heartless

yeah, chewed wiring could be an issue. a big one. was the wiring chewed close to the sensor? was the sensor replaced? motor mounts are totally unrelated to misfiring, so no, does not surprise me it made no difference.

agreed - the described symptoms definitely suggest charging system issues. you say he had the alternator checked - but was it in the car, and tested under a load? testing them out of the car is a waste of time & energy. battery should also be checked out - a dead/bad battery can kill an alternator, and a bad alternator can kill a good battery.. both need to be in good order Most chain auto parts stores can do a charging system check in the parking lot. this is best done after everything is fully warmed up, too... sometimes it can be a heat related problem. as was noted, a good healthy, fully charged battery will test at 12.6v to 12.8v at rest. with engine running, it should be around 14.4v or so.. if not (either above or below), either alt or battery - or sometimes both - is suspect.

agreed - 5/30 should help my 2004 runs 5/30 and i get around 27-28mpg overall average. Not sure what the mileage numbers are supposed to be for the FB series engines, but for the EJs that is pretty typical

spark plugs should be basic NGK copper cores, anything else is a waste of money on this car wires should be OEM or NGK brand ONLY - anything else wont last and are known to be problematic. cap and rotor???? your car does not have these items, so not sure what you think you replaced? coil - pretty rare for an OEM coil to fail.. yes, it does happen, but not that often and when they do, they usually put on a show. Aftermarket are not nearly as good. so, when did the misfire start happening? before all the work, or after? have you pulled the spark plug on cyl 4 to check for fouling or other issues?

safe journey moosens.

well done, lol yeah, with the little use it sees, you should be fine just keeping it lubed up.. but, if it starts giving symptoms even with plenty of lube, time to rethink.

not that long if it was already giving symptoms.. it needs new tophats, period. you might be able to nurse it along for a little longer by keeping it lubed up, but damage has already been done.

sometimes it is the simple things and O2 sensors can quite often not throw a code right away.. been there

no, an automatic ECU will not work for a manual without some modifications. has to do with the TCU input to ECU i am more curious as to how you arrived at this diagnoses? ECU failure is not that common. There are many other things that can cause an erratic idle and poor mileage.

first up - what year, model of Subaru? how many miles? what did you use for parts? and yes, it DOES matter plugs should be NGK copper cores, at the correct gap - anything else is just a waste of money, and possibly part of the problem Wires should be OEM or NGK - anything else is going to be garbage on a Subaru coil pak - aftermarket are potentially problematic... OEM is a far better choice, even a used one.

why do you need a new engine? what specifically is wrong? have you tried looking on car-part.com?

the rust will kill that car long before anything else will if it is properly maintained and yeah, and 110k that car still has many more miles in it. i have purchased used Subarus with 200k plus on them and driven for years. at this point, your top priority should be timing belt/pulleys if it has not been done yet. as in as soon as possible.

not necessarily. that would kind of depend on just how sloppy the joints are and where.... an inner joint is not going to make any noises when turning, but can cause vibrations. in fact, vibrations are typically caused by the inner joints, not the outer so yeah, axles are very much suspect here.

actually, crap axles can, will, and have caused symptoms like this... and as for it not happening right away.. i can see that happening with crap axles... chilly at night, grease in the joints gets stiff... initial driving the grease is still stiff so joints are not sloppy, but slowly warms up, allowing any excess movement in the joints to become noticeable. makes perfect sense to someone that has had it happen. bad tires (out of round) is possible, but i dont see that not showing right away... definitely have bushings, tie rod ends, etc looked at.. and yeah.. have the mechanic show you specifically what the problem is before having things replaced.

if you want a turbo, you would be far better served to start with a turbo engine.. trying to turbo a NA is not a simple proposition

you dont seem to understand.. you cant just buy stuff off the shelf for these like you can a SB chevy or whatnot, there is no after market for these, to be honest. the WRX/STI line is about as high performance as it gets, and if that is what you want, then that is what you should buy. you are not going to make a bog standard, NA 2.2 or 2.5 into a power house.

ok, 95 is still probably the single wire connectors under the dash... OBDII was not mandated until 96 here in the states.. not sure about elsewhere.. altho, my 95 Legacy had OBDII... so yeah.. kind of a weird year for that. anyway, under the dash there should be two sets of test connectors, one set of green and a set of black.. both single wire - if they have never been used, they may still be taped up in the main harness bundle.. they should NOT be connected for normal operation. you will need to do a bit of research cause I forget which set does what at this point (been a long time since i played with these)

what did you use for these items? plugs should be NGK copper core wires should be OEM or NGK ONLY - parts store wires are known to be problematic coil - unless there was an obvious problem with the stock one, probably should have left it alone... aftermarket units are not the greatest here, either. used OE is better than aftermarket Next question - is it throwing a check engine light at all? if so, get the codes read and post here, in the order they show up. if you dont have a code reader, most chain auto parts places will read them for free. they wont clear them, but they will read them for you

look here for FSM info: http://jdmfsm.info/Auto/Japan/Subaru/

http://jdmfsm.info/Auto/Japan/Subaru/Legacy_Outback/1998/ owners manual, factory service manual and wiring diagrams... have fun, you're welcome

easiest thing to do would be to pull the drivers side timing cover off to check the belt - you should be able to accomplish this without needing to remove anything else... if the belt looks ok visually, get a helper to try turning it over.. if the cam does not move, the belt is broken. sometimes it is very obvious a belt is broken, sometimes not. a bad tensioner can actually allow the belt to jump time... not a common thing to happen during idling, but not impossible, either. why would you even suggest this? there is no issue with it cranking over from what i am seeing.. it just is not firing off.

you forgot one... the "fun" factor, LOL but yeah, i agree that with relatively modern automatics, there is no real advantage to a manual other than already noted. fuel economy will be very similar between the two. i ended up with my current Forester because it was a manual and no one else wanted it. works for me. =)

yeah, it would only run that way until it reached operating temp..

the 4spd autos are pretty robust, and have been for many many years.. the 5spd autos are not as robust.. i had an 02 Forester auto and it was a great little beast. got many miles out of it.

unplugging it would cause similar symptoms (and throw a code right away) - ecu does need proper o2 readings to make the right fuel/air ratio adjustments. now, here is the kicker... o2 only comes into play once things are fully warmed up.. cold engine runs on set values until it reaches operating temp, then o2 readings take over to make minute adjustments while driving. not saying that this is definitely your issue, just something else to think about/consider. hope you get it figured out soon