idosubaru

yep, sounds like classic strut. as for the ABS there's tons of info on here about pulling your own codes and deciphering what's going on. spend some time reading that. off the top of my head some early legacy's had a recall or known problem with an ABS fuse or relay or something. i think it's an easy fix too, i'd look for that and see if it applies to 96 GT's. otherwise normally all you need to do is clean the sensors, they are just magnets and get really dirty/contaminated. or replace any that are warn. they should have a very thin narrow tip to them, that gets warn down sometimes and they need replaced. hopefully your blown strut isn't so bad that the ABS tone ring isn't cracked, that's a possibility.

yeah, that's not a good idea on a manual transmission for various reasons, it's certainly not good for your viscous center diff. but it's not necessary. if you remove the driveshaft you will definitely be able to diagnose a bad ujoint (the part of a driveshaft that fails) immediately. it'll be very obvious. it'll either be noticeably loose/broken/warn or feel very lumpy when you move the joint in your hand. driveshaft ujoints fail, so what makes you disagree with their diagnosis?

a friend brought his 97 legacy to me with something similar. the bearings were pretty bad (loose), but it wasn't making all that much noise at all. never made the typical "wub, wub, wub..." wheel bearing noise. a light scraping sometimes. bearings go bad due to heat (brakes) or loosing/contaminated grease. if the wheel seals are bad (where the axle inserts), then dirt/water gets in and grease gets out. you get lots of warning with wheel bearings, i wouldn't worry about yours with 200+k miles. i mean if you got gobs of time and don't mind then sure it's good PM, but with that kind of mileage you're likely to have other things to worry about at some point so i'd just leave them. if you did it you'd probably be doing maintenance that will last 15 years on a car you'll only have for another 5.

brake component torques are not critical at all. complete waste of time, unless you're new and not comfortable. otherwise these bolts hold no tolerance or critical torque values what so ever. if you've done enough work and feel comfortable with torquing them yourself, just do it that way. they just need to be "tight enough" not to come loose. no one...certainly very few folks on here and no mechanics...torque those bolts with an actual torque wrench, i never have.

i'm on dial up so i'm not playing with images. but they're the only sensors on the front of the engine. they are really easy to find and don't require removing anything to see, though they are surrounded by lots of stuff. both are accessible from up top, through the engine bay. and both are the closest two sensors to the front of the engine. on the right (drivers side) side of he engine is the cam sensor. it's located behind the black timing covers that cover all the timing components. it's just to the right of the oil filler tube, down on the block not the intake manifold. it'll be the only sensor bolted there with wires on it. the crank sensor is right above the timing cover in the center of the engine looking from the front. looking at the front of the engine it's the only sensor just below the alternator. sensors are easy to find - they have wires going to them.

all the subaru's i've done are pretty easy. the hardest ones i've done are the XT6 from the late 80's. all the newer stuff i've done is easiest - 2002 being the newest i've touched.

I don't know, it's just a big box under the pass. seat that's all I know.

???? what car, engine, mileage, condition, tune up, etc? but...if you have carb it wouldn't surprise me if that's your problem.

that's a good suggestion up there, finding an experienced person to install it.

The McIntosh stereo was bad in our 02 OBW. I put an early 1990's tape deck from an Impreza in it's place just so I can listen to stuff from my phone. It plugged right in and works, but only get sound from the front speakers. Is the amplifier a stand alone unit and should work with anything that plugs in to the dash? Or am I not getting rear sound because the old deck doesn't interface with the amplifier set up? How does the amplifier under the seat work, is it compatible with anything that plugs in or just the McIntosh stereo?

Subaru radio's didn't change much through the early 90's to the 2003's at least...i've interchanged stereos plug and play. so - will this ipod adapter thingy work in a large number of Subaru's? and is the ipod proprietary connector or do they also have aux-in? good luck and post pic's!

the past two decades have seen a drastic change in the automotive market, dealers now make very little profit on new cars. it's actually well behind used cars, parts, service, and accessories. even many folks that change their own oil and brakes won't want to mess with installing something like this. my dad for instance would never try to install this though he does his oil and brakes. and for good reason, cracking a dash trim on a brand new car would be really annoying, so if you don't know how to get at it....it's easy to get away with charging more. they may also say "no warranty" if it's not installed by them.

them calling you back and offering more tells you they have lots of wiggle room that they didn't give you the first time. you'd have to be joking to think that they've gotten anywhere near their limit. you have to play hard ball and it's not easy. take your time and don't rush, they have lots of room to play with. mostly on your trade in. don't believe any of their sales tactics or if they "show you" their invoices and paper work, they won't show you that. if they do, it's basically a pseudo-invoice, made up just to show a customer and they've got more than one differing invoice. there are some really short books you can read about buying a new car, and by book i mean it's like a pamphlet. might be worth an hour in the library or bookstore to read from folks that actually used to work in the business. in general the best financial move you can personally make is to sell your car outright for as much as you can get and then negotiate. there's variances to that, but generally you can make out better that way. there's a LOT of slop if they're negotiating the trade in value.

it's good to remember too that newer Subaru's are opposite of the older ones. so verify which engine and which way to install the belts/cam marks.

if you have multiple ungrades you want, you might want to price out and see if you can find an outback for sale. It's rather easy to find one for cheap with blown head gaskets...oh like the one I just bought this week for instance! then you only have one repair - swap in an EJ22 or replace the head gaskets and you've got everything....lifted, gearing, rear discs..and hey you can end up with leather, heated seats and all sorts of other goodies too.

get a timing belt kit off ebay. they include the belt, tensioner, and all new pulleys. while you're in there replace the water pump as well, it's right behind the timing belt. behind the timing belt is also the oil pump, crank seal, and cam seals and cam oring. those are all very easy to replace once the belt is off. the oil pump should be pulled and resealed even if the seal isn't leaking due to the screws on the back sometimes coming loose. that requires locktite on any loose screws on the backing plate, a small oring, crank seal, and sealant around the body. it's very easy. the cam seals and oring you can replace only if they're wet. all the other tune up stuff is good to.

"fast" is subjective. but an EA82T is not fast. Maybe if you're coming from an EA81 it will *seem* fast, but just look up the numbers on them. GD is right but I will clarify. EA82T's *were* decent motors...20 years ago. Most are no longer worth anything. I saw one with blown head gaskets for sale today, very easy to find with blown motors. They're too old to justify putting much into them so most people quit maintaining them very well a decade ago...leaving them to blow up left and right every time a hose, radiator, thermostat, or water pump goes bad. Then it takes head gaskets, seals, and rod bearings with it. Even ones still running probably haven't had the best maintenance over the past 5-10 years, so usually "yes" they are a waste of money. To be reliable they need to be well maintained. They have 20 year old gaskets and seals and turbo's push all kinds of heat and pressures to them. This means the entire engine needs to be combed over if you want it to be reliable from a statistical vantage point. And if you want something *fast*, meaning you'll be uping the boost and modifying it, you'll be working on or replacing the engine a lot.

i've seen enough new style tensioner failures between 100k-150k that i'd replace it while you're at the timing belt job. the ebay kits are the way to go and come with the tensioner anyway as well as all new pulleys. yes, pull the oil pump and locktite and loose screws in place. then obviously reseal the oil pump.

you sure about that toyota? i thought the SR5 V6 in my friends 97 forerunner was an interference engine? maybe they changed? his has 250,000 miles. he just had the timing belt done a couple weeks ago and never had it replaced since buying the vehicle at 60,000 miles!!! i've been telling him for years to replace it. he's hardly put a dime into it, other than normal maintenance (battery, brakes, etc) he's only had to replace the power steering pump, that's it.

i asked about it but never got a confirmation on hydraulic/cable clutch swapping. i've seen both and think it would be doable but i don't know that it's a bolt on conversion. you are not at all limited to a 98 only. just match the final drive and clutch operation (cable/hydraulic) and you're golden. yours has a hydraulic clutch? if so, then any hydraulic clutch trans with matching final drive will work. if the 4WD works good, remove the VC unit from the old trans in case you ever get torque bind. depending what's going on, it might not be the trans, though if the dealer said it was you would think it is (unless they thought the person would just buy another subaru!?!?!). sometimes manual trans can last a long time with internal noises, depending what's going on.

man, how many CAM issues are we going to see in one week!?!?!? wowsers, good thing that other one worked out, now this is becoming common knowledge. and yes, year old gas can cause problems with starting. it's called a CARBURETOR. im' sorry, i like to make fun of antiquated equipment that sucks :lol:! actually, pretty sure year old gas can cause problems in FI too. not usually, but probably depends on brand, quality, exposed to elements, etc.

if you find a good solution let me know. i'm still in the "just rip them off" mood they're so annoying. i mean, they at least make me look like a hero a lot. friends/family think they got a major problem and cost is FREE.

good question. i've "heard" of "switches" to toggle between the two but never seen confirmation myself. maybe you could just call a junk yard or find someone that has one to look at? i can verify that at least on all the Subaru's i've done it to you can actually drive with no instrument cluster in place! it's pretty awesome cruising down the road with nothing in there and nothing to look at. it's much more strange than i thought it would be:lol: just in case you get in a pickle while doing it, it's nice to know the car will still run fine. as often as the 99's fail the dealer might have one in stock or know :lol::lol:.

Dave, might be a good time to invest in one of those infrared heat devices, they are sweet. I diagnosed a front wheel bearing last week on a friends car. Drove to my house, hit it with the gun and had it narrowed down in seconds.

that's what all EJ25 head gasket failures do. it's rare for them to mix fluids and if they do it's because someone beat the snot out of the engine. i've seen failed HG's even pass the sniffer test. that's only for Phase II EJ25's (99+ foresters and 00+ Leg's). that's not for Phase I's, the failure modes of the two engines are completely different. Phase I - internal. Phase II = external.