shimonmor

I used a Vice-Grip chain wrench on the pulley with a breaker bar on the bolt and had no problems. Those Vice-Grip chain wrenches are worth their weight in gold.

Either would work but I think it would be nice to have the OEM look and convenience of having the quick disconnect plug. Plus soldering under there doesn't sound fun.

Have you had your differential fluid changed recently? Sounds like you don't have the limited slip additive (I think it's called GL5 or something). If you have a manual tranny then it too should have the LS additive. Usually you should put in 80-90W with the additive in it already but you can also buy just the additive and add it to the oil in there.

I don't know if I buy the crush washer theory...yes it's possible, but if that drain plug is tight, it shouldn't leak. I've done every oil change on my wife's 99 Outback with 102k miles every 3k miles which comes out to 34 oil changes and I've only changed the crush washer once and I've never had a drop of oil leak out the plug. Again...it could have happend in this case but I think the drain plug must not have been tightened for this to occur. As to what happened to your oil...I don't know. Could be human error. I agree that if you burned the oil you would see blue/grey smoke (I know...I work on oil burners a.k.a. diesels). Good luck.

Well, I ended up replacing both the front and rear O2 sensors since I figured the front one is usually only good for 100k miles and I was under there already. Wasn't too hard. Just need a 22mm wrench. Turns out that my code didn't go out after changing out the rear sensor so I figured it was a wiring problem. I traced the wiring harness and found that it has a connector at the top of the bellhousing and the connector had come loose. Just pushed them back together and I was back in business. So, I'm sure the rear sensor was probably still good...but I'll rationalize this experience and just call it good preventative maintenance.

The wife's 99 Outback (100k miles, MT) just popped the "Check Engine" light. Mo OBD II scanner says it's code 141, Downstream O2 sensor heater problem. Looked in the Haynes and it has a photo of the upstream sensor but not the downstream. It also has some minimal troubleshooting checks for voltages and resistance. Anyway, I erased the code and it hasn't come back yet and I'm wondering if this is a common failure (like the EGR) or was it just a spurious reading? I'm a marine diesel mech so I know my way around an engine but I don't know that much about all this emmisions stuff. Any suggestions? How much do these sensors cost? Are they a pain in the rear to get to? Thanks! (Just discovered this forum...it's about time there was a Subaru forum!)

I have a '99 and used the Haynes for the 98 to replace timing belt, oil seals, camshaft seals and a lot more. No problems for me. I think the 98 and 99 are just about the same.