idosubaru

it's likely this guy doesn't even need rotors. it's not beneficial to argue opinions. stating them is one thing but to think that opinion is applicable across all circumstances and people is not the case. and trying to scare people with "you will die" statements is not helpful either. the great thing about this community is that there's a huge statistical representation that covers an insane number of miles, vehicles, experiences and as quantitative information as you can get for this sort of thing. anecdotal opinions or even experiences are not very weighty - with that any car ever made is junk or any car ever made is the best. i have $15 youwilldieifyouusethembecausethey'retoocheap rotors on my XT6 and they work just fine. you get what you pay for is a moto that is well headed but there are exceptions - with that moto he would have paid the shop their high quotes to do the job. this community is the perfect environment to hash out those exceptions - but there will be people that disagree and there's no harm in that.

yes you can check them yourself. if you have aluminum wheels, just look through and see the surface of them. if not you can turn the wheels to full lock (left or right) and look behind and feel them (be sure to let them cool down first). if it's smooth, fine. if it's slightly wavy in nature, that's fine too. if it's got chunks coming off and shreddings everywhere and rough - very bad. but you would probably have noises associated with that. i'm not sure if the newer stuff has these - but if yours has the two stupid freaking set-screws on the rotors, they can be very annoying. it's a very simple and easy job - but if those set screws are there and rusted in place they suck. i've had to drill most of them out. they aren't needed though, so i never reinstall them. if that's only older gen stuff, i'll delete this comment??? the last brakes i did were a a 97 impreza, you'd think i'd remember!?!?!? frankly - if you want to save the $60 and time don't replace them. they will perform just fine and wear your pads marginally faster. i personally replace mine and encourage people to but i also know people have budgets to work with. if that $60 could be used elsewhere and your brakes are performing fine then you have that option, it's not a safety or performance concern. as far as performance you'd probably gain more by replacing all your brake fluid than the rotors anyway since it's 10+ years old. i've had good luck buying cheap rotors from the parts store. if you're going to spend money - spend it on the pads - like ceramics or something. rotors definitely need replacing if you have any vibrations while braking.

gotcha, i saw your response but didn't understand. oh sorry, i wasn't trying to poke, trying to get one more thing checked off the list. you said: i assumed you meant the front of the car where the grill is and that's where the radiator hoses are and they go "back". so you checked the other smaller hoses plumbed into the bottom of the air intake tube? mounted on the front side of the passengers side strut tower should be some small mechanisms that have very tiny vacuum hoses attached to them. follow those hoses and make sure they are properly seated. there's one in particular that makes a bee line straight across towards the engine and has a small round filter in line with it - about the size in diamter of a quarter roughly. it's about 1/2" thick with a sponge around it. this one can easily get pulled out even with just about any engine work, spark plugs, air filter, etc. other than that - the IAC might be worth a shot. i would start here, but throwing parts at something can also be very frustrating when it doesn't work. maybe there's a way to test it? you might want to consider a used one. they very rarely fail. most 1980's subaru's still have the original IAC valves on them, if cleaned they almost never need replacing. so used isn't a bad option here at all.

you're not old - just a product of your environment in the same way he is.

seems like you got a good eye for what you're trying to do and that being the case i would notch it. the easier option might be to have someone in another country source you the parts and send them to you, should be able to order that stuff from Subaru in another country. i do that for some NZ folks...actually shipping them a package tomorrow. i give them my address, they order and send stuff to my house, then i package and ship it to NZ.

yeah man, that is awesome. i had never heard of that and will put that to good use. thanks a bunch.

the down pipes go back far enough to hit the rear transmission mount? if it was that i would notch it. if you mean the front cross member, which holds the engine, i would be more hesitant to notch that...where, how much, etc?

you didn't answer - did it do this before the timing belt change (ask wife?). i think you checked the wrong hoses "from the grill to the engine" - that's the radiator hose. the largest hose in the engine bay, from the air box to the engine is the intake hose and where you will find vacuum leaks. large black hose from passengers side fender to the engine. underneath of that hose it has a number of other hoses connecting to it. need to make sure those are not broken, leaking, or possibly not seated properly. if it has only done this since the timing belt change you might just ask the mechanic to look over it. and yes - IAC's get dirty and cause stuff like this as well. have the spark plugs and wires ever been changed? at nearly 100k i'd say it's about time.

wow, spoken like a true engineer!

ignore the old belt marks, half the time they're warn off or not there at all. older generation subaru's never came with belt marks, it's just an added check and not something that's necessary. even some new belts don't have the marks. the cam/crank marks are all that matter. line those up and remove the belt that way everything is just about where it's supposed to be, if one snaps (and it probably will), just move it back to where it was. line up all the marks (cam, crank, NEW belt) and you're golden. you said yours isn't interference? i guess yours is a pre 97 2.2 since all 2.5's are.

fluid change? try another TCU...can usually find a used one for cheap and give it a whirl. you could get crazy and wire in a switch to control lock up yourself. there's only 2 solenoids in A & B - i would think one of those controls the lock up function? i haven't really looked over that part of the FSM's, but i bet it wouldnt' be that hard. now whether it's a good idea and when to use it, i would have no clue. but i'm sure switching it on and off in DC traffic makes it nearly useless anyway.

if you can't find any off the shelf you can call an alternator rebuilder and ask if they can do that for you.

they do come loose and cause very bad things to happen if they fall off. i don't even use my torque wrench on mine, i get it as tight as i can, real tight. i know i'm way over the spec's but it's iron not aluminum like most other bolts in there. lostinthe202 - there's no need to get the old belt marks lined up before you pull it - they'll only line up every so many revolutions - someone calculated it once, it's A LOT. but there's no need to.

how 'bout zip tie the box up and out of the way? then get some keyless entry action going and no more worries about the bunged up key tumbler. the tumblers are removable fairly easily. remove the door panel and that's about it on the impreza wagons at least, i can't imagine the legacy's being much harder. just tricky seeing in there to remove the circlip - once that's removed the tumbler comes out. maybe a locksmith could repair it to keep the keys the same?

if you're going through all that work any way i'm not seeing the need to keep it an EA 4EAT trans, just swap the EJ22 in with an EJ 4EAT auto trans too.

Nope, bad idea, good thing you asked. already out of warranty, that sucks. the "Services" are marketing, revenue generating sales items. very rarely should you pay for any "XXXXX mile service". they have a percentage of important services embedded in them, the rest is essentially well worded sales hype. dealerships are rolling in cash on stuff like this. what i would recommend is find the important things and be sure to address those...like oil change, transmission fluid change, timing belts (yours is probably a chain - H6). get your little owners manual and go through the items you've already passed and the ones coming up and figure out what really needs to be done. ask here to clarify. like nipper said the rattling is heat shields. annoying. i always rip them off.

post in the parts wanted forum, someone may have one for you.

pretty sure this is well covered. no need for subaru parts here - get subaru oil seals. but timing belt and water pump can be after market for this motor. actually the better place to put your money is on a complete timing belt kit - which will come with new timing pulleys. all of your pulleys are old and lack grease. having them seize is becoming more common as they age and no one replaces them. last EA82 ebay kit i bought i think was only $80 or something and included all new pulleys. you'll want cams seal kits, not just cam seals. behind the cap that holds the cam seal is an oring, this should be replaced as well. oil pump has 3 parts - shaft seal, mickey mouse gasket, and oring. then there's the crank seal - i'd go Subaru on this one.

swap in another distributor or try to trouble shoot yours. here's the funny thing. twice i've torn down a motor and it took a few months. when i got it back together it wouldn't run right at all and no check engine light. was loosing my noggin trouble shooting and it ended up being the distributor both times. the irony is that both were perfectly fine running vehicles before with no disty issues. after the second time happening i suspect something about the disty may get corrupted if it sets for awhile. outside of that i've never seen a distributor fail while running. the second time i think i even tested the disty via the FSM and i don't recall it testing "out of spec".

no check engine light ever? with the tach going bonkers make sure you inspect the distributor, that's where the tach signal is coming from and you already had a problem there. disassemble and clean or just install another used one. there are plenty of those around for a couple dollars. are you sure you have the distributor lined up properly - they are easy to install a tooth off..or worse! if that doesn't do it you need to check the TPS, that is what moves when you press the go pedal - TPS - throttle position sensor. you should also inspect the throttle cables, and the IAC - idle air control valve. you'll also want to check the wiring to the TPS, the first 6"-12" has a tight bend that is prone to having shorts.

great car, price is high. but you have to realize a bunch of enthusiasts that use this board all the time easily score great deals on cars. comments and what you see here might not be indicative of the real world all the time. so be ready for the "i bought one of those for $2,000" comments. here's mine - i picked up a 80,000 mile 1997 Impreza last year for a friend for $3,200. EJ22, new timing belts, water pump, radiator hoses, PCV valve, brakes, fluids changes, spark plugs, etc. impreza does not equal a legacy but they aren't that far off either, not enough to justify a $3,000 price tag difference. $6,000 is more along the lines of a Legacy GT sports sedan, much higher end cars that sell for a few grand more and have the EJ25 in it (worse motor but more horsepower, good sellers, and more desirable on the mass unintelligent market). comparison shop - see what things are selling for on ebay, autotrader and local ads (magazines, newspapers). if it's comparable to other similar age/mileage vehicles then it's a good vehicle. edmunds...etc. good that it's had the timing belts and water pump done - that's a $600 job right there and a clutch - that's a $500 - $1000 job as well. so those are great maintenance items to have completed on a manual trans EJ22. probably the two most expensive routine maintenance items to consider for this age/mileage vehicle.

definitely not - you just found out why we always recommend not buying any aftermarket axles except MWE.

risky, agree totally. it's probably in his risk tolerance though with a name like "subynut" and wanting to do an EJ22 swap into an EA82. i was just thinking his flexibility here is probably high. he probably wouldn't mind throwing an extra ECU somewhere in the car and rewiring it if he had too. but i think the chances of that are small if done well. if he had an XT6 he could just mount the temp sender in the engine compartment and see what temps he gets? or mount an aftermarket.

other car manufacturers do it. i wouldn't be scared to try it. i would try to find another vehicle that has this set up and use it's parts to isolate the ECU in the engine bay. i think some Audi's have the ECU in the engine compartment and they have a sealed container that isolates them. from my vague memory (keeping in mind i don't know other cars very well), they are roughly the same size with similar connectors...roughly of course. starting with that it doesn't seem to difficult to fabricate a sealed, isolated, and insulated compartment for it.

nah.