idosubaru

need to find out if you're loosing fluid. sounds like you've done a good check so far - if you're loosing coolant then you need to keep an eye on that. are you *really* loosing it? are you consistently adding coolant? if so then you're loosing it somewhere. need to find out where - a leak. there are multiple hoses, radiator caps, radiator, hoses, clamps, water pump, etc - need to find where it's leaking. or it could be leaking internally but doesn't sound like it given the smoking issues! nicorrette?

Subaru ECU's rarely fail and aren't wear items, so while it's possible it's far less likely than many other things so i wouldn't start guessing there. although if you have extra parts lying around they aren't hard to swap out. first thing is how is the basic tune up of this car: plugs and wires? are they Subaru OEM and how old/miles? have the valves ever been adjusted? timing belt condition - pulleys/tensioner all original? i would "guess" TPS or coil pack. both easy to swap out with another used one. neither fail enough to warrant the cost of new (particularly TPS). folks on the subaruxt.com forum have cleaned their TPS by taking it apart and cleaning the contacts and noted significantly smoother acceleration, etc. it's not meant to be disassembled though so most people don't do it. fuel pressure regulator/fuel injectors come to mind too but i wouldn't expect those to be as RPM driven as you're describing.

that's the clutch fork (i think i'm seeing that in the pic). it's either vibrating against the slave cylinder or a clutch throw out bearing is out of grease. one is benign the other means an imminent clutch job.

subaru rear differentials very rarely fail. is there any fluid in the diff? my guess, without knowing much of anything obviously is that it's a wheel bearing. they sound central while you're driving and only if you sit in the rear trunk area do they reveal which side they might be related too. subaru wheel bearings often don't exhibit typical bearing failure issues too - like play in the wheel, etc. i've seen failed bearings that make no noise when you turn them by hand and feel perfectly tight. once removed and disassembled though it's obvious. maybe it's bad, just make sure it's not something more common like a wheel bearing. i would have someone ride in the back and listen to see if the noise is center, left, or right. as far as AWD - not sure how the push button one's work over there, but you are correct in thinking "locked" 4WD, if that's how this one works (like the older gen stuff), should not be used except offroad, snow, mud, grass, etc. otherwise you'll have torque bind.

it'll also depend on if it's just a vibration issue - something shaking/moving, or if it's an actual rhythmic bearing like sound. does it go away just by "holding" that part or by actually pushing on it? holding it just keeps it from vibrating, pushing on it actually changes the load to other parts and means something different.

thanks Tom, i'm not comfortable with electrical/ignition. okay - key in RUN makes the ECU/fuel/spark plugs all fire up when the starter gets going? now that makes sense, i wasn't sure how that stuff got fired up. jump the starter - 12 volts to the spade terminal (for the solenoid) right? Leaving for a week and a half in an hour, I'll finish this up when I get back as it's one of my two daily drivers.

not a big deal. i've also put 50,000 miles on torn front cv boots a bunch of times and 100,000 miles on the rears. i dont' recommend it, i'm just saying you have time. offroad, dirt, sand, and harsh winter stuff (like the coal fragments they throw in the mountains of WV will eat axles alive) will wear them quickly though. otherwise once you start hearing noise/feeling vibration then that's an immediate sign you need to do something - but in my experience that usually takes a long time. sometimes just a few thousand miles, but usually 10's of thousands of miles for normal daily driver duty vehicles. i drove to colorado and back (4,000 miles) with my front boots torn. we were off roading and it was vibrating like crazy due to the loss of grease, i was stuffing grease in by hand to get back the 2,000 miles home. when i did, i rebooted both boots and they've been fine ever since. so yeah - the original subaru axles are very robust. i don't recommend that, i'm just saying you have plenty of time to plan a proper repair. *** be SURE to have your existing axles rebooted. do not let anyone replace the axle. aftermarket axles are terribly unreliable and cause lots of issues (you can find dozens of threads here about it). rebooting the original Subaru axles is the way to go.

clutch is probably shot. there's a really good recent thread about the clutch and shimming it out to make up for wear. like i think less than a week old, i'd find that thread and read it.

yep, never seen it any other way, always thought that second step was kind of hokey.....don't like second guessing/questionable stuff happening then!

cut the inner boot off. only a few millimeters inside the cup is a circular c-clip. pry it out with a flat headed screw driver. it's retained in a groove so it's hard to see, particularly with all that messy grease in there - but it's there. look for the ridge, clean the grease out first if you still can't find it. there's no trick or magic, you just need to see it which is hard with boot, grease, dirt in they way. once you pry that circlip out (it literally takes like 2 seconds - wear goggles or protect your eyes in case it springs out), the joint slides right out o of the cup. be ready to keep the 3 rings on the axle when you pull it out - they're going to fall off. they only install one way, so you need to look at the shape of them and be sure to keep track of them so you install them properly. the larger diameter sits closest to the axle so to speak. clean the end of the axle off to reveal the snap ring. best to use an appropriate tool to remove the snap ring in case you re-use it. i often find the axle boots kits don't have the right sized clips in them so i'm reusing the original clips....which i would have left in place if the axle boots didnt' rip so i'm fine reusing them. but don't want to bend them up removing them without actual snap ring pliers. then the end slides off. now you're ready to install both boots from that end.

i don't run with timing covers installed so guess i would have possibly avoided this? you'll have to remove the accessory belts, crank pulley, timing covers, and then remove the timing belt to get it back in time.

the inner side joint is easier to disassemble and then you can slide the new outer boot on all the way along the shaft length. if the inner boot has any age to it at all i'd just replace it now while it's off, i seem to be replacing a lot of the inners - i've done 4 legacy boots (1997-2003) in the past couple weeks. you already have the boot now but for next time, the newer style inner boots (around 2000 or 2001) have more convolutions and last much longer. i've swapped axles (meaning a 2001 will install into your car), but haven't checked yet if you can install the newer style boots onto older style axles.

that car has been in an accident of some sort. lines don't line up, bumper gap from left to right is different. but - i like buying cars with small issues. if it was wrecked, the price is usually much lower and not a big deal if it was only cosmetic body panels replaced and nothing structural. you'd want to look it over to see how bad the accident was and how well it was repaired thought. like i mentioned/predicted in my first reply you're looking at all DOHC EJ25's - the worst engine. not a big deal but shop smartly and realize there is a risk. having the head gaskets replaced is not a guarantee...it's a good bet, but still not perfect. i picked up a 58,000 mile legacy last year with a blown block (seized bearings) that had headgaskets replaced by the dealer under warranty at only 30,000 miles. that's not uncommon. not bad engines, but by subaru standards they're probably bottom of the barrel in terms of reliability. i don't even know how many blown DOHC motors i've bought, i can literally find multiple per week for sale with blown motors. you can usually get them really cheap - so that's why i recommend buying one blown and then having it repaired. EJ22's and DOHC EJ25's are directly interchangeable so my favorite move is to buy a blown EJ25 car and install the more reliable EJ22 in it's place. you get all the creature comforts and niceities of the EJ25 vehicles but with EJ22 reliability. lots of information on here if you're interested. do you just want me to build you a car? i'll get an OBW and drop an EJ22 in it for you? i might be traveling to IN in the next week or two funny enough. got a 2003 Legacy for sale, want it?

indeed that's what mine does, except mine isnt' "out of limits" like yours where i twist it back and it change. but still really similar, probably same stuff failing in slightly different ways. how sure are you it's the ignition? i'm least familiar with electrical stuff like this. is there any way to test, quick work around to verify, or alternate way to start the car for now? swapping ignitions is really annoying, don't look forward to doing that.

what does PITA install mean? could any of that be related or it was just a nightmare job?

EJ25's (2.5 liter) have significant head gaskets issues. Particularly the ones that are probably in that price range (1996-1999). personally i'd buy one with bad headgaskets/motor cheap and have it properly fixed. $1,500 for a car and $3,500 for a new or resealed motor puts you at $5,000 with a new motor. they aren't hard to find like that, i've bought a ton of them. newer subarus (1997 and up EJ22, or 2.2 liter) and all 2.5 liters (EJ25), unlike your old sedan are all interference motors. so if the timing belt breaks the engine will experience bent valves. i'd save aside some money to have a proper timing belt job done on it. at the age/miles you'll be buying yo'ull want all new pulleys, tensioner, and belt. they can also replace any wet seals (cam, crank, oil pump) while the belt is off, easy access at that point. the best bet for reliability is to find a 1995-2001 Legacy wagon with a 2.2 liter engine, much more reliable engine and they end up being cheaper too since they're the lower end vehicles. but they're not as common and not nearly as nice so most folks prefer the nicer models with more options, leather, trim, stereo's, etc. you can get a 2.2 wagon and then upgrade it with nicer wheels, 6 disc in dash changer (plug and play interchange), and more. most of the parts are bolt on stuff so you can swap in other stuff. which would be easy becase a 2.2 liter wagon should be easy to buy in the $3,000 range, leaving you plenty of extra cash for a proper timing belt job and some options if you wanted to add any.

"daily driver" XT6 won't start. turns over a few times, then abruptly stops, lights on the dash go out at the same time it stops turning over. once warmed up this doesn't happen - but haven't been able to start it for awhile now, want my daily driver back. the abrupt stopping pretty much rules out fuel/spark issues i believe - with those it would at least keep turning. new starter, not the battery, no check engine light, timing belts are golden. no overheating, engine issues, liquid coming out the pipes so hopefully it's not hydrolocking.

that's not really a great option. the turbo EA engines really don't make that much more power actually than the non turbo's - but have tons more headaches. i'd rather keep the low powered loyale than get into a problem child EA82T. unfortunately that's one of the lower end subaru motors, it's got fairly bad track record for reliability, they blow up all the time. the headgasket can be done in the car easily. it's a nasty job and i consider these old cars not worth it personally. fix it - sell it to make enough money to buy an EJ cheap that needs some work! they can be reliable if everything is new - turbo, oil and coolant lines, fittings, hoses, clamps, seals, gaskets, etc - it's just a lot of effort to replace all of those little things on such an old and worthless vehicle. it can work if you want to do it and can be a nice ride, but it's not really all that ideal or an improvement over the loyale. in my opinion what you gain in power you loose in reliability/maintenance.

good, glad you found it, i wasn't trying to be a dork just didn't know how comfortable you were around this stuff. okay - so no pressure, that's a start. definitely won't come on like that. did you feel the orings? i would replace them for a couple of reasons. a/c orings stay clean and usually look fine, even a little glossy. if they're old then they're usually not as maleable as they should be for a good seal. they age and get tougher so to speak. new ones are pliable and seal better. at 15 years old, they're due. if someone else replaced them who knows if they're the right size or even a/c specific orings. otherwise yeah - just dump in a couple cans of refrigerant and see what happens. one 12 ounce can will easily get the compressor to cycle on, 2 will get it going fairly cold. if it's dead you most likely have a leak. you could get lucky though and just need to add a can every now and again, like once a summer or something...or never if you're really lucky! cross those fingers and add it! but maybe someone previously disconnected or drained it for some reason, who knows. if those cans don't hold then i'd go through and replace every oring you can easily access. compressors can leak too, not sure how common that is though, i've never personally seen that yet.

yep, normal. but i've always looked twice and thought it was odd too.

take note of how it failed when you remove it, i'd be interested to see if it was hose degradation, clamp induced, or clamp too loose or rusty. they have some tight bends in them but they can be replaced with non-formed generic transmission fluid hose. just make it a bit longer than the original so you can make wider bends.

a/c is driven by a serpentine belt. there's two of those on the front of the engine - a/c should be the "right most" - as facing the engine - or drivers side - belt driven component. i don't know how else to say it quickly, but if you can't find the a/c compressor i'd walk slowly through jumping into something like this. but i'm all about trying new things and attempting something once, this isn't that hard really. the simple way to see if it's holding any charge is just to press the valve under the cap down quickly. if it's dead and nothing comes out then there's no pressure. if it spews out then it's pressurized. that's the 2 second method of checking for pressure. don't get your head too close! just follow the two lines off the a/c and eventually you'll see a capped off port on each one - you can "press" the valves under there. you only charge through the low pressure side - but the cans/adapters will only fit that one port, not the other, so you can't really screw it up. you can google or look on ebay at subaru a/c compressors, get a feel for what they look like and then look at your engine too.

first hit on a google search gave this: http://www.sl-i.net/FORUM/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=13168&start=0 might want to plug around there a bit too.

where are you - aus? is that an aus engine? are the pinouts the same as in the US? you can swap Ej25 and EJ22 ECU's all day long. i swapped an EJ22 ECU into my 1996 EJ25 equipped legacy - plug and play, no difference at all. so this means, if this holds down there where you are, that an EJ22 pin out would do you just fine. the DOHC doesn't mean anything as far as EJ25/EJ22 goes, the computer doesn't know, it's only a mechanical difference - EJ25 and EJ22 both use one crank and one cam sensor (same part even!). over here a 1996-1998 EJ22 pin out would be identical to all DOHC EJ25 pin outs. just saying that in case an EJ22 pin out is easier to find.

yes - but that means you don't have a leak and would be quite silly to bother about opening it up in the first place. if it's leaking it should have little pressure, if at all. imagine a leaky balloon - you're window of opportunity of it to retain pressure while leaking is rather small. it's not much different here. if it's *low* on refrigerant then i'd just recharge it with some of the cans that have the leak sealer stuff in them. in that case then yes you do not want to open it up. you would need to describe your symptoms to determine what's going on.