Rooster2

First suggestion I have, is to tighten all road wheel lug nuts. Just tonight, I had to tighten mine on 99 OBW, because the front wheels were just a tad loose. Tightening the lugs eliminated the slight shimmy I was getting at about 60 mph. If that doesn't help, then have all four road wheels balanced. When road wheels are getting balanced, it is a good time to check for worn suspension problems like ball joints and tie rod ends. I hope you get it straightened out. Keep us posted on your progress.

This info very helpful, that you can upgrade OBW with OEM tire size 205X70X15 to the little larger size of 215X70X15 with no rubbing or clearance issues. THANKS, GREAT TO KNOW! USMB IS THE GREATEST!

Nice write up, and good pics. Glad to hear you scored 4 new wheels for $100. That was a very good deal!

Just wondering what my plan of attack should be. I guess if the plugs don't fix it, then try new plug wires and if that doesn't fix it, then suspect the coil pack perhaps? Your above statement is exactly what I would do in that order. It does sound like an electrical ignition problem. You might wait until dark, start the motor, then spray water or Windex on the wires to see if you can induce an electrical arc (spark) from a bad plug wire shorting out. This is an ez and cheap way to find a bad plug wire.

Nice write up, great action pics. Congrats on doing a great engineering job integrating parts from everywhere to make a super Rally-X Wagon!!

I hope you got lucky. MMO has been around since the dawn of the auto industry. Still a great product!

Determining value on car with 250K vs 350K is strictly subjective. There is no formula to determine how much less value the additional miles detracts from a selling price. If you are wanting to sell it yourself, check the used auto prices on line from Edmunds, NADA, etc. That will give you a ball park selling price figure. Put a price sign on the window, and or, list on Craig's list, and see what a potential customer will want to buy it at. After some people look at the car, you will learn if your asking price is competitive, or if you need to lower your price because of super high millage, or because of any defects with the car.

Are you sure the rear segment of what you are calling your cat converter is really a cat converter? On my 98 OBW, the cat looking devise immediately behind the cat converter is really just a resonator. The resonator does not have an 02 sensor connected to it. The resonator rusted through on my car, so I had a muffler cut/chop shop torch off the resonator, and replaced the resonator unit with a straight pipe. Cost less than $60. Works great.......sounds as quiet as stock.

To have reached 350K miles, is a testimony to Subaru motors, and I bet you changed the oil frequently during the years. Keeping fresh oil in the motor is an inexpensive way to reach that extra high millage. Congrats on the 350K milestone!

The problem seems to be electrical in nature. My first thought when reading your post, would be to replace the plug wires, but you just did that recently. I too use the Bosch plug wires with no issues. It is the cheapie wires from the auto parts stores that cause problems. Suggest you pull the codes generated by the CEL. There may be more then just one for the 02 sensor. Since your problem seems to be water related, suggest you wait until dark, raise your hood, and with the motor running, spray water or Windex on your plug wires, and on the spark module. If you see and hear electrical arcing, followed by poor performance, then you prolly have found the source of the problem. Use a flashlight to shine on the arcing area to identify the exact location.

Good thought about lubing them with PB Blaster or equiv. It also looked like the end of the threaded aiming screw is slotted, as if a straight edge screwdriver is meant to turn the screw. However, it is a tight area, where the battery would need to be removed to access the screw slot. Any other thoughts out there??

I need to adjust the headlight aim on my 98 OBW. The light beam points too low onto the roadway. I opened the hood and saw the aiming screws, but couldn't figure out what to do with them. Each aiming screw was threaded with a section of nylon sleeve screwed onto the end. Twisting the nylon sleeve did nothing, but rotate the sleeve. The threaded screw did nothing. I did a "search" looking for past info written on this subject, but could find nothing. Any advise on how to do the adjustment would be greatly appreciated.

I suspect the low temps of 38-50 degrees keeps the sealant soft. You might want to warm up the area with a hair dryer, if a heated garage is not available. I am thinking that will harden the sealant.

The ATF dip stick takes only a pint of ATF to fill from the "low" on the stick to "high" on the stick, so very easy to over fill. Best to drain to get to proper fill level.

I am thinking the car is prolly still good after rear end crash, and with high miles. Asking price is way too high. Like others have said, don't go by kelly Blue Book figures, go with Edmunds or NADA listings, they are real world figures. Just to give you a comparison, I bought a 99 OBW ( 7 years old ) with 148K miles in good condition for $4,600 in 2006, here in Indy. You are looking at a similar model that is 9 years old with 177K miles for almost $6,000.

Great commercial..........I have seen this several times, and it still strikes an emotional chord with me. I guess it reflects back when my daughter first started driving. I would love this commercial even if were advertising another make of car. Two thumbs for the ad agency that put this gem together.

Have you tried here?....................http://www.car-part.com/

Thanks Unibrook for the sound bite. It is how I remember a bad bearing sound. Sounds like an rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Mine sounded differently, more like a scraping sound, but would stop making noise, if the brake was applied. So.......... I just pulled the pass front road wheel where I heard the noise coming from. I saw where the dust/dirt rotor backing plate was bent close to the rotor. I bent it back, and it has stopped the noise from that side of the car. It still makes a little of the same noise from driver's front wheel. I will pull that road wheel to see if the same problem persists.

When I used the term a piece of "straight pipe," I was referring to only the exhaust portion of replacing the resonator unit ONLY. The exhaust shop is thinking you are using the term "straight pipe" as a length of pipe to replace the cat converter, which is unlawful. I hope this clears up the discussion on straight pipe. Much has been written on this forum about silencing rattling muffler shrouds. I determine where mine are rattling, then drive a good size bolt as a wedge between the pipe and the shroud. This has quieted down the buzzy rattly noise on my Outback. If you are ambitious, then use a dremmel tool to cut off the shroud(s). That will stop the noise. The shroud system is only designed to prevent a grass fire should you park in high dry weeds with a hot exhaust system. It is not unlawful to remove the shrouds. I never park in high dry weeds, so I am not worried that my car is missing much of its shrouds.

I posted about 10 days ago that I had to replace the half shaft on my 99 OBW. The tip of the road wheel end of the half shaft had broken into two pieces in the threaded area where the large nut is threaded on. I know this broken half shaft is hard on the wheel bearing, but the shop thought the bearing is okay. Now 10 days later with few miles driven, I hear a pulsating scraping noise on slow left turns only from the right front, where the half shaft was replaced. I don't associate this noise with a bad wheel bearing, but maybe I am wrong. It could be a brake problem I am guessing. I plan on taking the car back to the shop tomorrow to diagnose and correct the problem. This same shop is quoting 4 hours of labor only, totaling $360 to replace the wheel bearing if that is the problem. This seems like excessive labor. I checked my old receipts, and had the same wheel bearing replaced in 2007 at a different shop that included bearing, 2 seals, and labor for right at $200. Yea, costs go up with inflation, but Is the shop quoting 4 hours over charging me?

I have both a 98 and 99 OBW's that developed shroud rattles, and later an exhaust leak. In both cases the leak developed with a rust hole at the end of the resonator, which is roughly under the back seat foot wells. I went to a ma and pa muffler shop here in Indy, (Ralph's Muffler) that does the cutting torch, pipe bending, and welding to repair muffler systems. On both cars, I had the resonators replaced with just plain straight pipe. Surprisingly, the exhaust sound is as quiet as stock. Cost out the door was less then $60. I have serious doubts that there is anything wrong with your cat converter. That is something that usually does not break on a Subie. Stay away from the chain muffler stores like Midas, Car X, etc. They are expensive to have work done there. Look in your telephone yellow pages for a ma and pa type family owned muffler shop to get good work done on the cheap.

Are you alone on this trip, or have someone following you in a separate car on this trip? I get the feeling you are doing this alone. In addition to what 86 Subaru wrote, I would check all four tires for potential problems, and be sure all tires are inflated properly. I would also pull one of the front wheels to see how much brake pad is left, if there is not a recent receipt for the pad having been recently replaced. I would also pry up the caps on the battery, and add distilled water if needed. I would check to see that head and tail lights, brake lights, and turn signals bulbs are all working. It is asking a lot of a 16 year car with nearly 200K on the odo (even a Subie) to make a 4,000 mile trip. There are so many things that can go wrong, causing a break down. Just be sure to keep your cell charged up, and I would advise taking a CB radio to learn about road/driving conditions, plus it is handy to have if you do break down. Good luck on your trip!

The in tank fuel pump motor is cooled by the gasoline that surrounds it. It is possible that running out of gas over heated the pump motor damaging it. Another thought is that completely draining the fuel tank pumped some residual crud/dirt from inside the tank. These particles got trapped in the fuel filter to the point of clogging the filter. Maybe a new filter will fix the problem.

Wonder if Subaru has taken a look at this new boxer engine design. Pretty cool! Be sure to watch the little video on the engine! New Engine ! Saving the World Two Strokes at a Time This is no wimp engine. It's a two cylinder with four pistons delivering 300+ Horse Power. It's extremely small and very efficient and is presently in use in test applications. The configuration below is equivalent to a extremely ballsy four cylinder engine. When doubled, it's an extremely ballsy 600+ H.P. engine It’s called OPOC (Opposed Piston Opposed Cylinder), and it’s a turbocharged two-stroke, two-cylinder, with four pistons, two in each cylinder, that will run on gasoline, diesel or ethanol. The two pistons, inside a single cylinder, pump toward and away from each other, thus allowing a cycle to be completed twice as quickly as a conventional engine while balancing it's own loads. The heavy lifting for this unconventional concept was performed Prof. Peter Hofbauer. During his 20 years at VW, Hofbauer headed up, among other things, development of VW’s first diesel engine and the VR6. The OPOC has been in development for several years, and the company claims it’s 30 percent lighter, one quarter the size and achieves 50 percent better fuel economy than a conventional turbo diesel engine. They’re predicting 100 MPG in a conventional car. For a good demo, See: http://www.engineeringtv.com/video/Opposed-Piston-Opposed-Cylinder Please visit http://www.hydra-dyne.com/for more information.

His 2.5 has nearly 200K miles on the odo. With that high millage, I would be inclined to replace with a good running lower millage 2.2 motor.