89Ru

Yep, these are good. Wirebrush and antisieze the hub/rotor contact faces. Yes, rotors can be removed as you have stated with two 8mm bolts in the small holes to push them out. Not all rotors have this feature unfortunately. Rotors are held onto the hub with lugnuts and rust

If you suspect the alternator isn't charging the battery, a quick check is while the car is running put a voltmeter across the battery connectors, you should get 15 volts or so.

Topping off is good but may cover another problem (leak). If the light came on due to low fluid from extremely thin pads, when the piston is compressed to make room for new pads the fluid reservoir will overflow

How old is the battery? 4-5 yrs replace it if cleaning doesn't help.

Car prices are subjective, one buyer will pay a premium for pristine body condition and overlook mechanical stuff (especially if they can do the work themselves), another buyer will not care a whit about body dings but if you say which mechanicals (clutch, tb etc.) have been recently replaced then you'll help buyers figure out which is their type of 'hot deal' quicker. Post pictures including close ups of obvious dings if any (the ones you can see from my house). (+) for the 2.2L 'Maintenance is up to date' means a lot of different things to people...explain but don't write a book...too much info will confuse the avg buyer and probably turn away the rest. I think a lot of folks use blue book sites as a point to deviate from. If you are looking for a quick sale stay low.

Avoid used volkswagon radios, these have codes and there are countless sites with misinformation, even with past owner's and dealer help you may not break them. Stick with subie radios and you will have no such silliness.

Glad the ECM swap worked out. Replace the radiator and hoses. Fan screws are likely to be rusted and seized, get a new set of 10mm stainless screws. Bottom fan screws only need to be loosened if the fan housing is slotted. Use an OEM thermostat (no aftermarkets) and gasket, use distilled water when you fill. Fill through the top hose, slowly to minimize air pockets. Burp the air out. Here's the basic procedure, lots of good variants around, but this will get you started. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=66821

Maybe swap out an ECM from a u-pick salvage yard...

Sounds like a few issues going on Radiator leaking from the core...but passes pressure test at shop...with obvious coolant spraying from the cap...a different shop to resolve conflicting info? Black gunk in the overflow is exhaust byproducts in the coolant, this is classic head gasket failure symptom. Changing radiators is easy even with frozen fingers. If you do it search around for 'burping' procedure. Get a new rad cap too. How does the oil look? Coolant in the oil is bad for bearings.

Here's a diagram of the '97 outback engine harness, hope it helps some. http://i444.photobucket.com/albums/qq166/89ru/97_OBW_front_wiring_harness_dwg.jpg http://i444.photobucket.com/albums/qq166/89ru/97_OBW_front_wiring_harness.jpg

The bulkhead is the panel that separates the cabin from the engine compartment. Not having gone that far deep in the wiring, I'm not sure where to begin looking. I would not guess that the '98 is very different from the years prior. If you don't mind I try to post the diagram late tonight. Strange that the '97 wiring diagram doesn't show the diodes but they appear on the harness drawing...

'95 - '97 show the diodes near the bulkhead connectors, driver's side. I took a quick look and didn't find them. I'll try to post a picture of the harness if I can figure out how.

Sorry for the confusion, I mixed up the blower motor (cabin) and cooling fans (engine). The cooling fans may be two speed...my FSM wiring diagrams show multiple relays for the fans (two main fan relays, two sub fan relays) but all are earlier model years. The fan motors are three terminal, my guess is that if one terminal is at 12V then its low speed, if both terminals are 12V then its high speed (the third terminal being fixed at ground) Sorry I can't answer the location of the diodes. Earlier model year FSM's say the connector is orange and draw the harness in the engine compartment. P1520 Radiator Fan Relay 1 Circuit High Input My guess is this code refers to sub fan relay 1 My diagram shows the control for sub fan 1 being ignition +12V on one side, and the diode assembly on the other, where the ECM can pull the diode assembly common pin (2) to ground and close the contacts on sub fan relay 1. Until that pesky diode assembly is found the next best location to probe is the ECM. Do you have that diagram? My FSM does not have diagnostics for this code unfortunately.

ok, sounds like the relay is good. Ignore what I posted about the load side diode (doesn't exist, the diode is control side only), sorry was in a hurry this morning. Thermoswitch is control side also. The control contact that is 3V on the relay connector should go to ground through the fan speed switch in all positions except 'off'. Try connecting the relay back up and measure that same point again. You could also try shorting it to ground, the relay should close and the fan should come on. If this works, then there is a high resistance path back to ground in that return circuit, which like I said involves the fan speed switch. If the a/c is working then ignore what follows. If not, then here's a bit of troubleshooting. On the thermoswitch connector there are three contacts. One is always 12V. With the thermoswitch disconnected, push the blue a/c button and you'll find another goes to 12V. Ground the remaining contact and the a/c should turn on. If this works, the diode may be bad as you have already suspected, or since the thermoswitch and fan speed control share the same return path, I would start there especially if both the a/c and the blower motor are not working. If only the blower motor isn't working, then its probably not the diode since its not part of that return path. Hope this makes some sense.

I'm assuming you shorted across the thermoswitch connector terminals. Anyway, I don't think the problem lies in either the diode or the thermoswitch since the fan is running. First let me see if I understand your original post. I am assuming you are jumpering the relay load terminals to turn the fan on. Is the relay in or out of the circuit here? I'm assuming in and you are measuring a 9 volt drop across the relay control side. Which diode? The load side series diode or perhaps a diode inside a solid state relay, control side? Check the relay's control side, if it is a coil then there should be low resistance across the coil. If it is solid state (optical control, which I doubt) then there is a diode inside the relay (perhaps this is what you are referring to in the orig. post) and your multimeter can check it in diode mode...I would expect 2 volts or so for an led-type diode.

In addition to the series diode, there is also an evaporation thermoswitch in series with the blower motor relay. Since the blower motor isn't siezed, the diode is probably not toast from overcurrent, I'd check the thermoswitch first.

Great job on the monster, better to be poor and at peace, all the money a rich man has won't help him sleep at night. Saw the pics on that tranny, whew, that was a tired one all right.

I'm having misfires with my '97 OBW, same symptoms (blinking CEL while letting off gas down hills, in high vacuum conditions). Misfires occur more often on long drives than short hops. I have all the codes showing P0301,P0302,P0303,P0304 or sometimes pairs. This summer I hosed out the engine compartment crannies where leaf litter tends to collect, mostly around the perimeter. The next day I drove 500 miles through PA hills and the misfires which had previously been sporadic (sometimes not for hundreds of miles) suddenly became frequent and not just on hills, say 10-15 misfires on that long trip. After the overspray dried up, so did the frequent misfires. Maybe wiring got wet, who knows. Car still ran fine wet or dry same as always. Two months ago cam timing was corrected (lower right side) by one tooth. At the time I thought that the cam jumped a tooth earlier that day, it had fresh misfire codes and was running bad (hard starting, stalling, etc.) Its only been two months but it hasn't misfired since then, granted this isn't conclusive given the low frequency of the problem...and what's to conclude? Accidental harness wash or cam fix? Since your misfires have crossed engine swaps I don't know how this helps...just my two cents. edit: forgot to mention the coilpack had a bad connection that was mated properly during the cam timing fix. The plug wire was barely making contact with the coilpack, probably for months, since the repeated flashover had almost totally eaten away the housing around the coilpack contact. None of this blind mate stuff, need to pull back the boot, visually mate the wire, and then push the boot over the connection. Most folks know this already, seems like I'm still learning the basics.

How much vacuum? A slight vacuum is normal (equal to the weight of the coolant in the overflow tank hose), anything more then perhaps the overflow tank hose line is partially clogged and functioning like a pressure valve. Did you clean out the gunk at the bottom of the overflow?

Search around for 'steelies' and 'snows', or 'winter wheels' in the for sale section of this site or craigslist, etc. Post a wanted to buy.

Hmmm...it could be a number of issues *Intermittent sensor(s), this I doubt since multiple data is affected *ECU sending bad values in between good ones *Laptop software buffers timing out and clearing themselves *Port parameters (parity, etc.) but I doubt this since it would either work or not...the ECU probably does not autobaud (detect the baud rate), i.e the baud rate should be fixed *Some other issue If you want to make this an academic exercise, for a second opinion of what the ECU is sending try downloading realterm software http://realterm.sourceforge.net/ to your laptop, this will help diagnose the actual raw serial data that is coming from the ECU. It won't be pretty, you won't know the byte positions of the rpm, temperature, etc. you'll have to decipher these by observation -troublesome since the data may be hopping around. edit: First, try changing the flow control settings on the laptop's serial port (three options: hardware, Xon/Xoff, none)

Agreed, this sounds frustrating. Blowing the car to bits wouldn't make you feel as good as solving this though. For a data point, on my car one fan cycles on for 15-30 seconds and then off with engine warm and idling, outside temp at 70 degrees. Sounds like your car sometimes does this. Is there only one temperature sender (sensor)? I agree with running without the thermostat for a while, to see if there is a flow problem related to the thermostat, however unlikely. You should also check system pressure, is the upper hose soft? The system will run abnormally hot if the pressure is bleeding off somewhere. How are you bleeding the air out? Like others have said, the water pump might not be what she used to be...

Have you tried the OEM thermostat? This is the only one you should be using. Thermostat modifications are at best science experiments done under controlled conditions with test equipment the average wrench turner does not have. Why are you removing the jiggle valve? Are you drilling holes in the tstat to allow for air bypass? If so, you should investigate why the air is present. Fans not turning on reliably? Do they come on when the a/c is turned on?

http://www.northursalia.com/modifications/misc/wiring/wiring.html I suggest removing the drivers seat to make it easier to get under the dash and work on the fuse panel Only four bolts and the seat comes out There may be an electrical connector to unplug before taking out the seat.

NOT solved! Bringing this old post back up, turns out Gary was right, the problem seems to be back. Weather turns cold, and now she's cranky in the morning again, fine after a few miles of driving, but no codes this time. Either another $65, a trip to the boneyard (any EA82's at crazy ray's in MD?). Found my old sensor, dug into the epoxy to expose the sensor leads, I think corrosion got well into the leads or even the resistive sensor element itself, maybe too far gone to repair as I'm not getting better than 100kohm across the leads, should be 2-3k at room temp.