porcupine73

Sweet that does make me feel better. I think the person who posted about having them in a Impreza brighton they were aftermarket because they weren't the factory size.

I've also used just a shop rag and kind of fiddled it in behind the window crank and pulled it around until the clip came off, that seemed to work pretty well too. So why did the Legacy Brightons not get rear speakers but the Impreza sedan Brightons did? I feel shortchanged.

I know some people don't like the stuff but I'm not sure. I've been using it in all my soobs for many years, so far I haven't seen any issues from it. There was a TSB or note on Endwrech about the rad caps, something about making sure no debris is between the rubber part and the metal underneath, I think it talked about using basically a toothbrush to make sure it is clean under there.

So your test light you had one lead on the starter solenoid (the smaller wire) with it still connected to the starter. Where was the other test light lead connected (I am assuming to ground?). In that case the light should be on only with the key in start (not run) and in neutral/park. You could do it that way too as long as you leave the terminal connected while you hook up the multimeter, which might make it a little trickier. For one person I think just jumpering it as a test is faster. You'd have to check the voltage with the wire still connected to the solenoid because some soobs seem to not pass full voltage to the solenoid eventually resulting in strange behavior. Usually in that case people say to put in relay right off the battery and use the starter solenoid wire to power its coil.

Hm something does look a bit amiss in there. Hm that's a 2000 Outback? So they still went with the seemingly more failure prone ball bearings on the rear for that?

Yes those lights blow out on just about every soob it seems from that era. There's a thread somewhere about how to replace them with clear LED's I think that won't burn out like taht again, or with a different style bulb from Radio Shack. For a long time I just thought Subaru didn't put lights in the heater controls since I never saw them work on any of my soobs, until I saw a thread about replacing the bulbs.

You would need to make sure the 15" wheels will clear your brakes of course.

Pull the wire off the starter solenoid. It's very easy to access, and it's near the ATF dipstick at least on US spec soobs. Then jumper that (through a fused link) to the battery + terminal and see if it cranks. If it does then the starter is fine and it's something in the ignition/inhibitor. If not then the starter is having issues.

For toe after tie rod end work I've just been using the strings method, it seems to work fine with an accurate ruler. Then just dial the tie rods to get the toe you want. Often you can do that quicker than even waiting for it to be done at an alignment shop. Camber I do with a level against the wheel and calculate the arctan (I have it in Excel I could upload it), that will give you the +/- camber. It's probably not as accurate as the fancy laser alignment machines but that's how I've been doing it on all my soobs over the years without any issues that I've noticed.

Well I would definitely replace the steering gear boot, you don't want a lot of crud getting up into the rack. The tie rod ends I suppose if you think they are bad then replace. You really need the inner tie rod end tool to do it without dropping the rack though some people have come up with other tricks. You will of course need to adjust the front toe after replacing the tie rods. Wheel bearing I wouldn't touch really unless you know its bad. Struts I mean if it is really bouncy then yes I'd say go for it. You can get enough clearance to extract the axle from the hub just from unhooking the bearing housing from the strut, though there's many ways and I guess you already got that part done by driving out the tie rod end.

On the 2.2L right I would just stick with v-power's instead of iridium since they're pretty easy to change. It's good you checked them at 45k, sometimes if you leave those things in for the full 100k they get siezed in the head.

^^ haha ok touche, that is a pretty good post.

^^ yeps, new battery probably held it out as long as it could, but, starter batteries are not meant for deep discharge, and now is probably defunct. Sometimes battery/alt/ground connections can cause issues too. If the CEL is on you need to read the codes. If you saw the battery light on please tell us.

Hahah sometimes the sawzall works too and a torch is very threatening!

Hm nice thank you for the suggestion. That does look like a nice one. Pretty much right now I have only soobs, plus I have an axle I need to pull on a 6x6 ATV that happens to have 4"/100mm 5 lug hubs which surprisingly is the same as my soobs.

What's a decent hub puller attachment for a slide hammer? After looking around thinking of going with this: http://www.amazon.com/OTC-7208A-Front-Installer-Puller/dp/B0002SRF6C/ref=lh_ni_t My plan is to use a piece of 3/4" black iron pipe, with a cap on one end with a hole drilled to fit a bolt that will attach to the hub puller. Then on the black iron pipe I can put whatever weight I want, standard 'home' barbell weights fit perfectly on a 3/4" pipe. So I can put 5 lb, 10lb, 25lb, whatever I want on there. Then screw a pipe flange on the other end for the weights to slam against. I did something like this with a slide hammer, but it was a small slide hammer and it ripped the threads right off the end of the slide hammer. But - it did pull the hub out no problem.

You mentioned wheel cylinder, so I'm not sure if you mean you have rear drum brakes. Those can rub the backing plate even worse than rotors. Because the drum kind of fits into this lip on the backing plate. Any time I've messed with those they make this terrible crunching rubbing sound for a while until all the rusty backing plate that touches the drum finally rubs away.

Hm that type of thing sounds like a ground or other electrical connection issue. Which particular one of course would be the question. Neither the turn signal switch nor ignition switch would really be likely suspects even if the turn signal switch were faulty.

Yes it wasn't obvious at first when I looked at it, I think the hex hole was so rusty I didn't even recongize there was anything there. Then I saw a rounded hole, then figured out it was a hex hole, then Haha yes hopefully something breaks other than a tool! I think it sheared the bolt off pretty easily. I used to try to take my time and be really ginger with everything, now for fasteners that are easy to replace I just break them or cut them and then replace them.

Ah ok it wasn't a dream then. I think mine snapped off but pretty much any small dia fastener on any of my soobs does that here in the rustiest of rust belts.

Is that the style with the hex key inside the head end? I think that's how it was on my '00obw but maybe H6 is different. It had like a recessed hex head in the bolt, it was kind of hard to see, like you had to pick off this little 'cover' or something. That was some years back now so I'm not recalling exactly ...

Thanks for the update. I'm going to be replacing it on '00obw too, the part is on the way. In my mind failure of the turn signal to come on from time to time especially for left hand turns can be a major safety hazard so yes let's get these patched up!~ I ended up picking up a genuine stalk from Dan Perkins since I had extra Subaru bucks available. The price was about $85 so that's roughly what the aftermarket cost too. The Subaru turn signal switch stalk assembly installation was pretty simple too, just five slotted JIS screws in all to do the job.

Yes it kind of sounds like some basic maintenance and possibly a few worn suspension components, things any used car will need eventually. Another thing I appreciate about soobs is they usually fare pretty well in the head on and IIHS offset crash tests (except keep your left foot off that little 'foot rest' on the left side.)

Sounds good. That slight side to side sway I notice a little bit on my '00obw too. It was worse before new struts and springs but it still does it. I am guessing '08 still has the multilink rear? I think that's what does it. I don't like the multilink rear at all. I liked the McPherson like on the 90's soobs much better. I never noticed that slight rear sway feeling on the older soobs.

Sounds good. That would be line with how things usually fail. For a while it works, then later it doesn't.