johnceggleston

you are one lucky lucky subaru owner. it's beautiful. price is right! color is right!! i am envious!!

unbelievable!?!? i hope this doesn't happen often. i guess this proves the addage, never say never.

2 door or 4 door? wagon or sedan? auto or manual trans? how long has it been since some one drove it? how often was it driven? if it has been sitting a long time it may need a lot of work, but still probably worth it. if it has been a daily driver, it should be great with regular maintenance.

i think this is a typically brake bleed problem. how did you bleed yours, did you have a helper?? no real need to replace the rotors unless there is a real problem. very very rare to hear of a rotor failing and causing a problem, usually it's just vibration during braking.

my 95 legacy had a similar problem, but it had a torn outer boot on the drivers side so we knew pretty much what was causing it. we replaced the bad axle and the shimmy went with it. all is good.

i put some trans-x steering stop leak in wife's 97 avalon and it all but cured a leaky pump we'd had for several years. it can't hurt and it might help.

the california belt lasts longer, use it. other wise they are the same. the last time i checked around at the local parts store, advance auto, the cal belt was a special order and cost less, the fed was in stock and was more expensive. replace all the pulleys/idlers and the water pump, use the cal belt, do all the seals and you will not have to open it up for 100k miles. you can get a kit on ebay, the import experts, for 190$ to do it all. ii'm not sure if the kit has the cal belt or not. but you can call them and tell them that's what you want.

ooopps.

lets clarify, the drive gear of the front diff is the pinion shaft gear. the drive gear of the speedo is mounted on the carrier which rotates the same as the ring gear and axle. the driven gear of the speedo extends down into the front diff below the speed sensor on the front right of the trans. as far as the speedo goes, the drive gear is a large ring gear type of thing and the driven gear is small and spins on a shaft more like a pinion. so the take off for all speedo gears is after any final drive gearing. to put it another way, the take comes from the axle, just before it exits the trans housing. the speedo drive gears are different in different models, and probably all of the smaller 'pinion like' driven gears, mounted below the speed sensor, are the same, but i do not know for sure. some one posted a jpeg of a "speedo gear table" some time ago. i don't remember if only the drive gears are different or the driven gears are diferent as well. and some one commented that these speedo gears come in different colors, maybe corresponding to the color on the speedo connector at the speedo. 97 gt and 96 lego were different, one was white and one was blueish.

the o2 auto trans is way different than the 96 auto trans. they added several more speed sensors to the trans and the wiring harness / connector is different. so that is a no go swap. generally, you have a better chance of a swap if you stay in your 5 year model group, such as 95 - 99 or 00 - 04, etc.

so the error, without any other adjustment, will be the size difference between the 3.7 stock tire and the 215/60/16 tire. swapping the speedo drive gear is the solution as long as the 'driven gears' are the same. they are hard to change........ unless you are putting a 3.7 in a 4.11 trans housing, in which case it will be easy, you will already have it open.

i'd keep the speedo you have now since the tire sizes are a near match, until you are sure it is wrong. test it by following some one else at 60mph, or use a GPS or time your self on a measured 1/4 mile (15 sec. = 60 mph). 215/60/16 is about 0.14" smaller than 205/70/15, slightly more than 1/8", not much.

stock on my 97 gt is 205/50/16, stock on the 96 lego is 185/70/14. the GT is about 0.13" (1/8") smaller in diameter than the lego. also in this general tire size is 195/60/15, diameter is 0.01 inch larger than 96 lego.

i don't know all of what you are asking but i can tell you what i do know and what i think. the engine and trans gearing are meaningless until you get to the speedo gear which is matched to speedo faceplate and the stock tire size. tires revs per mile have to match the speedo gear. change tire diameter 10% the speedo will be off 10%. when i swapped a speedo (96 legacy i think) into a 97 gt, both auto trans, the speedo was off. it was off a percentage, about 10%; 1 mile at 10 mph, 6 miles at 60 mph. 2 things to remember: 1. the 96 lego and the 97 gt have basically the same size tire diameter, meaning the same tire revs per mile. (not exactly the same but very close, way closer than lego and outback.) 2. the gt auto trans has the 4.44 final drive (it is the outback auto trans and i think speedo drive gears) and the lego auto trans has the 4.11 final drive. (i'm not real sure how important this is except that it may be an indicator of the speedo gears. ? ) i also noted when i made the swap that the face plates on the speedo were different, BUT when actually going 66? miles per hour, both speedo needles were pointing straight up, even though the the indicated speeds were different (66 on one and 77 on the other????). from this i concluded the the speedos were the same but that the face plates were different. one was calibrated to match the the gt, the gt speedo only went to 120, the lego went to 140. so i swapped the face plates. much harder than you would think since you have to remove the needle to do it and reinstalling the needle so it reads correctly is a challenge / tedious. i have another post where i talk more about that. as far as i know, there is no adjustment on the speedos. the mechanical units are all the same, the faceplates and speedo drive gears are different and match the tire size. when i first removed the gt cluster, i noticed that the wire connector for the gt speedo from the speed sensor was a different shape and color than the lego wire connector. i also searched for speedo drive gear part numbers and i think i found that the gt was an odd duck but i'm not sure. i didn't bother to remember since i have mine with in 1.5mph. if the vehicles in question have the same size tires and are in the same modle year group i think there is a good chance it is a straight swap. if the face plates are different probably not. when you get around to swapping the face plates a GPS comes in really handy so you know exactly how fast you are going. my solution was to drive the car 65 mph and then stick on the needle. it is very dangerous to do this on the hiway at 65 mph in traffic. you can do the same thing without swapping the face plates, but the speedo will only be accurate at that speed. not 30 miles slower or 30 miles faster. the info from the speed sensor goes directly to the speedo, it think. and i assume that the odometer is also matched to the tire size. i dont think either data stream is adjusted by the ECU or the TCU before it is displayed at the cluster. ( itried swapping the TCU befor swapping the spedo face plates. i hope this helps.

what is the fix for this 'banjo' bolt design flaw??

great timing belt pictures, click here, thanks nipper

power steering / alt belt. see if it squeals more louder if you turn the steering wheel. just snug up the belt a little. .

if it does not work, use the generic one from the front, on the rear. question for all: the rear o2 sensor is original, is there any sense in moving it to the front, swap connectors of course. it has the same age as the bad front one, but does it have the same wear and tear??

slightly off topic but very informative: how does an o2 sensor work, including how to test an o2 sensor, click here .

this link lists aup as a source, but when you click on it you don't go any where. the aup.com link seems to be gone. http://www.triangleautosupply.com/TAS-Product.html

this suggestion came to light, most recently, from a "repair in a bottle" website that some one used to fix their head gasket. it was offered as a "if our product does not work try this" solution. the description was to drive the car with the "vent" on the cap "open" and to close it at night when parked, all the while keeping the overflow bottle full of coolant.. the idea being that it would allow the exhaust gases to escape while driving and then with the vent closed it would suck in coolant from the over flow when cooling off. this would keep it from over heating and keep it full of coolant. you can do the same thing by loosening your rad cap while driving and tightening it at night but the vent cap is cheap and easier to use. i wouldn't, the t-stat is 12$ the cap is less, and i don't think a small hole isn't going to do much. removing the tstat will keep it from overheating for a long time, until enough exhaust builds up, BUT it will also always be cold, get terrible gas mileage, and generally be bad for your car. the vent cap would be better as a short term "fix", but only new gaskets is going to be a long term fix.

gary, where do you buy your boots? used axles are 30$ and boot kits, inner and outer, from advance auto are ~30$. plus the mess to do the work. for 75$, plus shipping ($15 ?) i can get one from MWE. used with new boots is cheaper, but will it last as long as re-man? just wondering.

it does sound like a bad HG but check it out first. i think this car should have the 2.2L engine and bad HGs are not as common as the 2.5L engine. it is possible that it has been overheating but not noticed or not reported.

i think some one posted they had pretty good luck with some from harbor freight, i think.

i agree with you that size is not important, quality is. but lets not forget these are the same math people who brought us the 96 - 99 2.5L head gaskets. an intelligent discussion, regardless of the topic, is usually a good thing.