Rooster2

I printed out your advise, and will give it to my mechanic. Thanks again.

You guys are great. Thanks for all the help. Special Thanks to John C for posting the info about the 2.2 '95 motor from Brickyard Wrecking Yard. That is not far from where I live. Funny thing.........I called there yesterday to inquire about a 2.2 motor, and was told they did not have any. Less then 24 hours later they have one. Go figure!! So, I bought the motor for $375, and consider that a good deal. Comes with a 60 day warranty. I have bought from this yard in the past, and they have a good reputation of being honest with me in previous dealings. I was told the car had been hit in the side, and they considered repairing it, and putting it back on the road. I feel good that the car was running just prior to the yard buying the car from an insurance sale. Thanks again guys.

My mechanic called me to say that my 2.5 is definitely cooked in my 98 OBW. It has a warped block, and knocking sound when held at 2K rpm. I am still mad at my wife for driving the car till the engine died. I am going the 2.2 replacement route, if I can find a decent one. My mechanic says he has a source for 2.2 motors that are imported from Japan by some company in Louisiana. He couldn't remember the name of the company off the top of his head. JDM maybe it is in Denver, but not sure. (Anyone know of the outfit in Louisiana?) He is going to check on cost but roughly $850 to $1,100 for a motor delivered, that has a one year guarantee. I am checking on line and locally for a 2.2, but if anyone could point me in the right direction to a good 2.2, at a good price, I would appreciate it. Meanwhile, I have a lot of reading to do on what 2.2 to install. I remember the '95 model 2.2 is a direct plug and play fit. Still........lots to read up on the subject.

Update.......my mechanic called me to say that my 2.5 is definitely cooked. It has a warped block, and knocking sound when held at 2K rpm. I am going the 2.2 replacement route, if I can find a decent one. My mechanic says he has a source for 2.2 motors that are imported from Japan by some company in Louisiana. He couldn't or wouldn't tell me the name of the company. He is going to check on cost but roughly $850 to !,100 for a motor that has a one year guarantee. I am checking on line and locally for a 2.2, but if anyone could point me in the right direction on a good 2.2, at a good price, I would appreciate it.

Draining the ATF, only removes about half the ATF from the transmission. The other half remains in the torque converter. You really need to drain and fill three times (with short drives between refills) to do the job really right. Black burnt ATF is a sign that the trany fluid got really hot, and prolly repeatedly so during its life time. You have to drive a car really really hard to do that, or have the car severely over loaded on a long drive to over heat the ATF. Does your Subie have a trailer hitch on it? If so, maybe the previous owner pulled a heavy trailer, which caused the ATF to over heat. Subie automatic transmissions are built really strong. They do not have a history of problems. I suspect the previous owner is the culprit in this story.

Glad to hear that Trans-X works for you. I thought that the delayed tranny problem affected only 99 & 00 models with AT, before Subaru fixed the problem. Guess your 01 joins the list. Maybe you have an early 01 that has the lazy seal too.

If a 16 lb has worked well for years, then I would recommend staying with that size. I don't see any advantage to adding 3 more pounds of pressure to your cooling system, only creates a possible negative effect. The added pressure could cause a weak hose or weak spot in your radiator to be more likely to spring a leak.

Same thought........take your car and your complaint back to the store that sold you the tires. Show the manager the problem. There is a good chance that your road wheel has been damaged from the lug nut not being properly tightened. When loose, it allows the loose road wheel to start reaming out the lug nut holes on your wheel. What results is extra large lug nut holes that won't properly mount the wheel to the car. Suggest you hold the store liable for the damage, and have them replace the road wheel, and any lug studs that are damaged. This is assuredly not the first time the store has seen this problem, so don't let them tell you this has never happened before. They have to know better.

I don't think you are going to gain much in running small tires for better gas mileage. A very tiny little bit, at most 1 mpg, if that. You won't save much if you are thinking there is that much savings in less rolling resistance. If it were me, I would buy the same size of tire that came with the car, and then pump them up to 2 to 5 extra pounds of air to slightly reduce their normal rolling resistance, if reduced rolling resistance is your goal.

Just talked to my mechanic. He is going to pull the motor, and pull the head from the driver's side first. Both I and the mechanic think this is usually the side that blows the head gasket first. He plans to check the block and head for warpage, and call me with his results. He has a source for a 2.2 motor, if I need to go that route.

Why the interest in going to the smallest tire?

Yes, I am familiar with Pic a Part in Indy. There is also a lot called Pull A Part in Indy. Great prices at both. As a result, both lots are crawling with people wrenching parts off cars. Hard to get something in tact. Thanks for the reminder to check with both lots.

Good thought, I will do that tomorrow. Thanks!

Update........I added about a quart and half of oil, and filled up the radiator and over flow. I started the motor, it seems to run okay, but has a slight "sing sing" noise from driver's side of the engine. Is that what cams sound like when starved for oil? It doesn't sound like a rod knock, but a noise just the same. After driving around the block a couple of times, the motor still has plenty of power. I checked the rad over flow tank looking for bubbles. Yep, the bubbles are there, so it is a bad HG for sure. There also seems to be extra water vapor (steam), and water drops coming out the end of the tail pipe, when motor is idling. I just don't know how long the motor was driven hot, to know what internal damage there may be. Maybe heads are warped? Any way of determining that? Would a compression test tell me anything? Car has 146K miles on the odo. Any advise appreciated.

My wife trashed the engine in our 98 OBW last night. She said earlier in the day that the car had stalled at a traffic light, but easily restarted. With a new tank of gas after a heavy rain, I thought maybe some water in the new gas, so I added a bottle of "dry gas" to the gas tank. Later she went out with her girlfriend to a meeting, then called me a 10 PM, saying she had an awful time keeping the motor running. She said it stalled 6 times, before reaching her friend's home. Friend's husband checked the car to find the water temp pegged to HOT. I started the motor this morning to find it slightly knocking with little oil on the dip stick, and low on water. I had checked the oil 3 weeks ago, to know that the oil level was fine. I haven't gotten any further into looking at the motor, but highly suspect it blew a head gasket, and my wife drove on to cook the engine. I continually reminded her over the years to keep an eye on the water temp gauge, but I don't think she EVER listened to me. Stupid is, as stupid does. Pretty sure the motor is shot, so it will prolly come down to either replacing the engine, or letting it go to a wrecking yard. The car body is in fair to good shape for a 98. It is nicely appointed as it is the "Limited" model. Everything worked well on the car. Decisions, decisions, what will I do. I will prolly scour wrecking yards tomorrow for an engine.

Since fiddling with the switch was enough to get it to work, I am thinking the switch is the only source of your problem. I would suggest that you spray some electrical contact cleaner around the switch lever. Prolly a wand attached to the spray can would help direct the spray.I don't know if you can get enough spray into the workings of the switch to clean the electrical contacts with this approach, but it is worth a try.

There was a picture of a OBW that had been converted to a pick up, but that has been a while back, so don't know if the picture is still around. Guess you could buy a Baja Subaru. Not much hauling capacity, but I guess you could pull out the back seat to make more hauling space. That space would also be out of the weather, so that could be a plus.

Well back in the day when I had an '84 VW Quatum with the Audi 5 cylinder motor, I wanted to create a sporty muffler sound. I went the old hot rod approach by installing a glass pack muffler. Yea, it sounded "sporty," for about the first 10 minutes of driving with the new muffler, but then the droning noise at highway speed got to be really annoying. Around town the "sporty sound" that I was now beginning to call noise, interfered with enjoying the radio or music from CDs. In particular, I don't recommend adding one of those large "fart can" mufflers at the end of the exhaust system. IMO, they don't make sporty noise, just nasty racket. Changing the muffler will not give you any added horse power or added fuel millage, as you might think. Others here on this forum have said the same thing.

If still concerned about using rubber hose, there is special rubber hose that is made to replace gas line. I have used this before to replace a rusted metal gas line. It is made to with stand pressure of high fuel pressure used in fuel injection, so I am positive it would work with lower pressure AT application.

I had the same problem years back on a 91 Leggie with the 2.2. The bolt kept backing out, but would still thread in. Finally, a mechanic applied blue locktite to the threads, and tightened it up real good. That fixed the problem. The bolt never came loose again. I would try the locktite before trying any other fix.

bad coil??

Another tip, if the tiny nozzle hole gets plugged up with crud, use a pin or needle to ream out the nozzle to get rid of the dirt. Works every time.

How is the U-joint lubed? Is there a zurk fitting on the U-joint?

Since you say the other power windows continue to work, then it is not a bad fuse causing your problem. I am inclined to think the power window switch in the driver's door is the problem. I have a 99 OBW, that has the same door panel as your car. I just went out to my driveway to look at my driver's door. I don't know if the electric window door switch unit can be gently pried out of the driver's door panel or not. Try prying a little, but if not, then remove the door panel. Then work with the window switch unit. Unplug the connector to the switch for the driver's window. Then plug that wire connector into a switch that operates a different window that you know works good. Hopefully, the different switch will now work to raise your window. If you determine that the driver's window switch is bad, you may be able to clean the electrical contacts in the switch to make it work again. If not, find a replacement at a wrecking yard. Let us know how you come out on this project. Good Luck!