nipper

And technically that is all part of the timing belt. There have been belts that have jumped a tooth and lost a tooth i the process, but hard to do a true "Chicken or egg" investigation on a chat board. Rubber has a finite age. Ryn on a ten year old tire or a parked ten year old tire and you will see why. Components fail when they are disturbed and not replaced from the info I have gathered here. Seems those idlers do not like being touchy-feely, they get grumpy with old age

Does it happen after a drive of a few miles or highway as opposed to just quick jaunts around town?

105 months and one day. It really is not a question of how much you can drive after 105 months. The question is how much do you want to gamble on the odds of a replacement engine.

How many miles on it. Be very very nice to the dealer, as he may be able to get subaru to pick up the cost of the repair or part of it.

Puddle left side - overflow tank. Lets try to get rid of my brown gook Remove the tank. Put in a bunch of tiny rocks (clean) a little soap and shake the hell out of it. Drain everything out, rinse, rinse, rinse. Put it back, fill it to low with antifreeze, and lest see what comes back.

By that time the code may have cleared itself. I am not sure how long it holds a code. Also I have not been happy with the quality of the people who scan for codes. This requires dropping the knee panel to help find the connector. You can find it without dropping it but it makes life easier. Why bother with that when you can do it in your driveway with a proedure described in the Subaru Factory Service manual. Also sopme people are not close to a chain autoparts store.

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=84715&highlight=ABS%2A

I am describing the procedure in the manual. Not everyone has an abs code reader and not everyone can afford to buy one. I dont have one because it gets so little use. It is also a procedure that has been discussed ont this board many times

Nope, el wrongo Antilock brake trouble code procedure 1. Take out diag connector from driverside heater unit 2. Turn ignition switch off 3. Connect diag connector terminal 6 to diag terminal 4. Turn ignition switch on 5. ABS warning light blinks to identify trouble codes 6. After the start code (11)is shown, the trouble codes will be shown in order of the last information first. These repeat for a maximum of 5 minutes Note; when there are no trouble codes in memory, only the start code (11) is shown. Here are pics http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=84715&highlight=ABS%2A

Subarus do not blow headgaskets by making steam. They leak into the cooling system, pushing out the coolant causing the engine to overheat. The oily brown yucky stuff in your overflow tank is a dead give away that it is blown. There are tests that can be done but they are a waste of time in this case.

DO all the tired match in brand and wear? Otherwise the center diff/viscous couplimg is fried.

First off never fill an aluminum engine with tap water, always use deionized water or a 50/50 premix. Second the bad news; The head gasket is blown.

Sensors need to be a perfect cylinder in shape, no rounded edges. If the edge is rounded it won't read right and throw a code. Ckeck the tone ring and the sensor, but i am going with the tone ring.

Actually a rather common issue qith ABS. The tone ring is thewhell that the sensor picks up the speed from. It can crack at times.

Cracked tone wheel?

The forgotton Red Headed Step Child Increasing his oil capacity

On ebay they sell them for a good price in pairs. It seems the cutoff is 1998 and Blu is a 1997. Anyone know the difference?

I have never seen non-vnted disc brakes, and yes you need bigger ones on the front since they do 80% of the work.

Head Gasket SUbaru does not burn coolant on HG failure HG failure is internal on this year May or may not overheat May or may not mix fluids

Fronts tend to make more noise then rears, as they have a lot more work to do and are stressed in all axis. Raers are just followers and hard to pin down at first. A stethescope comes in handy but that requires somewhat knowing what you are listening for. If no long hard trips are planned you can wait for the noise to get louder to find out what it is. Sometimes things have to wear more to find them.

Thats about right. But do rotate tires first, it amuses us (one side at a time).

Welcome to 4wd 101. A 4wd car should never be put in 4wd on dry pavement, in addition the sterring whel should not be turned while the car is moving in 4wd on dry ground. This car has classic torque bind, and it is not the cars fault. In addition, there most likley is nothing worng with the car. The front axle and rear axle of a car spin at differnt speeds unless you live in a square state and never make a turn. This differnce in speed in an AWD car is permitted by using a center diff or something like that (in subarus a clutch pack in autos). When this slip is not allowed to happen the driveline binds up and everything locks up. How to fix it? Easy. Jack up the car. it is that easy. this allows for the torque to be released and everything will be frfee to move. I made the same mistake on my first 4wd sooby. And watch out for the virgin switch. nipper

I have Hella's on the roof and the bumper. I use a Cobra 75wxt because I could not find the real estate for a traditional CB radio. I have a mag mount 3' Antenaa from radioshack. Granted I do not transmit much but for weather and traffic/police updates it has never let me down.

Well since you do not know the secret handshake we can not tell you what the purpose of that cover is What happens to the nut? Well if you are the nut it is not a good prognoses. For the car it doesn't mean a thing. It will either sit there where ever it is stuck untill things are taken apart again, or get kicked up by this huge high speed rotating mass and be rendered useless. I would just drive the car in this case. You can leave the cover off for a while and let nature take its course.

Sometimes people ask me why I ask about alt output, but without good output that entire sparkly thing doesnt work well. It is also something to check when diagnosing any wierd fuel or temp gauge issues.