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MTs get torque bind too. VLSDs in the center fail to locked, vlsd rear diffs fail to open. The best thing you can do for reliability is to stop working on the car and do a brush up on Subaru maintenance. A mid 90s EJ22 is some of the easiest, inexpensive, most reliable 200,000 miles you can get. Do it right. Trans - change the fluid often. Assume at some point in its history it wasn’t and some extra changes or higher end fluid is worth it. I’d use redline or whatever GD runs at his shop. If those aren’t Subaru parts then you’re throwing away quality precision parts and installing garbage. Not only once but you’re basically doing a complete Advance Auto Parts mobile test bed. You must like gambling !! Hahaha Subaru parts also are not only far less likely to fail but less likely to fail catastrophically. Subaru tie rods bearings ball joints and bushings will give noises and show play for thousands of miles before failure is even remotely possible. Aftermarket have a much higher probability of failing instantaneously with flair. A wheel bearing blowing out while driving down the road on a Subaru is 100% of the time: 1. an aftermarket bearing or 2. installation error Subaru axles are one of the keenest examples. Regrease and reboot original green cup Subaru axles. Don’t install aftermarket they fail *all the time*. Sure 7 out of 10 peole get away with aftermarket axles. But they’re usually not putting many miles on them and the other 3 end up with time wasting break downs. And your car has a slight lift I think from forester struts. That’ll eat aftermarket axles. There’s almost zero chance they last 5 years and blowing up while driving down the interstate at 60 mph isn’t surprising either. I’ve seen it. oEM axles never do that ever unless you ignore noises for 20,000 miles There are no functional “heavy duty” parts for Subarus like this. They’re all inferior to the OEM Subaru parts. Every single aftermarket axle is garbage and it’s well known and documented.

Haha indeed. Well played. Timing belt and standard maintenance items have all been widely covered in 20 years. If you’ve tackled all those jobs you won’t have any problem finding exactly what you want and need to fix on that car. EJ22s are simple reliable and well known by Subaru experts and hobbyists. The one surprise might be knock sensors - the material degrades over time and cracks, typically unseen at the base where it interfaces the engine. One 12mm bolt and easily replaced in 15 minutes. 30-45 maybe for a first timer. I routinely replace them preventively because the eBay specials are cheap and it’s easy. The hardest parts to replace are alternator, starter and fuel pump, they are notably inferior from aftermarket and OEM is no longer available or $$$$. Aftermarket electric motors of any brand or warranty flavor are always more problematic than OEM. Install 50 of them and I guarantee you’d be shocked at the reliability, breaks downs and getting stranded. Subaru had $80 reman alternators but they may be NLA. I drive to Mt Katahdin in Maine, snorkeling off Looe Key in Key West last year, 10,000 feet in Colorado in August, and routinely well over 200,000 miles as well as help dozens or maybe hundreds of other people with Subarus over the last few decades. It youre just beating around locally and only putting a few thousand miles on then you’re chances of issues with aftermarket are lower. I want like new reliability and so far have gotten it and while seeing lots of other people struggle with issues I’m usually help him them resolve.

I think this thread got off topic some how? And should just be deleted lol I'm out. Thanks for all the help with 2nd gen ej22e maintenance and advice not naming any names hahahahaha

Lower quality is not opinion, how much worse and if it’s tolerable is opinion. That’s not even remotely debatable except with small Subaru sample sizes. The two Subaru “HD” marketing hyped axles I’m aware of the last few years were hype and didn’t live up to reliability expectations.

Boots can be changed. It's tight, but you can do it. Sometimes it helps to drop the Y-pipe a bit. I pin punch the tie rod nut and then use a pice of wire to record the lenght the nut is off the inner tie rod. It allows you to put it back to almost aligned. Unscrew the inner tierod, remove the nut and replace the boot. Put it all back together and get an alignment.

Fix things when they fail. Hope you did the cam and crank seals as well as the oil pump seal and rear plate screws when you were in there for the timing belt. If not, leave them until they start leaking. Rear Breather plate reseal, when you do the clutch and flywheel. Great car. Keep the fluids full and clean and you are good to go. NGK copper core plugs and wires or Subaru wires. Enjoy!