idosubaru

I'm not as against the EA82 as GD. Given good maintenance it's a very reliable engine and can give lots of miles. But "good maintenance" on an older engine usually entails more than on a newer car. But you're in that boat with an older legacy too - still paying attention to tune ups, timing belt, etc. But GD is right - for that money you can put yourself in an early legacy and get all sorts of better options and the EJ22 is just a beast of a motor. As far as reliability and ease/cheap to maintain it's hard to beat those early legacys or impreza's. you'll get air bags and maybe ABS too depending what year you get.

My thoughts are the same, I would want the gauge. Only a few years out from EJ25 headgasket issues? Seems like it gives you less info and more power to the mechanics, not what you need to combat the shady folks. I can sort of see the logic and maybe they're forward thinking? Maybe that's where they'll all be in 10 years? As an end user you still have something to look at. The chances of ever needing it are extremely small and if you ever did, the light will come on. So functionally there isn't much at stake. If they finally have one temperature sensor, rather than two like they've had in years past (one for the ECU and one for the gauge) then that's more robust having fewer parts, wiring, connectors, and sensors to fail. But that doesn't make you feel much better. I don't know when the design changed but dashes are easily interchanged, folks add tachometers that way to older legacy's. I've done it a bunch, but unlikely to want to do that with a new car. I'm doubtful you'll be able to "just add a temp gauge". You can add an aftermarket temp gauge, that's rather easy though I'm not sure the best way to make it look good/stock. On the older dashes the options were sometimes visible with the dash removed - wonder where the temp gauge is on the most recent models with the gauge and if yours has the outline/space there?

Good luck starting a business. Some suggestions: Communicate as much as possible if you're doing business with someone. Most folks will rub at some point and one of you will have less business sense than the other...or different visions for where this is going. Communicating as much as possible about concerns, future, thoughts, irritations, etc early on will alleviate big headaches later. I can't stress how often this happens. Most folks don't know and those that do think it'll never happen to them. Be very clear about payments, deals, timelines, etc. Start small, get comfortable, learn the market before going ballz out on stuff. Tendency is to get to spread out too quickly. Better to focus and get comfortable and learn a small part of the economy really well, then expand rather than expand quicker than your learning curve. Keep it up and have fun!

can you describe exactly what your issue is in terms of needing off road and eating up tires? are you slipping or.....? maybe you can improve traction to avoid slipping?

Having not done it or seen the heads I'm not sure. They could take a cursory glance but I'm not sure what they'll be able to tell. Probably depends mostly on the shop. Machine shop time isn't cheap, if you pay them or know them well I'm sure they'll check. You didn't mention - did they use a Subaru headgasket or not? The used heads should have been machined and tested by a machine shop, was that done? In general replacing heads with unknown used heads is not a good bargain for you. Unknown history, maintenance, and mileage. Having never seen the valve guides being loose I'm not sure, but I would bet that's even repairable. Machine shops are insanely skilled at what they do and there's usually all sorts of supplies for repairing stuff like that, inserts, techniques, tools, etc. It is odd to find Subaru heads that can't be reused (well except turbo heads, but that's another story). Good luck tracking it down and figuring out what to do. Someone else with lots of engine experience will likely chime in too, hold tight for them.

Being a 2010 you shouldn't have rattles and stuff, take it back to the dealer and see what they say. Bubble wrap and duct tape, that's quite severe.

sweet no problems. no special tools either. i didn't say every time - but i've seen the MC fail before, if it's a 1 in 100 chance then odds are in your favor, but the extra 15 seconds is worth it to me.

i had that one covered, we're past that now. there is a check engine light, that's a good place to start, you need to get all the codes somehow. I've never heard of an EGR causing a no-start, so I don't think that's it, EGR codes are very common and mostly benign so I'd put that off for now. You got it right on the ATF drain and refills, that's the best first step. Outside of basics like making sure tires all match in size, tread depth, and pressure. And putting the FWD fuse in will tell us more about what's wrong. If it gets rid of the torque bind or doesn't will tell us if it's clutches or Duty solenoid and prognosis for fixing. Duty C won't be fixed by fluid flushes.

Sounds like typical headgasket issues. Might I take a guess that the shop didn't use Subaru headgaskets? Aftermarket head gaskets in these engines are likely to fail. Best bet is a Subaru gasket for this engine. As a side note - Subaru offered an extended 100,000 mile head gasket warranty on 2000-2002 vehicles and some folks in 2003 get lucky. But sounds like you're way past that now as they won't honor it now that it's been worked on. It might be helpful to get more details from the beginning. Exactly what problems were you having back when the "valve guides were loose"? Valve guides being loose in a Subaru is really, really odd. It's even odd on 300,000 mile Subaru's from the 80's. I might be wrong but I'm fairly sure those of us with extensive Subaru engine experience are probably thinking that was not a proper diagnosis. I've gone through many dozens of Subaru's with millions of total miles and never seen it, but I'm sure it's possible. Was it a Subaru dealer (my guess is no)? It might be that you need more Subaru specific information. That can either come from us which you forward to your shop if you trust them. Or it can mean go to another shop.

yeah, it's nice. this site has more combined experience, and readily available, than any shop in the world. it's a fantastic resource for anyone wanting to work on a subaru. your issues should/might be simple. the no start is usually something simple, just annoying to track down. the torque bind, you should spend some time reading some quality threads about. there's a number of possible causes and a few options for repairing it, some that are simple. for now - put your FWD fuse in so you're not getting the binding which can cause more damage. although if your Duty C is failing that fuse might not work. i'm sure you'll read all about that in the other torque bind threads. good luck!! now go tear up that subaru and tell us how good it feels to fix it!!

The subaruoutback.org forum has lots of new OBW owners, I would plug around there a bit or even post. Wait aren't you over there already? In general you can get a great deal on new cars as they no longer make much money on them. The general pricing is public knowledge and the amount of profit they're willing to make is fairly standard. Comes down to if you can handle it and what the local dealer is like. If there's only one dealer within hundreds of miles that doesn't bode well, they can get big headed about their psuedo-monopoly. But there's lots of dynamics in play. Make sure you don't end up with the "shaking" issue that's been a debacle on the newer (2009...2010's not sure) OBW's. There's an enormous thread about it on the outback forum.

There's lots of issues with this swap. You'll have to let us know what kind of job you're looking for. A basic swap this is not. A big project with some kinds along the way is more like it. That being said - if you're capable of this swap, you're more than capable of just fixing the engine that's in the 2000, go buy it tomorrrow, jump on that thing. I've yet to see in person, or on here, a Subaru with a broken timing belt that didn't just need some bent valves replaced. The motor is going to be fine. With it's propensity to blow head gaskets you'll want the updated gasket in there anyway. Fix it and you've got a great car.

Yep, that's all completely normal. Like I said, your AT light and non-start are not related. The AT light, by design, only flashes when the car is first started, it won't stay on even if there is a problem. It's inherently different than the check engine light in that way. The check engine light comes on and stays on with a problem. The AT light flashes at start up and then never comes on again until you try to star the car again. So when your car died, you keep trying to restart and telling the TCU to keep spitting that code out with every crank. That's how it's designed and that's how they all do it. You'll find your problem with the check engine light or a sensor/coil/igniter, not with the trans. So back to where we were - best starting place is the check engine light. And whatever code you get will probably be covered well here already. You're likely to encounter something very common.

in general it's straight forward. remove master cylinder cap before compressing caliper piston. regrease the caliper slide pin boots with brake caliper grease (not the same as other greases used on cars). crucial step that many people (and mechanics) miss or skip. at this age it's common for boots and clips to be in poor shape. if it's fronts i like getting a set of higher quality ceramic pads like ADO (or APO) from NAPA that has all new clips and stuff too, or just getting hardware separately. give us more information if you want help. you're replacing the pads because there's a problem or just to get new pads? you didn't mention front/rear either, but in general sounds like you got it all covered.

Okay ,now we're getting somewhere. Your best bet is to give us good info like that in the future and we can help you out. Bad information is like a bad mechanic, you'll never get what you want.... Why are you attributing your car not starting to the AT light? They are not going to be related. Your binding is torque bind and is what is causing your AT light to flash on start up. Your check engine light is probably the cause of your no-start but it could be plenty of things. Rather than guess it's best to read the code. Advanced, Auto Zone, and lots of other national chains read them for free. Best bet is the $30 ones off ebay so you can do it yourself for the next couple decades. You'll need to have the code read and get back to us, it's going to be hard to guess. Unless you have spare parts, but that's doubtful given what you've told us so far. Only takes a couple minutes to swap coil packs, igniter, MAF, and crank/cam sensors. That's what I've done before, but I've got boxes of parts lying around.

those rears I think are actually nuts that screw onto studs in the diff. if the nuts are rusty they just end up pulling the stud out - so the stud and nut basically act like a bolt. should be simple. one time i couldn't get one off and had to actually use a torch to melt the bushing around it out, that was really annoying but luckily it was just a parts car. rust, BLAH! as for the bolt up top - it's bolt and nut so you'll need a wrench on one side and socket on the other....from memory, so i could be off though, it's been awhile since I did an EJ rear diff and I just removed and have an EA on the floor of my garage. good luck.

No, you don't really remove any suspension to get to it. You drop the rear differential to swap the plate. Remove the lower cover (below the diff) if it has one, then there's one large bolt up above the diff that's hard to get too and the two holding it to the rear hangar. Not sure but I bet you can leave the axles and driveshaft attached to just swap the rear plate. I've swapped diffs like that before on older models - remove those three bolts mention above and the diff will drop down and hang by the axles. Make sure it's not fluid from up front. If you have any other leaks forward of the rear diff, they often drip while you're driving and over time some catches the bottom of the rear diff, making it look like it's leaking. Very common for leaks at the engine (of which there are many possibilities) or trans to, over time, get the bottom of the diff wet.

Any check engine light? The 16 times flashing at start up is the transmission computers equivalent of the "check engine light". You need to find out what that code is. The procedure to extra the code has been covered on here, you'll want to search for that. It's convoluted and some folks can't get it to work, only suggestion I can make is to try it about 10 or 20 times and hope you get it to flash the code at you. Not sure why Subaru makes this one so annoying...the Check engine, ABS, and SRS air bag codes are easy but this one is Pandora's Box. General info about the car would help too - mileage, general tune up - have the spark plugs, wires, air filter ever been replaced? Did the car sit for a long period of time, did it run perfectly for the 5 years prior to this?

That was a very interesting read, good stuff to know. He says it doesn't apply to the older models before 2000, but I'll definitely tell him to double check all the lines and fittings for tightness.

right on nip, i understand, no offense meant. you'd be LOLing too, or worse, if you had to repeat yourself 4 times. He's like one of my best friends, I talk to him all the time (poor fella, pray for him! ). He's quite adept at mechanics. The only symptom was leaking at the pump, no steering problems at all, we had been talking about it for awhile now prior to him trying to fix it. It immediately had noticeable symptoms right after installing the pump and filling it up. He assumed it needed bleeding and tried numerous times to bleed and flush it. Disconnecting the rack - where do you mean?

For the 4th time: the pump was leaking so he replaced it. No issues prior to replacing the pump. Replaced pump - issues. Installed old pump and the issue remains. Roughly 150,000 miles. I'll ask next I talk to him but I think the only symptom is it feels like it has %80 of the assist it used to have.

your advice would send me right to the car, breaking something sounds like what i would do. LOL. i'll tell him to check those lines, he's fairly meticulous, much more so than i so i wouldn't expect him to bend/break stuff like me. but something is causing it. pumps can be had for $15. eeerrrr, huh? did you see this yet, i'll quote again: the pump was leaking. dripping, loosing fluid, needing to be refilled = leaking. i talked to him ahead of time and he didn't feel like rebuilding it...sensible since used pumps are cheap anyway.

I covered most of your suggestions in the opening thread: Steering worked fine. Replaced pump and flushed with power steering fluid - problems arose. Swapped old (leaky) pump - problems still exist. Flushed with ATF - problems still exist. Bled the system over and over and over multiple ways so it's not that. I have no idea what it could be or what to test, I'm equally at a loss given the rarity of Subaru rack failures. Pretty sure i asked him and he said the fluid never really got low (which could ruin the rack I presume), but I should double check.

spark plugs would be an easy attempt (on non-DOHC anyway ). i would suspect Subaru converters are the fix, though i don't recommend it. wonder if two aftermarkets would be as good as Subaru OEM? good luck, this issue is one of the more annoying ones. technically you're working around yourself, but there's nothing wrong with that either. definitely good to feel good and confident about a car. i say the following to ease any concerns you might have: is using spark plugs still a work around? to me hotter plugs is the same thing. even installing new Subaru converters for no actual reason other than the catalyst efficiency CEL is a work around for the tight margins which are the problem here. it's just doing it with different parts. your system is operating properly it's the tolerances being so tight causing the issue. in this case those tight margins gain zero value, so financially, mechanically, reliably, emissions, and functionally there's nothing to gain. an ECU can be built that has even tighter restrictions and margins and would require more money, work and time to maintain. a computer could monitor everything on your car and see deficiencies in something...fuel performance, gas mileage, spring constants, seat belt wear, filtering performance, oil pressure, steering fluid pressure, bearing temperatures, hydraulic pressure to the transmission valve bodies...somewhere there's a deficiency from stock....but you don't want to do that nor would you make any decisions based on it unless there was an actual problem. i view this in a similar light, it's the same thing just Subaru chooses what is being monitored, how, and why. if it makes you feel better, then tear it up, your confidence in the car will pay off in the long run more than likely.

Not sure how to test that, probably a pressure gauge but i'm sure he's not interested in messing with that.