Rooster2

This is Rooster again. Sorry I got confused about your fan problem. I was thinking you were asking about the radiator fans, but now I get it, you are talking about the HVAC blower fan. My experience with Subie blower fan, when I had similar problem. I thought the blower motor was bad, but it turned out that the blower unit was full of leaves and crud, that had worked its way down through the louvers in front of the wiper arms to clog up the blower unit. Suggest you first remove the glove box door, giving work access to the blower unit. Remove some bolts to open up the blower unit to see if it is clogged with crud. Once I removed the crud, the blower fan worked like new. This work is pretty easily done. Reading some of your earlier postings, it appears you have done this work before. So, maybe not clogged with crud. Could be a bad switch or bad resistor block as pointed out. Whatever it is, is causing a resistance over load to blow your fuse.

Prices I see here in Indiana for a 99 with a bad motor is an asking price of around $1,000, I am sure owner takes less upon negotiation.

By "bent rod," do you mean an engine connecting rod? If not, what kind of rod?

I suspect a bad motor bearing in one of the fans. I seem to remember that each fan is wired independently of the other. Suggest you disconnect the wiring to one fan, then turn the power on to see if the one fan will make noise. If not, then try the same thing with the other fan. I think you will find only one fan making the noise, causing too much amperage draw, so the fuse blows. If so, replace the noisy fan from one from a wrecking yard, and the problem should be fixed. I don't think the switch is bad. Re the speedo cable, you could try removing the cable from the back of the gauge, then lubing with some very light oil like the liquid lube used on car door key/locks. It needs to be an extremely light oil, or it will thicken when freezing cold and cause the cable to bind, and the dial pointer will jump around.

Price may be a little high, I bet you could buy for $500 less. As 86 Bratman wrote, ask to see the receipt for timing belt and head gasket repair. Don't take the dealer's word that the work was done. Replacing head gaskets is at least a $2,000+ job. The ad states a couple of times that the motor is good for 200K miles. In my opinion with good maintenance, a motor will last 300K miles.

When you install new pads, are you putting anti-seize on the brake pad sliding surfaces, and also on the slide pins? It is very important to add the anti-seize to the slide pins, otherwise the pins can bind without lubricant, and not release the pad properly from the rotor, when you take your foot off the brake pedal. When this happens your pads drag, particular on the side with the stuck pin, and will wear down the pad at an angle, and eventually with the pad worn down, will grind brake pad metal to the rotor metal surface. It is pretty easy to tell if the grinding is on the rotor, as there will be circular grooves worn into an otherwise smooth rotor surface. If it were me, I would pull the road wheel, and the caliper looking for abnormal pad wear. It is unlikely that your relatively new caliper is the source of this problem. However, if so, you may have a life time from the parts store, and get a replacement caliper at no cost. Keep us posted on what you find, and how you are repairing this problem. Hope this advise helps!

I have used car-part.com in the past. The website works great.

I think original poster wants to either change the cat to a unit with no 02 sensor hole, or eliminate the cat, and is asking what to do with the 02 sensor, as he then would not have nothing to screw the sensor into. Then, he is wanting to devise a solution so as to not have the sensor trigger a CEL. There in lies his question.

I had this same situation on my OBW several years back. Once you break the glass, I came to the conclusion that the mirror was trash. It appears the mirror unit is factory assembled, so not really repairable. I replaced mine with a mirror from a wrecking yard.

I just replaced the rear 02 sensor in my 98 OBW last night. I still have the old one, if you want to try the trick of dangling your existing 02 sensor outside the cat converter. You could use my old one to fill the hole in the cat converter. Let me know..............Or............the more that I think about your post, you are wanting to replace or remove the cat from your system. If so, you wouldn't need another sensor.

Would using E-85 really cause a lean fuel mixture??

Isn't the antenna lead long enough to simply plug directly into the back of the radio? I don't ever remember seeing an 8" extension section on a Subaru. If you still need to use one, I think they are sold at Radio Shack.

Just recently, a local gas station had E-85 priced about 50 cents/gallon cheaper then 87 octane gas. Yes, I know that E-85 flex fuel cars use special rubber hosing that doesn't degrade under E-85 use. My 99 with 2.5 motor is not designed for this fuel. My question is.........would a tankful of E-85, now and then, be beneficial in cleaning carbon deposits and just general gunk out of my engine. I am wondering if 2 tank fulls per year would be that detrimental to the rubber and seals in my car's fuel system? Any thoughts ???

Yes, in my experience it is the pulley at the bottom that goes bad.

Agree, would suspect a bad pulley with a bad bearing.

If not, then I would suspect the radio has gone bad.

Yea, I can tell you know what you are doing. You will really like the leather seats in the SUS. They are the same as in my 98 OBW Limited. So much more comfortable then the cloth seats in the standard model. Also, Subaru puts more sound deadening material in the SUS and Limited, so rides nice and quiet. Enjoy!!

$500 from a junky wrecking yard with what sounds like little support in selling to you or guaranteering the motor is a poor deal indeed. The 96 with 118K miles for $450 and a guarantee is the much better value. Yea, the 96 motor requires a Y pipe swap to mate up to your existing 99 exhaust system. No big deal. Last year I paid $400 for a 95 2.2 motor with appx. 150K miles. I was fortunate in that the motor runs perfectly. I couldn't ask for a nicer transplant into my 98 OBW. Since then I have had to replace the knock sensor, and timing sensor. I had my installation shop replace the T-belt and pulleys. Motor should be good for another 100K miles, providing my wife stops running into things. Body work is starting to look rough.

No fun coming home empty handed. I read you liked the '96 Impreza Auto with clean motor oil, but had oil in the reservoir. Sometimes reservoirs build up dark looking crud, that looks nasty, but that doesn't mean the motor is bad. By chance did you remove the radiator cap, and look down into the radiator. If the inside of the radiator, and the under side of the radiator cap were relatively clean, then it could still be a good motor. It is just that the reservoir was never cleaned, and that old antifreeze turned dark in the reservoir. Any chance the motor can still be started in this car?? Might be worth a second look.

cheap spark plug wires can cause your problem. Subarus don't do well on cheap wires. You may want to pull a spark plug to see what shape it is in. I have seen "supposedly recently new plugs and wires," that weren't new, but old. It happens. You may want to add a can of Chevron Techron to a full gas tank. It is a great product to clean off deposits from injectors and elsewhere. can't imagine a vacuum leak. With a vac leak, car runs bad at idle and all other RPMs. Would also have poor power. No smoke is very good..........at least not burning oil.

Sounds like you are on top of your game............good luck............hope you find a good motor.

If your 99 is an automatic, the 2.5 in your car has an EGR valve. You will need to find a 2.2 with the EGR valve. From what I have read, the automatics have the EGR, 5 speed stick shift does not. So search for a 2.2 motor that came from a car with an automatic. The point is...........if your car is an automatic, it will throw a CEL, if not hooked up to a motor with an EGR. Otherwise, there will not be any CEL problems. Lots and lots written here in the archives on this forum about doing 2.5 to 2.2 engine swaps. Easy to find under the "Search" area. Suggest reading all you can about doing the swap. It will save you a lot of time by learning what you need to do, and not do. The easiest swap is a 2.2 motor from a 95 model, because the exhaust is the same as what is used on the 99 with the 2.5. Keep us posted on your project...

Thanks for doing the research and sending the info. I found a 40% coupon code for Advance Auto, so added a couple of oil filters to go over the needed $100 purchase to activate the coupon. With this coupon, Advance's price is comparable to Rockauto, while being only a 5 minute drive from home for store pick up. Thanks again!!

Read CEL code to know that I need the down stream O2 sensor for my 98 OBW with 95, 2.2 motor. I have started shopping on line for a good price. So far Advance Auto Parts has a Denso OEM part # 234-3088 for $92. W/ discount, I can get the price down to $64 w/store pick up. Anyone know where I can do better?

Good to read how to replace the O2 sensor. My 98 w/ 95 motor needs the down stream unit replaced. I am currently shopping the internet car store web sites for a good price. Anyone know of a good price. I would like to hear about it.