Fairtax4me

Transfer gears may be chewed up. The center diff assembly is held together with a circlip, and on some years around 99-01 the circlip is known to pop out and cause noise and eventually the center diff falls apart. Need to pull the tailhousing off and see what's bouncing around in there before chunks go flyin and eat up the rest of the trans with them. Right now, it's about a $500 repair in just parts, if the transfer gears aren't damaged.

Nope. Outback has a different carrier bearing mounting bracket. It will throw off the u-joint angles and cause major vibration on your car. If yours is automatic. You need to find a 95-99 legacy L LS LSI or GT with an auto trans. Lucky for you, auto trans cars are easier to find. If its a manual trans, any of those with a manual trans will work.

Don't need to do anything with the rear trans mount. Leave it bolted up. When you lift the engine use a jack under the front diff of the trans to hold it up. If it's AT do not put a jack under the trans pan. Cut a couple sections of 2x6 or 2x8 about 4" length and nail them to a section wide enough that they fit on either side of the trans pan. Then you can put the jack under that.

One of the wheel sensors may be going bad, or could have metal shavings stuck on the end, or the tone ring for that sensor is damaged or corroded so the sensor is sending a false signal. If it pulls to the right I would suspect a problem with a sensor on the left side.

I ordered the Motul from AZPinstalls. 4 liters, free shipping. Store.azpparts.com I think I ordered at around 4:45 PM, they shipped it at 5:30pm, and it was on my door step at 11am the next morning.

I would guess ball joint or the bushing on the rear of the control arm. The control arm bushing is filled with a silicone fluid which leaks out when the bushing goes bad. If the bushing is covered in grease or has a thick greyish oil dripping off it, the bushing needs to be replaced. Jack up the wheel, grab it at 9&3 o'clock and rock it and listen and feel for clunking. With the wheel turned all the way to the left, grab the inner tie rod end where it's attached to the rack and try to push it up and down or forward and back. If it moves around more than about 1/8" and produces a clunk sound from the rack housing, the support bushing in the end of the rack is worn and the rack will need to be replaced.

This is what I was going to do. Then I found out the real Extra-S is no longer available in the US. The new stuff currently marketed as extra-s is not the same stuff, and several people who have used both have reported a downgrade in shift quality after switching to the new stuff. It took me a LONG time searching to find info on which out of all the gear oils people use would suit my needs. I finally decided on the Motul 300 because of several posts I read from a shop owner in New Jersey. If it works in the NJ cold, it'll work in central VA. I put the stuff in back in late summer when highs were still in the 90s. We've had a few mornings with temps in the low 30s so far this fall. The trans shifts exactly the same, hot or cold.

Yeah. Cooler weather is where that temp sensor is really needed. Part of what keeps the core from freezing is the heat from outside air moving across the core and being absorbed by the core. On a hot day (90°) the core may maintain a constant 34° just because of the flow of hot air across it. But on a cooler day the core temp will be able to drop below 32° In a matter of just a few seconds. With the newer type expansion valves I've not heard or read of any problems with the aftermarket valves. That style is pretty common among a wide range of vehicles. How easy is it to remove the valve if it needs to be replaced again? Did you have to totally remove the evap core, or can the valve be unbolted and removed through the firewall? Pulling the core out is a big task on some cars, requiring total removal of the dash in order to get access. On a car like that, I'm going OEM because there's less risk of getting a faulty part. If the valve can be swapped in 20 minutes from under the hood, aftermarket would be fine. I'd also recommend replacing any o-rings that you can get to if you have the system open again.

I just started getting a similar squeak and it is the carrier bearing on mine. Only does it once it has warmed up. I removed the driveshaft to check all the u-joints and the bearing and the bearing is totally smooth when its cold. I had to drive around until it started making the noise put the car on 4 jack stands and crawl underneath with it running in third gear to finally determine it was the carrier bearing. I shot some PB on it and it stopped making noise for about 20 miles. Unfortunately its difficult to find a new bearing and more difficult to install. Best option is to just replace the driveshaft. New is usually $350-400. Used is much cheaper but a gamble.

If you live in a cold climate use Motul 300. I just put it in the trans in my 96 which was a nightmare to shift in the cold running standard 80-90 gl5. Put the Motul in and the difference was immediate. Shifts smooth as silk every time. Well worth the $80. Wish I had made the switch a year ago because it would have saved me a lot of headache last winter when I put that trans in the car.

EJ 22 should run 190-195 normally. Set at 190° the fan will never turn off. Set it for 200° and you should be good.

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/152408-ac-clutch-wont-engage-96-legacy/ Down in the lower half of that page there are diagrams and some info on how to test the termal control amp. Basically, you're looking for a 12v signal going to the computer, ( the pin at the ECU will be different on your model than what's listed in that thread.) The 12v coming out of the thermal switch turns off, IIRC, when the core gets too cold. The amp circuit relies on some amount of resistance through the thermister. Resistance gets high when the core gets cold, which blocks current flow through the amp circuit, and thus switches the 12v signal off, and the ECU turns the compressor off.

That, I'm about 95% positive, means the thermal switch on the evaporator is bad. It's not telling the ECU to turn the compressor off when the core temperature drops to 32°F. It could also be due to a faulty expansion valve, but even if the valve is bad, the thermal switch should still be turning the compressor off when the core gets too cold.

In the whole time the AC was running before you noticed the lines were frosted, did you ever hear the compressor cycle off?

Did you erase the codes after replacing the sensor? Oil consumption is often due to an old PCV valve. Get a new one from Subaru. Big difference between the real thing and an aftermarket cheapo. How low is your fuel economy? Has it dropped suddenly?

If it's not an axle it could also be the inner stub that sticks into the differential. Those aren't normally supposed to be removed, but on the auto trans they can pop out.

Parking pawl engages the output drum for the front pinion shaft. Pinion shaft and output drum are solid linked, no clutches or electronics, solid steel connection from the output drum to the pinion to diff to axles. If the parking pawl is grinding when trying to engage park, it's because the output drum is spinning, which means the diff is spinning, which means at least one of the axles is spinning.

35L = 9.2 U.S. gallon 260 miles That's over 28 mpg. Above average for an AWD Subaru. If your car is front wheel drive, that could be low, depending on your driving style. Fuel pump is cooled by the fuel moving through it. Tank level doesn't matter, unless its a Chevy. I've run my 96 near empty countless times over the 5 years ive owned it. I often fill up with between 13.5-14 gallons. Have even run it to the point of stumbling going around corners several times. About to roll 250k on the original fuel pump.

When it dies while you're driving, do any lights turn on in the dash? Look up how to pull OBD1 codes. Even if the check engine light isn't on, there may be a stored code that can help. Does that car have a MAF sensor? Square top near the air filter box?

Broken CV joint.

Could be a MAF sensor problem if it has a MAF. The square top MAFs have tons of problems here in the US.

Pull/push the input shaft. Any play in/out means the mainshaft bearing is bad. There is some up/down play normally. I would say about 1mm is what I normally find on these.

Speaking of head bolts, and the difference between aftermarket and OEM. The two center head bolts have a slightly larger washer. Not immediately obvious unless you really pay attention. Aftermarket bolts all have the same size washers, which tend to be smaller than the small washers on the OEM bolts.

Torque-to-yield head bolts don't stretch until you reach the final torque step. The whole idea of torque-to-yield bolts is they're designed to be X tensile strength and to stretch once they reach that limit, but then they can be stretched further and still maintain the same clamp force on the head as the other bolts. It ensures that the clamp force is even all across the head. When torqueing a bolt, the clamp load is dependent on how smoothly the bolt turns. If the threads are dirty or have some corrosion in them, such as older engines often do, when you tighten all the bolts to X torque with a torque wrench, they quite often will not all produce the same clamp force on the head. So those extra 90° turns are used in order to get the bolts up to their yield strength. Once they reach that yield, you can turn them quite a bit farther, and it will not increase the clamp force on the head. Turn them too far though, and the center will break. This is why they say not to turn more than 180° total. You CAN turn it more, usually quite a bit more, but the more you turn it, the closer you get to its break point. The back-off step in the Subaru torque sequence is designed to produce even seating of the gasket, and prevent warping the cylinder head. The majority of the force pushing back against the head comes from the center of the gasket between the two cylinders. The two bolts on the center have a slightly higher torque step after that back-off, because they have to seat BOTH fire rings in the center of the gasket, whereas the outer bolts only have to seat the ring closest to them. This also ensures that the center bolts reach their yield point First, which helps to prevent the head from warping and causing a breach of the fire ring. The fire ring is the hardest part of the gasket to compress. That's where most of the clamp load on the gasket is placed. The rest of the gasket, oil and coolant passages, really don't need any more clamp force than any other gasket on the engine. There's normally 16lbs of pressure in the cooling system. You can feel that if you've ever opened a radiator cap on a hot engine. It's pretty easy to push against that. Oil pressure maxes at about 75 psi when its cold, the rest of the time its in the 20-40 psi range, unless you're running at redline all the time. Combustion chamber pressures can be in the thousands when the engine is running, especially on a forced induction engine. The fire ring is responsible for containing that combustion pressure, and contending with the heat of the combustion. Proper seating of the fire ring is the most critical part of installing the head gasket, because if the pressure from the combustion gets past that ring, it will almost instantly carve out a path between the gasket and the block or head surface, which then creates the area where coolant, or sometimes oil, will flow through and into the cylinder when there is no pressure in the cylinder during the other two strokes of the 4 stroke process.

Normally you only add oil if you replaced a part that holds a fair amount of it, such as the evaporator, condenser, drier, or the compressor. If you didn't remove or drain any oil from those parts, there's no need to add.