porcupine73

I did this swap on my '96 Legacy and ran Outback size tires on it. The gearing difference is definitely noticeable to me. It is slower to take off and I find myself going into 3 and 2 manually many times to counteract. I was not able to get the rears to the camber I wanted without fastcam bolts. In the front I also needed a fastcam in the other bolt hole in addition to the stock camber bolt. Those 19mm headed nuts on the strut to bearing housing bolts are one area where a good impact wrench comes in very handy. Remember to spin the nut and not the bolt.

The struts should match up ok. If you have ABS the mounting points to the struts for the ABS sensor wires may be different, but zip ties are often used if that is the case. Camber needs to be checked afterward which isn't too difficult. If you can't get the camber you want in the front, and/or if it is too far out of spec in the rear, then you may need to add fastcam bolts. The Outback does have a body spacer that the Legacy doesn't. Whether it is worth the trouble of installing it I don't know.

4 spd, ok thanks I must've missed it. That would contribute to having a higher rpm in top gear then since the gears have to spaced further apart than they would in a normal Subaru 5spd trans, or the STi 6spd.

3400 rpm at 70mph seems a bit high but not overly so. They might have set yours up for better performance and take offs at lower speeds rather than for long distance cruising. How many gears does your Beetle transmission have? If top speed matters to you, it sounds like you would definitely hit the gear limited top speed on that set up well before it would be drag limited.

It depends what ABS setup you have. There's a really good article about Subaru ABS on Endwrench that has pictures of each system and tells for each system how to get the codes.

The stuck in 2nd gear would be it going into limp home mode. If the TCU detects a problem where it doesn't think it can correctly operate the transmission anymore it just locks it into 2nd so that the vehicle can at least still be driven and not just leave you stranded. Be careful with transmission repair shops, many of them seem shady at best and many times they just make the problem worse or don't even end up fixing it at all. Or they 'rebuild' the trans and then it has other issues afterwards. Also if you do ready your codes and it does turn out to be the torque converter lockup solenoid you could conceivably just drive it like that if it doesn't bother you too much. Your mileage might suffer a bit but it is not really a mission critical solenoid.

That should be plenty. To think of it in reverse, when using the vacuum method, if you are pulling a strong vacuum then atmospheric pressure of about 14psia is pushing the fluid out the bleeder. So using 10-15psig to pressure bleed seems reasonable.

The dohc is a little tricky to get all the marks lined up. If you are more than one tooth off, supposedly it will not start. Subaru mentions doing a compression test in this case. The old belt didn't break right (you are just doing this as maintenance)?

You should read the codes out of the TCU. You can do this yourself, you just have to find the procedure on how to do it for that year/model. Then you can see what problem it is detecting, quite possibly is the torque converter lockup solenoid from what you describe.

If Calif. is doing it, you can bet NY wants to do it too. I think we in NY are trying to outdo Calif. laws like some twisted version of keeping up with the Jonses.

Glad you got it working! Hey what's this I hear about you having problems with your TPS reports man? The other seven bosses will make sure you get another copy of that memo, m k? yah. If the TPS has problems and it wants to increase fuel to increase rpm, it is going to have to also increase the airflow in order to keep the A/F ratio correct. And the only way it can do that is through the IACV.

Those rpms sound about right for crusing at that speed in top gear. How you say about the rpm's fluctuating sounds like maybe the torque converter is not locking up, but in that case you should be getting a flashing AT light telling you it has detected a problem with the lockup duty solenoid.

And if there are any problems with it passing the tailpipe sniff test there are a lot of tricks out there, such as running a number of bottles of isopropyl drygas in say 1/8 tank of gasoline since the alcohol burns cleaner, make sure vehicle is fully warmed up before arriving at the shop and leave it running while waiting for the test, etc.

Hi nipper. Pre 96 I think you don't need the high enhanced emissions test. But since you're near NYC they often have stricter requirements than the rest of the state. Let me look up the link that explains it based on your city/county, I know I've seen it before. If you scroll down about half way on this link it talks about it: http://www.nydmv.state.ny.us/broch/c-50.htm

Right, if I had to guess, I would guess the cali spec converters, if different, have more catalyst to reduce emissions, and the ECU might have tighter tolerances for triggering emissions codes (and also if the o2 sensors are different).

Parts coming from Buffalo hm that is interesting. That's one thing I didn't like about rockauto. If you order any number of parts it ends up shipping from like 5 different locations which really bumps the shipping cost up.

Last I knew cardone does remanufacture the axles for Subaru (in the EndWrench magazine they often have parts ads and they list who remanufactures the part for Subaru). But of course it does not necessarily mean that the rebuilt axle cardone sells to autozone is reman'd to the same spec as the ones they do for Subaru. Was the axle put on the front, or on the rear? I haven't heard people complaining about axles on the rear, it's usually the ones on the front that cause the vibration issues.

Also if the full lock wasn't used very often the end of the rack might have had a little rust or grime on it and damaged the seal (if it seems to be leaking out the boot). The PS pump internal pressure relief is around 800-1000psi iirc.

Not sure, I mean if the throttle isn't completely closed of course that would cause fast idle. But if it is closed and there are no vacuum leaks then the only source of air for the engine when idling is through the idle air control valve, which the ECU will modulate to keep the desired idle rpm. I'm not aware of any reasons the ECU would open the IACV enough to make it idle around 3500 rpm. But if the throttle is not completely closed or there are vacuum leaks, that would do it.

Yes HD is going to beat Ace prices most of the time. For one HD is a huge conglomerate with corporate owned stores whereas most Ace stores are privately owned. I have noticed most things are cheaper at Lowes and HD than at Ace, but the Ace is closer to my house so it's more convenient for weekend runs.

Are you sure all vacuum lines are reconnected and there are no vacuum leaks anywhere? I know you said you hooked up the gauge but it doesn't take too much vacuum leak to really start letting the idle climb. Plus to idle that high it has to be getting enough air to run at that rpm so the vacuum reading almost doesn't matter. There may be other issues in addition considering the flashing ATF light (need to read out the codes), etc.

haha that sounds like NY. In NY I'm not sure that could even be registered for on-road use since it has no emissions equipment. But NY is funny like that. We in NY are trying to outdo Calif. from what I can tell. I'll bet that BOV sounds really cool when she lets loose.

Ah then I think you want 1stsubaruparts.com or a site like that. I believe they are on the left coast.

Sounds good. Say do you have any video of her running, that would be neat to see. That's odd they would have not connected the plumbing for the turbo coolant. Maybe they figured it would not be in boost very much so it wouldn't need to be connected. Surely wouldn't want the turbo to melt down during spirited runs. Or maybe they figure it gets a fair amount of airflow over it where it's at.

I think the genuine thermostat starts to crack open around 172F or 176F or something like that is pretty much fully open above 182F or so if I remember correctly. I don't think they have any temperature options in the genuine thermostat, unless maybe the STi's or spec. C's might have a different temperature. As long as you have a sufficient bypass flow through the heater core, etc., having the thermostat should be ok, since the coolant can just then run through the bypass when the thermostat is closed. You could also put in the Subaru block heater, those are only like $25, and then plug that in a couple hours before leaving home to help it get up to temp faster as well and warm the engine oil, etc. So what kind of transmission does she have in there?