idosubaru

I had one wheel lock up years ago. the ebrake mechanism on the caliper was stuck on. I pulled the cable off and worked the mechanism by hand over and over and it freed up. Boot and all looked good and no obvious issue and no rust. Maybe I got lucky, it never did it again.

knuckles yes, I think we've all used impreza brackets. i think the legacy brackets are the same as other legacy brackets and won't work. EJ knuckle, FWD impreza 242mm rotor and caliper bracket XT6 caliper and caliper slide pin

Yes, that's what you described before so the answer is the same - it's the axles. They're sloppy and vibrate on the trans stub shafts when the trans is loaded in drive with the TC spinning. aftermarket axles are trash and have a wide variety of issues, scrap them and get subaru.

I mean obviously you can get EJ axles - are you trying to stick to XT6 knuckles?

96 is exempt from the readiness monitors and will pass even if it says not ready which will fail later models. You got a good inspector who knew that. Cars like this can vary quite a bit based on local market dynamics. I’d say $1,500 roughy. If you wait long enough you can probably get $2k for it. If you want a quick sale probably closer to $1k.

Gotcha - I’ve stared at those bolts and hoped I never would have to touch them. Current ones don’t look rusty but you know that doesn’t always mean anything around the NE.

Can you get EJ knuckles? I also run EJ knuckles, axles, and XT6 brakes with imp brackets as well. Numbchux info on wheel seals is the only I’ve ever seen on EJ/ER wheel seal comparisons My current daily driver XT6 came with EJ axles and XT6 knuckles. two wheel bearings failed in 6 months and they seemed “tight”. maybe it was coincidence or because it sat a couple inches lower than stock, or it was the seals (don’t know what seals it had). I assumed the axles were the issue then lifted and converted it.

were they rusty/hard to loosen?

That vibration is due to aftermarket front axle(s). Get a used Subaru axle ($25), reboot it with Subaru boots, and that won't happen. Subaru axles last the life of the vehicle and should be rebooted, not replaced. 00-09 4 cylinders all have potential external headgasket leaks. 1. check for headgasket leaks underneath coolant and oil are possible. Google image search to get an idea where they leak/where to look. 2. find one that's already been replaced with Subaru gaskets and resurfaced heads. All 00-09 are due for new Subaru timing belt and should get a lower coged timing idler pulley as well (most likely to fail). If those fail they usually bend a lot of the valves, so best to ensure those are done. Other than that those are fairly predictable and make 200k without much fanfare. All things being equal the 00-04's are better than 05-09's. But living in the rust belt and being older makes it hard to make "all things being equal". Northeast = rust = remove and regrease all the caliper slide pins with Sil-Glyde or equivalent/better, check the exhaust for significant rust. I've got a 2009 manual legacy - 130,000 miles, new Subaru headgaskets, resurfaced heads, timing gear, brakes, new tires, $5k.

Yours came with 15” wheels? US XTs came with 13” and XT6s got 14s.

Remove the Onstar controller? It’s behind the center stereo/hvac stack tucked to the passengers side I think. I’ve removed them before 2003 Outback’s. How do you know it was an Onstar related wire you cut? Maybe it was something else? Are you able to disable the alarm at all, it sets again immediately? Or, if the wiring must be intact, get an FSM and find that harness/connector that you cut and repair it to normal configuration.

Thanks for the Subaru love Skip. I remember him citing people for run on sentences on the forum that were hard to follow and had too many details to keep track as it is a bit more difficult to follow on the internet on half moon cloudy days during the spring. Similarly I also remember him asking people. To use more spacing between thoughts. Use more breaks to space things out and make it simpler to follow. Ive taken a lot of his grammatical advice and think of him when I hit “enter”, but mostly I appreciate his Subaru help and early adopter of the community attitude. Very cool. Cheers Skip

Great, good job boss!

Epoxy them back together. Buy new or used. Lots of options. drive it like that until you get covers I run without covers all the time, but not on interference engines. For the time, cost and labor of bent valves it’s penny wise dollar dumb for most people. Debris and spills could be problematic. the pulleys rust out here which means 4 rusty pulleys churning against the tbelt. Maybe benign but I’ll pass on interference engines

Ah is that a reason older subarus get stolen more frequently then i would expect?

All good - Just drop it in and run it. you’ll get a check engine light for EGR stuff, but they run perfectly fine and great gas mileage. You can move some vacuum lines around to supply the EGR with vacuum, I think that’s how it goes,to get rid of the check engine lights if you need too.

Sounds fair enough to me, rust free brats arent' exactly falling out of the sky. if a rust free one showed up here for $700 i'd probably take it.

Napa machine shop work, scored egregiously below limits: there's no machine in my county, dealers use a NAPA in an adjacent county so I tried it:

Headgaskets. Resurface the heads, clean the block face, lubricate the headbolts, and install Subaru headgaskets. The head bolts are all external, these are one of the easiest subaru headgaskets to do. Verify for sure you don't have any leaks - a pressure test of the cooling system or leak down test might show it. Or combustion gas test. It's a gasket. Run one hot enough and any engine ever made can blow a headgasket - no manufacturer can avoid physics. The notion that "EJ22s don't blow headgaskets" is just making a point that they are solid engines. In stock form, off the factory floor, they do not have a propensity to blow headgaskets without a causative reason. You can expect nearly 100% of brand new EJ22's to make 150,000 miles without headgasket issues. EJ25's and EZ engines have a certain percentage of failures, some at low mileages. But they're not brand new any more or even close to it. I'm a big EJ22 fan but now that they're a quarter century old with lower availability, often unknown histories, low values prompting worse maintenance/more owners, the condition of any one particular EJ22 is much less certain.

crack. good luck. towed by accident?

your hunch might be right, they appeared superceded when i looked, but I've never tried hard.

100's of thousands like yours have made it 20+ years without issues, take a deep breath. occasionally they crack. if you're worried about it buy a brand new one that has never been overheated, seen road chemicals, UV, or much O2 exposure - they're only $15 or maybe google a metal one. https://www.subaruparts.com/oem-parts/subaru-thermostat-housing-11060aa071

yes they're all plastic. yes they can seem to not quite sit perfectly like a jigsaw puzzle.

do it. that's the first thing i'd check. EA/ER belt systems aren't the most robust in stock form, aftermarket parts can fail, and an event like you're describing can easily jump time. both side covers have 3 10mm bolts and come off in just a couple minutes very easily. takes very little time to pull those and check timing.

Check the timing belt alignment marks.