RallyKeith

I agree with his thoughts.

I bought a filter kit for the trans on my 96 Leg GT. It came with a cork gasket for the pan. The pan is sealed with silicon from the factory. Should I use the cork seal that came with the kit, or just re-seal it with silicon? Keith

AH, this was what I was coming to ask. When inquiring about the 96EJ25 rated at 155hp, vs the 97 EJ25 rated at 165hp, I was told everything went to solid lifter in 97, and now you have also confimed that.

Dodge, circa 1990ish, was known for automatics that ate themselves every 20k miles, especially if it had the V6. Reason being, they shifted all the way into over drive as soon as you left off the gas. Then as soon as you pushed back down on the gas pedal it had to downshift back down to the correct gear. This wears things out, and in a hurry. So, american cars have a drive and then overdrive for gear selection. Our subarus have Drive and then third. Our 3rd would be the equivalent to the american drive, highest gear before an overdrive. So if you were to decide to follow this advice then third would be the correct choice. However, from the 3 automatic subarus I've driven (one of each engine size) Subaru really has their $h!t together when it comes to Transmission shifting control. There are no reports of premature transmission failure due to excessive shifting in and out of 4th/OD, and from what I can tell it is very good about waiting to shift into it and back out of it. My vote is keep it in D Keith

Do any of the codes you've read match whats on the plate riveted to the drivers side inner fender? I do believe that plate contains the engine code, trans code, color code, and more. Keith

$85???????? It must be a used unit, not new. If it's new I think somebody dropped a zero off of that. $850 from the dealer sounds closer to what I'd expect than $85! Good deal either way for a part you don't have to pull yourself from a junk yard. Keith

Nokian Hakkapalittas (not sure if I spelled that correctly) are a better long term tire. Lots of tests have been done comparing Hakkas and Blizzaks, and basically the Blizzaks appear to be a little bit better when new, but as they wear Blizzaks performance falls off where the Hakkas stay stong. I've run hakkas on every subaru I've ever owned and they will take you anywhere in the snow. Keith

yup, yup. All that was done. We had fun watching all 4 wheels spin at different speeds. The fun of open diffs and slight rust build up on the rotors. Keith

Well, I'm now doing exactly what the book says, which is what you said. At first I couldn't actually drive it and get it up to full temp for fear of damage due to not enough or way to much fluid. The problem is that when you add fluid it takes a very long time for it to drain down the tube and not leave confusing residue on the stick. After letting the car sit over night and trying everything again and also driving it, it appears that it is deed not overfilled, but at the same time I have a small leak somewhere that is leaking onto the exhaust. That is now the first thing to figure out.

Oooh, I think that means 96 is where the 110 speed cut was introduced. I'm pretty sure I've had my 95 Legacy brighton Wagon with a 2.2 and 5spd up to 120, and with up coming traffic I couldn't push it any faster. So I take it then when you had the ECU reflashed, by Vishnu I assume, that gets rid of the factory speed cut? Keith

They can be used for anything. I saved up something like $1400 that I used when I bought my STi, and since then I've used them on service alone, parts alone, and a mix. Just last week my dad used one on parts. Timing belt and a bunch of oil filters. Keith

You want the Chase Platimum Subaru Card I don't know if they have a limit or not. I have the card, and have had it for years. (It was originally handled by MBNA) The only thing I do know is that the money you get comes in $100 "checks" that can only be used one time. That means if you get an oil change for $40 and want to use your $100 check, you kiss goodbye to the other $60. It's a crappy system in that regard, but they don't want people coming in and buying a $10 wiper blades and walking out with $90 cash in their hands. I buy parts at the dealer all the time, and for warrenty reasons I've been letting Subaru do my Castrol Syntec oil changes, so it doesn't take much for me to equal that $100. Keith

Working with this 96 GT I put the auto trans in, I was having a hard time getting a good reading while fililng it up with fluid. Since I had the trans apart and dumped as much out of the torque convertor while it was out, I wasn't sure how much it needed. Anyhow, Finally after letting it sit over night everything looked like it was a bit overfilled. It was just above the hot low mark while it was stone cold. I drove it a bit to see if things worked and I think it pushed fluid out the vent hose on the top. Will it do that until it reaches the correct level? Do I need to drain some out if it's only a little over? What am I risking if it's overfilled? I really know very little about automatics. Thanks, Keith

Just a thought. I know you talked about wanting to buy a new engine lift to make things easier and do it right if you do indeed swap. Since you will most likely need to take the intake manifold off to swap onto the new motor. You may want to just tear down the engine in the car. Rip off all the accesories, then the intake, and then the heads. This will allow you to take it out with out the lift, and also allow you to look at things and decide if you want a newly used motor. I did that on my RX, fully knowing I was going to be pulling the engine out anyway. Keith

That's just plain old not nice. Ted made a simple mistake. We ALL make mistakes. Sorry Ted. I've got "lots of talent" and I still managed to mistake having the torque convertor fully engaged on trans of the new wagon I bought, and proceded to destroy the pump inside the trans. We all make mistakes, some are just more costly than others. (PS, coming soon to a VA rally-x near you, 96 Legacy GT wagon. 2.5 Slaughtermatic. 4wd Stock and not a care in the world! )

Walcome to the ULTIMATE Subaru Message Board Over here we deal with everything, not just Imrepzars. Plus there a good amount of people on here that do this stuff for a living. Especially people like Emily from CCR who can with out a doubt tell you what years of what were what and what not. Oh, and CCR stands for Colorado Component Rebiulders who specialize in rebuilt Subaru engines and parts. They have good prices on rebuilt engines. http://www.ccrengines.com/ Keith

I was always told that if you want to own the car and keep it for a long time then loan is the way to go, and if you fully intend on replacing the car in a few years then lease is the way to go. Most people think that you can't lease if you put a lot of miles on a car. This isn't the case. You can specify yearly mileage and the "hit" you take for extra mileage is usually no different than would be reflected in a hit you'd take selling the car if you in turn had "bought" it and taken out a loan. Keith

I would guess it's your MAF. IIRC the weapon R intakes are oiled cloth filters. If you had a questionable MAF to begin with a freshly/over oiled filter could be agrivating it. I don't know how many u-pull it junk yards you have around, but I'd try grabbing one at a yard and swapping it in. I believe you can only get one from a 90 or 91 though. Keith

Here is the short and simple answer: 96-99 Subaru's with a 2.5 liter DOHC (refered to as the Phase 1) engine have problems with blowing head gaskets. Other than that they have no real reliablity issues. The problem is that when a headgasket goes and the owner doesn't realize it, then can damage the entire rest of the engine by driving it like that. In 99 they came out with a redesigned SOHC 2.5 (refered to as the Phase 2) that did not have the problem. In 99 only the Impreza got the SOHC (meaning the Legacy and I believe Forester still had DOHC) and in 2000 everything had the redesigned engine. The 2.2 liter engines never have had any reliablitly issues. Keith

Well, that article talks about a problem that they claim was fixed in production by 97, so I can't imagine your car has that same problem since yours is a 98. I guess the question is what part/s are actually bad in yours. From all the transmission fun I've been having recently I can tell you that it really isn't that bad to pull the back housing of the trans off. Droping the exhaust is probably the worst part. After that it's just pulling the drive shaft, the rear transmission crossmember, and the 8 or so bolts that hold the back on. Keith

Well, I can't tell you about the UK, but I can tell you all about the US Production dates would have been from 94-99, but they were sold as 95-99 Model Year cars. 95MY was the first year for the completely redesigned Generation 2 bodies, and 2000MY was the first year for the redesigned 3rd generation of bodies. This is a good site for subaru reference in the US: http://www.cars101.com/legacy.html As for the UK, 94 sounds right, but I would have thought you guys got the new body style as a 99 that we call the 2000. Keith

As someone who has chosen to designate themself as someone from a Subaru Dealership by their User Name, they need to be careful what they say on this board. I can just see someone saying, "Yeah, that ryan@teapesubaru guy said it's ok so if it blows up they'll fix it..." Be careful

Is this factory keyless entry and alarm, or aftermarket? If it's aftermarket try to find out the brand and look into what options you have for reprogramming the remotes. I believe most newer car alarms use rolling codes that would only allow a transmitter with the correct code sequence to do anything. Not exactly sure how that all works, but if it's listening to anything that talks you may just have a bad alarm brain that needs replacing. Keith

Yeah, I know. And that is one of the reasons why I spent $150 having a garage leak check, evacuate, and then eventually charge my system. I never said where to bleed the coolant off to.... but I will admit that I asmued in our realm of conversation here that mtsmiths has a gauge and cans of freon, and at this point would not be willing to pay anyone to work on it. Hmm, makes you wonder though... Would a garage charge you to recover freon from an overcharged system? In theory they are winning by have freon they didn't pay for that they will in turn charge someone for when they fill another car. Hmm...

Yeah, sounds like it's just overcharged and the system is recognizing it and not letting the compressor run. Try bleeding some off and see what happens. FWIW I had a situation in my 95 where I let the car idle for 30 minutes with the AC on and me not in the car. I got in and it wasn't blowing cold air and the compressor wasn't running. After 10 minutes of highway driving the compressor kicked in and it worked fine, and has worked fine everyday since. The freon got overheated by not moving the car and the system recognized it and shut off. Once it got back to a reasonable temp it worked again. Keith