idosubaru

that's more than enough for a great rig. i'd get a legacy wagon - more room and better car all around. 4EAT automatics found in legacys and outbacks are very robust. no clutch maintenance and warn synchro's and input shaft bearings make it a stretch to call manuals more reliable. for $2,000 - $3,000 around here you can get into a 2000+ Outback needing work...or not really much of anything big...easily. 2.5 liter 4 cylinder engines (EJ25's) have gobs of headgasket issues from their inception in 1996 all the way to 2009, they are easily found with blown headgaskets or bad blocks (bearings due to prior overheating from aforementioned headgasket issues). i'd look for one needing headgasket repairs and go from there, should easily find one from $1,000 - $3,000 needing headgaskets. resurface the heads, get EJ25 turbo headgaskets and add Subaru's coolant conditioner required for all EJ25 engines. add a timing kit, water pump, valve cover gaskets, and you've got a reliable 100,000 miles for not much money really, well under the dollars you mentioned. the 2.5 will be easy to find cheap and easy to repair reliably too. you can do an EJ22 swap (they are plug and play into an EJ25 2.5 liter vehicle) for better reliability and gas mileage but you might want the extra power of the 2.5 liter engine over the 2.2 with hauling, camping, gear, mountains, and coming from a beastly SUV where you're going to dislike whatever engine you get in a Subaru.

chuck went to a WVU student who now lives in colorado. any inclination on it being: front/center/back of vehicle? right/left? low/high? does it sound like it could be the starter being cranked while the engine is running? but maybe the starter is a little loose, sloppy, not retracting fully or moving under acceleration..then gets forced back after contact? that's a random guess. starts fine with no noise?

hey mike! has the engine or trans ever been out or any major work done? very odd that it's only while shifting, that's interesting. air pressure changes due to shifting pushing out somewhere sounds plausible...the muffler like he said, not sure if it could happen at the intake, vacuum lines, or not too? fluid levels are good I assume? A Subaru auto trans low on ATF will make chirping noises so i'd assume one partially low could chirp only under load/acceleration? there's a plate underneath the transmission bellhousing. when they are loose or bent...or both...the torque converter will graze the plate only at high RPM's/acceleration. i wouldn't anticipate it only happening on a shift though.

LOL thanks for saving me the hassle, not worth that, i'm not doing that again! wow...pull the entire dash for one relay....that's great. i wouldn't even trust it being there being an oddball one year 99 -with early body style but later gen motor and other stuff.

buy an M10 x 1.25 bolt and cut it to length? chase the threads with a die or if it's clean enough and you have some small enough files you can work it that way. auto parts stores have M10 x 1.25 exhaust studs, would they not work? the auto parts stores i went to that have a large selection will have M10 x 1.25 exhaust studs, they unfortunately have a "band" in the middle, the threads aren't continuous..which has always seemed odd. but anyway, it's not mid-way, one side has more threads than the other and it'll only fit "one way" into EA82, ER27, and EJ heads, but they work. use those, or cut those to work as well?

i'm going to swap out all my brake lights in the rear. there are threads where someone swapped (working) bulbs and got rid of this code. easy enough to try. didn't see anything on hydraulic unit, unbolted it from the car, twisted it all around, disconnected connectors....internal if it's there, have to start unscrewing stuff. who knows but there's no easy access like some of the other ones i've seen. oh no, by the glove box like that impossible to get to door lock timer !(($*($!!!!, i will go without ABS before i torture myself again. my 96 still has randomly operating door locks because that thing is impossible to get out. lol well, maybe a relay is easier.

porc - along time ago i know but how did you test for resistance? pull the ABS connector out and just check between that pin and the ground on the vehicle? can you check between there and any ground or it has to be a certain ground? my closest ground wire on this 1999 seems to be on the passengers side frame rail right next to the ABS pump, the strap goes from there to the ABS harness wiring...so i guess i should use that one. oh yeah - the 2000 models are a little different and moved the power steering reservoir and stuff. i already cleaned the connection and ground and no dice...i should test it next.

if it's loosing refrigerant, which it probably is if you had to charge it, then be sure to replace the two orings on the compressor next time it's low. those two orings fail all the time and the others basically never do. so you got a really, really good shot at fixing the leak by replacing two really cheap orings that take like 20 minutes or less. very easy. i guess it's due to engine heat and vibrations due to the a/c compressor itself and being right on top the motor. as soon as you remove them you'll see how hard and brittle they are. all the others are usually still soft and maleable. i replace these things all the time. here's a write up about it on my 2002....the 1996 won't be much different, i just did the exact same compressor, was really easy. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/127980-diy-ac-air-conditioning-leak-refrigerant-repair-for-5-or-less15-m/

measure it yourself. tell her to run the a/c every day when it's hot. then where there's a cool snap, quit using it and compare gas mileage. or keep track for one month now and one month in the fall before fuel mixes change. cool weather should come soon enough for you NE'ers. run the A/C, it's a negligible difference in gas mileage. i'm active and healthy but get severe headaches and migraines if i loose too much water, and i'm generally hot natured, so while i can tolerate heat just fine i know better and will pay for it the next day. so i often run the a/c when i don't necessarily want or feel like i need to. the effect on gas mileage is dependent on quite a few things. the lighter you are on the gas pedal and the less labor heavy your driving needs are (heavy loads, towing, driving in mountains, sitting at idle, accelerating a lot, cruise control useage, etc), the less the a/c effects mileage. there's a lot of variables, but yeah i'd expect a small load on the engine in general. and then there is vehicle condition too.....which varies considerably on a 15+ year old car, even two that are running great. charging your phone puts a small load on the engine, putting weight in your trunk puts a small load in your engine. keep track of mileage and find out for your given vehicle in other words i've had a/c basically have no effect at all when driving all highway miles at 60 mph for an entire trip. i've also had it knock down mileage when it causes the car to downshift frequently on every mountain grade....

thanks guys. the steering wheel being out of whack probably made it hard to get a good starting point. readjusted today and all seems to be in spec now for toe and the steering wheel is aligned. oddly the steering wheel was a few degrees off before i started this and had been for awhile since the ujoint replacement, and after aligning was dead on so i never had to adjust that....weird. will plan on checking camber, though i don't know how to do that at home, but can't be that hard. probably should check the toe one more time with all this back and forth and steering wheel off and make sure the suspension is all settled though i don't see toe moving or settling much.

When the codes are cleared 52 is the first (and only so far) code to come back, and it comes back immediately. "52 motor relay open circuit/ motor relay ON failure/ abnormal motor" where is the relay for the ABS pump? It doesn't appear on the pump, i unbolted it and disconnected the wiring harness.....didn't see anything.

can you clean them like he just said? i've done it a few times and it works great.

ground, no improvement. anyone know for sure where the controller is? 98 and 2000 FSM (i don't have 99) the controller appears integrated into the hydraulic unit. calls it the ABSC&HU (ABS Controller and Hydraulic Unit) in both. there is a 99 NHTSA and bulletin regarding replacing the ABS controller....maybe that's the deal? i started a new thread to track down how to find the details of those reports...diagnostics/symptoms maybe. google was scarce.

Is it possible to find out, or are there, full length descriptions of these NHSTA reports and TSB's? NHTSA 10002989 TSB 063103 Summary of the bulletin says: REPLACEMENT OF THE ELECTRONIC CONTROL UNIT (ECU) FOR ANTI-LOCK BRAKE SYSTEM (ABS) REPAIR. *TT UPDATE. *TT Is there more than that...diagnostics, symptoms?

ha ha! easy fix FTW! always check your own modifications and work first. lots of issues come from stuff like this, i've done it countless times....maybe even today!!

it was probably the leaking gaskets that were causing the misfires which initiated the coil and plugs to be replaced? either way - what they said - i'd replace them now, probably going to slowly leak again. the spark plug tube gaskets really suck on these and for some reason aren't great at making high mileages. of course you can always try and wait it out if that's your bent, you'll get misfires to tell you when it's bad again.

yes, that will be a MAP instead of MAF (like your 97) engine. so the wiring and air sensing is all different. basically you want to migrate the wiring harness from the 97 intake onto the newer engine. Gloyale has commented numerous times on doing a Phase I - Phase II swap - but i can't recall which direction (I into a II or II into a I). he said the main issue is with idle control. swapping harnesses gets you a car that won't idle so just step on the gas. find his posts about it for direct info.

link to resurfacing the heads yourself, it's super easy and quick, i save so much time just running to a machine shop and back now: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/122588-diy-head-resurfacing-or-post-apocalyptic-machine-shop-techniques/ these heads never warp or crack so testing is pointless.

lifting the engine a couple inches only requires removing two 14mm nuts and the bolt for the top pitch stopper. did this twice the other day and it comes up with those 3 fasteners only. do that and they're not hard to do in the vehicle at all. very easy. in your case - remove everything you're going to remove first for the headgaskets/water pump job anyway - intake, radiator hoses, a/c. then lift it up. not sure if this helps with engine clearance or not but i recall unbolting the rear trans mount too (it's only 2 or 4 of the same bolt, very easy) in order for the engine to move, but i can't recall why i did or how much, if any, extra room it gives you. might need to support it at that point. reuse the headbolts - says Subaru (and everyone else who does tons of Subarus). if you only loosened one side you could just replace that one side. also agreed, i'd go with aftermarket headgaskets on an EJ22 if it's good quality as he just verified. the EJ22's are very robust and forgiving. i would resurface

fairly common for those bolts and bushings to seize unfortunately, there's a couple threads about it. some folks saw sawzall and others say there isn't enough room...i think a sawzall would be fine and i have one of these to do on my daily driver as well, same deal - rusted together. already bought the parts, just haven't started because i don't want any down time on this car and not sure how long it'll take.

got it, i'll check it tomorrow if weather cooperates. i've put lots of miles on it since replacing these parts, drives perfectly fine, but tires are wearing on the inside edge.

Fairtax - weird, that does sound like it's the case. thanks. confusing that i drove the car, drifted to a stop while driving dead straight, i made sure to do that. i guess it just drifted a tiny amount or was pulling. at least it's super easy to adjust, i'll look at the ujoint. technically speaking the ujoint placement doesn't matter - a car can be perfectly aligned regardless of how the steering wheel or ujoint is oriented. but i guess the steering wheel being aligned gives you the dead center to work off of? so how would one do an alignment on a vehicle that has the steering column/wheel/swapped, etc and can't use that as a "centering" marker?

Can't I turn the steering wheel to gain more threads for alignment? I only need like 5mm so it would be a miniscule amount, wish I would have thought of that while i was doing it. Come to think of it - each wheel needed turned to "the left", the same way and approx the same amount - suggesting it has drifted off from prior alignments, work, owners, etc...i'll bet that's what it is. before doing that, i'll pry once more with a large bar to check bushings. replaced brakes, axle, steering rack boots, and steering rack ujoint with car on ground, so no way for rack to move. ride and handling are fine.

1999 Subaru legacy - all bushings, control arm, strut seem fine. the nut is basically all the way towards the inner part of the vehicle and out of threads on the inner tie rod for adjustment. i'll have to check one more time but i think i'll need more to get it in specifications. passengers side is fine.

you're correct on the mount on the trailing arm. the difference probably lies up top where the wagon and sedan are different due to the rear cargo area and inner wheel wells.