WoodsWagon

I had a 2000 2.2l throw a rod 2k miles after I changed the oil. It was still full minus what had sprayed out the hole in the top of the block. I felt bad, but sometimes these things do just happen. Its very rare for the EJ series engines to throw a rod, usually they just spin bearings. Unless it dropped a valve and that caused the rod to break or a rag was left in the engine and it blocked the oil pickup, I don't see how it could have been the mechanics fault. These guys have a good reputation: http://www.ccrengines.com/

#1 don't touch that screw. It is not an idle adjust and it leads to a bunch of other issues if you mess with it. #2 make sure the engine is idling smoothly. Spark plugs should be ngk and plug wires should be OEM from the dealer. Run a bottle of Techron Fuel system cleaner though it. Make sure the exhaust or heat shields aren't bent and touching the body somewhere. #3 the low stall speed torque converter means that the engine is still coupled to the wheels even at idle. That puts the pulses of each cylinder firing through the transmission and axles and suspension because the only thing holding it back is the brakes. If there's slop in any of the points between the engine and the brakes, the vibration can get worse. The normal culprit is worn CV joints in the front axles. Most of the aftermarket axles are garbage out of the box, so replacing the axles may not fix it. Subaru rebuilts are big $. http://www.ccrengines.com/mwe/ has a good reputation for rebuilt axles.

I already told you the speedo is an isolated system. Fix the VSS, which I told you is threaded into the passenger side of the transmission, there is no cable, or fix the speedometer head, or fix the wires that connect the two. When the speedo is back working, then go after the check engine light and stalling issues.

Does your outback have 16" or 17" wheels on it? If you could switch to 16" wheels that gives you an extra 1/2" of sidewall to soak up hits on the trashed ND roads. Instead of a 225/60r17 you could run a 215/70r16. It's the stock steel wheel and tire combo the base trim Outbacks come with. You can get the BFG A/T in load range C in that size.

XT6 had bigger swaybars

You could also use a 96-98 2.2L rocker assembly with the manual adjustment rockers, no HLA's to fail. 95 was the first year of the roller rockers and the last year of the HLA's.

I put a stand up cup holder on the tray area of the dash. I put a 20oz bottle in it and found where it wouldn't hit the windshield and attached it there. Something like this: http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/HOP9/SEJ/N0320.oap?ck=Search_N0320_-1_4540&pt=N0320&ppt=C0326 It worked well.

They sell camber wedges for for adjusting the angle of a solid axle bolting to leaf springs that can be trimmed down to fit. I just ran the mounts the way they were. I think one tore eventually but they were old mounts and I beat the piss out of the car so...

Have you verified it's set right at closed throttle? I bought a 96 that had both the same codes and the previous owner had replaced the TPS. I plugged my OBD2 scan tool in, looked in the live data stream, and adjusted the TPS so that it just tipped over from 1% to 0% at closed throttle. There's a large range of 0% in the adjustment, so you want it set right where it breaks over into 1%. No more codes.

It sounds like your thermostat may not be blocking flow through the radiator properly when it's closed.

The speedometer has a direct electrical connection to the VSS on the transmission, so if it isn't working there's either an issue with the vss or with the speedo head. I would suspect the vss first, it's threaded into the passenger side of the transmission. It's pretty easy to replace but it's often hard to get a wrench on if it's a manual trans. A failed vss would cause the stalling at stops because the computer uses it to control engine braking fuel cut. It shouldn't cause running on 2 cylinders and a 4500rpm rev limit though.

Get a set of 4 struts for a 98 Legacy Outback and they will bolt right in. Re-use your springs ect. If you carefully cut and bend the brackets that the brake hoses go through you can sneak them out of the old and into the new without having to open the brake system and then have to bleed it after. Take the clip off, slide the hose up, and cut in the middle of where the clip slides on. Bend it out as two tabs, then do the same on the new struts and bend them back flat before putting the clip back on. Rear struts will be a bit of a struggle to get into place. Unhooking the sway bar helps. 205/75r15's will fit fine, bigger and you will need to "adjust" the wheel wells to clear. If you use the trailing arm brackets from an Outback or Forester it will help center the rear wheels in the wheel well. It bolts on under the rear floor and the E brake cable also bolts to it.

Most outbacks didn't come with the plugs for heated seats if they weren't equipped with them factory. If you have the hunk of floor harness, you're in good shape to wire them up. As factory it's integrated with the harness that runs up the passenger side of the car and plugs into the dash harness in the kickpanel. Well, if it wasn't a heated seat car, those wires aren't in the dash harness either. The easiest solution is to thin down the heated seat floor harness to the two seat plugs, the two switch plugs, and the power, ground, and illumination feed wires to the switches. Ground can go to a sheet metal screw into the seat crossmember on the floor, power and illumination can get tapped into the cigar lighter. Run the wires up inside the console and scotch-lock them into the lighters wiring. Fish the two seat plugs out under the carpet, and you're in business. My dad's Legacy Brighton has heated cloth seats, a tach, map lights, rear door speakers, front tweeters, cd player, folding door mirrors, rear wiper, cruise control, all options I swapped in from other cars.

I'd do the 205/75r14's then, they're the tallest narrow tire you can get for the 14's and that's what you want for cutting through deeper snow. Alloy wheels don't have to leak. If you wire wheel the bead surfaces and use bead sealer on them with a fresh valve stem they can hold just fine. The problem is most tire shops won't take the time so you're left with tires trying to seal to corroded bead surfaces. The nice thing about steel wheels is they'll take a slide into a ditch better than the alloy. The stock Outback tire is a 205/70r15 which is 26.3" dia. A 205/75r14 is 26.1" so pretty much equivalent. Firestone sells their winterforce snow tire in that size.

If you upgrade to Outback brakes, 14" wheels won't fit over the calipers. So keep that in mind if you planned any brake upgrades in the future. How lifted is the car? Just struts or lift blocks too? 205/75r15 snows fit well with just outback struts.

Just unplug all the electrical connectors at the pump and call it good. ABS was an option that year anyway.

You can kiss Boreas goodbye if it's spending a winter in NH. We salt the heck out of the roads up here, and no amount of washing is going to save a car that gets driven around here. The 00-04 legacys are all pretty badly rusted out around here now.

It could be broken ring lands on the low cylinders. One other thing to check is the AVCS banjo bolt screens. Also check the turbo oil feed banjo bolt.

The guard just bolts onto the lower spring seat. My dad's 95 Legacy had them put on a few years ago when he went in for a recall update. It has a flange that sticks up so if the spring does break it can't skip off the spring seat of the strut and cut the tire. If you non-outback legacy still has it's front tow hooks don't go to the dealer for any recall work. One of the other recalls was to cut off the tow loops to keep people from curb-bashing them when parking and setting off the airbags.

If you mean final drive ratio, then both the non turbo 5spd and 3at have 3,9 final, so that's what I used. The 3.7 final 3at's from a turbo car wouldn't be quiet as high revving on the highway... they'd only be turning 3,700rpm at 65mph. So best case it's a 800 rpm difference between it an a 5spd. That's still easily noticeable.

Ahh, this is way off. Assuming 23" tires, 65mph with the 3AT is 3900rpm vs the 5spd at 2900 for the same speed. A thousand RPM is a pretty noticeable difference. The 0.8 overdrive makes a big difference, plus no torque converter slip. The GrimmJeeper gear calculator is a handy tool for comparisons like this. As far as top speed, it's power limited, not gear limited. At 100mph the 3at is 6k rpms vs 4500 with the 5mt, but either way the car isn't going to go much faster with 90hp. My SPFI powered wagon couldn't quite break 100 held flat out for an hour, but it was on 30" mud tires so it had a slight aerodynamic handicap. For pure speculation though the fastest a 3at could possibly go would be 125mph. The engine would be turning 7500rpm, but I know the valves don't float until 8.1-8.2k rpms so it could be technically possible. Maybe if it was drafting another car.

What makes you think the rear diff is bad? They very rarely fail, and often people think that binding and thumping in the drivetrain when cornering tightly is a failing rear diff when it's actually the rear transfer clutch in the transmission. Does your car have VDC?

Oh yeah, drums also create less drag because the return springs pull the shoes back off the drum, where a disc pad is always skimming the surface of the disc. Most Hybrids have rear drums for this reason. Better MPG with less brake drag.

On the EA82 body cars they didn't weld the wire mesh right across the openings between the cowl and the inner fender, so the mice sneak in there. I always put the HVAC on "recirc" or max AC setting before leaving them parked. I did a full pull of the dash and bleaching all the vents on my Loyale when I got it. Other cars I've vacuumed out all the nest I could get after pulling the fan out, then sprayed a mist of bleach in while running the blower.

Legacy spring and Outback springs are the same length. Rear forester's are longer and the spring seat is further down on the strut to match. This also limits rear tire clearance on the forester. For $75 a piece junkyard struts are not worth it. You will need to take apart the rear struts anyway to swap your strut caps on to fit the gen1 legacy body, so there isn't much labor savings either. Buy struts for a 98 Legacy Outback. Use your springs and strut caps on them. You will likely need an extra washer under the nuts that hold the strut to the strut cap in the rear because the newer struts threads don't go down as far so the nut won't clamp tight. Cut the brake line bracket on the strut in the flat area after you pull the clip off, then bend the two tabs up, sneak the brake line out, and do the same thing on the new strut to avoid having to take apart the brake lines and bleed the brakes.