Rooster2

Welcome to USMB. Lots of good folks here to help with your inquiries. I can answer one question, there is no external auto tranny filter. You will find reference to an internal filter that is accessible only if you drop the tranny pan. I don't advise doing this. The filter turns out to be only a fine mesh screen to prevent metal particles from circulating throughout the tranny. Only once did I change the screen, when it did not need to be changed. The problem then arises in having to scrape off the old pan gasket, and installing a new one. You practically need a grinder to remove the old baked on gasket. Next, installing a new gasket without it leaking is really difficult. My best advise, is not to change that internal filter. No one, from what I have read, has ever found that screen filter to be clogged. I would advise changing your tranny's ATF three times with 5 minute drive intervals between changes. There is a drain bolt on the tranny pan for ATF drainage. You need to do it three times, because only about half of the ATF can be drained from the tranny. The rest remains in the torque converter, and cannot be drained. The three changes requires a lot of fluid, but works out well. Changing out ATF may very well help your tranny perform better. You may want to add some Lucas AT additive to help reduce the slippage.

Is the compressor clutch cycling on and off about every 3 to 5 seconds?

So is the antidrainback valve filter the type that should be used on a Subaru?

Since you can't hear anything unusual, and your mechanic said all is good, I wouldn't be concerned about a wheel bearing. Chain stores have a bad reputation of creating work to be done on your car, regardless if it is needed or not.

Wipe off all the oily crud to see if you can visually spot the leak. If the system still works, look for bubbles at connection joints to pin point the leak. More then likely, a "O" ring is bad, and the source of the leak at a connection joint.

Check to see if the fan belt is tight, and in good shape. Also, check power steering fluid to see if full. It is possible that the p/s unit is going bad. I had that happen on a 91 Subie, when the unit decided to disassemble itself. I bought a replacement unit from a wrecking yard for $35. It swapped in easily, and worked great.

Like you, I have a 98 with an EJ22 motor installed. My "new" motor came from a 95 Subie. I had a shop do the installation last Fall, and the results have been good. I am guessing that your old EJ25 motor had EGR. Some EJ22 motors did not have EGR, and maybe yours does not. If this is the case, then you will constantly have a code displayed for EGR malfunction. On my EJ22, there are a couple of vacuum hoses that are not used. I think they may have been for gas vapor reclamation. My installer screwed bolts into the hoses to seal them off. I hope these thoughts are a help.

Does your car have a sun roof? If so, water drains could be clogged up with dirt to cause the water retention problem.

Responding to your questions by the numbers: 1. Change the ATF. There is a drain plug on the bottom of the trans to do this. Change and drain 3 times with min of 5 minutes of drive time between changes. Reason for this, is that you can only drain about half of the ATF out of the trans. The remainder stays in the torque converter. The 3 changes helps get all of the old tranny fluid out. I am guessing the trans fluid in the car has never been changed during the life of the car. New fluid in the trans will certainly help the trans to shift better. I would do this first before doing anything else to the trannyh. 2. Normal for car to roll just slightly forward or backward when selector is put into Park, and motor is turned off. All cars with an automatic transmission do this. 3. I have no idea what the mechanic is talking about regarding tracking. I don't think he does either, as reasons to replace the tranny. Sounds like mechanic scare tactic given to a woman to sell a tranny job. I wouldn't go back to that mechanic again. Just my 2 cents worth of advise. Keep us posted on any updates!

I had one of those tiny pin, "one size fits all," sockets. It did not hold up. I used it on a rusted nut, upon which it broke, scattering the pins. I threw what was left of it in the trash. Don't waste your money.

Pretty sure the hand brake is cable activated. Not positive on a Subie, but that is how I have seen it on other cars. Look to see that the cable is attached to each brake, and to the bottom of the hand brake mechanism under the car. Might be a disconnected cable.

I will find out how well an SAE type e-clip works. It seemed a tad loose, and came apart once after the e-clip was installed. However, I may not have had the e-clip fully clamped down in place. I reinstalled, clamped it down hard with needle nose pliers, then added a few drops of glue for a better hold. Time will tell if that e-clip stays in place. I got my fingers crossed!

Also, the replacement e-clip is standard SAE size. Someone mentioned using a metric e-clip, however, two hardware stores I shopped at, were unaware of metric size e-clips.

Epilogue...............just finished swapping in a new climate control unit. The e-clips are a pain in the neck. Recommendations for anyone doing this job in the future. 1. Purchase 3 each e-clips for where the cable housing is friction fastened to the climate control unit plastic housing. The old e-clip will be so bent up upon removable, that it will be unusable. Also, it is just too easy to drop a new e-clip down into the dash unit, where it will be lost forever. I helped prevent dropping the e-clip, by inserting a folded church bulletin in the dash opening, placing it under the cable. If dropped, the e-clip is somewhat easier to retrieve. It helped a lot, God saved me from dropping the e-clip. I had trouble sliding the cable back into the slot opening upon reassembly. After a while, I realized the hard plastic cable covering was bent/distorted, so didn't want to slide into the slot opening. I rounded the hard plastic by flattening the pinching it down with needle nose pliers. Upon reassembly, I also added a few drops of glue around the e-clip to add strength to the e-clip friction hold. 2. I looked hard at disconnecting the cable near the floor, but found little room to work. I did remove the e-clip from there, but gave up that approach, and re-inserted the e-clip. Using needle nose vice grips to hold the e-clip for insertion is the best tool to use. I hope this advise helps someone in the future to make this project just a little bit easier. ...................Regards..........Rooster2

I suggest taking your car to a tire store that sells the brand of tire that is on your Subie. It costs little to have a tire store balance your tires. Tires is all they do for a living, so they are far better at balancing tires correctly. If one of your new tires is bad, and new tires can be defective, they will be able to put on a new tire under manufacturer's warranty. I would avoid a Goodyear or Firestone tire store. Too often, IMO, they are overly money greedy for sales, at the customer's expense.

Have you checked the battery cables. Sometimes the cables corrode not just at the terminals where it bolts at the battery, but further back inside the insulation. Check the condition of the cable to see if anything looks a miss.

JB Weld is the first thing I thought of too. However, since it is the car's original, I would be more inclined to buy a replacement radiator. The old radiator is apt to spring a leak somewhere else. Last Fall, I replaced the radiator on my 98 OBW. I bought one from Advance Auto Parts on line. Google "Advance Auto coupons," to get a $30 discount code to apply towards the bill. Their discounts have saved me a lot of money. Product quality is good too.

I think your best bet is to find a replacement glove box door at a wrecking yard. It may be difficult to find the exact replacement color.

Pedal slowly going to the floor means you have air in the brake lines that will need to be bled out. Look for wetness (brake fluid) on the inside of each road wheel and tire. If you find that, then you will have found your leak.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the advise. I can see how easy it is to drop the e-clip upon removal. To do so means it would be lost forever. Then the plot thickens, in having to buy a replacement e-clip. I will take my time, and pray I don't drop the clip.

The HF unit does a good job of removing the outer bearing cone. I don't think a hammer and a block of wood will get the job done.

I got 99% of the way swapping it out, only to be stopped on how to get the e-clip removed that holds the cable tubing from the plastic housing. This is the clip that holds the cable with insulation at the housing. I dug at the e-clip with a very small screw driver, but it refused to pull up and out of the slot in the plastic housing. It started to get dark, and hard to see what I was doing, so I called it quits for the night, and reassembled the old climate control unit back into the dash. Is there something special to do to get the clip out? I stuck a small piece of cardboard under the e-clip to catch it, should I have gotten it out and dropped it. LOL................. LOL on your dropping your e-clip down into the dash. I already dropped one of the screws that mounts the climate control unit into the dash. Just so easy to do. Thanks for any help...............Larry (Rooster2)

So, is it easy to hook up the cable and reinstall the E clip? My concern.......is there enough room to get your hands and tools inside the dash slot for an easy assembly? Or.............is it one of those jobs, where you learn to cuss because it is so hard to get at??

I would take the car back to the dealer. Call the Service Manager to get an appointment; tell him what you are experiencing, and that you want a rebalance. Unless the steering pulls consistently to one side, I wouldn't get an allignment. In my experience, a vibration is usually a tire issue on a new car. Also.........just because you have new tires, doesn't mean that a tire cannot be bad. I have bought new tires (as replacements), and noticed a vibration. I took the car back to the tire shop to learn that one of the new tires was manufactured with a defect of being "out of round." I don't know why the guy installing the tire, then balancing the tire, couldn't detect the defect. The tire store replaced the tire at no cost to fix the problem

You might try adding a bottle of Chevron Techron injector cleaner to the gas tank. I have had that help an idle issue in the past. It cost about $6 for the product.