99obw

I would start by opening the hood and listening to the motor while revving it to the appropriate RPMs. I've heard a lot of alternators make that sound. An easy way to narrow it down is to remove the accessory belt(s) and then run it again. If the noise goes away it's PS pump, alternator, AC compressor. If it doesn't go away, take a piece of fuel line and put it up to your ear. Rev the motor and move the other end of the hose around listening to different places on the front of the motor.

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=23344

That happens to be the cylinder in pulloff's '99 that is toast. We haven't pulled the engine yet but I am guessing it's a burnt exhaust valve. I wonder if the EGR causes faster valve seat wear in #4. You may want to do a compression test. Have the valves ever been adjusted? http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=26776

I have some assembly code that I wrote floating around somewhere for controlling RC servos. There must be tons of code to do that on the web, it's pretty easy to write. IIRC a pulse at 40-100Hz from 1ms to 2ms with the middle of the travel at 1.5ms. I haven't played around with BASIC for any microcontrollers, but in general BASIC programs are big and slow. If it works for this application that would be great because it's easy to write. Virtually all of the code I have written for microcontrollers has been in assembly or C. If I were designing something like this I would definately want good power supply regulation/filtering, power supply monitoring, a watchdog timer, and some sort of serial debug/admin/program interface. Chosing a uC with in-circuit serial programming and EEPROM data memory would be wise. Don't forget about some ESD protection on the I/O's. The automotive environment is very harsh. Potting or conformal coating the finished circuit might be a good idea.

Yep, PIC, 8051, 68HC11. I would be glad to help board members with uC stuff. I have a bunch of PIC and HC11 stuff sitting around that I might be willing to part with if you decide to get started.

I'm due north of you in southwestern NY.

Chilton's in worthless, Haynes is evil, take your pick. I prefer FSM, though my experience with http://www.alldata.com has been very good.

<rant> Me. Our '99 outback is the only car out of the 10 cars in 400k or so miles to leave us stranded, in 5°F weather with our infant daughter in the middle of nowhere on the way to surgery no less. We bought it new and I have maintained it properly, perhaps beyond properly. People wonder why sube loyalty isn't what it once was. I doubt at this point that we will ever buy another one, the Tribeca may be competing with the Pacifica in a few years for a spot in our garage, but price won't be in it's favor. FWIW: The wife of a good friend of mine bought a '00 OBW last year with 9k miles on it. Has 19k miles on it now and the head gaskets are toast. Dealer is giving them the Phase II sealant runaround. Absolute BS! They deserve new GD headgaskets! Makes me furious! Regardless of how common the problem is(very common in this climate), Subaru has dropped the ball in dealing with owners of these cars. They should be ashamed of themselves. </rant>

Presumably it does, but I choose to do this just prior to my scheduled oil changes, so it's not an issue. I don't like the thought of anything thinning my oil either, I'm one of these nuts that likes a rugged viscosity.

I used the ported vacuum line, which on the throttle body of our '99 outback is the vacuum line nearest the gasket on the top of the throttle body. May be different or not even there on yours, I don't know. I think if you have EGR you should have it. Ported vacuum is off at idle and pulls more and more as the throttle is opened. Pull this line and run a hose from the throttle body into the can of seafoam. With the car idling it will run great, but as you open the throttle it will start to stuble. Be careful or it will die, draw half the can in nice and easy. Other than that just follow the directions. I like to change the oil afterwards as seafoam and the crap it's cleaning out are getting into your oil.

Agreed. I have used both anerobic and ultra black on the oil pumps with excellent results. Ultra gray would be even better. Nothing on the water pump gasket, despite what Haynes says.

Excellent!!! Glad it worked out well.

I should clarify what I posted. The plugs will discern Phase I/II, but all 2.2's '97 and later are interference regardless. The Phase II came out in '99 AFAIK.

The phase I 2.2 (non-interference) has the spark plugs exiting above the valve covers. The phase II 2.2 (interferenece) has the spark plugs exiting through the valve covers. Hope that makes sense.

The crank and cams will slow at different rates, resulting in periodic interference.

My experience is fairly limited. Two of the engines I have done timing belts on(nissan and toyota), were both well past 100k miles, 10+ years old, and lightly driven before I got them. Both cars most likely had the original belts, but it's impossible to know for sure. In both cases the belts were cracked around the base of the teeth and had minor cracks in the main part of the belt on the tooth side. The '97 2.2 Legacy I did was driven close to 20k per year, the belt had been done at 60k, and at 130k all looked well. The outback belt had accumulated 100k miles in about 3.5 years from new. I think chronological age plays at least as large a role as mileage. I don't know if subaru states a maximum time, but I think 5-7 years would be a good interval on a lightly driven car. Like The Dude said, the other stuff in there needs periodic inspection, and one must err on the side of caution if long-term ownership is the goal.

Ours looked virtually new at 100k. Pushing 175k on the second one with no problems.

My Walmart finally has Mobil 1 5w-40!!! I just grabbed six quarts. Woohoo!! I won't use the xw-30 Mobil 1 products, too thin, but the 5w-40 is gooooood stuff.

Yes the reciever is what is trained. The transmitted uses a complex algorithm to generate a sequence of numbers, each time the transmitter is used the next number in the sequence is transmitted to the receiver. The receiver knows what number to expect next because it uses the same algorithm and is programmed with the same seed. I opened my Jeep fob and it has a Microchip LC554-019 in it. They don't have this particular chip on their website but this one is similar: http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/41189a.pdf

As much as my wife loves her '99 I may have to fight her to not go to one of the local auto shows to get a close look at the new Tribeca. The new stuff Subaru is putting out sure is nice! I told her she has to wait until the '99 dies.

The encryption algorithms for key fob technology are owned by only a handfull of companies (TI, Motorola, and Microchip come to mind), so this doesn't surprise me one bit. Good to know, thanks.

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=16824 You may need new ball studs. I got my stuff from http://www.1stsubaruparts.com.

My favorite is Lexor from Walmart. Best blade I have found over the counter. Bosch is terrible and I won't even touch an Anco.

I think we are probably both correct, just each experiencing different failure modes of the speedo head. Maybe the forester is different, I don't know.

Speedometer and odometer use the same signal. When the head goes the odometer and speedometer will both quit intermittently.