Fairtax4me

Either auto or manual is just not worth ripping into the trans (auto is much more difficult) to replace diff parts. It starts as a bad bearing, but when it starts making noise it has progressed into drive surface wear on the ring and pinion gears which requires replacement of both parts as well as the bearings in order to correct. There are other parts in the trans that need to be replaced since they basically get destroyed during disassembly. If you tear it down that far, you better just rebuild it and at that point it's just not worth the cost. You're looking at probably $3000 between parts and labor JUST for the rebuild, plus extra for removal and installation, depending on where you take it. The better option is to replace it with a rebuilt unit, or just a used unit from a junkyard. Try what 91Loyale said first. Check fluid levels and try to isolate whether it is front or rear diff making the noise. The FWD (Front Wheel Drive) fuse is used to disable the AWD system on automatic transmission cars so that you can drive with the spare tire on the car and not cause damage to the center transfer unit. It is a fuse just like any other blade type. There is a small black holder on rear of the passenger strut tower under the hood that should say "FWD" on it. The fuse holder should be EMPTY. You put a fuse in (use one of the spares from the interior fuse panel) to make the transmission disable the transfer unit and work in only front wheel drive.

PLEASE do some research on Fram filters and stop using them. The actual size of the filter doesn't matter much for these engines. A larger filter can, in theory at least, last longer before clogging and causing a drop in oil pressure. Or it can take too long to reach its point of optimal filtering efficiency and cause more harm than good over the long run. As oil filters catch particulate the "holes" in the filter media fill in and filter out/catch smaller and smaller particulate. But during this time particles large enough to cause wear can still get through the filter and do their worst on your engines bearings and cylinder walls. When using a larger filter, it takes longer for these "large" particles to be filtered out. Of course "large" is a relative term since we're talking about scale of several microns here.

Was that 68°F or C? Maybe consistent, but high by 3 V. O2 sensor output shouldn't be more than 1.0V during normal operation. Maybe OB has a good explanation for this? I work at a car dealership... I have to be honest at some point during the day!

Crank angle sensors fail and the engine stalls and won't start at all. They are usually intermittent. The ignitor is a small black or grey box mounted to the bracket over the pitch mount (dogbone). It's only about 2" x2" and 1/4" tall.

Pretty normal. Fasteners in general will make noise when you get them tight. They can pop, click, squeal, etc. Ever loosened a rusty lug nut? Rusty U bolts are the worst.

Either will work fine. I think the only major difference is Dot 4 has a higher boiling point. I always buy the Valvoline syn power stuff since it's usually on sale when I need brake fluid.

They can usually move around a fair amount with some effort. The mount has a rubber bushing to dampen/isolate vibration in the strut/knuckle assembly and prevent it from being transfered to the chassis of the car. Check the rear bushings on the front control arms. They are fluid/grease filled rubber and when they go bad will allow the control arm to move around. If there is any dry rot on the rubber or any grey colored grease around them they are bad. If those check out address the rear brakes, and then move on to other possibilities.

Got one in my driveway. Mine does the same thing on cold mornings, if I don't let it warm up it will hardly make it up the hill on my street. It doesn't like the first 2 one-two shifts, out of my driveway, and then onto the main road, but when I get it down the road 1/2 mile to the first stoplight it's fine. Then it's fine after that, until the next morning and it does it all over again. If I let it idle for a minute before driving off, it doesn't do any of that. I don't complain about it, the car has 178,xxx miles on it, I think it has earned the right to be a bit temperamental in the morning. Hell I don't like waking up in the morning either.

Sounds like someone holding the clutch down at stop lights. I'd say put it back together and drive it. It's a subaru, it's gonna leak oil if it wants to, you just live with it.

I'd try getting the tires balanced first. Worn inner tie rod ends are common on these because the dust boots will crack and allow dirt/dust in which wears out the joint. Those tend to make a fairly noticeable clunk over bumps.

It's called Old and Cold. Cars old, engines cold. It needs to warm up a bit before you take off. Let the car idle for 45 seconds to a minute before you take off and see if it makes a difference.

Yeah, no sense worrying over what should or shouldn't be there until you figure out what it's looking for. Good luck getting it figured out and put back together.

When they say child proof them mean it! Don't get too reliant on the yellow for airbag component ID. Ford uses all different color plugs on their systems. The two unidentified plugs could easily be for options the car doesn't have. Thins is, if side airbags were an option for the car, I would expect for there to be harnesses for them even if the components aren't there.

Should learn by now not to post while I'm dog tired. Actually I literally was dog tired that evening after walking 3 dogs for a family I had been house sitting for all week. I practically called myself out in that one and didn't even catch it!

The car may have them from the factory but stock coolers are generally not adequate for frequent towing. After market coolers are commonly installed on all forms of vehicles and are easy to find/install. 1000lb trailer plus cargo in the tow vehicle, the Tribeca would probably be the smartest choice but I would try to find out if anyone else is towing the same weight with a Tribeca and what troubles, if any, they have had with it. Worst comes to worst they have to buy a truck.

OL is OverLoad, basically infinite resistance, which means a broken (open) circuit. Probe each end of the harness (use clip leads) for continuity to find if there is a break in the wiring.

Good stuff here. The ECT throws me a bit. Was this a cold start or had the car been driven previously that day before connecting the scanner? A pending code is a fault that has been detected, but has yet to illuminate the MIL because it is a "two trip" fault. It has to re-appear on two consecutive "drive cycles" before it will illuminate the MIL, otherwise it will be erased. I think it is safe for you to delete any current, stored, or pending codes and start fresh. This way the scanner will store freeze frame data from the most current code when that code is triggered.

That's a pretty good list. I don't have Subaru's list of DTCs for the 2000 Impreza. I have the FSM for a Legacy but some that you have don't turn up there. The only one I can find significantly different is P1133 O2 Sensor heater circuit low. Your best bet is to find a factory service manual for your car and start digging. There may be a lack of power to those circuits due to a bad ground or low voltage through a bad relay or connection somewhere. Without an FSM to tell you what and where to check, it's gonna be really hard to figure out.

I had this same code. It went away on its own after about a year. Been gone for about 4 or 5 weeks now. Bugged me the whole time. Brand new vacuum hoses, swapped in 2 different MAP sensors, 1 different switching solenoid, and checked everything I could out of the FSM dealing with that particular code. Nothing changed it. Still have no idea what made it come on, or what made it go away. But the basics are the easiest to check first. Vacuum hoses. Then breaks in the wiring at or near the sensor.

300% greater capacity than what? Or for that matter, of what? Bosch is great and all, but a basic Purolator will work just as well and cost half as much. Of the high end filters, Wix and Mann are probably the best IMO. Rule of thumb, don't mix German and Japanese parts. Germans make German parts to work with other German parts on German cars. Japanese make Japanese parts to work with other Japanese parts on Japanese cars. Germans don't make parts for Japanese cars. Japanese don't make parts for German cars.

I have a friend who says that all the time! Mockingly of course. But there are multiple sources and thousands upon thousands of (somewhat) documented cases of after market axles causing problems on all makes and models of cars. This phenomenon is by no means limited to Subaru.

Nuckin futz! Motorcyclin' for a second there.

So it's an AWD car but only the front wheels spin? Check that the driveshaft (that goes to the rear diff) is still there. Some people will remove those completely. The light is flashing because there is a fault (obviously) that the TCU (trans control module) has identified as a problem. The flashing light is a code. I don't know how to read them I've never bothered to look it up for myself, but there are plenty of threads here about how to do that. Look in the "Similar Threads" List at the bottom of the page here, or do a search for "Flashing AT Light" or something like that and something useful will pop up. The code probably has something to do with the Duty C solenoid which is the line pressure solenoid for the transfer unit/center diff in the tailhousing of the transmission. Those commonly go bad and will cause the center diff to lock which locks the front and rear driveaxles together creating torque bind. Makes the car all jumpy and hard to turn when in a parking lot or going around corners similar to how a 4x4 truck would behave on pavement when put in 4 wheel drive with the hubs locked. Matter of fact, you can search for "Torque Bind" here and find a ton of threads dealing with how to troubleshoot and fix this problem. If the prop rear driveshaft is still in place there are a few possibilities. The clutches in the transfer unit might be completely shot. There may be a short in wiring harness going to or inside the transmission or in the control module itself.

I've seen a few oil pans get rusted through. The rear axle cover on my buddy's truck rusted through late last summer and dripped 2 quarts of gear oil (nearly all of it anyway) over about 3 miles. We figured something was up when it started whining like a dieing cat. Found a 1/8" hole right at the bottom of the pan and the whole back of the truck was splattered with oil.

I would suspect a worn driveshaft carrier bearing. It's near the middle of the car.