Rooster2

Sorry to say, but if you have to work that hard at bleeding and burping the cooling system, then the cooling system is prolly not the problem. You don't want to hear it, but I am afraid you have a bad head gasket.

Glad to hear that you escaped this adventure with very minimal damage. How thoughtful for Subie to have the safety link to stop major damage from reverse polarity. From your experience, I will be extra careful when installing a new battery in any car to make sure I connect the cables correctly.

I took the time to look in the Haynes Manual for you. In the car wiring section, it shows two fuse links in the wiring harness. From the drawings, I couldn't tell where the fuse links were located under the hood. Suggest you find a Haynes or other Subie manual for the wiring diagram. Hopefully, by now you have had a chance to look further into the wiring to see if additional wiring is burned up. You may get lucky and just have to replace some wiring, and maybe the ecu module. Since you didn't turn the ingnition key during cable reversing, your ignition system may not be damaged. Let us know how you are coming along on this, maybe we can help you some more.

ditto, best to use a Subaru OEM thermostat. After market brands are really cheaply made for a Subie, and don't work well.

changing the egr valve may help gas milage too

An oil catch can is something new to me. What is it? How does it work? Magnetic oil plugs have been around for years. I have always thought that the oil filter was meant to trap any metal particles. Changing the oil and filter on a regular basis should be all that is needed.

At Parts America dot com, Subie OB generic Bosch 02 for $62, exact Bosch OEM replacement for $98 with one day delivery. Yea, guess that is closer to a $40 price differential, but less than the "well over $100" someone quoted you. I have had good performance from Bosch O2 sensors, spark plugs, and plug wires in my two Subies. How are you splicing the wires to the generic to get long term succcess? I would like to know and learn how.

I had a 92 Lggie that the pump went bad, made some grinding noises, and the steering was real stiff because of no power boost, so replaced it with one from a wrecking yard. Replacement worked perfectly. Suggest replacing pump first before considering replacing the rack, as I don't think that Subie racks wear out that often.

Man, I feel for you. Such an ez misstake to make. I don't know how many time I have nearly jumped started a car only to realize that I was in the process of reversing the cables. since the alternator was smoking, you can figure that it will need to be replaced. Suggest check source of smoke at the fuse box. Something there got hot enough to smoke, prolly burnt wire insulation. I think the fuse block unbolts from it's mount, so unbolt it, and look for melted wires underneath. There are prolly other fuseable links elsewhere, that need to be looked at for possible replacement. Maybe others here can tell you where to look these fuseable links. I hope you did not try to start the car with the backwards wiring. If not, then you ignition system may be okay.

In my opinion it is still far better to buy an O2 sensor that is designed specifically for your model Subie. My experience in using a generic sensor, is that no matter how hard I tried to attach the OEM connector to a generic sensor, it has usually failed in about a year or so. This is experience in applying a generic to a number of makes of cars. I finally came to the conclusion that spending the extra $20 or so is money well spent, in not having to do the job a second or third time.

I wouldn't worry about your oil leak starting a fire, even if it drips on the exhaust system. Motor oil is just not volatile, and won't burn without an open flame. It will just smoke some, but won't flame up. I don't see you mention any driveability problems, so if it is just some drip and smoke, I would just keep driving the car as is. Just don't let the motor run low on motor oil. Check the oil level often, and carry a couple cans (well oil used to be sold in cans) of oil, and fill up as needed. I drove an old VW a good ten years with minor oil leaks. I just kept the oil level up, and the motor just kept on going.

Sorry "Bruz Brothers" I posted the same thing that you did. Guess that will teach me to read new posts before posting something new. Well anyway the article was an attention getter if true. There are plenty of Outbacks here in Indy, and I never see one pulled over. Does anyone here get pulled over a lot, or get significant parking tickets/

Today, according to US News and World Report, the Outback is one of the top 10 most cop ticketed cars..........The following is an exerpt from the magazine: Subaru Outback Subarus have a reputation of being yuppie grocery getters, but the Outback manages to prove that stereotype wrong by being one of the top ten most ticketed cars. Apparently, the Outback is the car of choice for people who need to get to Whole Foods in a hurry, and maybe park illegally once they're there.

8% more people realized that Subaru makes some really nice vehicles.

Sava is unknown in the U.S. I went to the Sava website to see what they offer. It is a rather complete line of tires. Company is in the Ukraine. They don't direct sell off their website to the United States.

I agree that you are smart in walking away from a car with some issues. IMO, $1,300 is too high, even if the car had no issues. The car is 18 year old, if in decent shape with no issues, cost should be about $800.

That is a slick idea. I will have to remember this!

No fresh (cheap) ideas on how to fix this. Since you added the thickener, (maybe something like STP or the like?) and now the warning light now comes only after the motor has warmed up and the thick oil is now flowing more freely, only under scores my feeling that your connecting rod bearings are bad. Reving up the engine is increasing oil pressure to lube the worn bearing tolerances. Letting engine idle back to 800 rpm or so, reduces the oil pressure, and you are back to poor lubrication, and the warning light back on. There are a lot of people out there smarter than me, but in my opinion, I am thinking that you need to replace the rod bearings, or it may be easier and cheaper to drop in another engine. With bad bearings in your motor, it is very possible that a connecting rod to break (throw a rod). If that happens the broken rod usually punches a hole in the side of the engine block, and that is the absolute death of that engine. I had that happen years back when driving an old Chevy. When that happens, you know it is absolutely time to call a tow truck.

Well, I have the half Amsoil syn ATF, and half regular ATF fluid in my trany. The synthetic is completely compatible with regualar ATF. I really don't know the advantages of syn ATF, but for the added price, I thought it may lube better then the regular stuff. At the time, I was having the delayed forward engagement problem, so adding the Amsoil seemed like a good thing to do to my car. However, I am convinced it is the Trans-X that fixed my trany. On your 96, your Auto trany does not have an external filter. Subaru started doing that first on the 99 model. Yes, there is a filter type fine mesh screen that can be replaced when you drop the trany pan. However, I don't ever recommend changing the screen. Twice I have dropped the pan on two different cars to replace the screen, only to find it almost squeaky clean in both cases. Changing it was a waste of time. Not only that, cleaning off the old hard pan gasket to install a new pan gasket was hard, very hard work, and on one car the pan gasket continued to leak ATF after the gasket change. My opinion is to never ever drop the pan. Draining and replacing old fluid is the only maintenance to the auto trany over the life of the car. If the trany ever went bad, I would still never drop the trany pan. There is nothing there that is servicable to give access to repair the trany. Buying a used trany is the best course of action.

Since this has been an on again, off again warning light problem, with the oil pump replaced, I would have to think that miles and miles of this has worn out the connecting rod bearings, thus the tapping noise. A mechanic taught me to use heavier weight oil when a car has over 100K on the odo. Don't know how cold it is where you live, but if you live in the South where the weather is not that cold, I would recommend changing the oil to 20W -50W weight to see if that stops the rod knock sound and warning light. If it does, then that is a pretty good sign of worn rod bearings. For the cost of an oil change, it is worth a try.

It would be helpful to know what year, and which Subie model you own. Just for giggles, I opened up my 98 OBW owners manual. In the fuse panel located under the hood, headlight left side is position number 32, headlight right side is position number 34.

I think all the Porsche engines have gone to water cooling for some years now. For Porsche to sell their high buck sports cars, a poor heater would be totally unacceptable.

There was a previous write up last year on how to disassemble the dash to gain access to change the bulbs. Pictures were included to make the instructions very clear. Do a search on this forum to find this information. It did not look like a difficult project.

I have read that the H4 has better gas milage then the H6, but by how much, I don't know. Prolly written up in the archives here if you search around. The H6 is more difficult to work on than the H4. The engine bay is filled up just that much more. Not as easy to get your hands in and around things.

Yea working on a Subie engine is nice. Everything except the spark plugs is a breeze to change. I considered buying a Dodge minivan at the same time that an 08 Subie OBW were available for sale. I opened the hood on the Dodge, and saw that the motor lay out was an impossible mess. Nothing was user friendly to work on under the hood in that minivan. That convinced me to pass on buying the van.