Fairtax4me

No need to rebuild. Just order an inner boot kit. Clean it up, regrease it and pop a new boot on. There's a circlip that holds the inner joint in the cup. Be sure to put it back before you put the new boot on. Youtube how to reboot an axle for tips.

He did a combustion gas test on the radiator? Those almost never show anything on Subarus. Need to pull the spark plugs out of it after it cools down. The plugs will tell you which cylinder has coolant leaking into it. A leakdown test on that cylinder will confirm.

Airbag system monitors the passenger seat belt for occupancy detection. Where did you cut the wire? Too far up to solder it back together?

If it's getting worse you need to make it top priority to have it fixed. A broken driveshaft is not a pleasant thing. It can cause a lot more damage to the car. I've seen broken driveshafts rips through floor boards and injured people inside the car. It could also be thrown out from under the car and injure someone else. Don't keep driving it. Take it to get it fixed.

The cheaper idlers with the single row ball bearings tend to feel a little loose. Nothing wrong with them. It's just how they are.

No it's much larger than the engine oil plug. I've actually never replaced one. Most Dealers should carry them in stock. It's something they're supposed to change when doing transmission oil changes.

Piston is probably gonna be toast on number 3. Smashed spark plug means broken valve or piston crown.

Was the crankshaft the only one that was off?

Tensioner is bad or the belt is too long. The guide over the crank sprocket is NOT there to maintain the belt on the pulley while the engine is running. Its to prevent the belt from jumping if the crankshaft rotates backwards during transport of the car when it was new. Repeated jumps means the tensioner has failed. 3 minutes to compress? That's too fast IMO. Even on the older style (which are much more reliable) I still take closer to 10 minutes. C clamp turning about 1/8 turn at a time. If you can feel the piston fighting back, you're turning too fast.

Axle problem or the bolts on the driveshaft may be loose. Need to take it back to "the guy" and get him to check it out. If he's truly reputable, he'll fix the issue.

Yes, have to T into the line by the filter. You can rent a guage set with the T adapter you need at Advance auto. I've done that before. It's like $150 but you get the money back when you take the set back. Should have about 35 psi at idle. 40-45 with the pressure regulator vacuum hose unhooked.

Your pulley has separated where the rubber section is in between the outer and inner sections of the pulley. Need a new crank pulley. Don't worry about the timing cover, just trim the rough parts off and stick it back on. Who changed the timing belt? Looks like they used a chain wrench on the pulley and that could have damaged it.

Put the vice grips on the handle of the punch and twist it as you pull. Once you get the punch out, grab the pin with the vice grips and try to use a prybar or something against the vice grips to pull the pin out. What kind of pin is it? The Subaru ones are the best with the serrated seam. Never have had a problem with those. The aftermarket ones with the straight seam are junk. They aren't round and they're always a pain to get in. I've broken a few of those. I toss them in the trash and use old subaru ones.

What style tensioner do you have? What timing kit did you install?

Either the vacuum hose from the canister to the purge solenoid is pinched/plugged, or the purge solenoid under the manifold isn't working properly. Connect the green test mode plugs under the drivers dash. (single wire to each) Turn the Key to ON, then you'll hear the fans cycling on and off, and all of the solenoids and relays will start clicking. Find the solenoid under the manifold and listen/feel it to see if it is clicking open and closed. If it doesn't click, first make sure its plugged in all the way. Plug in a used one (if you can get one) and see if that one clicks. If the solenoid clicks pull the hose off the manifold and try to blow air through the solenoid. If air flows through the solenoid, you may have a clog in the vent tube for the evap canister at the back of the car.

This depends on the failure mode of the head gasket. Was it leaking oil or was it leaking coolant? Did the engine ever overheat? It's more common for the head gaskets on that engine to leak externally. Catalytic converter damage would only occur if the leak were internal, and the engine was burning coolant or oil. Internal head gasket leaks are NOT common on that engine, unless it is severely overheated. There are some things that could have been done incorrectly during the head gasket work that can result in lower fuel economy. And yes, over time a loss of fuel economy due to incorrect AF ratio, or incomplete burning of the fuel, will lead to failure of the catalytic converters. I agree with Emily, you need a second opinion on this. A 3-5 mpg difference in fuel economy is a big drop, and to me at least, is indicative of a problem caused by the head gasket replacement, especially if you noticed the difference immediately after the work was done.

You put 30-40-100 psi into a line that's clogged its gotta go somewhere when you take the nozzle away! Glad to hear you got it cleared out!

Most of the newer models have the evap filter built into the canister. Is that how yours is? And the filter opening is facing toward the wheel well? I'll have to keep an eye out for this.

I will definitely be trying that. I've actually used it at the local dealership once. Only for about 5 minutes because the parts person wasn't sure which part I was looking for and I had to dig through some diagrams to find it. The diagrams are the same as those on opposed forces. The layout is a bit different, but its similar enough to opposed forces that its easy to pick up on.

You're looking at the wrong mark on the crank. Timit mark is on a tooth at the back of the sprocket. Key notch in the sprocket will be straight down when its in the right spot. If compression is good, could be a dead or clogged fuel injector. Don't pull the injector out until you drain the fuel rails. Unscrew the pressure regulator on the back end of the fuel rail and pull it away from the rail so the fuel can drain out. Once the fuel is drained from the rail, then you can pull the injector out. If you don't drain the rail first, all the fuel in the rail will dump into the manifold and can hydro-lock the engine when you try to start it after replacing the injector.

Possible you damaged one of the catalytic converters, or one of the oxygen sensors. On newer Subarus when the check engine light comes on, you also get a flashing cruise control light because the cruise control is disabled when the CEL is on. Traction control may also be disabled. Sometimes the traction control light may come on due to a wheel slipping or losing contact with the ground if something is run over.

Then its time to do a compression test.

Pull the spark plug out of cylinder 3 and see what it looks like. Compare it to the plug from cylinder 1. Change it if its fouled. You could also switch the plug wire for number 3 with one from another cylinder and see if the misfire follows it.

Yeah you need a new canister. At some point it has been saturated with liquid gas and that causes the structure of the carbon to fall apart over a period of time. Likely some carbon chunks have been sucked into the purge line and it is clogged. Leave it disconnected from the canister and try blowing it out with compressed air. If you can't get any air to go through it at all, first try removing the rubber sections at each end and see if you can blow air through the steel line. If air flows without the rubber sections in place, just replace those sections. If you can't get air to move through the steel line, you may need to replace the steel line. Some coated steel brake line should work fine for that. Don't put that canister back in the car. You'll never get all the peices of carbon out. They'll just get sucked into the line and clog it again. The purge solenoid can be taken apart by bending the little tabs together. Pop the end plate off and the valve pretty much falls part. Blow the chunks out with compressed air and reassemble. Hoses. From the purge valve to the engine, you should block that off because it will cause a vacuum leak and can cause a rough idle. The hose from the canister to the tank you can just leave open for the short term.

Remove the solenoid and make sure the valve is clean and the ports in the head are clean. What kind of oil do they use and how often does it get changed? Dirty oil will cause major problems for modern valve control systems.