Fairtax4me

Did you get spark plugs too? 99% of the time misfires are caused by worn spark plugs, and/or old plug wires. The coils hardly ever go bad on these. The coil type only somewhat determines which wires you need. The 97 coil should have the male output posts, where the 96 coil has female posts. But you also need to make sure you have the correct wires for the engine. 2.2 and 2.5 wires have entirely different ends that go on the plugs. 2.5 wires are also a bit longer on one side than the other. 2.5 plug wires stick into the middle of the valve covers and point straight out towards the frame rails. 2.2 plug wires stick into the heads above the valve covers, and stick out/up at about a 45 degree angle. Entirely possible your Outback has a 2.2 swap done (if you're not the original owner) as its a common replacement for a 2.5 with bad rod bearings.

Cool, but what's the $$$?

Any kind of tools are always a justified purchase!

Electronics changed in 03, so the 04 trans will not work. The 98 trans has a different bolt pattern to the bellhousing (4 fewer bolt holes) , but will bolt up and plug in, but the final drive ratio will be different because its from a legacy. Better off to find one from a 99-02 Forester. Try searching at car-part.com.

For how long does it shake? How many miles in the car? Is this a recent problem or something that has been going on for some time?

The angle doesn't have to be exactly exact. It'll make more sense when you get under the hood and look at it. Just note the orientation of the original sensor and try to get close to that with the new sensor. Are the eBay sensors AS good? Probably not, but they're good enough. And for the cost, you can order 8 or 9 of them for less than 1 dealer part. If an eBay sensor lasts two years, and even if you get a dud, you're covered for 12,14, maybe 18 years, and you're still spending less than getting 1 from a dealer.

I think you must have just confused your scope by not having a ground. The ECU controls the ground side of the heater circuit, so when the heater is off there will be 12v on both wires. Connecting to either of those and to the signal wire with the same scope channel will give you strange results because both wires will have voltage. The scope will think its reading some kind of strange AC pattern. This is why its very important to have a good ground for scope testing.

It never worked in my old wagon, and I need got around to figuring out why. I never had washer fluid in my floor though. If its wet in the floor, it would only make sense that the hose runs through the channel under the carpet where all the wiring, fuel, and brake lines run. Easy to get to, just pull up the sill panels and push the carpet back. There's a whie plastic cover over all the important stuff, use a flathead screwdriver to pop the little clips loose and cold the cover over then you can see all the hoses and stuff.

The ELM 32 works with the Torque App for Android. Seems to work well from what I've heard. And there are several programs floating around in Internet-land that work with the ELM 32.

Rockauto has decent prices on Felpro gaskets, but I usually end up getting them from Advance or Napa if they have them in stock. I order online from advance and use a discount code then go pick them up an hour later. Usauly get stuff for about the same price as rockauto before shipping. Of course, living close to a retail store means little expense on gas. If I had to drive 30 minutes to get there it would be a different story.

Probably knock sensor. Very common. New ones are cheap on eBay. Never hurts to runs bottle or Lucas fuel system cleaner. And Seafoam in the intake is fun for giggles even if it doesn't help.

It's the u-joints in the steering shaft coupler. It's at the end of the steering column shaft and joins to the steering rack input shaft. Look under the hood and its below the brake booster. I've had some fun with this myself lately. If this is something that just started you can buy some time by spraying the joints with PB blaster and turning the wheel a few times. This will get some lubrication in the joints and free them up temporarily. Eventually the coupler will need to be replaced. I've found a source for new u-joints to install in the coupler, but haven't recieved them yet so I'm not 100% certain they'll work. I plan to make a thread with the results once I get them and install them.

This sounds like they blew a fuse(s). The problem is they've hooked up another battery (a small one) to keep the settings and memory for the computer. That small bettery has enough power in it to blow fuses if the battery cables touch each other or touch metal surfaces while the battery is out. Which fuses get blown usually depends on where they have the memory saver hooked up. There are several different types that can be plugged into different places in the car. Check all the fuses in the dash, and under the hood.

It won't take YOU 35 minutes, probably more like an hour and a half to two hours if you've never done it, but its not a very difficult job, and only requires basic hand tools. Get the back end of the car up on jack stands. Remove the right rear wheel so you have some space to work. Open the filler door and remove the 3 screws around the filler cap. These are the ones Ivan is talking about drilling out. Sometimes they're rusted pretty bad. Remove the 3 or 4 10mm bolts from the plastic cover on the filler tube (they will probably just snap off), then rip the cover off and throw it away. Remove the 10mm bolts that secure the filler to the body. One is near the top, and I want to say there is another near the bottom but I don't remember exactly. Loosen the hose clamps on the bottom of the filler and the small hose that's next to it. Use a pick or small screwdriver to break the hoses loose by sticking the tool between the hose and pipe and working it around the pipe. There is a plastic clip thing on the small hose that takes some fiddling to get it popped loose, then the small hose slides out of the frame. Then work the filler tube around a bit and it pops out of the hose. Once its out swap the small tube onto your replacement if it didnt come with a new one. If you have the style with the valve at the top there are two small hoses to deal with but they're usually pretty easy. Install in reverse of removal. Use petroleum jelly on the ends of the new pipe to make it easier to slide into the hoses.

Yeah. Black wire is signal. You can ground to the engine or to the battery -. The O2 sensor creates voltage so it doesn't matter if its hooked up to the ECU or not. It doesn't even have to be on the car. You can heat it up with a torch in a vice and it will create a voltage signal. I don't know where you got 35v from. Which two wires were you checking that gave 35v?

Most parts stores will rent fuel pressure test kits for free. You pay a fee to get it, but get all your money back when you return the kit. You need a kit with a T fitting. Hook up between the fuel filter and the engine.

Are the tires inflated properly? Even of the front tires are now the "better" set they could still be worn unevenly. Uneven wear can cause unusual handling, pulling, and wandering. The second shop wants to replace the whole rack and pinion rather than just the inner tie rod end. This is not necessary unless the rack is leaking, or the end bushing is worn. The end bushings can't be checked without removing the boots on the ends of the housing. If you have jack stands or wheel ramps the inner tie rod ends are very easy to check on your own.

Well finally caught a break after I managed to make out what looked like a part number on one of the bearing caps on the u-joint. That lead me,via google search of the part number, to a thread about a month old discussing replacing u-joints in a Toyota steering shaft. One of the posters mentioned a site called ujointstore.com which carries a 16mm X 40mm replacement u-joint. Measured the joint in one of my spare couplers and sure enough that's the size. $25 a pop. I ordered 2. Will update when I get the new joints and attempt to install them. Of course I find this after I just bought a whole coupler, but I have a spare now!

Then the bottom wire is ground wire, so there should be 0v there. That means the ground is good. The TPS signal at the ECU should be checked. You would have to get a factory service manual for the car and check which pin the TPS signal wire goes to in the wire diagrams. Have you checked for split vacuum/ breather/ PCV hoses? Checked fuel pressure? Replaced air/fuel filters?

For the O2 sensor set time/div to 200ms and see if the signal looks better. Front sensor when its warm should swing between about 0.3v and 0.8v. Should swing a couple times a second. Also are you checking the front sensor or rear sensor? Or is the front sensor the first pic and rear sensor the second pic?

O2 sensors can cause poor fuel economy and power loss. They do not affect starting because the sensors do not work until they're hot. The ECU doesnt get any O2 sensor readings until the sensors are warm. Once the sensors start responding the ECU will use those readings to adjust the air/fuel ratio, and will go into closed loop operation. O2 sensors have 1 signal voltage wire, 2 wires for the heater element in the sensor, and sometimes 1 signal ground wire. The signal voltage wire will show 0.0-1.0v and will fluctuate. The heater element wires will be 12v. One is supply voltage, the other is ground. These wires will be the same color. The supply voltage for the heater element usually turns off after the sensor is warmed up. O2 sensor codes are not typically set immediately if the sensor is unplugged. Most of them are two trip codes (the fault has to be present for two drive cycles), or the O2 sensor monitor has to run (O2 emissions monitor has certain requirements which are not always met in one key cycle) before the code will set. Typically a crank with no start is the ECT sensor, or a crank or camshaft sensor. But the crank and camshaft sensors will set codes immediately if they have a problem that prevents the engine from starting. Get a spark tester and the next time it won't start check it for spark. When you replaced the ECT sensor, did you replace the one wire sensor or the two wire sensor?

Tell him he's welcome to buy them but you can't guarantee fitment. Really though the only difference I can imagine is maybe the top hats are different, but that's common and they're easy to swap.

If t continues making noise after stopping I think that rules out anything suspension related. Have you checked in the glove box? Is the blower fan full of dead mice?

Pull the panel down and make sure all the pins are pushed into the connector all the way. Have seen mention here several times of pins being backed out of the plug, and that would certainly cause the scanner to not communicate.

You have an EJ251. Piston rings don't go bad on these. Though there have been problems in some where the oil changes were neglected. There are tiny drain holes in the piston behind the Oil control ring and those get clogged up with crud which causes the rings to seize in the pistons. Then you start burning oil. This can usually be fixed by running a high detergent (high mileage) or synthetic oil, or using about a half quart of Marvels Mystery Oil mixed with the regular oil. Worst case the pistons have to be pulled out and cleaned by hand, but it doesn't require a new engine to fix. Yes, Subaru blocks are sleeved, the sleeves are cast into the block. No the sleeve is not replaceable, but it doesn't need to be. They can be bored over and re-honed, but they hardly ever need it. The cylinder walls just don't wear that much. The shop you took it to just isn't knowledgable about Subarus. So anything they said you can pretty much toss out the window. If you have the time and some tools you can do some basic checks like pulling the spark plugs to get an idea of what's going on in each cylinder. You can rent a compression test kit and check the compression yourself. I wouldn't bother right now with trying to find a new engine until you have an accurate idea of exactly what's going on in yours. As for the rear diff. I haven't had the chance to drive one of these with the rear VLSD in the snow, so I can't say if its normal for the back end to want to to the steering. But I have driven plenty of RWD cars/trucks, even a BMW 325es (which was less fun than it might sound), with limited slip or locking diffs in the snow, and they certainly tend to do the steering with the gas pedal. Of the AWD Subarus I've driven in snow, the way to spin them out is to lift off the throttle in a turn. If your foot is on the gas the cars is pretty much gonna to wherever you point the wheels. The automatics behave a bit differently than manuals, being a bit less likely to go sideways when you take your foot out of it. A rear diff swap isn't that hard, as long as the mounting bolts aren't rusted to hell. Just swap the whole thing, case and all. You can't open the case until you get it out anyway because of the way its mounted.