nipper

Josh out of curiosity what do you mean by "go outside the block" nipper

This has been done a lot. The ideal option would be a phase 2 sohc 2.5 engine, but the are rare to find. as much as i love the 2.5 (i have 180K on my 97OBW) you would have to replace the head gaskets before installing the engine (to be on the safe side). Not a big deal since the engine is out of the car. The popular option is to put in a 2.2L. you will loose some power, but get better gas mileage. No matter what you choose, do replace the main seals, timing belt, tensioner, water pump and cam seals. Go with OE for the timing belt. If you replace all these you will have 100,000 trouble free miles from the front of the engine. nipper

From what ive seen of the design, the water pump is good for the life of the car. Its driven by the chain, so there is no side stress on the shaft like a belt would produce. The impeller is made so it wont erode, but it does make it all that more important to change the antifreeze regularly. Antifreeze lubricates the water pump, and like all lubricants, breaks down with time. GM uses the same design on its high performance v-8s and so far it has held true. The timing chain is good for the life of the car. From past exp with timing chains. In the past chains would go at around 140K. I am sure the technology and engineering has gotten so much more better that they should last the life of the engine. Your not the first one ive heard with a bad tensioner on these engines, it seems to be the achillies heel. I've seen the exploded veiw of the timing chain covers, its a mess, but then again its not meant to be serviced (in theory) for the life of the engine. nipper

i was going to go for the ecu temp sensor or O2 sensor. i would imagine the test procedures are the same as with the 4 cyl for both. i can email you the scans from the haynes manual as that may help. nipper

followup : freind came over, it took 5 trys to get it open, part of it was the rusty latch. Lubricated the latch. Took the grill off (well my freind did) just in case. Closed hte hood, it worked once, then the cable snaped. Guess we were both right. nipper

How many miles on this and what country are you from? nipper

You can rent a code scanner if you cant go to the autoparts store. How does it run when its warmed up? nipper

Want to have fun, do it on a motorcycle in traffic moving about 20mph, i always thought of the bridge as a giant cheese grater for humans. It is really more dependent on tirw pattern then the vehical. It doesnt mean there is anything wrong with the car. Also some bridge decks do it more then others. nipper

Hi Cookie, (side note my car stoped burning oil). i have to wait til somone comes over to give me a hand with that, but i'm not sure if that will work. The hood latch release comes all the way out with minimal resistance on it, and it feels like the hood hasnt even tried to release. It's hard to explain how i can tell, but my last sooby had the same thing and i can tell it was trying to unlatch. i'll give it a try tomorrow. nipper

Limited slip differential is the bomb for off road, but this is a viscous LSD. The regular LSD is a mechanical clutch design that responds instantly. The viscous type is lighter, cheaper to make, and slower to respond. The wheel has to spin for some revolutions to heat up the fluid before its starts to engage, and even then its slowly builds up. nipper

Thats a new one on me. What you need to do is to have somone turn the wheel while your watching the steering linkage under the car to make sure thats the problem. i would imagine if you follw the instructions for replacing the boots, i would imagine its just one more step, and should be straight forward. If you get the replacement parts first and look at them, it may give you a clue. I don't think you need a rack. Rack failure is usually binding when cold as you turn the wheel. nipper

Hi guys. Today after smelling some antfreeze leaking on a hot surface (HG is fine btw), i went to open (97 OBW) the hood and no good. My hood wont open. i pull the inside re;lease and nothing. It was fine last month when i had the car serviced. How do i get the hood opened, and do i need to replace the cable? nipper

My biggest fear would be a frozen engine. See if you can turn the engine over by hand. The biggest issue with an engine that sits are dried out seals (and valve stem seals), stuck valves, frozen pistons and stuck rings. I would only change the oil, put in new plugs, drain and refresh the gas, then see if it starts. If it starts and runs well, then you can change all the fluids. Dont forget the brak fluid.Inspect the tires as they prbbly have falt spots or dry rot. Inspect all rubber parts. nipper

You need a transmission. Either the clutches are gone or the internal seals are gone. Either way it needs a trany, its mechanically shot. nipper

Low tire pressure is the same as having unequally worn or differnt sized tires on the car. i know its common knowledge that it is dangerous to the car and life to drive with an underinflated/low tire. Since you drive for a living (like my father did) it was beaten into us that low tire pressure is dangerous to both life and vehical. In my 97OBW it states in the owners manual under tires and wheels it does have a warining about mismatched tires that"may result in severe mechanical damage to the dirvetrain ....." along with the other warnings about driving with an underinflated tire. I've been warned every time i bought tires from tire shops that car (ive owned many subarus) need matching tires. Trust me ive done dumb things too, but this is one thing ive never done, as i know the cost of this mistake. nipper

we cant assume that since people here own more then one subaru. nipper

i hate to be harsh but ......You know this pisses me off.. to quote you " A week or so ago, after driving approx. 50 miles, I noticed the rear passenger tire was extremely low.... had only about 10 lbs of air.... " . you drove the car for 50 miles on a flat tire, so its subarus fault the tranny went bad. Of course its going to burn out, hell you can burn out a differnential that way, just be thankful you didnt get killed by driving on a flat tire for 50 miles. Sorry no way to blame the car for this, this is all your own fault. You should have been able to tell by the odd handling the car had a flat tire, or by the tire noise. You had a flat and did not feel any differnce in the car, i find that hard to beleive. Be thankful you didnt get killed, improve your driving skills so you know what its like to drive on a flat tire, and fix the car. nipper

mines always on nipper

BP own their own refineries, and uses only BP gas. Thats one of the reasons they were slow to raise fuel prices, as their refineries were far from the hurricanes, but eventually they got caught up in the supply hiccup too. Amaco gas is made by Amaco, and exxon is the largest refiner in the US. Exxon supplies a lot of other gas companies. on a side note in one day the exxon station went up 23 cents a gallon today. Thats just freaking nuts, needless to say i try to go to BP when i can. Gulf around here has the lowest price so i dont know where they get it from, but the car runs fine on it. When i went to a shamrock station once the car drank the fuel, so ill never go there again. nipper

WOW i found mine on the 87 OBW, and about 10.00 worth of change. i often wondered what the seat belt holder was for in the middle of the seat. i had to really fish for mine. WHat you do is partially fold down the right seat back. This gives you an extra inc or so. now you will feel a mechanisim on the right side of the driveshaft hump. Deep in there is the strap. you have to really reach to find it but its there just to the right fo that mechanisim. nipper

and mileage . Rear discs have a small brake drum in the center for the parking/emergency brake. nipper

Knock sensors have really two failure modes. The housing cracks or they short to ground. The knock sensor is a peice of quartz tuned to the harmonics of the engine. They generate a small AC signal that the ecu translates and fiddles with the engine timing. What you may be hearing is a light pinging, which is unavoidable in some cars. With todays crappy fuels, ethenol, and god knows what else.... Also the engines today run very lean. Next time you hear it, try a few things. Downshift (it should go away), to change the load on the engine. Turn the ac on (again change engine load), or off depending upon what its on when it starts pinging. Do you notice any smoke out the back of the car. Its hard to tell you to ignore it without driving the car and hearing it myself. Some ping is acceptable (from an engine design point of veiw), and it sounds like you are within that area. Also try amaco or bp mid range, as they are true mid range fuels and not a blend. nipper

WHile the car is running, spray the engine with water, especially the ignition wires and coil. Look for sparks, that will tell you if you have a bad coil pack or bad wires. Do it at dusk or at night, as it makes it far easier to see any voltage leaks. Don't go out and buy a coil pack when you might not need one, it may just be wires. Do buy wires from subaru. nipper

you may think twiice about this. First they hard to find, second you may have to change the gearing in thr front, third they really arent all that responsive like the old limited slips were. You would do better by slightly riding your brakes if your that stuck then all the trouble for a viscous differential. nipper

Neutral saftey switch will only let the strater enagae in neutral or park. nipper