Rooster2

glad to hear that you fixed the problem. $50 is a cheap price these days for any repair.

may need to replace the coil pack, and or, spark plug wires. You prolly have a crack or split in one or both, so that water/moisture causes an electrical short. Suggest replacing your plug wires first, if they are your originals. Welcome to this forum, loads of friendly people here with good advise.

I have had good luck with this outfit..........AutoPartsWarehouse.com. They don't use part numbers so much. They use part name, and have good pictures of the part next to the name. Do a google search for foreign car parts. You will see a number of on line parts houses.

The 96 thru 99 were the worst years for HG problems with the 2.5 phase one motors, that could leave you stranded on the side of the road. 2000 thru 2003 2.5 phase two motors still have some HG issues, but not as severe, and won't leave you stranded on the side of the road.

I have a 98 Subie OBW, the front end is the same as your 97. So, I know what you have. Someone, about 6 months or so ago, talked about an inexpensive way to replace the fog lights. He bought the low beam sealed beam headlights that were used in cars back in the mid 60's through mid 70's. The system where cars had four round sealed beams for their head lighting system. This type bulb is easily found at all auto parts stores. The guy said he removed existing fog light, leaving the backing shell, then glued the sealed beam to the remaining backing shell. Bulbs fit in the shell perfectly. He drilled a hole in the middle of the backing plate, then used existing wiring to wire the bulbs. Finished job was said to look great, perform well in the fog, and was very inexpensive. sI think he drilled a hole in the middle of the backing plate to attach wiring. If you hit the search function on this forum, should be able to find the original post. I seem to remember the guy was happy with the result. The new bulb fit nicely, and worked well in the fog, and the bulb was inexpensive, according to my memory.

Like the looks, like the Subie turbo motor. Just wonder if their is enough of a market for sportie coupes these days for this Toyota/Subaru product to be successful. Wonder what the price point could be?

Mechanic saying potential front oil seal leak causing air to get sucked into the lubrication system makes a lot of sense. I kept reading your posts, and poor lubrication seemed like a likely cause to me causing all that ticking. I am thinking that the oil pump has to be removed to replace the seal. Hope someone for sure can tell you a "yea or nae" on pump removal.

Both locations will work. Using OEM type that mount in the bracket under the headlights would "look" more integrated into the over all design of the car, and maybe protected better by the bumper. If it were me, I would see if I could get some good after market units that would bolt in where the OEMs would go, prolly cost less then OEMs, and may work better, or at least as well as OEMs.

Looks like you did well for $400. Suspect it is not a GT, because it has the standard steel wheels with wheel covers. Hope the passenger side is free of dents. Sounds like you had fun buying over the internet. Cute how they run the engine, then put a mic near by, so you can hear the motor. When do you take possession? Send us more pics and update on condition when you can. We always like to hear $400 success stories.

It will have the 2.5 gen 2 motor for sure for both A/T and manual transmissions.

Sea Foam may clean the passages.

Keep away from midas etc. Dont use a tube bending shop as those pipes are cheap metal. Agree with you on staying away from Midas and the other chain muffler shops. IMO they are expensive, and will work hard at selling you more than what you really need to fix an exhaust problem. I also agree that tube bending shops use cheaper metal that won't last as long as an OEM muffler system. However in my humble opinion, I think the pipe benders are a better value. In my experience, their "cheap metal" is good for about four to five years of service before rusting out. That is not bad considering I was charged $64 for work on an eleven year old car. That works out to an annualized cost of about $16 per year. OEM muffler parts are expensive, and would have a much higher annualized cost, while lasting much longer. I figure my 98 doesn't have many more years of service left in her. So, it's the pipe benders for me.

If you don't have a CEL on, and both ends of the cat look like good metal, then I wouldn't replace the cat. Is your current system loud from an exhaust leak? Then find out exactly where the leak is. If so, My story...........this is what I did with my wife's 98 OBW recently. I took it to a family owned muffler chain. It is a shop where they torch off muffler systems or parts of muffler systems and replace by welding on new pipe. Turned out that her exhaust pipe just right after of the middle resonator had broken apart. Only the shroud was holding the pipes in alignment. The shop suggested, so I had them cut out the resonator and weld in a straight pipe. They bent and cut their pipe to make it fit. Systems works great. I don't think the straight pipe makes the car any louder. Cost was $64 out the door. My system now has a portion of the shroud covering missing, but I don't care. We never park in high weeds to ever start a grass fire.

agree with others, if the plugs and wires are old, replace them. CEL code of missfire on cyl #2 is not a sign of a bad knock sensor. I had a bad knock sensor some time back. Car ran okay, but was down on power and fuel economy, as I think the computer retards the spark, when the knock sensor is bad. That is not the same thing as missfire on cyl #2

Saw dust inside the diff, yea, I haven't heard or thought of that trick in a long long time. Shady used car lots used to do that.

same thought........think your alternator is failing. Go to an auto parts store, ask them to check out your charging system, both battery and alternator. No cost for this at an auto parts store.

If the gash is strictly in the rubber, and has not cut any tire cord, or cause the sidewall to bulge, I would not consider replacing the tire. There may not be structural damage to the tire. I would apply some clear silicon sealant to the tire wound, and keep an eye on it to see if any bulging appears. You may not have to spend $600 after all.

There is quite a bit of petroleum (oil) that makes up the construction of a tire. Higher crude oil price, causes higher price for gas at the pump, same goes for tire cost.

Plenty of power mirror switches available here in US wrecking yards. I would be happy to send a couple to you if you are interested. Cost would be what I would buy them at, plus postage. Happy to help!

More likely the front 02 sensor is bad. I would replace that first.

I've heard Subarus are notoriously leaky cars. Is that true? At what point should I be worried about an oil leak? Thanks again for your help… I am on my third high millage Subie, and all leaked a little oil. Not bad, just little drip spots that I could see on my asphalt driveway. I wouldn't worry about the little drips; catastrophic leaks are rare with Subies, so don't worry about a little leak here and there.

If you detect an engine "miss," or know that the plug wires are old, a new set of wires would certainly help. Yes, I read that you checked the pcv valve, but if old, I would replace it. It doesn't cost much.

Maybe a little better handling. Figure on your Forester standing just a little taller off the ground on the bigger tires, so ground clearance may go up about an inch. Gas millage should not change much at all. Spedo will read about 2 miles per hour slow. One size larger tires should fit just fine. Acceleration will be a tiny bit slower.

To get rid of the antifreeze smell under the hood, I would use some dish washing liquid, the kind you use for hand washing dishes. Have the motor warm, park somewhere close to a garden hose, then squirt the dish washing liquid on the motor where antifreeze may still linger. Wash down the motor with a garden hose, then leave the hood up, and if it is a sunny day, the heat from the motor and sunshine will dry off the motor in an hour or so. I even use the dishwashing liquid to clean off oil and grime from the engine bay. Leaves a nice clean smell from under the hood after the cleaning.

You can get pretty straight answers by going to a tire store, and talking with the counter guys about sizing. They deal with sizing day and day out, so they know what they are talking about.