porcupine73

Whatever the problem is, I would definitely get it checked out and fixed asap. I would not drive it if it gets too near overheating. Overheating can damage the water pump seal, and on that engine, replacing the water pump is not going to be a pretty job. When you saw coolant pouring into the overflow, was it blowing bubbles into the overflow at all? If the thermostat was never replaced it might benefit from a new genuine Subaru thermostat at this point.

I'm getting some rust holes now in the '96 rear doors near the bottom of the doors. The holes are probably 2 inches diameter or so now. I keep spraying rust treatments and stuff up inside there and it does seem to have slowed/stopped it from getting worse but now I am still left with the holes. I remember years ago in high school my friend bought aluminum roof flashing the width of the bottom part of his rocker panels, and then cut it to length and riveted over the rusty area, then spray painted it to match his car. From a distance the repair looked great. Up close I mean it looked a little weird, what with all those rivets there and such, but it sure looked better than just leaving it rusty, and it seemed a lot quicker/easier to do than trying to bondo it. Does anyone have experience/suggestions on this kind of 'cover up'? Thank you.

I used a two part rust encapsulator from Eastwood for some rusty areas. The stuff seems to work very well and it sets up pretty fast and hard. It says it can be painted over but I never got around to doing that step.

I don't think the 2.5L was available in 1991 so it's probably a 2.2L (or possibly a 1.8L or was that only in the Imprezas, well cars101.com would tell). My biggest tip is to secure the o-ring to the pump before installation with a dab of something such as Edelbrock gasginch. I've done a few oil pumps and the biggest issue I had was the o-ring falling off the oil pump during installation. The first time, I wouldn't have even noticed except that I pulled the pump back slightly just to peek in there and the o-ring had slipped out and was stuck to the rtv. Also on that year, the screws on the rear case cover over the rotors on the pump liked to back out. So make sure they're tight and maybe dab some loctite green or something around them too.

Also usually the the shield is grounded at only one end to prevent any ground loops or stray current flow through the shield.

You could try http://www.subarudealersolutions.com/tools/ but I think some things they sell only to dealers.

If by some chance it sheared the key when the timing belt broke that might explain why as you say the inner part is slipping even though you have a chain wrench on the pulley. In that case the starter bump method or jamming something in the flywheel should hold the crank so you can get the crank bolt lose. I always find jamming something in the flywheel to be the easiest method on the auto trans. Because you also need some way to hold the crank while you tighten the bolt during reinstallation too, and you don't want that bolt backing out on you later.

Now if by chance your tires don't match circumference for example and/or you're feeling binding in the turns, that is another matter.

I believe it most likely has HLA's. You might have one or more that are losing prime, thus causing the ticking, which will then kind of go away after 30 minutes of engine running as they rebuild some prime. I have a '96 2.2L brighton (but Legacy) and it has HLA's.

Generally it shouldn't be an issue since they do use other antiwear additives such as boron etc. There is some specific thing on older engines that I forget now that people preferred zddp over anything else for, was it roller rockers or something like that?

There's no difference in bleeding the ABS vs non ABS - provided you do not let any air into the lines near the ABS at any point, or let the master go dry whilst bleeding. If you do that, then you really should put the ABS into sequence control during bleeding. This will cycle the pressure hold and release valves and cycle the pump to make sure no air remains in the unit. Also doing that whilst bleeding ABS units can help make sure that old fluid doesn't remain trapped in the unit, though I don't usually do it for just normal bleeding.

Sounds like just the normal friction material wear and possibly some gear wear. What I do find interesting is that when I first changed the ATF on my '00obw when I got it at around 96k miles the drain plug had quite a bit of that material on it. Now I just did a drain and top off this weekend on it at 150k miles and there was hardly anything at all on the drain plug. But at 96k miles I had also installed an amsoil dual mount bypass filter at the outlet to the trans cooler. So I am thinking these filters (which filter down to around 1 micron) have been catching all this material rather than letting it circulate back into the trans. The combination of these two filters holds an extra gallon of ATF.

I had this happen on a '96 Legacy. I just chopped the lines under the rear seat with bolt cutters and abandoned the old lines in place. I ran new lines where it was convenient/safe/protected to run them. I did not remove the tank to do this job. A good double flare tool of course is needed. I got some flack for using it, but I just ran cunifer brake line. That stuff is much easier in my book to work with than steel line. I was able to just fish it right over the top of the tank without much problem. If you need brake fittings the Subaru uses M10x1.0 I think it was. I had to replace the entire section of line because the lines were reallly badly rotted in the rear. Just trying to replace a small section would have resulted in needing to the job again soon.

The early 90's 2.2L's have some differences from the late 90's 2.2L's. One being that the late 90's ones are interference design and the early ones were not. And the earlier ones had HLA's and the later have solid lifters. I have a good article from endwrench saved somewhere that had a detailed year by year description of changes in the engines. Yes now that the pesky API specs for phosphorous have dropped so much to prevent the supposed risk of spoiling the cats, the modern oils don't have so much zddp in them. If it's zinc you want, one product people used to like was Street Legal Oil Boost. A great product that used to be available was Specialty Formulations SX-UP but it doesn't look like that will ever be made again. For my mid 90's soobs I have been running a heavy duty diesel engine oil. These tend to have more zddp and antiwear additives in them than the standard passenger car motor oils.

I like to wire brush around the valve covers as much as I can reach anyway and blow it down good with compressed air before removing the valve covers. Otherwise a lot of grit drops onto the valvetrain, at least for me. You can get the kit with the spark plug hole seals, valve cover gaskets, and if it it needs it, the bolt sealing washers. If enough oil builds up in the spark plug tubes it can also cause misfires. You don't need to drain the oil. You might get a little bit out when removing the valve covers, but draining the oil will make no difference there.

I had one break on my too on '00obw. The genuine ones do seem kind of flimsy. I ended up going with the Whitelines but I didn't really look into other options at the time.

Are you talking when it is just sitting idling, or while you are driviing? My '96 and '00 if left to sit say stopped at a long light with the brake lights on and a/c on max the voltage slowly drops and will get as low as around 11.8V. While driving or even slightly above idle it is not an issue to keep it up around 13.3V or so.

If you want to cut it, would probably have to remove the line, i.e. undo the banjo fitting, and then cut it with a tubing cutter. If you can fit a dremel up in there that might work but of course will make metal filings. Or possibly make a rough cut with bolt cutters or something in the line, then remove the banjo to just get the banjo and a few inches of the pipe with it and make a cleaner cut. Could also possibly flare the end of the line a bit if desired to make a tighter fit for hose. When I did this on my '94 I think I 3/8" id hose, it was a little loose in some spots but I used several hose clamps on it. The banjo likely has sealing washers on it that generally should be replaced if it is removed but many people just reuse them.

Generally a resistor around 560 kilo-ohms in place of the sensor will do the trick. Not sure about that earlier model, but on later models the ECU is looking for a certain impedance range in the circuit.

It sounds like what you're talking about is the banjo bolt where the line attaches to the transmission. That's a hollow bolt that allows the fluid to flow through it. I had some rotted trans cooler lines on my '94 and I just replaced the entire length with hose. If I were doing it, if at least a few inches of the line coming off the trans were good, I'd probably just cut the line off and put a hose onto it.

Sometimes if you have any little pinhole exhaust leaks it can cause issues too. Just curious, on that Bosch sensor you bought, did the connector match up with the vehicle, or did you have to splice the wires to the original connector? The '00obw has an interesting connector, with like 6 wires on a 7 pin plug iirc.

Yes I have noticed this too. I always try to count the turns as I thread the old tie rod end off the inner tie rod, and then put thread the new inner tie rod and outer tie rod ends the same amount, but it's still off when I put it back together. I just use the strings method to do the toe. It doesn't take any longer than what it would take sitting in the waiting room at a shop. The biggest problem I always had was getting the new boot onto the rack, even after greasing it. It just didn't want to go on. Then nipper told me to try spraying the boot with a little silicone spray. That was the secret. The thing popped right onto the rack perfectly with just a little tug then.

That sounds weird that the water pump would hardly turn, even if you did have air trapped in there. Are you sure the timing belt tensioner was in good condition? Did you use a new timing belt? Or if you reused the old timing belt was it soaked iwth oil?

When I do them I usually start soaking it with Kroil in advance, then get the cotter pin out the way (usually my cotter pins are so rusted I can just use the impact wrench on the castle nut and it just rips the cotter pin apart no problem). Then I heat the bearing housing with a torch some and hit it with some more Kroil. Then the Kroil smokes and really soaks in there. Then I just keep hitting it medium hard with a hammer until it pops loose.

Right on, we need the code number. That said my '96 2.2L is also doing what you describe, it won't start sometimes and the MIL illiuminates. My code is always something to do with crank position sensor circuit and it will start if tap on that sensor a bit.