WAWalker

The part number for that filter is 2266AA010. It is a filter asembly, press sensor. And for anyone eles who reads this............I recomened replacing this before spending money on the more expensive EGR valve, and PDT.

frag nailed it. Don't let them sell you a radiator next. You have already had enough of a wallet flushing. Have it checked for hydrocarbons in the cooling system. Or just smell the coolant to see if it smells like exhaust. You can always hope it is not head gaskets, but don't throw money at unless you can rule out head gaskets.

That part number is a front A/F ratio sensor (O2 sensor), for auto trans Outback of your vintage. No use on a manual trans Outback.

Yes they should come on KOEO, with controls set to A/C or defrost mode. In the post were I quoted from the FSM, read #1. When you set the controls to an A/C or defrost mode, the ECU turns the fans on. Car #1 is not right. Car #2 is doing what it was ment to do.

The system is designed to run both fans when the A/C compressor is running. When in any defrost mode, the A/C is used to dry the air to prevent windsheild fogging. The A/C compressor runs, the fans run. If not there is a problem. When in any A/C mode, the A/C is used to remove heat from the air inside the car. The A/C compressor runs, the fans run. If not there is a problem.

The problem is with car #1. I'm going to quote from the FSM in order to avoid confussion and argument. From the Air conditioning system section. MECHANISM AND FUNCTION 1) When MODE switch is set to "MAX A/C", "A/C", "DEF/HEAT" or "DEF", air conditioning sytem relay activates to enter a signal into engine control unit. This turns on both compressor clutch and F.I.C.D. (Fast Idle Control Device). At this point, the main and sub fans also operate. Blower relay operates to direct the air flowrate determined by FAN switch position. 2) Thermostat activates to stop compressor clutch, F.I.C.D., and main and sub fans. 3)When "High-Low" pressure switch operates, compressor clutch and F.I.C.D. stop but main and sub fans are operating. 4) When fan control switch operates, both main and sub fans operate rapidly.

If the timing belt fails on an interferance engine, it is (or should be) standard procedure to check for valve damage. A compression test is good. A cylinder leak down test is better. The reason I recommend a leak down test......................I worked on a WRX that had been in a crash, timing belt was broken. Insurance company was paying the bill. They payed for a compression test. Resaults were good compression on one bank, no compression on other bank. They athorized removing the head on the bank with no compression ONLY. Did valve job on that head (bent valves), got the engine back together and it ran OK but it wasn't right. I then preformed another compression test. Results were, good and dead even compression readings on all 4 cylinders. I then performed a cylinder leak down test. Results, 50% leakage on the head that the insurance company wouldn't pay to be removed. Well they had no choice, they had me pull that head. On first glance valves did not appear bent. When the valve springs were removed and the valves rotated they would be seated, rotate about a 1/4 turn and a gap would open up. Pulled valves out, the steams were bent in two places, an S shape bend. I know you said yours is competly quit when running, (this car did have some valve train noise). Anyway.....................rule out bent valves, before spending to much time chaseing gohsts.

T-stat PN 21200AA072 Are your cooling fans working?

Are the cooling fans operating?

In my experiance it is hard to sell a car with rust and 200k + on the clock. As far as fixing it and keeping it................would need more info to comment.

Timing belt was replaced ~50k miles ago..............if water pump tensioner and idlers were not replaced then or anytime over the ~200k mile life of the car, there is a good possibility of a failure in that area. The 2.5 DOHC engine is an interferance engine. If the timing belt broke or jumped time most likely valves are bent. I have seen quite a few alternators go bad on Subarus but never turn the battery light on. So you can drive untill the battery goes dead without knowing the alternator is not charging. This happened to me on my personal car, alternator did make noise before the car died. So this is another possibility. Worse case senario..................a 200k mile engine, infrequent oil changes, could = engine is shot. Pull outer timing belt covers, check alignment of cam sprockets. At this point if there is idler, water pump or tensioner failure you should be able to tell.......................If all is good. Check the battery. See if the bearings in the alternator are seized up. If car cranks OK, but will not start with a fresh or fully charged battery................ Check spark and fuel. I listed checking timing belt first to avoid cranking the engine anymore in the case that maybe the timing belt jumped but valve damage has not occured.

Oh, and torque bind is hard on axles. If it is bad enough and not fixed it will wear axles out prematurely.

I would NOT recomened driving it. That could very well lead to a more expensive repair. And if your flat broke.........................well. You said your not good with cars. Do you know what the front axles look like? These are all things you can try. It is most likely going to be an outter CV joint (closest to the wheel). If the boot is broken on one side or the other it should be obvious. Grab the axle shaft and try to move it up, down, forward, back. If the joint is toast, the shaft will move a lot. Jack one front wheel up at a time, turn wheel by hand, watching axle shaft to see if it turns with the wheel.

He did notice other things. 1) Steering wheel jerking. Classic sign of binding in a CV joint. (not just a worn CV joint) 2) Nosie got considerably worse. When cage inside outer CV joint brakes, ball bearings no longer contained, total desruction of the joint is now underway. 3) Once destination was reached the car would not hold in park. Total failure of CV joint allows axle to just spin+ open front diff=car rolls in park. If there is any torque bind problem with the transmission causing to much power to be transfered to the rear wheels while driving, the drivability issues that you mentioned would not nessasarly be noticed. Have seen this also.

Yes, the AWD will move the car via the rear wheels being driven. But the car will not hold in park, due to no pressure to the transfer clutch pack went car is turned off. I have seen these joints break with boot still in tack. At first glance the axle looks normal, but the shaft just spins inside the cup. First one was an OEM remaned axle installed 13 months prior to failure. That is when I stopped spending the big $ on OEM remaned axles. No, the car should not be driven, things can only get worse by driving it.

You have a broken CV joint.

If you used the green connectors, you were in D-check mode rather than Read memory mode. This mode will only tell you if there is a malfunction at the time that the test is being ran. Will not give any history codes for intermittent problems that are not occuring at the time. To read the memory you need the black connectors connected and the green disconnected. Key on engine off. Chances are good that there will be a lot of codes stored in the memory. Funny thing about these OBD I cars if they are driven for a long time with any fault, they will start storing false codes. So don't be suprized if there is a long list of codes in the memory.

Poping out of gear is not a clutch problem. Sounds like you have a bad bearing or two in the transmission, alowing the main shaft to move back and forth. Possibly a worn main shaft plate.

If there are carbon tracks on the spark plugs, the plugs and wires will both need to be replaced. Easyest way to tell if the A/F ratio sensor is bad is to watch the fuel trims on a scan tool while driving. Actually I just realized that you said you have a 5-speed. Your car should have a regular O2 sensor. I don't see as many problems with the O2 sensors as the A/F ratio sensors. Still a possiblity, but check the plugs and wire first.

Have the plug wires be replaced? Carbon tracking on the plugs/wires can cause a misfire on accel, without setting a misfire code. A bad front A/F ratio sensor can cause this type of drivability problem also.

That is a good question. The '99 Legacy Brighton, and some Imp's cam with that vintage of 2.2L. At first glance they look the same as the 2.5 SOHC, but I see so few that I have no idea if it would be a "Plug and Play" option.

I never seem to remember that they put the EJ25 SOHC engines into MY1999 Forester. So there are many differences, and the big one is a very different engine management system. No pulg and play 2.2L swap.

Seems to me that '99 Forester's are not the same, wiring harness wise, as the the Legacy's. Just did HG's on one. I believe there were just two large engine wiring harness conectors, rather than the two large and one small like on Legacy's. I'm not positive, I pulled a '02 Forester in for HG's as soon as the '99 was finished, so I may be mixing the two up in my mind. You will want to make sure though, there are deffinetly differences between Forester's and Legacy. Edit, it was '98 and '02 Forester's that I just had in. As of 7/98 (MY1999) Forester's got the SOHC engine.

You have no choice but the put the cams in after installing the cylinder head on the engine. The cams have to be out to get to the head bolts. When installing the cams they should be positioned so all the lobes are facing away from the lifter buckets. This way as you tighten the cam caps the lobes on the cams are not pushing on the buckets and opening valves. Once cams are in place and cam caps torqued, you can rotate ONE cam at a time to line up timing marks.

I was just saying to preform the test that skip mentioned the defrost needs to be turned off. In fact on your car, if you just turn the fan switch to "0", all the heater/A/C functions will turn off. Then if you turn the key on without starting the engine, the cooling fans should not run. If they do that points to a problem with the coolant temp sensor cuircut. When you say it won't start, is it a crank but no start? Or is it a no crank. Yes, the coolant temp sensor can cause extremely bad gas mileage, and drivability. A cold engine needs more fuel to start and run, as engine temp increases the amount of fuel can be decreased. This is the function of the engine coolant temp sensor. To monitor engine temp, report to the ECU, so the ECU can adjust fuel injector pulse widith accordingly. (It is not the same sensor as for your temp gage). I very often see coolant temp sensors fail and give a reading of -44 deg F. In this case the ECU gives the engine way more fuel than is needed. A lot of the time this will cause a crank but no start condition due to flooding. If the temp reading from the coolant temp sensor stays fixed that low while driving, it will cause poor fuel milage, and drivability problems. Oh, and as I said earlier, can also lead to a melt down of the catylic converter.