FillG

I got one off of ebay for my 98 Legacy and had problems with finding the button too. It just didn't look like what I was expecting. Anyways, I don't know if yours will be the same since the 98 alarm is different from the 99 and yours is an Impreza but here's what mine looks like. I can't get to the back of it to see the color of the wires but hopefully this will help.

I realize this is off topic but isn't the 30th anniversary edition a 98 model year? That's how mine was sold to me. It's got the 30th badge and all the options seem correct but it's supposed to be a 98.

Mine just started this about a week ago. It's a 98 Legacy OBW, 104K miles, just had the clutch replaced about 8 months ago. I saw a message over at http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/ where they mentioned it could be air bubbles in the system. I'd be real happy if that turned out to be the problem because I don't have a lot of spare money to be replacing stuff, but somehow I doubt it's anything that simple. Does anyone know a website that has the text of the TSB? I'm not mechanical but I'd still like to read it so I know what I'm going to mention to the dealer.

last summer I did just over 1100 miles in 18 hours from someplace in the middle of South Dakota back to central Ohio. I didn't want to stop because there were tornados coming across the country behind me.

A friend of mine has one. He says it does an amazing job of holding things in place but that may also be because his Saturns dash has a little indentation that's made to put things into anyways. He says he used to have trouble with stuff sliding out of it and across the dash but since he lined the bottom of it with one of those things, it's not a problem. I think it probably would depend on your driving style too.... I get used to driving my Miata and tossing it around the corners and have a hard time settling down when I get in the Legacy OBW. I don't think a sticky pad would work for me.

X35's right, it keeps you from accidently bumping the shifter out of park. I haven't had an automatic for several years but the ex wife had a 92 Honda Accord with the same lockout thing. Hers was a very noticeable click when you stepped on the brake. It also had a little keyhole beside the shifter that you could stick any key or even a screwdriver into and it would release it without using the brake.

I didn't think to mention it to you when I posted my first reply, but if you want to ungunk your heater controls and stereo, you can just take them out and hose 'em off, then let them dry out real good and reinstall them. I did it to mine and they're working good as new.

I haven't found a better solution, but I'm looking for one too after this.

I already had a CD player but I was recently looking at stereos for my 98 too after spilling Coke in my existing one. I'm not an audiophile or anything like that so I like factory stereos because it seems like they're less likely to be stolen. I was searching eBay and found a pretty constant supply of them by searching for subaru radio, but mine ended up working okay after it dried out.

:D Place the stereo in the oven on the center rack for an hour and a half or until completely dry. Remove from oven, garnish with cinnamon sticks and fresh ginger, and serve.

Well, they were calling for snow today so I cut my drying time short and reinstalled everything last night. It all worked just fine so apparently the circuits were hardy enough to handle a Coke wash while powered on, a tap water wash while completely removed from the car, and then baking in the oven on warm (my lowest setting) for about an hour and a half. Truer words have never been spoken.

I don't know if leather ones are more comfortable but I put over 3000 miles on my 98 Legacy OBW during a 5 day period last year (1062 miles in 1 day!) and my butt never got tired and my back didn't hurt. I can't sit on my sofa for that long without one of those things happening so I'd say the leather seats are definitely very comfortable. Is the cover the only difference between the leather and cloth seats or do they have different foam and springs too? I wasn't sure if you were talking about changing out the whole seats or just the outer cover.

During the winter, the leather seats are definitely colder. If you're going to get leather, get heated leather. The only problem with that is the heating elements are fairly fragile so you have to be careful not to put your knees in the the seat and stuff like that. During the summer, I haven't noticed a problem with them being too hot but my Subaru sits in the driveway most of the summer while I drive the Miata (with the top down) and it has cloth seats.

Well, we're supposed to have a couple days of no rain or snow so I'll drive the Miata and be able to leave the Subaru torn apart and give everything a chance to thoroughly dry out. I disassembled the dash and took the heater controls, cupholder, stereo, and the little pocket thing below the stereo in the house and started trying to take it all apart. My idea was to take everything completely apart and clean and dry it before I put it back together. That way I'd know everything was dry. After about 5 minutes of trying to get more than just the top off of the stereo, I just turned the water on and gave the whole thing a nice warm rinse for several minutes. Did the same to the heater controls since the buttons were all sticky and the temp slider didn't want to slide right. I think I'm gonna just leave it all in the house for a couple days with a fan blowing on it. Maybe try the oven trick for an hour or two on warm just to make sure before I put it back in the car. While I was messing with the stereo, I had a good laugh when I noticed the sticker says it was manufactured August 2002... the car is a 1998 model, so either the previous owner spilled in the original one and killed it or it just went bad. The car originally came with this model stereo in it so that rules out an upgrade from a cassette or something.

I was gonna suggest maybe you had spilled something from the cupholder into the stereo like I did last Friday. Glad you got it figured out and it was nothing serious. You might want to watch out for that cupholder thing though.