Numbchux

As someone with real world experience. I'm telling you your blanket statement is wrong. I was VERY concerned about not blinding oncoming traffic, so I took note of the light pattern on the inside of my garage (I have a 28ft deep garage, so the garage door was about 6ft away) with the halogens immediately before swapping to the LEDs. They cast an almost HID/Projector-crisp light cutoff (see my picture in post #13 of this thread). I have driven probably 30k miles in that car, I've not had a single person flash their high-beams at me. I've driven in traffic in front of it while in my Celica and XT6 several times, and other than the color difference it's not any different than other cars (and I HATE poorly-aimed headlights). Yes, I'm sure there are LED drop-ins where the LED itself is not placed accurately, and is very obnoxious. Which is why I posted a link to the exact product I used, because I know it works.

I bought Spar Urethane, then mixed it with a thinner. Did it November of 2016, they still look fantastic. Per this write-up. http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/514132-post9.html

Yep, I did that, too. Wet sand, I used 4 or 5 different grits working up to 2000, and sealed with thinned spar urethane. Fantastic. If you're going to bother with the SilverStars, do the Ultras, they last SOOOO much longer. Or, spend half as much and get LEDs...

I just bought a '00 Outback to use as a winter beater. It's got 311,000 miles on it, and I will be receiving the cheapest parts I can find. It'll be getting those $40 LED headlights before it gets on the road, just like our '04. No, you probably won't noticed an increase in fuel mileage or anything by switching. But, reducing the load on the system helps prevent burned wires/connectors, and reduces wear on the alternator. LED lights turn on quicker. Use them in your brake lights, that extra millisecond might prevent getting rear ended. I'm looking at doing them on my Celica, but requires a little modification, as they use a switched ground system, so you have to set up relays to reverse the polarity, and the high-beam indicator relies on the draw of a halogen, typical fix is a 194 marker light bulb. Also, being a sealed beam, I have to decide on conversion housings and bulbs, or housings with integrated LEDS. It'll happen, too. And since my 4Runner and XT6 both use 6054 sealed beams, I'm sure they'll get the same. Also, every light in my house is LED, and most in my garage.

Subaru has pretty much discontinued refills. They did bring out a fairly nice hybrid style blade last fall when they started phasing out refills that's about $15 a piece, if you've got a dealer nearby, you could try those. My '04 Outback needs blades, and I'm thinking about trying those for it...

Dropping an HID bulb in a halogen housing is bad news, and there is no way to do it correctly with the same reflectors. LEDs can work great, when done correctly. Don't dismiss them on principle. Some are garbage, and some are awesome. I bought a set of cheap ones for the fog lights in my Celica a couple years ago, and I loved them so much, that I bought the exact same ones for the low beams on my '04 Outback. The ones I got are bluer than I'd like (6500k), but not crazy obnoxious. Step one is to make sure your headlight lenses are clear. Mine were very cloudy, so I started with a restoration (I wet-sanded, and sealed with some thinned urethane), which helped immensely. And then I swapped the LEDs in. Because of the design of the bulb itself, it was a bit tough to get it in the housing and locked down correctly, but it fit fine. And unlike many LED upgrades, these have a flexible braided heat sink that can be molded to the housing shape so you don't have to cut or drill a hole behind the bulb for the heat sink. Beam pattern is great, I've had them for almost a year and a half now, and I've never had anyone flash their highbeams at me. I've been followed by this car in traffic in my XT6 and my Celica, and did not find the headlights obnoxious at all. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B012KF1XDA 20170106_194211 by Numbchux, on Flickr On my Outback, the low beam bulb is illuminated with a reduced voltage as the daytime running light. This would make the LEDs flicker, so I disabled the DRLs, this was easy on my car, but I don't know about yours. I don't know if it's something about the LEDs, or just the color, but the light from the LEDs doesn't seem to travel as far down the road, so I'm not a fan of using them on the high beams. LEDs use considerably less electricity, and should last longer. Of course, there's much more to go wrong, power converters, and sometime even cooling fans, so they do still fail. One downside to be aware of, is they don't generate much heat, so there can be an issue with icing in the right (wrong) conditions. But honestly, it's not too bad.

All EJs (in the US anyway, there may be an exception elsewhere) have ECU-controlled fans

What automatic gets better mileage than the equivalent manual?? Seems really strange to use a Subaru engine for effeciency. I love them for many reasons, but that's not one of them. I think I'd use a Honda or Toyota 4-cyl. Or a VW TDi. You might be able to get it out of a direct injected FA20, but that's so new it won't run on the stock ECU, so you'll have to run standalone, and completely start over on the fuel mapping. You'll have a huge amount of time and money into it, and you still might not have the efficiency. But, if you're set on doing it, get a BRZ/FRS/86 transmission. Bolts right up to the EJ engine, and is RWD. I've seen them for 500-1000.

Subaru engines have been done in RWD cars, many times. But yea, the Subaru drivetrain requires the engine be completely in front of the front wheels. I think by the time you placed the transmission so the front diff was in the right place, you'd have no room for an engine. But yea, it's just fabrication. Completely possible, with time and skill (both can be substituted with money), but it's going to take a lot of both. Luckily, a Z-car uses an r160 rear differential, so the rear suspension shouldn't have to be modified, just swap in the appropriate ratio diff, and carry on. But the front is going to be a project. People have done STi swaps into almost everything. Wiring is extremely well documented. '04 STi won't be immobilizer, so using the stock ECU is relatively simple. Newer stuff has been done, but with the immobilizer, requires matching at least the gauge cluster and ECU, probably more. Again, this is all well-documented. Yep, A/C, totally doable. Usually all you need is controlled off the ECU. Usually the mechanics of mounting a condenser, accumulator, expansion valve, maybe evaporator, running lines is the hard part. With all the electrical work that needs to be done, you won't even noticed the few extra wires for A/C. Major swaps are always easier with a donor vehicle. You know you have everything, and you know it works. But piecing it together is possible, too. www.jdmfsm.info

I see nothing in here that says there even is a problem. IMHO, all this speculation about different causes are pointless until we get an actual temperature on the engine. 4 different temp sensors say nothing is wrong.

+1 for not strong enough and not corrected for camber.

The spiral on the stub that goes in the diff is different side to side, which is why the seals are side-specific as well. STi is a whole different animal, of course. And yes, GD rear track is wider than GG just like the front.

Check out Oak Leaf Auto Salvage. They're in northern WI, and specialize in Subarus. I've seen several complete 6MT/r180 kits sold for pretty reasonable. I bought the front clip to fix my Outback from them, and they strapped it all to a pallet and shipped it to my work (we had a loading dock at the AutoZone I worked at at the time). You might also check out TSS Fab, they were trying to put together a batch of 6MT 4.444 ring/pinions on their facebook page this winter. I'm not sure if it ever happened, though.

Vibration is powerful at working hardware loose. That's why many suspension components have cotter pins (tie rod ends, ball joints, old-gen axle nuts), or use locking nuts (sway links, new gen axle nuts). That's why virtually every fastener on an airplane has safety wire through it (my wife works at Cirrus Aircraft). Not to mention corrosion. A fastener torqued to the minimum spec becomes rusted solid. On most hardware, there's a fine line between adequately torqued and broken. So I don't think mechanics are just slamming their impact wrench on everything and hammering it home. Even with the right tools and experience to extract a broken bolt, it's still a crappy job, and most mechanics are paid by the job, which means broken bolts come out of their pocket. Ever had something major fall off your car? I've had a couple wheels fall off, a brake drum (which, of course, took the wheel with it), ball joint, brake caliper. Not to mention many close saves. I'll take every minute of struggling with tough hardware over one of those.

Warranty void Recalls still valid If you go to the dealer, they will run the VIN specifically to check for recalls and for a salvage title. Interestingly enough, if you buy a Subaru part over the counter, and it fails in the 1 year warranty. When the claim is submitted to SOA for reimbursement, we have to put the VIN on the claim. If the car is salvaged, they won't even cover the parts warranty. That's pretty rare, the one time we saw it, we covered the part cost at our dealership, but corporate wiped their hands of it.

This! As mentioned, this car has 2 temp sensors, one for the ECU (which controls the fans) and one for the gauge. You've tested the fan circuitry, and all appears to be working. So I'm assuming that the ECU does not think the engine is hot (this could be verified with a scan tool). Your gauge reads fine. You've replaced one of the sensors, even if it's the wrong one, you've got 3 sensors telling you the engine is not overheating. Those sensors are mounted in the coolant bridge right over the cylinders, even with zero forced coolant circulation, thermosiphoning would bring the hottest coolant to them. The only symptom of overheating is a smell. If you want to verify it, get your hands on an infrared thermometer. I bought one last fall on Amazon, it was pretty cheap ($10?), and has been really useful for a lot of things (I found a couple weak links in the insulation of our house this winter....probably paid for itself right there). Point it right at that coolant bridge, it shouldn't be much warmer than the opening temp of the thermostat.

GD (02-07 Impreza Sedan) definitely has wider track than yours. '02-'04ish (when they went to male inner) should have the same splines as yours. I just checked on the 10 forester, 8mm

Meh, looks like an allen key and a socket would thread right out. But I'm hesitant to do it on a customer transmission that's just out for a clutch job. I punched the VIN on the 10 forester, and crossed the part number for the 3-4 gearset, and it was used back to 2004. So I assume it is cut for that. But the 12 Impreza number was not used on older cars, so it could go either way.

Yep, I just walked out in the shop. We have manual transmissions out of a 10 forester, 08 Impreza, and 17 WRX. No surprise the cable-shifted 6-speed from the 17 WRX is different. But yep, the plug was there for the Impreza and Forester. We also have a 4EAT for a 10 Forester, that one doesn't have the casting. That must be what I was thinking of, sorry. Of course, of all of those, we don't have a 12-16 Impreza one out.

Well, I was certainly not correct on this, there's speedometer parts and even a note for the transmission case about having that hole until about 2006. Of course, none of that applies to the 12-16. I did a considerable search in the 12 Impreza FSM, and I cannot find a VSS listed anywhere. With the CAN system, it's hard to trace where the cluster gets the signal from, but the only speed sensors I can find are the 4 ABS/VDC wheel speed sensors The spiral for the speedometer gear is on the 3-4 gearset, so it might be possible to swap that and the case....but there are a lot more variables with that.

I can't, the AA070 supersedes back to the begninning of the 4EAT. They use the same circlip, but the side gear in the front differential changed at the same time, so it's possible they have a different spline count. The newer side gear (38423AA120, older 38423AA040) is the same up until current, though. I know that the spline count between the older 4EAT, and manual is the same, pretty sure it was 25 spline. Looking at the aftermarket listings, the inner splines are also 25. So it might be interchangeable.

There's a mid-year split in 2012 for clutch parts, but the input shaft did not change back to the beginning of 2012MY. Early clutch disc fits back to 2003, so the spline count should be the same. Clutch lever is the same back to the '90s, push-style I've never seen, transfer clutches in a manual. I just checked all the Impreza diagrams, and they all use a regular center diff. I was under the impression that the phase 2 cases changed, and no longer had the boss for the old-style speed sensor. But I'll search that more in a minute

I'll start looking things up as I have time here at work. 02-06 AT (I think just 4EAT, but the catalog is not super specific without a VIN) and 04 STi use the same stub axle (38415AA110) From the 2012 Impreza FSM, 2016 Impreza same (Crosstrek has 4.444, and lower 1st and 5th). gears, 3.454, 1.888, 1.296, 0.972, 0.738. R 3.333 Front 4.111, 1:1 transfer, rear 4.111 No axle or driveshaft spline counts listed....