Rooster2

Glad to read that your car is quiet again. I had a similar problem on both my 98 and 99 OB Wagons. In my case, both pipes broke on both cars at the resonator. I went to my friendly neighborhood cut/bend/weld family owned muffler shop. What my shop welded in, was pretty much what you had installed. They bent a piece of pipe to fit, where as your is a flex pipe. The fix works great. Noise level without the resonator is no Lauder, then with the resonator. My guess is that the resonator pipe is a weak point in the exhaust system. Your fix should last a good long time.

Possibly bad gas?? A tank of gas that has some water in it, will cause these symptoms. Add some "dry gas," to the gas tank, maybe that will help. Can't hurt!

I am still thinking a bad head gasket. With Subaru, it will idle all day with a bad head gasket, and not over heat. Take it out on the highway, or run up hills, and the added stress allows exhaust gas to bleed into the cooling system forming a large hot bubble of air. It is this air bubble that won't allow coolant to circulate through the cooling system, so you get poor heat from the heater, and coolant over heating with engine over heating. If you replaced the thermostat with a high quality unit, then unfortunately, it is prolly your head gasket causing trouble.

Enjoy the KYBs. A great strut at a reasonable price. KYBs are what I always install.

Non OEM head gaskets are known to be trouble makers that will seal poorly to cause over heating, starting on a sporadic basis. A cheapie thermostat can cause problems too.

The bolt that attaches the sensor to the block should only be gently snugged tight. Tightening too much will cause the plastic sensor head to crack and break the knock sensor unit. I hope you did not over tighten.

The finished bondo work looks good. How do you plan to match up paint?

What brand and model strut did you install? Was the spring bad as well?

Owner lives in Detroit. Think they put salt on the roads there?

It is not practical to throw $1100 toward a nearly 20 year old car. Even though #1 cylinder is down on compression, you can still drive it that way for prolly a long time. Leakage with a bad valve will not kill the motor. It just won't be very peppy, and gas millage will be a little less. You could throw some additives at it like MMO, in the gas and oil to see if that helps a little. It is possible that a piece of carbon has built up on a valve, so now it doesn't close fully. MMO in the gas could possibly clean off the carbon, though it would take many tankfulls of gas with MMO to do so, but it is worth a try.

prolly little low on 134a refrigerant.

Great to read a Subie story, that your car has served you well for so many miles. If it were me, I would not be inclined to put much money into this car. I would replace inexpensive parts like spark plugs and brake pads. I don't think I would replace the timing belt, unless you would do the work yourself. That job is rather costly, as you know. Your 95 is a non interference motor, so if the timing belt breaks, the valves in the motor would not be damaged. All you would need to do is replace the broken belt. I don't think I would drive this car too far from home, in case the belt, or anything else breaks to leave you stranded.

A light truck tire will definitely be a good choice for driving on forest service roads. The thicker tire side walls and overall heavy duty construction should provide fewer off road flats. However, expect your OBS to ride like a Jeep Wrangler with the LT tires. You will feel every bump in the road.

I carry either slime, or fix a flat cans with me at all times in my Subie. I also carry a cig outlet powered tire inflater. If I have a tire going down, I find it easier to inflate, then changing to the spare. Some new cars are being sold without a spare, the cheapest model of the Chevy Cruz is one of the cars. I always tell the guys at the tire store there is fix a flat in the tire, so the tire changing guy is prepared for a possible mess.

CEL codes must be generic amongst car manufacturers. If you do a google search, and type in "PO115" there are numerous websites that discuss the meaning of that code. Try this, and you will see what I mean.

The switch is the same as on my car. I don't know if there is a lens or piece of clear plastic in there or not. I will try to remember to look closely at mine tomorrow. It is a handy idea.......the little green light is wired into the headlight circuit. Driving at night, the light shows the driver which window switch is the one for the driver's door window.

Are you sure the 75 series tire will not rub anything? Yes, the thought of using a slightly narrower tire puts a little more psi foot print on the pavement. I am thinking the foot print is just a little smaller then the 205 X 70 series that you have on the car right now, but I wonder if it will make any real difference? I guess the conversation begs the question, of what are you wanting to accomplish with a tire that is different from OEM?

I recently replaced my 205/70/15 tires on my 99 OBW. I went to a larger tire sized 215X70X15. They fit fine, with no rub. Prolly a little wider, and prolly about the same height as the 205X75X15 tires you are considering. It is worth a thought.

For what it is worth, in replacing a shock or strut, I put a bottle jack on the very bottom of the shock/strut, then jack it up to the proper height, so I can easily bolt the top in place. This technique has worked great for me in the past. I use pieces of 2X4 or whatever, placed under the bottle jack to get the desired height before jacking.

any Subie from '90 up to 99 with Gen 1 DOHC motor, with the exception of the 99 Subaru Forester. That model, and later Subies came with a Gen 2 SOHC motor, and won't accept your motor. The computer control system is different. I would recommend transplanting that motor into a 96 to 99 Leggie, or Outback Wagon. There are a number of cars around with bad 2.5 engines from blown head gaskets, that can be bought on the cheap. Your 2.2 will bolt in perfectly, and match up to existing wire loom. There is a ton of info on this forum about making this engine switch. Go to the "Search" mode on this forum to read all about it.

The Trans-X is a good fix for 99 and 00 Subies with the auto trans not wanting to shift into D from R. On those cars, shift into D, and nothing happens for a long while. Trans-X fixes the delay to almost instantaneously shift into D from R. Trans-X prolly was not a good additive to address your slippage problem. I would recommend Lucas Oil tranny additive that reduces slippage when shifting. I have heard that product works good. Still the bottom line is that your tranny has 300K miles on it, and the pump is likely just worn out. It is prolly time to replace the tranny with a used one from a wrecking yard, or consider replacing your Subie car with a newer one. She is 21 years old, and I bet has served you well.

The P/S belt has stretched a bit, and now is loose enough to slip. When it slips, it makes the squeal sound. Tighten the existing belt, or if the belt looks old cracked and worn out, then replace with a new belt. It is an ez do it your self job, if you are mechanically inclined. Job takes about 10-15 minutes to complete.

I was unaware that Subies have two cats?? I always thought the 02 sensor is in the one and only front cat..........what follows after the cat is a resonator or maybe two resonators with no 02 sensors??

Looking at the photo, it doesn't appear that you have much to work with in trying to repair the break. The break appears to be right at the cat, so you can't sleeve it with a soup can from the outside, or the inside with smaller diameter pipe. There is no straight flat length of pipe at the cat to clamp onto. Only if you have a welder, could you rejoin the muffler system. If not, all you can do is drive slowly, or get car flat bed towed, (as the motor is going to be very loud) to a muffler shop to get the cat replaced. I would recommend a muffler shop that does the cut/bend/weld approach to exhaust work. Otherwise, going to a regular muffler shop, they will tell you that you need a new complete exhaust system. That complete system would be from the engine, running clear back to the rear bumper, and that is expensive. I am guessing the rest of the exhaust system that you now have is still good, so don't let a shop tell you that the only way to fix the problem is a completely new exhaust system. I would do the cut/bend/weld approach, and only replace what is damaged. Also, be aware if you start the motor as is, it will most likely now have a check engine light (CEL) come on. No exhaust is going through the cat, so the O2 sensor won't be able to function properly to control the rich/lean mixture as determined by the car's computer system. So, this will trip a CEL. Once the exhaust system is repaired, the CEL light will go out. Good luck to you, and keep us posted on your repair progress.

I have seen gasoline expand with higher temperature, if it was cool when filling, then warmed up later, as the day's temperature rose. I don't think altitude would make any difference.