idosubaru

4-6 years of daily driving is rather light use. what's your main concern - gas mileage, reliabiliy, cost of ownership, low maintenance? reliability and low maintenance, reduce your purchase price by a $1,000 or $2,000 and ask knowledgeable Subaru people what preventative maintenance to do based on that model/mileage. buying a new battery, alternator, and doing normal maintenance stuff - and a few model/year dependent items can bring a used car to nearly like-new reliability.

what he said: buy a blown EJ25 OBW from 1996 - 1999 and install a fresh EJ22 with new timing gear, seals, etc. that's the cheapest and most reliable 100,000 or 200,000 miles you can get. If you want newer buy an 05+ with leaking headgaskets and have it properly repaired: 1. install EJ25 turbo headgaskets, Six Star, or Fel Pro MLS 2. resurface the heads 3. install Subaru Coolant Conditioner Proper repair is about $2,000 Or buy whatever 4 cylinder you want and reduce your purchase price by $2,000 in case of HG issues later on. You have months or years to plan a repair, the 2000+ models dont' leave you stranded. they start leaking and gradually get worse.

those are great motors if you get one without headgasket issues. that's about the only engine issue they have. *** what is your assessment of the seller? i would walk or not largely based on them, not the car. but i find it rather easy to tell if someone is worth dealing with or not. they know if it's overheating/has headgasket symptoms or not - are they describing/telling the truth? test drive it at interstate speeds, look for fluctuating temp gauge or overheating, look for bubbles in the overflow. these HG's are way more complicated to repair than EJ engines. 100 timing chain cover bolts...on one that i did all but 3 of the front 57 needed chiseled out due to rust/stripping. the rear cover has 15 orings and 15 miles of sealant. i just finished an H6 headgasket on Sunday.

Issue appears resolved - no more overheating. I replaced the headgaskets and they left my house for Califonia, in Arizona now and no more overheating on the cross country trip.

Swapping plug and wire is a good idea to see if the misfire moves. have the valves ever been adjusted? how is the gas mileage? i wonder if fuel injectors could be hosed? how old is the timing belt? more diagnosis questions: how long as it been doing this? any recent engine work in the past year or two? is it completely random, always when it's first started, always when warm, always when coasting, always when going up hill, worse in winter/summer, worse when humid/raining, only when accelerating, etc?

"city driving" is highly variable - much depends what you mean by that. if it's "all city driving" or even most, then that's likely the issue. take it on an average distance trip at some point and take note what you get.

if they dealer offered for free - let them have a go at it. +1 if the finger nail catches it - probably won't come out. dealers routinely have a guy come to their lot and prep all their vehicles and they usually specialize in prepping paint, etc. you need to find one of those guys - they're subcontracted by the dealer though so it may be hard to get in touch with them or find out who they are.

Great job Steve! electrical is not my expertise so I'm clueless without seeing it in person and pouring over it 8 times...

thanks miles. hmmm, a differential averages the speed of two tires? some tire shops will install two new tires in a AWD Subaru - one front and the opposite side rear (let's assume non-LSD for the rest of this discussion, that's easy/obvious.) why do they install them opposite sides? if the front is on the left they install the rear on the right. is that just for traction then and not related to the differential activity? they could presumably install them both on the same side? what about installing one new tire up front instead of two? what happens then? i guess based on your description it will "average" the two and it'll not be the same as the rear....

Only one tire up front is driven in an open diff - is it usually the right or left? Or is it constantly changing? If you installed one mismatched tire up front - would the other side then become the driven tire most of the time because of propensity to bind?

Oh right, i hear you there. Not many left to choose from around here. I got my XT6 from a non-rust state for the same reason. So nice having a rust free vehicle - brakes, and suspension all easily come apart, it's crazy.

if you're on a budget the better option is to not replace the calipers. 1. if it's just the slides - clean them and properly grease them. 2. if a caliper is leaking - rebuild the leaking caliper. it's one seal, and a clipped in dust boot, super simple, $4.53: http://www.partsgeek.com/gbproducts/DC/405-05106823.html?utm_content=DN&utm_term=1996-2002+Subaru+Legacy+Caliper+Repair+Kit+Centric+Front+96-02+Subaru+Caliper+Repair+Kit+1998+2001&utm_source=google&utm_medium=ff&utm_campaign=PartsGeek+Google+Base&gclid=CLHRg5b9lMMCFQiEaQodUDIAuw to answer your question, yes - they swap if you swap the bracket, caliper, and rotor. all bolts right up.

+1 reuse headbolts Subaru turbo gasket, Six Star... Woah crack smoker - 500 sets of Fel Pro gaskets?! Fel Pro's illicit weird comments IMO - some say they have the Fuji stamp on them, MLS....others have different comments...I've certainly seen pictures of good looking Fel Pro's and have used them for the Ej22's and other Subaru's but not EJ25's or EZ's.

it's been about 10 years since the first set of Delta Cams that i installed, that car is still in use by a forum member here. the prevalence is low, it's an assumption either way. it'll be based on this thread or google...something. there are people with delta cams who have installed them, driven them a decade, moved on, and no longer use Subaru forums. there are large numbers of people who post their own issues and never reply to others like this one - an anecdotal thread is limited in it's ability to capture rare issues like this. if someone does report a failure, then you have to weigh whether it's an outlier or statistically significant with small time data points like this.

no i wasn't referring to the dual range transmissions. i was referring to FWD verses 4WD - you never stated what they were. if one is FWD (not 4WD is what i said - should have typed FWD i guess) - then reread that comment. some have that issue and some don't. easy anyway. i don't know dual range transmission pricing/availability - post in the parts wanted forum or search www.car-part.com if you're going through the effort to swap i'd get the "good" dual range - there are two variants, one with a much favorable low range over the other. if your "northeast" is anything like my northeast these older cars are largely unavailable and went the way of the dinosaur due to rust years ago. they're still around but not widely/readily available sometimes.

yes, axles are the same if they're all non-turbo vehicles. cross member - leave the rear transmission crossmember attached to respective trans and you've got the right crossmember. engine cross member is the same, nothing needs changed there.

use zipties instead of bolts - then you'll never have to worry about them rusting, stripping the heads due to rust, or stripping the inner inserts..spinny spin fun...

it can be done, just swap everything that's needed. trans, center console/shifter/instrument cluster, rear differential, driveshaft. if you're that capable - fix a car, flip it, make an extra thousand dollars for less work and then buy an MT loyale. everyone views time/money differently but you could come out with a MT loyale and making money for the same amount of work you're talking about. if it's not 4WD and you want to install a 4WD MT trans - some vehicles do and some don't - have the drilled out/threaded bosses for the driveshaft carrier bearings. but those two holes are easily drilled/tapped anyway.

+1, I have installed them, have installed them for others, and would run them again. They've been around a long time in the Subaru community, a google search will quickly show issues if any.

+1 alignment 1. have Subaru check and re-align it 2. if you don't feel confident in your Subaru dealers approach - go to a different dealer 3. get the alignment checked somewhere else..or heck ,just pay someone good to do it. it's not like it's expensive...annoying, but if it's that bad and a safety concerned I'd rather pick a good alignment shop who will likely be more precise than whoever the Subaru dealer uses.

is it leaking? leave it alone. i've never seen or heard of those black plugs leaking or being replaced or sold. if it's the half moons, then those come apart as the valve covers/heads are disassembled. those are just tapped out, covered with sealant.

definitely replace both those orings while you're at it. that rear passengers side one isn't that bad, you can easily get it too. although if it's dry - heck it's so easy to replace there's really no imminent need to replace. you know you can do those two bolts any day.

you can drive with binding somewhat - it's largely depending on use - it would be some complicated differential equation involving speed, exact roads, degrees of turn, arc, circumference, left, right.... best to just run the car in FWD: 1. install the FWD fuse - we can't tell you if it'll work - it might or it might not. often the FWD fuse won't work if the Duty C is borked, but you just have to try and see. the Duty C is in a sense what controls the FWD feature...so without that control you can't get FWD and the fuse doesn't work. but sometimes it can depending on the failure mode. 2. run it "locked' and disconnect the rear half of the driveshaft so you're in FWD. you don't say what year vehicle but an earlier EJ should have a two piece driveshaft - remove the rear half and then disconnect the Duty C but clipping the wire or just leaving it as-is if the solenoid has completely failed.

ah well, that's good to know, thanks. that sums up these things so far.

You have to buy the actual tensioner separate for the old style tensioners, the kits don't generally come with those. The newer style kits often and easily have the tensioner included with the kits. It's not a 2.5 or 2.2 difference. 2.5, 2.2, 1.8, 3.3 (SVX) tensioners are all identical, same thing. There are only two new gen tensioners from 1990 - 2009, old style is 1990-1997 and new style is 1997+. Yours is a 1995 and that is the correct kit. They never come with the tensioner - it's just the tensioner pulley. The good news is the old style tensioners are reliable - far more reliable than the new style which should be replaced every time. The bad news is they are getting old and yours has a quarter million miles... You have to buy it separate in the older style tensioners like you have. If you buy a new style tensioner bracket (or get one) you can use the new style tensioner. 3 bolts, swap tensioner brackets and then you can use the other style tensioner and get the kit...obviously to late for you to do that.