floater

thanks, that does sound much easier.

Really, the Haynes manual recommends removing them.

Thanks for all of the advice. One other symptom I noticed after I was reading on this forum and checked. Car at operating temperature and cap off overflow tank there are bubbles comming up. I am going to do a total drain and flush of raditor. I had to order a 14mm hex drive socket so I can remove the two plugs for the block. Will also clean out overflow tank. I then will refill with new coolant and see how quickly the overflow becomes dirty.

Two previous owners before me. I have all the receipts on the car. I looked through them and don't find it was ever done. I have had it about 4 years.

I'm wondering if I get the radiator/overflow tank tested for petroleum gases. I heard that shops have a device that can do this or it can be done via a chemical test. To me that is pretty definitive.

yeah it is an automatic. it hasn't overheated since I have driven it. I have been adding water/coolant a few times since last weekend when I noticed the temp gauge moved up but didn't go up much and then returned to the normal range. It uses a quart every 500 miles or so. The stuff in the overflow tank is black and gunky and smells like oil.

I don't really put anything in the car except techron in the gas tank right before I change the oil. Is there any confirmed way of testing?

96 Outback 156k miles Noticed that the radiator overflow had some black gunk in it. I put my finger in and it looks like oil. Tank also smells like oil. Car has been using oil. Car has always passed smog. Took it in to shop and gave symptoms and mechanic told me that subaru uses radiator to cool transmission and that they would need to remove radiator and send radatior for testing to confirm it was not transmission oil? WTF? ever heard of this?:-\ What are my options?

Thanks for the info. After reading the responses I went out and really pushed down hard on the brake pedal and walla, into neutral it went! Its funny but I had my foot down on the brake pedal yesterday but maybe it has something to do witht he fact that I had just bled the brakes and was not pushing hard enough? I jumped with my girlfriends car and no start. I'm almost postive its the battery as it barely cranks over on its own.

96 Outback, AT. Have the car in garage after a brake job. It won't start. I tried cranking it a few times and it may be the battery as it was sitting a while. So I was going to shift it into neutral and roll it out of garage and jump start it in driveway except you can't move the shift lever out of park unless the engine is running. Why is this? My girlfriends camry can be shifted, with the engine off, and key turned, from park to neutral.

Rear brakes Have had rubbing of caliper on disc. After removing pads, which were in good condition, I noticed that the lock pin boots are torn. The lock pin was easy to remove with 14mm socket but how does the guide pin come out of the mounting bracket? I ordered caliper rebuild kit from Napa and after receiving it today it looks nothing like what I need. The image attached shows what my rear brake looks like. The lock pin takes two boots, one on each side. The guide pin on top takes one guide pin boot. 1996 Outback

I tried to look by just removing the wheels and even using a flashlight was unable to get a good look at the pads. I will do it again and remove calipers as you suggested. Will check the brackets and caliper pins as well for lubrication. I may end up replacing the rotor as I never turned it. It was smooth. Thanks very much to everyone.

1996 Outback....

Rear brakes. Jacked up rear end and was spinning both wheels and there is resistance as if the brake pads were rubbing on the rotor. The pads appear to be still good. Brake job was done on the car by me a few years ago. Is this normal? I was thinking maybe the rotor could be bad. Hand brake was off.

I find Redline works well in my front/rear differntial. It flows well even at very cold temperatures.

the hardest thing other then locating it was putting that bolt through the hole of the sensor and putting it back in the hole and tightening it. My trick was to use a small flashight to see, put the bolt into the socket, put some duct tape around the the bolt/socket to keep it in the socket and tighten away.

I used a breaker bar, wd40, pb blast, put a 3 ton floor jack under the breaker bar and all it didn't do anything but start to move the car up in the air. The funny thing is I removed these 36k miles ago to change the gear oil myself and torqued it down. I do take the car up in the snow in the winter. Anyway, I figure its worth it to let someone else get them out.

I like Akibono ceramic pads on my 1996 Outback. I originally bought pads at Kragen and they did not fit right. Ended up getting the Akibono pads from Rockauto and they fit perfect. I chose ceramic as they don't wear down the rotor as much and low dust.

I can't get my rear differential plugs out. I don't want to spend any more time on it. Going to take it in. What should I expect to pay for a drain and fill?

having difficulty getting left rear one off. I got the left front off. No room down there. Any suggestions?

I thought the electrical connector in the engine compartment would be the easy part compared to the actual sensor. I need to reuse the connector as I bought a Bosch universal one. How does the gray connector come apart. I pushed in with a screw driver on the little tabs and used a needle nose plier but nothing seems to make it separate. 96 Outback:-\

thanks

I need the sensor before the catalytic convertor. It looks like there are two options; a universal one that looks like you have to strip the wires and put the connector together and the OE one with the connector ready. The price is $55 for the first one and $85 for the second. Is the cheaper one okay? 96 Outback

I pulled mine out a year ago and thought it looked okay. I had a new one in a box sitting in my storage. I changed the oil and then pulled the old air filter. What suprised me was that under the filter in the housing was lots of sand and small rocks. The filter was preventing this from being sucked into the air intake but I completely cleaned this out and put in a new filter. I wish I had checked it earlier.

thanks for the info from both of you. I didn't know you could had refriegerant without the compressor running? Anyway, I am going to drive it and use it for a while as diluded000 posted and then will recheck the pressure and maybe add a can.