jp98

On my 98 Outback the two on the left are for the security thief light and the other is for the switch for the fog lamps. On the far right it is for the cruse switch and the one next to the column is for the rear defrost switch.

As soon as it quits raining or snowing here and the sun comes out I'm going to lube up the key locks and make sure that all works as it should. On my 96 pickup I hardly ever unlocked the passenger side door with the key and did notice that it got stiffer and harder to unlock whenever I tried to do it. That one is also going to get some attention.

If you keep the same air pressure in the snow tires that is recommended for the other tires then the light should not come on. From what I know you can not disable or just turn the light off. Also you would have to talk to your dealer to see if they would be willing to change the pressure that the light is set to go off on if they are able to do it. This is one of the federally mandated items that most dealers do not like to mess with due to liability laws. You can thank those that never check the air pressure in their tires for this.

I think that the cloeses one is just east of Rifle on the old highway. The last time that I was there it cost you a buck to go look around and then what ever the part is.

There really is no such thing as a liability release when they do something that they know is wrong or will damage something or someone. When you go into a hospital for a operation you will be required to sign all kinds of liability releases before the operation but if something goes wrong you can still sue the hospital and doctors. In this case it is miss matched tires and the patient is a vehicle that may or may not have problems down the road from the miss matched tires being rotated. If you did have them rotate the tires you could always say that they didn't inform you of what might happen and try to hold them responsible for the blown front end if it happens. I personally think that the garage should of told you of the problem with miss matched tires on a AWD vehicle before they said that they wouldn't rotate them. If you still feel like there will be no problem then rotate them yourself, it only takes a few few minutes per tire and then you will amuse the responsibility.

Any more there is no real break in period for your oil. There is a break in period for the gears in the transmission, front and rear ends. You don't want to drive at a constant speed and want to vary it up and down for the first 1000 or so miles so you are over that. Changing the oil is up to you, you can either change it now or later it really doesn't matter. You might also want to look into a oil analysis just to see when you really need to change the oil and since you are running synthetic odds are you can go way past 5,000 miles. I use Blackstone Labs for my diesel and Subaru for the oil analysis.

So fess up, who was right? You or your daughter?

On my 98 Outback the tapered edge goes towards the rear.

Also don't forget that when working with the battery or cables to disconnect the negative cable off of the battery before you start working on the positive cable. This will prevent you from arcing from the positive cable terminals to a ground, which can get quite interesting at times.

Are the gauges working properly? If not the first thing to look for is a bad ground, it is also the second thing to look for. You could also check for a loose plug on a wiring harness. The climate control lights are a sore spot and go out quite often and there are all kinds of post on replacing them. The radio could be just that, the radio. I have owned my Outback for 11 years now and the radio lights have never worked.

For cutting foam to shape nothing beats a good electric knife.

You really don't need the rubber cover, all that is for is so that you don't short it out while working on something else. A 40w one would work but it would take a while to heat up the wires.

If you don't have a crimping tool but do have a soldering iron or gun you could use the one from the junk yard, solder it and then heat shrink the connection. If you don't have a soldering iron or gun you really should if you do work on vehicles. Also use rosin core solder for electrical and electronics and not the acid type for plumbing. In a pinch you could even use a large electrical connector called a wing nut.

Odds are the dealer will not even have it in stock if they can even get it, and usually with pieces for a wiring harness they will only sell you the whole harness. The quickest and easiest way to fix it would be to just get a piece of wire of the same gauge and crimp a connector on the end. Then cut and crimp it to the old wire back where there is good wire and before the so called split.

You really don't have to run Amsoil to be able to do extended oil changes, any good quality synthetic will do but the testing needs to be done to determine when the oil needs to be changed. A lot of times you can just change the filter at the recomended interval and top off with oil and go again. I am driving a Ford diesel with the 7.3 in it running Valvoline Premium Blue Extreme 5w40 and my recomended oil change interval from Blackstome Labs is 12,000 miles. But I change it once a year just because I don't drive it that much.

I have found parts like those on other vehicles are not available individually but in a kit with other parts.

Odds are that if it was flashing it stored a code. Get it read and then go from there, a tune up never hurts.

The ABS on the plastic stands for Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene or a type of plastic. You might want to just go on a treasure hunt on your car. If you found it on the drivers side get a flashlight and look up under the dash and on the out of view side panels to see if you can tell where it might of gone.

What does it feel and smell like?

It comes down to the fact that some vehicles were designed to tow travel trailers, even the tent type and some vehicles weren't. Just about any camping trailer except for ones that are designed to just sleep in are going to max out your vehicle, not to mention the extra weight thay you will have in your vehicle with clothes, food, bikes, and what ever else you place in it. Bite the bullet and just plan on sleeping in a tent and don't worry about towing a trailer unless is is something that is designed for light loads. You'll be a lot happier without the worry.

Did the scanner power up or did it just do nothing. A common cause is a blown fuse.

I have seen a lot of crimped connections fail but I have seen very few solder connections fail. If you are in the field then they may be alright but if you want it to last in my opinion use a soldiered connection.

And don't use butt connectors to splice the wires together. Use sodier and heatshrink tubing if you want it to last longer than a couple of months.

I had it happen on my 98 Outback. The problem was the alternator but everything tested fine on the bench. Whenever the RPM's would reach 2300 RPM's the alternator would cut out but keep it below that and everything would work fine.

One problem with ABS brakes is that us older folks need to forget everything that we learned from years of driving the older style of brakes. On a ABS system you don't pump the brakes but push on them steadly, they will pulse or chatter what ever you want to call it instead of locking up the tires. This alowes you to be able to stear instesd of just slideing into something. But I agree that if you do indeed have a problem with them or even suspect a problem you need to take the car to the dealer and have them checked out.