nipper

Do a search on this topic, even just check back a few days, this has been covered. Two screws in the armrest, one screw at the door handle. i dont know if the panel has to come off, it may to get access to the wiring harness. The triangular trim peice pops off and behind there are the bolts for the mirror. nipper

There are a bunch of hondas out there with transmission failures. Read the honda boards and you would be surprised. nipper

Remove the radiator cap and look for bubbles. Usually a HG is the opposite of what you have with the heat. i dont think you have a blown HG. Also replace the radiator cap. im going to guess you have a ton of miles on this thing. Under what conditions did it overheat? nipper

even a simple water spray bottle will work. nipper

this may help www.cars101.com nipper

er um ... its a 9 year old car ! nothing lasts for ever guy. 9 years on a set of wheel bearings is not an unreasonable amount of time. ANything that breaks after 7 years cant be blamed on the car design, its called wear and tear. BTW what is the mileage on the car nipper

ok go slowly then. th switches do pop out, you just have to be careful when you pry them out. nipper

i always like it when i get an education i always knew there was lost of elbow room in the specs, so i try to stick with the better brand names. i need to replace my speakers, and i think im going with OE as they sounded very good. After all its a car not a concert hall. nipper

after owning 4 subarus all with high mileage at their demise, and from reading all the posts for the last few years, this is the first i've heard of this.... nipper

hrmmm do you have a long hill by your house thsts straight and safe to try a test on? With the car off pump the barkes 10-15 times. With your foot on the brake pedal start the car, the pedal should move to the floor. If it doesnt you have a bad booster. Do this test first thing in the morning when the car usually has no brakes. After doing the booster tests (test takes 5 minutes so no excuse for NOT doing it). Park the car in neutral using the hand brake. Pump the brake 10-15 times. With the engine off, but the ignition switch in the unlock postion release the hand brake. once the car starts rolling a bit, press the brake pedal. does the car feel the same? You can start the car in neutral rolling then get brakes back. Remeber when you loose pwr steering and pwr brakes, you can still control the car, but it takes a lot more force to do it. My gut feeling is that the car is not loosing brakes, but loosing the booster vaccum. Once the booster builds up vaccum its fine. I bet a pinhole leak is in the booster diaphram. The car WILL stop, but you may need alot of force or two feet to do it when it feels like you have no brakes. nipper

There is a second screw in the arm rest. The window switches come off with the door panel, then you unplug them. There is pleanty of slack in the cables. The mirror you just replace, its much easier. The panel prys off starting at the bottom of the door, and using a long screwdriver. The top of the panel lifts off the door when all the panel retainers are popped off the door. nipper

i was shocked when the bluebook for my 1997 OBW LTD 180K was around 5 grand. The cars do hold their resale very well. 190K is just broken in nipper

And is it a Subaru warrenty, or a third party warrenty nipper

im seeing alot of them come up on other lists too, but may not be enough to raise a red flag anywhere.

*gives a puzzled look* i dont know, but i dont think it works on my OBW with the sterling engine either

heheh well in the mountains of NJ. They have gotten far more snow then NY has this winter, and boy am i pissed. i wanted to play in snow. nipper

i would replace the O2 sensor if its the original one. It is a fairly straight forward job. Soak the bolts in penetrating oil as much as possible and let it soak. It will make life easier. nipper

i paid 4400 for my 1997 OBW LTD 180K (one owner all receipts no rust). i bought it in NJ where they get a lot of snow, and the price was not out of line for what they selling here on Long Island. Look in your local papers to see what your market those cars sell for. There is a big price swing depending where you live. nipper

well my 97 OBW with 180K still has the original struts and axles. My 88 GL went oveer 200k on the original struts, and once i bought axles from sooby i never had a problem with them. FWD cars will blow boots on occasion. Axles arent all that expensive. Ball joints my 98 never needed them but did need tie rod ends. So far the 97 is doing well on those too. It really depends on the cars life. My car has all highway miles on it. WHen you do the timing belt, its the timing belt, cam seals, main seal, belt tensioner, water pump, and oil pump seals. i am truly amazed at how the miles pile up on the car and it still rides good and steers straight. nipper

Unfortunitly there are no 2003 manuals out there that ive seen, but the older haynes manual will cover almost everything. nipper

yes your gas milage will suffer if you use a lowe octane then is recomended for the car. The car is designed to run at X octane for peak power and performance. The only excpetion is in higher altitudes where you can go down a octane level, but only if the the pump has not adjusted for it. for instance 85 octane is = 87 octane at sea level. The knoock sensor is not there for emergenices, it is part of the engine mgmt system. Cars ping with the AC on, and knock sensors try to deal with that. There are other normal conditions where engines ping and the knock sensor is there to attempt to deal with it. Another thing to consider is if that engine has substantial miles on it, it may have carbon build up on the cylinder heads. This is a source of ping or knock, and the only way to handle it if you cant get rid of it through other methods, is to go up an octane. I would never go down more then one octane level on a car. nipper

Brake fluid does not warm up by the car just sitting there idling, not enough to make a differnce, unless you have a hydraulic booster. Its not like transmision fluid, PS fluid or engine oil. It is fool hearty to take a chance with something like brakes. There are several failure modes for brake booster and master cylinder failure, which can be very similar. Have you done the brake booster test? nipper

Your right on the haynes manual. i think with the exception of some suspension parts, interior and the emissions/engine mgmt car is pretty much mechanically the same till 2005. nipper

Octane boost does ad octane (motortrend i think did a test .... too many Dr ofices last 3 months so i forget which mags i read.... i know they were shocked that they all worked) but its a pricey route to go sometimes. Modern engines with knock sensors and puters can run on the next lower octane, but if you notice a substantial performance drop, you may have to switch back. Turbos and supercharged motors need premium. nipper

Timing belt, head gasket, fluids changed (all of them) tranny flush and brakes. nipper