Rooster2

Harbor Freight has been a good source of tools to work on my Subie. Quality is really focused towards the do it yourself projects...good enough to get projects done, but not for daily use if you were a mechanic working in a garage. Their torque wrenches don't have the best reputation for being accurate, according to what I have read and heard. The pic of the trany jack looks like it works well for a cheap $80. Absolutely everything in the store is made in China. Seems like they should rename the store "China Harbor Freight," to more accurately describe their biz.

It is an easy job. The blower motor is accessible behind the glove box. No need to remove any of the dash. Remove the glove box for easy access to the blower assembly, as the blower is located directly behind the glove box. This provides lots of room to work. It is easy to figure out which screws to remove to take out the blower unit. Years back, I thought I had a bad blower motor, only to find out upon removal that the blower motor unit was bound up with bits of old tree leaves and crud. I cleaned out the crud, and the blower motor worked as good as new. Maybe you will get as lucky as I was.

I think you are on the right track in that both cooling fans should be operating together. If you have a multimeter or test lamp, see if you have power at the wiring connector going to the cooling fan that is not operating. If you have power, but the fan fails to operate, then if it were me, I would get a replacement fan from a wrecking yard. The good news is that your problem seems to be a bad fan, and not a head gasket problem.

I would use only one application of Barr's stop leak. If that doesn't stop the over heating, then it has to be a bad head gasket. On your Subie motor, what is happening in all probability is that exhaust gas is leaking into the coolant. This causes the over heating. The bubbles you are seeing is exhaust gas bubbles. This is a very common problem with the model Subaru that you own. Resist the temptation to drive it when it over heats. That will lead to destroying the motor. Only fix is to replace the head gaskets. Use genuine Subaru head gaskets only! Others from after market manufacturers just won't last long.

X2 on MC seals going bad. I would replace the Master Cylinder, if it were me.

I would have laughed loudly in the guy's face at a $900 quote, then asked him to quit kidding around, and give me an honest quote!

If it is simply a duplicate car key that you want, then go to any hardware store, or even the auto repair center at a Wal Mart. They will cut you a new keys(s) on the spot. Lot easier and less costly to do this, then going to the dealer. You don't say, but if your only key was lost, then call a locksmith shop that makes house calls to have the guy cut you a new key at your house, or where the car is located. You will prolly need to show an ID to the locksmith to show that you are not stealing the car. Good Luck!

If compression on that cylinder is low, it might make more sense financially, to swap in a used 2.2 motor. They can be had for not much money. That is what I did when I owned my 91 Leggie.

Isn't there a warm or hot start sensor that feeds an imput into the ECU? If so, I would suspect that. A fuel pump that performs fine when cold should still be good.

If you figure out that it is a bad ball joint, I would get that fixed pronto. If it breaks, you are stranded at the least, or in an accident at worst.

All tires are compromises in terms of over all performance. I found it helpful to go to the website of Discount Tire Direct. There you can enter the size that fits your car. All tires listed will have a customer response link to the tire they purchased with their thoughts on their tire's performance, and if they recommend that tire or not. Most helpful!

I am thinking it makes a lot of sense to go to a wrecking yard and buying all the internal window channeling, guides, winder, and weather stripping, and replacing these parts with what you got. Otherwise, trying to correct what parts are bent, and throwing the window alignment out of wack will be difficult.

@Rooster2 I searched for it, but couldn't find it. Seems like most people asking about oil or gas smell, but nothing about interior. Go to "Search," this forum. Type in "Little off topic, I suppose," is the thread that I was thinking of. Advise is in response to guy asking how to get rid of tobacco smoke odor from a car. I know that is not your problem, however, lots of good advise on products to get rid of unwanted odors.

+1 on haze being on outside of the lens. I used toothpaste and a wet paper towel to clean my lenses. It worked pretty good.

Seafoam does a lot of good, but be aware that it has a reputation of being hard on engine seals. I don't think I would leave it in the crankcase for an extended period of time.

Just recently someone asked a similar question. There were a number of good responses. A forum "search" should yield this info for you.

Yes, that was my experience. I replaced my knock sensor, and the CEL reset itself, and has not come back on.

I am thinking that wiring connectors were incorrectly to the wrong power source. Like you said, some other wires were incorrectly connected to cause your CEL response. If it hasn't been too long since repairs were made, take your car back to who did the work, and let them sort out what should properly connect to what. Years back, I had the same problem, and had a devil of a time trying to get things connected properly. Finally, I went to a wrecking yard, found a same year Subaru, and marked down on paper what color wires in what male connector plugged into what female connector. That helped a lot to finally get all wiring to work properly.

As far as that high pitch whistle noise, have you looked really hard, and even felt around, to see if you have a vacuum hose disconnected, or an old vacuum hose with a split in it? That could cause both the whistle noise, and poor driveability. Check all vac lines with the engine running and not running. It is worth a shot to see if this is causing the trouble.

You may be right that the coil split is front and rear, not left and right, as I implied. I guessed at the coil pack, since two plugs are misfiring. I still think it is worth replacing the coil pack. Do you know someone that drives a Subie, that you could borrow their coil pack to try on your car? It would be a cheap test. Suggest you wait until after dark, then open your hood, run the motor, and see if you can see any sparking (shorting) from the plug wires.

Since your misfire is both 1 & 3, I would suspect a bad coil pack. A used one from a wrecking yard, won't cost much. It is not difficult to install. I would install the replacement coil in the parking lot of the wrecking yard. Can you read what brand of plug wires they put on your car? Sometimes the brand name is printed on the wire insulation. If it is a brand that you have never heard of before, then I wouldn't be happy either. I am with you on using OEM wires, however I have found Bosch wires to work well.

Congrats on a job well done! Figure your labor at $75/hour X 4 hours is a minimum cost savings of $300, but prolly more.

Love how Subarus are easy to work on!

+1 on above. I couldn't have said it better!

The knock sensor is electronic, so it's input to the ECU to retard or advance engine timing is super quick within milliseconds. That is way faster then the seconds or minutes that you are thinking about. It has always been my understanding that ping is caused by carbon engine deposits on the face of the piston or on the head. Short of pulling the heads to look for the deposits, you may want to try a gas additive. A trip to a car parts store should yield you a product to add to your gas tank. I would ask the counter people for advise on which product to buy. It might help.