Commuter

I have the Innova 3100 as well. Bought on sale as well (like 40% off). I haven't figured out all that it can do. I simply learned how to read the code and clear it. It's been perfectly fine for my purposes. Reviews of the model are typically very favorable. I was trying to read a co-workers 2004 Mazda 3 the other day and found out that some cars are using a CAN protocol that this reader doesn't understand. A newer model Innova 3110 takes care of that. (There were no Subarus listed as using this protocol, but a bunch of Fords, Mazda, some GMs and other vehicles were on the list, 2003 and newer.) Commuter

Another vote for 303. There is a page on their site that talks specifically of tires. Most products are detrimental to rubber. Commuter

I have a 97 OB. I went thru the head gasket issue at 160k miles. I also had an engine failure (conrod), but don't let that scare you. That is extremely rare from everything I know. Other than the engine, the car has been fine. Just a few things, most being things that one can expect with the milage I have put on. (Currently at 279k miles.) You will get a lot of opinions about the head gasket failures. My opinion? I tend to believe the guesses that around 20 to 25% suffer failures. If you find a vehicle that has had it changed, and has the latest headgasket in it, I'd feel quite comfortable with it. The other thing might be to find a good vehicle for cheap that needs the head gaskets. Put a CCR engine in it and you'd have a sweet ride and a warranty to boot. These comments pertain to the 97-99 vehicles. The 2.5L Phase II engine showed up in the 2000+ OB. Good luck. Commuter

97 Outback, 452,000 km. I've changed the fluid a few times (use synthetic). The clutch pack was replaced last year (probably around 400k km, which is about double the usual life in the 97 model). Commuter

I just put a third set of tires on my 97 Outback. I'm in S. Ontario. I was doing about 60,000 km/yr. Now around 45k km/yr. Mostly highway driving. First set was Michelin X-Ones. Very good all around. Second set was Toyo 800 Ultra. Good, very similar to the X-One, even better in the winter, but fussy on balance. I was really tempted by the HydroEdge tire, but was not keen on a directional tire. The reviews on Tirerack were a bit mixed too. The local tire dealer indicated that the response from customers has been pretty much a 50/50 mix regarding winter performance. I was also told that they would probably ride even harder than the Toyos. I wanted something a bit more compliant. I opted for the Michelin Harmony tire. I've only had them on for 2000 km, so I can't tell you much. Ride and 'feel' is much like the prior tires. They are a touch softer riding then the Toyos, but not a lot. (Which makes me think I did the right thing not buying the HydroEdge.) I've probably had the best luck with Michelin over the years. It's the one I've run on the most. I've had some great Yokohama tires (more recently with winter tires, not on the Sube tho'), but then I've had a couple of defective ones too. The Toyo was my first experience with them. No experience with Bridgestone really except for some crappy OEM tires on a Civic almost 20 years ago. Oh, and one set of mediocure winter tires. I had one set of Goodyear tires years ago (Vector?), so can't comment there. Never had Dunlop or Pirelli. If you liked Michelin in the past, it is probably your best bet. It's just a matter of which model to pick. I've seen the Symmetry tire, but it strikes me that it wouldn't be very good in the winter. Not much void area to the tread. Take a look at the Michelin Harmony. My 2 cents. Commuter

If I'd have had any indication that my conrod bearing was about to fail, I would have done the same. I was also looking at a used Phase II 2.5L engine, but felt there were too many hiccups on going that route. I expect to have the car for a few more years yet. I'm not putting on quite as much mileage these days, but still a lot. I keep my fingers crossed. Commuter 451,000 km on the car, ~193,000 km on the "new" engine.

A former member on this board did just that with a 97 Legacy GT. He ran into more issues than expected. I've posted before on this, and somewhere I have his emails. But briefly, Differences in the throttle body area (forget whether TPS, or IAC or ...) You have to use the Phase II manifold. You can't bolt on the Phase I. Differences in the sensor wheels for camshaft. (Maybe crank too.) Re-routing power steering lines a bit. Constant CEL for the EGR, as the Phase II doesn't have one. And some other stuff I don't recall just now. He did use the wiring and ECU from the original car. He got it to all work, but was a bit of a pain. I think you could just change out the short block only with Phase II, but not 100% sure on that. Cobb Tuning would probably know that answer in a second. And I don't know if that would lessen the chance of head gasket issues anyway. Best bet... probably a CCR rebuilt Phase I with a 3 year 36k warranty. Commuter

Just to be clear, it was not very pronounced, but noticable. It would happen about 75 or 80% of the time. Just a gentle rocking (when at a stop). It seemed that a resonance was actually happening (between engine and car body). If I would just touch the gas pedal to change the rpms even slightly, it would go away. I think the odds of it happening for someone else is slim. Me... I always get stuff like that! Commuter

Not what your questions asks, but I have a lightweight stock sized pulley on my 97 OB (2.5L auto). Effects? Negative - Bit more engine rocking. It caused a car vibration at times when sitting at a stop light. Not bad, but enough to bother me. Shortly after, I had the newer liquid filled engine mounts put in. (Other work was being done.) Solved that problem. Positive - Just a "hint" quicker engine acceleration. It was noticable for the first few take offs from stop lights. But then, I was expecting it too, so it might have been a placebo effect. Could I tell the difference in a blind test, repeatedly? I rather doubt it. Commuter

Generally, there should be enough "buffer" room in an engine to handle 1 qt. At some point, overfilling will result in the crank striking the suface of the oil. When that happens, the oil is whipped into a foam. One gets air bubbles in the oil. Oil with air bubbles does not provide the same lubrication to the engine. And so on. It is not a case of 0.95 qt is fine, and 1.05 qt will destroy your engine. If you think about going up and down hills, around corners, etc, you can appreciate that at some point, an overfill will result in occasional striking of the oil surface by the crankshaft. It will get progressively worse at higher oil levels (more overfill) from that point on. At what point this happens in a Subaru engine, or any make of engine, I don't know. Commuter

Not sure why you are looking for the ECU location, but it is under the "feet" of the front passenger. Lift the carpet and you'll see. There is a metal panel to lift as well IIRC. Commuter

You can see my comments in the second link given above. 97 OB, similar behaviour. It is probably less noticable on my car as it is heavier and my engine would have a bit less power at the lower revs than your 2000 Forester. Subarus of this era have a slightly more aggressive response than is typical in the accelerator, both applying, and lifting off. One thing your fiance can do is simply try to modulate the gas less. That is, don't do the sudden lift offs which cause the tranny to upshift harshly. In order to do that, you can't get on the gas quite as much either. I know, I know, one shouldn't have to learn different driving techniques, but after a while, you get to know the conditions that trigger it and you can minimize it considerably. I rarely notice it happening anymore for me. I don't think you need to be concerned about the tranny itself. I'm at 449,000 km now, and the tranny shifts the same as when I got the car with 66,000 km on it. What's that instruction... about pretending there is an egg between your foot and the accelerator pedal? Commuter

Sounds like you have had the work done already. I hope he checked the backing plate on the oil pump. The fasteners are known to work loose and often need to be retorqued. In the States, the maintenance schedule calls for the t-belt to be replaced at 105,000 miles I believe. Water pump should be good until next time. Check all t-belt idlers and the tensioner. The tensioners sometimes fail as well. I've had my crank and cam seals changed with every t-belt (on #4 now due to Canadian schedule of 60k miles and all the driving I do) and I have never had an oil leak from the engine. Knock wood. (97 OB) One more thing, I hope this guy knows the proper torque for the crank pulley fastener. Many books misreport it. It's suppose to be up over 100 ft-lbs as I recall (120 I think). Commuter

Just thought I'd add a note. I've changed the bulbs 3 times in my 97 OB. I do about 2 to 3 times the driving of an average person, and I always turn my lights on (despite the DRL, I like to have the tailights on too). This means that my dash lights are always on. Regarding lifespan... I got about 1.5 years (each time) out of the Subaru bulbs I used the first 2 times. The last time, I used the RS 7219 bulbs. That was about 3 years ago and they are still going. So to answer an earlier question, I say yes, the RS bulbs do last longer. Side note... I wasn't able to put the green condom on the 7219 bulbs as they are considerably smaller than the prior Subaru bulbs. (If memory serves me, the second Subaru set of bulbs were bigger than the first and/or original bulbs). So, I have a white backlight instead of green, but no matter. I just noticed that one of my dash switch icon bulbs (foglight) has gone out. The others (cruise and rear defrost) will probably follow soon. I'm not sure if I have Subaru bulbs (I think so) or 7219 bulbs in there. It it several years since I changed them though. At least they are very simple to get at. Commuter

Years ago, someone on the board actually bought one. No improvement, and it actually caused some idling problem (or something like that). Back in the days of carburators, this device to spin the air and help atomization probably did some good. With todays intakes and port fuel injection, it's a crock. About all it is is a restriction to the airflow. Commuter

I've been running 90/100W headlight bulbs in my 97 OB for about 4 yrs now. I initially tried to use a wiring harness, but the ground swap that Subaru uses with the Canadian DRL of that era messed things up. (My foglights would cause the headlights to jump from low to high beam!). So in the end, I just ended up putting the bulbs in with the stock wiring and took my chances. The soft rubber boot around the plug hardened up and cracked over the first year. Every now and again, I'd lose connection on a plug and have to fiddle with it. After several attempts to "tighten" the connection, I finally broke one. They were slowly getting heat damaged and brittle over time. There was no evidence of "melting" though that I've heard some speak of. The wiring looks ok, except for a little bit of insulation hardening right at the plug. A few months ago, I finally got around to changing the plugs out with some I bought from Canadian Tire Corp. So far, so good. Connection is fine. YMMV.

You are getting to the age where the O2 probably is "lazy" as Scoobaroo indicated. At around 6 or 7 years, I changed mine out. Mileage was not really off, but I was becoming convined that it was causing a carbon issue with my engine (97 OB). Never had a CEL. The tech told me that it was cycling about 13 times/minute. They are use to seeing around 18. I changed it out and my carbon issue cleared up. As these things age, they do cause the mixture to run towards rich. There was significant discussion a couple years back on O2 sensors. Several people with cars around the 5-8 yr mark indicated that a new sensor made an appreciable improvement. Commuter

Can anyone tell me... Does the Subaru 4EAT pump the ATF thru the cooling lines constantly? Or does a certain temperature have to be reached? Will the return line "suction" in the new fluid, or does it only flow by virtue of the "push" from the outgoing line? (Which you no longer have if you disconnected it to pump out the old fluid.) Further still, is the cooling line a "push" or "pull" set up? (I was obviously thinking push with my comments.) Just wondering. My 97 OB is the first car I've had with an automatic. So far, I've just let the dealer drain and refill the fluid (with synthetic). As a DIY'er, you sure don't want to slip up and have the ATF run low or suck air etc. Makes for a darn expensive fluid change. Commuter

Assuming the 2000 is (very) similar to the 95-99 Legacies... Capacity is 10L. A drain will only remove about 4L. So do it once, and you have 60% old ATF left. Do it twice and you have 36% old ATF left. Do it three times and you have 22% old ATF left. Obviously, running the transmission for a while in between drains to thoroughly mix the old and new. Personally, I'd consider that good enough. You'll need 12L of new ATF, or about the same as what a shop would want for a "flush" anyway. There are those that will tell you that a "flush" replaces close to 100% of the old fluid, but I've heard where that may be far from the case. I'm not familiar with the filter on this generation. It is a small screw on one, is it not? Get it from the dealer or online source. I know it is expensive, but you probably won't be replacing it again. Which ATF? Up to you, but I like synthetics myself. Mobil 1 is a good product IMO. Commuter

Everything I've ever seen about Subaru plug wires over the years suggestst that the OEM ones are pretty decent. I'm not sure where they fall out on pricing (compared to aftermarket), but you could probably get them for less online (if shipping doesn't eat up the difference). When you think of how often you change an item like this, I don't get too hung up about spending $10 or $20 more. IMHO. Commuter

Common ailment of these engines. There are good write ups on doing the work, if you are so inclined. I have some Motor Mag articles that walk thru it pretty good. Typically, you will want to replace the crank and camshaft seals, since they are prone to leaking. The oil pump needs servicing as mentioned. There is an o-ring, plus the screws on the backing plate are known to loosen and they need to be checked. You might want to consider water pump, depending upon milage and how much driving you expect to do. Check all t-belt idlers and the tensioner. Tighten the bolt on the crank pulley to proper specs (most books are incorrect). That's all I can think of right now. Commuter

I can't answer you either, but I was looking into ECU's a bit some years ago with my 97 OB. As I recall, there were changes even within the particular generation of my model. (From a single big connector to a 3 part connector, something like that.) Anyway, I'd be quite surprised if it would work. Even if the connector is the same, the pin-outs may not be. Be forewarned. Commuter

You mentioned oil on a spark plug boot. Sounds like you have a leaking valve cover gasket. Not too crucial, but you will want to address it. I don't think this is your problem, but just something to be aware of. The 99's used a film style MAF instead of the hot wire style. There were a lot of problems with it from what I've read. However, I believe the replacement units are relatively inexpensive. Commuter

Going a bit off topic here... I understand the basics behind EGR. (Lower combustion temperatures, lower emissions (NOx) etc. The principle is used in gas fired burners as well, the industry my job is in.) Anyway, what is up with the Subaru design where only one cylinder is fed the exhaust gas? You're only doing 1/4 of what you could (on an H4 engine). Granted, it will make a difference at the tailpipe. Maybe that was all they needed to slip below some threshold? And maybe that explains (in part) why some versions of very similar engines don't have EGR? (Assuming they were able to slip below those thresholds by other means.) Just curious. Anyone know? Commuter

I know a guy who went thru a problem like this with a 97 Legacy GT. He put in a newer Phase II 2.5L engine. His original engine had an EGR. The Phase II doesn't. He got the same check engine light every couple of days. He hooked up everything for the EGR, but it was not attached to the manifolds at all (since there are no 'holes' to do that). He still got the EGR CEL. From what I have found out, there is a small pressure (vacuum) sensor mounted on the passenger strut tower. It reads manifold vacuum and compares it to atmospheric. It's there (as an input) to the automatic transmission shift algorithm. As a secondary function, it "looks" for a change in the manifold vacuum when the EGR is triggered. If it doesn't see it (over a period of time), it will trigger the EGR code. So this expains why the guy above still got the code even with everything "hooked" up. His eventual solution? He wired a switch into the fuse for the ECU. He found that about 15 minutes was sufficient to reset the ECU and clear the code. The fact that he was constantly resetting his ECU didn't seem to bother drivability at all. If you used the same exhaust header, you should have the connections you need there. The only other solution I can think of is whether you could "make" the port in the intake manifold, or get a manifold from a different year 2.2L engine which has it. And obviously will bolt up. I have no idea if that is possible. Commuter