Kwhistle

Merry Christmas all, So finally got under my car to change fluids, tran filter, and noticed that exhaust pipes were pretty lose on both sides. Here're the pics. Passenger side: Driver side: The car's been pretty stinky for the month+ that I had it. Is this why? Is this a problem?

Thanks for the reply. I was just wondering if those were the right fluids for this car. The manual says Dexron II or III. I haven't seen any Dexron III at local stores, and read all kinds of things online, with some people saying you should only use OEM fluid from the dealer, and others saying that either D/M or Mobil synthetic is just fine. I would hate to see my tranny destroyed by a wrong fluid.

Anyone has experience with Valvoline Maxlife D/M? I was thinking of using either that or Mobil, but Mobil would get really expensive at $6+/quart. Mine is a automatic 98 OBW.

I like the prybar idea! Any suggestions on jack(s) placement when you do it?

Is there any way to do that? I did on my previous car, a 95 Altima, using 3 jacks and 4 friends (). Put some wooden blocks onto the jacks as to not damage the engine and tranny. Lifting was easy, positioning it back in place was a major pain, but in between 3 jacks--on on the front, 2 on each side--we managed. Can something like that be done on a 98 OBW?

I have a 98 LOB. Bought a remote on ebay for under $30 including shipping. I think it was called ikeyless, but I'm sure any other one would work just as well. I would be surprised if there is more than one factory in China that makes them. Programming was really easy. There is a button hanging off a wire just below the steering wheel. Had to press it for 15 seconds till the car beeped, held it there, and pressed "lock" on the remote. I was told dealer charges $80 to do that.

I plan on replacing the water pump as suggested, so would it matter whether I leave the radiator in? If it really doesn't matter, I'd rather leave it in, just to save time. I guess, the only question I still have is how to find the access hole to hold the engine while tightening the crankshaft bolt.

Is it the same tensioner pulley for either one-piece or two-piece tensioner? If not, what kind does a 98 OB has? I'm trying to figure out which parts I'd need to order for later next week. autopartsgiant seems to have pretty good prices on these things, comes out cheaper than ebay kits.

Those pics are absolutely great... no more doubts about doing this! Now, how do I find that access hole to hold the engine when I manipulate the crankshaft pulley?

What the chance of damaging things this way? Also, is there anywhere I can find a picture of this? I'm pretty new to the whole thing, and don't yet orient that well... hell, I don't even know what throttle body is.

So it seems that crankshaft bolt is the big thing here. I have an AT, so putting the car into 5th gear isn't an option. I understand I could crank it for a second to break the bolt lose. But how would I torque it when I put the whole thing back together?

Thanks a lot! That's plenty of useful info. I'm looking at a factory repair manual that I got somewhere online, and it lists a slew of special tools. Are these really necessary or would regular tools suffice?

Cool. It's a 98. I think it's an interference, but not 100% about it. How about replacing the valve cover gasket at the same time? About recompressing the tensioner, I read somewhere that it could be done with a vise, just going very slowly. Would something like that work out? How long would the whole thing take, given that I've never done it before, but I'm ok with handtools?

It's getting close to replacement time. Now I don't have anywhere to do this, but will be staying with my family for a week, and been thinking of taking a few hours to replace the belt and not worry about it for another 100k miles. That said, I don't have access to any of the equipment needed to pull an engine out and never took one apart myself before. So is this something that could be done in a home garage with a decent set of basic tools and a jack? Any special tools I may need? If I do decide to go ahead with this, should I only replace the belt, or the idlers and tension rollers as well, just in case? So far I just skimmed though the factory repair manual, and kinda get the idea of what to expect, but not 100% sure about going through with it.

Well, that would make sense as to why the "rear" 2 plugs were practically gone. Haven't really thought of that. That said, the plugs are all NGK's double platinums, so assumed that they replaced them all at the same time.

As I wrote elsewhere, I replaced the spark plugs on my 98 Legacy OB. I noticed that the old plugs wore unevenly, with #3 and #4 being in much worse shape than #1 and #2. Here's the picture. Does that mean anything, or is just normal wear?

Well, finally got to it yesterday so I'll post how I did it just for the sake of general interest. The whole thing took me good 3 and half hours. I started with the hardest one, the #4. After I tried every extension and uni joint I could think of, including the configuration from the manual, I ended up using the 5/8 plug socket with a 3 in extension. A little problem--had to insert each of the pieces one at a time. First, inserted the socket (without the rubber plug holder!) onto the spark plug inside the plug well. Then, put the 3 in extension. Keep in mind, all of this was done blindly, just by feel. I had less than 2 inches of space to mover my fingers around there. The extension was about 1/2 inch too short to get a regular ratchet in there, but luckily, I had a flexhead ratchet handy, and was able to get it in, barely. The next problem came up when I loosened the plug and it stared coming out. With the little space there, it was borderline impossible to get the ratchet out once the plug was half-way out. I had to use a small screwdriver, to detach the extension because there simply wasn't enough space for me to hold it with my fingers. Once the spark plug was about 90% out, I pulled out the extension. It was held up by the plug socket, so it took some serious manipulation to loosen it off, while inside the plug hold because both the socket and the extension wouldn't come out together. Got the socket off the plug with magnetic pickup. Finally unscrewed the rest 10% of the way with my fingers in the hole. Putting in the new plug was the reverse of all that. First screwed it in with my hands, then got plug socket on it, then 3 in extension on top of that, and finally tightened it with a ratchet. There was no way to get a torque wrench in there, so I just tightened it up to what seemed reasonable. The other plugs had a bit more room around them, so it went much easier there, but still the same routine. I was able to get torque wrench in there, and tightened them all properly to 15 ft-lb as recommended in the manual for plugs with anti-seize. I meant to take a few pics, but got pretty tired with all of this, so only took a pic of the #4. The arrow points to the 3 in extension in the plug well. I have no idea where in the world people would stick 10-in or longer extensions that I keep on reading about. One thing I would most definitely recommend for this job is magnetic pickup, a good one. Seems like a small thing, but you do drop things... a lot. Don't do this without one of these.

Just to update this thread, finally replaced the spark plugs today. Seems like the car is starting smoother, but today was a warm day. The plugs look like they are the originals that came with the car. Can't believe the thing actually drove with these! Here's a pic, the new NGK Platinum is the middle.

Well, I've been researching it online for about an hour, and apparently, OEM is Purolator. http://www.pureoil.com is awesome in that it lists all the parameters, including the pressure of the relief valve. In the recommended filter, it is about twice than for any other filter you can spin of that I found just googling. I guess I'll just stick either with the PL14460 that Purolator recommends or the regular filter under the pep boys brand.

It's about oil change time... actually it isn't, but bought the car a little while ago, it's got ~200,000 (98 Legacy Outback) and the previous owner put in the cheapest oil with Fram filter at JiffyLube. So I'd rather put in a decent filter, a pep boys branded purolator, and MaxLife. Was there looking for a filter today, and realized that these filters are just tiny! Would it be better to put in a bigger filter? Anyone know the part number (for any brand) that would fit? [Posted this earlier in a different forum by mistake, so maybe mods can help out with merging the threads... sorry:eek:]

Thanks! Yeah, I did mean bigger, and meant to post in the forum for newer subies... lol

It's about oil change time... actually it isn't, but bought the car a little while ago, it's got ~200,000 (98 Legacy Outback) and the previous owner put in the cheapest oil with Fram filter at JiffyLube. So I'd rather put in a decent filter, a pep boys branded purolator and MaxLife. Was there looking for a filter today, and realized that these filters are just tiny! Would it be better to put in a better filter? Anyone know the part number (for any brand) that would fit?

That wouldn't work on my '98. Maybe it's just that my mounts are worn out and engine seats deeper in there, but there is no way to get a 10 in extension into the plug well. At best, it may work with a couple uni joint extensions, but there is no way to ratchet that.

do you do it???

Thanks for info. Mine is a 98 Legacy OB with almost 200k on it. I don't really plan on holding on to it for more than a year and half, two years max. So I don't feel like getting Akebono. Just want to make sure the new pads are quiet and wouldn't destroy the rotors. I had some issues in the past (different car) with crap from Raybestos that they put in at a local shop. First, the pads got destroyed in about 4 months, then the new pads destroyed the rotors in about 3 months. Then they destroyed the new rotors in about 6 months. After that, I just went to a different shop, where they put in new rotors and Akebonos, and I drove that car for some 5 years without a squeak or any pads/rotors issues.