mwatt

likely needs a set of starter solenoid contacts

you may also want to check the drains located at both ends of the cowl (the area where the windshield wiper linkage is located). If you run a garden hose at the base of the windshield, water should pour out at the bottom of both front fenders, right where the rear edge of the fender meets up with the rocker panel. When cowl drains are plugged with leaves, pine needles, etc water will overflow from the inside kick panel trim (the inside trim panel to the left of the driver's feet and to the right of the passenger's feet) and will soak the carpet. I know in your post you mentioned "I looked up under the dash and I saw a few water drops hanging....." but I thought I'd mention this because it happened to me a few years back....

I have a '99 Legacy GT wagon with the same engine and trans as your car. Unfortunately, you're experiencing the intended operation of the transmission, as Porcupine73 mentioned, above. It will downshift back to third when you touch the brake pedal while descending a hill. It was a nice idea in theory, but in reality it's not so great....especially with the hills you've got out there. And as Porcupine73 said, the transmission won't upshift back to 4th until the PCM senses that you're back on the throttle.

on most cars those are simply referred to as "window upstops"

open the right rear door......look at the bottom of the door to make sure the door water drain slots are not plugged. Water is supposed to get into doors, but it's also supposed to drain out of the slots at the bottom of the door. If the drains are plugged, water can overflow thru the interior door trim and onto the floor.

I had an intermittant "crank but won't fire" issue like that on my '99 Legacy GT (engine quite similar to yours) last year. Then, one day my wife was driving it and she had to have it towed home 30 miles because it cut off while driving and wouldn't restart---no spark. I found that one of the wires had pulled loose from the connector leading to the ignitor assembly (little black module mounted on center of firewall behind the air intake silencer attached to the throttle body) There four or five (can't remember) wires going to the ignitor. The black wire with white hash marks had pulled loose from the hardshell connector that plugs into the ignitor. The factory had routed the harness so tightly, it probably took years for the wire to pull loose, finally resulting in no spark/no start. Once I forced that wire all the way back into the hardshell connector and plugged it back into the ignitor, the engine started immediately. I had to reposition the harness to allow a little slack so that wouldn't happen again. That was last April and never a problem since. This may not be the problem with your car,of course, but worth a look......

thank you all for the replies. When this car had about 110 K on it, I replaced the front axles with reman units I purchased from a Subaru dealership. Now that I think about it, that's when all of this began....and over time it's gotten worse. Sounds like it may be time to get axles from CCR....

1998 Legacy Outback LTD wagon, automatic. We've owned it since brand new; now it's got 220K well-maintained miles on it. Over the years, more and more engine rumble and harshness (especially at idle in "D") is coming into the passenger comparment. It's a nasty "throbbing/rumble" at idle in D. Slipping the shifter into nuetral smooths things out a bit.......but not much. Under the same conditions, my '99 Legacy GT is much quieter. The engine idle speed is correct. I suppose I could adjust that little throttle stop screw on the throttle body to boost the idle speed a bit but that's not really the right thing to do..... I've replaced the transmission mount (thinking perhaps it had lost it's softness and cushioning) but that didn't help. The local Subaru specialty shop has tried adjusting the dogbone (pitch stopper) and, while there was slight improvement, that throbbing rumble at idle persists. The shop also suggested I paint a line straight across the crankshaft pulley and drive the car for a few days to see if the painted line would split apart (indicating a failing crank pulley)---but the inner and outer sections of the pulley are not separating. Have any of you tried replacing motor mounts or the pitch stopper to try to fix this kind of thing ?

Unless the alternator belt is way too loose, the alternator itself is failing.

thanks for the reply ivans imports....doesn't sound too difficult. Somehow I knew that the reservior "o" ring didn't come with the reseal kit so I did obtain that o ring from Subaru as well... thanks again

I purchased a Subaru power steering pump reseal kit for my wife's '98 Legacy Outback because the pump is leaking---it isn't just the "O" ring at the reservior this time. Does anyone have specific written instructions on how to disassemble and re-seal the pump?

You've tried the inexpensive stuff. Unfortunately the symptom you describe is the beginning of a headgasket failure. Exhaust gasses are blowing past a small "break" in one of the headgaskets. That causes an air pocket to form in the cooling system, resulting in intermittant overheating without any particular pattern to it. My '99 Legacy GT is doing this same thing.....temperature guage will display overheating ONLY when the car is brought to a stop after being on the highway at 75 mph for a while. When the car is stopped, If I momentarily rev the engine, the temperature guage moves back down, because the coolant circulates faster when the engine is revved. Headgasket replacement is inevitable.

gentle air pressure using one of those compressed air "dusters" that shops use...the kind with the long extension tube on it works best. The drain holes in the corners of the front sunroof are fairly easy to reach. The drain holes at the front corners of the rear sunroof are also easy enough to get to, but the drain holes at the rear corners of the rear sunroof are impossible to see from the top of the car with the roof open. I think the only way you'll be able to get to the rear drain tubes of the rear roof would be to remove the headliner, which it appears you are contemplating anyway... I'm sure you probably already know this, but whatever you do, avoid the temptation to try and run a piece of wire down the drain tubes to clean them.....that will just make the problem worse because you'll either pull the tubes loose from the roof or you'll damage the tubes and they'll leak. The sunroof drain tube system is more complicated than people think, especially when dirt and other crud plugs them up.

In your post you mentioned ".....and maybe fix my front sun roof....." Have you made sure the sunroof drain hoses are all clear---especially the rear sun roof? If the drain hoses are plugged with crud, water will back up and overflow onto the headliner....

Mr Eggleston's suggestion to check the igniter was (damn near) spot-on. We are the original owners of this car and it's unadulterated, and in nice shape. When I looked at the igniter, the problem became obvious: the factory routed the harness very tightly across the top of the igniter, and apparantly over time that caused one of the five wires within the gray hardshell connector to the igniter to pull out of the connector (black wire with white hash marks). I removed the hardshell connector from the igniter and used a tiny screwdriver tip to press that wire and its rubber "weatherpac" seal firmly back into the hardshell. Engine started right up. thank you, Mr Eggleston, and others as well, for all of your help .

Mr Eggleston: my apologies....all these years I thought that little controller on the firewall was for the auto. trans. I have a copy of the Subaru shop manual showing that this part is in fact the ignitor. So shame on me for not consulting the manual. I'll try substituting the ignitor from our '98 to the '99 tomorrow and let you know what happens.. Thanks again...

Thanks for your reply as well, Mr Eggleston. The only "module" on the engine compartment side of the firewall on these two cars is that little automatic trans controller that's mounted to a metal extension off of the firewall. I think the days when cars had those ignitors dates back to when engines had distributors---at least I think that's the case...

Appreciate your suggestion Mikaleda; I checked ignition fuse at interior fuse panel....there's power on both sides of that fuse. I'm thinking of attempting to swap ECM from our '98 Legacy to the '99. Does anyone know where ECM is located on these vehicles? There is a box with 2 large electrical connectors on inside of firewall to left of brake pedal... but I think I read somewhere that ECM might be in passenger side footwell on these vehicles...can anyone confirm?

1999 Legacy GT wagon, auto trans. Engine cut off while driving. Cranks but won't fire. No spark. During cranking compression "sounds" normal, and not like a broken timing belt. We also have a '98 Legacy Limited and I've substituted the ignition coil, crank position sensor, cam position sensor from car-to-car but still no spark. Anyone have ideas what I should check next?

can you determine if the "rap rap rap" happens once with every revolution of a wheel/axle ? My wife's 98 Outback did exactly that when a CV joint was failing.....on deceleration a "thunk thunk thunk" once with every revolution of the axle...and of course the thunking slowed as the vehicle speed slowed. And when that CV joint failed, there were no grease leaks. Thunk, thunk, thunk; rap rap rap, bang, bang bang.....however you wish to term it....it was once with every revolution of the axle. Also made the steering wheel shake violently until vehicle speed dropped below about 45.

My '99 Legacy GT wagon with the 4EAT has developed a 4-3 downshift problem: when you need to force a 4-3 downshift to merge onto a highway, the engine will "flare" for a split second, then the transmission slams hard into 3rd gear---sometimes so hard it chirps the tires. Maybe if I were still 18 years old, that'd be cool...but I'm way past that stage.... No "check engine" light coming on. No "AT temp" light coming on. Transmission UPshifting is flawless--cold or warm---and there's no "delay" going into gear when cold. I've changed the trans fluid (and that damned $30.00 spin-on filter that Subaru claims "never needs replacing") so many times, I've lost count. Making matters worse, the problem tends to vary...there is not a repeatable pattern to this. I'm thinking a shift solenoid is failing, or sticking. Anyone concur?? If so, which one would you try replacing?

Any of you folks ever seen a REAR driveshaft or universal joint failure? In my '99 Legacy GT wagon (auto trans) with approx 172000 mi there's a nasty "booming/rumble" sound in the cabin above 42 mph. Not a shimmy or shake related to wheels/tires. I've tried coasting down a hill above 42 mph and slipping the trans into nuetral---and the "booming/rumble" continues....so it's not related to engine speed. I think it has to do with rear driveshaft speed. And I've heard that IF there's a u-joint issue, Subaru does not make u-joints available separately...they're happy to sell you an entire driveshaft assembly, however... It is my opinion that FRONT axle shafts (still in good shape on this car) could not cause this because they're turning the same speed as the wheels---too slow to cause a booming vibration inside the car. I guess what I'm really asking here is does anyone know if rear driveshaft or u-joint failure is a chronic problem with these cars as vehicle mileage gets way up there ??

thanks for your responses, guys.......it's interesting to note on the "Just Suspensions" website they have a note that says "KYB is retiring the GR-2 (silver) brand name and switching to Excel-G (black)." I don't know if that's a good thing, a bad thing, or nothing to think about at all....

Our '98 Legacy Outback LTD has cracked the 200K mile mark...still looks and runs great. But it's time for struts because the car wallows and sways over dips in the road. I've replaced struts myself on my '99 GT wagon and it's not a big deal but after a while you get tired of paying dealer prices for parts....have any of you folks used KYB struts and if so, have you been pleased with them?

Has anyone ever had to take apart the windshield wiper linkage on a 1996-1999 Legacy? If so, I need to know how.... something is falling apart in my 99 Legacy's wiper linkage; it's making a loud thump/banging noise when the wipers reach the top and bottom of their travel. It's not a blade issue ---you can hear the noise coming from inside the cowl where the wiper linkage is located. There's also a tremendous amount of play in the wiper linkage if you try to move the wipers by hand. I did a little research on this over the past week and found that this is a common problem on Legacys and Foresters of this vintage. The plastic bushing attaching the passenger-side wiper linkage to the wiper motor falls apart over the years, causing excessive play and a clunking/banging noise in the wipers, especially on high speed. Naturally, Subaru does not offer that bushing separately (shocker). I chose to replace the entire right wiper link assembly (which IS available separately for 96-99 Legacy) because it's not expensive and it means "reliability" to me. Other folks have used an aftermarket windshield wiper linkage bushing kit (Dorman # 49447....one of those little "HELP!" items available at auto parts stores) to replace the bushing separately without having to replace the entire link.