porcupine73

Not sure what site you were looking at, subarupartsforyou.com is a good one for genuine part # searches. Struts normally you are going to go with KYB GR-2, sets of 4 are readily available in the low $200 range on eBay and elsewhere. If you get USDM Outback springs, the upper spring seat size will be correct. If you get from another market, sometimes those had the Impreza/Forester size upper spring seats which were smaller. You can still use the larger Legacy/Outback upper spring seats, although it is not optimal. Depending on what you are looking to do, sometimes people just pick up the whole strut assemblies from a junk yard. Though at this point in time those are going to be 15+ years old so the struts will have definitely seen better days. You will need a camber check/adjust afterward. I also needed a number of fastcam bolts to get the camber back into spec, mostly on the rear. Toe is not really affected that I noticed. On the rear some people like to get the Outback trailing arm because it is a little longer and makes the wheel centered in the wheel well, though I didn't know that at the time and just skipped that step.

Hi Gary, I went back and checked my parts orders, yes, at least for me, it was the crank angle sensor. It did give a CEL for it sometimes, but not every time, when it would die or wouldn't start.

I did have that on my '96 leg. brighton 2.2L a few times. Usually did it when stopping. The first time there was no CEL until after I tried to restart it quite a bit, then it was for the crank angle sensor I believe it was. It would still start but would be very hesitant to do so and would just die sometimes when stopping. After replacing it, it was oK.

I haven't been following it too closely since it will be about 10 years before I will be able to afford a 2012 Subaru, but apparently the shimmy/shake is a very common complaint on the newest model years. There are several TSB's out for it where they loosen and re-torque various fasteners in a certain order. Some people say it helps; others not so much.

'95 Outback and Legacy I believe had the same ride height, I think Outback was just a trim level in '95. You can run Outback ('96-'98 should work) struts and springs. If you then go with larger tires, you should get several inches of lift. Here is my '96 Legacy with Outback struts and Outback king springs lift springs and larger tires: Note: If running larger tires, and the existing front calipers are single pots (like on this red '96 Legacy brighton), highly suggest upgrading the front brakes, because the single pots are just barely adequate to begin with, and with larger tires they really will struggle. Left is white '94 stock height Legacy, which is about how the red '96 on the right was before the 'lift':

Interesting....curious in your experience, if they haven't been overheated too much, do you find it necessary to mill the block and/or heads?

Yes the geared/toothed idler near the water pump is famous for doing that.

Not sure how to suggest to proceed, but some of them were castrated of their tow hooks under a recall because the soccer moms kept bumping concrete curbs when parking and setting off the airbags.

What is the fuel pump issue, if the suction strainer falls off into the tank? Hm anyone think the knock sensor could cause this type of issue? They don't always throw a code but the ECU might think it is knocking. I had one that was flaky, though it did throw a code, but you would be driving, it would suddenly just go absolutely gutless and acting like it was going to stall, then the CEL would come on with knock sensor code?

I just happened to find this while looking for something else so I thought I'd add it to the thread: I found some of the endwrench articles for the retrofit but it wouldn't let me attach them.

Hm...let me check my archives. I do remember in that era it mentioned something about not disconnecting the battery for only a few minutes, to leave it unhooked overnight or longer, else it could cause bad idling. Checked the archives and TSB's but didn't see anything offhand.....

Just guessing it would probably be a metric thread or possibly British pipe thread. In a right angle like that is probably going to be tricky to find. Would probably have to remove the existing piece and measure it with a thread gauge, then check someplace like mcmaster.com or maybe Amazon's small parts. Getting a used one is probably a lot easier.

I don't know if it's called the same thing for DC motors, but you are basically asking what is the locked/blocked rotor or inrush current. The switch really only needs to be sized for the full load current. Switches in that range will usually handle a motor starting load as well. Generally the working limit is 80% of the fuse rating, so the 'continuous' load for a 20 ampere fused circuit would normally not exceed 16 amperes. Relays can usually handle above their rated load for starting loads. The risk is overheating the contacts, which can then cause the contacts to weld together, and then it will not be able to interrupt the load.

The caliper bracket to bearing housing bolts are normally 17mm...or was it 14mm. Those are also normally the hardest to get out if they are rusty. Usually I replace those because they are known to shear off. The banjo bolt to the caliper is usually 14mm I think? Or maybe 12mm. However, I have seen on aftermarket/rebuilt calipers sometimes it seems to be an SAE head size.

So after getting the old bearing out of the housing and putting in the new bearing into the housing, how do you get the hub back into the bearing? Do you just get the axle in there and then it pulls the hub back in as you tighten the axle nut? Good points! I will never attempt it with a light hammer again. 10lb at the absolute minimum. I didn't feel it that day, but the next day and today I just about feel like I sprained my wrists and thumbs. Going full force so many times with light hammer was not a good idea.

Thank you for the information, I would have ended up using brake cleaner had I not read that. I started tearing her apart today. I got as far as getting the hub out. That was the hard part because I found out my slide hammer was only 3 lb. It pulled the hub out about 1/4" then the threads on the slide hammer stripped out. So after some rigging, I got the slide hammer set up with two 10-lb barbell weights on the end. Success, that ripped the hub out in just two pulls, whereas I had done about 100 pulls with the 3lb weight. But that pretty much ruined the remaining threads on the slide hammer so it was a one time use tool but it did the job.

To replace the grease, do you flush out the old grease with brake cleaner or something and then just pack in the new grease?

There used to be an Endwrench article about how to figure the oil. I forget exactly what it said, but I think the 8.x fl. oz. was the total amount of oil in the system. Then it had some estimations you could make, since it is not really practicable to measure the amount of oil in the system. Such as so much for a compressor replacement, so much for the receiver/drier, stuff like that. I don't think you're supposed to mix the PAG and ester oils. Subaru had a 12 to 134A conversion kit available for certain years/models. Because I think the expansion valve is different too between the refrigerants.

It will be these ones, the 'cam cap o-rings'. If it's an auto trans, just jam something like a pry bar in the flywheel hole to block the crank: BUT! Keep everything else away from that hole! I dropped a bolt down in there once....fortunately I got it out with a long magnet/antenna thing. Maybe it would have just come out, but my luck it would have somehow snapped the crank or something.

You could get a PCI timing kit, that has all the idlers and a belt. You could just risk it if funds are tight, since if any of that stuff fails it won't damage the engine but it will leave you stranded. Pulling the oil pump and resealing it (need o-ring and front crank seal) is a good idea because the screws on the back cover of the pump get loose on that era and it can end up pushing the crank seal right out if it's bad.

It does sound like your timing belt, especially how it was running and then died at a stop light. Fortunately '96 2.2L was still non-interference so no damage if it broke. You could also check for codes. I have had a crank angle sensor go flaky on me and it would make it sometimes not start at all or it would die at idle. (though it did set a code for it).

Thanks for the info. Cheesy grease? Ok so if it looks like this I will use something a little better.

The other factor those kits ignore is that modern intakes are tuned for the airflow characteristics of the engine. Just strapping on any old 'cold air intake' is more than likely going to result in lower MPG.

Thanks for the info. Do you think it might be an axle nut for later model soobs? I think someone mentioned some of the newer ones have a 36mm nut? Also....do you know if the new genuine Subaru wheel bearings are already packed with grease and ready to go? I remember some TSB years ago that said the grease was just packing grease and it needed to be packed with wheel bearing grease before installing?

Thanks Ivans Imports, that is helpful. Actually I did replace the axle a few times on that side, and this looseness did show up shortly after I put the last axle in. Though maybe with 175k miles it is time for one to go. I used a new axle nut but right, I have noticed some are silver, some are gold, and some have a greenish tint to them but I wasn't sure what the difference was. I tightened it before putting the wheel back on the ground. The SPX tool sounds very nice indeed! That is probably the one Subaru showed in the TSB's for the wheel bearing replacement without using a press?