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I would recommend two things: 1. Check the oil pressure at the port used by the idiot light with a mechanical gauge. Make sure you have the engine fully up to temp. The oil pressure will keep dropping for likely around 20 minutes as the engine oil reaches full temp and stabilizes. 2. Assuming this comes back with a hot idle pressure reading of under 10 psi...... cut the oil filter and inspect. I have not seen any significant failure rate with the idiot light switches - I've seen a couple leak but that's it. They are a rock solid part and I have especially not seen one react exactly the way you would expect it to react under a low oil pressure condition without that condition actually being reality. Further I have never seen a situation on any engine where replacing the oil pump fixed the low oil pressure condition. And applying science and logic to how pumps work makes it pretty obvious why that is the case. The pump isn't the source of the "pressure" that the switch is reading. Bearing clearance is the source of the pressure - or rather the lack of excessive bearing clearance. I've been doing this a LONG time. Back when my EA81 in my off-road lifted wagon had the flickering oil idiot light at idle..... I was about 20 years old (man - has it been 22 years? crap) and didn't recognize the symptoms. I resealed the oil pump and that indeed brough the pressure up just enough to kill the light. About 2,000 miles later it threw a rod on the freeway. IMHO - you have about a 1% chance it's something to do with the idiot light switch, and about a 99% chance that engine is going away internally. GD

I have had a leaking axle boot sling grease onto the exhaust, which can cause a smell without actually dripping anything on the ground. Beyond that, it could be just about anything. IIRC the catalytic converter is right up under the engine on those, so even the slightest drip will end up on a very hot exhaust component and burn off. Will likely have to remove the under tray, and look around with a good flash light to find evidence of the leakage.

Hey you know there’s even slower smaller engined Subarus some of us sling around. We don’t mind cruising and yeah unless I really have to get going somewhere I’m that old lady too. Not much desire to go over 3k maybe 3500 , 4K once in a while. I’m driving in regards to my wallet and passive with my ego.

As important as the belt age - it may not be a Subaru belt, and the lower toothed idler failing. The lower idlers are ubiquitously in poor shape by the age of that car and belt checking oil pressure with a gauge before and after addressing the pump would potentially confirm it was the issue. Good luck! Hope you can knock this out soon!

3000 RPM is too low. You're quitting just when you start to get power. These are high RPM engines, not luggers / high torque low RPM.

You probably already know all this but to make it clear. To help you imagine what’s happening and help plan a successful attempt: At the atomic level the surfaces are rough, and long. We think of these as smooth short surfaces. That’s not the case. A “smooth surface” to us is a rough, albeit less rough, surface at the atomic level. Think of the mating surfaces the oil is passing through like ridges on textured furniture. The oil is traveling from inside the timing cover, pushing or running through the mating surfaces/leak area, and dripping outside. The width of the mating surfaces, or the distance the oil is traveling through the leak - is let’s say 1/32 of an inch. If we zoom in such that the leak path appears 6” wide - because at the atomic level 1/64” is a long distance. It is also rough. When it’s cleaned from the outside the cleaners will only get to the first 1-2”. The remaining 4-5” are rough (ridges/texture) and still holding residual oil. After cleaning, that residual oil then gets pulled down by gravity from the uncleaned areas (which is rough/has ridges) down to the recently cleaned area. That will prevent proper adhesion and curing to seal the leak This is what makes it very difficult to clean and seal from the outside. It seems thin and smooth to us but it’s most definitely not. There’s no way to clean the entirety of the crack. but a few considerations: 1. clean it multiple times. 2. Do this when it’s cold outside and the oil is thicker as long as the sealant or epoxy allows it. If working in the cold leave the sealant/expose inside st room temperature until application 3. Spray cleaner as close up into the mating surface as possible. Put the nozzle right on it to build pressure 4. Be prepared for a quick, thorough application of the sealant/epoxy 5. if any sealants are more forgiving of oil contamination - use those. 6. Probably not worth it or won’t want to but Changing the oil to 20w50 to may impede oil migration through the mating surfaces becaUse it’s thicker. Let us know how it goes!

Well done diagnosing it. There are 10 or something orings associated with the timing covers. If you can get it clean and compress a high quality sealant in it could definitely work as long as the oil isn’t pressurized which I think could only happen if it’s oil pump related. That seems unlikely. once you clean it - more residual oil that was above the cleaned area will continue to slowly creep into it and keep tainting the areas you want the sealant to bond. That will be what prevents a good seal. Id probably use The Right Stuff unless I heard of something better.

That’s definitely a shop to avoid.

OEM cats are required to last for 100k miles/10 years, but aftermarket cats are only requires to last 35k miles/4 years (not well publicized facts). I tried a couple of aftermarket cats and guess what - they lasted <40k miles! The aftermarket cats are not any sort of good deal - stick with OEM (especially if you're paying a mechanic for installation).