nipper

Just dont confuse the tweeter wires with the heated mirror wires nipper

The ECU will keep the car from doing damage to itself. You have an interesting problem. Unfortunitly sportshift is not mechanically connected the same way a PRND321 is. Nothing has changed over the years otherwise. The car still needs inputs from engine RPM, Road speed (vss), and engine load (MAP) and line (pump) pressure. Without any of these the car may not shift. Shifting is a balance between line pressure and govenor pressure (Road speed). You are loosing signal someplace, not enough to throw a CEL, but enough to screw things up. Unreliable is a car that leaves you stranded, this will not do that. You say the fluids are OK, but when was the last time the fluid was changed? A problem that comes and goes is an electrical issue, not a mechanical one. What you are going to have to do, is leave the car with the dealership. Tell them to throw the subaru monitor on it, and have a mechainc that lives the farthest away take the car and use it. Give them permission to use the car for personal use. Contact the subaru area rep and talk to him. Now as far as diagnoses, lets do some micro analyzing. How long does the car run when this happens. Is it in the AM or Pm or doesnt matter. Is it humid rainy or dry outside. Does it do it just under acceleration or normal driving? nipper

Usually when someone does this, they fry either the main fuse or the fusable links or both. Also check the Alt, usually damage doesnt travel much beyond those parts. nipper

The 20,000 dollar question. How long did the car drive on mismatched tires if it did? A tranny flush is four drain and fills. Sometimes it works sometimes it just delays the inevitable. nipper

http://www.cartalk.com/ct/review/index.jsp "Colin in Oregon is losing sleep after his wife's oil change misadventures" Lets just say it involves a Subaru and three dipsticks. nipper

It is located on the knee panel on the drivers side. it will look like a relay. I think it is to the right of the steering wheel. Smell it, you should smell the magic smoke if this is something that happened in the last few months. nipper

Been there done that. Step one, remove the stero and remove any wiring that controlls the illumination. Step two, replace the Illumination module. Step three, pray. You just cant tap into dash wiring anymore, like the old days. Dash illumination is a bit complicated now. SUbaru has two or three branches of dash illumination wiring. They are all balanced and feed back into the magic black box. Not all of them dim all the way down, while others will. Someone has tapped into this harness and shorted out the magic box. I have done this myself, and these things are not cheap. Undo whatever wiring was done for the radio, then get an harness adapter and use that to install the radion properly. nipper

Kias are probably the only western/asian made cars on the plante that will not make it to 100,000 miles. If its not the trnasmission, its the bottom end letting loose at 0-80,000 miles. nipper

I use my heated mirrors all the time, not just in winter. Try them in the summer when they are misted over or fogged up, the heaters cleam them immediatly. nipper

The first thing to do is to pop the hood. Start the car turn on the usual suspects. Then start shaking every wire you can see. Pay special atention to the main fuse box under the hood. Then do the same thing for under the dash. I think you just have a bad connection, and the most likely culprit is one of the fuseable links or the connections at the main fuse box. Next I would check behind the fusebox under the dash. nipper

Wlel yes and no. If the car is OBDII and an auto there are two gears in the trannf, front and rear. They drive two vehical speed sensors. The signal goes to the TCU, which shares it the ECU, then goes to the spedo. nipper

Yup Blu ate one too. nipper

To me if it moves, it is repairable, if it is rusted its terminal. If the Fozzie has no rust, then go have a blast nipper

Ring Ridge is normal. The compression numbers are promising, so I wouldnt get excited over the leakdown tests. I mean promising that subaru wear evenly, so if they were all around 150 i would be concerned, but the high/lows tell me you had two tired HG's. This is not surprising for the mileage (It happens). I cant tell if the cylinders are scored, but if the cross hatch pattern is there, then the rings are probably ok. nipper

When the car stalls do you loose all power, or just the enigne cutting out? nipper

Change your PCV valve. This can be a cause of oil consumption. You dont say what the oil change interval is that you use, but a qt every 5000 is acceptable (to consume) so on a 7500 mile change you can use a 1.5 qts. Check your oil once a week if you do alot of driving. nipper

This is one of the few things that will keep the car from starting. replace it and should solve the problem. nipper

Make sure the EGR valve is operating properly. Check for vac leaks. nipper

At 146,000 miles it is silly not to do a valve job. Personally I would have prefered to see a compression test as it is more goof proof then a leak down test. What do the cylinder walls look like? nipper

He was on drugs, sniffing to much part cleaner fluid. He may have meant it took a day to do it, as 24 hrs is 2400 dollars. And at that price there is zero reason whay it should not incl;ude a new timing belt. You can find it cheaper. If you look for a 2.2, find one that was toalted from anyplace behind the engine. A rotted out car usually means a poorly maintained engine (why throw money into the rust bucket). nipper

cool. Front ends on subaru are (technically) really easy to work on. The only hard part is getting them out of thier happy homes. nipper

I had a legacy with a 2.2 and my outback with a 2.5, I prefer the 2.5, but with a manual it wont matter to most people. Sit down and do all the math first before you put another unknown in the mix. nipper

Start with the basics. Make sure the Crank Position Sensor and cam position sensor are producing a signal. Is there power to the coils (the coils ground out through the ignitor which is controlled by the ecu). Is the fuel pump running? How do you check spark? nipper

New = Rebuilt. There is nothing wrong with a rebuilt engine. The only way it is new if it was taken off the assembly line from subaru with zero miles on it. I have a subaru rebuilt engine in my car, it's fine. nipper

So you always believe what you read on the net? These are very good engines, powerful and durable. They have a weak HG design which many engines had in the same years. To call these negines no good is just pure rubbish. Also if you can do all the work yourself it is NOT 2K to fix. Hell it isnt even 2K to fix when somebody else does it. Right now the engine may be damaged from a dollar wise penny foolish philosophy. By the time you get the engine, do the work, replace all the bits you should with the engine out (timing belt water pump reseal everything and tune up and valve cover gaskets) it can come slose to the HG job (doing it yourself). nipper