Fairtax4me

Often a google search of the VIN can turn up interesting results. http://www.salvagedb.com/search?q=4S3BK4253W6317571

95 was the last year for any FWD Subaru. Everything after that is gonna be AWD unless someone swapped it or removed the rear drive parts. Still easy to check just to be sure. Just look under for the rear diff. Easy to see from the rear of the car.

Cheap bearings. Made in china. Unless it says NSK, NTN, or Koyo on it. SKF makes good bearings too.

The test hose should have an o-ring on the end which makes the seal, and only needs to be hand tight. Make sure the hose has the schrader valve in the end of it. This is important for holding pressure in the hose since you're increasing the volume of space that the engine is cramming air into so it takes several rotations of the engine to get an accurate compression reading. Remove ALL of the spark plugs. Test each cylinder with all plugs removed. You want the engine to spin freely. When cranking, hold the gas pedal on the floor so as much air as possible can get into the engine. You want it to turn over the same number of times for each cylinder, so count the "puffs". I like 5. Some people only do 4.

Generally a warped rotor will cause more shaking when going fast, and will shake harder the harder you brake. There are plenty of things that will cause shuddering or shaking, but only a few that I think fit your description. Knowing that you just had a CV axle serviced, I'm inclined to think this is related to that. Something you can easily do on your own is make sure the lug nuts are tight. Get the lug wrench out of the trunk. If you can turn them at all with that stumpy thing, (righty tighty) they're probably too loose. Second thing, if you feel like getting the jack out of the trunk too. Jack up the car so the front wheel (the side which the CV was worked on) is off the ground. Grab the tire at 9 and 3 o'clock and push/pull alternately to see if you can rock it back and forth. Try the same at 12 and 6. It should feel pretty solid both directions. If it moves a bunch and you get a clunking kinda sound, something's loose. I would be willing to be the wheel bearing is loose. Possibly due to a loose axle nut. This will cause play in the wheel in all directions. It can also cause wobbling of the wheel on light application of the brakes as the brakes try to pull the wheel back to straight. On heavy brake application the brakes clamp down tight on the rotor and will bring the wheel straight and hold it there. Once the brakes are released the wheel will be loose again.

That is a normal amount of play. This is not meant to be a close fit/ tight tolerance area. If the tolerance is too tight dust/dirt/sand etc can get between the TOB and quill and cause it to jam. The wider tolerance also helps keep more grease between the TOB and quill. The main advantage to the sleeve is that its made of steel, so it will not wear as the TOB ages. The aluminum quill on the transmission can wear 5-10 times more than the amount of play you have on the steel sleeve. Put some anti-seize on it and put it back together, It will be fine.

Either block will work, but there are some things to note. 96 DOHC block will have the highest compression because the pistons actually crest ABOVE the deck of the block. These blocks need a head gasket of a certain thickness to prevent the piston hitting the head. A 96-98 DOHC block will have 48mm rod bearings which are known to fail. In 99 they increased thereof bearing size to 52mm, bigger bearing surface, less likely to fail. If you want to do a rebuild of the bottom end before installing then either one will be fine, but if just using a used block the 96-98 are a bit of a gamble. On the DOHC block definitely use an STI oil pump. More volume for the small rod bearings to prevent failures. On the SOHC block its not as big of a deal, though it is a good idea if you plan to run high RPMs all the time, or if you plan to off-road and run low RPM under moderate to heavy load, like climbing rocky hills. Cometic makes a custom gasket for this build. Somewhere recently someone posted the part number. If you use a Subaru gasket (which is done all the time) you have to drill/punch some holes in the gasket for a water passage in the head. Not a huge deal.

I think you need a new mechanic. The idle problem was likely due to a loose vacuum hose or dirty Idle speed control valve. What it sound like he's done to correct that is to adjust the throttle stop screw on the throttle body, and this is not the proper method to correct idle speed on a Subaru. The throttle stop screw should never need to be touched. Adjusting this screw moves the throttle position sensor out of range, causing the ECU to think the throttle plate is being held open all the time, which causes idle problems as well as power problems. There are plenty of good Subaru mechanics in Washington. As Texan said, start a new thread asking for recommendations.

The overflow doesn't go into the cat. It goes into the evap charcoal canister. The canister is made to absorb fuel vapor, but liquid fuel will saturate the carbon in the canister and can cause the carbon structure to fall apart. Once the carbon is saturated it can not release all of the fuel, which prevents it from absorbing any more fuel vapor.

Yeah that is pretty well buried in there. That link says there may also be shift flare symptoms associated with this o-ring failure. Before the last Trans-X treatment I did she had mentioned there were certain times the transmission felt like it would go into neutral, mostly at slower speeds when the transmission was cold. She said none of that has happened since the last Trans-X. I kind of figured maybe that was related, so its nice to know that the same seal also caused that problem. Of course that also means that one of these days the forward clutch is probably going to cook.

If it does it again move the shifter to Neutral and try starting.

Yeah if you poke around some you'll find some pics of lifted/ bigger tires/ push bars on the 2000 era cars. The multi-link rears are really easy to lift with blocks. There are also lift springs for them made by King springs. Kinda pricey, but very good quality.

EVERY EJ engine has a separator plate. Manual or automatic. 1.8, 2.2, 2.0, 2.5, from 1990 all the way to 2012/13 or when they phased them out. All of them have the potential to leak at the separator plate. The mid 90s models are especially prone to leak because the plates were made of plastic. Chances are it will need some things, hoses, belts, transmission cooler lines, basic tune-up stuff, in the near future. Buy it with the knowledge that in the next few months you should plan to pull the engine and replace the oil seals, possibly timing belt/idlers and water pump.

That makes more sense Presslab. Thanks for the link. Now the question is... How difficult is that to get to? Time to poke around in the FSM.

HUGE thread on this issue here: http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/66-problems-maintenance/11267-2005-2009-outback-dangerous-ice.html over 130 pages of discussion Thread with detailed repair information here: http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/66-problems-maintenance/30747-2005-2009-ghostwalking-abnormal-winter-handling-fixes.html

If you smell burning rubber the compressor belt may be slipping at idle. Does it feel loose? Does the ribbed side of the belt look shiny? You could also have a slipping harmonic balancer (crankshaft pulley) which could cause the compressor to not turn fast enough with the engine at idle speed.

Generally a heavier oil is better. If you have any gear oil around, that works awesome for bringing up compression. Do you have a compression tester? If not you can usually rent one from an auto parts store.

It's summer time. Put a bypass hose on the heater pipes at the engine and wait til fall. Dealer labor would be a killer, especially to pull the dash out to replace the core.

So you're getting spark, and at least getting the commands for the injectors to pulse. If you can smell fuel in the tail pipe after cranking for a few seconds then you can figure that the injectors are probably squirting. Sounds like you're getting enough volume from the pump during the prime. That doesn't mean its creating proper pressure, but these pumps are pretty stout. If it moves fuel its probably working fine. You know you still have spark? But is it enough spark? Alot of times a plug will fire under no load conditions, but there may not be enough energy to make the spark jump the gap when the cylinder is under compression. This could be because of old plugs/wires or a weak coil. Or the battery voltage is too low to create sufficient spark. I don't recall if it was mentioned before, but did you check voltage at the coil while cranking? The only other thing left is compression. There is a good chance the cylinder walls have been washed down by fuel at this point and a squirt of oil into the cylinders may be needed to restore proper sealing of the rings to the cylinder walls.

How about year model mileage? Duty c problems are fairly common but the causes vary. Could just be a wire problem or it could be a burned out solenoid.

The dealer would not likely remove the condenser to do head gaskets, though there's a good chance they evacuated the system and removed the compressor since its kind of mounted on top of the drivers side head. The problem is most likely related to charge level if the o-rings on the compressor are leaking. It's hard for a charge to be too high if the system hasn't been recently charged. The pressure readings you got may also not reflect what is actually going on when the problem occurs. Im not sure what material the o-rings are made of. The old o-rings are usually black, possibly PTFE. The new ones are green. You can get a assortment pack of AC o-rings from most parts stores that should have what you need for about $5.

Those numbers seem high. Most of the newer Subs should be between 18-28 PSI on the low side. 210-240ish on the high side. That's with ambient temp between 85-96°. How long have you owned the car? I'm guessing its something you recently picked up and the previous owner had the system serviced. Pressure changes when the compressor stops are normal. At idle state the pressures will be the same on both sides. When the compressor stops running the low side pressure will increase slowly as the volume of refrigerant in the high pressure side flows past the expansion valve into the low pressure side. There will be an initial jump, then a fairly steady increase until the pressures get near equal. Then the heat and cold from the high and low sides (respectively) will keep the pressures slightly uneven until the temperatures equalize. Under normal operation the pressure rise and drop will vary depending on how often the compressor cycles off and on. Compressor cycling is determined by system pressure on the high side, and the temperature of the evaporator core.

Yeah, you may want to make sure its actually pumping fuel. Just because the pump makes noise doesn't mean its actually pumping. Stick the supply line into a plastic bottle and see how much you get when the pump primes.

There are options for cat-back systems and high flow cats of you look around. You may have better luck searching for listings for Legacy GT for 96-99 year range. The pipes are basically the same as Outback. Most WRX stuff will work but may need lengthening. WRX headers will not work since WRX was turbo. Any headers and high flow cats listed for an N/A Impreza 93-08ish will bolt right up, assuming you match single or dual port.

That's the o-ring that causes this problem?!? Damn I wish I had known that about two years ago! Would have taken me all of 5 minutes to replace that on my friends Forester when I had the engine out to fix the separator plate leak. I thought it was stuffed back in the trans between the pump and the main case somewhere!