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Check if the rear axles popped off. The rear axles could pop off from the diff but visibly look normal. Yank on them to find out. The pedal would be very soft and stick to the floor if the cable was broken.

like they say, fifth time's a charm!

1) It's two bolts and a hoseclamp to replace. If you've changed an oil filter before it's not much more complicated than that. Just look up any subaru thermostat replacement videos to get a general idea. Aisin is the oem brand for subaru thermostats. Just get those and be done with it. 2) It should be ok as long as it doesn't grind gears when shifting. Probably the linkage bushing is worn out and the shifter is flopping around. Look up subaru shift linkage replacement videos. Though a thermostat doesn't usually get stuck open unless it overheated badly enough to cause this.

If you're doing it yourself, NTN is the oem supplier for subaru. Look for those or BCA (NTN subsidiary, not made in japan). I haven't heard of counterfeit NTN parts out there yet, but wouldn't be surprised if they exist. Be wary and research online suppliers if it looks too good to be true.

the hoses are formed, but you could get away with whatever is closest to its shape. take your phone and peek around down there. you should see this thing. that's where the hose comes from. it's deep down in there. removing the intake is the recommended way, but why not try the throttle body first, it's just 4 bolts

I see, not the same issue then. I had a security alarm module on an older 98 go bad. It would toggle off and on really fast randomly, apparently it toggled the main relay along with it and would throw all sorts of lights. All the issues went away after removing the module and rewiring the car back to stock.

When you mentioned clicking relays, were they fast machine gun clicking? And by chance does your car come equipped with the subaru security alarm?

Sounds like the coolant hoses coming in and out of the throttle body right? There are two hoses, one goes into the block you might be able to reach with long needle nose pliers. The other goes into the coolant crossover pipe, unfortunately that's directly below and behind the throttle body. You'll have to remove the throttle body and dig close to the center of the block to replace it. Get a spare gasket on hand before you do this, sometimes the old one rips when you disassemble. They're reusable if it comes out in one piece. Don't go crazy on torquing the bolts back on, the soft aluminum threads tend to strip.

Did you notice the old pads wore evenly when you pulled them off? There's one pin that has a rubber damper inside, that tends to swell and cause pads to wear lopsided. It eventually causes sticking issues because the pressure is more like a parallelogram than square. I remove those when redoing brakes.

The reservoir cap isn't sealed but it's strange to have it leak. With engine on, steer left/right a couple times quickly, if the oring was leaking it would suck in air and cause a whining noise and random choppiness in the steering wheel. You could have someone steer back and forth while you check in the reservoir with cap off and see if there are any bubbles. I don't recall ever having fluid leaking out the top of the reservoir cap, but guessing if there's an air leak at the top where the steering pump is, any fluid higher than the reservoir will eventually drain back down into it. Betting either that upper host end is so hardened and brittle, the rubber can't contract any more even with the hose clamp. The oring is under that black elbow, I usually replace it with whatever fits from the auto store.

Yes the one that runs along the radiator is the culprit, but you could get both of them considering it's a 20 year old car now.

It's unlikely the high pressure, that's a pipe from the steering hose that only turns into a hose somewhere behind the engine. If that one even leaks a little you'll lose all power steering within an hour, it's like 200psi. There's two low pressure hoses, one comes back from the steering rack and into the reservoir, unlikely leak. The other one goes from the reservoir back into the pump and is all rubber, that's probably the culprit. I don't know what the name is... it's the "really squiggly one".

Good luck! Don't pull off the hose though if you don't have a replacement onhand. If it's already brittle, it'll leak even more or worse it'll break apart at the clamp area.

Is that the one with the plastic reservoir on the side? Those rarely leak. It's more likely the rubber hoses have gone brittle and are leaking at the clamps. Check the hoses first, likely need to change those out only.

With the spark plugs out, crank the engine until you see oil pressure. It'll crank pretty fast and build pressure after a couple tries. Also don't prefill the oil filter, if the oil pump wasn't preprimed it'll take very long for the air to overcome the oil stuck in the filer. If you're not sure, just crank it with no oil filter until you see it spit out oil, then the pump is primed. Put back the filter and crank for pressure. I'd crank until the oil light goes out, let it rest while I button up the some things, come back and test crank again to confirm the oil light instantly goes out. Then you're sure everything ready to fire up.

Engine size doesn't matter as much as SOHC vs DOHC. SOHC belt is same on 2.0, 2.2, 2.5 SOHC engines. DOHC belt matches all DOHC EJ. You'll still need to make sure the tensioner matches the one you have: old style vs new style. And water pump matches: side exit or bottom exit.

If anything, inspect the donut flange area. if it's rusted out I'd just replace the entire thing. A sometimes leaking and sometimes not spring loaded donut flange makes it hard to chase the inevitable p0420 code. The muffler end can fall off and it wouldn't set codes. No resonator wouldn't bother the neighbors, it'd bother you with highway droning if you're sensitive to that.

Great job finding the issue. It just occurred to me that if it happened to one window, it might be the same on the other ones.

Before you order, go to your car and pinch all the hoses connecting to the pcv valve. Chances are they're already hard and brittle, probably crack or won't seal up if you take it apart. You might be better off ordering the pcv assembly with new hoses attached already.

it does sound like bearings. try spinning the wheels while holding on the the spring coil. it amplifies the vibrations. if there is a bad one, you'll feel nominal vibrations on the other wheels and really different vibrations on the one with a bad bearing.

Probably overthinking it, I've taken them apart and put them back randomly with no issues.

I don't know about newer axles, but for 2007 and earlier were all made by NTN. Look for the NTN stamped on the cup. If the axle doesn't have a name stamping or serial number, it's an el cheapo.

Actually I realized the pics I posted above have the 770 on top, and 670 below. The top center area is different, but for your use case either is fine. They are both MLS designs.

Ah, I copied wrong, it should be 11044AA670 gonna edit the original. Thanks

Did you have the heads resurfaced at a machine shop for this rebuild? If so, go with the MLS ones, 11044AA770 or 11044AA670 Look up how to press back the tensioner with a c-clamp for reuse. Going too fast can pop the internal seals. This video looks like the correct way.