Stevo F

I decided to do a couple of the same mods to the '95 EJ22 in our most recently acquired 1997 Legacy GT. Similar to what I did with our '98 Legacy EJ22 wagon, I swapped the air tube resonator for the earlier style '95 air tube (less air restriction). The vacuum lines all install pretty much the same way and it ran fine afterwards, although the idle might have been a light rougher (attributed it to the ECU needing the relearn the difference in air flow). Drove fine a couple of weeks then last weekend we were going to have my son drive the car on a longish trip and the car idled rough and got a CEL. I checked the connections (especially the large hose to the IACV) and all looked good, but I swapped the originally air tube back on and cleared the code. The car has a bit of miss at idle (almost has a rumbling sound coming from below the engine when it misses). Also idle is a little erratic. I went ahead reinstalled the '95 air tube and installed the MSD coil- no real differences or improvements in the way it runs. My son drove it about 40+miles for a driving lesson yesterday and it drove fine I also played around a little with the TPS adjustment to try to up the idle speed a bit, which may have improved the idle speed a little. Then this morning my wife went to take it to work and no start at all. The engine cranks and when it ties to catch the engine shakes quite a bit. It feels like some sort of misfire. I tried to read any codes from it and did come up with the P0505 IACV code again. I cleared it, but it does the same thing when you try to start it. (I wouldn't think IACV issues would cause a no start situation anyway). So I'm thinking some of the recent work done on it is the cause- is the the MSD coil defective possibly- seemed to work fine at first. Totally unrelated but could it have jumped timing? (timing belt and idlers replaced 30K something miles ago when P.O. swapped the EJ22 in). Should whatever happened be throwing a code? (I'm not reading any new ones).

Yes I did buy new rotors and pads- but thinking of trying the left foot dragging procedure before I pull the old ones off- I guess it couldn't hurt at this point

I like the idea of a less restrictive intake tube. I'm not sure what year car this is, oer what your original intake system is like, but I like using the '95- '96 EJ22 intake pipe on my later '97 & '98 Legacy's because it is less restrictive. This along with the MSD coil mod gave my '98 wagon 2- 3 more MPG. Actually going to do the same 2 mods to my '97 GT with EJ22 this weekend.

Once headgaskets go, they will likely fail again unless the heads and deck were checked for warpage and machined if needed. Less likely to fail repeatedly on an EJ22. The 4EAT transmissions are generally pretty solid as well.I have '98 Leagacy with an EJ22 with 129K miles that I'm hoping to still be driving at 300K.

Right after buying our '98 GT, I found you had the hold the key in start for a few seconds if the engine was cold, but no problem if it was warm. The previous had put a junk Autozone starter on it a year earlier, but I ordered a Denso remanufactured starter and have had no problems since.

I've seen other cars warp by 40K miles and I never ride the brakes, or use them excessively (I use them to come to a stop and that's about it). I agree it's most likely the front ones only since they do the majority of the work and build up more heat. I'll definitely check the slide pins for free movement and check everything else over.

The rotors on my 2014 Impreza Premium are getting pretty well warped and at 42K miles it will probably need pads soon, so I'd like to replace pads all around and front rotors (possibly rears if there is still pedal vibration after doing the fronts). I've never done brakes on any Subaru newer than our old 2005 Impreza- is there anything about these later models that's different, or anything to watch out for? Everything regarding pads and rotors was quite straightforward on the 2005 as well as my 1997/ 1998 Legacy's- just checking to see if anything had changed by 2014 that I should watch out for.

All '96- '99 Subaru J25D engines will have headgasket failure (usually by 150K miles). We recently bought our '98 Legacy GT at only 94K miles and they already were replaced at 91K miles, so it can vary.

My '98 Legacy acted the same way after we bought it 4 years ago. it ended up to be an issue with the climate control unit itself. I found another on Ebay and it's worked well ever since.

Our '98 GT did the same thing when we bought it (only when cold- starter would kick in right away with a warm engine). Put a remanufactured Denso starter in and no issues since.

Starter solenoid most likely. When we bought our '98 GT, when starting the engine cold, you would need to hold the key in start for a few seconds before the starter woudl kick in. Since it was like a year old Autozone starter the PO had installed, I just ordered a remanufactured Denso starter and have had no issues since.

I find my 2014 Impreza to be "laggy" with the CVT- starts moving quickly enough from a stop, but lags during acceleration while the CVT lets the engine RPM's wind up. I drove a 2015 Legacy as a loaner car and found the FB25 engine to have a much smoother acceleration curve than the Impreza's FB20, even with the CVT. It may be there were changes between 2012 and 2015 that helped the Legacy perform better.

I've installed double DIN radios in 1998 Legacy's and in a 2005 Impreza and I was able to use the stock brackets, so I did not need an installation kit, just a reverse wiring adapter (like the one you found on Ebay) that can be wired to the new radio and fit into the standard Subaru radio wiring harness. I was able to wire the stock subwoofer so it would work with the aftermarket radio, but it was pretty much trial and error. You should be able to find a wiring diagram for the Subaru subwoofers online. On my installation, the new radio had a subwoofer output which I utilized.

The fobs for the '98 and earlier factory alarm systems can be had pretty cheap on Ebay ($15- $20) as the same Fob was used on a variety of car makes during that era.Just search for model # goh-m24.

Maybe not worth any more than a factory SUS, but it has a coolness factor in that most SUS's are '99's and Outback wagons are far more common.

An EJ25D engine with bad headgaskets may also have bubbles in the overflow tank, or sometimes oily gunk in there as well.

I would order a rebuilt or New one from Auto. I got a decent brand caliper for my Legacy for around $100 several years ago and bonnier issues with sticking calipers since.

This is a common issue with late model Impreza's. My 2014 had this replaced under factory. I assume your original warranty has expired. I'm under the 6 Year/100K mile warranty with mine now and wonder if it would still be covered. Not sure how expensive part it is.

My '98 Legacy wagon with an EJ22 has a mere 125K miles. I expect at least 200K more. Just a little piston slap when cold.

I just had a similar issue on the '98 Legacy we just bought. Most likely the starter solenoid, but since the previous had put an Autozone starter on it a year to two ago, I decided to junk the whole starter and bought a remanufactured Denso starter from Rock Auto for $112

On our "new" '98 GT with 4EAT automatic transmission, I notice when I'm driving on 25- 30 MPH roads, the transmissions lingers in 2nd until I rev it up to about 2500 RPM, then left off the gas a bit, hen shifts smoothly into 3rd. It shifts normally when accelerating up to highway speed, and it seems to do this more when I've just started it up. In comparison, I've never noticed this on our other '98 Legacy. Being unsure of any previous maintenance, I'm going to do a drain and refill of transmission fluid at the least. Any other ideas, new filter, or anything else it might need?

hHis was a common problem on 2012- 2013 FB series engines, not as common, but not unheard of on 2014's and later. I guess I'm lucky in that 2014 Impreza doesn't use any oil.

So I've decided the delayed cranking of the starter on my '98 Legacy GT is the start/ solenoid itself, so I want to replace it. I like using Rock Auto, I can get a remanufactured Denso for $108 vs. a new Bosch for $107 (in either case I'll keep the old one and maybe change out the copper contacts in my spare to to see if that fixes it and keep it as a spare for one of our 2 Legacies). I know many lean toward Denso because it's OEM, but in my experiences (from many years ago, the last time I had to replace a starter) that new are generally better than rebuilt, so I'm on the fence. So new Bosch or remaunfactured Denso?

Actually I hear no click from the starter (I think I was hearing a relay under the dash click and the door chime was going off when I tried previously so it was difficult to hear). Tried it again and it the start will crank normally if I hold the key in start for 5 seconds or so.

I thought he said it was, but I didn't find it among the other receipts he gave me. It physically looks kind of oxidized, so it could be original.