idosubaru

all of that stuff is available aftermarket. i'd personally rather have a new water pump verses a rebuilt one. only because you have an interference engine and such a long timing belt interval. your car seems new and well maintained. you're not going back in there for 105,000 miles. i like to stick with Subaru on that but i'm not saying aftermarket is bad - i just don't know and there's no solid "evidence" or trends yet. compare prices to the online Subaru dealers - there are discount online subaru dealers (you can search the forum for links and info on subarugenuineparts, liberty subaru and others). they are much more inexpensive than your local dealer. sometimes you can ask the local guys and they'll give you the same pricing as the online jokers. i had an aftermarket crank seal that would not seat very well last year...and it ended up leaking, had to replace the seal and the oil soaked timing belt, the Subaru seal popped right in like the other 200 seals i've done...only one incidence so it really doesn't mean a thing, but i'll personally stick to subaru most of the time since the price difference is trivial anyway. i have used aftermarket on older interference engines, so i'm not completely against them. just depends on age, mileage, condition, useage, intentions, etc. in general though the minor savings aren't worth it to me. Oil pump = one seal, one oring Cams = 2 seals and one oring (or two orings if you want to do that oring on the rear passengers side head) The cams can be a bear to get off, so read up on tips to remove the cam sprocket bolts. That often deters people from doing the cam seals!

if you have compression, spark and fuel then it seems to me that the timing has to be off, particularly considering it must be both cylinders that aren't firing right since the exhaust isnt' getting hot? and by timing i mean it in the general sense not just (8 degrees, etc). the wires being crossed artificially screws up timing...etc. but i know nothing about these engines so i can't offer anything specific to look for. please have a video camera for this one!

not sure if it matters but front or rears? (i'm getting ready to look into that wiring harness this morning!)

i've used a few ebay kits. i think i've only used them once on an interference EJ engine (like yours). i have no reason to not use them yet and will more and more as time goes by. you have the option of only replacing the pulleys that are loose and noisy. be sure to get a Subaru thermostat only, the aftermarket ones are subpar. you have to take it off to replace the water pump. you will have access to the oil pump seal (which is also the crank seal) and cam seals as well. it's nice to have those handy and at the very least check to see if any of those are seaping while you're in there. they reside behind the timing belt. many people just go ahead and replace them all while they're in there since access is already granted with the timing belts off. oil pump has a shaft seal (crank seal), an oring and is sealed around the edges with sealant from a tube or bottle (RTV or the anaerobic). cam seals reside behind the cam sprockets so you need to remove the cam sprocket to replace the seal. and then there's an oring behind the passengers side cam seal as well - only requires removing 3 small bolts to replace that, so do that as well if you decide to do the cam seal on that side.

a 14" and 15" wheel could be the same exact size depending on the size of the tire. so if you want the 15" wheel just for looks and an upgrade then use that calculator to figure out what size tires mimic your original 14" wheel/tire combo. or, i would just get larger tires for the 15" rim. your speedo won't be that much off, just use the calculator above. it's not uncommon for speedo's to be inaccurate by a few percent so new tires might make it MORE accurate since they often read too high (my legacy is about 3-4 mph high at highway speeds - roughly %5).

it would help to have your location posted as the price varies. i've gotten prices $100 cheaper in the ohio area verses the DC/Baltimore area for the same vehicle. I'm guessing around $200 for your legacy, the last windshield i had installed was $170 in an XT6 and i doubt a legacy would be much more. your best bet is to call around and get prices from a few different places, this is very common work and easy to arrange.

those small screws are problematic with age (though i've yet to see any newer gen's have it, it's getting about that time), they come loose and cause a bad contact....or fall out and do the same. i'd start there or test it like the good mechanic that i am not!

44 is not causing a misfire. or more correctly if it is - then something else is wrong. i'd gap them to the proper specifications, taking care not to damage anything. owners manual should tell you and if those 39-43 numbers are what it says then use those. you're not going to notice a difference though except that maybe you'll need to replace them 5,000 miles sooner, but who's counting and maxing out their plugs?

been there, done that. never got them off either - went to the scrap yard, diff and all.

some EJ's have a cover plate that needs removed first. but many that i've done did not have them? it's only a few bolts, so we'll just assume it's not there or he'll take that off. they're big like 14 or 17mm bolts. for the driveshaft there's only 4 nuts to remove right where the shaft meets the rear diff. be sure to disconnect it here because if it's done anywhere else it will require more work or it'll flop around. have a 6 point 12mm wrench handy. don't use anything else as the nuts/bolts can be rusty and round off. the heads of the nuts should catch against the indents of the driveshaft and not spin, so the nuts come off easily. but if there's any rust the heads may slip against that indent - so a second wrench is needed - also 12 mm. you can reach them by just jacking up one side of the car at the rear. you'll only be able to get 1,2, or 3 of them at one time depending how they're lined up. so remove the ones you can, then move the car so that the back wheels turn the rear diff - then give you access to the remainders. i think you can also jack up the rear wheel so that you can get under the car as well as just turn the wheel by hand to get access to all the bolts - that's nice. the only possible glitch is if they're rusted badly.

aftermarket axles are junk so it's really impossible for us to say for sure that your axle is any good or even if it's positively bad. but i would start there since there is no shortage of "i installed a new axle but still have problems" comments about "new" axles. used subaru axles or MWE are your only good options for axles...particularly EA/ER stuff (older generation) and yes - get a new roll pin, you just needed to rotate 180 degrees for the pin and hole to line up correctly. the easy way to get it right is to look at the holes in the axle - you can tell which way will line up. one hole will have a "hump" of the spline lined up with it's center, the other will have a "valley" of a spline lined up with the middle of it. match it to the right one on the tranny stub and you get it right every time. if that sounds complicated - it's not, just look with the old eyeball.

oh my word that would be awesome. give me a thumbs up if you're down for this. that's a huge help, i'll just be able to drop bolt and go. you got paypal? i'll PM my mailing address.

15" and 16" wheels can have the same diameter so i'm going to assume the 16" wheels have a larger total diameter with the tires installed. if your experience is anything like mine, you will get noticeably higher highway mileage assuming everything is equal (not winter or knobby off road tires). i've gone from 14" to 16" (with an appreciable increase in tire diameter) on my XT6 and noticed a significant highway mileage increase.

i would be careful just assuming the system is perfectly running. it may be disconnected for a reason. so play...but play carefully and with the knowledge that it may have been tinkered with. i have a vehicle that the air bags went off in and so far the air bags haven't been reactivated but one side has been replaced.

there's another thread that's not very old about this, read through it, lots of links, options and pricing.

for long trips have a small bag ready. with a few extra tools, spare starter and jumper cables.

i'm assuming the alignment is done right. on the older generation of subaru's you just pull the steering wheel off and reinstall it correctly. this doesn't explain how it got like this...but more than likely some other work was done to it. rack replacement, disconnected, or steering wheel removed for something. and it just wasn't installed properly...or was but installed to match a mis-aligned vehicle. any reason the alignment was really bad?

okay interesting, that is how my 97 impreza appeared. so i'm not sure why it raced up at "idle" when i had it hooked up to full vacuum. everything else is running and working perfectly. but the original EJ25 in the car "looks" (can't tell it's not in the car anymore) like that vacuum line for the cruise came from a solenoid - not direct vacuum. hmmm.....

the 4EAT's got external screw on filters in 98+. hey the original poster is from maryland - me too!

no kidding, is that like a dodge colt? his does have an external transmission filter!

welcome. how's the timing belt? at 100k and 9 years it's due. your transmission has an external trans filter as well, so you can replace that with the job. ATF (automatic transmission fluid) is really simple, that's why there's no detailed instructions. and there's a few different methods. if you're asking and wanting detailed instructions on this, this is probably your best option. you can drain and refill it a few times....i would recommend a minimum of 3 times. you can remove the hoses from the transmission and put the suction hose into a bucket of ATF and the other hose in an empty bucket and crank the motor over until it cycles through. look in the owners manual at the capacity and have a bit more than that to work with...i think it's 8-10 quarts. or you can just pull the return line and crank the engine over enough to blast some of the fluid out. if you want detailed instructions you'd probably have better luck on an internet search engine than here.

Porcupine - great pictures boss, those are helpful. I have a cc issue with a 96 Legacy LSi and only have 95 Legacy and 97 Impreza FSM's which are different than what you posted. For the purpose of this discussion I did an EJ25 to EJ22 swap and don't know where to connect the vacuum hose for the pump to. I connected it straight to vacuum and it just makes the car rev to 6,000 RPM. So there must be something to "control" this vacuum? I don't see it on the FSM pic's and don't understand how CC works.

wow, if i need a slide hammer i'm definitely just going to buy another set of axles and have the outer joints ready to install before i attempt this. for $20 each i can't go wrong anyway and i'll just keep the axles in case i ever need them (in 15 years!)

yeah i did but i never thought about that. the XT6 auto and manual engines are identical for the most part so the only difference swapping makes is the number of times the LED flashes....so it never occurred to me that it did anything else....go figure!? so i guess it's 95 only ECU's that do this then, i swapped a non EGR into an EGR 1996 and it's got the EGR code.

(raises hand) he's been talking to me. i figured i was just forgetting or missing something but i'm confused too. i've never had a problem like this, it's always been easy so i've never had to think about it.