Wayne Boncyk

Unfotunately many aftermarket rotors do not come with those drilled, threaded holes. If you don't happen to have them, then the rubber mallet and lots of time are your only remaining option.

One thing that does happen to lug nuts that are used a lot (and in this case I mean "normal" tire rotation constitutes a lot), and if they've been routinely overtightened (which may have happened at some time in this car's life), is that the threads in the nuts fatigue. Usually they stretch a bit, and thin out as a result. Once the nuts have been stressed past a cerain point, they will not hold and will naturally loosen up with time. At that point you are best off just chucking them and getting new replacements. This fortunately happens to the nuts more often than the lugs -- nuts are easily replaced, lugs are obviously a little harder to replace!

ALMOST as much fun as Car Talk! And these guys know more about subes....

Nipper - it's 'cause you are the ULTIMATE AUTHORITY! You are tapped in to the Source of Universal Knowledge -- or at least knowledge of transfer cases... Bwaa - haa - haaa!!!

I second nipper's comment. Anti-Leak additives are just like radiator Stop-Leak. You can use them if you dare -- but you're often asking for trouble! There is another kind of additive, a dye marker that allows you to see the source of leaks more easily (it looks like flourescent paint when it leaks out of a faulty connection). That you can use if you think you have more than a slow leak, and if you think it is confined to only a couple of joints. However don't get those additives mixed up with the idea of lubricant additives -- a lubricant suspended in the refrigerant is ESSENTIAL for proper A/C operation. It keeps moving parts from seizing up and also keeps the seals wet, which keeps them from drying out and cracking. BUT- if all you are doing is adding replacement refrigerant to a system that has a slow leak, you don't need any extra lubricant. There's enough in the system already to keep things slick and happy, unless you've had a massive seal failure and everything's leaked out of your system. If you're still getting some cooling, that is not the case for you. Bottom line, add a small can of R-134a and see how much cooler it gets.

Well if you've ever had a local buildup of carbon around the valves, you stand a pretty good chance of burning a valve eventually. THe carbon is an insulator (more so than the metal of the head) and so heat builds up in the vicinity of the deposit. Too much carbon and you'll burn the edge off a valve -- though I've gotta admit that I've never seen one THIS bad before!!

I hadn't considered that the WalMart special would only come with one fitting. I guess it is virtually foolproof, but I'll bet there's at least one fool out there who would prove me wrong some day (I acn imagine somebody fashioning an adapter to connect up to the high side just because they wanted to make sure that both sides were charged up!!) Anyway, as far as needing to take out the old refrigerant -- you don't have to unless there is a serious leak in your system. As long as the "OFF" pressure in your system is higher than normal outside air pressure, you'll not have any air in the system - just refrigerant. So grab your WalMart can, hook it up, follow directions, and charge away. If you don't have any gauges then monitor the outlet air temp as you charge, and as soon as it feels cold enough to you then stop adding refrigerant. Remember, more isn't necessarily better, and too much in the system is likely to blow seals. THe reason your home fridge doesn't need a periodic recharge is that most of the fittings are brazed together rather than put together with flanges and O-rings. So they don't leak as often. Not to mention that you don't take your fridge out for a spin and bounce the #@$$ out of it over the roads daily!

Well, the thing that you call the clicker wheel is what I'm referring to as the ratchet. I can't honestly remember if it is inside the car (you'll have to pull off the console cover to get to it then) or if it is accessible under the car. But if it is dry enough to crawl under tomorrow, then by all means, have a look!

I wasn't trying to scare him off -- just to make sure that he was properly careful and sure that he knew what to do before trying it....

Sounds like the ratchet is corroded. You live in the land of snow and road salt, right?? If you can get under the car easily, I think you can hit it with a shot of WD40 or PB Blast from there -- I don't remember absolutely that you can see it without disassembling something, but I seem to recall that you may be able to get to it.

Well, guys. I did change out the PCV valve earlier today, and it has apparently had an effect on the oil blow-by. Maybe it wasn't ring blow-by. Maybe it was a valve stuck partially open that was sucking oil into the intake manifold. I don't know for sure yet since I wasn't gonna take another extreme drive (like Trail Ridge Road), but I did head up into the high country and did about 30 miles up and down hills, engine braking on the way down, and I noticed no blue puffs when I accelerated at the bottom of the hills. The problem may be solved -- I'll keep a watch on it for the next couple of weeks. Oh, since there were no Subie dealers open today (Sunday), I used a Fram aftermarket replacement. I'll switch over to a genuine Sube part at the first sign of something flaky.... Thanks for the hints!

That really depends on a lot of things, including how extreme the climate is (both winter and summer) where you live. In my experience with R-134a systems it is not unusual to have a slow leak of refrigerant that reduces the efficiency of the system. The first test is to run the system while the engine is idling. Put the vents on "recirc" and the fan on high. Put a thermometer into one of the center vents and measure the temperature of the outlet air. The outlet air should be 25 to 30 degrees F colder than the ambient outside air. If not, then your system is not working properly. Next test is to do the thermometer thing while driving on the highway, where the engine is running at least at 2500 RPM. If you measure a significantly different outlet temperature when you're driving (say more than 10 degrees colder than at idle) then you probably are losing coolant to a slow leak. If you have never recharged an A/C system yourself before, I advise you to either get it done professionally or to get someone with experience to show you how to do it, and make sure you have gauges. The days of recharging a system using a sight glass pretty much disappeared with R-12 systems. If you make a mistake and connect up the recharge can to the high pressure rather than the low pressure port, the last thing you'll see is that can exploding in your face. If you indavertently add too much coolant to the system, you'll pop seals in all the A/C plumbing in the car and then you'll have a major repair on your hands. If you have an obstruction in the system and you don't know how to diagnose it by differential pressure, then you'll blow the compressor when you add more coolant, and you'll have an even more major repair to worry about. Other than that, A/C systems are easy to service!

Sorry that it's going to take months before you're "back." I hope you get back to at least close to where you were before the accident. I can't imagine what it must be like to be out of commission for so long.

Yup. Can't wait until I can move my stuff out here. BTW - How're you doing? Are you able to work on your own vehicles again? I seem to remember you were laid up a few weeks ago....

nipper - valve guides/stem seals were replaced, and I made sure that the heads were lapped (to make sure they were flat) when I pulled 'em prior to replacing the HGs. And the blue puff occurs on acceleration. But, and this is why I wasn't 100% sure it was rings, it only happens after a long interval of compression braking, where there's a lot of high compression with the opportunity to push oil out everywhere, and no real "oomph" from cylinders firing, since they're basically being given an idle charge of fuel out of the injectors while my foot is completely off the accelerator on the way downhill. I guess all will be made clear when I do my compression tests, but for the time being I suppose I can just dump a quart of Lucas Stabilizer or other viscosity increaser into the crankcase to keep from blowing off too much oil. Unless you guys know of something that works better than Lucas.... Also, I'm gonna check the pcv valve right now. It may be gummed up since I don't remember checking it the last time I changed oil.

Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised - with more than 216,000 miles on my 2.5L (in a '96 Outback Wagon), I'm starting to see some evidence of excessive blow-by. But interestingly enough, the tell-tale blue cloud out the exhaust is only showing up after prolonged periods of "compression braking." I took a drive up (and down) Trail Ridge Road yesterday, just because I haven't been up there in decades and I wanted a nice cool drive in the high country to escape the 90+ degree Fahrenheit heat down in Denver. The day was grand, the trip up was beautiful, but the trip down was marred by a dude in a mega-box SUV (Lincoln Navigator, I think) who must have been from Kansas or Nebraska or somewhere like that. I doubt if he's ever before been on a hill with more than 1% grade. He was white-knuckled all the way down the mountain, and we descended at an average speed of about 12 mph. Along with driving me and everyone else behind him absolutely nuts (he didn't have the presence of mind to pull into a turn-out so he ended up with about 50 cars in a long procession behind him), he caused me to do most of the descent in 2nd or 1st (I have a 4EAT in the OBW). When I finally got the chance to step on the accelerator again (instead of the brake), I fumigated the rest of the line of cars behind me. To anyone who was there, sorry about that!! I give you the whole story only because this is the ONLY time I've ever seen visible evidence of smoking thru the tailpipe in this car, except for a little that was associated with the Head Gasket failure that I fixed back at 160K miles. And since I just got back to Colorado about a month or so ago, I had to run the beast through the state emissions test (which includes a full 4-wheel dyno acceleration profile test) and we easily passed. So, I figure that the rings are still in pretty good shape for an engine this old. I will of course do a compression and leak down later -- when all my tools and equipment get moved out from California at the end of this month -- but until then I'm wondering if there is anything I can do (additives or otherwise) to minimize the problem until I can fully diagnose it. Like I said, it sure looks like ring blow-by to me, but all other opinions (and suggestions for potential fixes) are welcome. And for those of you who don't know, Trail Ridge Road is the highest paved road that crosses the Continental Divide anywhere in North America. The highest point is at roughly 14,000 feet (4265 meters) above sea level, and even on the hottest summer days in Denver it is a refreshing 40-50 deg. F up there! Almost always a cool ride -- although I think I'll skip going up there on weekends from now on!

got'cha

blitz, I totally agree with you! I hope that you didn't interpret my response to his question as advice to let maintenance items go until they become safety hazards. I truly believe in regular maintenance for all those things that wear out or break down with know frequency -- timing belts are really high on my personal list after one time years ago when I had a timing CHAIN fail on a big block Olds engine. The result wasn't a pretty sight! Regular maintenance is part of why I'm approaching the quarter million mile mark on my Outback now. It's just that I've seen people lose sleep (and spend money) over things that really aren't issues. There's no need to replace knock sensors or coolant temp sensors or the like -- unless you know they've failed. And these days, with OBD, you have a direct indication when some of those things have broken down.

My personal approach to this is the "If it ain't broke..." idea. You should do the prescribed maintenance, including timing belt, other belts, and of course change all the fluids per prescribed intervals (including differentials, tranny fluid, etc.), but usually the other things that you mention don't need replacing until they go bad. That includes O2 sensors, which are kind of expensive to replace in advance. My advice - save your money and enjoy the experience of driving one of the most reliable vehicle brands on the road!

I COMPLETELY agree with Nipper. Change both the O2 sensors first, make sure that you use anti-seize on the threads, and if you still have the problem, only then would I resort to changing the cats (and you can re-use those O2 sensors that you just tried!!) Even then, the front cat does the bulk of the exhaust scrubbing on the Sube design so that's the one I'd start with if I were resigned to changing a cat. It really doesn't make any difference if your car is Federal or California certified. Subaru, like many of the other Japanese manufacturers, figured out that the same components can be used to qual a car to either set of standards, so starting with the first OBD-II equipped cars in 1996 (actually late '95 for some models), they have built every unit with components that will pass California emissions -- they just reserve the more involved qual testing that California requires for those units that will be shipped there. Your parts are identical to a Cal approved car, regardless of what standard it has been qual'd to. To find out which standard was applied to your car originally, read the emissions sticker that should be stuck to the inside of your hood.

Actually, in my experience, a "worn out" or contaminated cat will also throw a code (the dreaded P0420) that triggers the light, but it won't change driveability much. Only if a cat gets plugged, or if it gets so hot that the catalyst matrix melts into a lump of slag, will it restrict exhaust flow and cause the engine to behave badly. The recommended thing to do first is (as has been said here) replace the O2 sensors and see if the problem goes away. That's much cheaper than a cat replacement. BTW - I recently replaced the cats on my '96 OBW; after about 215K miles they just didn't have enough left I guess. Anyway, as part of my acquiring replacement parts for my Outback I picked up more than one Front cat for the old beast. Bottom line is that I have a perfectly useable, used Front cat off of a '97 Outback (about 110K miles on it) available for anyone who might be so inclined. It is my understanding that I can't offer to sell it to anyone, but I suppose I can entertain offers to buy! Anyone interested can send me a PM.

Yup - as the others have said here, the FWD fuse location should be EMPTY for normal All Wheel Drive operation. If you put a fuse in that location, you will apply continuous power to the Duty Solenoid C coil, which switches the transfer clutch pack OFF, and decouples the rear drive shaft from the tranny. Thus, with a fuse in, you are Front Wheel Drive (i.e. FWD) instead of All Wheel Drive (AWD). (I think Subaru recommends a 20A fuse, although I have no idea why-- the Duty Solenoid only draws about 1.6A.)

Well, Gee! RC, then you haven't read any of my postings from 2 yrs ago!! Seriously to MischivousSlpwlkr -- if the price is right and you can manage to time the belt yourself (or if you have a mechanically inclined friend), then hurry back and grab that car before one of us does!!

Hey, Larry! If you haven't found any takers for that hitch yet, I'm up for another drive to the Springs! BTW - That cat set you had laying around was perfect for my '96 OBW, and it passed metro Denver emissions testing with some of the lowest emission numbers I've ever seen from any vehicle! Are you sure that you had THAT MANY miles on them?? Thanks Again for the earlier transaction. Drop me another PM if you still have the hitch laying around.

Careful -- remember that in '96 Subaru used two slightly different caliper designs on Outbacks. In early '96 (produced before June), the caliper does swing up on a pin -- you only have to pull the bottom caliper bolt and swing up the assembly to get to the pads. From June '96 on, they went with a different design, which has two bolts (upper and lower). I found this out the hard way, having to replace the right front caliper on my early '96 OBW recently. The Checker Parts guy ordered me a rebuilt -- but he got me the "new" one. No problem EXCEPT that the old and new pads are a slightly different form factor. The pad surface is the same area, but the steel backing plate is shaped differently and the old pads don't fit on the new caliper guides! Now when I want to replace pads, I have to buy one set of each -- and I aoutomatically get a set for my current replacement AND my next replacement.