brycarp

Here is one like the wrong one I got:

Uploading a small (1.1 meg) photo seems to work, but then it isn't in the post.

Hi All, The wrong panel is at least in a 2001 Forester. But I already did enough research to send the email to the salvage yard. Junkyard sold me this as being for my '96 Impreza Outback (with A/C). Can someone tell me what this panel is really from so I have the info I can tell the salvage yard? Thanks! Bry

Thanks Texan! I appreciate the tip.

Hi All, I'd like to flush the steering fluid in this recently-acquired OBW. The cap says to use Dexron, but the current contents are more on the order of "honey colored" - not the least bit red like ATF. This Idemitsu PSF claims to be good for Asian cars: https://www.amazon.com/Idemitsu-Universal-Power-Steering-Vehicles/dp/B00TO0F6EW I haven't gotten under the car to look for myself, but two different shops have pointed out leakage under the boot(s) on the steering rack. So it would be a bonus if whatever's in there now wasn't so good and led to the leakage, and whatever I replace it with makes the leakage stop. Any thoughts? All the best, Bry

Just to check back in and show what I did. At first I had suspected the illumination control module, but then I got one from a junkyard, swapped it in and no change to the problem. After studying the diagrams in the "Combination Meter" part of the "Wiring System" section of the USDM FSM, I became convinced that the "Dimmer Circuit" shown as driving the backlight bulbs for the odometer and clock LCD displays was part of the circuitry on the main circuit board of the instrument cluster. No power was getting to the "twist in" contacts for those bulbs, so I just decided to bypass what was supposed to drive those lights entirely. Here's my modification of the twist-in collar to remove the incandescent bulb and the metal parts. I then drilled through the back of the collar so the wires driving the white LED could come out the back. The LED pressed into place with a snug fit. https://photos.app.goo.gl/afHo4xauPTr5XX1U9 Because the LED had a distinct projection pattern that I wanted to scatter to spread the light out more, I sanded the front of each LED. The LEDs I bought: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NAHYUBD - used the white ones. Then I tapped into the dimmer-ring-controlled voltage that drives the four main illumination bulbs. The LEDs I used were advertised as 12 volt LEDs, and came with a 1k ohm resistor wired in series with each one. They were too bright for what I wanted, so I put a 2.2k ohm resistor in the wire that drives both LEDs. Effectively, that means that each LED is driven with an overall 5.4k ohm resistor, so the current will be very small. The light is still plenty bright though, and when the dimmer ring on the turn signal lever is adjusted, the brightness of the odo and clock displays matches the other illumination levels pretty well. Here's a picture of my hack wiring on the back of the instrument cluster: https://photos.app.goo.gl/3LgDfKUF3wrx9GU36 The tape I used to hold everything in place: https://www.amazon.com/Scotch-Glass-Cloth-Electrical-scotch/dp/B005YSL2SM

Hi All, On a recently-acquired 2001 Outback Wagon, I got into the various buttons, the HVAC control and instrument cluster to replace all of the burned out bulbs. So that's all good now and the illumination brightness ring on the turn signal lever works fine. I have good bulbs behind the LCD odometer and clock readouts. But still those displays don't get lit. If I take the bulbs out and shine light through the hole, that light is able to backlight each display just fine. I already got a junkyard illumination control module (mounts behind the stereo on passenger side, part number 83023AE01A) and swapped it in with no change to the problem. In the Factory Service Manual "Wiring System" section for "Combination Meter", it shows that the odometer and clock backlight bulbs are driven by a block labeled "Dimmer Circuit" that gets fed from the same brightness controlled power circuit that drives the other illumination bulbs. Does anyone know why the odometer and clock backlight bulbs are treated "specially" rather than just being driven from the very same brightness-controlled voltage that comes in from the illum controller? I suppose something is burned out in that "Dimmer Circuit" that lives somewhere in the instrument cluster assembly. I'm posting in case someone else has been through this problem and can give me further info. Thanks! Bry

Thanks for the advice!!

Hi All, When we did the timing belt on my son's 2002 EJ25 Legacy GT, I believe the oil pump that came out had a cast-in "7" and we put in a new Subaru one that had a cast-in "10". This EJ18 I'm working on (1995 Impreza L) has enough of a main seal leak that I'd be pulling the oil pump off anyway to replace the seal. The oil pump I took out of that has no number cast in. Is it probably a 7mm? I think the 10 mm oil pump 15010AA300 will fit the EJ18, and as I understand it, it's a good idea on a higher-mileage engine (190k in this case) to have better oil pressure as the bearings have worn over that mileage. I'm not aware of any oil pressure issues with the car, just an "upgrade" to make it healthier going forward. Thanks for any advice! Bry

Following the community wisdom here, I bought a 15010AA300 10mm oil pump to put on. Thanks! Bry

Hi All, I'm getting into my son's 2002 Legacy GT with ordinary SOHC EJ25. It's been going through oil too quickly and the bottom of the oil pump is always wet so I'm in there to make sure the oil pump is sealed to the block properly, replace the pressure o-ring, and replace the front main seal to be sure. But there's a lot of oil around this plug in the picture, and I'm not sure what that is. I think the further-out plugs are for wrist pin access, but does this plug have oil pressure behind it? Any tips on what to do about oil seepage as seen here? Thanks! Bry

Hi All, I ended up having the back off the '96 4EAT longer than I had planned where I am replacing the transfer clutch and Duty C solenoid. Now it's time to get it put back together, but there are a couple of holes, one threaded on the back face of the main part of the transmission case and I want to make sure I didn't forget something that was attached there. The two holes I mean are highlighted in green on the attached photo. I'm 98% sure there wasn't anything there, but I'd hate to have to pull the back off again if I'm wrong. As always, I VERY much appreciate the people here who are willing to share their expertise with those of us who are "expanding our boundaries" on Subie maintenance. -Bry

Hi All, This '96 Impreza OB had had some binding in the AWD for a while. I got around to investigating and got the back of the tranny off to replace the Duty C and the clutch plates, but as feared the damage had already been done to the toothed hub: http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae13/brycarp/Car%20Stuff/29ba1cf9-462c-4751-84e9-c8606ccc5c0c_zpsay4byumj.jpg This car has 222k miles and I do have a complete 4EAT from a junkyard '97 OBS with 164k on the odometer. (The block and heads from that car are now running great in this car!) But I was hoping to keep that tranny complete as a spare. Any ideas how to acquire a good hub? a used one would be fine. I tried to look up the part number online for that hub with the teeth that engages the inner teeth of the xfer clutch plates, but couldn't find it in the diagrams. On another topic, there are good pictorials online for replacing the clutch plates, but I don't know about yanking on that hub and the substantial gear that it seems to be attached to. Can that just be pulled out without leading to my being unable to push back into place later? (e.g. if I were able to get a new toothed hub and had a trans shop press it onto the gear, or whatever needs to happen.) Thanks! Bry

Hi All, I'm getting torque bind on 222k mile 96 Impreza Outback, and figure I need to do the Duty C and I'll do clutch pack while I'm in there. I just want to get opinions about the best place these days to ask "Here's the VIN - please help me order the parts I should have for this job.". I see a nasioc thread that says he went with subarupartsforyou.com, so maybe that's fine. Of course I'd like to go with a place that has reasonable pricing. Thoughts? Thanks!! Bry

Hi All, My junkyard engine I'm fixing up for my daughter's car (from 97 OBS) had exposure to weather, and got water into one upper head bolt chamber on each head. The alignment sleeves rusted into oblivion and the aluminum of both the head and block got eroded some at that one location on each side too. Therefore one of the the head<->block alignment sleeves that can be seen in this image on the two upper outboard head bolt holes: https://res.cloudinary.com/rallysport/image/private/s--hvDrFMTx--/f_auto,t_auto_rsd_product/v1436916942/product_images/sub_10103ac050_1 has a degraded area surrounding it in the aluminum of both the head and block. At least on my heads and block, all four of the outboard head bolt holes have identical machining to accept the alignment sleeve. Any reason not to switch to using the lower bolt hole for that sleeve on each side of the engine to take advantage of the uncompromised aluminum? The sleeves would then be at diagonal corners rather than both on the upper outboard bolts. Thanks! Bry

I got a full refund on the engine return yesterday. So happy ending, but I did put in quite a bit of time/effort/driving dealing with the whole thing. Now to focus on the 164k-mile 97 OBS EJ22 my daughter (owner of the 96 Impreza I'm trying to renew) and I pulled at a U-pull-it on Sep. 10. (Got the 4EAT too.) That engine had already had the intake manifold pulled by someone else, so did get some water inside, but I already pulled off the passenger side head and it seems fine in the cylinder. I was figuring to use the existing '96 intake manifold/plumbing with the other engine anyway, so doing that with this one should be fine. That 97 OBS sounded like it was headed for the crusher in a few days so I decided I needed to grab the engine/trans quickly. It was what someone else on this board mentioned about a good salvage yard situation. The front of the car was crunched in pretty good, but not far enough to push the radiator into the engine. Probably the engine and trans were functional at the time of the event that sent the car to the salvage yard. The moment of extraction:

I just got the cold compression test run. All spark plugs out, using a starter to crank. Powered by pretty beefy and not too long jumper cables from my running Chevy Tahoe. Cylinders 1-3: at least 150 PSI. Cylinder 4: The most it could manage was 45 PSI. A few responses to the comments so far: DaveT, yes, a "wet" compression test is a thing, where some small amount of oil is put into the cylinder to help the rings seal. It's something that's done when you have low compression and are trying to find out what is responsible. I guess it's possible that some part of the compression difference is due to unequal oil wetting, but I don't want to pursue that theory. Fairtax4me: I may yet do exactly what you suggest. My thought process at the time was that the existing engine was already kinda "pushing it" on miles being at 222k, so I would opt for a nice, much lower mileage swap engine and hopefully take care of the coolant loss/P0304/compression leak as well. But now with all that's going on I could very well end up doing the HG job on the existing motor and see what happens. Thanks to all! Bry

Well, I took a chance and got burned. I bought a supposed 132k mile "A" condition EJ22 (found on car-part.com) that I paid too much for to refresh my daughter's beloved 222k mile '96 Impreza Outback. The current engine has always had trouble losing coolant, frequent P0304 "Cyl. 4 misfire" CEL codes, and now leaks compression into the coolant at higher throttle. Yesterday I was able to read the VIN off the block of the salvage engine and get the Carfax. The last reported mileage of the '97 Legacy was 234k miles at a Grease Monkey oil change in Jan. 2015. And before I discovered the high mileage I had already determined that cylinder 4 has weak compression based on this simple test: . I will do a real compression test (using a 4EAT and starter) and have numbers before I return to confront the salvage yard owner, probably Wednesday. (It's 40 miles each way from my house to the yard.) So I'd love to get suggestions on strategy for the situation. Some various points: The engine has not yet been installed or run. All of this is happening in the "Colorado Front Range" area. (Denver metro and north) The receipt I got says "Warranty Limited to Exchange, Unless One Cannot Be Provided, Refusal of Exchange or Return of Unneeded Parts Shall be Limited to In Store Credit Only." so I guess the best I can hope for is that they actually have an engine that is verifiably somewhere near as good as the one they listed in car-part.com and are willing to do the exchange. I suspect that they are simply bait-and-switching as a way of business. (The engine wasn't really a direct match for my Impreza either, but I was willing to just use the block and heads to work around that.) After I discovered the weak cylinder, I already took the engine the 80-mile round trip to point out the low compression. The owner continued to contend that it was a good engine and was running before they pulled it. (Of course "running" is not what I paid as much as I did for.) At that time I still wasn't sure which cylinder was low. Later I got a compression tester and I know it's cylinder 4. The owner even went as far as doing a "parlor trick" of sticking some kind of plastic caps in each of the 4 spark plug holes, and demonstrating that he could make them "pop" and shoot out by turning the engine. Obviously proves nothing. Just using a wrench and my arm with the compression tester, I was able to register 40-50 PSI on the three good cylinders, but never more than 20 PSI on cylinder 4. The yard has a "BBB Accredited Business" logo on their Web site, and "BBB Rating: A". I realize that not much is required to get a rating like that. Anyone know how I might use BBB and not end up with a "he said - he said" situation where the owner denies that I had reason to expect a 132k mile motor? I know kind of "off topic" for this board, but does anyone know whether it's legal to secretly audio record a live, in-person conversation? Thanks for any help!! Bry

Hi All, I think this engine swap will go OK, but the junkyard engine I got is not a direct match, so I figured I'd better seek wisdom from the awesome people here. The car is a 1996 Impreza Outback with EJ22, automatic transmission. 222k miles. I think we bought it with about 160k miles. It has consistently had trouble with losing coolant over time, and we've had varying success with stop-leak in the coolant. A lot of the time it has been getting "Cylinder 4 misfire" CEL code. More recently I've noticed that if I do a full throttle accelerate onto the freeway and then pull off at the next offramp and stop, I can tell it was blowing compression gas into the coolant because the reservoir has overflowed. I had the engine checked out by a local (non-dealer) Subie guy, and he pointed out that cylinder 4 has low compression. So I decided to look for a used motor, given the mileage and not being sure that if I did all the work to replace head gaskets that that would for sure take care of the problem(s). I looked on car-part.com and found a nearby supposedly matching motor ("4" in 6th digit of VIN) from a claimed 132k mile car. Both motors do have "EJ22" on the block. But there are significant differences with this motor: The car has some kind of canister up front on the passenger side, right next to the ABS with two hoses coming over to it from the engine. The junkyard motor doesn't have those connections. The car has three small hoses that connect on top of the throttle body. The junkyard engine has two connections there. I'm 98% sure that when I had the car's motor out when I first bought the car and had the valve covers off, that engine had no manual valve adjust. This matches what I see "out there" about a 96 Impreza 2.2 - hydraulic valve lifters. The motor I got to put in has roller cam and manual valve adjustment. Not a biggie to me, but just another clue toward "What is this engine?" The car's motor has red plastic color on the fuel injectors. The motor has gray (maybe slightly greenish compared to the gray of the connectors that plug onto them) fuel injectors. Both motors do have EGR, so I expect that will hook up OK. Both single-port exhaust. I plan to use the entire intake manifold and all of the various plumbing from the car, bolted onto the block/heads from the junkyard motor. So from that, I should keep all the right connections. I noticed that the knock sensor has a different connector, so I'll need to keep the sensor from the car and bolt it on. From having the valve covers, pan, and oil pump off of the junkyard motor, it all looks pretty good at this point, but my main question is "Given the differences of this motor, will everything work out with using the block/heads from it and the intake manifold/plumbing/injectors from the existing motor? If the gray injectors would be fine to use, I might want to use them too, since they are significantly lower mileage. Thanks for any help! I have GREATLY appreciated the help I've gotten here in the past. All the best, Bry

I posted this to a non-local group while kinda thinking in local terms. Anyway I'm in the "Denver and north" area of Colorado. Advice from Colorado people and otherwise is still appreciated!

The community here has been so helpful to me in the past - I come once again seeking wisdom. My daughter's '96 Subie Impreza (210k miles) I was trying to do a couple things to help get it ready for a road trip from Colorado to the Northwest. So a several thousand mile trip. It had been having a (I think) P0304 code for "Cylinder 4 misfire" for at least a year, and that didn't change when we replaced plugs and wires. So I decided to replace the coil pack and the cylinder 4 fuel injector with some junkyard parts. The good news is that now, the CEL and the P0304 are gone, but the bad news is that when I swapped the injector and then tried to start the engine, it acted "blocked". I judged that it was probably liquid locked from fuel having gotten into cylinder 4 when I was messing with the injector. So I loosened that spark plug a bit and was then able to crank and get the engine to run. Tightened the plug and now it runs pretty well. But, I think the "liquid lock" thing may have compromised the head gasket because we get bubbling up through the coolant overflow tank, and my daughter thinks it is doing it pretty regularly. I have not done a head gasket job before, but I normally would go ahead and take on the job as I'm a pretty advanced do-it-yourselfer. I had the engine out of this Subie when we first got it so I could replace the badly leaking oil separator plate with the steel version. But time is pretty short (a week) until her trip. So I'm wondering whether I need to have her take a different car on the trip, or else maybe someone here with experience wants to take on the job for pay. I think only the driver's side would need to be done pre-trip. I wouldn't leave it long term without doing the other side too. Or maybe as long as she keeps after the coolant level on the trip, it would be OK. I'd hate to damage the engine since in other respects it's a pretty strong runner. Also, maybe there's a shop with a good reputation who charges a fair price and could do it on pretty short notice. I don't really know what a fair price would be for that, though. Thanks for any advice! Bryan

I got it out. I wasn't missing removing any fasteners, but there's a hook formed out of the sheet metal of the car "frame" just forward of the forward-most bumper bolt on each side, and a loop at the very tip of the part of the bumper that "plugs in" to the car frame. the loop hooks over the hook, and holds the bumper in the correct position for the bolts to go in. So the maneuver I needed was to push forward (relative to the car) on the bumper and then rotate the bumper so the aforementioned loops would unhook from the hooks. Now I see that the structural steel bumper is bent noticeably, so I guess that's another junkyard part for me to track down.

Actually, there are three big bolts with 17mm heads on each side that seem to pretty obviously be the main structural attachment bolts for the bumper, and those bolts are already out. Now the bumper does "move around" relative to the car's frame, which wouldn't be the case before the removal of those six big bolts, but I still can't get the bumper to actually slide out.

I haven't spent a lot of time yet trying to figure this out, but I thought one of the learned denizens here might have a tip. I mainly want the bumper cover out of the way to do some rust remediation, but there are so many fasteners holding it to the bumper, including some with access blocked by the tail light housings, that I just figured it would be simplest to pull the bumper. I took out the six 17mm main bumper bolts, but it still won't slide out. And the blockage doesn't feel "bendy" like trim hanging on (I did unscrew the lowest/inboard screw on each mudflap so the mudflaps would go with the bumper cover.) When I try to slide the bumper out, it's blocked by something that feels like "metal hitting metal" but I don't see any extra retainer hook or anything. I did try lifting on the bumper before trying to slide out, but there's not much clearance with the aforementioned tail light housings. This isn't really that big a deal because the bumper cover is now pretty floppy and I can get it pushed away from where I'm working on the rust, but it would still be easier to just have the whole bumper "thing" gone and out of the way. Any thoughts? Thanks, Bryan

Thanks for the tips! I can tell I have some "metering" to do.