Commuter

frag - I know that the late 90's 2.5l engine is somewhat prone to this. I've dealt with it a couple of times (and again right now) in my 97 OB. I've heard that the fuel maps are on the rich side. Emily of CCR once posted that these engines look like a carburated engine from the 70's when they tear them down, there is that much build up in them. With your 2.2l engine, I'm not so sure. It would depend on the fuel maps I guess, amoungst other things. The engines are very similar though. I can't say I've noticed much about 2.2l issues posted here. It's one of those things though that could be misdiagnosed easily as a poor idle can be caused by many things. I seem to have some of this going on again with my car. My idle is fine though. Where I've always noticed it is when I feather the gas starting off. Eg, revs between 600 and 1000 rpm; easing into a parking spot, that sort of thing. I got my hands on some Marvel Mystery Oil and it seems to be helping, but there is still some hesitation there. Where did you get the Seafoam from, as I wanted to try that stuff? Commuter

See the FAQ sticky for some ideas. Yes, there are cheap fixes. Commuter

The post link provided above is the same one that is in the FAQ sticky. Commuter

I got mine for my 97 OB from cyberauto about 6 yrs ago. I see the website still exists, but haven't looked further. They did remove most of that mushy feel that these cars have in their brake system. (Dual diaphram booster...?) Commuter Edit... Per following post. Technafit... I think that was the brand I got from Cyberauto.

*EDIT* See my prior post. I had the relative influences reversed between drive train losses and air drag losses. I've revised my post below (from a few hours ago) to correct this. Thanks nipper for the link. It put me straight. Bear in mind... 1) Speed refers to the speed the drive train is running at, not the car (to my knowledge). Gearing comes into it. And different parts of the drive train are running at different speeds, so what the total is, I don't know. The point is the relationship. Run the engine at twice the speed and its losses are 2^2 or 4 times as much. 2) Drive train losses are relatively small compared to other losses. You have to keep the relative quantities of the various losses in mind. Just as an example, say that drive train losses are 10% of total losses at 60 mph. If you speed up to 75 mph, you have increased your speed 25%, or 1.25 times. 1.25^2 = 1.56, or just over 50% more. Therefore, 10% of your losses has now become 15.6%. If all other losses were unaffected, then you would have gone from 100% to 105.6% on the losses. Now to go thru the same example but with air drag and its cube relationship. Just as an example, say that air drag losses are 10% of total losses at 60 mph. If you speed up to 75 mph, you have increased your speed 25%, or 1.25 times. 1.25^3 = 1.95 (or almost double). Therefore, 10% of your losses has now become 19.5%. If all other losses were unaffected, then you would have gone from 100% to 109.5% on the losses. http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/driveHabits.shtml This link shows a typical fuel economy (gas mileage) curve. Once you hit highway speeds, it starts to drop off considerably. Commuter

*Original post* Air drag losses are proportional to the square of velocity. Drive train losses are proportional to the cube of velocity. *EDIT* Sorry, I got them reversed. Air drag losses are proportional to the cube of velocity. Drive train losses are proportional to the square of velocity. *EDIT The faster you go, the greater the losses, the more gas you consume. At highway speeds, this becomes quite significant. Eg, the difference between 65mph and 80mph is considerable in terms of gas mileage. Commuter

The latest gaskets are a 4 layer design. The original out of my 97 was 3 layer. There was some black 'stuff' ringed around the cylinder holes on the original. The new one looked to have some kind of a fine grit coating around the cylinders. The last I new, the latest part no. ended in 610. Commuter

Sorry, no. I know that others have done this, but I specifically used something between the wires so there would not be any chance of the wires contacting and shorting out. Whatever works for you. Commuter

When I put in the RadioShack bulbs in my climate control the last time, I put a tiny piece of plastic between the wires to lift the bulb up from under the base. I forget just what I used... might have been a snippet of a plastic wire tie of the right size, something like that. I did not bother to put the green condoms on. Result... Brightness is fine by my eye. The bulbs have so far lasted much much longer. (I think I'm onto 4 years now, the others lasted about 1.5. Both the first OEM replacements I had with small bulb and the second replacements I had with large bulbs.) The one caveat is that my backlight is white, not green. To me, this is minor. I'll live with it. For others, this may be unacceptable. I have used the same bulbs in my dash switches. There, the condoms (still) fit. They all burned out after a couple of years. Hence, my theory (and others) that the condom adds to the heat stress on the bulb and shortens its life. I can understand not wanting to $5 or more, vs $1. If you are willing to treat your research time as zero cost, then go for it. The rest of us may benefit. My 2 cents. Commuter

Ditto. This was my thought as well. If you did not replace the plastic one wth the metal one when you did the work, it probably has "given it up" by now. Commuter

Correct. The Japan made Impreza platform (includes Forester) got the SOHC engine in 99. The US made Legacy platform (includes OB) got the SOHC engine in 2000. I think you could just use the block from the SOHC engine and use everything else from your old engine and you'd be good to go. However, I'm not 100% sure on this. Verify this with someone that knows for sure. You'd probably find more about this on the nasioc site than here. Commuter

When I was replacing all my struts a few years ago on my 97 OB, I found that most of the components were similar in price between Canada and the US with the exception of the strut itself. It was almost double in Canada! However, our dollar was at ~ 70 cents at the time. With our dollar now at 90 cents, the US parts price is even better. It does depend on the part though. There doesn't seem to be any particular rhyme or reason to it that I can see. I recently thought I was in need of camshaft position sensor. Dealer here told me around $160 or $175 list (I don't recall exactly). I can typically get 15% off, which saves the taxes here in Ont. Online in the US... $46. Add shipping, say $10 (probably high). Add 30% for taxes and customs brokerage (if you can't avoid it). (There may be some minimum customs charge on a small order like this that could push it up, I'm not sure. UPS is one of the highest for these charges from what I've seen / heard.) Add exchange rate. Comes out to roughly $70 Canadian. Half the price or less! It doesn't hurt to shop, if you've got the time to wait for the parts. Commuter

A bit more than you might think. I've got an email stored somewhere from several years ago of a guy that did this with a 97 GT. I'll try to dig it up. He ran into a number of issues. He did get it to work, but it was not as easy as first anticipated. The SOHC engine was a 2000, or 2001, that sort of era. Just from memory, there were issues with the throttle body area (IAC or TPS, not sure). Camshaft and/or cranshaft sensor wheels. Slight rerouting of power steering lines. He got a constant CEL over the EGR, since the SOHC doesn't have one. He was using the original ECU. You might try contacting CCR Inc. They could probably give you the low down as well. Commuter

I'm with cookie here. It's also possible that the backing plate on the oil pump is loose. The screws are known to back off slightly on these models and cause a gradual drop in pressure. A good shop / dealer will know of this and address it during a timing belt change, along with the O-ring. When was the timing belt last done? You don't want to be driving with low oil pressure (if indeed, this is the case). Bad things can happen quickly. Also, I'd recommend a filter other than Fram. Go Purolator if you don't want to buy dealer oil filters. Commuter

What I have found with my car (now 10 yo and 518k km) is that the "bands" that clamp around the exhaust pipe (and to which the heat shields attach) are what loosens up. This is where the rattle was coming from in a couple of places on my car. The "nail" trick is to wedge the nail in under the band against the pipe to take up the slack. I try to use a stainless steel screw when I can, but in one spot I could not get my hands / screwdriver in, so I had to resort to a nail. The screw is much more likely to stay, and won't rust away as a carbon steel nail will. You can get various sizes / lengths from a hardware store (eg Home Depot). Commuter

I did not remove them from the car. I didn't get right to the edges, but that was fine with me. (I had the hood up and just took care to not scratch beyond the lense. I didn't even bother to tape off anything. I didn't even bother with the parking light area either.) I simply wrapped the sanding sheets over a small hard foam sanding block that I had kicking around, had the hose with me running at a trickle and went at it. I spent about an hour per headlight on the coarse paper, about 30 minutes each on the medium and about 10 minutes each on the fine. That was what it took to get it uniform and to remove the prior sanding marks. When I finished, I could see "thru" the lense to the inside of the headlight for the first time. Then I finished up with the Plastix as I said. Commuter

I've done the sanding trick myself on my 97 OB and it worked very well. I think I used 800, 1500, 2000 wet sandpaper (something along those lines) on mine. I just did it by hand, then finished up with Meguiars Plastix to treat the lense. I did this a year ago, and it is still looking quite good. Commuter

Automatic or manual transmission? If you have an auto, then pop in the FWD fuse if you need to use the spare. Also, the spare should go on the rear. If you have a manual, I would treat it the same as what Subaru says about donut spares. Limited speed and limited distance until the full sized tire can be repaired. As to the statement... It "sounds" like the person is trying to say that if you have an odd sized tire on one axle and another odd sized tire (of the exact same size) on the other axle, then you would be ok as far as the center diff (clutch pack or VC) goes. This makes sense, since the rotational speeds of the front and rear axles should be the same under this scenario. However, the front and rear diffs will be constantly working a bit. I wouldn't like to see that for an extended period of time. Commuter

This has been known to happen. Was it an OEM (remanufactured) shaft? It's one of those Subaru quirks. My dealer changed out one under warranty when I complained. The second one was not quite as good as the original, but much better. When the other front half shaft was changed, I again gained a bit more shake, but (mostly) acceptable. There have been a few threads on this recently. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=64806&highlight=half+shaft An older thread, but you might want to read it anyway. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=12918&highlight=axle Commuter

See the FAQ sticky for all you ever wanted to know about changing out these bulbs. CC bulb can be done in just a few minutes with a RadioShack replacement bulb. The Climate Control backlights take a bit more work, but it is not difficult. Commuter

I've done the same as nipper a couple of times. I've used either a spot where a cable or a wire bundle went thru. If you just 'poke' a hole in the grommet, it is basically self sealing. The rubber is tight around the wire. One might argue that this could weaken the grommet and cause a tear, but I've never had it happen. Commuter

It has happened to several of us. Here is another thread. However, on my 97 OB, the point that rotted out was not at the bottom of the "U" as I expected. It was higher up, between the wheel well and the fuel filler pipe. Right at the lower edge of the wheel well, below the mid attachment point of the pipe. That's where the dirt was lodged. The plastic shield wasn't directly the cause in my case. As a point of interest, my ex's 99 Honda Odyssey uses a plastic fuel filler pipe. The part is ridiculously priced in Canada. The dealer quoted me $220 Cdn. I could have ordered it out of the States, but I ended up fixing mine with a piece of hose for now. That turned into a challenge, as the pipe is approx. 1-5/8" OD. That's a tough size to find. Commuter

By low speed, do you mean idle speeds? Eg, idle up to 1000 rpm maybe 1500 rpm? If so, try a MotorVac, or something similar (perhaps Seafoam for the DIYer). The Phase I 2.5L engines are known for running rich and can occasionally have carbon problems. I know... I've faced it twice now with my 97 OB. The second time, it was being aggavated further by a lazy O2 sensor. Changing that solved the issue, eventually. Note that if your problem is this bad, the over the counter stuff probably won't do much. You need an "industrial strength" cleaning. If you are having hesitation at 3000 rpm, that's another whole issue. Usually knock sensor. Commuter

It's not just a length issue. For some reason, this "happens". It makes no sense that the vibration would occur when sitting still and go away when moving, but that is what happens. My dealer installed the half shaft and yes, it was a Subaru remanufactured unit. It sounds like you did the work yourself, so you can't go back on a warranty. You could try pulling the half shaft and rotating it 180 degrees on the spline. Lots of work, but I seem to recall reading a post years ago where this worked. Other than that, I don't have much to offer you. I find the vibration is not consistent. Almost none at times, noticable at others. I do shift in N on occasion if it is bugging me. Such a wonderful Subaru quirk...:-\ Commuter

Myths take a long time to die... In the early days of radial tires (which replaced bias ply tires... anyone remember those? How about inner tubes? ), which is decades ago now... there were some issues with belts taking up a "set" and the tire not being happy with its rotation being reversed. Hence, the "don't cross rotate radial tires" came about. If the tire is properly manufactured and not defective, one should not have any issues with cross rotation. Commuter