idosubaru

That's the norm now. Half the blame at least has to go on consumers in my opinion. I wish it was at least more honest and robust in the market place, but ita not. I'll just take note of how the market works and leverage that to my advantage. I'd Replace the belt and pulleys/tensioner. These belts are far more robust than older stuff and ray to let go without issue, not likely to fail but materials do degrade and idlers do seize as they run out of grease. Given your current usage youre going to do one timing belt change and theyre super easy, might as well do it now and avoid degraded pulley grease. It can be done in an hour, call it theee for a first timer. Yes it's interference. No need to replace water pumps but shops and dealers typically quote it for archaic reasons and consumers who regurgitate outfated ideas. I wouldn't run 10 year old tires. You can google it but old tires do blow as rubber doesn't age well. Most places say 5-7 years and I've seen it happen. One member here blew two tires within a couple hundred miles on a car that had few miles, was rarely driven but had tons of tread because he usually only drives it to Subaru functions. Maybe coincidence but all the old tire blow outs I've seen have been on the highway and I think in the summer. Clearly I'm gun shy having seen it happen a few times, prior to those incidents I didn't even pay attention to tire age, tread and cracking tells all. Brakes - you can simply have the offending rotor turned. I've done it multiple times. Pointless to do both. I'm not sure they're any better but it wouldn't surprise me if turned OEM rotors are better than most average aftermarket anyway. Or yeah just replace them, not like it's hard or expensive, I just turn them because it's easy for me. It may be anecdotal but given that new cars generally don't have rotor vibrations I think not - but Now that I've been replacing pad clips at least once and use sil glide brake grease I haven't had any rotor vibrations for a few years. I used to get at least one vibrating rotor every 2-3 years in my fleet.

I wouldn't preventatively do headgaskets on nearly any engine, but then again I avoid EJ25D's and EJ25's for the most part for my own vehicles. 99 Forester was Phase II EJ25, 1998 was EJ25D. EJ25's are frustrating particularly after this many years/miles.

Speaking of which - I have a bunch of new OEM remotes for your 2002 Subaru, they're not hard to find good working condition ones. In general dealer parts prices are astronomical after a few years on many items, some times not even available (like a part I look up this morning that's only 5 years older than yours), what you're describing is common. car buying americans have buying habits that create and sustain this market. If Americans didn't buy the way they do - the market couldn't sustain it - but it does. but it doesn't matter - it's just helpful to know this is an industry wide possibility and be a little resourceful - if you see a high price just look somewhere else. on another car the remote might be cheap but something else will be expensive...etc.

Grease pile hahaha! rust proofing. I wouldn't expect it to be exhaust related at only 50 miles unless it's some egregious failure or custom exhaust job which seem unlikely.

Im thinking it's the black box behind and to the upper right (passengers side) of the stereo in 2002 era H6's. Wedged on the side of the center stack.

No clue, hopefully someone knows. I'm sure you're aware of the last resort, mind numbing task of pulling the diff plug and use paint and counting to figure out the gear ratio.

the 4EAT trans is a stout piece, I wouldn't expect the FWD to be materially much, if any, different than the 4WD honestly. In my head they're one big batch of transmissions with a cap on the end for FWD or a rear extension housing for 4WD. the front diffs fail more than anything else and I don't think they're any different between FWD and 4WD. I'd be fine getting a FWD trans, slap a cooler on there if needed and run it.

i'm finding your description hard to follow, or it's just not like something I've heard. i'm not sure what you mean by concrete spacers and not sure about this: "I don't have a slow down or accelearation" does it do it more than once? if so - does steering or braking make it change? how about accerating or decelerating while the noise is happening? is it rythmic? left, right, or center (ride in the back/trunk with your head on the floor if you have to)? i like to narrow down center (extention housing, driveshaft, diff) or left/right (knuckle, brake, bearing, strut)

Have you tried prying with lots of leverage and seeing if the entire trans/engine assembly had much play?

ah yeah - so now we have two points: A. it's only one side. B. you think it's worse now than before. that sure seems to suggest there's an issue with something, but I'm not experienced to say anything more than random guesses. i would try to track down that cause or hear from some people with similar experiences before just assuming it's boot/axle related entirely.

32mm axle nut. 22mm crank pulley bolt. 60,000 miles belts. how long they're good for depends if they're cheap aftermarket, OEM, how old they are, how long they've been sitting...etc.. brake calipers will be 12 or 14mm bolts rotors aren't bolted on with the axle nut. they're not bolted on at all - originals will have a set screw that in the rusty areas needs a high quality impact driver or drill it out. but you don't need to replace the rear rotors, they routinely last the life of the vehicles, particularly rear rotors. even if they're rusty and gouged, just run them, it'll wear off.

If battery is good then it's really simple - you have an excessive draw. Just google how to test for draw. You'll find something is causing the draw to exceed 100mA. Measure the draw and disconnect the alternator and start pulling fuses until the draw dips below 100mA. Once you find the thing that's causing the draw- then you can narrow down what on that circuit is causing it. It's often something installed, fabricated, custom, non-working, or part with glitches. It's helpful to disconnect the trunk light and interior lights and XT automatic seat belts as they create a spike in draw every time you open the door/trunk which is common when diagnosing and troubleshooting.

Snow driving will depend entirely on local conditions. if roads are cleared well you're only concern is traction. If they don't then you need the clearance.

I would disconnect the heater element connector under the seat. You could also pull a fuse if it's not shared with other, or other necessary, components. Owners Manul in glove box will have a section on fuses and should show which one is for the heated seats.

when you install the new axle and it blows right way - are you driving bonkers or lightly? has it "always done this" - since you installed the latest lift/struts? it is generally true that 2" is good - but does't that depend what suspension is being used? if you're running a taller than average strut/spring combo then you can probably go less or if you're running a shorter than stock strut/spring then you can probably go more. maybe you're running a tall-ish strut/spring combo and the 2" is sending it over the edge. i would start a thread and ask specifically if one side blowing is indicative of anything? that sounds odd and worth finding out to me. OEM boots last longer than others, but if you've got a problem they're still probably temporary. those heavy duty axles never had much hope, it was a high risk gamble snake oil from the beginning.

Just install the covers with zip ties. Ask for covers here, eBay, Subaru - not hard to find. I've run without covers 100's of thousands of miles on many Subarus. But Choose wisely. If you're going to be plowing through stuff or a little reckless (raises hand) then yeah skip it or only do it if it's non interference. Ive seen objects, external and in the engine bay, push covers into belts. Loose belt covers riding on the belt. objects underneath (traffic cone and trash can) push covers into the belt. Maybe all would have happened anyway but I think not all of them. They hide oil leaks - most oil leaks are benign and ignored for some time on old leaky Subarus. but the rare one can saturate and break the belt quickly. But still the benefits outweigh the risks. I'll run without them for the zero labor bearing, seal and tensioner inspections and easy belt changes but I'm okay with the risks, no big deal to me.

It's Noninterference, your motor is fine (with 99%+ certainty) What side is failing and how? If the mechanic doesn't know Subarus or old ones then maybe he didn't install the belt correctly or inspect the pulleys properly. * post a picture of where/how the belt failed, underside and topnside of it. Teeth, heat, sheared, delaminated and we can maybe tell what's going on? 1. What belts were installed - used, new, what brand and how old? 2. Maybe something is causing it like a bad idler pulley - the bearings seize all the time in those. If you have original bearings they're about as reliable now as a flat tire.

Wow nice work and documentation.

Pull the valve covers and see if you can tell anything. HLA's can seize in a position, leaving room for issues. A stethoscope might help narrow down if it's in the front or rear cylinder on that side. A compression test might tell you something as well. The passengers side VC is rather easy to remove, unless they're relatively new it's worth considering if this is a good time to just replace the VCG's since they always leak at some point. It's so common I would suspect they've had to be replaced already.

if the cable ends are loose, corroded, dirty, or corrossion has crept up under the cable sheathing you'll have significant drops of voltage across some of those places mentioned.

baja turbo springs are said to be stiffer and give more rear support and 1/2" lift to an 00-04 OBW, so that's what I went with in my 02 OBW (same rear spring/strut set up as yours) i just use the simple bolt type hand held spring compressors - as far as subaru's go they're easy on 00-04 Outbacks. here's my differentiation: A. with air tools they're super easy. if they're not lined up - zip/realign/zip. B. only under threat of Mordor would I want to use them by hand

you're better off. i've found cheap subaru's end up costing no less than more expensive ones. it's better to shop on far more than just price.

replaced the alternator with what, another used alternator that's been sitting? clean battery posts clean and tighten battery cables with a charged battery check voltage: A. at the clean battery posts (not the cable end attached to the battery) B. at the atternator C. at the starter D. at the main fuse box see if your voltages are clean across multiple areas.

when you pull the heads or google images you'll see the pistons sticking way over the block deck. need thick gaskets.

i think it's said they're USB 2.0 which is only 500ma, get a dedicated charger that's rated higher. you could try making sure huge drains are off - like don't watch netflix and have your GPS talking at you while driving. try the same cable and device in another vehicle just to be sure.