boxerhummfetish

Yeah, I've always found Midas quotes to be ridiculous, but this one tops it. Do you guys have Firestone garages over there East? Here we have a special that was going on; it was like $75 per axle, parts and labor! I've found them to be pricewise quite reasonable with all sorts of repairs. I think their tech's are certified too. Otherwise, there must be independent mechanics or at least a dealer with more down to earth prices.

God no, don't donate this car away! Let it sit till the late spring, go to a junkyard, and hire somebody to swap the engine. There must be a bazillion rusted out soobs with good engines in Maine. It's a '97 man, awd, ac, dual airbags (i.e., a very nice maine car), that's barely 7 years! You've got to be kidding, this is almost criminal (and look at how much trouble martha stewart got herself into with borderline crime). At least put it up for sale in Uncle Henry's; somebody with a little bit time can turn this into a very nice car, if you don't have the time.

Good point. One of the major reasons I love the Rooos is their unpretensious look and design. (I like the simple square look of the late 80s early 90s best.) There is nothing wrong with Subaru wanting to move part of their products upscale, say by putting out a low to the ground sleek sports car to compete with the BMW roadsters and Porsche boxters. However, I would hate to see Subaru marketed towards yuppies exclusively. This roadster front end looks like a Ford/Buick cross (Buick's are driven almost exclusively by grandmothers and old people); it looks nothing like a subaru; it's a nightmare and it frightens me. These newly (probably highly paid) hired artist probably know nothing about Subarus. Why doesn't Mr. Subaru just use his own long-time employees over a new arrogant hotshot artists who knows nothing about what Subarus stands for and whose sense of style is corrupted from working at other car companies. I suspect these hirings must be the work of some bright fellow at SOA rather than Japan. I also think this focus on external and superficial nonsense goes against the old Subaru philosophy. Take Mercedes at its peak; before things went downhill, they were designing bodies very infrequently, almost a decade before a new style. Another one of the things I worry about is Subaru being bought out by GM; it would be the end of Subaru as we know it. Look what Ford managed to do to Volvo in around 8 years. I was shocked recently to find that you cannot get a manual shift sports wagons. I hope for the best, but I always have my worries.

I like the "faster" button, great idea:

I'm not so sure, the Porsche H4's of the late 60's early 70s are only around 100 hp. Anyway, Rob, the main reason would simply be cost. Sweet82 wrote: Isn't it obvious? Or, suppose you had an east coast rustbucket and needed a body? I think it would be sweet.

I wonder if people have tried to stick a soob engine in one of these? Is it possible? ~$1800 at ebay, and missing an engine: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=10156&item=2456331765 seems to be a calif car (no rust).

These places are usually fine. Sounds like a good deal; I love cheap oil changes This selling you this and that while they give you the oil change is how they really make the money. Just say no, and check the things they pointed out yourself and if it really needs fixing then you can do it next time or do it yourself.

Yes, it sounds like it could be the onset of wear. It does happen only the first 5 to 10 minutes of driving on the 1st drive of the day. I did change the fluid with fresh 80w90. I might head to the bookstore or library sometime and study how the subaru 5sp works.

My 5-speed manual transmission is having some odd symptoms when the car is driven for the first few minutes at the first startup of the day. When shifting into second, instead of going into 2nd gear, the shifter feels strange, and it goes into a phantom neutral gear. It is also extreemely difficult to get back into 1st gear while moving, even at speeds where the tranny should let me go into 1st. (You really have to force it, if it let's you move the shifter into 1st gear position at all.) The phantom neutral 2nd gear symptom does not seem to occur when I try to start the car from a stop, in 2nd gear. So, right now, when I start the car and it's cold, I am forced to start in 2nd or shift from 1st directly into 3rd. Does anybody have any explanation as to what might be happening to my manual transmission? The car is an Impreza, and I'm posting to the old gen board because I think more people here might have a real good knowledge of how the subaru MT's work. Thanks in advance for any input.

So I just replaced the Front Diff/Manual Trans fluid, and indeed, it was a 21mm socket. I added 4qts of 80w90, which is not as much the 3qts (tops) that I drained. I can never find my manuals when I actually need them, but if my memory serves correct the manual diff capacity is 4.2qts. Unless a huge amount remains undrainable in the tranny the low <3 qts could very well explain some strange shifting behavior of my 1995 impreza, at cold startup temperatures. I will post this later on another thread perhaps. So, leading to my question regarding the rear diffs.... Well, after doing the front, i was going to do the rear diff as well. From reading some USMB searched posts on this, I was under the impression a square 1/2 inch drive would fit right in and be able to remove the top and bottom drain plugs. But on inspection, I see that the drain plugs are regular hex nuts. Does anybody know what the size of these might be? (I think it's somewhere between 17 and 19mm), 18mm or 19mm?

I usually like firestone a lot, because they're certified mechanics, and they generally give you a fair deal, but this happened to me once when they filled a MB 240D with 7qts when it takes like 4.5, then charged me for 2 qts extra. It wasn't enough oil to do any damage. Your case sounds pretty extreme. You should take care of it ASAP before damage is done. Maybe it's time to change your own oil this time.

I read from some EndWrench article that a larger oil filter is available and might fit. The larger filter area would reduce the oil pressure drop at the filter and presumably reduce the load for the oil pump. I also imagine it is less likely get fully clogged and could be used longer than the smaller filter. Might I be able to use this in my 1.8L '95 impreza engine? Has anybody tried using the larger filter instead of the regular sized one? Here is the endwrench quote: "Subaru H-4 engines come from the factory with an OEM P/N 15208AA060 oil filter. The same part number is used for replacement. H-6 engines come with an OEM P/N 15208AA031, and S0A5165109 is used as a replacement. Both filters have the same physical dimensions as far as threads, O-ring, and bypass valve opening pressure (23 p.s.i.) are concerned. However, the H-4 filter has 141 square inches of filtration surface, while the H-6 filter has 201 square inches of filtration surface. The H-4 filter should not be used on the H-6 engine. Using the H-4 filter may cause it to become contaminated faster and allow the bypass valve to open, allowing unfiltered oil to circu-late through the engine."

I just did the T-belt change and am a bit concerned by the following :-\ : "be sure and torque the balancer/crank pulley to spec, if it loosens off it can play hell with your engine." I didn't have the sub tool for the crank pulley countertorquing, so I wasn't able to put as much torque tightening the nut than it took to take it off. Still applied quite a bit of torque, but perhaps considerably less than getting the bolt off (used a trick with the starter motor to get the bolt off). So if a bad thing were to happen, what can this do the engine? What conditions might I notice that will preceede the nut coming loose and wreaking havoc?

don't use pure 5-30. it isn't recommended anymore; too thin. This oil is used by manufacturers to increase their MPG numbers, but it may not be the best for the engine, especially one that is well broken in (>80K mi) From http://www.endwrench.com/pdf/engine/OilViscosityInfoW01.pdf "Oil Viscosity For 1996 Subaru Vehicles Engine oil viscosity for all 1996 Subaru Legacy and Subaru Legacy Outback vehicles is specified as 5W-30 to improve fuel economy. This is a different viscosity rating than used in earlier production engines. At the present time, it is not recommended that a 5W-30 weight oil be used in Subaru vehicles calling for a different grade and viscosity. The oil used must meet the requirements for grade and viscosity as noted in the Owner s Manual."

I dunno what valvoline maxlife is, but i hear that dino oils are gentler on the seals (or leak less) than synthetics. Here's what I do: 3 liters of 10-30 dino oil plus a quart of straight 40 grade (or 20-50 in very cold weather). Add some extra detergents at 2500 miles (stp or gunk), and change after 5000 mi. But since you say you get "very cold winters" all 10-30 might be better, or even mix a quart of 5-30 in there.

Now that would be cool if subaru made a 3-cyl boxer. It wouldn't be horizontally opposed by pairs of cylinders, but you could make all 3 cylinders mutually balanced (at least to some extent). Note that: 0 = sin(x+120deg)+sin(x-120deg)+sin(x) Then they should increase the displacement to 1.8l or so, and it would be sube novelty that would kick rump roast . :drunk: :drunk: