idosubaru

GD - let me know how that trans jack works for it. i've always wondered if they're worth it or not.

A time-line is necessary in a transaction like this, sorry I didn't see this thread before the other. I know this is an exaggeration but no one wants to pay for a transmission and receive it in 2015.....2012? 2011? 2010? December, November? Folks need some kind of general guidelines to work with. Transmissions paid for by ? Shipping paid for by ? Transmissions acquired and pictures sent Transmissions boxed and shipped by ?

A time frame will help a great deal to give both parties reasonable guidelines to follow through on and the feel of a professional transaction. Like - Money by Sept 31 - Trans in hand with pictures by Oct 15, boxed and shipped by Oct 31, etc....something like that.

must be parts and therefore cost related. shame on them like you said, the older stuff should be falling apart if it had anywhere near the same trans and bearing failures. but with 10+ years, less likely good maintenance, etc, they almost never have these issues. i wonder if struts don't last as long either, but i don't have much experience with EA/ER conventional struts. who cares, they're easy.

GD - sorry to confuse you, there's two separate things going on here: ABS on a non-ABS car is fine. non-ABS on an ABS car won't work as it won't have the mounting point (obviously you know that). the tone ring deal is a completely separate issue from that ABS comment, though I realize it sounds the same. they changed the tone ring design and it's only applicable to sometime around 2000+ and all that really means is you have to match the axle to the hub. 2000+ (or whatever the year change is) hub has to have a 2000+ axle set up. 1991-2000 hub has to have 1991-2000 axle set up. *keeping in mind i'm not sure of the date change so the "2000" could be a tad off. YES !!! The newer bearings absolutely are terrible! They are far less reliable and fail way more than the older gen stuff. That's ridiculous, but i suspect the additional revenue for stuff that typically goes after warranty periods is rather satisfying. Another interesting tidbit is the torque bind issue. It's *almost* unheard of in the older gen stuff, but is prevalant in new gen. Very bizarre indeed.

Subaru headgasket issues significantly decrease around 2003. i assume it's much more rare than it used to be on the older models. Subaru's own extended 100,000 mile head gasket specific warranty covered 2000-2002 models only, so they had some reason for stopping at 2002 (besides they just want to save money like the reason the ignored the much more troublesome 96-99's!) anyway, i'd assume they made some changes. but there's no documentation, proof, or quantitative information either. that being said...it's also normal not to "see" issues because people rolling around with new-ish cars aren't typically members of forums like this (much lower percentage) and are much more likely to just pay to have something fixed or covered under warranty without ever looking for info, etc.

Rick, you can pretty much interchange all sorts of EJ hubs, those earlier years will be fine and even up to 2000+'s. The main thing to keep in mind is ABS verses non-ABS but even then they're interchangeable just one has the ABS spot and the other doesn't. Once you get to the 2000 range though at some point the tone ring set up for ABS changes and they do differ - although *even then* you can still swap them if you know what you're doing.

interesting. have you drained the fluid to see if there's any pieces in there?

that sounds like piston slap. plenty of mechanics have misdiagnosed piston slap and called it "bad bearings". i wouldn't necessarily think he's right. i bought a Subaru wagon with "bad bearings" within the past year from a "subaru specialist", it wasn't bad bearings, it's piston slap. wasn't even that bad of piston slap actually, i've heard much worse.

yes, you have a light on the dash. you would not miss 16 flashes at start up, so that tells me it's not flashing. we already know it shouldn't be flashing anyway. the issue goes away with the FWD fuse. that means the Duty C solenoid is working properly and you're not going to have a flashing light due to torque bind.

I realize no one will probably ever need these but I'll post since it was such a pain. Finally the real answer now that I have these crackers in hand. 21047GA870 is actually a kit - it includes both bushings on the top for the rear air struts. And it's only $3.48 for both bushings?! The other part number "lower" listed above is actually not either one, it's the very bottom bushing where the strut bolts to the control arm/hub assembly. That lower bushing which attaches to the control arm/hub assembly would be the same for all struts, coil over or air suspension.

yeah, it's already been done. Huck is one of the originals/first to do it and he's a member here. Now tons of people have done it and written about it and there's even companies that make kits, so yeah it's well documented.

axles could be shot too from the torque bind, it stresses them. it would be the inner joints that are hosed. TONS of torque bind info here. change the fluid a few times and try to put some miles on it. there's an LSD additive (GM is recommended) to get rid of it if the fluid change alone doesn't. it's all covered here, spend some time reading.

over here windshields are insanely expensive as are other parts. wheel bearings typically go out. transmissions have issues - get an aftermarket trans cooler and change the ATF right away (multiple times if you're draining it as it only gets a portion of it out). like rob said, all of those things will be addressed specifically on the SVX forum. great, reliable vehicles once you understand those small quirks.

on a side note, i have a 1998 OBW and 2002 H6 OBW in my driveway right now. they don't *seem* all that high really, but obviously they lift the car since i can see the blocks and a friend installed them on his 1997 Legacy Sedan. and those sedans sit low so the 2-3 inches is noticeable.

someone has spelled out the differences between OB and regular struts in a thread but i can't recall what they are from memory eventhough i remember reading the thread:confused:. seems like i remember reading it in the past few months.

a friend got a few inches on his 1997 Legacy Sedan EJ22 which sat about the same as my OBS from Outback Wagon struts. I've also swapped legacy and OBS struts before (into that OBS without a change in ride height) - so I'm going to guess from that and using commutative properties of Subaru mathematics that it'll raise the OBS a couple inches. 2 - 3 inches comes to mind for his legacy. From wagon to sedan he had no problems fitting them or with ride level afterwards.

JCE, tire sizes are hard to keep track of indeed. the LSi's (EJ25) have 15" 5 spoke alloys. i thought the LS's with the EJ22 would have had 14" as well. all the 1995-1997 EJ22 legacy's i've seen had 14". with AWD you'll want the tires to match to prevent torque bind. you're in alaska? i'd be looking for new tires unless you have dedicated snow tires. tire rubber degrades with age and they can be awful in the snow even if they have 100% tread and are high end tires. try bordertire.com

some have hydraulic valve lash adjusters and some do not. if someone knows, please differentiate for us when that change occurred? only 96's have HLA's...??

If you have torque bind, the transmission doesn't need to come out. Damage...depends, what happened, why are you asking, description, etc?

no sweat, since Subaru couldn't figure it out and half their information appears wrong, i'm glad you didn't waste your time!

It's one thing for dealers to be high, but to charge $2,100 for that job is legalized white collar theft. They are intentionally trying to gouge you at that point, which is sad. Cheapest place for parts are the online vendors, there are numerous ones. subarugenuineparts, 1stsubaruparts, liberty subaru, etc. you can look up more on here or ask your local dealer to match those prices (that's what i do). It's not hard to get out of this without any mechanical work.

the cars101.com site has lots of Subaru specific keyless information I believe, that's how I do all of mine.

I think you have to be careful upgrading too much or you can exceed the rating of the wiring that supports that circuit. folks upgrade the wiring often when going bonkers with bright lights.

is the rest of the car worth it? it's rare for one part like this to be hosed and the rest to be pristine. you're likely to have all sorts of sheared bolt problems, that is unbelievably annoying.