mikec03

Just so everyone realizes that owns a 95-99 2.2 subaru, the 137 ft-lb torque is way, way over the original spec for the 95. The bolt probably loosened because the mechanic followed the original spec which was in the 70-80 area. I torqued my 95 to 140 ft-lb, and in addition, I put a white mark on the bolt and the pulley just to check if it was loosening up. From 95 to 99, subaru, recognizing the problem, constantly increased the spec torque.

I can't add anything to the above comments, all good, except about the upper hose. On my 02, this upper hose became so week that it would collapsed just trying to pull a vacuum. There were no other problems. I replaced it. It's cheap. So the collapsed hose probably doesn't have anything to do with your other problems.

The point of my post was warn people that the information on the NASIOC thread does not work!

A few months ago, my wipers on my 02 started to slap the side of the window. I'm surprised that I don't see more posts about this problem? The cause is that one of the flex joints in the linkage fails and the joint then wobbles 1/2 inch which causes a 4 inch extra movement in wiper tip. There is a good utube to fix this using Dorman universal kit from an auto store. Unfortunately the video is about 90's subaru and it doesn't work on 00+ cars. I tried for 1/2 a day but the hole in the linkage arm is too small for the the plastic replacement part. Nor does the plastic fitting hold the ss ball all that securely even if it could be pushed in. Of course, subaru doesn't sell the plastic fitting separately. The only solution is to replace the entire linkage: $101+tax from the dealer, $74+freight from online, or $30 from junk yard. I used the last option.

A few easy things to check. There are 4 CV flex boots on the axles and 2 stationary ones on the tie rods. See if they are ripped. One ripped CV cost me $400+. The ball joints or tie rods could be bad. You have to jack the car and check for wheel movement. The muffler/ cat/resonator flange joints could be ready to fall off. It could cost $1000+ to replace entire system or $200 if you can get anyone to weld on new flanges. If the brake calipers and their attachment bolts look like they are very rusted, it could require a complete brake replacement on all 4 wheels

UPDATE I replaced the o rings and, for good measure, I put a screw radiator clamp on the hose connection and tightened it real good. Problem solved, although it took a while to get all the air our of the system. I could only get the o rings at the subaru dealer. They are I think 13x15 mm and nothing at the hardware is close. The power steering pump suction is always under vacuum so the suction will not leak any fluid even when pump is not running. It's a bad design in my opinion. There is nothing wrong with adding the Lucas power steering fluid. A Subaru mechanic told me to add it and it did reduce the squealing at full wheel turn.

UPDATE I did something that I hadn't done before. I went up and down my road and moved the steering wheel left/right/left/right, etc and then pulled into my driveway and quickly looked into the reservoir. It was foaming! So I have a leak on the suction, probably from the o rings on the suction tubing. I ordered new o rings and will update when I Install them. I didn't think that the squealing had anything to do with the problem. It makes sense that its just the relief valve making noise.

I have an 02 with 94K. A month ago, I misaligned the power steering pump bracket when I installed the belt guard so that the pump sucked air and made a lot of noise when turning. I realized my mistake and fixed this within about 24 hr. Most of the noise went away. Someone suggested replacing the fluid with Lucas power steering fluid. I did this, mostly, by repeated draining of the reservoir. This stopped the little noise remaining. Now, I just started getting odd vibrations and a low level sound when turning. It comes and goes. It feels like the steering piston is grabbing. Even though it feels/sound like a piston resisting movement, I know it could be the pump. The pump squeals when the completely turned right or left but I doubt that's connected. so what should I do. I don't see any bubbles in the reservoir.

You have to cut out at least an inch around any penetration. So if you have a 1/2" penetration, figure a 2 1/2" hole. Rust is like cancer. Just taking out the obvious rusted area isn't enough. Then use a converter and seal the converter in case you missed any surface rust, especially on the inside.

Basically, you have to cut out the rusted areas! I know that you don't want to hear that but it's true. For the last two pictures [the back], take off the paint with the 3m wheel, then use a drumel cutting wheel to remove anything that's severely rusted. For surface rust, use the grinder on the drumel to get the last amounts of surface rust. Then it's converter, fiberglass, bondo, prime and paint. You can't leave any rust on the inside or outside, hence the advice to cut when in doubt. Rust never sleeps. For the front, same procedure but it looks worse. Only time will tell when you hit it with the dremel cutting wheel. If that's all the rust you have on a 95, you should thank your lucky stars

Well, in your price range, look at the old nissan pathfinder with the 3.3 engine. I know that the 3.3 is a very reliable engine since I'm been driving a van with it for 12 years. I almost started to look for a pathfinder before I bought a 95 subaru because I noticed that their used prices were kind of low.

All 4 idlers and the timing belt only costs $90 for the 2.2 engine from theimportexperts. At that price, it's nuts not to replace them all in my opinion. http://www.ebay.com/itm/1993-1997-Subaru-Impreza-EJ18-EJ22-Timing-Belt-Kit-/370597038544?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Year%3A1997|Make%3ASubaru|Submodel%3AOutback&vxp=mtr&hash=item56494e09d0 I just used their kit to replaced them as well as the water pump.

I don't have a good reason for not replacing the crank seal. Other then, it wasn't leaking and I'm risk adverse. I didn't know what trouble I would get into by fooling with the oil pump. If I was going to replace the seal, I would follow advice here and take the oil pump off as well.

I have a 95 subaru with 207 k miles. No good history. It was a mistake to buy it but that's another story. I replaced all the pulleys and water pump as well as the belt. 1. All but one of the cover bolts broke off in the inter covers. I eventually put them back on with tie raps. 2. I used the starter with a 1/2" breaker bar to loosen the crankshaft bolt. It worked fine. 3. I loosened the camshaft bolts before taking off the belt. I jamed the engine through the flywheel inspection opening with an 8", 3/8" screwdriver. 4. I used the lislie shaft puller #58430 to remove the leaking camshft seal. It worked fine. It's a little hard to understand until you use it. I actually pushes in and destroys the shaft side of the seal before hooking it and levering it out. 5. I put on the camshaft pulley by wrapping it with part of the old timing belt and using a $6 harbor freight chain strap to hold it. 6. I didn't change the crankshaft seal or torque in the bolts of the oil pump. I guess time will tell if I made a mistake not doing that. 7. The old belt was cracked every 1/8" and was a subaru OEM. I guess that it had been on there for at least 80K miles. I would hate to think that it had been on for 140K miles but it looked like it. 8. I didn't have any problem lining up the new timing belt. I did have a problem getting the belt on the cogged pulley even without installing the bottom smooth pulley. I put the bottom smooth pulley on last which turned out to be easy. 9. I didn't replace the the tensioner. It seemed Ok. I took 6 min to compress it versus the subaru recommendation of 3 min. 10 I didn't replace the coolant thermostat. What can go wrong with a bimetalic device? 11. I was surprised how easily it was to hold the flywheel while putting 130 ftlbs on the crankshaft bolt. I did have a big screwdriver however. I used a new crankshaft bolt for later year subaru's but it looked identical to the old one. The original design for the 95 subaru only calls for 60-70 ftlb of torque. 12. I didn't have any problems with filling the new coolant. The front wheels were elevated about 3" over the back ones. I filled the engine through the top hose and then the radiator. I ran it without a cap for a few minutes after heating up but very few bubbles came out. Hopefully the above is helpful to someone. I have to emphasize that I couldn't have done this without the advice and information on this forum. Thanks to all.

I just took off the off the crankshaft pulley on a 95 subaru, 200k miles. The rubber ring in the pulley is cracked every 1/2", on the radius, but otherwise looks oK. No doubt it's the original pulley. I don't understand what the rubber ring is for, but the car has been operating fine. Is there any problem with reinstalling it?

Well I have the $5.95 harbor freight chain wrench [it works with a 1/2" breaker bar] so I could go the route of wrapping the crank pulley with an old belt and putting a chain wrench to hold it. So there are holes in the fly wheel! Braking off the tip of a screw driver would be kind of sad!

I have a 95 legacy which I will do a timing belt change. It's auto, so I will need to stick a screwdriver in the flywheel to tighten the crank bolt. I've looked at all the utubes and Diy's. I see where to stick the screwdriver but it's unclear what's in the flywheel to hold it. Is it a slot or a hole in the flywheel? Some people say to position the screwdriver into the teeth, but that seems a bad idea!

AVK I wouldn't be surprised if the bolt number difference is just a change in length. But it only costs $3.47, so I'll buy a new one. It's amazing that you could come up with the old and new part numbers.

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to go with the 130+ ft lb torque and dry threads. I really worry about oiling the threads because that must increase the tightening by 50% or so. Subaru specifically warns against oiling the rim wheel nuts for example.

I have a 95 2.2 l on which I'm going to do the timing belts. I have questions about the crank bolt tightening torque. The following are the torques from the 96-99 subaru 2.2 l service manuals. I don't have the 95 service manual. 1996 80 ft lb 1997 94 ft lb 1998 94 ft lb 1999 94 ft lb AND oil threads, first tighten to 33 ft lb, then at least 45 degrees to final 94 ft lb It looks like subaru kept increasing the torque as reports of the bolt loosing started to arrieve! What would you guys do? Just tighten to 130 ft lb like the 2.5 l without oiling the threads?

The number GD referenced is the last 3 digits of the subaru HG part number. The full number is 11044aa642. I would just buy it from the dealership myself. However here is one of the many internet sites that sell it [not a recomendation]. http://streettunedmotorsports.com/parts/subaru_oem_ej25_head_gasket.htm

The six star head gaskets from AWD were $124 with shipping. The extra $50, as GD says, is probably not worth it compared to the 642. But I paid it anyway. If I was near GD, I would have done it his way.

The extended warranty on the 2000-2002 subarus ended early in the 2002 model run. My subaru was manufactured in Feb, long after the extended warranty had passed. Subaru did offer $250 credit which was trivial compared to what the dealership wanted [$2600 in one case, $3500 in another]. Which brings up an interesting point. What did subaru do at the point they ended the extended warranty. It's hard to believe that they just added stop leak at that point but it's possible. The old head gasket looked horribly by the way. The black coating was brittle and easily flaked off. I can't say whether it was graphite or viton.

No they didn't machine the heads. But neither does All Wheel Drive unless warped. I'll update this if they start leaking.

I just had the head gaskets replaced on my 02 subaru 2.5 l [91,000 mi]. I had all the parts replaced: timing belt,tensioner, pulleys, seals, water pump, themostat etc. I used theimportexperts for all parts except seals and thermostat. Cost $249. I substituted NPW for their std water pump. I used the six star gasket from AWD. Cost $122. Total parts cost including subaru seals and thermostat was $450. An indy shop did the work. Time was 14 hr. I hope it lasts!