Rooster2

Also, be aware that "louder" is not always good. Having a loud muffler compete with the sound system in your car can be annoying. IMO, after a while, you wonder why you wanted to listen to your muffler, instead of your favorite tunes.

Hey, way to go. It is always fun having a new to you car. Yea...........show us some pixs.

If it is all about getting it fixed for cheap..........go to a family owned muffler shop, not a franchise muffler shop, where they cut, bend, weld to fabricate a muffler system in place. Often, the shop will just cut out and replace a piece of bad pipe, or a bad muffler, and reuse the rest of the muffler system that is still in good shape. Over the years, I have saved a ton of money at Ralph's Muffler shop, here in Indy. Shops like this can be found in most major cities.

The cat is an intergal part of the performance package. Attached to the cat is an oxygen sensor that feeds a constant signal to the engine management computer for best performance, and low exhaust emissions. Damage the cat and or the 02 sensor, and your performance will be slower, and gas millage will drop some 2 to 3 mpg.

So were you able to learn why the car has a rebuilt title?? Glad to hear the first look at this car went well.

Agreed, rebuilt title could be for a number of reasons........from a wreck, flood, or what ever. Ask owner why it has a rebuilt title..............I bet you already plan on doing that. If still interested, get a carfax report on this car. The report prolly will describe why the car has a rebuilt title. Good luck!

As stated, a car with a rebuilt title is no big deal. I have two cars with rebuilt titles. Both were involved in accidents, with damage not that bad. The insurance company just wanted to total both cars out. It made sense for me to take the insurance money, and keep the car. A small body shop did great work on repairs. I have kept photos of the before and after pictures to show anyone the cars, if and when I should sell them. A rebuilt title car will have lower value, when time to sell or buy. Ask to see pixs on the 95 to see damage, if available, and offer a lower figure, if you want to buy it.

You have a nice looking white 99 OBW. I have a 98 with a transplanted 95, 2.2 motor. It runs sweet,. The 2.2 motor is nearly "bullet proof,"........one of Subarus best. The automatics in the 99, have a tendency to develop "delayed forward gear engagement." This can be fixed using Trans-X additive to the ATF. I hope you don't have this problem, but will talk you through the solution if need be.

After reading the previous posts, you can see that there is no cheap and easy way to get a lot more power for a N/A Subie engine. If it were me, I would trade up to a WRX that is designed and built to have more power.

Check out Subarus for sale on Craig's List "by owner," not by dealer. That is where you can find some good deals. Even check other Craig's List cities that are not too far from where you live. I agree with others, the 2.2 engine is the one to own, either in an Impreza or Legacy. If you have some mechanical skills, and knowledge of how to repair cars, then you can definitely save your self some money on car up keep. Lots of good advise on repairs on this forum to help you. Keep us posted on your Subie search..............best of luck.

I could never understand the value of that switch. Does anyone ever use that switch??

Yep, that sounds bad enough. Others know a lot more then me. Yes, I have read that you can install a 2.2 from earlier years..........prolly need the intake manifold from your old motor, and may need to change the exhaust manifold. Possibly some other issues to interface OBD1 to OBD2.

2 years ago, I bought a 95, 2.2 motor for $400, with about 140K miles. I transplanted the 2.2 into my Outback with good results. I got a good motor with no issues. Came with a 30 day guarantee.

I agree, do an alignment first. The tech will quickly find any "play" in the suspension. It could also be a tire problem.Ask the shop to inspect the tires as well.

When you visually inspected, did you jack up each side of the front end to get the road wheel off the ground?? Then, did you move the road wheel up and down, left to right to find any looseness?? Also, with weight off the suspension, did you check ball joints and tie rods for looseness??

Saw where you wrote that the grills were broken after hitting tree limbs, so best throwing them away. With thicker lenses you describe, you really don't need the covers anyway. From your pixs, it looks like your headlight lenses are rather fogged up due to age. This cuts back the amount of light in front of your car. Various kits are available to clean off the frosting. I have used tooth paste on a wet paper towel to clean off the frosting. It helps, but is not as good as using a kit designed specifically to clean the lenses.

Nice work..........is there any protective cover over the lens to lessen potential damage??

Suspect it could be bad u-joint on drive shaft going to rear wheels. My 99 OBW has started to make same muted sounds maybe like what you describe. My car noise sounds like ching ching ching. I can hear it even when backing slowly in reverse. A bad knock sensor will cause you to loose 5 % in gas millage.

Good call. I was thinking alternator, and figuring the compressor mounted the same. Thanks for the correction............Rooster2

Yea, I read something about that too. Maybe it was an alternator from a Tribeca. I bet if you do a car parts search on line for an H6 or a Tribeca alternator, you will find what you want.

Very nice work. Not sure what the Ford badge on the grill is all about?? Maybe because of some Ford body work or bumper??

"Pushing down" always worked for me. Removing the tensioner could help I guess. Just never had to do that to replace belts. Just be sure that the compressor mounting bolts are loose enough to allow full travel on the push down to allow belt removal.

I have replaced belts on my 99 OBW, which has the same motor as yours. From your description, that is exactly how belts should be replaced. Usually, When all is loosened up,I will use two hands to push down hard on the compressor to gain the belt slack desired. On the alternator belt, I do the same thing. Hope this helps....

Recommend you drain and fill your tranny's ATF, and also replace the spin on tranny filter. If tranny fluid looks dark when draining, then recommend draining and filling 3 times, with short drives between refills. Reason being.......only about half the ATF can be drained out at one time, the non-drain half stays in the torque converter. The 3 times fill and drain does a good job of removing worn out ATF. Add the Trans-X, when replacing the ATF. Good luck, I have a high level of confidence that Trans-X, the 15 oz size can, will fix your tranny. Trans-X is carried by many auto parts stores, and even at Wal-Mart, and other big box stores.

You may get lucky, and just need to replace the radiator cap. 2.2 motors generally don't blow head gaskets, but I had a 91 do so. The over heating also caused the radiator to leak, so had to replace the engine and radiator. Bubbles generally results from blown head gaskets though.All 3 of my Subies have blown head gaskets, and all three were blowing bubbles.