soobyfan

I have a '96 OBW, 2.2L, 5 sp manual transmission. I recently put on my snow tires for the winter and found my right rear tire had excessive wear on the inside edge. The wear was uneven, and on only about 1/3 of the circumference of the tire. The wear was so bad the ply's are showing. I have been reading the threads on the viscous coupling and am worried this may be the cause. I should also mention I am not noticing binding when in tight turns. Note: The car is new to me, I do not know if all 4 tires were within 1/4" in circumference. 1. How can I functionally check the viscous coupling? 2. If the VC is bad can I drive it for a couple of weeks without ruining my snow tires? 3. Any other ideas on what to look for?

Hey Bernie, I did the same thing. I even got to the point of taking things apart to look for the switch. Thanks to good people on this website I got straightened out, and had my large serving of humble pie. Just a reminder, the post regarding putting in a fuse to disable the AWD feature only applies to automatic transmissions, there are quite a few differences between the auto and the 5 sp AWD Subaru.

http://www.scantool.net/products/elmscan_iso.htm This is a link to the scanner I have, it works well. You can read the codes, reset the light, look at you engine parameters while it is running, and more. It does require a laptop computer, the scanner is hooked up between the car and the computer. Keep in mind that whatever brand you get it must comply with the ISO protocol or it will not work properly on an OBD-II equipped Subaru.

Funny you shopuld mention the driveway, I have a steep driveway, it happens every time when I back out, seems worse with the wheel turned.

If you are still thinking of buying a scanner here is the one I have, it works well. http://www.scantool.net/products/elmscan_iso.htm

"96 OBW, 2.2L, 5 sp. I have a funny "clunk" sound coming from my front end, I only hear it when hitting a bump. I have inspected the suspension visually, nothing obvious that I can detect. Is it possible worn sway bar bushings can cause this? Are there any known trouble spots that might be related on the Legacy/Outback? Any help is appreciated.

I just replaced the bulbs in my heater/ac unit, (96 OBW) the directions on the link worked great. I would definitely buy just the bulbs, it is not too hard to figure out how to replace them, be careful taking off the green lens off the bulb, I messed up the first one, worked fine on the other two. I found the bulbs at a local electronics supply house, they are actually rated at slightly less voltage than the originals, should work fine and last longer.

I have a '96 OBW 2.2l 5 SP, I get 22-28mpg. Another thing to check is tire pressure, if you do a search on this site you can get many differet opinions on tire pressure, I like to run at 36-38 psi. This is more than Subaru recommends, but seems to provide better feel, better tire wear and better mileage. If I recall correctly Subaru recommends 28 psi. Many people have low tire pressure and are not aware of it.

I recently has a similar problem on my '96 OBW, 2.2L. I have a scanner so I can read and reset my own codes, it had code #106, indicating the manifold pressure is out of range. Anyway, my software allows me to look at the engine parameters while it is running, and I noticed the manifold pressure was 29.95 in/hg at idle. I knew that could not be right, so I looked around under the hood and sure enough, a small vaccum hose was disconnected. Hooked it back up, cleared the code and everything was back to normal. The manifold pressure at idle is about 10 in/hg.

My 96 OBW has the ABS light on, it just started today in the middle of a long day on the road. When I got home it was making noise in the area of the hydraulic unit under the hood, like a motor running or solenoids clicking continuously. The noise continued when I turned the ignition key off, and then stopped by itself about 10 minutes later. If I pull one or both of the relays out, will I still have normal braking? (with no abs of course) Any ideas on how to troubleshoot the system?

You are right, it is the button the end and it is working fine. Thanks for the input.

I am sorry, I should have mentioned it is the front WS washer that I am having trouble with, the one that should work when the WS wiper lever is pulled toward the steering wheel. I have verified that the pump works by jumpering the pump/motor and it sprays just fine.

I have a 96 OBW, wondered if anyone knows where the windshield washer switch is located. I suspect it is in the steering console area, want to make sure before I tear it all apart.

Giles, I ended up doing it the way you suggested, by breaking it loose at the ball joint, then the axle came out fine. It took longer than I would have hoped, mostly due to my inexperience. Next time it will go pretty fast. Thanks for the help, I really appreciate the help. BTW I bought my axle from cvaxles.com, am happy with it so far.

There is a very detailed post on this board that described this procedure and it recommends taking the control arm off at the main crossmember and not touching the ball joint. It also says that sometimes you might have to loosen the nuts at the top of the strut tower. Regardless of that, I still cannot get the axle to budge on the hub side, let alone remove it all the way. I am soaking it with penetrant, hoping that will make a difference. Thanks for the input.

I am having trouble replacing the right front driveshaft on my '96 OBW. I removed the pin from the DOJ side, removed the axel nut and wheel, everything seemed normal. Then when I put my 3 jaw puller on to push the axle out of the hub it would not come out, I actually broke my puller. I also tried hammering it out with a brass drift, no luck. Is this unusual? Any tricks that I don't know about? Thanks in advance.

Thank you very much Lauren, I appreciate you doing the Carfax for me.

Thanks for all of the input. I have been looking all over for a '96 outback with a 5 speed, and most importantly the 2.2L engine.

Could someone run a VIN check for me please? Thank you in advance. 4s3bg4853t6374891