Fairtax4me

Yeah those are way up near the firewall. You'll probably have to remove the ECU and push the wire harness aside to cut the hole for it. It can help to drill a small hole from beneath right next to the bolt, then stick a long thin punch or screwdriver into it and hit it with a hammer to make a notch on the inner floor pan.

Hey that looks like an engine that's in a car!

Yeah I think you just pull and they pop off. As long as the clips don't break it should pop right back on.

If you got it from the dealer it's the right one. They are small but very effective. None of the 4 cyl engine cars have large filters these days. Its just not necessary. The one in my sisters Hyundai is smaller than the Soob filters. I haven't used a Fram filter in years. I strayed away from them long ago after having constant problems with their anti-drain valves. I usually use purolator, sometimes Hastings. Haven't ever had trouble with either of those brands.

It's the kind of thing I would do, but not what I would tell others in the same predicament. Credit for ingenuity and bravery! You uhh... "got-r-dun". :-p

Post count is no indicator of experience. 1,000 posts could just mean someone likes to express their opinion, no matter if the info they share is just hearsay knowledge from some random internet forum. Though bullying may not be intentional it can often be viewed as such based on the wording of a reply. Keep in mind there is no sense of expression behind typed text in a white box on a computer screen. I could be laughing while I type "F U cork*****r" as a joke, but with no facial expression behind the words would it be viewed as an insult or mere sarcasm? The correct thing to do is not to defend the ones making coarse comments, nor attempt to aggravate the situation further. Keep an eye on perspective, and how your comments may be viewed by the other side. Also keep in mind some are not as mechanically savvy as others. Someones definition of "hard to reach" may differ based on their prior experiences. It could also be due to size limitations. I have small hands and thin arms. I can change timing belts on these cars without even removing the radiator fans, or any of the accessories. Other people have to take out the radiator entirely, remove the alternator, steering pump and AC compressor in order to feel comfortable working on the front of the engine, or even to get their hands and tools in place to be able to work. Tools are another factor. Point is, we don't need any more sticks poking around in the ashes here trying to re-light a fire. Capice?

Head gaskets. The collapsed hose is due to air in the cooling system. Air is easily compressible, it's also easily expandable. In normal operation as the cooling system pressurizes with temperature, coolant is pushed out of the radiator into the overflow bottle, where it is stored until the system cools again. As it cools the pressure drops and creates vacuum in the system which draws the coolant from the bottle back into the radiator. When the head gaskets go bad, the same process occurs during pressurizing, except that exhaust gases push MORE coolant out of the system, and then take it's place. Now as the system cools, there is a large air pocket which simply expands rather than pulling coolant from the overflow back in. This causes the radiator hoses to collapse, since they are full of air rather than coolant which would normally hold them in place. Bottom line is you have bubbles in the overflow, and varying temperature during driving, and both of those are key indicators of bad head gaskets. Not to mention, this is an Ej25D, which is the PRIME candidate Subaru engine for head gasket problems.

There's only one transmission mount and it's pretty stout. Very flexible, but hard to break because of the way it's made. I'd be surprised if the mount was actually broken.

If you got a code for it, you'll end up with the ECU in failsafe which will cut ignition timing advance to prevent damage to the engine. Typical symptoms are loss of power, misfiring, and/or lots of pinging. Ebay has new knock sensors cheap.

Axle nut? You usually have to pound the axle loose with a hammer to get it to pop out of the hub. Only ring on the inside I can picture is the tone ring for the ABS and that doesn't need to come off to remove the axle.

This is a seriously good score for the DIYer. Great to hear and SEE that the new cap fits. Did the new cap/ filter kit come with a new o-ring? Did you lubricate the o-ring before putting the cap on? That can make a BIG difference in ease of installation. It can also lessen the chance of twisting/ cutting the o-ring. Thanks for the update and great info!

No news means good news right?!

Pumping the gas pedal has no effect on fuel injected cars. You probably have an issue with fuel pressure, not an injector issue. There are a few threads recently discussing a fixture on the fuel pump assembly that causes fuel pressure to bleed off. Seems to be an increasingly common issue on the 2000 and later models, especially with the 6 cylinder engine. Here's one thread about it: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=135288 Waiting to hear if the proposed fix in that thread will work. The only current way to fix the problem is to buy a used part, which will likely fail again in the not too distant future, or buy an entire fuel pump assembly from Subaru to the tune of around $400.

Don't worry about that. The Oil pan doesn't have high pressurized turbulent oil flying around inside it like the oil pump does. The constant pressure changes and volume of oil flow in the pump housing is what makes the RTV bits break off in there. You don't have any of that in the pan. Just oil dripping back down from the heads and crank, and it runs down onto the baffle plate in the center first before it even touches the pan, so it doesn't even flow over the RTV around the edges. And if a piece breaks off it's usually big enough that the pickup screen will catch it, then it will drop to the bottom of the pan and settle in with all the other crud that calls it home down there. (And you'd be surprised what you can find living at the bottom of an oil pan)

That is red RTV. That is NOT Anaerobic sealant. Permatex Anaerobic sealant comes in the blue tube that I pictured above. Pretty sure Locktite Anaerobic comes in a blue tube too. Get Ultra Grey RTV for the Oil pan. The red stuff sucks.

I have NO covers on my car right now and haven't had any problems. It's been offroad like that in 4ft tall grass, and through a creek a few times up to the door sills. Timing belt is still there. The metal cover on the back of the passenger head has an O ring under it. It's solidified and glued to the cover by now. Just looks like some black stuff in the corner. Take the cover off, use a small screwdriver or pick to break the old O-ring off. It will appear to be a piece of plastic and it will break into several pieces. The cam plug on the back of the drivers side head, there is only one of those. The other O-ring goes on the front of the drivers side head. There is a spacer there held on by 3 bolts (one 12mm and two 10mm). Remove the cam sprocket, remove the rear belt cover, and you will see the spacer. That's actually the front cam support bearing, so try not to get a bunch of dirt and crud in there. Make sure it's cleaned out and has a coating of fresh oil before you put it back. Oil pump. You don't want a "good 'nuff" O-ring there, unless you want to take it apart again to fix the massive leak. Get the blue one from Subaru for $3. It's worth it. NO RTV on the oil pump. Subaru seals the pump with grey Threebond sealer, similar to RTV, but not quite the same stuff. RTV on the oil pump seal surface has a tendency to squeeze out into the pump housing, and little bits break off and clog the oil feed ports to the rocker assemblies. If a big enough piece makes it way down there it can clog the feed ports for the camshaft and then the cam will seize in the head. Use Anaerobic flange sealer on the oil pump. Anaerobic only dries in when compressed and in the complete absence of oxygen. Any that squeezes out will stay liquid, and thus will not cause trouble it if gets into the oil supply ports.

It went here: http://ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=135033 The thing to do now is listen to the trans again and see if you can hear the same noise you heard from it before. The mainshaft bearing is a very common failure on the MT.

Check your trans ID number against the trans chart to be sure. http://www.northursalia.com/techdocs/trannychart/trannychart.html The lower mount stud for the starter was replaced by a bolt somewhere midway through 99. If yours has the stud, but the trans you get uses the bolt you'll need to drill and tap threads or helicoil to hold the starter on.

The biggest problem with the center being ground out is there is not a perfect machined center to balance the wheel. Those wheels will have to be balanced with a special lug adapter or they will be out of balance.

The cam cap on the drivers side is just a rubber coated metal cap. It doesn't usually leak since the cam does not extend past it, but occasionally it will around the edge. It's a pita to replace in the car so if you have access and the part replace it while it's out.

If the other additive is still in the oil do not add MMO on top of it. Mixing additives is bad ju-ju stuff. It's like mixing household cleaners, you don't know what you'll end up with, but it might kill you. I'm not too keen on the idea of running 20w 50 oil in one of these engines but other people here have done it and their engines seem fine.

that's two broken quotes in a row! I'll fix mine.

It's probably the head gasket. Keep an eye on the oil level and you should be able to limp that along for a pretty long time. Eventually it will start to leak coolant as well though. There are a few ways you can figure out the mileage that it Shoudl have. One would be to run a Carfax or other vehicle history report to figure out the average yearly mileage put on the car by the previous owner. Multiply the AYM by the number of years since the P/O bought the car, and add that to the reported mileage at the time the previous owner bought the car. That should get you in the ballpark. You could also look through service records if it has them to determine the average yearly mileage, and figure AYM from 0, or the mileage on the oldest service record. We can't see the valve cover gasket surface very well in the pics. That's a common leak on any Subaru.

How many miles on that car? Auto or manual trans? Any goodies like Limited package, leather seats? $2000 sounds too low to me. I would expect to pay around $3000 - $4000 to buy another car like that from a private seller. Probably around $5000 from a dealer. How big is your deductible?

By "Fluid Service," do you mean simply checking the fluid levels?? No no. Fluid service means it gets changed. Brake/clutch fluid is only good for 2 years. Gear oils (Diffs, MT) should really be changed earlier (10k) to remove particles in the oil from break-in and prevent excess wear on the differentials. 30k IMO should be the second gear oil change. Coolant has a limited lifespan, even though the new stuff is supposed to be good for 100k miles, it still breaks down along the way. Especially if the level has ever been low, which happens more often than you might think on new cars. ATF condition is a major factor in transmission longevity. This really should be changed earlier as well, but 30k is about the most you should expect from ATF in everyday driving conditions.