Gnuman

If he gives you that price, grab it before he changes his mind. It is an excelent deal for the 3500. . .

Those HDRx units are not suited for street use. The "harsh shifting" that they talk about is often called "chatter", and is really hard on the passengers, and the rest of the drivetrain. If you look closely, you will see on the HD00 unit, there are 4 springs in the middle. they are there to help make the clutch engagement smoother, resulting in less stress on the rest of the drivetrain (not to mention the people in the car). The metal ceramic units (HDRx) do not have these springs and are really designed for rally and track use only. If you end up using one of these units, you will find yourself tending to "slip" the clutch a lot more, which will tear up the flywheel, clutch disk, and pressure plate a lot faster. This negates thier usefulness with street usage. The bset combination on that page would be an organic (street) clutch, with one of the MaXX pressure plates (these have the highest clamp pressure, and will give you the best performance out of your clutch. This will tend to result in a longer lasting clutch with your hard driving habits. That said, I have to agree with mbeau in that perhaps some education in how to optomise your clutch usage would also be a good investment. This can (if the skills learned are actually used) increase the longevety of your clutch considerably, making the higher end clutch a much better deal in the long run. If you are "hard on a clutch" they will burn fast and I don't care what chutch you put in there, they will not last. *gets down off his soap box and walks away*

My 92 Legacy wagon has cruise and rear defrost there.

How much do you want for the wheels? I've been looking for some alloys. . .

That valve bothers me. What if a stick or something got stuck in there just enough to acuate the valve. . . I'll stay with the standard drain plug, thank you very much. . . HTere is such a thing as too easy. . .

I believe they are required in Eruope, as a standard safety feature, for the reasons stated above ( generally revolving around parking on dark streets). There are two advantages to the "Parking light switch": 1) it allows the headlight system to be disabled when the ignition is not "on" (ie the car is not running), which reduces the number of times people flatten thier batteries by leaving the lights on accidentailly. 2) when using the park light switch, only the parking lights are on. No dashboard lights, no ignition, no nothing (unless you turn them on seperately). This allows for the lights to be left on for longer periods without draining the battery, which allows you to use them on particularly dark streets, like they have in Europe. Now as to why they are provided on cars sold in the US? That one I dunno, but I'll guess that either they thought it was a good idea (safety measure), or they wanted one less part that had to be manufactured seperately in the US version from the European version. . . The poll is locked (for some reason, so I'll add my vote here: I have had occasion ot use the park light (even in the US, while parking in particularly dark areas (usually dirt roads). . . And yes, I have had to pull weeds out of places they have gotten stuck when I "made a new road". . . What the hell use is 4 wheel drive if you don't use it?

Do they involve digging them out of places they get stuck when you "make a new road"?

That I'm not sure of, my info does not go into that particular detail. I would suspect that they are the same, as they are both AWD, and both have the same engine (well almost the same engine), and they weigh just about the same. . .

The car uses OBD I diagnostics, no need for a scanner. The Check Engine Light (CEL) will clash the code to you when you go into diagnostic display mode. The 11 char of your VIN is G which indicates that you have the Full Time 4WD Manual transmission manufactured by Gunma. This is usually refered to on this board as the 5MT, as this was used for many years by Subaru. The main reason for this is that the tranny is all but indestructable. I really belongs in a truck. The O2 sensor can be found on the Y pipe coming out of the front of the cat, which is at the joint of the Y. You will need this Y pipe, just to make things simple. . .

Thanks for looking for the info. If you want to meet at annother time, I'm in Oakley, just at the other end of 160. . . . PM me for contact info if you are interested. . .

No it is not. the strap simply fell down behind the lower cushion. See that plastic bit on the seatback? the strap should be within 2" of the right edge of that. You will have to dig your fingers into the edge between the seat bottom and the seatback in that area to find it. it is there. . . pull on any strap you find in that area. if it is the seatbelt, it will not move. If it is the strap, the seat bottom will swing up. . .

Please define "Swirl Pot" it is a tern I have not heard before. . . Welcome to the board! What part of Northern Cal are you in? There is a Meet&Greet tomorrow at 10:00 AM in El Cerrito, CA (SF Bay Area). You can get more details on this by checking the events thread at the top of the page, or sending me a PM.

What say we send some of these later pictures to the cartalk people to shut them up. It seems that the Outback really is a truck, posing as a car. . .

The reason I did not answer was that I do not have the information you want, and I kinda assumed that you wanted correct answers. . .

There is a Vhicle Speed Sensor Buffer in the dash (behind the speedo) that the CC uses to set speed. There are two speed sensors on the tranny as well. IIRC Legacy777 has pictures of where these are. Any of them failing will cause the speedo and the CC to fail as well. Not sure if they are used for shifting of the 4EAT, though. That may be an RPM thing. . .

Not sure if coloradosubarules is being serious, but if not I have a 93 wagon that I'm putting a clutch in in preperation to sell it. The new parts installed include a new Exedy clutch and new valve cover gaskets. The original clutch went 190K miles before going out so I'm pretty sure this is a car that will last you quite a while. As well as replacing the clutch, I'm going over the car with a fine toothed comb to be sure the car is as reliable as it can be. It is a blue '93, AWD Legacy L Wagon, 5MT, 190K on the odo, fresh clutch, fresh gear oil in the tranny, fresh oil in the oil pan, new head gaskets, new clutch. PM me if you are interested.

As well as this forum, also have a look in the Subaru Offroad forum on this same board. Lots of people lift thier Subies to take them offroad. . .

The Forester has drums on the back? WTF?!? I noticed that you are in the Bay Area. Do you plan on being at the Bay Area Meet & Greet in El Cerrito this saturday? (see the sticky thread at the top for details) In that you "ski, hike, camp, etc" I would go with the Forester. I would go with the MT to be sure of reliability. The sportshift is nice, and perhaps a better transmission, but we don't know that yet. THe MT is a known quantity. . . Perhaps you could see if disks are available on the rear of the Forester in that trim?

It really is easy. At the bottom of the balljoint there is a 17mm nut that is held in place with a cotter pin. Take out the pin and remove the nut. The top of the balljoint is attached with a pinch bolt (10mm). Take out the bolt (completely, there is a groove that the bolt lays in near the top of the balljoint). Put a flat bladed screwdriver (or a small crowbar) in the slot between the sides of the pinched area to loosten it a bit and make removal easier. Hammer down on the crossmember to pull the balljoint from the top mount. Use a "Picklefork" Only special tool that you really need, you can find it at your local auto parts store. They will know what you are talking about, and what size, if you tell them what you are doing. Some will even be able to loan you one) to remove the bottom part. Installation of the new one is similarly easy. Put the bottom in first, and tighten the bolt to make it as secure as possable (no cotter pin yet) Use the crowbar again to spread the sides of the top mount slightly and put the top of the ball joint in place. I found that taking a jack and pushing up on the ball joint enough to lift the car off of the jackstand helped in putting the ball joint into the top of the mount, but be careful with this as the car could slip off of that jack, with spectacular results (do not have any part of your body under the car when you do this. . .). When the ball joint is fully seated in the top mount, you will be able to replace the pinch bolt. Now torque down the bottom nut and install the cotter pin. Reinstall the wheel and go directly to an alignment center and have your front end aligned. It is that easy. (It was harder to type the instructions than the job itself actually is. . .

There are two sliders: one on top and one on the bottom. if one is sticking and the other is not, you will get a taper. There are three basic parts to a disc brake caliper: the piston, the slider pins, and the C shaped caliper frame. when the piston is pushed out against the inboard pad, the force of this pushing is also directed (in an equal and oposite direction) on the frame. If the sliders are floating freely, this force is applied to the outboard pad by the caliper frame. If the slider pins are hanging up, then some of the force is eaten up by the force needed to overcome that resistance. The taper on the inboard caliper comes from the pin that is not sticking moving when the other one is (it will be tapered in on the side that is sticking). The taper on the outside is caused by this as well, in the other direction (tapered to the side that is not sticking, as this is the onlu side that is getting actual use). Clear as mud? When the foot is placed on the pedal the pressure to the hydraulic fluid is increased. When the foot is released so is the pressure, which allows the piston in the wheel calipers to retract slightly. This releases the pressure to the brake pads.

EJ is the engine designation. An EJ22 is a 2.2L version, and the 2.5 version has three variants: 2.5 DOHC (Double OverHead Cams) and SOHC (Single OverHead Cam) the 2.2L is a SOHC engine, by the way. The DOHC 2.5's had the internal head gasket problem. Subaru redesigned the head gasket (better materials, IIRC) when the found out about the problem. They also redesigned the engine to a SOHC design, which solved the internal problem, but introduced an external leak problem. This has been addressed with a newer head gasket as well as a "stop-leak" type of goop. A second redesign is in newer vehicles than '02, and the jury is still out on them. They have not been on the road long enough for problems to start showing up in numbers yet. I, for one, hope they got this one right. . . The newer cars have more failures simply because they are more complex, as people demanded more features. More features mean more points of potential failure. It is that simple. A new Subaru will most likely give you many many miles 9or kilometers) of excelent service, so it is still money well spent. For less money, I would go for any early 90's Subaru, or anything with an EJ22 engine (the problem on the EJ25's was the block, and that part of the EJ22 did not change). If you go for something newer, go for anything '03 or later. . .

The back of the oil pump has a few screws that seal the unit. these loosen over time and need to be tightened. Also replace the O rings on the oil pump as well, while you have it off. This is a common source of leaks.

When you changed the thermostat, what did you change it with? A genuine OEM thermostat will have a small hole that is used to purge air out of the system. Many of the aftermarket thermostats do not have this hole, which makes "burping" the system very dificult. You say that when the guage goes to hot, the coolant in the radiator is still cold. This points to the coolant not circulating, which points to thermostat and water pump. With all your circulation parts in working order, it would point to a head gasket, but we do not know that all of your circulation components are in working order.

I also have a 92 Legacy wagon (and at $75, you did steal it. . . ), and have never considered the doors to be "flimsy". Have you taken a look at the doors on a Suzuki Sidekick? The doors on my Subaru are at least as solidly built as any import and most "domestic" cars in the last pair of decades (within the same class, you can leave trucks and the like out of this. I don't care what Subaru clasifies them as, they are small wagons). The whole car is built like a tank (I know, I have driven it like it was one), but it has the spirit of a sports car (I've driven it like one of these as well. . . ). All in all My Subaru is very solidly built, doors and all. I don't need a window frame to prove it (particularly when I've seen so many of these fail). . .

No, only one of those answers is dumb. "I do not know the answer right off hand, but I can find it" is always the best answer to a question you do not know the answer to. . .