WAWalker

Specs? How much lift, what size tires....................? I'm building my first lifted Hatch.

It didn't cost anything to maintain the cam seal leaking, crank seal leaking, oil pan leaking, valve cover gasket leaking, oil pump wearing out, lifters rattleing timing belt brakeing, water pump leaking GL's of the mid 80's;)

Thats going to get pretty spending having a trans flush every 3,000 miles. Sure they didn't say 30,000? Subarus recomended trans service during scheduled maintanence is a drain and refill every 30,000, unless you tow or drive under very extreme conditions.

You don't need to change the filter.

If your not going to do the 30,000 mile service, just hope you don't have any major engine or transmission issues between 30 & 60k. Not haveing schedualed maintanence done is grounds for denying warranty work. Just sumthin to keep in the back of your mind.

Depends on the equiptment and experiance your have. I would probably pull the transmission. But it may be easier to pull the engine, just may take longer. Not sure when they went from the aluminium plate to the plastic one, but I think you probably have a plastic one. If so you need to get a new one from the dealer. If you have a manual transmission and are still on the original clutch put a new clutch in while it is apart. Replace the rear main seal for good measure while you are in there also.

Oil seperator plate on the back of the engine. Between engine and trans.

Subarus answer to the DOHC head gasket problem was................ they quit making that engine! This new "Service Campaign" (It is not a recall) and may not be free, is only for 99-02 SOHC 2.5L engines. This may very well be a "customer pay" service. And remember that anytime after that when the coolant is changed this additive has to be added agin, or the extended warranty is voide. So if you have this additive put in at the dealership @ 64,000 miles your head gasket warrenty is extened to 100,000 miles. If you go to an independent shop for your 90,000 mile service they repalce the coolant but do not put the additive in, then at 95,000 your head gasket starts leaking agin....................Well Subaru dosn't have to fix it if you can't prove that "Genuie cooling system conditioner" was added agin at the 90,000 mile service. Just a heads up for owners.

99obw, When doing the rear struts you really don't need to get an alignment. When doing the front struts you do need an alignment because the caster/camber adjustment is in the top bolt that bolts the strut to the knuckle. Doing the rear bearings on the car is easy enough with a hub tammer. But since you are doing struts too....................... Doing the fronts on the car I find there is to much stuff in the way. Thats why I take the front strut assembly out, since it's only 3 more nuts that are very easy to get to.

Used to use a press. I now have a hub tamer type tool, so I can do the rear bearings "on car". On the front I pull the whole strut assebly (don't seperate the hub from the strut or you will have to pay for an alingment when your done) out to do the bearings. I find it easyer this way than doing it "on car". I don't measure the hub installed depth. To be quit honest with you I don't really think that the problem with rear wheel bearings has anything to do with grease or replacment procedure. As you will notice in the End Wrench artical, Subaru has "authorized" the installation of a taper roller-type bearing as a replacement in Impreza & Forester. (Somthing I've been doing for the last 1+year, with out Subarus blessing) The taper roller bearing being the same bearing in the Legacy & WRX, whitch you don't see going bad like the Impreza & Forester bearings. In short I think they tried saving money on bearings & the customer got what Subaru payed for.

You can get the proper size u-joints for replacement. It is a bit of a job getting the old ones out and cleaning up the "stakes" so you can put the new ones in. If your a DIY'er it is the most affordable route to go. The replacment joints are IIRC around $15. I think I've got a part number somewere. I'll look for it.

The way I understand it is: At first when they were seeing a lot of repete wheel bearing failures, they said the grease that came in the new bearing was just a rust prohibitor, and that it needed to be cleaned out and repacked with good wheel bearing grease. Don't hold me to this, it is just what I was told by a Subaru Tech that used to work for the dealer. Then they decided that some of the hubs were out of round. I think this is mentioned in the latest write-up. Or that the hub or bearing was beeing damaged when using a press. So now they say the grease in the bearings is OK (looks like the same as was always in the replacments). Anyhoo.........If you want to clean and repack the new bearings I'm sure it won't hurt anything. I've done some without repacking and some that I did repack. Haven't had a come-back yet. Happy wrenching:D

Yes, remove the washer bottle.

15 AMP is the proper fuse. If in fact there is power to the TC Solenoid with the fuse in, then the solenoid is most likly bad.

Solenoid on 12 Volts to solenoid puts it in 2WD. Solenoid off no power to solenoid is full transfer. The 2WD fuse supplies the TCM with a ground. The TCM then sends a full 12 Volts to the TC solenoid. So technically it could be a bad TCM. There needs to be more diagnoises done to nail down the problem. There needs to be a test for power to solenoid. And a resistance test of the solenoid.

When you had the oil pump off did you make sure the five + head screws on the back side were tight? Did use use and OEM seal?

Check out page 94 in the December issue of Petersen's 4Wheel & Off-Road. Judging from the leaf springs in front I'm sure the only thing Subaru about it is the Brat body. But it looks cool.

The 1"

Your leak is your front crank seal.

'85-'91 1.8L 4WD, including turbo, take 8 7/8" disc with 1" Shaft. '80-'824WD & "80-"91 4WD, take 7 7/8" disc with 7/8" shaft. '83-'84 4WD take 8 7/8" with 7/8" shaft.

No, that wont hurt anything,

There were some '96 Outbacks with 2.2L. However the '96 2.5L engines don't seem to have the problems the '97-'99's have. Look at '95 on Legacy's or Legacy Brightons. They all have 2.2L engines. But they do not have the ground clearance of an Outback. I do believe there is BYB's lift in the works or maybe now in production for the Legacy. You can tell the difference in the 2.2 and 2.5 buy lookin' under the hood. 2.2L in a single overhead cam engine. 2.5L is a dual over head cam. If you have a little engine savy you'll see the difference in the timing belt covers. Also if the emissions sticker is still on the hood that will have the pertinent info. Struts do wear out as on any car. They are not cartrige type. They wholesale for about $80. Since your not going to do they yourself you can figure on paying $700+ to replace all four. Wheel bearings go bad now and agin. $250-$285 to replace. Drive in tight circles in a praking lot to see if the AWD is working smoothly on AT models. Can't go wrong with a well maintained Legacy 2.2L. Happy shopping

Engine will have to be removed agin to fix that. You can bet that nobody is going to take the blam for this one. If the dealer didn't take the plugs out when the heads went to the machine shop, they were probably removed buy the machine shop. May have got put back in hand tight dealer tech seen they were still in the head & didn't check if they were tight. Thats one senario. Or the mistake was made at the dealers shop. They will NOT own up to it. Thats the other senario. How many miles were on the engine when the short block was done? Probably should have had the valves ground for good measure.

I pay 127.44 for P/N 13-9100. Napa lifetime alt. List is 208 something. From my experiance around here Napa sells parts to everyone at wholesale price not list. Give them this part # see what they say.

If you drive the car and it sets another code for the TC solenoid, most likly there is a problem with the solenoid. The computer moniters the electrical circuit. If it detects an open circuit (broken wire, bad connection, open solenoid winding) or short circuit, (broken or rubed through wire ground out) there is a code set. So if there is a code for the TC solenoid, the problem could be in the wiring from the computer to the solenoid, wiring harness connector or the solenoid itself. Most likly the solenoid. Wiring problems aren't real common (unless the car has been in a wreck). There are so many things that can cause this binding that it is going to take so cash outlay to get to the botom of it. But if you are going to keep the car for sure & have it fixed, I say do the tires, if they are almost worn out or unevenly worn, or measure differnt diamiter, replace them. Drive the car for awhile, see what happens. If problem goes away, great. If binding is still there and Trans oil light starts flashing agin, have codes pulled. If the TC solenoid is bad have that fixed and you will get the trans fluid replaced in the pocess. If Trans light dosen't indicate any codes being set after driving it for a few days and binding is still there have the trans service done. Is that all about as clear as mud?:eh: