Gnuman

Please tell us a bit more about this "clicking" would you? does it follow the speed of the engine? is it a fast click, ir does it sound significantly slower than the engine? Can you hear if it is inside the cabin, or does it sound like it is in the engine? is this clicking only under load, or can you make it happen when sitting still? These answers will help us pin the noise down, and fix it if needed. That depends on the timing belt used in the last change. From the sounds of things your car is fitted with a timing belt that has a service interval of 96,000km. Ignore this interval at risk of destroying your engine. If the timing belt fails on your car while the engine is running, internal parts will impact against other internal parts making for a very large repair bill. The cost of replacing the belt at 96,000km is minor in comparison. How much do you want to gamble on the belt lasting longer than the stated interval? Yes, the belt will probably last 120,000 or maybe even 160,000km. probably. Is probably good enough for you, considering the cost if it does not? There are belts designed to go 160,000km as the service interval, but I do not know for a fact that they are available in your area. Find out what the service interval is for the belt that was fitted, and go with that figure.

If you are taking the Outback hunting, you do not put the kill inside the car. you put it on top of the car. . . OK, Outback: Two versions: Outback, Legacy outback - Built on the Legacy platform. Single most rugged of the modern Subarus. good ground clearance. Outback Sport, Impreza Outback - This is a smaller, quicker version of the Outback, based on the Impreza platform. Legacy: Probably the most all-arouond capable of the Subaru lineup. with a standard ground clearance it has excelent handling, and a good serving of power. Impreza: All out fast with lightning quick handling, or a great economy car. What you get is mostly in how you drive it. Lighter than the Legacy, it also uses a smaller engine. . .to very good effect. This is Subarus racing platform for good reason. as it is very light, you also get great gas milage if you do not "punch" it often, but this is dificult in a car that has this much raw performance potential. Besides the base models, there are two "Performance" versions. WRX = sporty, well manered on road, great handling. Some power upgrades, but not full on racing. STi - The only way to accelerate faster is to strap JATO to your car. Be careful in buying this car. The urge to exceed the speed limit (or the sound barrier) is almost unbearable. Buy this car if you plan to race. . .and win. Forester: the most SUV looking of the Subaru line. Many people consider this to be a very tall Outback. Baja: A Forester with an open back end. . . Or a pick-up truck with a very short bed and four doors. Take your pick. Tribeca (new): 7 passenger capability, DVD, Nav. Face it, This is a minivan, Subaru style. Subaru calls this a "crossover" vehicle, or a SUV. OK, market it however you want, but it is a minivan. A very very good one, but a minivan. Which one is for you? what do you want to do with it? Subaru has a car in it's lineup for just about anything you can come up with for a car to do. You get the greatest "beef" out of the Legacy Outback as long as you do not plan on driving real fast (My Legacy holds the road like she is bolted to it. Do not expect the same out of an Outback). I would rate this or the Forester as the best if you plan on going hunting with it. For primarily on road, I would go with an Impreza (for fast onroad) or a Legacy (for all around capability). The Baja and Tribeca are cars that you buy if you have a need/want for that particular form factor. I think that covers all of the newer Subarus, and these are my opinions on them. All of them are very good cars, you just need to decide wich is best for you.

I'm with 2212, or close to that. I don't know if it was the strut, hub assy, or both that got bent on that rear wheel, but it is definitely repairable. good body shop shoould be able to take care of that outer skin and cladding no sweat. Definitely fixable back to factory specs. Go to a good shop, though, as a half-arsed job here will be one that you will be paying for for a long time. . . And, yes, get the berring replaced. That kind of impact is not what that wheel berring was designed to withstand. . .

Best prices are to be had getting the clutch kit online. Some say that resurfacing is not needed every time, and you will shorten the life of the flywheel if you resurface every time. I say you should resurface each time, to be sure of a good surface to "bite" with. Torque spec on the flywheel bolts is 60ft-lbs. Nothing particularly wierd about this tranny (except that it is so well designed) if you are used to RWD cars, except that you also have two halfshafts sticking out of the sides at the front. 3/16" drift punch takes them loose with ease (roll pin at tranny side of the halfshaft). If you have a cable system, leave a bit of slack in the cable so that you still have freeplay when the system heats up. (I go with 1/4" to 3/8" free cable and it works out well) Hmmmm. . .that would give me an excuse to go to Redding. . . I just put new tires on, and I'm itching for a road trip. . .

First off, what part of California are you in? I'm in the Bay area and have done a few of these. The tranny is the easier item to remove. Takes the removal of two halfshafts, the propellershaft, exaust manifold, and the shift linkage. Does this car still have the hill holder? that means a cable clutch and you have two cables to remove/reinstall, and adjust. You will also need to drain the transmission so the gear oil does not spill out the tail-housing when you pull the propeller shaft. You will need a transmission jack (rentable) and I recomend four jackstands to give you the best ammount of room to work with. While you are back there, see if the oil seperator plate is plastic (IIRC, it is) and if so, replace it with a metal one. the plastic ones tend to crack and or warp, causing oil leaks. While you are at it, take a look at your rear main seal. Replace it if it is damaged, or if it is not brown (the black ones had a tendancy to leak, so they were revised to the brown ones. Not sure which your engine came with). I would recomend that you get your flywheel resurfaced, but opinions on that particular step vary in proportion to the number of people responding. Get an Excedy clutch kit (they make the OEM, and the ones they sell themselves are just a bit better), or an OEM. Do not go cheap on the clutch kit. it is not worth it. send me an email pr a PM (click on my name for easy access to this) if you would like my help on this and you are within 100 miles of either Sac or SF. . .

Well, I think the wheels look good. Irish1, it matters little what we think of your new ride (and you already know, probably, that most of us are drooling over it anyway ). What is important is what you think of it. Yo stated that you are quite fond of the car. Expect that to only get better as time goes on. Mine is not nearly as nice looking as yours (though I would have gotten it in blue, but I'm partial to blue tones) but she has proven herself to be an absolute rock solid performer with 180K miles on the clock and no major work done to her. Expect similar performance out of yours.

In '97, the EJ25 (2.5L was a DOHC engine, that had a problem with combustion chamber to coolant jacket headgasket leaks. The new (revised) headgasket will greatly reduce this problem, if not completely cure it. The DOHC design makes for a few problems on this engine: 1) the plugs are harder to get to due to the required positioning of them right next to a frame rail (I wanna "talk" to the engineer that thought that one up. . .) 2) timing belt changes are more dificult as you have two cam sprockets under tension, that you have to align with each other, and with the crank (the other two are not under tension, so not a problem) 3) you have to remove the camshafts in order to pull the heads when changing out the headgaskets, and the shim type of valve adjustment that Subaru uses on this engine is a royal PITA. Personally, I think this is the worst engine that Subaru ever made. That, of course, means it is only three times as good as any other engine you will find, instead of the usual ten times better. . . Given the market, I would take the Subaru, but try and talk them down a bit, and make them replace the timing belt for you with a CA spec one so you *know* when it is due. The '97 DOHC is an interference engine, and if the timing belt snaps on you, then you will be buying a new engine. .

Well, if it does have a bad berring, then Subaru should pay for it at that milage, as it is clearly defective. This all started at a carwash? really strange. You may also look around the propeller shaft to see if any of the heat shields may have come loose

Update: Well, those of you who know my driving style, and the condition of my tires no longer need to worry. I went in to America's Tire Center out here and bought 5 of the lowest end tires they had. This gives me tread to last through the winter wet (40K miles worth) and I now even have a spare. Will be rotating at each oil change (3K miles) on a 5 wheel pattern. This will extend the tread life a bit, and insure that I always have a good matching spare in case of trouble. Yes, I know that putting cheap tires on only increases the chances of trouble, and that is why I made sure that I got 5 of them. $250 out the door (I'm gonna be eating Ramen for most of the month now) and I pushed them a bit on the way home. They actually feel pretty good, and hold fairly well (at least on the dry pavement that I had available to use) Now all I need is either a repair for the wheel that holds the spare (small flat spot), or a replacement (Richierich, you said you had some, do you still have any?) as well as a centercap that went "walkies" on me a few days ago. I feel much better about the coming weather now that I have rubber on the ground that has enough tread to deal with it. . .

snaffle, I'm just glad that you and your 'roo are back on the road again. Here's to many happy miles together. As for what happened, "Salvage Title" and really low miles are probably the primary indicators here. the owner that you bought it from probably had no idea what a salvage title meant when they bought it, and did not know to inform you of such. Unless they had just learned what a salvage title meant, but that is just being paranoid. What you have now is probably a lot closer to what you actually paid for then. I would keep a close eye on the tranny as well. If the engine was beaten on hard enough to set up a premature failure, the tranny likely also bore some of the brunt of that abuse. Please note also that the tranny has a fluid change interval, which is more critical with the Auto Tranny than the Manual Tranny, as the fluids in the Auto heat up and degrade more than the Manual. Just something to (perhaps) prevent a near future problem for you.

My 92 Legacy wagon is rated at 1500#. It will pull more than that, but that is what it is rated for. . . Heh, only 500# less than my V6 minivan. . . and I feel a lot more comfortable pulling with the Subie than I do with the van. Emily has a lot more heart than the van does. . .

With the TPS not set right, the ECU will not know when to idle the engine. As for symptoms, they probably vary depending on in what direction the sensor was off.

I think he meant "Down Under" which means Austrailia. . .

you mean the one on the stalk where you turn on the lights?

Sweden, From the discussion alone, I offer the hypothesis that it is a bad connection (corroded signal wire connector or poor ground). Those are two things that can be checked visually.

A manual tranny will fit. . .just. if the tranny is an Auto, take it out seperately.

On the subject of oil: it is better to have crappy, worn out oil than nothing at all (and I have seen that all too often). I use a "frequent" schedule of 3K/change because it makes me feel safer when I can still see a bit of daylight through the oil when it is down to a 1/8" dribble as it comes out of the pan. I plan on tearing the engine down at 200K miles to check on the wear of the deep internals, and replace anything that is worn (not likely to be much, perhaps an HLA or two) as well as all gaskets/seals. When that is done, I will go to synthetic oil for the improved additives and detergents. what interval then? Probably the same. Sorry folks but I happen to agree with Nipper that a more frequent change interval is just good insurance against engine failure.

Nipper, would that last come under politics, or religion? GD&R

Close, but not quite. 2.2 hydraulic through 96, then solid 2.5 hydraulic in 96, 97-99 (DOHC) solid shim type lifters, after that (SOHC) screw and nut type adjusters 2.0 (not sure) Good luck on finding a Subie that fits your needs. The shim type lifters are a PITA to adjust, but the screw and nut type are fairly easily done by a home mechanic.

Ranger, do you pass those shirts out to the drivers that cannot keep up with you ?

OK, what is this with Foresters becoming idiot magnets? Good luck with recovering your damages. Definitely have someone check out the underside, and inside the cargo area to be sure nothing was bunged up.

Take a spray bottle of water with you and spray the usual suspects while it is whining (or a can of WD-40, if you want). the part you spray that stops the whining, is your prime suspect the next time, until you find the part that stops it all the time. Then you know where the leak is, and can start on making the leak stop. . .

Who wants to bet the bug is a total?

If at first you do not suceed, skydiving is not your sport. . .

Engine oil is best described in two parts: the lubricant (oil) and the supporting chemicals (detergents, viscosity stabilisers, etc). Synthetics use a different lubricant than dyno-oils, an da different mix of supporting chemicals. When Emily hits 200K miles, I plan on doing a top engine overhual (I had originally planed on taking the whole thing down to bolts, but I'm a bit of a geek that way) and a complete reseal of the engine. When I do, I'll be switching to synthetic. What interval will I use? the same 3K/change. I'm going to synthetic for the better additives, and perhaps to prolong the supply of petrol we have available just a bit. (Ok, not by much but. . .) I could probably extend the interval even on the dyno oil I'm using now, considering that the oil is still fairly clean (I can see through it on the stick) when I change it. I maintain the "short" interval because that way I know my engine is protected. As for keeping a log, I make a note in my fuel log, and many auto parts stores give away windshield stickers that you write the change interval milage on (due when you have XXX miles).