NOMAD327

If you touch the remote to your body when you push the button, the range will be improved. Bottom of the chin seems to work the best, but you will look funny.

I operated the rear windows on my 99 OBW the other day and noticed they move very slow, especially going up. They are normally not operated at all, and I assume they are just dirty. Anyone else have this problem and pursue it?

I have used a hot air gun or poured a little hot water out of a tea pot over the sticker. Any glue that remains can usually be removed with tar remover which is specifically intended for cleaning gummy stuff off paint without hurting it.

All loctite thread sealers break down at about 200 degrees, which is good to know. The red 271 or 272 are intended to have bolt breaking holding power unless heated. The blue 242 is ideal for what you are doing, it is intended to break free with wrenching torque. The green 290 is very cool stuff, it has lower holding power than the 242, but will seep into a threaded joint that is already assembled and lock it after seeping in. 290 will also seal a porosity in a weld joint or casting, which can stop an air leak on a tank or wheel. The way they work is they stay liquid until they are deprived of oxygen in the assembled joint. They also react to the touch of metal, so if you are seeing the tip of the bottle plug up, it is from touching the tip of the bottle to the metal during application.

This may be an urban legend, but I always heard if the airbags on a car deployed, and the windshield cracked showing the body structure had deformed, at least for a moment, the insurance company would total the car. Two years ago, I had a 2000 Mercury Cougar set off it’s airbags. It was at about 5 MPH, I got caught in a winter white out and was stopped in the travel lane of a major two lane road. I didn’t feel comfortable being on the highway, and I basically just idled the car off the road onto the berm. I made contact with a telephone pole, it turns out I couldn’t see beyond the front of the hood, hit the pole right where the sensor was located behind the bumper. The windshield cracked and the bags went off and they totaled a car barely more than two years old with fairly low miles. There was no damage under the hood and not much visible externally. I can tell you that airbags are only experienced as a memory, I remember them going off, but when it was happening, it was too fast up and back down to really register as happening at the time. They will not block your view while driving if they go off, it happens too fast. The estimated repair of the car at the time was around 7,000 dollars, it was 3,000 just for the two airbags. Replacement of the car was around 14,000 dollars. The insurance company wouldn’t even discuss fixing the car, we loved that car and wanted to keep it. I suspect they were concerned it could be involved in another accident in the future with injuries and lawsuits, etc. and just didn’t that hanging over their head. (Ford would be the one sued if the original ones hadn’t gone off!) Airbags must have a hair trigger to work when needed, and what you and I experienced is just a result of that design. If airbags are important to you, I would start thinking of a replacement vehicle. If you always wear your belts, you can install dummy covers in the car and drive it for the rest of it’s natural life. You can also buy used bags for a better price if you can find them, you will be safe if your wear your belts all the time more than likely. I seem to remember the tow hook recall story too.

My experience is on a 99 OBW, Probably very similar on any AWD legacy or imprezza most model years. the forward most section of carpet has to be lifted up behind the rear seat and there are two sheet metal domes under it. under the domes there is a pair of flat metal plates, one on each side. the passenger side is larger and has more hoses and a larger wire disconnect, the driver side is smaller with less hoses. I would do the driver side first for familirarization, pull the unit out and clean the resistor section the float arm rubs on with a pencil eraser or a mild cleaning pad. make sure there is no loose shavings hangin on the piece when you are done. The passenger side is done the same way, except it's a bigger more complicated unit. It has to be gently bent around and twisted a bit to work it out of the hole. It will come out, and is easier to get back in, so don't worry. The fuel level should be reasonably low before doing this. In a sedan, it would be the very front edge of the trunk area. the nuts on the tank covers are very small and could be lost down around the outside of the tank, so have a cup or something to put them in. The low fuel probe could probably be cleaned off too, but I don't know if that will change anything. No matter how far off my gauge reading became, the low light setpoint stayed constant. The whole procedure can be done in less than an hour. If you search, there are several discussions on doing this.

there is a separate probe for the low fuel light and it is part of the passenger side unit

the low fuel light probe and the electric pump are on the passenger side along with a float type sender for the gauge. The driver side has a smaller float type sender and a suction screen. The passenger side unit has a jet type pump that draws the fuel from the driver side. The low light probe should not vary with cleaning, but the two float type senders definately do start to err in the low direction over time as they get dirty.

agree, sounds exactly like the iac hose. very easy to unhook it doing the air filter

The lights should be controlled by a relay which would normally come with the kit. The main power which actually lights the bulbs would come from the battery or fairly high load tap. The main power would go through the switch leads of the relay to the fog bulbs to ground. The control power lead would attach to one of the low beam headlight supply wires and go through the relay coil to the dashboard switch to ground. The relay and new power tap to the bulbs are necessary, as the existing low beam fuse, switch and wiring are not sized to power the two extra bulbs. If you internet search under bosch relay, you will find a lot of sites that talk about wiring them in, and show the internal arrangement, etc. If your car already has a factory hookup, and you are just adding new lamps, the factory wiring should work ok for pa.

sounds definitely like a clockspring, cold weather seems to make them fail a bit more often than normal, it's not really a bad job to replace one compared to the major engine rebuilds and other jobs that are routinely discussed on this board. just a few safety precautions to follow.

the fuel senders get dirty on these models and the result is reads low by about a quarter of a tank. They are pretty easy to clean, if concerned in the meantime, the capacity you are quoting sounds about right. If equipped, the low fuel light does not lose it's accuracy and can be relied on pretty much. there are lots of threads about cleaning the two fuel sending units. One time, you could carry a gallon of gas in a can and run to empty or low light comes on, You should be able to go a bit over 300 miles on a full tank so long as there isn't any problem that turns the pump off while fueling before it is full.

I would use no platinum or double platinum. with single platinum, half the plugs will wear faster than the other half. the reason is our ignition system fires half the plugs tip to electrode, the other half fires electrode to tip. I bought the correct ngk plugs and got them for $10 apiece at advance auto. my kid who is on a budget bought the correct spec autolite double platinum for $4 apiece, they looked real good and have been working fine for about 10,000 miles now.

rebuilt calipers are a pretty good way to go. If you rebuild your own, use the brake pedal or air to eject the pistons from the bores. The pistons will be chrome plated steel with a satin finish. This surface gives the rubber seal traction so the pistons will retract when you release the pedal. As long as the chrome plating has not broken down, the pistons are reusable. If they are starting to go, the chrome will be starting to flake off, this is usually from fluid that hasn't been replaced that contains a lot of moisture.

Talking about the woodruff key, do you have a worn out groove in your crankshaft? There have been some instances of that here previously.

I drive a 95 Mustang GT convertible every day and own a 99 outback wagon which I drive regularly. Both great cars in their own way, and much nicer than owning two 99 outback wagons would be. There is room in the world for both legacy and mustang to exist. The build quality utility and all weather capability is better on my Subaru, but comfort and performance, resale and even fuel economy probably are in the mustang's favor. It even gets around pretty well in snow. Looking at published test track data, the new V6 mustang will hold it’s own against the Legacy Turbo, or nearly so. That’s not a fair comparison though, as Turbo Legacy pricing puts it up against the GT. Now there’s no comparison as far as performance, but that’s also a moot point. I doubt many people would cross shop the two, but the day may come where I will have one of each. I have driven a 2005 GT just a couple of miles, but that was enough to know incredible improvements have been made to the new mustangs as far as solidness, features and especially performance go. As far as styling, I think the 94 to 98 Mustangs are the prettiest of all with the 67 to 69 a close runner up. The 2005’s are a good update and more than a mere retro makeover as has been charged. Peple can make up their own mind over styling anyway.

Yes, sounds like a loose battery or engine ground wire or dirty battery terminals. The battery itself could have failed in a manner where it still produces close to normal volts but has no reserve.

There have been a number of threads on how to pull and clean the two fuel sending units (AWD) and I have found it can easily be off by at least a quarter tank reading lower than actual. It's a fairly simple job that can be done in about an hour. If you have a low fuel light, it is a completely different circuit and will remain accurate independent of the gauge.

The designer came from Alfa Romeo, so it's no coincidence. I saw one last week at Harrisburg and was suprised how small it is. more like a stretch outback than an all new vehicle. There is third row seating, but it looks like it's for the preschool set only. Those fixating on the ugly front end haven't seen the back end which is truly ugly. A large number of people on this board will be priced out of owning Subaru's if the company has it's way. The new dramatic styling is part of a move upmarket by the company, closer to 40,000 instead of 25,000. I like the new legacy and outback a lot and they looked great at the show, It will be a few years before they get the new styling with any luck.

I have a 99 also and it does the same thing. It also holds the lower gear for awhile if you lift off the gas, the intent here is to allow a certain amount of braking on low speed turns. I have heard the 99 have a more aggessive electronic program than other years somewhere, and that the dealer can reprogram the computer if needed. I sort of like it the way it is.

The NGK are about $15 each list, I got them for $10 each at advance auto, which was cheaper than some of the mail order places on the net wanted not counting shipping. The equal nippondenso are about the same price and probably equally good. My kid put the double platinum autolite in his car and they were $4 a piece. I didn't want to spend $60 for plugs, but once over that shock, decided $40 wasn't too bad. For the record, the autolite looked very high quality and were a perfect fit, car has been working fine for about 10,000 miles on them. They are such a bastard to install, I would hate to have to go back in early to replace them though. You should only use the correct double platinum style, whatever brand you choose

It sounds like you tripped the security system with the battery changeout. If you have a key fob remote, try turning the alarm off with it. If you don't have a fob, try putting the key in the door or ignition and unlocking it a few times. The code alarm system used on that model always did weird things I couldn't figure out. There should be a button in a recessed ring under the steering column used for programming the system. If not, it was a dealer installed system and the button is on the module itself which is under the steering column. My kids car would sometimes fail to reset even if you went through the procedure, but it did eventually reset itself just by driving for awhile.

I've seen more problems of this sort come from bad ground connections or bad battery or battery connections than anything.

MTBE was required for a few years to make what was generally called oxygenated fuel. It wasn't just a drop or two either, sometimes 25 to 30 percent content. The idea of oxygenated fuel was to make the few old cars still running be a bit less polluting, not much if any effect on the vast majority of modern (88 up) cars with electronic injection, o2 sensors, etc. The reason it has been pulled is that it has a remarkable ability to pollute ground water if it leaks out of the underground tanks, up to a distance of miles from the leaking tank as i understand it. That problem was known ahead of time which is why all the stations had to dig up their old tanks and stick in the double shell fiberglass tanks with leak sensors that are now everywhere. Somehow, there were still instances of whole towns losing their ground water, so MTBE which is made from oil, is now replaced by ethanol made from corn for the most part.

I have an 89 Taurus with wheels that are a bit corroded and they were starting to leak at the beads and in one case at the stem hole. The local tire store did a light polish by hand which helped on two of them. The other two were dismounted and remounted with some sticky black stuff made specifically for the purpose of sealing the beads. It completely fixed the problem.