Setright

The early symptoms are pure Headgasket :-(

Yep, the Legacy started production in 1989 - but only in Japan were they sold as 1989 models. I was living in Singapore when it was launched, and got there pretty quick due to RHD like in Japan, and they were "1990" models.

Okay, I still suggest tapping the starter motor with a hammer next time this happens. There could be a burned out coil in the motor itself. New contacts and such won't cure that. If a crank sensor (middle of the engine, front) or cam sensor (driver side front) were bad the engine would turn over, but not start. Your symptoms point to the starter or it's circuit.

First off, I hope we agree that new shocks (dampers) will not alter the ride height. New springs would be needed for that. Anyhoo, to me, my Legacy always seemed to slant a little, and the same goes for my Impreza. The Legacy was 10 years old and I replaced all the springs and dampers. Even though I used stock Sube parts this did wonders for the handling, but nothing for the slant. My Imp is coming up to it's fifth birthday, and there are no signs of weak springs or dampers. I think the slant is a visual optical illusion in the eye of the beholder :-)

EJ22 from Gen1 Legacy is a fine engine, I would reckon a rebuild and custom job to fit it would be worth the effort. I have a secret dream to find one and stick it in my Impreza...

Autoglym car care products are the absolute best. No question. Well, I think they are! And Jaguar and Aston Martin agree with me :-) Anyhoo, they make a "Leather Cream" which I bet would work a treat on your driver's seat. It can't make it turn back into one piece, but often leather will swell a bit when it's treated and this will make the cracks more narrow. Some of the colour might come back too. If you can get your hands on it, AutoGlym is the cats pyjamas! www.autoglym.com

It should do, the tow cars are indentical under the panels. Hmm, think I might look into getting one for my Imp.

Any chance of a photo of your engine bay? Or a link to shot of a similar car? It would help in understanding your question!

Agreed. NEVER tow a permanent four-wheel-drive vehicle with one axle on the ground and the other off. Center diff will be toast. However, why not tow it on all four? Getting into a Sube isn't that hard. Just make sure the transmission auto or manual is in neutral and the handbrake released. Tow to a safer place, pull the entire shebang onto the flatbed and you're home free. Raven: CAR Magazine did a good article on this line of work recently. Were you involved?

BTW I did make use of the Legacy's sump guard.

Answer me this: Why did my Gen1 Legacy have a steel sump gaurd, and my Impreza nothing but flimsy plastic??

Could be a bad seal on a MC piston. Or, maybe one or more of the bleed screws on the caliper isn't tight enough, and brake fluid is slipping by? I say this because I found that mine (same brakes) were a pain to seal again. Next time I bleed, I will put new screws in! You might want to make sure the vacuum booster is working. Run the engine, switch off, pumping the brake should see it get firmer as the vacuum booster is "emptied".

JT95, in connection with some other work on my Sube recently, I disconnected the battery, for about two hours. Which will reset the ECU and cause it to lose it's "memory". I let it idle until up to running to temperature. And my mileage has improved. Might be worth you trying this simple trick? (Idle til warm, since the ECU ignores signals from the O2 sensors until it believes the cat is hot)

Next time it won't start, try tapping the starter motor with a hammer. If it will start after this treatment, it's the starter for sure.

The intake silencer offers a slight resistance to airflow, but I would argue that it makes more of a difference on the non-turbo engines. So you would "only" be gaining a louder and more musical intake roar. (Whoever said that the turbo might as well come off knows NOTHING about engines.)

The jerking is impossible to irradicate completely. First is transmitted via the torque converter/fluid coupling only and second is locked mechanically. Therefore the 2-3% slip in first is "recovered" in second and gives rise to the shock you are feeling.

Level ground. Drain the oil pan, remove the oil filter. Prime the filter directly from a 4 litre oil can. Install filter, pour rest of oil into the engine. Add any amount over 4 litres that your owner's manual specifies. Leave overnight. Remove dipstick, wipe clean, install all the way back into the pipe, remove and observe level. Make mental note of level to use in future oil level investigations. Works for me :-)

That nut is hidden under a soft plastic bung.

Same thing here too. HOWEVER! The dealer used to get filters from Sube USA, now he says they come from Japan. Gone from large white, to small black. As mentioned, it's cunningly labelled "Engine" ;-) I doubt there is any serious difference, apart from the bypass pressure which I can't comment on. I reckon the smaller can just has more folds in the filter paper, so the area doing the filtration is the same. Toyota did the same thing years ago.

I would buy a STi if I had the money. in case anyone cares :-)

Hmm, is that what they call Castrol SRF over here? Synthetic Race Fluid. I have never had any problems using Castrol DOT4 Synth "Response". No boling problems, and it still performs after 40,000km - which I rack up in a year. I replace once a year, and there is no difference in pedal feel after the change, which I take as indication that the fluid has not degraded. Ask yourself if you need 5.1.

Well, I agree on the point that things have not been rethought since the bad-old-days with cross-ply tyres. Radial tyres don't actually change the shape of their contact patch very much. That's the whole idea behind the radial construction, to keep a uniform contact patch for a variety of pressures and driving conditions. Very large pressure variations will of course cause uneven wear. The wear I see on the outside shoulders of my tyres is no doubt due to "excessive speed in bends" as listed in my old Legacy owner's manual. This is impossible to overcome by changing the tyres pressure. People who experience wear on both shoulders have serious pressure or alignment issues. I am sorry to make your prediction come true, but very low pressure will wear the shoulders. Consider that the point of tyre in contact with the road, vertically below the hub center is STANDING STILL relative to the road surface. Either side of this, the tyre is moving. Either side, there is still contact between tyre and road. THIS is what causes most of the wear. The tyre is rubbing as it rotates. Less pressure means more contact, and in the extreme, the center of the tread will have very little vertical force acting through it. The top of the tyre is travelling at TWICE the speed of the car itself. Only the points horizontally to each side of the hub center at moving at the same speed as the car.

Yep, back then you could just drive until the paint on the bonnet started to crack because the engine was overheating so badly. True story, my father's colleague's wife did this to an old Opel Rekord !

There is an empty fuse holder in the engine room. That will apply voltage to the solenoide and put the car in permanent FWD. It's near the firewall and labelled FWD. Your owners manual should have the precise location.

Yeah, sorry about that. When I find myself worrying to much, I like to think of all those old cars you see pulling plumes of black/blue smoke along with them, and the rattling sounds their crankshafts make. It'll be a while before our engines get that bad, and even then they still run! "You would paranoid too if everyone was out to get you." Woody Allen ;-)