Fairtax4me

Essentially, yes, but you're talking minimal wear over such a short term. Here's the thing. When driving down the highway for hours at a time, you generally have to turn the wheel one way or the other just slightly to go against the road crown, otherwise you end up in the ditch, right? During that whole time, the left and right front tires will be spinning at just ever so slightly different speeds. The end result is a very small amount of wear on the transfer clutch pack. But do this for a few hundred thousand miles and that small amount of wear adds up. Now think about driving down a curvy country road. Every curve the wheels need to spin at different speeds, which causes wear, which still takes a few hundred thousand miles typically to cause a problem, but the parts still wear. Vehicles that have been driven with mismatched tire sizes and treads have accelerated this type of wear, but for the most part they've made it to 150k or more miles before it becomes a major issue. With vastly different tire sizes the wear accelerates to a point where early failure occurs. But the car still needs to be driven several thousand miles to get to that point. A difference in how far left vs right a vehicle can turn will make a minimal, if any at all, impact on longevity of the transfer pack. You're not turning that much tighter than normal on a constant basis. And it's during times when the clutch pack is doing the lest work (pulling into a parking space). If you're just driving down the road, you're not turning any tighter than you normally would to make the corners and curves you drive every day anyway. Even though you have the ability to make a sharper left or right turn, you're not using that ability during your normal driving.

The light is for oil PRESSURE, not oil level. That light comes on because there is no oil pressure. Your bearings have been run without oil and are now damaged. No amount of new oil is going to fix them. You need a new short block at this point.

You can't use a cable operated cruise system with the electronic throttle. There's nowhere to hook it up, and if you doo hook it up it will make the ECU flip out because the throttle body will not respond properly to inputs from the ECU. Have to use a Subaru factory cruise system, which is probably pretty easy to hook up. The wiring is probably there, just need the module and switches.

I could see it rubbing on one side due to the incorrect tie rod length, but not both sides. Are your wheels aftermarket?

What kind of trans? The sound coincides wheel speed? Does it change if you give more throttle or coast? What if you downshift, or put the trans into neutral?

It looks like ( I can't find an FSM for 2000 forester so going off 2000 Impreza which should be similar) the cruise actuator may actually draw vacuum from the engine on that model. Earlier models had a pump for the cruise actuator. Even with the module unplugged, the valves in the actuator still ground through the brake switch to the main cruise switch. Recheck the valve resistances with the actuator connector unplugged. Rust inside the actuator is not a good sign.

The stock struts actually do very well offroad. The rebound rate is excellent for keeping the tires in contact with the dirt. As for lift, if you have metalwork experience you can make your own strut top lift blocks. Ditch the subframe spacers for extra ground clearance under the cross-member. (About an inch in the front) You should also seriously consider a front skid plate.

Outback struts and springs will give you just a hair over 1 inch, Only because the struts are longer. The springs between Legacy and Outback are the same. Forester springs are taller, and will give you 1 inch. Outback size tires (205/70/15) are a hair over an inch taller than the stock legacy size (185/70/14 or 195/60/15). Outback struts & springs, with outback size tires = 2", and will not greatly affect handling, you can actually make it slightly better by adding Outback front and rear sway bars. Outback struts, forester springs, 205/70/15 tires = 3" Handling will be affected, and you'll easily split your now old CV boots. I have Outback struts and springs, outback tires, and a 2" block kit, and I'm sitting a hair over 4" taller than stock for a 96 L.

If you have a manual trans you can find your current trans ratios here: http://www.northursalia.com/techdocs/trannychart/trannychart.pdf You don't stand to gain much by going with a 3.90 final drive. This would slow off the line acceleration. You may get a slightly lower highway rpm, depending on the 5th gear ratio. The only option you have for better acceleration overall would be a 4.44 final drive. If you have an automagic, any manual trans will be an improvement.

The speedometers read slow on purpose. If you put the 205/70s on without changing the final drive your speedometer will read about 3-5mph slow. (It will say 60, but you're actually going 65) Personal experience, yours may vary.

You can find the FSM for 99 here: http://www.main.experiencetherave.com/subaru_manual_scans/ Look in the wiring diagram section. ECU pinout should be in there. If not there look in OBD2 diagnostics under troubleshooting.

I don't have wire diagrams for one of these, but most of these Subarus have a common ground connection for everything in the center console. It's bolted to the bottom corner of the dash cage behind the trim. Right about where the dash trim meets the carpet. Usually one on each side.

Have you checked the vacuum pump for operation? Cruise doesn't draw vacuum from the engine, it has its own pump, usually hanging off the passenger strut tower near the AC accumulator.

Left side of the engine behind the number 3 intake runner. Look straight down under the IAC, there is a big wire harness that runs under the intake, and the two temp sensors are hidden under that harness.

There's a pin that needs to be grounded so the ECU doesn't look for the auto trans. Also need to ground a pin to tell the ECU the manual trans is in gear, unless you used a Subaru trans, in which case you can just hook up the switch.

Sounds more like an issue with the pump. Try raising engine speed (lower gear) and see if the pulsation is still there. Have a similar issue with my mothers Camry but has been exactly the same way for years. New fluid didnt help, just an oddity with the pump as far as I can tell. Still seems to steer just fine and the pulsation (which is VERY slight) doesn't bother her, so I haven't chased down the exact cause yet.

Forester struts by themselves will only pull the wheel forward like 1/8". Probably less. If you feel like swapping trailing arm brackets you can but they don't make that big of a difference. And if the car is rusty there's a good chance the bolts are rusted/seized and the captive nuts in the body will break off. Makes a lot more work than its worth to correct that little bitty difference.

I've seen them for about $20 -$25. Check advance auto and use discount codes from retailmenot.com and you can save some $$. Junkyard isn't a great option for this since its a fairly common failure.

Sad that a stock deck is an upgrade over a JVC, but it is! Make sure you calibrate the TPS! The voltage on the output needs to be 0.5v or the ECU will flip out. Squeaking noise is probably the brake pads.

It'll still run forever as long as the rod bearings hold up. The whistle is a Subaru thing. Something to do with the muffler. Gets much more prominent when you have a dead cylinder.

This isn't like a 4wd truck where you disengage the 4wd and the hubs and only the wheels spin, while the axles and prop shaft sit still. The rear axles, rear diff, and rear driveshaft are still connected to the wheels, so they still turn when the car moves even though they aren't "powered". The differences in fuel economy between an AWD and FWD Subaru are partly due to different final drive ratio (3.54 FWD, 3.90 or 4.11 AWD) And less weight because of the lack of AWD components. The transmission weighs about 30lbs less, prop shaft, rear diff, rear axles are another 150lbs. The other part is the decrease on driveline drag because the engine doesn't have to turn the rear axles, diff, and the prop shaft. Just switching yours to FWD will not make a noticeable difference without removing the rear drive parts.

Probably the Engine coolant temp sensor is bad. There are two separate sensors, one for the computer hat has two wires, one for the guage that has one wire. It's the two wire one you need. The ECTS is telling the computer that the engine is significantly colder than it really is, so its giving it way more fuel than it needs which floods the engine.

I've read about this a few times since I had the problem, but I couldn't find anything about it before that. Thinking it could be a fairly common issue now that these cars are getting older. The one I had looked like a fatigue break, so I'm thinking vibration is probably the cause, and we'll probably see more of this.

You can use the rear sway bar, just swap the forester sway bar mount brackets to the legacy, and wail on that useless hump with a 3 lb sledge. But outback sway bars are still bigger, so if you can find one of those it usually works better.

Poke your head under the dash and make sure the green connectors are UNPLUGGED. Those are the test mode connectors and should be left unplugged. If they're plugged in the ECM is stuck in test mode which will cause a bunch of codes to set if you try to drive the car. Clear the codes and see what comes back. 4 of those code could be caused by a bad speed sensor input to the ECM. If the speedometer works the sensor circuit between the guage and ECM may be bad. P0325 knock sensor is a common failure. About $20 for a new sensor on eBay.