Rooster2

By smoking, do you mean "out the tail pipe," or oil leakage that burns off after dripping on the exhaust system? Either way, I disagree that it is caused by Walmart oil. Smoking out the tail pipe is a sign of a high millage car with worn piston rings, and oil leakage is a sign of leaking seals. IMO, Walmart oil will cause neither. I use Walmart oil: 20w X 50w in the summer, 10w X 30w in the winter with no issues.

So there is also an external filter or is that some sort of a mod? Starting with 1999 models with A/T, Subaru transmissions came from the factory with screw on filters for the A/T. Be sure to get a replacement filter that is designed for A/T application. It cost about $35. It looks the same as the oil filter that fits a Subie motor, but it is not the same. Don't be tempted to use an oil filter as a replacement. The internal filtering media is not the same. Merry Christmas, Larry (Rooster2)

Where would place those hose clamps? It doesn't seem like there is any room on the "female" pipes. I just fixed the same loose shroud problem on my 98 OBW a few weeks back. It is a low tech problem, so gave it a low tech solution. I put my car up on drive up ramps, set the e-brake, crawled under front, and proceeded to pound in with a hammer a couple of bolts as wedges to fill the space on the loose shroud. The bolts are simply a friction fit, with the hammering in snugging the bolts up good and tight. So far, no more shrill vibrating shroud noise. I have used the hose clamp fix before on the same problem, and that does work well too. You just need to have the right size hose clamp available at the time of repair. At the time of the bolt repair, I didn't have hose clamps available.

Sorry to hear about your problem. I learned my lesson on dropping the AT pan, when I had a 91 Leggie. I found it a waste of time. There is only a fine wire mesh screen, like you see on some drip style coffee makers. The screen was clean, with no metal shavings, and no gunk. So, there was no reason to change the mesh screen. On reassemble of pan, I had a minor leak. Others have said the same thing, that it is not worth the effort to drop the pan to change the internal filter. IMO, you would have been better off to just change the external filter only, when changing the AT fluid.

I put in Walmart brand tranny fluid two years ago in both of my OB wagons, and have experienced no problems. If Walmart fluid would have created a problem, it would have shown up by now.

As written in earlier reply, sounds like a typical Subaru head gasket issue. Your year Subaru is infamous for developing this problem. There is a ton of information on this forum about this problem, and how to fix it. What ever you do, don't drive while motor is over heating. Keep a sharp eye on your temp gauge, when, (not if) it over heats again. Shut the motor off pronto at first sign of over heating. Otherwise, you will ruin the motor for sure. As a "band aid" temp fix, loosen the vent bolt that is opposite the radiator cap on the other end of the radiator. This will help "vent" out some of the hot exhaust gas that is leaking out of the combustion chamber through the bad head gasket into the cooling system. I bet when your car was over heating, the heater was working poorly. Sorry to say, but cost is about $1,500 to repair. I know that is not what you want to hear.

Prolly a good idea to change the oil and oil filter, because it is contaminated with raw gas. The diluted oil is a bad lubricant for the engine. It doesn't happen often, but I have heard of gas fumes in the oil pan exploding, because of unburned gas droplets draining down into the oil pan, resulting from a misfiring plug.

So could a bad exhaust valve cause it not to fire, then in turn cause the plug to get wet from gas and not fire? I don't think so. Pull plug wire off existing spark plug. Attach another spark plug to end of plug wire, then ground it out, and see if that plug fires with good spark. I am thinking your problem is spark, not fuel, or exhaust valve. Still, a good idea to run a compression test on that cylinder to learn if valves are okay.

Decal on hatch lid says 5 speed. This will be a good car on how to learn to drive a stick shift.

It is a rather easy job to drop the blower motor from inside the car. Like Nipper said, it is likely full of tree leaves and dirt. Clean and reassemble, and you should be good for another 100K miles.

Agree with your though, I wouldn't think that a bad wheel bearing would be intermittent. Doubt that brake rotors would be intermittent. In my experience, I have only noticed warped brake rotor shutter when applying the brakes. Take your foot off the brake, the shutter disappears. Any possibility that the half shaft that you have not replaced is the source of your problem? I once had an Audi that developed a bad half shaft. It would drive fine for a while, but after a lengthy drive, it would produce a bad shutter that would make the car undriveable. However, let it sit over night, then drive it, and it would drive perfectly.

Have the repair shops looked at the front suspension to see if the ball joints and tie rod ends are good? Also a thought, that a wheel bearing is bad. Suggest you limit this car to slow city driving only, until this problem is solved. It doesn't sound safe to drive this car, especially not at freeway speed.

Agree with others, your poor steering is a result of fluid loss. I would think first of the pump. It is easy to replace. I bought one from a wrecking yard for $35, that worked perfectly. Doubt that the rack is leaking, and the source of your problem.

Ditto..........same thought get new front axles.

With the motor warmed up, and your heater controls put on high, put your hands around the heater hoses near the firewall Do both hoses feel warm? If not, the small radiator (can't think of it's proper name) inside the firewall is partially plugged up, and not allowing proper flow of the coolant, so heat output is poor. You may have an air bubble in your cooling system after changing antifreeze. If so, you need to "burp" out the bubble to give proper coolant flow through the cooling system. This too, could cause poor heating.

Nice video, but would have liked it with more exhaust sound, and less noisy background music. Watching it run on a track would have been great too!

How did you fix it??

If it were me, i would drain and fill a couple of times, with some driving between changes, and add a can of Lucas product for trannies.

I suspect that your boat battery may not be good, because after charging, you say the door locks are weak to activate. When installed, how bright is your interior dome light or the head lights? Their brightness is a good visual indicator of how charged your battery is. I suggest you drop in a new battery, and I bet your problem will be solved. A second thought is to jump start the car, then have the battery tested at a car parts store like AutoZone, Advance, etc. They will test your charging system at no cost.

Well hopefully the window is in the "up" position! My guess is that it is the individual switch that controls that window. Prolly, the electrical contacts are dirty. Suggest you pull the door panel, then use a multimeter to verify that you have 12 v going to the motor when switch is activated. Also, you could move door driver door window wiring to another window switch. If another switch works okay, then it is definitely the driver's door window switch that is giving your trouble. Before tackling this job, I have gone to a wrecking yard, practiced removing the door panel, and bought a driver's door window switch in case I needed one. They don't cost much. Then, simply swapped out switches if needed. If it is cold where you live, going to a wrecking yard may not be too practical.

Up the millage to around 100k miles, maybe more before another plug change. Few years back I bought a 99 OBW with 148k miles on the odo, pretty sure they were the originals. Motor still ran pretty good. Plugs were super tight and hard to break loose. Plug wires seemed shrink wrapped to the tops of the plugs, because they had been on the car so long. I had to destroy the wires to remove from the plugs.

Change to synthetic ATF. Maybe that will solve your problem, but I don't know if it has a better flow rate when very cold.

I thought the same thing when I changed my plugs.......why not a hole in the frame rail to facilitate plug changing. I guess the engineers who design Subies, are not into user friendly maintenance......or maybe ?? has this been adopted to the latest Subies on the road??

Pics of same car have been posted here before. It doesn't look any better the second time around. Butt ugly front clip, wonder what was the logic in doing that?

Possibly, but you can find out for sure, if you go to any on line auto parts stores, compare their part numbers for alternator that fit a 97 and 02. If the same part number, then they will interchange.