Rooster2

I am thinking a bad tire or bent road wheel.

I don't think it makes sense to pay more then KBB book value, just because current owner is upside down on what he owes, vs what car is appraised at. However, another thought is to check the NADA book for car value.

Congrats!! Way to go!! I wouldn't have balls enough to try the swap by myself. How did you keep track of wiring electrical connections, and vacuum connections during the swap? If I ever tried a swap, I would get so confused as to what connector and what vac line went where? I know I would screw it up!

I did this a couple of time in years gone by. The result was no difference in power performance or gas millage. Granted, neither car was a Subaru, so it is not a precise comparison. IMHO, if you gut the cats, you are pretty much wasting your time.

I suggest jacking up the front end on each side, get the road wheel off the ground. Then pull the road wheel left and right, up and down to see if there is any looseness (play.) I suspect that you have a bad tie rod or ball joint that is causing the problem. You may also want to see if the road wheel lug nuts are tight on all 4 wheels.

I rotate the boot left to right several times, then pull and wiggle the boot around until it releases. However, I tried this on my 99 OBW with prolly 10 year old OEM wires. Those suckers were heat baked hard onto the ends of the plugs, and wouldn't come loose for anything. Finally, I yanked the boots off with channel locks. What came off was in torn pieces, but it was the only way to remove them. Hope you do better. I am not familiar with the under hood of a Forester, but I am sure it is similar to a Legacy. If like the Legacy, you may need to remove the battery, windshield washer reservoir, and air intake unit, to gain access, and work room to get at the plugs. Just be sure to hand tighten the new plugs upon installation, before using a drive to fully tighten down the plug. This avoids the possibility of cross threading the plug upon installation, but you prolly already know this.

When burping and T-Stat attention fails to correct over heating, it most likely is a bad head gasket. Subie head gaskets go bad, by allowing hot exhaust gas to enter the cooling system, causing the motor to over heat. Not what you want to hear, but it is what I think you are facing.

The above advise is very good. I also add dielectric grease to the inside of the plug wire boot. Makes it easier to remove in the future, and locks out moisture. Don't be surprised if old wires are a bear to remove, mine were. I had to rip them to pieces to remove, just would not release from the end of the spark plug.

Read all the posts, and still couldn't tell if this is an electrical or fuel related problem. Out of all this mess, is/are there any CEL codes to read? Otherwise, this is like trying to track down a ghost.

"Today I could hear the compressor clutch quickly clicking in and out while driving down the freeway."................... When I read this, it is a sure indication that you are low on refrigerant, so you still have a leak somewhere. The dealer charging $1,000 to fix only a few leaks, and it still leaks, is nuts. I wouldn't go back there again. Suggest you go to a good A/C auto repair shop, that can find leaks with a sniffer wand, and or use UV dye to source the problem. Like posted earlier, it is prolly a bad "O" ring or two that is allowing the refrigerant to leak out. Fix, and your honking should go away.

If holes are not large, JB Weld does a good job of patching to repair. If it were me, I would still pull one of the spark plugs. Even though you were told that the car had a "tune up," that may or may not be true.

Replacing the foam is not a difficult job, as the seat cushion can be disassembled, and new foam inserted. Use nylon cable ties to replace the hog ring clips that need to be cut off to gain access.

Verify that you have spark from the spark plug wire. Maybe a problem with the wire or coil pack?

If not a leak in the exhaust system, then maybe a cheap after market muffler was installed with poor baffles. I have a car with a cheap rear muffler that sounds a little throaty.

The gauge staying just below midway is normal, and not a little hot. All 3 Subarus that I have owned, the temp gauge read midway on the dial, as normal operating temperature. Yea, first things first, replace the hose, and burp out any air in the cooling system. I, too, would be concerned that a cheap thermostat could cause your problem. I remember someone posting on this forum a picture of a good thermostat, and a cheap one. The cheap one was rather flat, with minimal coil winding on the thermostat. Check the archives here in the "search" mode to retrieve the pictures. There is also a possibility that you may have a bad head gasket. Classic symptom of a bad head gasket, is quick spike of the temp gauge to hot after driving for a while. If that happens, turn off the motor pronto. Also, look in the radiator over flow container to see if bubbles are blowing to the surface in the container with the motor still running after it is at operating temp.

I agree with the other guys. This has been some kid's street rod. Just has that kind of "used up" look with the dirty after market air filter and crazy painted fan belt. What's with the top radiator hose painted red? I have no idea what the switch is in the picture. That is not anything I have ever seen before. I am guessing you are talking about the switch just above the red rectangular shaped pad near the passenger shock tower. My advise is to "pass" on buying this vehicle. Reliability would be questionable.

Some years back, I bought a "one man brake bleeder" kit for cheap that works well. It is prolly available at Harbor Freight tool store. Makes bleeding really easy.

Yea, I very recently replace the knock sensor on my '95, 2.2 motor. They do go bad. It is not the easiest to get at, but with perseverance you will be able to swap it out. A bad knock sensor causes reduced gas millage, and engine power.

I recently went through this same mess of ordering a bearing, and seals, and and got ready to install a new bearing with a hub tamer. This was just after doing this same work on the same bearing 6 months ago. Doing the bearing replacement is one tough,difficult, cussing time consuming job. Only now, I learned the hub/knuckle itself was bad, and I would have to order that part, and wait some more. Not wanting to waste more waiting time, I went to a wrecking yard, and bought a complete hub/knuckle for $75. A buddy installed it for me, and it works fine. In the future, I will only replace complete hub/knuckle units, and never again screw around replacing a wheel bearing. It is just SO much easier!

I have both a 98 and 99 OBWs. The 98 does not have the external spin on filter, while the 99 has the external spin on filter. So, I am thinking the change over to the external filter started in 99. From my experience, there isn't a true filter on a 98 tranny. If you drop the pan on the 98, you will find a screen wire mesh filter, that does very little filtering. It is not worth changing this screen mesh filter. I did that once, only to find it a royal pain in the butt to grind off the super hardened gasket off the bottom of the tranny, and pan bolt up surface. Even after that, the pan leaked tranny fluid with a new pan gasket installed along with some permatex. My advise is to change the ATF three times, with min 5 minute drives between changes. I do this, because only about half the ATF can be drained at one time. The remaining half stays in the torque converter, and can't be drained out. Yes, the 3 changes uses a lot of ATF, but it is not difficult to do, and is less costly then taking to a shop to change the fluid. Also, remember the dip stick for ATF is calibrated at one pint of fluid from low to high level on the stick.

Since they are practically the same, I am thinking it may be a difference with the rubber gasket that forms the seal. Maybe there is a thickness difference, or slight width difference. There in could be the cause of the oil drip. You may want to contact tech svc with one of the filter mfgers., and ask them the question.

Yep, above is a good description of where to hook up the reader. The only problem is I have had trouble getting a code reading, if the CEL turned itself off. I am thinking the CEL needs to be lit, so a code can be read.

I guess my negative reaction is the inability to easily work on the motor. Six cylinders packed under a Subie hood doesn't leave much room to work. For my money, I would rather have a 4 cylinder for better gas millage, with power that is sufficient.

I agree, it is easier to rewire power to your radio, compared to finding the short somewhere in the wiring harness. Shouldn't be difficult to do.

Well, I finally got around to swapping in another coolant temp sensor, and that fixed the problem. The sensor I installed last Monday was bad.....way bad. Yep, even a new sensor fresh out of it's box can be sold to you bad. No problem swapping out parts with Advance Auto at no cost. They treat me really well.