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Well, this too is controversial, if it was me, I'd leave well enough alone...(See this post)

It has to do with something called readiness monitors, which are present on 96 and newer model cars with OBDII. Your car runs test on various sensors and systems in the car as the car is driven, and when it completes those tests, the computer marks those systems as "ready". Some of those tests take time to run...hence the advice that you put a certain amount of mileage on your car before you attempt a retest. Unfortunatly, the only way to tell if a monitor has been set to ready that I know of is to hook the car up to a scantool. They will do this for free at autozone. Unhooking the battery cable or resetting the ECU with a scantool will result in the computers memory being erased, and thus the car will have to run through the tests again to set the monitors to ready. I know in Texas at least, my car model (a 96 legacy 2.2L) is flagged for having trouble setting it's readiness monitors, and when they run the emissions test, the technician just does a two speed idle test if the monitors come up as not ready. I don't know if that is an issue with your car though. Best of luck...

There has been a lot of discussion on the importance of maintaining a consistant tire size on AWD Subarus (See this post...) I think that the FWD fuse is for emergencies only, and leaving the fuse in for a prolonged period of time will be bad for your transmission, but I could be wrong. I'd play it safe and get the tire replaced, and turn the AWD back on (remove the fuse)

I usually live in the dorms around U of H main campus, but right now I've moved back home for the summer. The shop in question is a national chain of transmission repair centers... I don't want to mention their name in case they decide to counter sue for libel or anything... but they are located on shepherd about ten to twelve blocks north of westheimer. My car was in the shop to repair a broken flex plate, which was covered under my transmission warranty. While they were replacing it, the mechanic called me and said that they were going to replace the rear cover gasket (once again, I don't know what this is) the rear main seal, and the oil pan gasket. I was not quoted a price for this, but told it would be a lot cheaper since they already had the transmission out of the vehicle. On top of this, they promised me the vehicle was ready on two separate occasions, prompting me to drive up to Houston two days in a row, and not get my vehicle back because it was not ready. (The manager actually said one time "Everything is put back together, and your car is completely ready to go, except we can't figure out how to get it to turn on...") They had somehow shorted out the starter, burned it out, and had to replace it before giving me back the vehicle. I paid him for the four hours of labor and the ridiculously overpriced gaskets, with the total coming up to over $500 (because I know arguing with him at the shop will merely result in me not getting my car back... and I currently live a long way from it.) I'm asking for an I.D. on these gaskets, because when I asked for the boxes and gaskets that he did not use, he seemed really surprised, and I suspect that he went out to the shop and just put a few clean looking gaskets in the box the oil pan gasket came in to appease me for the moment.

Okay guys and gals. I'm having quite a bit of trouble with a shop right now, and it would help me a lot in my battles if I knew what these various gaskets that came in the "Special gasket set" that a shop ordered and is trying to charge me well over two hundred dollars for actually are(I know the generic o rings are not that interesting, but the other two look odd). They suppoedly came in a kit with a rear main seal and an oil pan gasket, and a rear cover gasket (no, no clarification on what "rear cover" other than it is somewhere around the back of the engine. I took my car in to have warrenty work done on the transmission, and it looks like they are trying to take me for a ride...and a rather expensive one at that. I'd love to give more details, (shop name, ect.) but I feel like this may end up having to be settled in court, and I don't want to say anything that could later jeprodize that. And thanks a lot to everyone who responds in advance. P.S. I got a little ahead of myself...the car in question is a 1996 subaru legacy with 2.2L, AWD and an automatic.

Check your spark plugs, wires, and clutch pack for a possible short. Get the car into a dark garage (or wait until night...) and have an assistant run the engine throughout the RPM range and look really close for any current leaks. This happened last summer in my 96 with a 2.2L, one of the wires had a small crack in the bottom of the boot leading to the coil pack. Unfortunatly, my coil pack was also fried by the time I figured out what was wrong, but after I replaced the wires, coil, and spark plugs (just for good measure...) the problem dissappeared. Best of luck

Well, after quite a bit of rather heated discussions with the transmission shop, I was finally able to convince them to replace the flex plate under warranty. Thanks to everyone here for their help, I really do appreciate it.

Yup, a cracked flex plate it is...and the transmission shop is currently refusing to repair it because it wasn't replaced with the new transmission. I've called two seperate Subaru dealers and spoken with my usual mechanic, all of which say it is uncommon to replace a flywheel/flex plate, and when they do have to it is usually related to a problem with the startor. I guess we will see what happens...If anyone else has had similar experiences, please share.

you might also try checking out the EGR system. I was having intermittant rough running issues, and it would only occasionally throw an MIL. It baffled my mechanic and I for months, but it finally turned out to be the backpressure transducter valve that had a torn diaprahm.

Okay, I removed the driver's side timing belt cover and checked to see if the belt did anything odd while the car was making the noise. Although the belt is starting to show its age (I'll have to replace it soon...) it appeared to be running smoothly. I poked around the engine compartment some more, using a broomstick (because my longest screwdriver isn't that long... ) and the noise actually seems to be coming from the transmission. More evidence comes from the fact that the noise intensifies and changes pitch when I put my foot on the brake and put the transmission into drive...all the while engine RPMs are staying the same. So...I think it may have something to do with the transmission, which I had replaced by one of the most incompetent shops I have ever encountered last summer. It's still under warranty, so I'm going to drive the car about fifty miles to the next closest location of this terrible chain (They put transmission fluid in my front differential, and then tried to tell me that it was the correct fluid. I had to call the dealer and get them to point out to the shops owner that this was completely wrong before they would do anything about it...), and hope their mechanics are more competent than the ones where I had the transmission replaced initially. If anyone has any further insight as to what they could have done wrong (and why it has taken almost a year for symptoms to show up...) I'd appreciate input. Thank God my mom insisted I get the extended warranty...I never thought that extra $90 would ever pay off...

That sucks. The same thing happened to me on both sides when I changed the balljoints on my 1996 legacy. I didn't want to deal with drilling it, so I just removed both strut towers and took them to the machine shop...they extracted both bolts no problem for $25. May be a good solution if you don't wanna risk damaging the female threads, and don't have a lot of industrial strenght drilling equipment to get the broken bolts out (the one I tried to drill was tough as hell...) It's not a good situation either way, you just gotta pick how you are going to deal with it. Best of luck...

So, in my neverending quest to keep my subie on the road, I've run into yet another hurdle. After a trip to Houston today, I noticed my car has started to make a new, unusual knocking noise. It sounds to me like it is coming from the front of the engine, but I can't be too sure. When I rev the engine, the sound either goes away, or is covered up by the other engine noises. I really, really hope that this problem is not as expensive as it sounds, I'm completely lost, so help would be really really appriciated. The sound it is making can be downloaded here (About 1MB .WAV file) I recently changed the oil, but I don't think that has anything to do with this (I've checked the oil level and it 's fine...) Don't know how long it's been since the timing belt has been changed...the last major work was installing keyless entry. (and the last major relavent work has been changing the front axles, tie rod ends and balljoints.) That's all I can think of for now, if anyone needs any additional info to help me find the problem, just ask. Thanks in advance P.S. It's a 1996 Legacy L with a 2.2L, 180,000 miles (yeah, that probably should have been the first thing I said...)

Thanks for all of the advice...The ez-outs didn't work (wishful thinking I suppose...) so I took the whole strut tower out and I'm gonna be taking it to a machine shop tommorow. Hopefully they can help...

Yeah, so I bought the Craftsman bolt extractor. It did a really good job gripping onto the head and allowing me to apply quite a bit of torque...unfortunatly the side I tried on was so severely rust welded in place that the head broke off. I guess now I have no choice but to drill the whole thing out... Oh well, guess it happens....

Hey everyone, I started changing my tie rod ends/balljoints today, and unfortunatly the head of the bolt on the driver's side that holds the upper end of the balljoint in is rounded off rather badly. I was thinking of JB welding a cheap socket to it, and then trying to get it off...but I thought I'd ask before I did anything to screw it up any worse. Anyhow, sugesstions are welcome. Thanks in advance P.S. It's a 1996 Legacy L AWD 2.2L

Thanks Larry, The driver's side CV joint does have a little free play, which might be the problem, but the rack also makes a funny slooshing noise when I turn the wheel from lock to lock with both front wheels in the air. I'll probably replace the front axles with rebuilt ones, and then see if the problem persists. If the problem comes back, and it turns out that the rack is faulty, I'd definatly be interested in your used one. I also need a few more parts for my soobie (In case you are parting one out...), namely a couple of rear head rests and a EGR solonid valve if the new back pressure transdeucer I just bought doesn't get rid of my persistant EGR problem (but that's another story...) Unfortunatly, I won't get a chance to work on the car for at least a couple of weeks, because I'm going back to U of H on Sunday, and won't be back at home until then. But I'll keep your email handy. thanks a million.

Hello Everybody, My 96 legacy has recently began doing something rather odd. Whenever I am maneuvering at low speeds, there is a pronounced vibration that is transmmitted through the steering wheel, accompanied by a rumbling noise. It only does it at low speeds, and only when I am making a 90 degree or sharper turn. Last summer, I had the problem of the inner tie rod boot cracking and crud getting into the inner tie rods, but I had both boots and tie rods replaced. My initial suspicion is that the car's steering rack is about to go south, (it has about 180k on it) although I also realize that it may be the CV joints. I was wondering if anyone had a good way to differentiate between these two problems, so I don't end up fixing something I don't need to. Any help is greatly appriciated!

P0400. The EGR valve itself appears to be working properly (and holding vacuum...), and the hoses are clean. I'm gonna try replacing all of them, because the ends seem a little worn , and may be leaking vacuum. After that, I guess it's between the solenoid and the backpressure transducter. Anybody know a good way to test which one it may be? Thanks in advance.

Hello, My '96 Subaru Legacy 2.2L has been giving me trouble with it's egr system for quite some time. I and my mechanic have cleaned everything several times, but it keeps bringing up the CEL after a few days when I clear the codes. This is always preceded with the car kicking, especially at highway speeds. After the check engine light comes on, the car drives just fine (perhaps gets slightly worse gas mileage...) Anyway, I'm fairly sure that something needs to be replaced, but I'm not sure what. How do I test to see what component of the EGR system is malfunctioning, so that it can be replaced? Any help is greatly appriciated.