nipper

I really think that cooler fresh air is somewhat bunk on subarus. The engine compartment isnt so cramped that there is no airflow, unlike other cars. I know from having my mirror temop sensor in the wrong place, that fresh air aint all that cold (especially in summer.... blacktop gets hot). Personally i think its one of those things that work great for the lab, emission testings and on the test track, but on a day with the sun beating down on the blacktop, doesnt have that much of an effect. I think its more for noise control at this point. I still have a nice new CAI for Blu, just waiting for the weather to warm up to put it in. As for suspension, your struts are very tired, that will help handling tremendously, and a thicker sway bar. nipper

Is its a 100 psi gauge Its only accurate over 80% of its sweep. So the bottom 10 psi and top 10 psi can not be relied on. Also you can only read it accurately per 1/2 divison (meaning if its marked 10-20-30 etc) you can acurately read 15 25 35. This gauge wont work for what you want it to do. nipper

the dangling box

Thats really funny, i have the same problem...... nipper

Or you can buy better batteries. Sulfated means that there is enough material inside the battery to cause some of the cells to short out. The material will shift around, thats why sometimes it did it, and sometimes it didnt. It never hurts to have more data, so you can have it tested on the car if you want (off the car tests are absolutly useless). I bet your fine now. nipper

Its what we in the field call a "hiccup" Sometimes it happens, and they really hard to diagnose. Check your IAC motor to make sure its clean, the EGR valve operation, and wait for it to mainfest tiself into something else. Or you can call it "personality". Does it seem to happen with any specific weather conditions? nipper

I never tought of the gravel before that would work. nipper

WTF? www.cars101.com 45000 miles: Oil change Inspect brakes, cv joints, parking brake (they do that when ever the car gets on the lift anyway) Rotate tires. What else are they doing for that money? nipper PS they may try to sell you an exhaust system to fix the heat shields, I had someone try that on me. Get under the car, shake the front heat shields, as they are the one that rattle, then use a large hose clamp to silence them.

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/...el-impreza-wrx/

The 4-3 shift back and forth would be from frothy fluid. nipper

Is this with or without the cruise? http://www.endwrench.com/pdf/drivetrain/02WinterInsiderInfo.pdf page 24 SUbarus have odd shifting patterns and sometimes very hard shifts. @ years with Blu and there are days that i still think something is wrong sometimes. Overfilling will cause foaming of the cluid. Foamed fluid means the tranny is using areated fluid to work with, which is not a very good thing. Fluid is a solid (considered so for hydraulics) to transmit force. Air in the fluid makes it spongy. nipper

Ok i screwed up . You need to loosen all the alt bolts. there is one bolt that adjusts the alt, this is a great shot of that bolt. http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11709 nipper

whats your email and how large is your mailbox. You may have a lazy voltage regulator. Thats what it is sounding like more and more. Think about it, is there any pattern to when she has needed a jump start? The way to adjust it is that there is an idler pully that is on a long screw (at leats thats how most of them were). Check where all the idler pullies are, once you trace them look how its mounted. nipper

Has it been doing this since the repair? it may be as simple as loose vacume line under the air box (a common thing). nipper

Personally i would extend the wires, seal it up, and mount it under a seat. I was going to suggest having a spare nipper

They do light up the battery and brake lighhts when they go bad. In fact there are many threads that confirm that. It's possible that you have those lights on, but its so dim that you wont see them. Sadly the FSM is a little cryptic as to the spec. They speak current output at a specific engine speed, which i dont recall ever seeing before. The newest manual I have is for a 2000. 1500rpm -36a (or higher) 2500rpm -65a (i knew i read 2500 rpm someplace) 5000rpm -86a The troubleshooting chart says the VB at 1500 RPM should be no higher then 15.5 Volts You know what happens if you leave the car loaded at idle, in gear, foot on the brake and leave it for a minute. I think you might be on the hairy edge. I don't want to say you are since the car is not in front of me. DON"T buy a alternator at autozone. Too many people have gotten mismatched altenators from them (the imprezza and legacy alt's look alike, but are differnt animals). http://endwrench.com/images/pdfs/BatteryAltWin03.pdf Even there they state a voltage of 14.1- 14.8. Maybe you do have a intermitent parasitic drain. Get everything load tested first. You dont have a power amp in this do you? nipper

Very few do it, and those that do have ECU's that are built specifcally for that enviorment. Subaru ECUS are not. Last I saw one under the hood was in the 1980's that I can recall. You can seal it up, the vanagon guys do it all the time, since they have limited places for the ECU's, thoug they seem to strongly recomend not mounting it in the engine compartment. And a vanagons engine compartment gets hot. nipper

How many miles please nipper

There is a reason ECU's are mounted inside the car cabin. They are computers. They can handle the heat of the interior of the car, but they are out of the moisture. You can mount them outside the cabin, but you have to make them waterproof. I wouldnt recomend putting it under the hood if you can avoid it. nipper

"EJ series lift: This is the newest addition to the allied Armament family. It comes as 4" that replaces the factory 2.5" lift for the outback and 4" lift for the Legacy. It retains stock geometry in the front and adds minimal strain in the rear (almost none). It is based on lowering front and rear struts via strut extensions and lowering blocks for front and rear sub assemblies. (bolt on kit" Thats from their web site. nipper

I'll agree to the 1500 if thats the FSM, I havent looked at one recently. Maybe it was 1500, its been a while since i've dealt with a borderline (namely mine). Thats how I know the digital vs the analog testors. 4 shops with the digital passed the altenator. When I got home, put ol' sparky on Blu, and it failed the altenator. Sparky was correct. nipper

Yes rev to 2500 rpm. Some places now use a digital load tester, and personally, un;ess the tech knows how to read it, its crap. They dont pick up borderline altenators. Give us the numbers at 2500 RPM everything on, at idle in gear everything on, and idle in gear with everything off. The real number too look at is at 2500 rpm, but the others are data points that will reveal a borderline alt. The best is the old big silver box with the nice analog gauge on it. If you are in a lot of traffic, a borderline alt may pass at 2500 rpm, but may have low output in drive at idle. If you spend alotof time in that area (bumper to bumper traffic) it can give you a battery discharge condition. nipper

You can check the charging system with a volt meter. You need to have ALL the accessories on and the engine rpm at 2500 Rpm. If it is below 13 volts its too low. At 40,000 miles thats early for an altenator to go bad, but stuff happens. Another possability is a loose blet, or dirty battery terminals. Get the battery load tested too. Yes the volt reg is inside the alt. nipper

Almost any hard ware store, pharmacy with an auto section, super market has them. Then there are always auto part stores. nipper

No one cleans the tanks, its because they are a real pain to do. I cleaned mine and it took some chemical experimenting to do it. Arm and hammer and warm water and a large test tube cleaner worked best. nipper