idosubaru

i have an 02 OBW with no sound from the rear speakers either. it has the McIntosch system so it's different than yours, but it's definitely possible for both to be sound-less. I haven't tried tracking it down yet. Swapped stereos and amp but that didn't change anything. Time to pull the rear panels and see if the speakers are any good or if those wires have continuity?

these things break INSANELY easy. my guess is you're going to break it unless you're very careful...and a bit of luck is good too. having owned like 2 dozen of these things, the trim piece you're talking about is hard to find in good condition. we have the 1988 Subaru factory service manual for free down load at subaruxt.com, download that and look at the section for removal, probably has the pictures you need. remove the small black cover piece on the trip/clock meter. under that is a screw to remove which allows that top clock to pop out. underneath of that are two screws holding the stereo in place. the trim has two screws all the way at the bottom, under the stereo as well holding it to the dash. even though i've done this a thousand times my memory is lacking at the moment, but i'm thinking you can get the stereo out without removing the trim? remove those two screws mentioned earlier and it pulls through i thought...but maybe i'm forgettting something. the trim itself has metal clips which snap into place all around the dash. problem is the plastic is brittle with age and often breaks before the metal clips do. if it does break - keep all the platic bits you can as you can epoxy it back together if it's just the holders for the tabs, they're hidden and unseen anyway.

Gloyale has your answer. 8 bolt doesn't matter, but the Phase (year specific) does. An 8 bolt 98 would be fine, but not this one. EJ22 wasn't offered in the forester. So it's either an EJ25 or swapped to an EJ22. Either way though it's a Phase II engine which is a very difficult swap even though it'll bolt up, the wiring and MAP verses MAF changes are going to require customizing to work around. Not for the average DIY person.

i think less than %50 of the nuts come off for me. i'm surprised dave gets them out, his rust should be about what mine is. i expect the entire stud to come out with it most of the time. i've never had a problem getting one out though - have you used a socket and wrench - what happens? it's rounded off? heat is always useful...used appropriately of course.

if you're sure it's knocking then the motor sounds hosed doesn't it? broken camshaft - like the entire thing was broken or just the sprocket? if it was sheared off then maybe because of oil starvation?

shouldn't matter if you already replaced stuff but did you use OEM plugs and Subaru wires? i've seen aftermarket wires cause cylinder misfire right out of the box. granted it would very very strange to have a cylinder #2 misfire, get new wires, and have the same thing. you could try swapping wires - put #2 on #4 and #4 on #2 - just exchange them to rule it out if it's always #2. i'd swap in another ignitor myself but like he said it can't really just be one. how many miles? any coolant or oil loss in the history of the vehicle? in general subaru headgaskets often fail but still pass compression tests, but it is very rare for this motor to loose a headgasket. it would almost have to have been previously overheated.

the XT6 transmission is awesome. diff lock is super easy to rig up. install a simple solenoid. if you're swapping a trans then getting the diff lock to work will be the easy part, very simple set up. if you want it to be ghetto, you can set it up to switch by hand - but all it needs is vacuum to actuate, that's it. you can feed it vacuum by hand or use a solenoid. take a vacuum hose - put it on the diaphragm to "lock it", then remove the vacuum hose to "unlock it". or spend the extra couple mintues installing to let a solenoid and button do it for you.

rear diff failures in subarus are rare, but since it's not a bad idea to change the rear diff fluid once in 163,000 miles , that's probably not a bad thing to do. keep an eye on fluid color and consistency as it's coming out and how much comes out. then refill. can you tell if it's front or rear? front diff issues are far more common, though of the multiple i've personally seen i've only seen it on EJ25's.

99's have the delayed forward engagement issue just to be sure to look for that when test driving. good luck figuring it out. if you can buy it back and fix is a great plan if it sounds solid which it sounds like it still is? good luck.

if it's the alt making the noise then sounds like you got a bad one. i wouldn't expect anything more than that. any other issues with the battery, motor, wiring at all? could be some unusual demand on the alternator or bad connection at the battery? sometimes the lifetime warranty alternators are known to be low quality. you get a lifetime warranty but the cost is that they basically fix alternators to resell, not completely rebuild them. not sure about the one you got but i've heard of life time warranty stuff like this before. they're not expecting the car it's going on to last long so it's rare they have to replace stuff.

ignitor - it's not the coil pack, it's different. swap that out. how old are the plugs? by reading your post - it sounds like the check engine light came on after you installed new wires...or am i reading that wrong?

Well that stinks. Glad it did it's job and protected him. The 2.2's are getting older and less desirable due to age and options. The SOHC are less problematic, but they're still prone to failure. I think they have less visibility because they're more likely to be repaired than dumped cheap. Key to me is they don't leave you stranded because they won't overheat without warning, they leak externally, not internally. They'll only overheat if you run them out of coolant. That's a huge plus in my book. At $5,000 I wouldn't put yourself out of range for an H6, they're excellent motors. That's what I did to avoid the EJ25 and I'm glad I did. That being said it's not that hard to find one with the headgaskets replaced, I currently have one for sale as such. I guess your area might be a tough subaru market though.

Spark plugs and wires? Ignition wires on this engine should be Subaru - I've seen aftermarket wires cause your exact issues, not even drivable, even brand new right out of the box. These EJ engines are not forgiving for some reason. Also check the igniter, swap out another one, it's the black box on the rear of the engine bay around the middle, just behind the throttle body, above the trans dipstick but more middle of the engine. you can see it with the hood popped. That would affect all 4 cylinders.

that's a good idea....of course be really really careful but it's not like you didn't already think about that.

happens ALL the time, very common. maybe more prominent where there's more rust. i know Davebugs and I see it all the time. really annoying when subaru parts are $500 and the cheap replacements last a year. have it welded.

i've seen it mentioned on here before as well, google came up with this good through 2009 models: http://codes.rennacs.com/plugins/SubaruTRANS/SUBARU-TRANS-LEGACY-PRE.php some tips from folks that have done it would probably be nice as one little thing out of sequence is easy. i wonder if it's mentioned in the FSM's? seems like it should be but i can't recall ever seeing it?

the AT light always blinks 16 times for any transmission code. the 16 flashes of the AT light at start up is equivalent to the check engine light. it, by itself, doesn't tell you anything more than there's a fault detected. you have to go through a sequence to retrieve the actual fault code. the annoying part is the AT initiation sequence is a total PITA. put in drive, turn on car, open door, put in park, close door, shift to neutral, jump in a creek...i don't know what it is but folks have posted it on here before. probably take a couple tries to get it to work. once you get it to work it'll flash each code one at a time (if multiples, though probably just one). the first set of long flashes are 10 each, the second set of short flashes are 1 each. so a code 13 will have 1 long flash, then 3 shorts. just like reading check engine lights on older EA/ER series stuff which you're probably familiar with. make sense? if you're familiar with the old stuff it's exactly like that.

Yep, I'd sell it unless you're in gear to fix it now, sounds like you're ready to move. Time will only make it loose value and be a liability sitting around.

you'll want to check and make sure but sounds like it's going to need headgaskets.

it's scary how bad mine were and realizing how many are out there still like that. the stuff works well and highly recommended for anyone wanting better and safer lighting.

of course you never know unless you pull the codes but flashing light may mean the duty C is failing, so possibly a duty C code. if you insert the FWD fuse and the torque bind goes away that usually means the duty C is fine. if you insert the FWD fuse and nothing happens then the Duty C is probably hosed. if you find the Duty C is hosed from that test then the flashing light is probably related to that.

no sorry, the carrier bearing is the support that holds the center of the driveshaft to the rear wheels. it's the round thing with two bolts going through a bracket holding the driveshaft in place.

wow, if it's pulling all over the road have you checked your tie rods?

a transmission swap can be done relatively inexpensively and depending on your area you can sometimes find them very cheap like a couple hundred bucks. very annoying and frustrating though so i can understand wanting to move on totally too. if your EJ25, also with known issues (you've had bad luck here with subaru), but if it has new headgaskets it should be good for a lot more miles - though you may be due for a timing belt.....but any car you get will probably be due for a timing belt unless you get a new one. dynamic decision no doubt. i also second his notions that complete trans flushes need to be done back when it first happened and now. most folks wait way too long to change trans fluids or don't change all of it. once or twice ATF isn't a good plan.

i think we need to clarify, we're talking about the transmission not the rear differential. you're talking about the rear differential which is not the issue at all here. Transmission - your forester (all of them) have a VLSD *CENTER* differential. Rear Differential has the VLSD/Open S verses L model distinction, but we're not talking about the rear diff. With 5MT torque bind it is your *center* differential that is failing, which is part of the transmission. Reread my post again and maybe it'll make more sense in light of that.