inches deeper in most places. So there were 2 "channels", about 18" wide, in each lane where people tires had compressed the snow into extremely hard packed "ice". I'll put it this way, It was breaking the blades on the plows VDOT uses in this area. I got out and drove around several times and if the car wasn't dead center in the middle of the lane you were driving, it would bounce and fishtail off of the edges created in these channels of ice. But if you kept the car in the middle it was smooth sailing. Took trips in my Legacy and my mothers Camry and they both felt basically the same when driving straight at an even speed. I don't think I ever went over 40mph though. Most of the time it was 35 or under. Here's what I mean by "seen". Subaru is a prevalent brand in my area. (next to Volvo, Toyota, and BMW of all things) There are a ton of them here, my neighbor has an 09 OBW, other neighbors on the street have first and second gen Legacys. While out and about driving around you can't help but notice all of the Subarus on the road, especially in rough weather. I did see several 2005+ Outbacks out during the few days when the roads had practically not even been touched. On one occasion I ended up following one on Route 29 here down the "main drag" Rt. 29 here in town. The road is straight, 4 lanes on either side, speed limit 45, but traffic was only going 35 at most. This particular Outback, which was a wagon, appeared to "twitch" sporadically as it was driving along. I would expect to hit a rough spot in the road in a few seconds after seeing this and prepare... nothing. My car wouldn't flinch. After about 2 or 3 minutes of watching this I decided it was worth it to pass this car because I figured they must not have known what they were doing. I prefer to be in front of a car that is potentially about to spin out of control at any moment. After reading about this "Ghost walk" phenomena I think that is what this person was experiencing. The car was traveling straight, in the center of the lane, not near the ridges of snow in the center and on either side of the lane. Speed was constant around 35mph except for stopping at a few lights along the way. I didn't notice this during acceleration or braking, only when the car was at speed. Very strange to watch this. If you're the type of person that pays attention to what other drivers and vehicles are doing (you should be, it's called defensive driving) you could just about swear the driver was just inexperienced. Like they were making erratic moves or corrections that were hazardous for the road conditions. After reading about all of this I almost want to drive one to see how it reacts for myself.

Well that would probably be the problem. Easiest thing is to just patch in some new wire. Do you know how to use a soldering iron?

Just scroll down right here on this page to where it says "Similar Threads"

That could easily be a front crankshaft seal or oil pump seal leaking. Check those before dropping the pan.

Wow. More differences in those two than I thought.

Torque bind on a manual means a trip the the junkyard for a new (to you) center differential. You could probably fix that with the trans still on the car. The FSM makes it sound like the center diff just pops right out when you remove the extension housing cover.