Setright

It's a four wheel job. Toe in/out adjusts on all four wheels, and the front has some camber adjustment. Toe all round should be as close to zero as possible. Rear camber is likely to be around -1.0 degree. If it's very far off, you may have some worn suspension bushings to contend with. FRONT camber factory spec is 0.0 I would STRONGLY recommend going for some negative camber at the front. The factory tolerance is -0.5 degrees, I would suggest getting as close as possible to this value. The reason being that it virtually eliminates the play-it-safe understeer that the factory spec calls for. Half a degree negative camber will not make the car twitchy or tail happy, it will just balance front and rear cornering grip. Go for a place with laser equipment, and tell them you want 0 toe all round, and half a degree negative camber at the front. Nevermind the protests from the computer!

This method would worry a careful guy like me. Tapping the tyre from behind with a wooden mallot is the preferred method. The car must be on a lift or jack-stands, not the jack in the trunk! BEFORE mounting the wheel again, coat the hub in a very thin layer of copper grease. Easy to remove next time :-)

I have just had amazing success with adding just half a degree of negative camber to the front wheels. I suggest you find an alignment shop that won't mind straying from the standard settings.

The plastic bushings are likely to be worn out, I suggest you replace them!

You won't get 225bhp without a turbo. Porting the heads, custom intake, equal length headers, free flowing exhaust, and a custom programmed ECU might be able to free up to 150bhp. You'll still be fighting the "conservative" cam lobes. And no-one makes aftermarket cams for your engine.

Hype.

Pegg, the piston slap that has been mentioned here does not affect your engine. The EJ22 engine in your car is the most reliable engine ever made by Subaru, and piston slap was never a problem with this engine. (I did over 190k miles in mine - and she's still running) I am 99% certain that you are hearing the sound of one or more stuck hydraulic valve lifters. My Legacy did this three times in the last 60k miles that I owned it, on cold starts and kept it up for a few miles down the road. Apparently, your problem is now permanent. The oil pipes that feed the valve lifters are very narrow and can easily have been blocked by the gunk freed up by the synthetic oil. I would recommend changing to a thinner oil (5W-30) and replacing the oil filter with a genuine Subaru part. With a bit of luck this will free up the gunk and make the noise go away. Help it along by accelerating hard a few times - only once the engine is warm! If this doesn't help, you need the valve lifters removed and cleaned. Good luck!

Start with a full fluid flush and change.

Okay, you're gonna have to bite the bullet and visit an authorised dealer. Sube make a "Clutch spring kit", which includes the spring and new bushings, washers, and lock rings. Fitting is not easy, since you need to push the pedal down to squeeze the spring into the bushings. Tricky when you are already upside down below the dashboard! Word of advice: Cover the firewall and footwell with a big cloth or newspaper to avoid dropping things behind the carpet. The lock rings are IMPOSSIBLE to find downthere. My old car has two full sets still kicking about under the carpet...

Subie94! Love that avatar!!! That's top class :-)

The level in the overflow tank should read FULL when the engine is cold. As it heats up, the level must rise, but fall again when it cools. On a cold-engine morning, open the rad cap, and coolant should be all the way up. If not fill it with 50/50 mix. Then add to the overflow until it reads FULL. Check the levels again next morning. And then get back to us :-)

Nice question, no room for heresay. We must answer "why"! Well, fitting a wider wheel alone shouldn't give rise to "rubbing" problems between tyre and fender/suspension. If you fit a wider tyre too, then offset will become more important to avoid this aspect. Ultimately, the offset should not change. This is because the suspension and not least the wheel bearing expect their loading to act through a certain point. Obviously, a different offset will alter this. It is important to remember that the extra width of the wheel is evenly distributed about the center of the wheel. Therefore, it is also even about the offset plane, because that is measured from the center of the wheel. So, assuming you are running a 205/50R16 tyre, and intend to do so on the new wheel too, then the offset should remain at 53mm. If you are planning to go for a butch look, and fit 225/40R16 rubber, then you need to check how much clearance you have between present tyre and the suspension strut. The new tyre will stretch 10mm further inward. And outward, so watch the fender edge too. A 48mm offset would probably be good enough to compensate. Personally, I would advise against fitting wider tyres. The ideal wheel width represents 85-90% of the tyre width. A 205 tyre will work best on a 7.0-7.5 inch wide wheel. I run 195/60R15 Potenza 720'ies on a 15x6.5 wheel for summer. And 195/60R15 Blizzak LM18's on the stock alloy 15x6.0 in winter. Ideally, my winter wheels would also be 6.5inches wide, but the added "slack" provides less twitchy handling. This can be helpful on packed snow ;-) Offset of my summer wheels is 50 vs the stock 55. This is not by choice, but this was the biggest offset available - unless you wanna pay for Prodrive wheels.

DONT rip all the plug wires off at once. Replace one at a time, that way you won't mix up the order.

These bearings are weak and no amount of grease will save them :-( Sorry, dont have the torque spec.

No they are not. The section the right has a small length of pipe protruding out. This has a conical gasket pressed down over it. The pipe on the right has a conical shape inside and fits over the gasket. The idea is to allow some flex in the joint, kinda like a ball and socket. If there is a leak here, you will probably need to replace both parts. Cost me ca. $ 1200, but that's Danish prices. You could try replacing just the gasket, but I doubt that the joint will come apart without crumbling into pieces.

Scoobaroo, there is some hope left: Mercedes has decided to can it's too-smart brake-by-wire system. Too many E-Class and SL's have experienced TOTAL brake failure, and they recalled tens of thousands of the things. The new S-Class was supposed to use this system, but someone clever decided to leave it in the bin.

Nice work Shawn. Might wanna try adding some of Sube's mystery "stop leak" - or is this engine prone to the internal leak? By the way, that generation Outback looks much more butch than the new and far too smooth OB's.

Chips cannot produce that kind of power hike on a NA engine. Period. Even a turbo motor would not do well with only the chip. Reason is simple: The chip cannot change the most important aspect, namely valve timing. Also, the injectors are unlikely to flow accurately if you demand them to flow more fuel. A NA chip tuning will involve the chip, new injectors, and ideally new camshafts.

Not sure about the 04 model, but most subes you only need to pull off the triangular "sail" on the top the door to access the mirror screws.

Magnecor wires have a good reputation. You don't have to get the expensive ones, they do make more affordable wires.

Go with the Outback, far better long distance comfort and more responsive handling. Keep up simple maintenace like oil, coolant, and brake fluid changes. Likely problems will be weak rear wheel bearings - a "risk" from ca. 60k miles and up. Keep an eye on CV joint boots, although these have improved over the years. Coolant needs to drained and filled in the exact correct manner, get back to us when that becomes necessary :-)

Yep! Nothing like getting back into a Sube!

RedeX

Replace the plug wires. Sounds like at least one has an internal breakage.

Hood, grille and lights will need to be replaced as a set.