nipper

You have a bad cv joint, its on its very very very last legs it sounds like. Rebuilt axles are fine, but also price an axle from subaru. Last time i bought an axle, subaru was not that much higher then my local shop. nipper

Have you even tried to take out the excesive oil yet? or are you still trying to run it with "what looks like 6 qts". 6qt overfill if that is possible, is a HUGE amount of overfill on something that holds 4.5. Sounds like the engine is flooded wit oil. In the future if you start up a car like that, and its never sounded like that before, and it doesnt clearup in a few seconds, dont walk away from the car, shut it off. Thats how you can do damage to the engine. Overfilling can flood the pistons, and cause the oil to foam. Oil sits below the crankshaft not in it. If the oil makes contact with the crankshaft, it becomes airated. Once the oil has become so agitated that it has foamed (airated) it can no longer be sufficently pumped, and therefor no longer acts like oil. The oil pump cannot pump air. Hope you didnt waste the engine. nipper

hehe maybe some of us like the door chime thingy. you lear to apreciate things like that the first time you lock yourself out of the car. Do a search on the boards.... nipper

You buy a used car headgaskets will blow with age. It is really discouraging when its under 100K thats it does it, but most aluminum 4 cylinders will do it. I can point out some 1.8L on the older boards that do it too, its an age thing once you get past 100K on the car. The original head gasket was a design flaw in the gasket itself, not the engine. Personally I looked for a sooby with no head gasket issues, or one that had it fixed when i got my 2.5L OBW. I wanted more power of the 2.5l as opposed to the 2.2. If the headgasket was to blow tomorrow, I would just replace it as the car has 180K on the clock, and nothing lasts forever without a major part going poof. Subarus do come damn close. Mileage, well thats all in how your right foot is connected in to your brain. In my legacy I ranged from 19-38 depending upon how i drove it. In my OBW I seem to be getting 23, and for an awd station wagon full loaded that is bullit proof, ill take that. Look at gas milage this way, would you rather suffer at the pump a little bit (the differnce between 23 mpg and 28 mpg is 300.00 per year at 12k a year and 3.00 per gallon) or have a lesser car for what is not that big an amount of money. I like the bigger feeling of the OBW and legacy, without feeling like im in a boat. Just thought I would pass it on... Just an opinion. nipper

Sorry thats what I meant. Its an interesting machine, as thats when they also take the samples foremissions certification. The machine hasnt changed since iI graduated college, they collect emissions in 7 or 14 bags during the test, then analyze them.The loops is a printed graph on a chart recorder that they must follow using a manual interface (read foot). The EPA is going to change its profiles in the next year or so to refelct real world driving, whic in effect wil raise CAFE ratings all by itself, without a specific request from congress. It seems the ony Hybrid that is getting what it has advertised is the ford escape (toyota hybrid parts) as ford decided to knock 30% off the epa ratings. on the lables. nipper

the off the car test is worthless, you want it done on the car if possible, but in all honesty, a good volt meter will tell you whats going on. nipper

describe "everything" nipper

Well if its anything like the rest on the sooby line (im taking a guess here), under the dash on the passenger side there is black box you will see a lever with a cablle attached. This should be your heater control cable try moving this manually. If it gives you heat the problem is the cable (assuming its attached) or the knob part. You cant hurt anything by looking under there, so dont be afraid to move stuff. It should be the only cable there (i have a legacy OBW so im assuimng its relativly close to that in operation). nipper

ok will anyone hate me if i said i think thats really cute? nipper

http://www.subaru-global.com/about/history/ Just an interesting history of FHI nipper

Is that like winter air and summer air in the tires ? hehehe nipper

I think the CEL light has two modes ... the constant on mode... something is out of wack, the flashing mode, which means something is seriously out of wack and pull over and investigate. I had the flashing light once, like you did, it was odd. I was going up the Gothels bridge in Staten Island. Car was running a bit odd, CEL light, then flashing light. got off the bridge, checked the owners manual... shut the car off. I poked around under the hood, everything was ok. Started the car no CEL. Three weeks later i needed a timing belt. Dont kn ow if it was related or not, this was a 97 Legacy 2.2l. I was told since the cam shaft and crankshaft sensor got out of synch due to not happy timing belt, I got the flashing light. After the timing belt i never had a CEL again. nipper

Oh ok i didnt realize that, if its pushbutton then i would think its just a control issue and not a mechanical issue with the 4WD system itself.nipper

i think what you really just need to do is to get a small roots superchager and be done with it. You can spin up the turbo with the compressed air, but its not going to be doing anything. They have to be spinning incredible fats to start making a perfomance impact, and a little air compressor is not going to get a turbo pre spinning anywhere near fast enough to do anything. You would probbalbly get a beter effect from a ram induction hood. FYI http://www.answers.com/topic/turbocharger http://www.automotivearticles.com/Turbochargers_Design_and_Related_Parts.shtml Turnbos spin at 80,000 to as high as 190,000 rpm. your not getting anywhere near that with a little compressed air. nipper

could it be just a loose heatshield .... now im going to have check my car hehehe nipper

on the newer enignes, 2.2 and 2.5 ist on the bottom, the older enigines its on the top. nipper

we can add one more place to check ... the power brake booster. may be a sticky check valve in the booster vibrating.

You do realize that you are talking about an eingine that at idle uses 41 CFM (600 rpm), then when the power starts coming on uses 164 CFM (assuming 2500 rpm) ,then a t 6000 rpm uses 410 cfm (on paper, valve timing does have a little to do with it). What would be wiser, but i dont know how it would p[lumb in, is get a turbo setup from a saab, Thise are low mass turbos and spin up really fast. Also adjuting the turbo dump valve or getting an adjustable one will help. What ever you may think you gain, you will loose in weight and complexity. The engine wont even notice an 8cfm increase in the powerband. Now if you want to cool the air and make it more dense, THEN you will have a power gain. nipper

The pre 95 automatics were gutless wonders, but then again, so was all other 4 cylinder automatics of the period. I went from a 88 to a 98 and man what a huge differnce, the 88 was a 5 sp d/r, the 98 an automatic. The clutchpack has a design fault that subaru rectified, but i dont know what will bolt in, but i have been told its something you can do yourself, if you have the part. Search on torque bind and you wil find refernces to it. nipper

Have you replaced the radiator yet? nipper

i meant to say subaru got R and D money not saab ... sometimes long winded is needed, im an engineer cant help it... i can always use HUGE words if you want heheh but not before 9am nippper

ACtually on the highway an auto and manual are very close, its around town where the differnce shows up. And in reality the differnce is usually within the +/- error of how one drives, so it doesnt mean much anymore within in the same car model with the same engines. That being said, gas milage is really a very personal thing, as it all comes down to habits, I first got the OBW i got 19, now i get 23 as the computer got used to me, and i got used to the car. if you are always the fastest one to leave a red light after it changes green, your gas milage will suffer, its that simple. Ideling parked will hurt it. A draging or lazy caliper will hurt, wheel alignmnet, junk in the trunk, how many people you carry, anything on the roof, headwinds, windows open .... Anything within 5mpg of the epa rating is good, as long as you realize the epa ratings are done in a lab on a short loop of a few miles, no ac, no radio, no heater, airconditioned building. Basically ideal labratory conditions. And als the max speed for highway driving on that test is 35mph, not 55. the are also propsing doing the new test at 55 with burtst to 80mph. nipper nipper

Passenger car vehicals are a compromise in performance, driveabilty and emissions. Specific parts for specifc uses or duties can vastly improve perfomance. There is really no such thing as too hot an ignition coil, but some times they are over kill for a stock engine. A new OE coil can do wonders when compared to the 10 year olf or older coil in the car. A mildly hotter coil may improve performance, but there is a chain of events there, dont forget the wires and plugs. you get a hotter coil, upgrade all the parts attached to it if at all possible (Blue streak cap rotor is prbbly the highest upgrade for a factory dist you can get). Seriously hot coils come into play when you start raising compression and changing cam timing. Coils for the last 20 years have been vastly improved over what they were, they needed to be with faster revs, and stricter emissions. Also electronic ignition allows for faster response times. It really does depend upon your driving needs. For me if i was doing serious off raoding, i would go with as hot a spark as i could, for over the road, i would go factory. nipper

www.tirerack.com you dont have to buy from them, but they are a great resource nipper

Try it one step at a time. Both out are unusual, check the contacts make sure they are clean, replace the pigtails if you have too. I had that on my 84, when one bulb blew i replaced them both. The ahd been sitting in the car for so long, the movement of connecting/discconect broke the pigtail corrosion... both sides nipper