99obw

I think blaming trapped air for all head gasket failures is an oversimplification. Many folks that have not changed their own coolant have had head gasket failures. Have you had your coolant tested for exhaust gasses yet?

IMHO, it's not the number of miles driven that determines how long air stays in the system, it's the number of heat/cool cycles. To shorten the time the air stays in the system I recommend opening the bleeder and radiator cap after the system has fully cooled and topping it off once a day for a few days. Doing this I usually fully bleed the system in three heat/cool cycles.

That's great!

Those two parts go right together with mine. Be sure to grease the screw when using it. You may have a bad part. Best of luck.

IMHO it's silly to spend $20k-$30k on a car for it's snow capabilities and run all-season tires on it.

When I was doing the head gaskets on the outback I got something in my eye. After having the doctor dig it out with a needle and talk about drilling the rest out I am the poster child for safety glasses.

You will find more than you want to know at http://www.bobistheoilguy.com

jack, jack stand, wheel chocks, metric tools, large c-clamp, wire brush, safety glasses, anti-sieze compound, anti-squeal compound, brake cleaner spray, large pipe and/or BFH, penetrating oil, bungee cord, perhaps a turkey baster, ball pein hammer, fuel line and container for two man bleed or power bleeder for one man bleed, brake fluid. If you are going to bleed the brakes I always recommend replacing the bleeders on a car that age and put a little anti-sieze on the upper threads of the new ones. Take a look and see if the hexagon is rusted off or if they look really bad. Be careful not to break them or you will be replacing the caliper or wheel cylinder. I always bleed all four wheels when I am doing it. A car that age that has been exposed to salt will be a bear to work on, regardless of what you are doing. I recommend soaking all fasteners for several days with penetrating oil before starting, especially until you get a feel for how much force it takes to break something. I posted the procedure here: http://usmb.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7847

How about 20k miles? Oops! I think I ran my 86 tercel wagon longer. Obviously I don't practice preventative maintanence on bearings, though I am a firm believer in preemptive strikes on things like water pumps and timing components.

I didn't really compare much, but it looks like the hub tamer is more complete. I like OTC tools as well. I have never before spent that much money on tools for a single purpose, but a past experience with a front wheel bearing made doing even just the rears on the subaru very undesirable to me. I feel a little guilty about it, can you tell? I will likely use the hub tamer countless times for subarus and other makes. I hope to maybe do a couple of wheel bearing jobs in my shop for strangers to offset the cost. Of course friends/family get all work for free. No takers yet.

I think the preventative maintanence mentioned would be to replace the bearings with tapered roller bearings before the ball bearings fail. I am going to do the rear bearings on our 99 outback as soon as the rest of my parts arrive. They are now squealing at around 150k miles, they started grinding at about 130k. I didn't actually get a quote from the local dealer, but I have read numbers around $300-$400 per side. Considering that the Subaru literature says that both sides can be done in 1.5 hours, and the parts are around $200, I would think that they should do both sides for around $300. If you can get them done for that go for it. Otherwise I would wait until they start to make some noise. When you have the wheels in the air give them a wiggle to check for play.

Josh, how much is the sea foam? I may give it a try sometime. I must clarify that I had never used Techron before I had the engine apart. I have seen excellent results in several engines using Techron. The Techron seems to do a less than perfect job of cleaning the carbon, as the symptoms will return before too long, that's why I use it every 3k miles.

A lot has been said here on the USMB about carbon build up. As carbon builds up it causes increased compression ratio and hot spots in the combustion chamber, causing preignition (pinging). The knock sensor tells the ECM about the preignition and the ECM retards the ignition timing, reducing power output of the engine. This may or may not be your problem, but I always recommend starting with the least expensive solution. I would fill the tank up with premium and add some Techron fuel additive. Burn that tank down to about 1/8 of a tank and fill it back up with premium and another bottle of Techron. Then reset the ECM and allow the ECM to relearn at idle for 15 minutes with all accesories off. Then burn the second tank of treated gas. If that doesn't work I would start looking at the more expensive items. I faithfully run techron through our 99 every 3k miles. When I had the heads off I was shocked at the amount of carbon build up, mostly on the pistons. PS: An over-active knock sensor can cause similar simptoms.

Ours has a light, but of course it is burnt out. :boohoo:

I haven't used mine on our Subaru yet, but I am sure it will do a great job. The instruction manual is surprisingly complete. It even lists Subaru in it, but I think only the front. The best price I found was at http://www.thetoolwarehouse.net. Now they send me a catalog every couple of months and it has tons of cool pro automotive tools in it. At least I can dream.

I try to not be discouraging of ambitious ideas, but I feel I must give you my honest opinion on the wiper warmer. Our 99 outback has one, and I think it is nearly worthless. It won't melt any significant snow that is there, and it won't keep the wipers from icing. I rarely use it regardless of the weather, and I doubt my wife uses it. Maybe you can do a better job than Subaru did. Now heated mirrors, they are cool...um, I mean warm. Regardless of what I think, good luck.

A three wire sensor has heater +, heater -, and signal. A four wire sensor adds a signal ground. AFAIK the heater is just 12V, but I think it is shut off after the sensor comes up to temp. If I were going to add an O2 sensor to a carbureted car I would use a 4 wire sensor. Fuse the heater + wire for sure. The sensor won't operate until it reaches something like 600*.

Sorry I haven't had time to take a closer look. I can tell you that the cap is connected incorrectly, so if you decide to build it just ask and I can tell you how to connect it. To answer both of your questions, it will connect in parallel with the ECM. The sensor, your gadget, and the ECM will all be connected together. I would be tempted to make a harness that has a connector off of a sensor and a connector off of a wiring harness so that you don't have to cut any wires on the car.

I use Mobil 1 75w-90 as well in the diffs and have been very pleased with it. I am using valvoline sythetic blend ATF in the tranny. I still change both every 30k.

My FWD car with snow tires will run circles around my wife's Subaru with all-seasons under most conditions on a paved road. I run snow tires on both cars, because I think snow tires are a necessity for this part of the country. When we first bought the subaru I was surprised at how poorly it cornered with the factory all-seasons. The rear wheels want to push you straight when you are trying to turn. AFAIK most people around here run all-seasons. The AWD does not do a heck of a lot more IMHO. Once you are moving AWD doesn't do much, other than keep you moving, which most FWDs don't have a problem with. Snow tires are most important for things like steering and braking. I drove in some incredible winter conditions this morning with my FWD. No problems thanks to my winter tires. I hate lake effect snow!

It's amazing to me that someone else is having the speedometer behave in exactly the same way. I have a speedometer head for the car. I have no idea if it will actually fix the problem. I can put it in ASAP and let you know. Can your friend elaborate on what he thinks the problem is? All help is welcome.

If the changeover is actually free and they will do it for the life of the tire then that is the least expensive way to go, but your summer wheels will see winter. The next most expensive method would be to purchase steel wheels, which is what I have done for both of our cars. That way you can change them whenever you want and your rims and tires don't have the stress of semiannual changeovers. The most expensive way is to pay someone twice a year to mount the tires, which is what I did before I knew better. If you plan on owning your car for the life of the snow tires I think buying the steel wheels is the best method.

alias20035 has it pretty well covered. I got about 25k out of our first set of blizzaks, but that will depend largely on how much snow is on the roads and the average temperature. The blizzaks are great, but they do wear fast. I haven't used any of the other tires mentioned. All of my other snow tires have been old school studded snows. Make sure you have four identicle tires even if your car is FWD. I found out the hard way that good snow tires in the front plus not-so-good all-season tires in the back equals spin out and total the car in the corner. IMHO having unbalanced traction degrades the docile handling characteristics of a FWD.

For those in the salt belt daily use of the parking brake is highly recommended. The cables will rust solid if they aren't excercised, or worse, you will be able to apply the parking brake but not release it. I think most people don't do this, as my mom got mad at me for not telling her that the parking brake was set on my car after she couldn't get it to move. Then I asked her, "Do your parking brakes work?", "Well, no".....exactly, use them every time you park the car. When I buy a used car I usually have to change the cables to get the parking brakes to work, then I use them every day for years without trouble. Our 99 outback is nearing 150k miles, and the parking brake shoes are nearly gone. I don't think they have ever been used to stop the car, but they do seem to wear, which is odd. I have the parts but have been putting it off. I will change all of the brake hardware as well when I am in there.

That schematic has at least one error in it, which makes me want to take a good look over it. I will be able to Sunday night. For those interested take a look at the LM3914.