nipper

i love my 1997 OBW. i liked my 1998 legacy too, but i like the power of the 2.5 . I got jumped on for scaring people off subarus due to the AWD system (people damaging it due to not understanmding it .. can happen on any awd car), but i constantly see people badmouthing the 2.5. i love the 2.5 over the 2.2 . The older the 2.5 Gets, the more likely if it had a HG issue, it was already repaired. I loved mine so much I had it rebuilt. Mine did not have a HG issues, but had a previous owner that did once a year oil changes (not synthetic) and that caught up to it. If you live in a hilly area, defanitly look at a 2.5L. When your looking at a 7-10 year old car used, anything can go wrong. I always used the rule of thumb that the older the car, the more likely you are to put 50% of the purchase price back into the car the next year in repairs. This is just for budgeting purposes. Some cars i just drove, others i had to reseal. This is just something to help you plan. As with any AWD car, make sure the tires all match, and drive it in a few tight circles to check the AWD system. If its an automatic make sure the fuse is not in the FWD holder under the hood. nipper nipper

Please tell us you have a fuse in the FWD holder under the hood. Otherwise like was said your killing your AWD system. All that oil is the crank seal or the oil pump. nipper

Sounds like your clutch master cylinder is blown. I can't really tell from your description what happened last time, but now you need (well sounds like you need) a new clutch master cylinder. nipper

yes do share ..... nipper

Ok i did some research. I cant find a thing on the 1996 traction control. Maybe it did operate the brakes. That would be very unusual for this price range in that year. I know it did cut the fuel injectors to reduce power. I found one refernce to a differnt part number for an ABS unit for TC, but i only found it once. Aparently this was a short lived option. In googling it i did find awd cars in that year with traction control, but lets face it, people dont even know how many cylinders they have under the hood most the time. nipper

Thats assuming one can weld. I know there is one NOT to buy from, Eastern Catalytic converters. nipper

Are you sure its the cat? When was the last time the car had a tuneup. i dont remeber but does this thing have an o2 sensor on it? Hit the cat with your hand and see if it rattles. Last time i had to buy a cat for an ea81 i got it through jcwhitney. nipper

I hate traction control. Its just an excuse to hide poor driving skills. I rented a top-of-the-line Volvo with AWD and traction control. There was this tiny idiot light telling me when it was active ( I had to look up what the light actually meant). I was driving across PA in a snow storm and decided to shut off the traction control. I discoverd to my dismay i was over driving the car for the weather conditions. The traction control was hiding this from me, by adjusting for individual wheel slips. Traction control works by several methods. In the older system it cuts power to the engine. Thats the same thing you should be doing with your right foot in bad weather. Newer systems cut engine power, may play with the gear selection in an automatic transmission, and also applies the brakes. nipper

Its a very small swing your looking for, so thats fine. nipper

Spring :-p (warmer weather) nipper

Actually the 10 - 20 yards or so wont hurt it at all. It wont even notice it considering its at less then 5mph. Also the car is being moved with all 4 wheels on the ground in a straight line. Now if your talking miles, then you have a huge problem. The problem comes up as soon as one tire starts rotating a different speed then the other tires (ie on a curve) at speed. Its not just the clutch pack, but the entire automatic transmission (for you people with 2wd cars) that gets over heated over long distances. nipper

Well you can measure resistance, but that is just 1/2 the test. The other part of the test is the heartbeat test. You need to understand that these are hall effect sensors. When the metal tab on the cam passes the sensor it makes a small AC voltage. This is what your looking for. You should see the needle on the ANALOG meter blip. That goes the same for the crank sensor. You also need to go one half turn on the crank pully (one turn on the cam shaft) to make sure all the tabs are being read. I dont have my book infront of me (well i cant even find it) but one sensor has equally spaced pulses, the other has them grouped (1, 1-2, 1-2-3, 1-2-3-4). nipper PS Yes this can drive you nuts if its an intermittent failure.

Like he said, thats normal. nipper

Doesnt matter, Its part of the fuel injection/emission system and has to work. Thats the law. If the car came with it, and has to have an emissions inspection, it has to be operable. nipper

FIll us in, what are your needs, and your gas budget. That 900 bucks could probably go a long way to fixing the justy. Is the justy a stick or auto or awd? nipper

I saw that in an autoparts store. I read the long list of directions, and it seems like a bit touchy process. It looks like its some sort of epoxy process. My larger question is if you try this and it fails, what have you actually done to yourself. Have you glued everything together and made the entire engine scrap? Have you made more work for the machine shop? What has it done to the radiator? nipper

Modern cars dont use slide in pipes anymore. The use flanges and good old fashioned nuts and bolts. You can do this on your own in the driveway, just make sure you have new exhaust donuts (if needed .. called hangers) and new hardware. Even your mechanic can fix it in les then an hour. nipper

Keep trying end wrench, it works for me. The CEL light is a tool, not the end all of diagnoses. You can also have codes stored and not trip the CEL light, since the fault is no longer active. Just for kicks, have the codes pulled and see if anything comes up. The cruise downshift i am blaming for help throwing a rod through the side of my engine at 191,000 miles (well that and the previous owners once a year oil changes). nipper

There is one more thing that can be done by a shop to discover if the leak is external. Usually the engine is cleaned, then a dye that illuminates with a black light is put in the coolant. This way if the leak is external, it can be traced. I would like to see a compression test, both wet and dry to see how the engine is. This can just be a tired engine. I am never a fan of lightnening flywheels in stock subarus, as it seems to be very dependent on the shop knowing what they are doing, and not just removing mass. I am not ready to condem on the basis of the overflow, but i am starting to wonder myself if you have bad HG, or some other leak where the cooling system is near an intake passage way. Usually the fluid in the overflow is never ever changed, so the plastic can hold 200,000 miles worth of odor. Subarus tend to smell like antifreeze. My 97 OBW smeeled like that with no leaks. My freinds 2004 forester, the same, and a 2006 OBW I rented also had a hint of that smell. A compression test would help. nipper

I am not quite sure what your saying about the cruise control. I know when im driving in mountains, i put the car in drive 3 when using cruise, or i help it over hills by squeezing the gas pedal myself with my foot. I dint like the way subaru had (and still does) program the cruise to force a downshift over every hill. In drive 3 everything is happy and the car is no longer forcing rediculous high rpm downshifts. The foot method does the same thing. ON the subaru tech site http://endwrench.com/main.php?smPID=HTML::home.html They talk of the computer shutting down the #1 fuel injector if it doesnt get a signal from the EGR circuit (or something similar). Also the trany mount is another suspect. nipper

You may have to run a new wire or two. If you smelled something burning, odds are, it was hot enough to smoke the insulation of the wire, and make the wire brittle. nipper

Is there a cat and not a muffler on the rear pipe? I thought all subaru cats were up by the engine. Cats are usually as close to the engine as possible, sine the hot exhaust helps them warm up. HAve you tried looking at the walker pipes site or even any of the subaru parts sites? Sometimes they are very competative. nipper

I am still amazed that you got a warrenty on a car with over 100,000 miles. Bravo. AT least you know its money well spent. nipper

Thats not nitpicking. the knock sensor is part of the emissions/fuel injection system and a legitamit failure. I would even fail him for that. ABS is not a ground for failure. nipper

I have mine rebuilt by a driveshaft shop. If you have never replaced a stacked U joint before, or doint know how a u joint and drive shaft works, its easier to let somone else do it. The actual replacement is straight forward, but its critical that everything is lined up perfectly so there is no vibration in the shaft. Vibration can do terrible things in a drive shaft. nipper