outback_97

No worries about the badge... just do this! Steve (5 minutes of hamfisted photochopping)

Carl: Have you considered the "Saabaru" Saab 9-2x? Basically a WRX wagon with a few things changed. People are getting very good deals on these due to the GM incentives. But, they're very hard to find. Steve EDIT: Also check out the Nasioc thread

Short answer: Any standard DIN stereo should fit, unless it's abnormally deep I guess. Searching on "impreza stereo" got me this informative thread with links: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=35952&highlight=impreza+stereo If you need any more info after reading through the thread and links, let me know Steve

I say buy it There's a long thread on Nasioc here: http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=658102&highlight=saabaru Some of it is actually useful information, most is filler and petty squabbling and BS in true Nasioc style. Search on "saabaru" for more of the same. Differences are (in no particular order): interior materials and sound deadening, looks, suspension, steering ratio... that's the main ones from the little reading I've done. Mostly it's the same car as you mentioned. The 2.0 is very good. Yes you need premium fuel. Steve EDIT: 5 speed or Auto? I've seen many people complain about the combo of 2.0 turbo with 4EAT in city driving FWIW.

This chart has a lot of information (such as weights) on wheels that fit Imprezas. Might help you out: http://wac.addr.com/auto/obs/wheels.html Steve

Jack: Thanks, that's a good idea. Hadn't seen that mentioned before. Concerns about the difficulty in removing stuck fasteners were 80% of the reason that I was hesitant to tackle this job in the first place. Thanks to everyone for your support, USMB is my favorite Subaru forum, largely due to the positive attitude and helpfulness. Steve

Tim: Are the fans working? Maybe it's only cooling enough when there's air flowing over the radiator, but not while stopped? Steve

+1 And congrats on the milestone. I'd love to see mine turn 200K, but at the rate I drive it, that's six years away. I'm at 115K or so now, 2.5 with no problems. Steve

Welcome to the USMB! This might help in calculating any differences in tires: http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalcold.html Not sure what your stock size is but WRX is 205/55/16 IIRC. Steve

Update: Shop called me shortly after my last post, all done, $140 bucks. Rode my bike over there, threw it in the back of the car, back home. Not bad considering some alternatives. I was careful not to let the pads sit clamped on the rotor and took back streets to avoid excessive braking. Reading up now on the proper breakin procedure. Grossgary: I assure you it was turned the right way, lefty loosey In fact I successfully got the top bolt out (turning same direction) and was thinking, hey this isn't too bad, before I popped the head off the bottom one. I was using a small breaker bar (less than 24") and I'm skinny so no big superhuman feats of strength there either My guess is that several winters of lots of salty roads and the bolt not being removed for a long time insured it was in there pretty good. Maybe it was torqued too much the last time (years ago) it was off. Dunno. Well, time to get some other stuff done, I'm burning daylight! Steve EDIT: forgot to add a link to someone else that had a very similar problem: http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=779329 Different vehicle and it was the top bolt that he broke, not the bottom. But otherwise really similar.

Thanks for the kind words Here's what I did do: Found a brake shop that was willing to do it, using the parts I already bought. They said they may have to heat it w/ a torch to get the stud out of there, if they can't drill it out. I chickened out on doing this myself. I don't have a reverse bit or bolt extractor, nor a torch, could get one, but kinda time consuming to keep putting on and taking off the wheels, lifting the car, putting on jack stands, etc. I don't have a garage (well, a single car one full of junk and not enough room for a car) and I'm doing this in the driveway. Supposed to be 90 today w/ chance of thunderstorms later. Not ideal conditions for spending all day wrenching on the car. Better luck next time. Enough justifying, time to do do some work in the yard. At least I can't screw that up... Steve

FWIW, I have a '97 Outback (you'd never guess from the name) and the mirrors are fixed, i.e. do not fold in. They are the heated ones from the cold weather package, if that makes a difference. Steve

Well, this stinks, but of course it could be worse. All set to replace my rotors. Parts? Check. Tools? Check. Service manual? Check. Penetrating oil applied to bolts two days before? Check. Knowledge of what to do when I shear the head off one of the caliper bracket bolts? Ooops. Ummmmm... call around for a shop that'll bail me out on a Saturday morning? At least I could put everything back together and still drive the thing. There goes all the money I was going to save. Bleh. This is just like plumbing... it's not that hard in theory, unless you're dealing with 50 year old corroded galvanized pipes. What would the more savvy among you have done? How to deal with the broken bolt? Now I'm stuck at home (wife's at work) and have no good excuse not to do the yard work I've been putting off. Steve

Buy the new one, sell the old one yourself. For much more than they will ever give you. Just be prepared to deal with buyers, it's a pain but worth it IMO. Tradein is where they make most of their money anyway. Steve

Peter: Try GIS (google image search) for "subaru cut-away". I found several cool ones that way. Steve

Nice! So no probs with turning or going over uneven stuff too? Now I wish someone with an OB would try the same thing... Question: Why 10% gearing loss, how do you calculate that? I assumed it would be 5% like the speedo and odo... but you know what they say about assuming. Steve

I just got two front ones from www.tirerack.com. They're the plain jane Brembos (not drilled or slotted) and look pretty darn close to the OEM. Maybe Brembo makes Subie rotors, I don't know. Anyone know who does? They were around $50 each, plus <$20 freight, and tirerack delivered them FAST. Supposedly a good replacement for OEM. Some people say rotors don't usually "warp", but rather get uneven deposits on them from the pads. It's also important to follow certain "bedding in" procedures when you get new pads and/or rotors. Did you do this? Is there a chance your lug nuts have been tightened too much? This can also cause rotors to be uneven. 16K miles seems pretty quick to have problems again. On my car I feel a vibration / pulsation in the steering wheel, to a lesser extent in the brake pedal, and very subtly in the seat of the pants. It is much more pronounced during high speed descent down a hill. I'm hoping the new front rotors and pads will address most of the problem Steve

ILL: HAS to be? No. Probably is? Yes, based on what I've read. http://users.sisna.com/ignatius/subaru/headgasket.html That link may have some useful information for you. Steve

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83809&highlight=215%2F75%2F15 This thread above may help answer your question. Sounds like it might barely fit, but it's hard to find definitive answers. I've wondered the same thing about tires on my OB, I've been wanting to do exactly that size in an LT tire, I've been assuming it'd fit based on just eyeballing it and feeling around the tire for clearances, but based on that thread now I'm not so sure Steve

It's my understanding that you can disconnect the battery for a long time (a half hour, or overnight, etc.) and it will reset the ECU and the TCU, i.e. they go back to a default state. If you don't want to wait for all the residual voltage (am I saying that right?) to fully drain, you can hold down the brake pedal lightly to close the brake light circuit and thus quickly drain any power that would be keeping the ECU and TCU memory "alive". So by using the brake pedal you can reset it quickly, in seconds or minutes rather than in say an hour. You might also search if you are inclined, I think there was mention of one being able to pull a certain fuse to make the process even easier. But I don't know which one, and the battery disconnect / brake pedal has worked for me. Steve

vintage: Here's how I do it. Next time you fill up, reset your trip odometer. Then, every time you fill the tank, write down your trip odo mileage on the receipt. Divide your miles by number of gallons (or km by liters) to figure out your mileage. Or kilometerage, as the case may be. Steve

On Nasioc I think I remember someone using Baja springs* on their 2nd gen Outback to give it a slight lift, like 1" or so. Presumably the springs are a bit taller and stiffer. Don't know if the struts are any different, I don't think they are. But you could call a dealer and find out if they are different part #'s maybe? Steve *edit: May have been Baja Turbo springs that were used.

This spring we came back from Zion NP (near St. George) and took back roads from Cedar City to SLC (130 / 257 / 6). Our TS got 33 mpg on that tank! Tail wind is right. 105? That can be costly in more than just fuel economy terms I don't trust fuel gauges much. Trip odometer is the way to go IMO. The low fuel light seems to be pretty accurate the 2 times or so it's ever come on. About 2.5 of the 15.9 left when that comes on, but I don't know if you can actually USE all 2.5 of it. Don't plan to find out either Steve

Just curious: Why would warped rear rotors cause vibration in the steering wheel? Sounds like front rotors to me. I've never heard of rear rotors causing a steering wheel vibe, but now twice in one thread I just bought two new front rotors and hope they will fix the steering wheel shake that's very evident in my car. It's worked in the past (I've had to: turn the original rotors, replace them, then turn the replacements IIRC). Steve

I've seen a lot of people recommend using only the Subaru part for this, and while it's still not a lot of money, it's definitely more than $3. Seems like it was more like $12-$15 or so? Can't remember exactly, but I replaced mine a while back. Steve