Rooster2

My 98 OBW brakes seemed weak, so I thought it might be time to check things out, and lube the slides. On the LF, the caliper bolts to a bracket with two bolts. Upon disassemble, the caliper bolts thread into a slide pin receptacle that has a rubber accordion boot cover. One of the slide pin receptacles moves easily in and out, the other seems really stuck. With pliers, I can get it to rotate left and right, but not in and out. Is it suppose to move in and out? I am thinking it is suppose to move in and out, but I am not sure. Maybe corrosion is holding it back. I need good advise. Please help.

I just installed an after market PCV into my 95, 2.2 motor. Like said, it is pretty much just a check valve. New one works just fine. OEM vs after market looked exactly the same. For me, the dealer is too far away, and in a high traffic area, and so not worth the hassle going OEM. Also, too inexpensive an item to buy through the internet. Also, a bad PCV won't ruin an engine, just makes the motor run kinda crappy, and gas mileage goes down.

Bad "top hat" strut bearing on top of a front strut?? If so, would also make noise when driving over bumpy pavement.

I have seen signs on store windows at Auto Zone and Ace Hardware, that they sell auto key fobs. It is prolly worth a call to those two stores to see what they offer, and at what price.

Agree with others that you prolly have a blown head gasket. If memory serves me a 96 Leggie w/ 5 speed would have the 2.2 motor. They are far less likely to blow a head gasket then the 2.5, but it does happen. I had a 91 Leggie 2.2 that blew a head gasket. Any kind of stop leak or head gasket repair out of a bottle won't work on a Subie. The head gasket blows so that exhaust gas bleeds into the cooling system to cause the over heating. It is never a problem of coolant and oil ever mixing to show up as foamy brown milkshake on the oil dip stick. Repeated engine over heating is really hard on the motor. You could replace the HGs, but no guarantees on how long the motor will last.

I agree with what has been written above. With 250K on a 2.5 motor, it has seen it's best days, and not worth repairing. I recently did the 2.5 to 2.2 motor switch. I put a 2.2 from a 95 Leggie, in my wife's 98 OBW. It is really a drop in swap with minimal swap issues. Lots written on this forum about doing the swap. You loose some horsepower, but it is not that noticeable. Check your local wrecking yards for a used motor. I found one with 145K miles for $400. I got lucky, the motor runs great.

Please let us know how well Trans-X works for you.

Kassie, I wrote the original thread on this subject several years back, and have read all the subsequent response posts. Yes, I think your car is a good candidate for Trans-X treatment. If you don't know, it is a simple as draining the ATF from the trany at the drain plug, and adding Trans-X and new fluid. Adding ordinary ATF or synthetic prolly doesn't make any difference in which you use. An aftermarket trans filter works just fine. You don't need a genuine Sub external filter. Don't substitute an oil filter for a trany filter. They look the same, but don't use the same filtering media. The trany dip stick from low mark to high mark is just a pint, so be careful not to over fill. The system will take about 4 quarts of ATF and the appx 13 oz of Trans-X. You should notice the trany shifting normally from R to D within just a few minutes of driving. Trans-X works that fast. The Trans-X fix works for about a year, then the trany will prolly start getting lazy again when shifting from R to D. An ATF drain and adding new Trans-X will again fix the problem. I now do the drain and fill every summer as normal maintenance for my tranny. Going into my 4th year with the Trans-X fix, and all is well. Hope trans-X fixes your tranny. Rooster2

bad battery cable going to the starter, or bad alternator

When my 91 4EAT, everyone on this forum advised me to install a used tranny, as it is not worth trying to repair a 4EAT tranny. I seem to recall that any 4EAT from model years 1990-1944 will swap in. A used 4 EAT tranny is pretty cheap at a wrecking yard.

I don't believe in "extended warranties," but maybe in this situation, an extended warranty would be a good idea. Work a decent deal, and have the dealer pay for a warranty, or you pay for the warranty out of pocket, but only if you get a good deal. I would opt for a 2 year warranty, and say 50K driving miles if an extended warranty is sold that way. This would take the worry out of buying a car with a questionable motor. Something to think about!!

A compression test would be a good diagnostic tool in this situation.

I have worked with various cars with various vent issues, but not so much with Subaru. From what you describe, one of the vent closures is getting hung up. I don't know if your system is electrical or pneumatic for flap closure. I would suggest you try to pin point the exact source of the sound, then see if you can remove anything to see what is making the noise. Could be something fell into the vent to cause an obstruction, and the noise upon closure.

Recommend you check your headlight wiring for damage. It sounds like you may have accidently pinched wiring, or skinned off the insulation from wiring when you replaced the bumper. The result is that you have a wiring short circuit that is causing the fuse to blow.

Forgotten oil plug??? Does that mean an engine replacement as well??

Recently, I replaced my tires with Yokohama Avid TRZ on my Outback. I went one size larger then stock, going to size 215X70X15. Love the tires, they ride smooth, and control is great. One size larger, puts a little more tire on the road, and lifts the Outback close to an inch taller. No issues with rubbing.

Monroe earned the reputation thirty years ago of building a shock that was good for only about 20K miles on American cars. I have put KYBs on my past Audis and VWs, and was happy with the ride and longevity of the KYBs. My vote is for KYBs. I just don't know if Monroe has improved their product.

FINISHED THE SWAP................. A buddy experienced in swapping seat interiors, swapped out the seat bottoms. Taking the old seat apart, it became obvious that the 99 seat had come from a car involved in a serious accident, perhaps side impact hit. We found broken cubes of window glass wedged in a seat crease, and dried blood on the under side of the leather seat cushion. The frame rails and mounting tabs were bent pretty bad as well. The seat looked good, but with bent metal, no wonder the seat would not mount. So, yea, the seats are interchangeable, but just not with bent ones. Thanks for all the good advise. I appreciate it!!

I layed out both seats on the floor, and set them side by side for close visual inspection. The new seat frame rails and mount tab holes from the 99 look to be bent. I am thinking the seat came from a car that was in a wreck, and bent the mounts. I can't see how any amount of tweaking will fix the rails. A buddy is coming over in a couple of hours. He says from experience that he knows how to swap the lower seat cushion from the 99 seat to the 98 seat. Hope he is right. The rest of the 98 seat is still good. I am dealing with a heated seat, so I hope swapping seat cushions doesn't mess up the resistance heating coils. My wife really likes the heated seat feature. I did look to swap the guide rails, but see that they are mostly assembled with very strong rivits, as someone pointed out. Drilling them out would be a bear. Don't think I want to try that just yet.

Went to my bank to do some biz, and had a conversation with the bank guard. In the course of conversation, I told him of my seat swap problem. I was surprised that he had a solution. Simply swap out the seat cushion part of the seat, which is all that is really needed. He told me how to do it, seems simple enough to R & R the seat cushions. I am going to try doing this next. The bank guard has had several Subies, so he knows a thing or two about these cars, and has swapped out interiors. You just never know where you are going to find someone with a problem solution.

Both seats are manual. I will follow your advise and check on track slide alignment, but am still thinking that I will need to swap out the tracks, as the mounting tabs with seat bolt holes are not the same size, shape, and bend angle for each seat.

Changing all four plugs in your car is really a pita. It took me two night, and about 3 hours to change 4 spark plugs, and I have the same car as yours. Just a nasty job!!

I installed the bolt hole on the right front, then tried lining up the left front. The holes are off a good 3/4 inch. Also, the shape of the metal hardware fastner is shorter and bent more towards the right, when compared to the unit on the 98 seat. I tried to bend it to the left, but that didn't work. The bracket is tough steel, and not very bendable. I don't think the bracket was bent, when the seat was removed from the donor car. I tried bolting on the right rear, but have a similar problem. The angle of the bracket is not bent to line up with the body pan hole. The left rear bracket with hole doesn't come close to lining up with threaded hole in floor pan, when the right side is ready to be bolted down. So, I just don't see how the 99 seat from a sedan, can bolt up to the floor pan of a 98 Leggie OBW. There must be something different with the floor pan seat holes. The good news is the seats themselves, are exactly the same. Only difference I can see, is the 98 has the word "Outback" embossed on the seat back leather. The 99 Leggie sedan seat does not have the word "Outback" embossed on the seat back. I just had the thought, that since I never saw the donor car, I wonder if it may have come from an Impreza or Forester, though the yard said it was from a Leggie. Still, I find that just an outside chance, as I have never seen a leather heated seat in an Imprez or Forester that is exactly the same as an Outback heated leather seat.

Same thought, wires should still be good. With 40K miles on original plugs, they should still be good. With high voltage going through plug wires, the gap can still be large, and the plugs still work fine. 99 OBW I bought several years back had original plugs and wires with 148K on the odo. Car still ran well, but I still replaced the plugs and wires. Gaps were really big on those old plugs, surprisingly still worked well.

I have a 98 Leggie OBW with a bad leather driver's seat. I just bought a 99 Leggie (prolly sedan) driver's leather seat from a yard. I thought this would be an easy swap. The new seat is a perfect match to the old seat, but I have a bolt up problem. The metal frame bolt up holes on the bottom of the 99 seat are close, but not the same configuration as the metal frame bolt up holes on the 98 seat. The frame holes won't line up with the pan holes to permit a bolt to tighten down the seat frame. Apparently the floor pans are slightly different between the sedan and the Outback. So, it now looks like I will need to swap metal frame bottoms from the old seat to the new seat. Is there anyone reading this, that has done this conversion? I need advise on the easiest way to do this. I saw where there are some large nuts on bolts on the bottom of the seat frames. They look easy to remove, but not sure what to do. Need help please!!