nipper

The cat has a DESIGN life of 100K miles. They last much longer then that if the car is kept in tune and has been fed good fuel (they can also fail earlier cause stuff happens). Last time i bough a cat from JC Whitney it came from Walker. The major mechanical parts from JC are name brand, the silly odd ball stuff, is well, just silly. I have never bought from these guys, but the prices look good http://www.discountconverter.com/ you may want to try them. nipper

It's only an issue if you have an emissions inspection to worry about. At oover 100K you are past the life design life of the o2 sensors, and the cat. Could be a bad O2 sensor, thats cheaper to replace then a cat. I bought my last cat from JC whitney, i dont know if thats an option since it says your international. The JC Whitney cat was a name brand, and worked fine at 1/3 the cost of OE. nipper

You can make a repair, but realize the odds are the repair made (like the loc-tite) can make removing the pully impossible. If you go the loctite route, i would replace the main seal, then bolt it back on TIGHT. Make sure all the surfaces are clean and use a loctite primer. You can also try JB weld to rebuild the crank. Again replace the crank seal and clean all the surfaces. The key doesnt really transmit force, as opposed to holding location, so there are some things that may work. At this point, you have nothing to loose and everything to gain by trying these things. It's not hopeless yet. The design does suck, but they all do it. It serves a purpose. Have you had any work done to the car in the last year ? nipper

Thats normal, one big burp. No air bubbles are good. I think you have an external leak, not an internal leak. nipper

Hydraulic pumps are noisey by nature under load (ie turning the steering wheel while parked - this is normal). A perfectly healthy pump can scream at high loads depending upon design. I do beleive that on subarus are gear pumps (as opposed to piston or vane). The easiest way to determine if the pump is making noise is by using a long screwdriver or a wooden dowel as a stethascope. One end on your ear, the other on the pump. The second method is to remove the drive belt. Some pumps are noisier then others, and operate fine. Othertimes it can mean the belt is overtight (rare), the fluid is contaminated, most commonly low on fluid , or on its way out. Since the pump really does not do alot of work on a car (compared to what it can potentially do), it can be on its way out for quite a long time. P/s fluid is just plain old hydraulic fluid, so you can try synthetics and other auto tranny fluids in the pump to try to quiet it. I really dont think conditioners will help since there are no friction parts like cluthes inside the system. The pump is using liquid as a medium to do mechanical work, and not as a buffer between two parts moving at different speeds. It may be a live with it or take your chances on another pump situation. nipper

Everything you said, make sure it is a subaru reconditioned engine and not a dealership reconditioned engine. Breakin procedure is still the same as if new. This is an unusual failure (stuff happnes). Usually seen on heavily overheated sooby engines. nipper

damn now im going to have to check Also lubricating the window mechanisims will help too nipper

hehe what you guys going to do when i get a life again (if i get a life). nipper

3.00 is not a bad thing. There was a thread on here about a over 100.00 (maybe 200) dollars for a cleaning, when all they do is pump a chemical in the car. I have the same car you do same mileage. Mine runs fine and never had a cleaning. Personally at this point if the car had an injector issue i would treat it to new injectors, but thats just me nipper

I'm begining to think that maybe you have a bad torque converter or the torque converter is not bolted to the flexplate, like hinted at above. It is very unusual for a transmision that was working fine before to all of a sudden not work at all. Either your torque converter is shot internally, or your front pump is shot. You need both to make the car go. The torque converter housing drives the front pump. The front pump is what allows the clutches to engage. You only need flow for a torque converter to work, and even a bad front pump will make enough flow to operate a converter. http://www.tciauto.com/tech_info/torque_converters_explained.htm WHat happens when you power brake the car (put it in drive, foot on the brake and give it gas at the same time). Stall Speed test- When you apply full power and hold the car still with the brakes the stall speed it the maximum RPM the engine will produce with no forward movement. If the car revs like it is in neutral, it would point even more to a TQ problem. nipper .

Educated guesses here from installing windows in trains and other ooddball vehicals. Most likely the window and weather stripping goes in as one peice from the outside of the car. You will have to remove the window from the inside of the car. Practice on the side of the car that you dont need. Even if you break it, you will be ebale to see how the weather stripping system works and it should give you a clue. ALso get a estimate from a glass shop, It may be easier to open your wallet then to replace this glass yourself. Another thought is that since yours is already broken, remove the inside trim peices and remove the stripping and see how it goes together. Glass can be real easy or a PITA. If there is sealant around this window rubber, you may have a hell of a fight on your hands. nipper

Damn, the things i find, even i can be impressed http://mredge.com/images/outback/Subaru_Legacy_G3_Audio_Install.pdf Great step by step to getting to the stero and removing the front door panels. nipper

I had thjat with a sooby, couldnt trace it, wasnt always predictable. It got worse with time turned out to be a front wheel bearing. nipper

er um .... It could be that your motors are tired, or your winsow control module is tired. I would wire the motor right to the battery and see if it works any faster. If it does your problem is upstream from the motors. Also check your grounds and connections. Corrosion there can make them slow down. nipper

SUbarus are very hard shifting from 1 to 2nd. Its one of thoe things we get used to. The foreced down shift can be a bit harsh sometimes. IN reality a harsh shift makes for longer clutch life then a soft one. Now engineers cheat by playing with the ignition timing or fuel delivery just at the time the car shifts to make the shift feel soft or unnoticable. Mine has a hard 1-2 shift and seomtimes the forced downshift is harsh. My 98 Legacy was the same way as my 97 OBW nipper

Automatics do have more occurances of torquebind, but in 90% of the cases its fixed by flushing the tranny and making sure the tires match. Once you get torque bind to appear in a manual where its noticable , its usually too late, as there is no way of rectifying the situtaion. The clutchpack design was rectified in 97 1/2. Both cars are sensative to mismtached tires, just the automatic gives you lots of warning before damage occures. The manual gives you no warning that something is wrong untill you have problems making turns. There have been more total failures from mismtached tires in manuals of late then in automatics. There have been alot ofexamples of torque bind in automatics, but fewer and fewer failures of the units. Either way, matching tires are a good insurance policy, along with regular automatic fluid changes. nipper

It can be leaking on a a bocy panel, or being sprayed out while driving, it wont necassarily leave a puddle. SUbarus are good for leaks that never make it to the ground, the exhaust pipes are good at burning the stuff up. On the bright side sounds like a small leak, may be worth dumping the sooby stop leak in it and see what happens nipper

You may have torque bind, you may have a really bad cv joint, you may have both. Make sure all your tires match and are inflated. Put the FWD fuse in the fuse holder under the hood and see if it goes away. If it does, change the tranny fluid, 90% chance that will cure it (also if your fluid is brown you should change it). CLicking on turns is typical of an outer cv joint. Shudder is typical of torque bind. nipper

looks generic nipper

What year and mileage on this listen carefully to your tranny after you change. Unlike engines, transmissions need friction to operate (both manual and automic). Also you dont really gain anything by using syn in a tranny not designed for it. In a tranny not designed for synthetic, if you hear any slipping you should change back to dino. nipper

its actually about 15%, and yes thats your failure nipper

The auto is more forgiving, as it will give you lots of warning signs that its not happy. The manual, once the same sighns apear (basically toque bind) its too late. Replacing one tire at a time in 10,000 mile intervals is really a smart way of doing things. replacing one tire when the others have 50,000 miles on them bad. Ive been thinking about this a while, you can replace two tires (in thoery), but they both have to be on the same side of the car, which is not the smartest thing to do. The way the AWD dies is when the axle speed from the front axle and the rear axle do not match. The 4eat clutch pack is dersigned to live with a limited amount of slip (ie turns). With constant slip (mistmatched tires) the clucth unit is always slipping. Slipping causes heat, which clutch packs hate. The clutches chew themselves up and end up fusing. In the manual, the Viscous coupling heats up and never cools down. The VC heat makes the system transmit torque to all 4 wheels all the time. This will fry the coupling and chew up the center differential. A AWD repair can be from 800-1200 dollars. a St of tires are cheaper, considering you would have to buy tires that match after the repair in addition to the cost of the repair. nipper hope i made that clear, im not to sharp toaday

impossible to tell. But i will say an internal leak, the coolant gets pushed out really fast, but may not happen al the time. the external leak would be just that, a leak. Depending upon size can be fast or slow. Watch your temp gauge very carefully. Have the coolant tested for exhaust gasses, that will give you a a better idea if you have an internal problem or not. ALso look for bubbles in the collant when the car is running. nipper

er um folks, chill out. Its not like we are talking politics, religon or motor oils here (yes the motor oil arguments can get pretty ugly). nipper

could be a linkage adjustment, or impending doom. Hard to tell without looking at the linkage. nipper