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Hey boss - I'm just an hour south of you I guess. 1. Zero trust. If it's too be driven they will break. Think about old dried up plastic and rubber you've seen cracked and hardened - that's what they are like materially even if aesthetically you'd give them a thumbs up. Fortunately those timing belts are super easy to do. Replace the bolt belts, idlers, tensioners - there are kits available with all that. Buy a crank seal, oil pump seal and gasket and oring and cam seals and cam cap orings from Subaru. I actually probably have all the oil pump/seal stuff I can ship you at cost. 2. Change fluids. Yes they have one or two known weak spots that can be remedied so I've been told from other old school Subaru people. I've never had to touch one so I'm not persoanlly familiar but new fluid for sure. 3. No. It's old school tech and it'll flash you the codes by reading a flashing LED, no scanner or annything needed. SPFI is simple and robust with few issues. 4a) They have front emergency brakes for which the piston screws in with a special $5 tool all auto parts stores have (or use pliers). Don't just press the piston in like a normal brake pad, it won't go. 4b) Go easy on the cam cap 10mm bolts they easily strip (though the holes are deep so just install a longer bolt if they do) 4c) the timing belts (there are two) are opposite of every other modern vehicle timing belt. the two cam timing marks are supposed to be lined up 180 degrees off - not both lined up like modern belts. With drivers side cam lined to it's mark and the crank mark lined up, install the drivers side belt. Now rotate the crank 360 degrees and the drivers side cam will be pointing down at 6oclock. Now line up the passengers side belt and install it with it's cam marks lined up. ***Alternately those of us that have done a ton of them just install the drivers side belt with cam mark at 12 olock lined up and just put the passengers side cam mark at 6 clock and install them at the same time. They just need to be 180 degrees off from each other. 4d) It should surely have the original axles. If you're not familiar with this topic - be prepared to ignore 95% of what you hear about Subaru axles. keep those original axles. Plan on cleaning/regreasing/rebooting them if the boots ever break no matter what. Replacement axles are garbage no matter what some "really smart" car person tells you. Ignore them. I don't care if 6 people who loves Subaru's recommend some axle - they're wrong. OEM original axles are gold and worth keeping. I have dozens of stories about how trashy they are - including a friend last week that ignored me, got an aftermarket axle, and was stranded on his 120 mile commute due to mad vibrations. Wash rinse repeat - I've had that happen countless times. I can't exaggerate how bad they are - I seen two brand new aftermarket axles blow up right out of the box - one made it 10 feet and the other blew after 100 miles.... And on and on...i've got lots of pathetic stories about aftermarket axles. I don't know the numbers but let's say They''ve got a 60% chance of hosing you - it's not worth it. it's a waste of time and they can fail catastrophically when OEM will never fail catastrophically. There's no reason to use aftermarket except laziness. I've even regreased and rebooted noisy OEM axles and they're perfectly fine - some are running on members vehicles on this forum after many years still. I'd never trust an aftermarket axle in that situation.

THANK YOU - THANK YOU Appreciate the responses, it was a help when I went and looked at this Subaru. I didn't buy it. This vehicle needs some help. have a great day!

You dismount the slave and clamp it fully retracted with a large C-clamp, etc. Then you have an assistant slowly depress the pedal with the bleeder cracked. At the bottom of the stroke you close the bleeder and have your assistant pull the pedal back up. After they do this you watch the level in the reservoir over the next several seconds. It will slowly drop as the master cylinder pump chamber is filled through the tiny orifice between it and the reservoir. If it does not drop have your assistant pump the pedal up and down rapidly a few times and then pause to watch the fluid level drop. Once the level stops dropping you repeat this procedure several times till you see a strong flow of fluid from the bleeder with no bubbles. Once you are done close the bleeder and check the pedal - it should be rock hard (slave is still clamped). Reinstall the slave and you're done. With two people that know how to perform this procedure together the entire process usually takes about 5 minutes. GD

Something to this effect might work...A slide hammer might be worthwhile to try if you can't quite get it. Taking the radiator and grille off is well worth it, IMHO.

Replace all 7 cooling system hoses. +1 on the OEM axels. +1 on the CTS. +1 What everyone else wrote. More things to be aware of with these- The shaft that drives the main oil pump in the 3AT should be good for close to 200K miles. IF you get close to that, replace that shaft before it fails. If you want one of those shafts, start looking now. I've run Amsoil synthetic ATF in the 3ATs since 1988, and have had very few problems with them. Check that front diff gear lube at least 4 times a year. Running the diff dry causes a lot of problems before the noise gets loud enough to alert you. Mine turn 4000RPM at 65MPH on the highway, not a problem. #1 thing to maintain is the cooling system. Radiator condition, not corroded, not blocked, etc. These engines do not like to run with air in the cooling system. Well, they run, but when the temp goes over normal due to air, the head gaskets get damaged or outright fail. The alternator will wear out a brush around 150K miles, like clockwork. And you can only tell if you happen to be idling in the dark with everything off, and notice the alt and a few other red dash lights dimly glowing. If it develops the click - no crank problem, adding a relay in the starter solenoid circuit is the fix. Start collecting parts, as many are NLA. Others are order and wait.

you should really replace those headgaskets again.. i would anyway.. why go thru all that work just to have the gasket fail.. reusing one on such an important area is folly to me.

If you are in Colorado Springs for a few day you might be able to get in to see Casey at http://resolve-therapeutics.com/. She does a great job on my back after long flights.

Two flat head screw drivers on opposite sides might get it out. Jam them in then lever it out with the screw drivers working about 180 degrees apart. It could work. No guarantees but worth a shot I reckon. Cheers Bennie

Picked up the heads from the machine shop today. Shop said they are good to go!

6211 08170 for the front for the control arm pivot. 7210 47000 for the rear INNER Outer has two part numbers 7210 47070 and 7210 58060 the latter appears to be for the models the former does not cover. You copy that ? So the latter applies to Brat and wagons as best as I can tell.

Steptoe you’re a genius sometimes! The most comfort I’ve found using spring compressors is with my impact driver. Makes the work super quick, easy and I believe safer due to less time spent with the the springs loaded with all that potential energy! Did you use the same method to remove the old bush? Thanks for sharing. Cheers Bennie

I loosened the case half bolts a couple turns, and smacked the crank snout side to side with a mallet a few times, and was able to get mine to turn over enough to get to all the converter bolts.

Factory catalytic converters for the 04/05 PZEV are currently almost $10,000 from Subaru. LOL. GD