idosubaru

GD has you covered, but sounds like something is less than ideal. Is the drain plug OEM? Is the pan OEM? Clean up the pan, clean the plug threads, tighten an OEM washer properly and they last 100,000 miles. If an OEM Subaru washer can't be reused then something is wrong in the installation process no matter what brand or replacement interval. I've reused them for 25 years of owning 40-ish Subaru's and working on plenty more than that. I don't even use a torque wrench. I've never had to replace on on my personal vehicles, and on others I've replaced one...maybe two if i've forgotten one. If I owned a shop - I definitely would - but it's not hard to reuse them DIY if the installation is clean, all OEM, and proper. Like all these guys:

Great. I’ll take an axle to a local shop I’ve been too before, theyre fabulous. They do heavy duty industrial stuff and mining equipment. and still will do small tractor and car project stuff.

I need EJ axles that are about 1" shorter - can a good machine shop cut and weld them and do that without significantly weakening the axle? I see that people do it and I see online commentary that the weld won't be as strong as the original metal and the heating will reduce the materials property of the metal. Is that only something that matters for performance/race cars or...?

Here’s what the answer should have been: Don’t use a torch. cut out with an angle grinder/recip saw. I should have known this, same as rear outback bolts, pointless to try to save them around here. My Tribeca has little rust so I was thinking it might be different...nope. I torched the €+<%,*! out of it, Oxy-propane torch, burnt all the bushing rubber out and then got the bolt red hot on both ends, liberal amounts of yield, and torched the sleeve, and quick cooled it a couple times...to put out the flames on the burning undercover and the HVAC metal heat shield I had in place which lit up and melted too then I used an old socket bolted to a long piece of all thread so I could wail on the bolt from behind the car with a huge few pound steel mallet swinging as hard as I could. no movement at all. The bolt is seized inside the inner bushing sleeve. so I’m guessing its best to cut these off and replace the bolts each time. That would’ve been way easier. Now that the bushing material is melted away and the Outer sleeve moves more, theres more room for making an ideal cut.

+1 someone tried thicker or stop leak stuff to slow the leaks. It never works for subarus leaking at the rack side seals. pur the right stuff in or ignore it or wait until it’s low to change it. Simply put it needs repaired with a new rack or seals. since fluid didn’t cause this nor will it fix it, this also means you can do whatever you want without worries. So if you want to still believe fluid might save you and ignore us, it won’t hurt anything to try whatever you want. Subaru power steering systems are robust, theyre not going to easily fail because of fluid. You’re wallet will just be lighter and you’ll learn by experience which everyone does to some extent.

It’s hard to say without seeing it. oil pan. upper oil pan - that’s a killer job. or timing cover look at an FSM and view the exploded diagrams to see what’s in the area you think it’s coming from.

Sure. Automatics pop right out. Pop out stubby shaft and install another one by tapping it in with a rubber mallet or wood block. They’re the same on both sides and all of them from like 1988-2004 are all the same part For automatics. If the seal is leaking you replace the front diff side seal. Remove that large retaining ring. Mark exactly how it’s oriented before moving it. Then count exactly how many turns it takes to remove it. Install new seal. Reinstall the retaining ring the same number of turns and to the exact same orientation mark noted before you removed it. Don’t mess it up or the front diff will fail. That ring accounts for bearing preload and ring and pinion play.

Okay, try light approach first. I’ll get the bolt head and threads red, spray, and see what happens. The wide flange on the head head and washer make it hard to imagine penetrant getting drawn in far. But maybe that means the corrosion also shouldn’t be deep? The nut came off and has a clearer pathway, except the crossmember between the nut and bushing sleeve.

My Tribeca has a seized linkage bolt in the rear suspension and im wondering how to heat it to get the bolt out with an oxy-propane torch The rear linkage metal housing and bushing rubber are in the way so I can’t heat the metal sleeve the bolt is likely stuck in. Unless I burn out the bushing - is that what I should do? I am replacing this linkage and the bushing with it. The bolt passes through the components in this order: bolt head - crossmember - suspension linkage with bushing - crossmember - nut. Do I heat a certain part or just get it all red hot and burn the bushing out?

If you’re willing to do a block swap I’d knurl or replace the pistons in the EJ25 and keep that instead of swapping blocks.

you can swap almost any EJ short blocks. Its been years since I’ve done 00+ heads on 90s block, it’s not a common solution. I don’t recall any issues. I’ve had to use thicker headgaskets before but I don’t think it was for these swaps. 01 heads on 95 block will be low compression in addition to lower hp smaller block in a heavier vehicle.

That’s great, thanks for the feedback. I saw the great reviews on amazon. I might pick one up. They were exactly the same 10-20 years ago, but with aux-in rather than blue tooth, including the same multiple selectable frequencies. They wouldn’t pick up a statin, but still they would crack in and out for some reason and have interference on any of the bands at the same time. They were still decent for the time but the hard sided versions were way better. Sounds like those kinks have been worked out.

how do they do with interference in urban areas, traveling, etc? they used to have interference issues sometimes so the hard wire versions were better as the stereo antenna in your car would plug right into it. but it may be that the technology is better now. i'm not recommending this one, it's just the first that came up in a search, but these used to be more consistent (in certain areas i guess?) and free up/reduce clutter from your cig lighter: https://www.amazon.com/iSimple-ISFM23-Universal-Bluetooh-Transmitter/dp/B00DHQ6K7Q/ref=asc_df_B00DHQ6K7Q/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=242108112383&hvpos=1o3&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15991059705313939338&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9009439&hvtargid=pla-456887844849&psc=1

You should tell us what you’re trying to do - exactly what year/model knuckle you’re trying to put on what car. Generally all 95-99 legacy and outback ABS are interchanageable. all 2000-2004 legacy/outback ABS are interchangeable. Nonabs can use just about anything 1. If the car has ABS and you want the ABS to work: 99 needs 95-99 outback or legacy knuckles with ABS. 2. If the car doesn’t have ABS or you don’t need abs to work then you can use any 1995-2004 legacy or outback or Forster or Impreza knuckle. You can install the 2000 knuckle on the 99 but the abs just wont work. Pull the fuse to disable it You can install ABS knuckles on non-abs cars, the sensor can just be ignored (cut the wire to the sensor) and ignore the tone ring. Forster and Impreza knuckles work on legacy/outbacks but the abs is sometimes different depending on year.

No one is saying blends are a problem. There's just no benefit or point to using them. Changing every 3,000 miles is a fine recommendation and has merit but it isn't due to dust/pollution. There's 10's of thousands of UOA samples showing that's not the case. Let the data speak and get a UOA if you're unsure - at 3,000 miles the oil will test way under limits on an average daily driver with no current issues. Manufacturers have intervals far exceeding 3k - often double or more. Subaru itself says 6,000 miles and most individuals exceed that as well, and Subaru's easily run 200,000 miles all day long many 10's or 100's of thousands of times across the united states. If an engine has so much silicon/dirt intrusion that the oil needs changed in 3,000 miles then something is terribly wrong and will probably damage the engine if it's continued to be run even with 3k change intervals. What was said earlier is spot on: Low oil is far more problematic than any other oil decision, changing often helps keep an eye on leaks/consumption.