porcupine73

I would change it. When unsure of previous service history, the safest, although most expensive option, is to assume it was not done. The AT is an important, expensive component and the job is easy and cheap to do if you buy your own fluid and do it yourself.

Great list hohieu! Don't want that timing belt to snap in that engine, because bad things will happen. (i.e. be sure it really was replaced at 100,000km.

Weatherstripping on my '96 legacy looked live it could use a little love so I put some kanolabs Lubricone on it (this stuff is silicone in a volatile carrier); seemed to work great, cleaned the dirt right off, soaked in really nice, then the carrier fluid evaporates leaving nothin' but a nice silicone sheen. Good idea on the cleaning with isopropyl first; I didn't think about it, but I'd think that isopropyl alchohol and silicone might be good for rubber as that's what's in those little wipes that come with some windshield wipers.

Sounds like maybe the strut mount is rusted out or something. I'd give the area a good shakedown, like maybe with the upper cover off, bounce up and down on that side of the car and see if you hear anything like the sound you described and see if the strut rod bolt is moving around in there or anything. It can be a fairly straightforward DIY job, depending on how you plan to fix. You'll need a spring compressor unless you just buy or get an entire strut assembly as grossgary suggested. You may need flare nut wrenches if you need to disconnect the brake line at the fitting that passes through the strut body, unless you just use a dremel or something to cut out the strut a little bit to pop the fitting out without disconnecting it.

Yep the connector should be right there in that area. Those contacts look nice and clean unlike mine that look pretty corroded.....another thing I noted, at least on '96 Legacy is that you have to push the button at the end of the wiper lever there to make the washers squirt although the lever seems to indicate you should pull it toward you. It does move in that direction but doesn't do anything; pressing the button makes the front squirt.

Hello all, have a '96 Legacy Brighton here with front disc and rear drum brakes. Does anyone know if any other Legacy's of that year had disc brakes on the rear, and if yes, if I'd be able to switch over my Brighton's rear drum brakes to disc brakes. Would it be worth making this change; I only sometimes drive it like I stole it.

You can also get a lot of TSB's at techinfo.subaru.com and going to 'reference publications' at the menu at the top of the screen and selecting your vehicle year and model. Unfortunately it's not free as I initially thought it was.

Not sure what, if anything Subaru recommends. I've had excellent results with RedLine SI-1. Good results with Fuel Power FP60. OK results with Lucas UCL. I hear a lot of people like Techron. I think GM did some study that showed not many gasolines have enough quality cleaners in them to prevent deposits from building up. I would generally avoid anything that has a lot of methanol in it.

If you're looking for inexpensive then either autoparts store or a salvage yard is probably the way to go. If you can find one at a salvage yard with the boots in good shape I might consider it over even an autoparts store reman unit because the impression I get is the aftermarket units are just not as good quality as the original one on the vehicle. The autoparts store remans though remember you might have to replace them many times over the lifetime of the vehicle, which isn't a big deal if you don't mind spending the time to do it (they generally have a lifetime warranty). As far as sounds, I've never had one go, but I've read that it generally starts with clicking in tight turns, then clicking in any turns, then clicking all the time, then louder clicking, and so on. I think I've seen posts on here where people have driven for years with them like that, so who knows.

Thanks for the info NorthWet. I saw some third arms for sale on ebay with 'nearly painless' installation. I've now reviewed the EndWrench article and it also calls for 40.5 and 44 teeth, so I'm going to go with that and ignore those yellow marks on the belt itself, unless I miscounted....

Hopefully this is helpful, I thought about this post while re-reading one of the EndWrench article on T-belts: Note that the arrows on the cam sprockets are for piston position, not valve timing.

Howdy, a few questions about timing belt replacement '00OBW 2.5 sohc auto trans. The timing belt that was on it is part# 13028AA21A The new timing belt I received is part# 13028AA21B (I hope that's the right part, I also have a 13028AA102 but I'm pretty sure that's for my '96 2.2) Question 1: Are the yellow lines on the timing belt useful for aligning anything? On this new timing belt 13028AA21B there is a striped yellow line and two solid yellow lines, which I figured were probably the crank sprocket and respective cam sprocket alignment marks, but one is like 44 teeth and the other is like 48 teeth. The 44 teeth matches up with one of the manual's measurements, but the 48 teeth I don't know what that's for as the other manual measurement is 40.5 teeth. Question 2: Any tips on getting the new timing belt aligned properly? I know this job is neither horseshoes nor hand grenades, so close isn't good enough. Maybe if I did a search there's comments on how to make sure, maybe I'll reread that EndWrench article. I cut up the old belt so I don't really have it to use as a reference. Thanks! Louis

Sounds like your knock sensor might be a little too sensitive, or you have some engine condition causing a lot of knock. It also sounds like maybe the aftermarket knock sensor might not have matched OE specs completely. Could maybe try going up a hill with the knock sensor disconnected and see if it acts up. For the remote, you might just have to 'program' your vehicle to recognize that remote's code; check the manual.

The tools you need depend on how you're planning to do the job. If you're planning to just install a remanufactured axle/half shaft, then to remove the existing one you'll need to be able to break loose the axle bolt, a good set of pin punches to knock out the spring/roll pin on the differential axle stub, and some other basic tools (like ball joint separator) depending on how you extract the axle out of the knuckle. Just note that you shouldn't loosen the axle bolt other than to break it loose while there's weight on the wheel. I'd probably go with a Subaru reman axle, or if you have $$ a new OE axle. Other reman axles like from Autozone and other places generally have a lifetime warranty, but you might have to replace them more times over the lifetime of the vehicle. I wouldn't be in a huge hurry to do the job, but as mentioned, when the thing blows, it's not going to be pretty, plus the potential for other damage/heating.

The only spacer is the o-ring which is really just there to help keep the assembly from coming apart. I checked the original tensioner and it has about the same amount of freeplay so I think I'm good. Basically the tensioner has kind of a sleeve bearing in it (left in pic below) which is a bit longer than the tensioner housing, which when combined with the washers on each end, results in a bit of freeplay where the tensioner can slide in and out on the mounting bolt.

It doesn't have to measure fuel flow; it can calculate fuel consumption based on all the parameters available to it from the ECU such as intake air temp (IAT), engine coolant temp (ECT), mass air flow (MAF), manifold absolute pressure (MAP), throttle position, engine RPM, and so on. You set the engine size and cylinders and stuff in the configuration. It does a pretty good job; when I fill up the scangauge is usually within .1 or so gallons.

I think I'll pull it out today and make sure the o-ring is actually on the tensioner mounting bolt and maybe I'll put the old one back on there temporarily to compare. It seems to me that with as much axial freeplay on that bolt if the thing slides back and forth for whatever reason it's going to make noise.

Well probably for more power in a naturally aspirated engine would be my guess.

Cool nipper that's a pretty sweet mpg gain! What kind/brand of air filter did you have in there before? I've done a few experiments with things like acetone, propane, xylene, etc., but didn't see any real difference, but maybe air filter is the ticket!

Sounds like a cool project! I'd go OE for a couple reasons. First is I've seen many recommendations to use OE for the front oxygen sensor on this board. Second is then you know the connector will fit without any extra work on your part wheras aftermarket are sometimes a 'generic' where you cut the connector off the old sensor and wire it onto the new sensor. The sensors labelled as 'before cat' ('front sensor') is the one used for A/F ratio adjustment; the 'after cat' / rear is typically used to determine catalyst efficiency.

Hello all, just put in a new timing belt tensioner on my '00OBW 2.5L sohc. Well I torqued the gadget's mounting bolt onto the bracket using the OE manual spec of I think it was about 29 ft*lbs(f). Anywho, I can slide it in and out on it's mounting bolt a little; I don't know how much but I'd say maybe 1/32" or so. Is this normal? I didn't see anything in the manual about it. I didn't check the original tensioner's lateral freeplay. Thanks!

Good point Northwet; I too got the whole 8-9 quarts out when cooler line had to come out while replacing filter. Anyway, you probably really need to measure what you drained out. It seems it would be pretty hard for the dipstick to be off unless you had the wrong dipstick or it wasn't seating all the way or something like that. If you know for a fact by measuring that you only got 4 quarts out, then who knows; maybe it was low to begin with.

Dangerdave you probably just need to lay on it. I had to put probably 300ft-lbs before I got mine to break on '00OBW. That took a good 3' pipe on the breaker bar. I hear the starter bump method works very well though I haven't tried it. Penetrating oil did me no good as bolt was in tip top shape just tight. Be sure when you put that bolt back in that you tighten it correctly (final tightness by degree not just torque). If that thing loosens up later on it can cause lots 'o trouble.

Hm....interesting. Why do you think the dipstick is wrong? How are you checking the fluid? Are you checking with engine running in park on a level surface after shifting through the gears? Running low on fluid is risky because if the pump starts pulling air, it result in transmission slippage which will wear out those precious wet clutches fast. Too much ATF can result in lots of bubbles in the fluid and maybe other issues too. Plus if the AT senses slippage I think it tries to raise line pressure to reduce/eliminate slippage which will result in harder shifts?

I'd go with the tighter bearing. I don't think water pump lube will do anything as most of them have sealed bearings.