jamal

Thanks. 92-94 L model Legacies weren't equipped with them and neither were many base Imprezas. Newer Brighton Legacies might not have either, and I think I saw a pretty new Forester without one yesterday too.

your car does have a rear swaybar. Simple explanation of what they do: A swaybar is a spring that resists body roll. It attaches the left and right sides of the suspension, trying to keep the tires level. It only acts when the left and right wheels move independantly of each other, such as in cornering. By increasing the roll stiffness and making the car corner flatter, you'll make the car more responsive and quicker at changing direction. Springs also resist body roll but not as efficiently and stiff springs make for a harsher ride (and in extreme cases a loss of tire contact over bumps). Swaybars are also used to tune the way a car handles. Stiffening a front or rear swaybar will increase weight transfer on that end, which reduces grip because that outside tire is more heavily loaded. So by varying the front and rear stiffness you can make a car more or less prone to understeer/oversteer. Reducing body roll is especially important because our suspension geometry causes a loss of negative camber after about 2" of bump. Having more negative camber and less camber loss means that the tire stays flatter on the ground in a corner and grips better.

If you don't know when the fluid was changed last, you should have it done. It tends to collect moisture pretty quickly, which likes to oxidize things in the brake system and lower the boiling point.

here's what I did with my rear swaybar-less legacy. http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?p=13537676 Everything applies to your car except for the "Impreza bars don't fit a Legacy" part.

If the bushings are trashed you'll probably be able to tell if you get under the car and can see movement in them just by moving the bar with your hand. I don't know if there's a specific procedure for doing it. My front links seemed fine when I took them out a few weeks ago with 166k miles. The heavy duty aftermarket links with stiffer bushings aren't any more than a new set from a dealer. My Kartboy links were $180 for all four, whereas wholesale on a rear link is $58, and if you go to the dealer it will be closer to $80.

I don't know about that. My 93 Legacy L isn't much of an L anymore, and right now it handles much better than it did when it rolled off the line. Eric, I say pick up the e-bay bars. It's definitely not going to make things worse, and they're cheap. If your suspension is old I highly recommend replacing the at least the struts though. As they wear out they lose the ability to properly damp the motion of the springs and keep the tires on the ground. It's a gradual thing so you can buy a new car, drive it for 60k miles without noticing a difference, and then when you replace the struts it's like night and day.

A lot of people say that strut tower bars do significantly decrease flex and creaking. I think it was SubieGal that cracked windshields on her rally car until she installed one. I have front and rear bars that I got on e-bay. They were a fraction of the price of a fancy Cusco or STi part and I don't see how they could be any worse. They're pretty solid and have good welds, mine fit fine, and it doesn't take much engineering to make a straight bar. Apparantly they're especially helpful in the rear of a wagon. I'm starting to warm up to fender braces too now that the prices have come down (~$90/pr). Bars for a GC will fit, but 2nd gen Legacy and Impreza stuff will not.

Unless you clip it on a rock or something and lose all the oil and destroy your engine. It happened to a member here fairly recently. It's pretty easy to not make a mess taking out the drain plug that isn't worth the risk to me. Now if there were a way to avoid getting oil all over my [gloved] hand when I take off the filter I might be interested. ALSO THERE IS A BUTTON NEXT TO THE 'A' KEY YOU SHOULD TRY OUT As far as tightness goes, I have a torque wrench but I don't bother using it most of the time. It gets to that point where you can tell the washer is crushed and you should only go a little farther.

the knuckles, strut towers, control arms, lateral links, and geometry are different. Even the hubs and wheel bearings are different. You could, however, take the entire suspension out of an 02+ Impreza (excluding 05+ STi) and it would bolt right in.

nope. The suspension is pretty much completely different.

You can put slightly better bulbs like a Sylvania Xtravision or Narva Rangepower+50, but if you really want to see better in the dark get some aux driving lights. If you decided to do that, check out Hellas. I'm really happy with my FF1000 driving beam lights (which were about $100 shipped). Susquehanna Motorsports (rallylights.com) is a good place to buy from. Foglights will increase the light right in front of your car but will actually detract from your ability to see farther down the road. It's why they should only be used when it's actually foggy. I don't think blue tint is actually going to improve visibility. Ever. What it does is increase glare by a lot:

are there any stored codes? My car would flash a CEL occasionally but hesitated all the time at low rpm. I had a stored knock sensor code that would come back when I reset the ecu. So yeah, replacing that sensor fixed things. Also things like the fuel filter, plugs, and wires should be checked.

clean off the back, there is a sticker that will say the ratio and if it is LSD.

importrp.com. They're a vendor on nasioc so you could probably get a package deal from them too. The price from tirerack was similar last I checked. All front Subaru rotors are vented. If you meant drilled or slotted then no, that's the price for plain rotors. Holes and slots are a waste of money, and holes lead to cracked rotors.

Actually they'd be recieving about twice as much. The center diff and viscous coupling can only transfer half the power to the rear. What most people do is get something like a welded center diff and take out the front axles. There is a company somewhere that sells some other part you need.

If by shared platform you mean based off a Legacy chassis, you're right. It has no relation with any Saab or GM vehicle. The 9-6x was supposed to be the Saab version of the Tribeca but that never happened. The 9-7 is nothing more than a Trailblaser/Envoy/Bravada/Ascender/Whatever else. Born from jets my rump roast. On the flip side Saab would no longer exist if it weren't for GM. Background for those not in the know: For a short period of time GM owned 20% of Fuji Heavy Industries and the result was the 9-2x, which is an Impreza wagon with a Saab grill and wheels. Recently GM sold their share and Toyota bought 8.7%. Toyota is going to to build Camries at the SIA plant .

Bolts aren't that expensive. PM/call Subiegal and she'll get you one at wholesale. I'd be more worried about getting the old one out than how much a replacement will cost. Here's what happened to my rear lateral link when I tried to remove it:

This might help

I'd stay away from the CVT too. Even the ones Audi has been putting in the A4 turned out to be junk. Have you looked at the Honda Pilot? I'd say it comes down to how much you really need that rear seat. In this size vehicle it's not going to be much.

The 95-99 cars use the same chassis so pretty much everything from any of those should fit. I can't really think of something that wouldn't.

This is a pretty good guide to compare which cars used which brakes. A front brembo rotor costs me 38 USD online. There must be some places that sell them in Sweeden. Go to stoptech.com and read the white papers for information about thinkness variation and pad bed in.

Up front, the turbo cars have a swaybar that will not fit on an n/a because of the crossmember and manifold. A 96-99 Legacy GT front swaybar would be an upgrade though, as would the rear bar. I think they're 20 and 18mm respectively. WRX springs/struts aren't any much stiffer than yours. 02+ Impreza stuff will fit but don't get things for a sedan because the suspension geometry is different. You could use v7 or v8 JDM wagon STi take-offs. Or find some used B4 suspension. jdmpartstx.com gets that stuff in occasionaly. Whiteline makes aftermarket parts that will fit your car. What is the point of all this? If you're going with used oem stuff get things made for your car. Other things aren't much of an upgrade anyway.

No everything is pretty different. Even the bolt pattern on the hub is wrong. My used knuckle came from a junkyard in Colorado called McLaughlin Auto. They gave me the best quote from an online search, and sent me a knuckle with a good bearing and hub for $45 shipped. It probably wouldn't hurt to look them up and call them.

you can do that but it's possible to damage the boot on the ball joint with a pickle fork so be careful. To get mine off I used a puller I rented from autozone and a prybar. The bolt wasn't really willing to come out of the control arm, but once I had the puller pushing on the end of the bolt, the prybar between the arm and knuckle, it popped off with a shot from a hammer. Strangly enough the ball joint slid right out.

well, you definitely need a new knuckle. Most any other subaru one will work fine.