Fairtax4me

All Subaru Ej driveshafts are two peice shafts. They are bolted together in the middle, remove 4 bolts and you have two short sections.

Does it have a sunroof? Very common for sunroof drain tubes to pop off and the water drains down the A pillar to the floor. The drain could also be clogged. Usually the drain tubes come out in the wheel well but on some cars they drain into the rocker panels. If the rocker panel drain is clogged the water eventually overflows into the floor. It could also be a clogged drain in the bottom of the drivers door. Water will back up and overflow into the floor area from behind the bottom edge of the door panel.

The parts store installed the battery? I would make sure the terminals are tight before going any further. What brand is the new battery? As for the alternator, how old (mileage) is the belt? It could be loose, or it could be time to replace it.

Mia and Tia

My method for avoiding this is to slide the seat forward, remove the rear bolts first, then slide the seat back and remove the front bolts. The seat should now be easy to remove without the tracks getting hung up on the door frame. It also helps if you do NOT fold the back forward.

Twins? How lucky you are! Are their names Mia and Tia? :-P

Exhaust is easy to check. Just kick the tail pipe a few times.

Without the light some people never check them at all. And those same people are oblivious to the way the car drives or tracks or even appears. The vehicle to them is nothing more than an object, and as long as the object is present (not stolen or lost in a parking lot) they're content to drive it regardless of any poor mechanical condition it may be in. I've seen people walk up to cars that have very obviously low tires, get in and drive away as if there were nothing wrong. I, on the other hand, make it a point to park in such a way that I can see all 4 tires of the vehicle as I approach it. Whether its in my driveway, in a parking lot, or just across the street. And if I can't park in such a way I will walk around the car and check all 4 tires before getting in.

Lug nuts are a few $ each at most auto parts stores. I you only need one or two they usually have enough in stock.

Cover the light with a piece of tape and ride. Some states are adding TPMS lights into their state safety inspections, because of the chance of a faulty sensor, so if your state checks for that for inspection you may want to swap to the other set of wheels before having it inspected.

Put an old lug nut on the end of the stud to hit with a hammer, or use a brass drift to knock it out. Tone ring is easy to remove as long as rust hasn't destroyed the heads of the small bolts that hold it on.

How about an exhaust hanger? Or exhaust pipe or heat shield rubbing something?

Can't tell exactly what is in the first two pics. Third pic is the trans mount and it appears to be visibly OK. I wouldn't suspect it as a source of trouble.

Pretty much any seat from a Legacy Impreza or Forester will fit. 1990 til about 2009. Possibly even up to the current model year Impreza and Forester. Just swap the belt latch to the new seat. The leather seats in the 96-99 Legacy Outback models hold up well and are very comfortable.

So save the money spent on a full rebuild, spend half as much on a 90-96 2.2 and have the most reliable engine Subaru ever built. The 2.2 is not plagued with the head gasket problems and small bearings that ruin the 2.5. Very common and very simple swap and yields the best results for the least investment.

Turbone is thinking the same thing I am. Fouled plugs are a common problem on turbo engines because of the low heat range of the plugs. Entirely possible the plugs are just fouled beyond use. A new set of spark plugs could be the cure.

Has the separator plate ever been replaced? I think the only way to get a paper towel in there would be to remove the plate. Either that or roll it up and stuff it down into the breather port on top of the block. Possibly someone replaced the oil pan at some point in the past and stuffed a paper towel into there from below and forgot it?

I did some digging around looking for LED driving lights a while back and thought the PIAA lp570 lights from amazon were probably the best deal for premade lights. I thought about custom fitting a set of after market lights with LEDs and it would be a more cost effective alternative but I figured the LEDs and a module to keep them from blowing up, and some little odds and ends to mount them up with, would run around $60-70. That would get me light ouput in the range of 1000 lumens between the two lights. I could get up to about 2000 lumens for another $35 or so. This would mean running a step up transformer to bring input voltage for the module up to 24v though to provide the extra voltage needed for more LEDs. But lights that are designed for LEDs have a different reflector designed for the LED beam pattern. My custom set would require quite a bit of testing and research to get a proper beam from reflectors and lenses designed for a halogen bulb.

Speed bleeders don't do any good. Just a waste of money. If you had the blesses loose at one point an easy out may be able to remove them. Otherwise you may just have to drill them out.

You don't need to look for boost leaks, you need to look for unmetered air leaks. Air entering the intake stream behind the MAF. This throws the ECUs fuel mixture calculation off, and forces the mixture lean which is no good for starting or for idle. The idle control valve hose is a big culprit on the non-turbo motors. Any hose that hooks into the intake tubing post MAF can be a source of unmetered air. Check the breather hoses, PCV valve hoses, all of them at both ends for loose connection. ECT is engine coolant temperature. Generally when these fail the ECU gets a signal that the engine temp is something like -40 degrees. Makes hot starting a pain because it tells the ECU it needs an insanely rich mixture. Usually not an issue on cold starts, especially if its actually cold outside. But occasionally they fail the opposite way, or there is some kind of problem such as corrosion or bad wiring that tells the ECU the engine is hot, so you don't get enough fuel.

Fuel fouling could just be due to lack of spark. Possibly a bad coil pack or igniter. Or low voltage to the coil. Check for 12V on the center pin of the coil harness with the key On. What kind of spark plugs are installed, and what is the gap? ECT sensor could be bad. Or there could just be a big air leak somewhere. Does that setup have a MAF sensor?

The two biggest things are to use a Subaru OEM thermostat, and make sure the system is properly filled with coolant and purged of air. If the thermostat didnt come from a dealer there are only one or two acceptable aftermarket replacements, and they are generally only available from online sources. Did the thermostat come from a dealer? Secondly. Because of the design of the Subaru cooling system you have to fill the engine with coolant before filling the radiator. Otherwise the engine will airlock and there will not be enough coolant flow to keep the engine cool. System capacity is around 1.6 gallons. If you fill the engine through the upper radiator hose, then fill the radiator you should be able to get at least 1.5 gallons into the system on the initial fill. If you just fill the radiator you may only have less than a gallon of coolant in the system, which prevents normal cooling. There is a small plug on the upper corner of the radiator opposite of the filler cap. This plug needs to be removed (it just unscrews) while filing the radiator to allow all of the air out of the radiator. Once full the plug should be re-installed before starting the engine. Start the engine with the radiator cap off, top up the colant level in the radiator, then put the cap on. Fill the overflow tank to about half full and allow the engine to warm to normal temperature while idling. Once warm turn the engine off and allow it to cool completely. Once cool check the coolant level in the radiator and overflow, top up if necessary then cap off and start, allow the engine to reach normal operating temp then take the car for a short drive. If the engine overheats after this air purge process the heater core or bypass pipe may be clogged, but the head gaskets are a prime suspect.

Pretty sure the cluster lights are just 194 or 168 wedge bulbs. Cluster isn't hard to remove. I have one that is intermittent on the 70-140 side of mine. Doesn't bother me because I hardly use that half of the speedometer anyway. But the low side, yeah I would pull the cluster out to replace that.

Seems to me I remember seeing in the FSM somewhere that the highest cold start idle should be no more than about 1800 Rpm. And that was at something like -40F degrees. Unless the ECUs temp sensor is bad, this should either be a stuck idle control valve or throttle plate, or a manifold air leak.

That's a very pleasant sound.