Rooster2

The shrouds are only for fire protection should you ever park in high dry weeds. With me, this never happens. So, IMO, I have removed shrouds and never replaced them when having exhaust work done. Your caulking may work for a while, but I would recommend going to a mom and pop type muffler shop, the kind that does torch pipe cutting, new pipe bending, and welding on of new pipe. For this type of repair, they would charge around $50, maybe less, to simply replace the piece of bad pipe, or weld to cover the leak. Don't waste your time trying to get this type of work done at the dealer, or any of the chain muffler shops. They all want to throw on expensive parts to fix the problem as in your $400 quote. You don't need to be replacing cats or mufflers.

I have a 98 OBW that developed a fluid leak at a broken boot. I have known for several years that both rubber boots were torn, but drove on anyway until a leak developed. I fixed mine by buying a used rack from a wrecking yard, and had a friend install it. Cost was around $100 for the rack. Installation around $200. I went to www.cars.com to see listings from several yards before I bought one. `Be sure to ask for one that has rubber boots with no rubber tears.

blowing bubbles is a sure sign of head gasket problems in a 98 model. Keep an eye on your temp gauge for possible over heating. Don't continue driving on, if, when there is over heating. Doubt you will find coolant in the tranny fluid. Draining ATF only drains about half the ATF in the system, the other half stays in the torque converter. It takes three drain and fills with short drives between drains to effectively remove old ATF. There is a drain bolt on bottom of the tranny to drain the ATF. Looks just like a drain plug for oil.

Don't think it is a clogged cat. I have experienced that first hand, and all it does is prevent exhaust air flow, so rpm won't go much above 2500 rpm. Car would idle and accelerate fine to 2500 rpm, then like hitting a wall, would not let the car go faster. Plenty of people here know a lot more then me, but from reading, I would suspect a MAF problem. Other members here will bail you out. Just wait for their responses.

bad battery, .................or dirty battery cables?? Clean the battery cables, then re-attach to battery, see if it starts better.

Likes Ez to work on to replace belts, alternator, starter when needed. EZ to find parts in a wrecking yard that will fit my 2 Subies. Dislikes Before Subies, I drove German cars. All were Audis or VWs. The Germans do a much better job of engineering suspension systems that are a firm, yet have a comfortable ride, and have excellent handling, and steering feel. My Subies don't measure up to even VW standards in suspension and handling. That is what I miss most in driving my Subies. However, Subies are much better in reliability.

I swapped in leather heated seats into my 99 OBW from a 97 OBW. It was easy to swap the seats in. I took as much of the wiring from the wrecking yard 97 to wire my seats, as looked appropriate. I tapped into the cig lighter wiring for power, but could never figure out how to wire them in The leather seat is so much more comfortable then the cloth seat.

my same thoughts.

Thanks...........Rooster2

Thanks for all the info on bushing replacement. My thoughts are.........how can you tell which bushing(s) need replaced?? Would it be obvious by seeing that they are cracked, or broken into pieces?? I went on line to check out Dorman 49447 kit, but it doesn't say that the kit will repair Subaru wipers, just several other brands of cars. Are repair bushings generic?? The picture of the HELP kit # 49447 does look generic in application. My concern is mistakenly buying bushings that won't fit my car, don't want to do that. Thanks for all the help and advise.

Thanks for the info and link. That is exactly the write-up I was needing to read. Now to get er fixed.

My Outback has a windshield wiper problem. The wipers slap the bottom of the window glass, and the left wiper slaps the A pillar. The noise is really annoying.The wipers are traveling too far across the glass. I think the problem stems from the wipers being frozen to the windshield in last winter's snow storm. I didn't realize they were frozen, so they didn't move with power applied. With wipers stopped, I can move the wiper arms up and down the windshield.about an inch and a half by hand before feeling resistance. I don't think that much free play should be happening. Do I need to replace the entire wiper transmission mechanism, or are there bushings, or something to replace, to take up the movement slack to fix the problem?? Thanks!

Swap out the thermostat and coolant may fix the problem. Don't buy a cheapie thermostat, they don't work well in Subies.

Suspect the hatches will interchange. I have a 98 and 99 OB wagons, so am aware that the tops were raised higher then on a 95. I feel confident the extra height is extra body sheet metal. I seriously doubt that Subaru would have made two different hatch sizes. Doubtful if anyone on this forum has ever done this swap before to tell you it definitely will work or not. You may want to resort to a tape measure to see if size wise they are the same. It is not that difficult to remove the inside panel on the hatch to check out the wiring. The wiring connectors are prolly inside there. I agree with you, in not wanting to cut any wiring. IMO, that never turns out well in the long run, just creates a spot for wiring to go bad in the future. Be aware that removing a hatch is a two man job. It's size and weight is difficult for one man to handle.

Good driving man...........it is possible that you could have bent some suspension parts. It could be money well spent to get a 4 wheel alignment, just to know for sure that your alignment is good

Buy the 98, keep yours, drive both, don't swap anything out.

Disconnecting the battery for a half hour is also a good way to clear a CEL.

Changing fluid won't damage your tranny, only make it operate better. Why wait to change at 1,000 miles?? Change the fluid when ever you can find the time to do so.

Don't recommend dropping the pan on your 98 with A/T. There is nothing to be gained by doing so, and could cause problems. I did that only once, to find myself grinding off remnants of the old gasket. Then, the new gasket wanted to leak a little. Good advise above. Drain and fill 3 times to get old fluid out, as only about half can be drained out. The remainder stays in the torque converter. Drive a few miles between drain and fills to mix old and new tranny fluid before draining again.

I wouldn't be surprised if you have a small valve cover leak, which allows a tiny amount of engine oil to drip down on the exhaust system. The oil burns off causing the hot smell. My 99 OBW has done this for years. I just put up with it.

Do you have receipts that the timing belt and tensioners wrere replaced, or just previous owner's, or dealers comments that this work was done?? If engine was just rebuilt, do you have any guarantee on the motor?? Why was the motor rebuilt?? A knocking noise and flashing oil light are not good signs, as a mechanic you certainly know that. I would change the oil and filter to see if that helps. New thermostat could be one of those short spring cheapies that don't work well. Those never work well.

About all you can really do to clean the fabric is to use auto upholstery cleaner available at auto parts stores, or big box stores that have an auto section. The cleaners are usually a foam cleaner, or trigger spray bottle. I use a roll of good paper towels to wipe up the spray or foam. You just don't want to get them too wet, or it will just soak into the seat foam to cause mildew. Cleaning may take several applications, and a lot of elbow grease, but results are generally good. Since you have the seats out of the car, just position the seats in direct sunlight to dry.

I like reading success stories like yours. As stated earlier, you don't have enough tire wear on the Michelins to make any significant size difference to affect all wheel drive. Drive with confidence on your tires. You are good to go.

I replace the crank position sensor on my 95 motor a few years back. It threw a code once or twice, got the code read, bought a new sensor, and was able to drive the car home from the parts shop. I was lucky, as once motor turned off at home, car would not start again. Replacing the crank sensor was not easy. It was seized, and would not easily come out. I had to remove it in pieces in the middle of winter, and it was cold as hell outside, not something I want to do again. I coated the new sensor with anti-seize goop to prevent gauling for a lot easier removal, if there is a next time.

Yea, a good chance Trans-X will correct the problem. Yea, the Trans-X fix usually lasts about a year, then the lazy shifting into drive starts returning. Re-servicing with fresh ATF and Trans-X continues to fix the problem year after year. It is best to drain and fill the tranny 3 times, then add Trans-X on the last fill. Each drain and fill tames one gallon of ATF. Last fill, then topped off with Trans-X fills, 15 oz size plastic bottle, fills the tranny to the proper level. $1750 is prolly a decent price, but you may be able to negotiate an offer of $1,500 if you voice your concerns about the tranny problem., and that the tranny may need to be replaced. The current owner knows about the problem, so prolly willing to lower the price .