idosubaru

1/4 past is nothing to be concerned about. oil light is of no use here. treatments to your oil will only work if the noise is valve train related. this may take awhile, it's not always a magical instant trick. it may take time to fully free up a sticky or frozen lifter. keep adding seafoam, MMO or ATF at every oil change. if the oil pump is to blame additives will not cure anything. you will need to reseal your oil pump and tighten the rear backing plate bolts (with locktite too). if the noise is really bad and the motor isn't in horrific shape then a compression test just might show you where the issue lies. or use a mechanics stethoscope. the idea is to try to narrow down the sound. is it all over the engine? both sidse of the engine? or just one cylinder? if it's one cylinder only then it's definitely an HLA at that cylinder. if it's all over then it's more likely oil supply related..though you could have more than one sticking HLA, but that becomes less likely the more instances you find. standard process is to try treatments first because it's cheap and anyone can do it, open can and dump in. after that you'll need to consider looking into resealing your oil pump or replacing HLA's. a compression test can also show a bad HLA if it's bad enough. you'll get way bad compression...even down to no compression if it's completely frozen and not doing anything in the right position.

make sure the flexplate is spinning. that's what the torque converter is bolted to. possible the bolts sheared (unlikely, but who knows?) did you install all the torque converter bolts properly...what is it, four of them i think? did you properly seat the input shaft of the torque converter when installing the torque converter? it typically takes awhile and is a little frustrating/time consuming to get it to seat the last 1/4 inch. if you don't seat it that final 1/4 inch it will ride on top of the oil pump rotor and not actually seat in it, then when you bolt things up tyipcally the oil pump rotor breaks. maybe yours somehow made it past the first start up? never heard of that happening before, but the biggest mistake made with auto trans installs of the 4EAT's is not seating that last 1/4 inch properly. has to be lined up just right to slide the last 1/4 inch. if you had trouble getting the trans bellhousing and engine to meet flush without torquing the bolts down then this is probably your problem.

TOD often wont' cause any problems. my first subaru...before i even knew how to change oil, ticked and i never did anything about it. drove it forever, just ignored the ticking.

could you have bad gas or water in the gas.....filling up just dilutes the bad stuff enough that you don't notice? first i would try lots of whatever gas treatments you use to remove water. if you still had the old pump you could swap it on (eventhough it sprays) to see if the problem goes away.

replacing the oil pump isn't a bad idea. not doing that, replace the oil pump gasket (the mickey mouse one) and..this is an EA82 right, also has an o-ring as well and an oil pump seal behind the sprocket on the oil pump. don't neglect replacing any one of these three items. the ticking can cause bad mileage - if the HLA is stuck it'll certainly decrease the performance of the motor. a compression check will isolate which one is the culprit and if you're showing zero compression, then that could be contributing to your bad gas mileage. i'd start with just replacing all the oil pump gaskets/seals/o-rings right now, move on from there. i wouldn't personally stretch any springs, but i've never had to do that. go with ATF/MMO after the oil pump reseal.

guess you already have it figured out, but no need for a full on rebuilt or headgaskets for a frozen cam. just replace the cam. can you tell if the bearing surfaces in the tower are scored? best to know for sure what happened before slapping new stuff on there and having it seize as well. i'd want to know that the cam seized and that it wasn't starved for oil. if it was starved for oil because that journal is clogged then a newly installed cam may end up doing the same thing. so let us know how the inspection of the old part turned out. post in the marketplace for this part.

i just posted about the CA/nonCA stuff in that other thread, go check it out. basically....there are no differences now. the latest revision of the nonCA spec belt is really the CA spec belt.

oil pump backing plate bolts need it if you can get them off. no others.

nice job using the search function.... i'm not familiar with your exact car, but i'll try to help. the rear support (sometimes called the mustache bar) that the diff bolts into typically isn't very stiff material. once the diff bolts are out, it has a good bit of play in it and you'll be able to push/pull it a good bit. push the diff forward, rear support back. just be careful so the diff doesn't pop out and fall on you. as a last resort if you needed more room to play with, just unbolt the carrier that holds the driveshaft from the trans under the car. don't unbolt the driveshaft itself, just whatever holds it to the underbody, typically a center carrier support that's only 2 bolts. remove those two bolts and the driveshaft will slide out of the transmission and give you all the room in the world to more it around....by only removing what is usually 2 14mm bolts (not familiar with the specifics of your model though). and the exhaust has always been avoidable by me, just move it a little if it's in the way of the driveshaft. you might not have to do this, just a last resort that only requires removing two bolts. i've definitely dropped a diff by unbolting those two bolts you speak of, so it might be that simple. then there's usually one bolt above the diff as well that needs to be removed. it's usually a 22 or 24 mm bolt on the drivers side with a 17 mm nut on the passengers side and the bolt will only slide through one way, so if it doesn't seem like it wants to go it, install it from the other side. each model is different so this probalby isn't exactly true in your case. with high mileage/age look at the rear differential bushing. they crack/break after awhile and while you have it apart/off is a good time to replace it if needed. i replaced mine a couple weeks ago at 220,000 miles. it was cracked all the way through, the rubber bushing.

they are the same belts now. if you order the non-cal spec belt you will still receive the cal-spec belt. in other words they are the same. the non-cal belt part number is a newer part number than it was when it was first available...there's like one number different indicating a "revision" to the original part. the only revision is that it is now the same belt as the cal-spec belt. the only thing you want to make sure of is that you're not getting what they call "new old stock", which is older parts that are still brand new, never used. but they are the old part numbers. it is still debatable whether those older belts were even any different, but best to just get the new ones. i think you'd have a tough time finding a new old stock timing belt anyway. that kind of stuff ends up on ebay on occassion.

okay...what i said was for the 2.2....but all of the above information still applies to your motor except that you should have everything replaced right now. if any of the pulleys are tight and feel like new then they are retaining the grease and no need to replace. i'd say roughly 50 percent of the pulleys need replacing...obviously that varies wildly dependent on a zillion things and mileage but in general....some need replacing and others are perfectly fine. as a side note - timing belt failure does not require replacement of the car or even the motor. only requires a good mechanic. a friend of mine just fixed the valves in the head of a broken timing belt 2.5 about a month ago. it's not that horrible of a job...the only hard part is finding an honest mechanic willing to pull the heads and fix it. most likely will see bent valves, pistons should be fine. replace the valves and be on your way, much better than replacing the motor or the car. and if done right you've got a great motor ready for another couple hundred thousand miles.

yours is a non-interference motor so if the timing belt (or an associated pulley) did happen to break it would not hurt the motor. so in those terms it's not as critical to replace pulleys as the 1997 and up motors. the ideal situation is to replace the belt, water pump, oil pump seals, all the pulleys and tensioner and the cam seals. that's the short answer...here's the long answer..... this is a mileage dependent question. over 60,000 miles and the water pump and pulleys should be changed in my oppinion. at or before 60,000 and you could hold off until the 120,000 mile point for the next timing belt to do the water pump and pulleys. but you should inspect all pulleys while it's apart...more on that below.... any pulley that has a bearing go out on it will cause the timing belt to fail very quickly. in my experience the tensioner actually seems to degrade less than the other pulleys, particularly the cogged sprocket pulley (the only one with teeth, the others are followers and have smooth surfaces for the back of the belt to ride on). that one always seems to be too loose (lack of grease in the bearings). blindly replacing the tensioner is not the way to go, it should be checked (just spin it, it's very easy to test as explained below). as well as the other pulleys should all be removed and inspected as well. only takes a couple minutes. on 1997 and newer soobs i use only subaru parts since the motors can experience damage due to a broken belt. on pre-97 models with the non-interference motors you can get away with aftermarket parts if you really want to, though OEM is still the best route for this stuff. it's a big job and not a good area to cut corners on , so it is dependent on your financial attitude towards car maintenance. if you want the best of both worlds....not spending loads of money on all new pulleys then the best method is to replace only the pulleys that don't feel good. stop by a dealer and ask to have any timing belt pulley and feel how tight it spins, they don't spin very much at all due to all the grease packed in the bearing. this is how it should feel. one or more of your pulleys will likely be very loose, spin it and it may be loud or it will spin for a long time and not feel tight at all. you will want to replace any pulley that sounds/feels like this. any pulley you install or leave in the motor should feel tight and have no noise to it at all. if the pulley isn't noisey and is tight then it has adequate grease and there is no need to replace it. they sell timing belt kits on ebay for under 200 bucks i believe that includes the belt and all the pulleys/tensioner. they are NOT OEM subaru parts though. but again, you don't necessarily need every pulley just the ones that are described like i mentioned above. if you're resourceful you can even have the pulley bearings replaced by a machine shop. it'll cost 20-50 dollar per pulley to have that done. they may even be able to re-grease them if they aren't sealed bearings but i'm not sure about that. the bearings though can be replaced for sure, but it'll take a machine shop press to do it....unless you're really good. and sourcing the bearings is annoying as well if you've never done it before. easier to just buy the pulleys you need. if time is an issue it would be a good idea to have one of each pulley in hand and install only the ones that are as described above and then return the others that you didn't need. oil pump seals and cam seals should always be done, they are cheap.

i was afraid the CD player was toast, guess i'll source another. i hoped i was overlooking something. thanks guys...thanks john!

you can check out tirerack.com as well, they sell complete sets of snow tires on steel wheels delivered to your door. super cheap too compared to most shops.

this is all subaru equipment, nothing aftermarket. removed my tape player from the 97 OBS and installed the 6 disk changer/tape deck from a newish subaru. radio and tape deck work fine. when i press LOAD, eject (the arrow button the upper right) or CD - nothing happens?can't get a CD into the thing. anyone that has one of these explain to me how this thing works? i noticed on the back there were two plug-in connections on the new cd changer radio. but my OBS only had one plug-in to the old tape deck/stereo. what is that for, is that my problem?

trim pieces are annoying, no way to tell if/where screws or clips reside. got the two screws and the cupholder out and the 4 screws under the trim piece. but i can't get that trim piece off....is it clipped in? i feel like it's about to break if i pry or pull on it any more. how many screws to pull the stereo so i can install the new one? help?

don't think it's tire related. old tires did it, then new tires installed and it still did it. the DEALER asked you if outbacks typically do this? i'm confused why a dealer is asking you what their own brand does? 10,000 miles...isn't this still under warranty? when they do the alignments is everything in spec, are they needing to do major adjustments when doing the alignments? a 10,000 mile car should not need an aligment. i never get my car aligned, it's merely a way for them to make $$$$. 220,000 miles and if mine was ever aligned it was 100,000 miles ago and i don't think it was since i've owned it (for 120,000 miles). i buy new tires and go, i rotate them often and so long as they keep wearing evenly i'll never get an alignment. have they checked the ball joints and tie rod ends? i suspect they would know those are bad when tey do the alignment. the front control arm could also be slightly bent. they are very easy to replace but a dealer will absolutely rape you for something like that. a car that's been slid into a curb or run into somethign with the front wheel can sustain damage to the control arm, typically it'll be bent and can cause the problems you speak of. i would expect the car to pull or somethign but if it's small enough damage i might be able to imagine a scenario where it still drives fine but is off enough to wear unevenly. have them inspect the control arm on the side that is wearing unevenly. make sure it's not bent....and they are looking for a very minor bend, so they better look closely. do a car fax check on the car and make sure it's never been wrecked. although then it would have a salvage title and you'd already know that probably. check all the body lines and make sure all the gaps are even (gap around front door and hood, etc should all be the same width all the way around). a wrecked and fixed car will have differences in gap width around the circumference. this is all to check for previous damage. it would likely show around the bad tire area - the fender, hood, door on that side.

fram sucks...or did and may still be sucking. i base this on old information and studies, but if the company couldn't do it right a few years ago, i'll stick with companies who did. i use WIX in mine and purolators on occassion. make sure to stay away from FRAM or rebranded FRAM - the ones that are FRAM but have some other company/logo on it. there are sites that dilineate that information. do a search on here, oil discussion aren't that uncommon.

if he had the work done at a dealer that he bought it from then contact the dealer that did the work. you'll also want to know the condition of the timing belts, timing belt pulleys (which should be replaced as well) and water pump. if he refuses to tell you which dealer i'd walk away from the deal. head gasket is a time consuming job and fairly involved. if you've done timing belts before then tear it up.

O2 sensor should be replaced. i wouldn't retain a 65,000 mile O2 sensor after pulling it out. yes it is possible to have sensor related drivability issues without triggering a CEL. car ran fine before they replaced the converter? be helpful to know what code it was flashing that made you take the car in to begin with. also, the O2 sensor may have been unplugged for the converter install, make sure they plugged it back in. older subaru's run perfectly fine (no noticeable difference) with the O2 sensor unplugged, i don't know if the new ones are the same so check to make sure they remember to plug it back in. if there was no problem....someone touched the car....then there was a problem....nearly 100 percent of the time it was "the item touched" causing the problem. since i'm the only one that works on my car, i know from experience!

i was looking to beef up braking as well and from the responses i got it seemed that drilled/slotted weren't necessarily the best upgrade. better pads seemed the way to go, but i'm not brake expert. they afraid to spend the loot or is that for real? i'm new to the brake upgrade scene and trying to learn. i'd like to know more about it. dont' see many dyno charts for brakes, so it's hard to compare actual data/results.

on the left side could be from the little hose underneath the alternator. that would be my first guess. remove the alternator and have a look at that hose. it's a very short piece of "C" shaped hose. check it very closely as you know, old hoses/clamps are difficult to find leaks in when they first start. be careful trying to installing regular straight hose here, i've gotten it to work but just cutting to length is not a good idea as it's such a tight curve that straight hose will crease trying to bend it that much. forget how i got mine to work, but it wasn't that tricky. removing/installing alternator can damage this hose (unlikey, but can), just the belt alone shouldn't cause any damage to it. there is also the thermostat housing, look for wetness underneath. a small thermstat housing leak is very hard to see unless you look very closely and there's not much room to do that, the range of sight under the thermostat is very tight, have to be just the right level above the radiator to see under there far enough to pick out a small leak. but is easy to see under the car. there's also the hose at the thermostat, the little guy, but that should be obvious if that one is leaking. also, did you add any antifreeze recently for any reason? the spark plugs each have a drain hole that feeds through behind the cover and down the front of the motor and eventually comes out under the timing belt covers where you mentioned. so if antifreeze was spilled down the plug holes, it might wind up down there.

probably not an issue, fairly common conditions and the manual speaks of it as well as mentioned above. if the oil pump is leaking then it should be resealed at some point.

this post should be deleted/restarted. lots of replies confusing mph and kph. if he originally stated 76 mph noone would have noticed.

i wouldn't worry about the trans, i haven't heard of many problems at all involving transmissions on subaru's of any era. most complaints on the boards i frequent involved the OLD school 3 speed auto back in the 80's, other than that most of the transmissions are very robust with the exception of the SVX, and those mostly go out due to heat, a trans cooler is their friend. i consider low mileage subaru motors very reliable. if he lets you check it out, drain the trans fluid and inspect the plug/fluid. look for build up. doubt you'll find anything.