idosubaru

$5,500 is a reasonable price for that vehicle if it's in great condition. the 99's have some strange quirks to them...the automatics have a common delay into gear issue that is not easily fixed. the two people that i know personally that have a 99 have this issues (one just had her trans rebuilt less than a month ago) and the other had it replaced...only to still have the same issue with their used trans. and the local mechanics have seen it before as well. as far as i can tell it seems the 99's have this issue far more often than other years, even 98's and 00's. the speedo likes to quit working on the 99's and of course the headgaskets. and check for binding as well. is it the SUS or a GT sedan? if it's a two-tone then it's an SUS sedan, not a GT i think. either way, both are great vehicles.

here's my post about ABS and the information i found to do the job. i had never touched ABS stuff before and these links i found through searching walked me right through it. i used the search function to find it. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=76811 good luck and hopefully it has some codes for you!

you haven't mentioned yet if the ABS light is on. if it is, you can read the code and be done with this. all you need is a piece of wire from your negative battery terminal. ground that in the appropriate pin and follow the directions (very simple). you should download or look at the subaru ENDWRENCH ABS information. everything you need to know is there, it's silly for us to look up bits and pieces and post it here. those articles are completely and even detail differences across models/years which we can't do from memory. there are multiple threads posting all of this, spend a little time and get the right information and it'll take you a couple minutes.

awesome you got the rears to work, good job! i picked up that aircraft sealant but don't have it with me right now. hopefully i'll remember to get the name/information off the tube when i'm home tonight.

awesome, glad it worked out for you. great follow up and info on the TCU, thanks for posting that.

check level, fluid flush, get the easy stuff out of the way. i've seen them go for a long, long time like this. annoying, but i wouldn't consider it trashed just yet, keep an eye on if it's getting worse or not.

nice john, i've never seen your XT6...well not counting the black one anyway! hopefully you'll drive it next week when we meet up? i really like white, probably one of my favorites, is that pearl white?

common, probably passengers side right? it's not that hard to do, removing the turbo bits is the most annoying part to me. do it with the engine in the car and use air tools. with air tools your cam tower and head bolts come out and go in so much quicker and it's easier to do the job correctly (mainly - cleaning the head bolt holes). tons of information on here about EA headgaskets. use Fel-Pro permatorque headgaskets and snug them about 5 pounds more than spec's, they do not need to be retorqued like the Subaru gaskets. well worth the savings in time, that is very common and trusted method for those of us that have done a lot of engine work. or..if you have someone else do it, make sure they use those headgaskets and explain why. it's not a bad job, but it is time consuming. paying a few hundred dollars for a shop to do it would be annoying considering you can probably just go buy another one. the turbo's blow headgaskets fairly regularly by this age...the systems are getting old and heat kills headgaskets. having your turbo and cooling system in top condition helps avoid that. keep that in mind as you complete this job, that's one advantage to doing it yourself. a mechanic will replace the headgaskets and maybe a few other things, you can replace all of the hoses while you're in there.

edit your post, erase your password and change it anywhere else it may be the same.

awesome vehicles, super cool commuter and road trip cars. not the funnest to drive as they are large and don't handle great in those terms, but ride really nice for long trips. very, very expensive and hard to find parts. windshields are hard to find and run $500 - $700 for instance. transmissions go out fairly often, i wouldn't expect yours to last as long as you own the vehicle. not because you can't take care of it...but it has 15 years of previous owners to deal with. if you get it, change the fluid and install an aftermarket transmission cooler immediately. wheel bearings go out like nobodies business...replace and they can easily go out again in less than 1000 miles. read up on why that happens and how to mitigate that. be sure to read up on all of it's quirks, particularly the expensive and recurrent ones.

for the steering rack bushings (based off that picture, they'd be held in place by bracekt "21"), newer generation stuff works on the XT6 and XT6 stuff fits in an EA82...so, is it possible those rubber bushings will work on older models as well or could you just convert to EA82 power steering? that bracket "21" in moosens pictures look very much like EA82 stuff...one is round, the other is square-ish.

you should check yours and see if it's been replaced or not, you may already have the new style headgaskets, you can tell just by popping the hood and looking in the right spot. either underneath by the exhaust manifold or just behidn the power steering pump. at the head to block mating surface, part of the gasket protrudes and you can tell if it's a multi layer metal style or just the old standard headgasket. and yes...the newer style headgasket is far superior to the original. i haven't seen any reliable sources quoting percentage of failures. that's not to say nipper isn't reliable, he's one of the most reliable sources on this forum, but i haven't seen a solid analysis anywhere. it might be 5%, it might be 40%, i don't think there's a solid method for assessing that. when i stop into the subaru shops they typically have a few HG jobs going on simultaneously (3 last time i was there), in a very small city of less than 40,000 people. i am constantly looking and buying subaru's and blown headgasket 2.5's are not hard to find at all. the last legacy i bought actually had new headgaskets on it...which is why you should check yours like i mentioned before worrying about conditioning it, etc. i would not use that cadillac conditioner. they use some junk engines in their cars, i wouldn't want any of their additives in a subaru. and like they said, additives really only help the late phase II 'external leaking' engines. additives have not been known to help the phase I engines at all. timely replacement of cooling system components like nipper mentioned and flushing your system is more valuable in this case.

if the muffler is that bad, be sure to address the pipe behind it as well if it's also bad. don't install a new muffler on rusty pipe. are you doing this yourself or having a shop do it? did the flange come off, or is that still in place? is it usable, probably too rusty? if the flange is useable the easiest way to do it yourself if get a used or new muffler that bolts right up. don't mess with flex pipe and clamps, they rust and are nothing more than very temporary fixes. run some straight pipe, that might be another idea if you don't want to go for the muffler deal. if not, then welding will be needed. can you weld? i'd go with a dynomax straight through muffler, but they are stainless steel so that's a bit tougher to weld. there are cheaper alternatives than dynomax though, tons of off the shelf stuff, take your pick.

the keyless remote box is easily visible. it's on the lower drivers side kick panel, to the left of the brake pedal, up against the wall. it's huge and says KEYLESS ENTRY on it, very obvious.

1998 Legacy GT Sedan with hydraulic clutch. piston pushes against the fork, i've never worked on a hydraulic clutch before do i don't know all the terms.

they don't give a crap about your transmission, i would suspect they towed it with two wheels up, two wheels down, but like you said they won't offer any proof. i dont know anything about tow trucks but there might be a way to tell if they towed it on a flat bed - like markings on the underside anchor points, etc. i would try to find out in a round-a-bout fashion, without mentioning anything about 4WD or subaru or anything, try to find out for a BENIGN reason so they talk. then go from there...but get it in writing or tape record or somethign because they'll lie as soon as they find out why you're really doing that. maybe you can find out who towed it and what truck that person drives. usually a particular person drives a particular truck, but they can really do it however they want. check with local places close to where you parked and see if they have any security camera footage of that evening, but check soon if that's possible because they'll over-write that footage soon. the problem is that your transmission will work perfectly fine now with no problems. i've personally been involved with and seen subaru's towed improperly for hundreds of miles with two wheels down. even on those, any problems that may have incurred from the incident will happen down the road....in a year, 50,000 miles...something like that. immediate damage is rare, particularly with only 40 miles towing. problem is, without a lawyer and proof it will be hard for them to give a crap, they know they're getting away with it and making theyre $275. they're going to be big "insert inappropriate phrase here".

that one you showed a picture of, is that one i sent you? i would attempt to repair that, it doesn't appear significantly dry rotted and doesn't appear to be close to the ends that will be curled under and stressed at the bottom. if i remember i'll look at the name of that aircraft grade sealant and post it tomorrow. know any small airports, airplane mechanic places close to you, they may have something similar? i'm not surprised with the answers you've gotten so far, noone over here would mess with them either. they also have heavy duty repair kits for rubber rafts that may be useable. some people at XT6.net (unfortuantely the site is donw now) know the pressures the system operates at. actually it's proably in the FSM i'm sure. if you know that and know the rating of a rubber patch kit (like for inflatable rafts), i would consider going that route as well.

yeah, people do it all the time on the xt6. too bad the xt6 site is down.

an engine fire can result from the oil filler cap being left off. call the fire department to confirm that if you don't believe me. (i've seen it). the interesting thing is that fires can start after the car is shut off as well. the oil is all over the engine/exhaust. once the car is shut off the cooling system is not operating and the internal heat of the engine starts to disipate outwards and the outside/surface temps can start to rise. if there's something that can ignite and it gets hot enough it could happen. then if that oil gets hot enough to burn...that's how it was explained to me.

if the ABS light came on, read the codes. subaru's ENDWRENCH site has all the procedures and codes listed. i went through this a couple weeks ago in my legacy and the endwrench site proved very helpful. showed exactly which pin to ground (just above your gas pedal, there's a connector). ground one pin, very easy. and the ABS light blinks your code. then read the code - it will tell you what is wrong. let me know what you come up with, curious. is yours activating just as you're coming to a stop - like at 3 - 5 mph?

a wobble? i would check your axle nut immediately and make sure it didnt' back off. did you crimp the nut back into the axle when you were finished, crimp it well so it doesn't creep. did you put plenty of torque on the axle nut? how exactly did you replace the axle, what all did you remove? ball joint, tie rod, strut bolts, etc? did you make sure to retain your alignment of the top strut mount camber bolt?

"best for your money" - EJ18 or EJ22 up to 1996 (non interference). a FWD manual would be ideal for reliability. manuals are more reliable than auto's and FWD is more reliable than AWD, FWD has no driveshaft, rear diff, rear axles, rear CV's, torque bind, etc... all of my subaru's are AWD, but i'm going to make a legacy with an EJ18 and FWD manual for summer road trip driving.

seafoam is not the problem. engines are fairly robust machines, adding an appropriate amount of seafoam to a perfect condition engine will not hurt anything, period. experience contrary to that are anecdotal and don't prove anything about seafoam. people often start dumping stuff in their motors (or transmissions, fuel system, power steering, etc) when something is wrong and hope for an easy fix. if an engine has issues and you add seafoam and it breaks...the logical conclusion is NOT that seafoam caused it. it's that the engine had issues to begin with! if seafoam "causes" issues, the issues were soon in coming anyway, so there's really no loss.

sounds like your alt or possibly battery has issues. you can also check the connections, i'm not EA81 fluent but if the connectors at the alternator are bad...corroded, weak, broken, brittle plastic, you may get similar issues. fix soon, this weakens batteries and alternators.

XT6 power steering, check fluid level first. the brushes are the most common issue, they wear out like any other electrical motor. they costs about $15 and are easy to replace. sometimes you can just clean the internals out and get it working again..or evne tap the motor housing. lots and lots of dust in there makes for bad electrical mojo. but while it's apart for cleaning you might as well just install new brushes. give the pump power and see if it operates. this will tell you if it's the motor or the supporting system of components...computer, power controller, sensors, etc. there's a method to extract the code for the power steering light as well.