idosubaru

The trouble shooting section should show which wire colors and plug positions to test for ground and power if you need to clarify them. Are you positive the plugs for heated seats aren’t hiding somewhere? I’d double and triple check. This is an average US market outback? I guess you do since you’re mentioning some specific details but Do you have an FSM to reference and verify?

Are you talking about the body side or diff hanger ones? DIY make your bushings is an option that’s used for some of those old gen NLA bushings.

No - that’s not what I’d recommend. Always use Factory Service manuals. The others are very low grade. If there are lengthy procedures or tooling, you figure it out yourself, or ask here and people will tell you which steps you can skip or how to go about without a “special tool”. ”special tool” itself is a red herring that’s ambiguous and mostly meaningless. Many of them are simply ways for a dealership shop to streamline processes or save a few minutes. This matters if you’re doing a job 100 times a year - saving 10 minutes would equate to saving 16 hours or two days of work for a mechanic. when you’re DIY you don’t care - you spend the extra few minutes, just like you do using a jack and jack stand because you don’t have a lift. some special tools are harder to work around than others: 1. Let yourself be creative by asking how you can accomplish the same thing with readily available tools. 2. and ask here. There are instances where it’s tricky or something but they’re not hard or impossible. It’s definitely not a show stopper.

fairly simple engines minus the PITA carburetor. if it doesn't start you can almost bet it's the carb or ancient gas. fresh oil, verify gas is getting to the carb, clean and adjust the carb if it's worth messing with, and see what you got. they're fairly simple other than the carb.

What about in the middle of the divider between the two ports - just to the right in the first picture - that's not a crack is it? Do the valve seats have the typical EA82 cracks between them? If it pressure tested fine and was going on an EA82 I'd say just run it. But an EA82T....I'd be a little more cautious on.

that looks like a death sentence - seems to me they usually crack in the middle of that ridge, though i guess the crack doesn't have to propagate the same way every time. can you get better lighting and angle facing up into that possible crack area?

Classic insurance and antique plates typically require that the car isn’t a daily driver. Otherwise, I’d get them. Bare with me, this is good to know as an option for covering certain events: My boss at my first internship had a very basic old VW rabbit that he said was worthless, but he had rebuilt all the mechanicals himself. It was wrecked and it was the other persons fault. Of course it was going to be totaled. He told the insurance adjuster that he wanted the car fixed no matter what, otherwise he looses all of his time and investment. They balked and said it was impossible but he kept insisting and they eventually did it. He also didn’t sue them so that was in his favor - almost a “fix my car and I won’t get a lawyer” deal by only implying that, without saying it. 15 years later a lady runs a red light and I plow her with my xt6. Her insurance was going to total it. needed a bumper, fender, headlight. Not a hard fix. I followed my bosses approach from 15 years ago. I met the adjuster in person and explained everything I did and why I was keeping this car. I was clear I wanted it fixed and preferred to avoid a salvage title because otherwise I’d have to go through the entire rebuild and inspection process, a waste of my time for something that wasn’t my fault. He wrote up repairs for just under the total value and then found ways to compensate additional amounts that didn’t apply to the total value (or, that’s what he said he did). Either way - he cut a very acceptable check, no lawyers needed (always a goal of mine to avoid them if possible). Anyway, thats an option to keep in mind that I’ve seen happen twice to cover repairable accidents of older cars that would have easily been totaled. It’ll only work if you have leverage of it being the other persons fault and the particular company and adjuster is willing.

Change the fluid, multiple times if it hasn't been done much. And monitor CVT temperatures. Otherwise, I wouldn't worry about it. It's a quarter million mile vehicle, the CVT doesn't have inordinate precedent over other transmissions or potential maintenance/failures at this age. Be prepared for maintenance/repair commensurate with any quarter million mile vehicle, not just "CVT", and carry on.

He’s talking about the newer ones, newer than 2010. subaru offered an extended CVT warranty for a reason: https://www.ncconsumer.org/news-articles/subaru-issues-extended-transmission-warranty-program-for-certain-vehicles.html The early years did see failures and issues. I’m not well versed in which years, though that chart above might be a good starting point. I don’t recommend people to avoid earlier ones necessarily, but I generally recommend leaning towards 2017+ if there’s a choice. sometimes you can find them on dealer lots with new transmissions in them. I went with a friend last year and he bought a Forster with a replacement CVT trans installed by the selling Subaru dealer. Service records showed it was diagnosed and traded in at that dealer.

people also convert normal subaru MPT trans to VTD by swapping the rear extension housing and guts. i don't know anything about it except that it's a rather straight forward swap mechnically, but I don't know how the controls then work out.

If the hub has been in there for years and 30,000+ miles, and it hasn’t been driven with bad bearings for a long time then it’s likely fine. if a press is used haphazardly the hub can be damaged. this isn’t likely the case though if the bearing has been in place for a long time.

Subaru or OEM supplier. If you’ve never seen a ball joint fail catastrophically you can probably google it - it’s not a pretty sight or worth buying aftermarket.

good work. it'll motor along just fine, I'd guess you might find some fuel consumption issues or that cam tower leaking from loosening it. you just loosened the cam tower and bolted it back down - that's brilliantly simple, i'd be interested to hear if it's leaking after some driving.

What he said. You can use 00-04 outback/legacy knuckles as well but the ABS won't work because the sensor and tone ring are different. But it'll run and drive fine otherwise.

Replace that leaking VC and most of the leaking could easily disappear. That's easy and cheap. With that description, 99.5 times out of 100 this is a misdiagnosis. Most of this might be the valve cover - those gaskets get hard as a rock and leak like sieves. Clearly this vehicle is worth as much to you as a termite infestation in your home, there's hardly a reason to think about this much - go give it a try. You would be looking at additives through anecdotal rose covered glasses. Fluids/additives work rarely, and usually on parts that were problematic from the factory, rather than old, brittle/delapidated/warn seals that are beyond hope. Those valve cover gaskets will be so hard and brittle that nothing will fill those gaps unless it also solidifies the entire crankcase. I've pulled hundreds of valve cover gaskets, old ones are always brittle, hard, and have zero ability to seal.