nipper

For free take. The O2 sensors, have they even been OE sensors? i bet thats the problem. i doubt the outback needs a cat. ALso its possible something is poisining the o2 sensors. Oil seals you can do on your own, along with the water pump. Autos are great :-p

A few things bother me here right off. The rattle, and low low oil. Do you have any idea how long it was that low. That leaves maybe 2 qts in the pan when the car is off, and that is not enough to safley lubricate the engine. Head gaskets are allusive when they first start to go bad, and can drive people nuts. Basically with a HG you rule everything else out first, then assume its a HG by default. The low oil, i dont want to see you putting 1500 into a HG to spin a bearing in a month. i am a huge supporter of fixing HG's on these cars, once its done, its done, but the low oil, they really do no like that. Look at CCR website, maybe cough up some extra bucks for an engine. Have your mechanic also put a mechanical oil pressure gauge on the car and that will help us check the bottom end. A vacum gaube can also tell us if the HG is bad. nipper

The layout of a subaru engein and front axles really makes mid engine impossible. My guess is that they will have rear drive and AWD available. I dont believe it will be an upmarket in price, especially since they have all the parts there already. This really is a smart move on thier part. nipper

1500 is a fair price, and popping is not how you tell if a HG is bad. Thats how you may tell if it needs a valve job or the timing belt has jumped. The way you tell a bad HG is to remove the radiator cap. The coolant should look all one color with nothing floating in it. Start the car and let it warm up. Wait till you have good heat and the temp gauge is mid point. If it doesnt reach about mid point thats a red flag right there (someone has removed the t-stat). There will be a surge of fluid when the T stat opens up. After the fluid goes down, look for bubbles. There should be no bubbles, except may the odd tiny one. If there is a steady amount of bubbles, then it has a HG issues. Some will say look at the resoivoir coolant, but no one ever cleans that so it can be a false positive. This is not the diffenitive tests, but usually if someone is selling a sooby, the HG is far enough along that there will be bubbles in the coolant. Take the car for a test drive (with the capo on) and check the heat. If at any time it looses heat it may be a HG issue. about 15% of soobies have a HG issue. Any aluminum engine car can blow a HG at any time over 140,000 if it has not been maintained. Good luck. nipper

no. Sticking AWD clutches (no matter the source) will make burned fluid. Old fluid may have a burned smell to it. nipper

1996 is a good year, but it also a premium fuel engine to get the most out of it. Look for a 1997 that is a regular fuel engine. Also any car over 10yo it is always possible to have a HG go bad. Look for a 1997 1998 that has had a HG replaced in its llife, or one for a good price where if it needs one, its just the price of buying a used car. The poping noise may be a jumped timing belt, a leaky valve, don't know from way over here. No need to buy a questionable car unless the price is right. nipper

You are begining to have an issue. Take it to a dealer ASAP, as it can mean the difference between a cheap repair and a 1000.00 or more repair. The TCU does not work off the OBDII scanner. You have pull the codes out to make the light flash out in morse code what the issue is. Someone will tell you how. If your bored do a search on it, it may atke a while to find. ANY FLASHING LIGHT is not to be ignored. It may be as simple as a bad tranny temp sensor, or something like a bad solenoid. AMy be as simple as a loose connection. Do you have any grabbing in tight turns? Usually the light will flash up on startup to tell you the last time the car was used something electrically went wrong. This is how my Duty C failure started, and it cost me 900.00 to fix. i too thought nothing of the light at first. I think you may have a failed or failing Duty C solenoid, and it just hasnt made itself known yet. This controls the AWD. Put the fuse in and let a dealer (NOT A TRANNY SHOP) take a look at it. good luck. nipper

Also for most people, traction control and anti skid controls are more then enough for poor traction conditions. The fact that it is rear wheel drive means that they are still planning on bumping up the HP. nipper

They will prbbly go back to having 2wd and AWD, and maybe 4wd options in the product line. nipper

*faint* nipper

There is no full size spare tire becuase it adds weight to the car, which will hurt it on the EPA Dyno for gas mileage. The weights are determined in groups, not net weight, so i am guessing that sooby's are close to the next grouping and want to stay out of it. I have a real spare and do a 5 tire rotataion. My best friend aganist road damage is road hazard insurance whne i buy tires. i tend to use it a lot. nipper

Well the magic thing here is that in bitter cold, the air cant hold moisture, so you dont get icing. When its near freezing, and the air is holding moisture, you do get icing. nipper

How about a good old fashioned tuneup to start off with? nipper

Everything ran off cold dust at the begining. nipper

Except not everyone has compressed air (including me). i try to keep it as simple as possible, especially when its someone doing it for the first time. nipper

Park another car next to it, and cover the wires with a sugar arsnic combo? nipper

Not to state the obvious, but with the engine out it is a lot easier to change the spark plugs Sort of surprised how many people don't do that. Also look up timing belt replacement here, to get a feeling on what to replace there. nipper

flush it with it off the car, makes less of a mess that way. nipper

Well it is sort of tough to have it done when its all together now isnt it? Silly .................

Thats an OK mileage for a engine (meaning pistons and bearings should be fine). Someone else will chime in on the cost, i wont quote a NY price. The first thing you do is get the radiator flushed out. before you do anything else. Old coolant and oil and dirt nakes glue when air hits it. It will clog the radiator, so best to flush that first. nipper

How about an old Mercury Cougar then? hehehehe

Yup HG. How many miles are on it ? Wet Dry compression test will give you an idea of the condition of the engine. A dry test is just that, dry. A wet test is done with oil squirted in the cylinders. If there is ring wear the numbers will go up dramatically. How many miles are on this car?

Anytime you have the heads out and its over 100K a valve job is money well spent. Which leads me to ask, why are you replacing the HG? is there an issue? Even if you know its a HG issue, have you done a wet/dry compression test to check the condition of the engine? nipper

Well in all fairness to the shops, there is rent, saleries, insurance and utilities to name a few daily costs. nipper

You have too, i want my brekfest nipper