99obw

Skip touched on this, but I will add my $0.02. Once the car is fully warmed up drive it really hard for about five miles, stop and immediately open the hood and look in the expansion tank, while looking rev the engine to about 2500 RPMs with the throttle body. That was the only technique that would show bubbles on our car when the gaskets went, and doing that the coolant in the expansion tank looked like it was boiling.

It's hard to tell what is causing your trouble without having a look see. My guess is that the pads are wearing unevenly either due to bad calipers or lack of periodic lubrication. If left long enough the rotors would eventually be ruined. In Western NY, with our obscene use of road salt, I find that lubricating the caliper slides, pins, and pad guides at least twice a year is necessary to keep the pads wearing evenly. The salt use is much less in NYC, but things should still be lubricated at least once a year IMHO for optimum wear. Your calipers may need to be replaced, but I suspect it's actually a lack of lubrication that caused the pads to wear unevenly. You may have to trust the shop on this one, because like I said, it's hard to tell without seeing it myself. $550 isn't bad for pads, rotors, calipers, and labor. Make sure they are using genuine Subaru parts.

I see some activity in this thread so I will post an update. About 15k miles on the new speedo head and never a failure. Sure worked for me! BTW the speedo head part number for a 99obw with 2.5 and auto tranny is 85020AC330.

Sounds like you did the belt right, but double checking everything is the first thing I would do. I don't think the marks on the belt will line up after you have spun the engine, so you will need to line up the marks on the cam and crank. I am not certain, but I think the 2.2 was non-interference until the Phase II came out in '99. In this document Subaru says the 2.2 is non-interference. http://endwrench.com/pdf/engine/FtCamBeltReplaceW01.pdf This is a fuzzy issue for sure. What does Emily say?

It is my understanding that every time a regular car battery is fully discharged it loses 10% of it's capacity. So, if you have run your battery dead 10 or more times it is basically junk. Batteries are cheap and need to be replaced periodically anyway, so that is where I would start.

I am very meticulous about maintanence and the gaskets failed anyway. All fluids; coolant, tranny, diffs, engine oil, brake fluid, are absolutely perfect. The warm up thing may be an issue as my wife thinks 4 revolutions of an engine is a warmup. I tell her, "At least wait until the piston slap quiets down a little, and take it easy for the first few miles." Oh well. When I did the gaskets I talked to one of the parts guys about the gaskets. I asked him, "Do you sell a lot of these?", he looked around once to make sure no one was listening and said "Yep, they have changed them six times." I know only one person that currently has a Phase I 2.5 and their gaskets failed and were replaced. I think the problem is much more widespread than SOA and many subaru diehards would have you believe. A friend of mine is an auctioneer and he sees them regularly at auto auctions, running fine but with the gaskets blown. I will almost guarantee that many Phase I owners are driving with mildly blown gaskets, as I think our gaskets were going for quite a while before they catastrophically failed, based on residue in the coolant expansion tank.

One o-ring goes on the front of the left cam between the cap and the head and the other o-ring goes on the rear of the right cam between the cap and the head.

The clunking could very well be your CV joints. Our '99 is starting to clunk a little when changing from R to D at ~160k miles. The fluid and filter in automatic transmissions should be changed periodically, every 20k-30k miles or so. Probably the most commonly neglected periodic maintanence item along with cooling systems.

I don't think you are sick, or at least I am just as sick. I have been thinking about snow tires for my Jeep for several weeks now. Leaning toward studded snows. I have seen slower wear with the studded snows than the studless (blizzak) type snow tires, so I am going to give them a try again. A guy at work knows about a local JY with a "mountain" of wheels. PM me and remind me and I will ask him about it. You could go to Howbills in Belmont but their prices are very high. Troops creek is a good one and a beatiful drive. eBay might be a good place to look for wheels that might fit, even if you buy them locally.

I cut apart two sockets. One was a 3/8" drive the same size as the nut on the strut that I cut in half, leaving the end with the 3/8" square drive and the end with the hexagon. I welded the hexagonal end of the socket to the box end of a wrench the same size. I discarded the square drive end. This in itself would have worked just fine for a strut tool, but this was "strut tool v2.0" so I kept going. I then cut a 1/2" drive socket in half the same way, but this time saving the square drive portion of the socket. I ground the end of the cut piece opposite the square drive so that it would fit over the part of the wrench that is between the two ends. I welded the square drive about an inch from the end with the other socket piece welded to it. That gave me a way to hold the "wrench" with a breaker bar and torque it with a torque wrench. My suggestion to you if you can't devise a tool by welding or find a strut tool locally would be to hold the appropriate socket with some vice-grips and pass an allen wrench through the square opening. I had to use a long skinny pipe on the allen wrench in order to apply enough torque to remove the nut.

There should be a little cover you can remove near the bell housing that will give you access to the flex plate bolts. Remove one, turn the engine a little, remove the next one, etc. I have never removed a subaru engine so I am basing this on experience with other makes. Someone may be able to chime in with more specific information.

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showpost.php?p=132730&postcount=16 I am not sure if the wrench and socket that I used were actually 14mm. They were the same size, and whatever size they needed to be, but I don't remember what they actually were.

Auto or manual? If auto, did you unbolt the flex plate from the torque converter?

Just an FYI, on many cars the compressor won't kick on if the refrigerant is low. This is to protect the compressor from running without oil. On our outback when the refrigerant was low the compressor wouldn't run, and as I added refrigerant the compressor came on once the system reached a certain pressure.

Very unlikely that it would. Failure of components contained in the short block is most likely due to neglect or a manufacturing defect. A well maintained short block should go 200k easy. $1000 is at the way low end, $1500 is probably average if you don't do much more than the gaskets, I have heard numbers upwards of $2500 for the whole enchilada.

Most likely it's the head gasket(s). Could be low coolant/improper bleeding, but not likely.

No, sometimes a vacuum leak can cause a high idle. A hose related to the air cleaner or some other hose that may have been knocked off perhaps.

Sounds like an excuse to buy some tools. Regarding LPS, I don't know where to get it. Someone I know gave it to me.

My first guess would be that a hose somewhere didn't get properly reconnected.

$1000 is about as cheap as it gets for that job, make sure they are doing it right. Oil analysis probably won't show anything, as coolant getting into the oil on a Phase I head gasket failure is rare. The bubbles are a pretty sure sign, but a test wouldn't hurt. Here is an example of a test kit, I don't know where you may be able to obtain one locally. http://www.thetoolwarehouse.net/shop/LIS-75500.html I have ordered from thetoolwarehouse several times and they are great.

That's awesome Northguy!

Howard's list covers what I would do. I do that stuff every 30k. Let me break down what it would cost if you did it yourself, with OEM parts and synthetic lubricants. This stuff is easy, especially with the USMB at hand. I am going from memory and estimating on the high side. both diff fluids changed $40 the air filter replaced $15 the ATF fluid changed along with the filter $65 the fuel filter changed $30 new plugs $10 replaced the coolant $20 drained & replaced the brake fluid $10 oil change & filter $30 tire rotation $0 PCV valve replaced $10 Total of $230.00.

1) http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showpost.php?p=114750&postcount=10 2) http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showpost.php?p=114822&postcount=10

I wouldn't do anything except take it to the dealer and make them fix it. Don't take no for an answer. It's under warranty.

For a lubricant I typically use white lithium or LPS.