porcupine73

Just wondering how many people have had their drum shoe lining separate from the shoes or parking brake lining separate from the shoes. I have had it happen to the rear drums on my '96 Legacy brighton last year, and on the parking shoes on my '94 Legacy this year. In both cases it happened to all the shoes. When I took the drums off, the linings were just loose, separated from the shoes. Which would explain the odd noises encounted in braking and using the parking brake.

On a '99 the battery disconnect will reset the ECU. Just make sure to leave it disconnected long enough, like say overnight. Sometimes weird things happen if you unhook the battery for only like 30 seconds. And if that code doesn't come back right away doesn't mean it is fixed, the ECU does that test only under certain conditions like fuel at a certain level, temperature a certain level, etc. I'm not sure if your parts list is complete; I can't see the vehicle to know what parts need replacing or if any parts need replacing at all. I've got three fairly old rust belt soobs and haven't had any fuel filler neck issues with any of them (yet!) but now look I have just said that so one will probably fail soon.

Generally I am of the mindset that if you're going into a job like that, any other parts that are readily accessible that are known to be troublesome, might as well just replace them while you have it apart if the other parts aren't overly expensive. Saves the labor of having to tear it apart again later, or having it ripped open and not having all the parts you need right at hand. So I'm assuming you are pretty sure your issue is with the filler neck? It's frustrating to replace a part hoping it fixes a problem and then the problem turns out actually to be something else. If the fuel filler neck or area has a leak, an evap smoke machine would show it.

Yes that's how I found some of my rattles was just with work gloves on going under there up on four ramps and feeling around, carefully of course. Some of them I knew they were heat shield rattles but I couldn't pinpoint the source even laying there looking at them until I started feeling around to see which ones were doing it. Not all the rattles happen at idle; some happen only in a certain rpm range. It was frustrating at first because I would fix a few loose heat shields and then the rattle would still be there, but it was just because there were still more that were loose.

It seems kind of new to have the heat shields ratting already, but yes Subaru heat shields do like to rattle. Sometimes a lot. And in many different places. It took me quite some time to stop all those annoying rattles on my used soobs. In some areas I put a hose clamp over the shield to stop the rattling. In some areas over the exhaust they were rusted out of the bolt holes, etc. I think a person could make nearly $100 selling off the yards of heat shields as scrap.

Hello. No there is only one PCV valve, and it screws into the intake manifold near the throttle body behind the coil. I know why you are seeing on the valve covers, but those are just nipples for the hoses going back to the intake to recycle blow by and crankcase gases. They are not PCV valves. In this pic you are seeing that nipple that has the black plug over it on the left: In this pic, look at the top left plug wire (left as you are looking at the pic). The PCV valve is screwed in just below that in the pic with that hose coming off it.

I have heard that higher mileage Subaru engines on MT's sometimes do develop excess crankshaft play due to the force exerted on the crank by the clutch. Supposedly iirc they will still run that way until it gets really bad and the crank ends up rubbing into the crankcase thus ruining it.

In those era soobs the overflow tanks were not pressurized. The cap really just keeps junk from getting into the overflow, which could then get sucked up the rubber tube. Something such as a sandwhich bag and rubber band might be sufficient to make it through. Oh the plastic caps are also more resistant to coolant gnomes than sandwhich bags.

Now that GM doesn't license the good 'ol Dexron II/III blends anymore the 'multi vehicle' seems to be the one a lot of people are using. I'm not sure who is making Subaru's transmissions, at least from that era? I know for some years Nissan and others were using what people call 'J boxes', which are made by jatco.co.jp

The fronts do have a little wiggle in them, I mean it does need to be able to slide in and out somewhat for the steering and suspension movement. Be careful with axles, especially the fronts on an auto soob with using axles from the parts stores. The parts store axles people often complain of vibration issues afterward and the machining and finish on some parts is not very good. The two I don't see complains about are MWE axles (have used these many times, very good), and Subaru genuine remanufactured but they can be pricey. If your axles are painted green where they go onto the differential they might be the original/genuine axles. Those are typically very durable. I don't think I've seen any threads about trouble with the axles other than the boots ripping, though there could be some out there.

Hi Bob and welcome to the board. That soob should be pretty solid. Any used car needs a good going over to check for any problems and used Subaru's are no different. Also checking for torque bind, and make sure all the tires match model and treadwear. Things I know of as possible issues on that era H6 - serpentine accessory drive belt tensioner and idler - can fail; not expensive parts though. A/C - compressor rotation sensor can fail and leave a/c not working; there is a TSB out from Subaru on it; iirc the part is around $100.

If you get the 2-3 blip on the first upshift after sitting overnight, that's a known characteristic of the phase II 4EAT. Something about the hydraulic circuit bleeding down. The delayed engagement into drive can be a more serious issue as noted above.

Thanks for posting back with the solution. Good idea to get that other hose out of there, because with the flow that severely restricted it could have overheated the ATF too.

Do you mean it is slow to engage into drive after sitting all night? And/or do you mean that first 2-3 upshift seems like it 'slips'?

Hm that one is tricky, none of the Subaru dealer sites seem to list that one. Some info I found showed TIMKEN Part # 512036 Ball Bearing; 3.937 in. Bolt Circle Diam; 4.960 in. Flange Diameter; 2.539 in. Flange Offset; 56 mm Wheel Pilot Diam FWD; Non-ABS; Rear Looks like it is the hub and bearing together as a unit; I'm assuming that's because it is FWD.

Click that link above, that's four articles from Subaru that deal with this code. A good one with a description of what the ECU is seeing that triggers this code and possible causes are: http://www.endwrench.com/pdf/fuel/FtEvapEmissionTestW00.pdf An evap smoke machine is quick to hook up and any leaks will show up as little puff of smoke coming out.

It's replaceable; there is a plastic cover over it that comes off. But first it'd be wise I think to verify what the problem is. It's possible the fuel cap is faulty as well, or there could be a solenoid that is having problems, or a plugged or leaky emmissions hose in there, etc. An evap smoke machine will show the source of the leak, if there is a leak. P0440 can have a lot of causes: http://www.google.com/search?q=p0440+%2Bsite%3Aendwrench.com

Hi thanks for the info. It has the removable caps on the battery; I forgot to even check those. I think I have a battery hydrogemeter somewhere I'll have to look. I might just replace the battery. I've used this load tester this way on other Subaru size batteries and they've faired quite well, like in the 400-600 range, so it doesn't make me feel good that this battery dropped so low. It's probably cheap insurance to replace it at this age. On a side note the previous battery I think cracked, maybe when the PO smashed up the front. It leaked acid all over the place inside, which ate the ATF cooler lines last year. I neutralized it all with baking soda water but it took a lot to flush it all out. Then the PO put the leaking battery in the cargo area. I could tell because the carpeting was all eaten up back there, then he put a plastic shoe tray over it. Just last week I finally took the cargo carpet out and hosed it down with baking soda water. It foamed pretty good for a while. Much of the carpet is eaten away in that area. Plus now it smells like burned plastic.

Joe comes through again, check out this link: http://www.cars101.com/subwarr.html#capacity The Tribeca loooks to be rated up to 3500 lbs with a trans cooler, 2000 lbs without, and 1000 lbs in harsh conditions (including no trailer brakes). So it looks like it would tow the golf cart and stuff no problem. My only issue with the Tribeca is price. That thing goes 30k+ which is quite a bit above the Outback. But of course maybe not so much above the H6 models though. The later Outbacks 2005+ look to be rated quite well for towing too. Hm there might be later Outbacks that got the 3.6L H6 too, that's rated pretty nice. It says Subaru doesn't recommend towing with a Legacy on Joe's page. Forester can tow too. The Baja it shows can tow 2400 lbs; you'd have to get used since they don't make those anymore.

I would see if the CEL/MIL illuminates after making 3-4 more 'trips'. Some codes don't throw right away, so there might be one or more codes pending that will throw if they reoccur on the next 2-4 drive cycles. Say how many miles are on her? She might need a compression test to see what's going on. Maybe the timing has jumped a tooth or something.

So I did a load test on the '94 Legacy battery today. It was fully charged at the time. The tester is supposed to be 100 amps. It says to load it for 10 seconds, which I did. The voltage at the end was around 9.6V. The tester gauge said this is 'weak', not even 200 CCA. Should I replace this battery before winter then? It was in the car when I got it 3-1/2 years ago. I don't know how old it is. Thanks. The tester is the harbor freight special. It gets as hot as a toaster after that 10 seconds let me tell you. But at 100amps at 12V that's 1200 watts so she's an egg cooker alright. Old pic of tester (that's not the battery I'm testing though)

Too far closed? You mean so closed it started opening in the other direction? Because at idle there should be zero -no- air going through the throttle. The ECU modules the idle air control valve for air at idle. If there is air coming through the throttle (or other vacuum leak) that might mess up the ECU's attempts to control the idle. Some of those era engines can develop odd running/idling conditions if the battery is unhooked for too short a period of time. Like it ends up with random values so to speak in some memory locations. So something easy to try would be unhooking it overnight. They will idle high initially until the emissions stuff gets warmed up, it wants to get to closed loop as soon as possible. The other idle issues sound like possible neutral position switch issues, like it thinking it's in neutral and isn't or the other way around.

I'm not sure why they would have had different rates for driver vs passenger. It couldn't have been very critical since now they list the same part number for both sides. Heck maybe both sides were the same spring with just that paint being different for some reason. I went with the higher part # spring to be the left hand side which seemed to be consistent with other soobs I researched that had different part #'s left and right.

Let's see I found the original packing list. Wow it was from 8/29/2005. It says I got 20330AC030 COIL SPRING (this is the pink) 20330AC040 COIL SPRING (this is the green)