jarl

Is there a necroposting record board or something? Because this one has to be a record (close to 8 1/2 years!), or very close to it

Je je... If my OBW was hit hard and landed at a junk yard the person pulling the transmission out of it would have a looong week I'm not sure about getting anything but a complete transmission (this one that needs to have the AWD bits replaced is pushing it a bit). The more I take apart something the bigger the chances of screwing up something I'll keep an eye open for other parts cars (Outbacks '99->'02 and Foresters '98->'02, right?), but I guess I can't discount this one just yet.

Thank you for the prompt answer The transmission on my car has the "delayed engagement" that seems to be typical of the '99 models. When downshifting you need to be very careful with your right foot or the revs will go very high and when the gear finally engages you have to start giving explanations to everyone in the car about the "hit" they just felt I tried the trans-x when I got the car but the problem never really went away so I was waiting for some decent weather to drain the transmission and refill with royal purple and more trans-x, but now that I'll need to buy another cherry picker to do the headgaskets on another soob I bought I'm running out of excuses to avoid removing the OBW, fixing a few leaks and perhaps replacing the transmission. The person selling this one just sent me an email confirming "the clutches for the all-wheel-drive will need replaced but the trans is still drivable tho". Apparently that was the reason to replace the transmission on his '00 Outback (as a reference, the code on the '00 transmission is TZ1A4ZCABA-WL, and the one on my '99 Outback is TZ1A2ZJEBA-WZ) I thought about going to a yard but I guess the price will be higher. That may not be such big deal if I can get a trans is in good condition, but how can I know that when buying from a yard?

I'm looking for some parts for a project Legacy L, but in the process I found something that may help my '99 Outback: http://detroit.craigslist.org/mcb/pts/4381248624.html It's from a 2000 Outback (I'm waiting to get the transmission code), but from what I have read here it should be compatible with my '99 OBW. Is his correct? Which other years are compatible? Now the other question, and a more subjective at that: would you guys buy this transmission? I'm assuming the "AWD not working" means the center differential is fried, so I can just use the one on mine. The stubby axles are not there, but apparently it's just a matter of popping the ones on my transmission in there. But a) this thing looks somewhat neglected (or is it normal for a transmission to look like this?) and most importantly, it looks like the transmission has been rebuilt before (the sticker is from Reliable Transmissions Ltd. in NY). What should I expect from a rebuilt transmission? Would you guys buy one? Thanks!

Really good information about the wiring. You just saved me -and probably others- a lot of work! I am SO glad I found this thread...

Uhm. I would start by checking the coolant and/or oil to see if there's any evidence of cross-contamination. If the oil looks milky avoid starting the engine until everything is corrected or your engine will go belly up.

Thank you people. Excellent points. I had not considered the weight added by the bags... My concerns have mostly to do with carrying explosive bags attached to the seat back or the seatbelts not working correctly in case of an accident. BTW: adding stuff to the airbag system is a no-no in my book, unless the car's system is already wired OR you replace the entire system with the one from the donor car. The timing of the bags is too critical, and it's something I definitely want to have working as designed all the time. I had to laugh with the "sliding dogs" line Our outback has leather seats and our minivan (which I managed to overturn in an ice-covered road this winter) didn't. Guess which car he didn't like to ride on And yet I still want the leather seats (the dog is not the only one making a mess inside the car... our son matches -or surpasses- the dirtying capacity ) Actually I wouldn't mind carrying the dog in the rear cargo area but my wife insists in letting him sit beside our son :/ My plan is to find a rubberized fabric (neoprene?) and cover the side of the rear seat where he -sometimes- goes, so he'll have some traction. Now I just need to wait until a GT with dark gray interior shows up on craigslist :/ (I had to anyway... the guy parting out the outback ended up selling the whole car)

Sorry for the slight necroposting but I'm considering something similar. I'm eyeing the interior from an Outback Limited for my new (to me) Legacy L. We have a dog that sheds like crazy so the leather interior is highly desirable. HOWEVER... I just saw on one of the pictures the oval indicating the front seats are equipped with side airbags, and cars101 confirms this. It also mentions something about seat belt pre-tensioners (which I presume the L doesn't have) and which I assume should be wired somehow. So... the question is: is it safe to install the Limited seats on the L wiring just the bum heaters, or do I need to take care of something else electric-wise? (maybe another question would be: should I wait for a GT leather interior to be available instead?)

Hello people. Long time no see So... I bite the bullet once again and bought another soobie with a known problem. This time a '01 Legacy L with 180K miles on it and leaking *everything* (according to the inspection the previous owner had a month or so ago). The P.O. mentioned the car overheated once, and the shop he went to charged him $300+ to replace a hose close to the back of the intake manifold but told him the left head gasket is leaking coolant, there's oil leaking, power steering, etc. Anyway... I'll be replacing the head gaskets and I have read a few threads about the components I can expect to be replacing, with the list varying from just head gaskets to a long list including seals and whatnot. Question #1: Since I plan on work on the engine outside the car, and the heads will be out anyway, I was wondering if it makes sense to buy one of the kits including valve seals. I'm guessing at 180K those may be close to the end of their useful life, but I may be wrong. Replacing valve seals implies replacing the valves themselves as well, right? Is there any other service that I should do/have done on the heads while they are out? How much can I expect to pay a shop for checking the heads and replacing the valve seals? Question #2: Beside the head gaskets I'll be replacing the timing belt-related stuff, including water pump. I installed a kit from ebay (Mizumo) on the EJ22 I put on the outback, but since the EJ251 is interference I don't want to take unnecessary risks. I'm considering buying the Gates timing belt components from Rockauto, but I don't know if there's a significant advantage in getting an Aisin water pump (WPF-002, probably from Amazon) vs just getting the one coming with the kit from Gates. Do you people have any preference, or are they all the same? Question #3: If it's not broken don't fix it. Except for... ? Maybe cleaning the EGR? What else? Thank you in advance!

Any updates? Did you fix the noise on your power steering?

Do you mean the '98 intake harness, TB and idle motor from the '98 must be transferred to the EJ22? I may be suffering from a mild form of amnesia (long story), but I don't remember swapping the TB or the harness

"I also have noticed when backing out of a parking spot (while turning) i feel like i drag a front wheel (front wheel)" What he (^^^) said.

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=27022

Another tip: usually when you click on a link on any webpage, the server of the page you are opening receives the information of the "referring page". If someone posts a link to a working site and people "follow" it, the server keeps a record telling them people are coming from the USMB, and it makes it easier for them to a) block access to the relevant pages, and potentially messing up with this great site. Therefore, I would recommend you NOT to post links to working sites (at least not without masking them as *dash did). If you really want to help someone else use PMs or something like that, or instruct the person how to follow the (very good) instructions on the first posts. My 2¢

Crap... I bought the boot from Rockauto thinking the subaru OEM was expensive, but after reading your posts I decided to check 1stsubaruparts... and it's just $5 more or so Oh well... if it fails again at least the parts would not have been rust-welded The link to the images on the "other" site is a good one... but could someone elaborate on the "placing a bag over the outer tie rod and pulling the boot over it"? If I don't have to mess the alignment that would be great

Interesting... Is there any specific port to attach an oil pressure sender? I wouldn't mind having a pressure gauge somewhere...

Well... while changing the oil I decided to take a look at the steering components in my OBW, and I think I found the source of the wobble I had mentioned: one of the balljoints is busted (yay!). Somehow this became evident only when moving the wheel at an angle (hands at 2 and 8), so it had eluded detection until now. Anyway... while checking stuff I found that both balljoint boots and one of the steering rack boots are split open. I'm replacing at least one of the balljoints, and maybe the other one, but the questions I have are about the steering rack boots: - I can't feel any relative movement between the (semi-exposed) inner tie rod end and the steering rack. Is it ok to just reboot this thing, or now that it's exposed will it fail in a couple of months and I should replace the whole inner tie rod end instead? - If just rebooting, how should I clean the (presumably contaminated) grease from the tie rod joint? - When buying tierods do they normally come with the boot (can't find any mention of it on Rockauto)? Thanks!

Sorry for the delay... Your answers, in order: - I've had the car for a year and a half - nope... it wasn't like that originally, as far as I remember. I think I realized something wasn't right around May-June or so - I can't really tell... I'm really picky with this kind of stuff, so after I first realized it was doing something weird I've paid more attention to it. I have the impression it's worst now The tires are not particularly worn, but I can probably have them rotated and see if something changes. I'll keep you posted

Slight necroposting, but relevant in light of a newer thread about this... So... how should I check the rear bushings? I lifted the rear of the car and tried moving things around, but I couldn't detect any significant amount of movement (have to do it again with more light, though). More importantly: how do you replace those bushings? I think I remember there are some bushings in the front suspension that are a pain in the lower back to replace. Are these easy-ish?

And... it's dead I connected a charger to the car and downloaded the ROM, but when I stepped off the car I heard the same noise I have heard before. And the battery got drained anyway (was down to 10V or so), so whatever is energized is taking a few amps. Except it's NOT the fuel pump. I followed the noise using my stethoscope and it sounds like it's coming from the gearbox or somewhere close to it, but it's NOT the starter motor. Transmission solenoids? Is there something else around there that gets energized when the switch is in the "on" position? At this point I don't think it's a motor but a solenoid of some kind, and the reason the noise starts after several minutes of having the car "on" is that the volts get so low that the solenoid can not hold correctly and starts to oscillate. What worries me is that the power consumption must be large enough to discharge the battery despite being connected to the charger (admittedly a cheap one), and that power can only be converted into heat. Hopefully nothing got overheated :/ [EDIT] John: you posted while I was writing my message Fortunately, I'm not trying to write anything to the ECU at this point... with the volts so low the writing can be a risky endeavor, and the ECU could be bricked. Now I need to check to see if the information I downloaded is correct...

Well... hard to tell whether you got ripped off without knowing the price, but right off the bat I can tell you it looks like a typical midwest car. And one that wasn't washed regularly, at that :/ The rust you show behind the wheels is almost normal for Subarus in the rust belt. If that's all the rust it has, I don't think it's that bad. You need to have the codes read to see what seems to be the problem with the car, and make sure the car 4WD isn't binding (go to an empty parking lot and drive the car in tight circles a few times, see if anything weird happens). Now... did you check the car's history (i.e. Carfax) ? The front of the car looks almost too good to be on the same vehicle with the rust behind the rear wheels. I would ask whether the timing belt and head gaskets have been changed, too. [EDIT] Checking the pictures, it looks like the two rear tires are different brands. That's usually not so good int he long term with these cars.

Hey! When did you drive my car?

So... after more than one year delay, I finally put together an adapter to connect my '99 OBW to my laptop. OBDII should be the way to go (and I do have an OBDII dongle already), but it looks like a lot more information is available and ready to be read by using SSM (this is a B11 OBW, by the way... no SSM2 as far as I know). Anyway... I connected the whole thing and can communicate with the car. The thing is the ROM ID is reported to be A20131, but I can't find any mention of it anywhere. The programs I have downloaded so far know where to look for the relevant parameters for several other ECUs, but not for the A20131 in particular. I can probably hack one of the other profiles and make it work, but comparing the ROM with others may provide more information... Therein lies the problem Dumping the entire ECU takes almost an hour, and during that time I have to leave the switch open without the car running. After a while the fuel pump starts running (leaky injectors?) and who knows what else is energized all that time, but I'm afraid something is going to get fried and/or my battery drained (it's weak to begin with). I think it would be ideal to remove a couple of fuses to try to leave just the ECU powered: fuel pump, maybe injectors, and... ? What else should I disconnect?

Someone asked me today why didn't I use something to get rid of the rust. My answer was "because I would dissolve the car" Rust is the reason I'm reluctant to do anything on the Soobie. I know once I'm done doing anything the car will be much better, but I'm afraid of breaking bolts in the process. The body is not that bad, but I've had bad experiences with some of the bolts and I'm not in a hurry to spend 10 hours removing one bolt /nut

I missed the "Run away" before my last post. Ok pals... you talked me out of it... But I still need a car! (Wagon and 4WD if possible) Here's the hardest question for you: if you were forbidden from having any more subarus, what would you buy? CR-V? Volvo V70XC? Heck... I was considering a '99 Mercedes 300TE Re:Take the bus. Did it once (NOLA to Chicago). Never again.