Ravenwoods

I checked the Kelly Blue Book value and $2900 is the upper range for our location. It also comes with a set of winter tires on a separate set of steel rims. Here in Fairbanks they hardly use salt on the roads and our snow is a fine dry powder so card don’t rust much. The owner bought the car new in Anchorage and also lived in Washington state. Anchorage does have rust issues but apparently this car is nice and solid.

My daughter sounds like she is ready to upgrade to a nicer car so we are going to look at a Legacy with the 2.2 liter engine and manual transmission. Here is what the seller says: “1996 Subaru Legacy. One owner, 111K Miles, non smoking vehicle. Comes with summer and winter tires. Mechanically sound and in perfect working condition. This is a great reliable car for Alaskan life. Current registration. Great shocks and not a chip in the windsheild. $2800 firm.” I’ve never had a car with the 2.2 engine. Is there anything in particular we should look for on this vehicle? I’ve heard people say the EJ22 is better than the EJ25.

I put on the new rotor and caliper yesterday evening and lubed up the caliper on the other side. My daughter drove it this morning and when she got home I checked the rotor temperature and it was cold. She says the shaking in the steering wheel is gone. So it seems the old caliper wasn’t opening up enough and while driving the pads were rubbing on the rotor getting it hot. The rotor expanded from the heat causing the brake pads to grab even more and that caused the shaking in the steering wheel. Thanks everyone for suggestions and help.

I looked at the JDM engine website. Alaska always has high shipping costs associated with 300 pound items. It would probably at least double the cost of the engine.

Head gaskets might have been replaced about 125,000 miles ago. We got it when it had 103,000 on the odometer.

Thanks for the information. Back in the 90s i used to hear one could get low mileage engines from Japan for a good price. Apparently once the engines reached about 100,000 miles in Japan they are required by law to replace it. Are those engines still available these days? So is the 2.2 liter engine better than the 2.5?

So are we talking about the connecting rod from the crankshaft to the piston? So does the bearing fail? What is the rod knocking? Extra play in a bearing? Anyway I’m looking forward to the outcome in the next few thousand miles. Two years ago someone sideswiped the car causing cosmetic damage and the insurance company totaled it and we have a reconstructed title now. So the car doesn’t have much value. Yet here in Fairbanks Alaska elderly well used Subarus still fetch a decent price. My 19 year old daughter searched hard and ended up spending $1000 on a 1995 Impreza with huge cosmetic defects.

I sent an inquiry to the eBay seller and here is his reply: “Thanks for the inquiry. This product is our own in house brand and is manufactured specially for us from our suppliers in Japan, China and Taiwan. If quality is your concern, we have sold hundreds of this item and our customers are generally happy with the quality of our products. They are expected to match OEM specifications. ”

It is a DOHC. When my wife got home last night I checked the coolant reservoir tank to see if it had overflowed and it was almost empty. The oil is still black. I told her not to fill up the gas tank but only to put in a few gallons as we could expect head gasket failure at any time. What is the most dangerous thing about the Chinese timing kit? The belt or the pulleys? There is another thing I didn’t mention about the car’s history. It is setup to be towed behind an RV and the story is that a previous owner towed it around North America for about 50,000 miles. So even though the odometer reads 277,000 the engine may have about 50,000 less.

The oil is still black so it doesn’t seem oil is getting into the coolant. My wife took the car to town so I am very curious to see if signs of head gasket failure have shown up yet.

I’ll change the oil as it’s about time for that anyway. So if the head gaskets start leaking would you say not to put any more money into the engine at its mileage?

Our 98 Forester S with 277,000 miles sprang a nasty radiator leak. My wife neglected to mention she noticed puddles on the ground. She also didn’t notice the temperature gauge was full hot. She arrived home last week with the thing steaming. It looks like there was no more coolant but the engine didn’t seize. I was thinking maybe the engine was partially ruined but I got a used radiator from Interior Auto Salvage here in Fairbanks Alaska and put on a new water pump. While i was at it I got the cheapest possible timing belt kit on EBay for $82. That’s with new pulleys and belt tensioner. No doubt Low quality stuff from China. The belt didn’t even have marks on it. But I’m hesitant to put much money into a higher mileage engine. I got it back together today and no coolant leaks and the engine runs great. Apparently I got the timing right. Also no blue smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe. The engine is much quieter with its new cheap Chinese timing pulleys. So I was hesitant to put much money into it not knowing exactly if the engine had been damaged by no coolant. What would you have done? Any suggestions on what to expect after this overheating event? The

"Or, save yourself the time, and buy a remanufactured semi-loaded caliper. The NAPA Eclipse brand ones are a premium BBB reman, and (here anyway) are competitively priced to the unpainted competition from BBB or Cardone. " I think I'll recommend this to my daughter. The Eclipse semi-loaded caliper you mention is $54.69 at our local Napa. A new rotor is about $36 (saw one for $26 too).

The caliper pins appear to be well greased and slide easily. The steering feels tight while driving. Tires are almost new. The bearing does not appear to allow any place and is quiet. The alignment seems fine as the car does not pull to the left or right. I did notice that one of the brake pads appears thinner than the other. I believe it was the outside pad. I swapped them.

Actually the caliper piston was already fully pressed in. It is as if the brake pads are too thick. It looks like the previous owner replaced them at the same time he put in new cv joints. I had my daughter push on the brake pedal to see if the caliper piston would move and it did and I was able to press the piston back in fully. I find it interesting I don’t notice any of that hot brake smell one normally notices after you come down a long steep hill. Does that not happen with ceramic brake pads?

My daughter’s 95 Impreza with 182,000 miles, has a slight shake in the steering wheel. The breaks don’t pulse like one gets warped rotors. So I assumed a bad wheel bearing. One could feel the right wheel was hot after driving. I took it apart tonight but the bearing appeared fine so I put it back together. The only problem I had was getting the brake assembly stuff to fit over the break pads. I couldn’t depress the cup thing that actuates the brakes so I left off those two anti vibration shims. Seems like it is too tight. She’s had the car for 10,000 miles and we didn’t replace the pads at all. So I got it all back together and test drove it. It seems like the slight shaking in the steering only starts after a few miles. This time I felt the right rotor with my fingers and it was too hot too touch after driving six miles with minimal breaking. Left rotor was only warm. So should we assume that right one is warped even though there is no pulsing when applying breaks? Any recommendations one what to do?

Whats the best way to check engine and transmission mounts? Hold the car with your foot on the brake and let clutch out a bit while an observer watches to see if the engine moves?

It only makes the noise while decelerating, or going down a hill and using the engine as a brake, mostly while going down a hill using the engine as a brake. It never makes the noise while idling in neutral. We cannot make the noise just by revving the engine.

So there isn't an easy way to change the car to a FWD? Is the input shaft bearing in the clutch? The clutch itself feels very healthy.

It is real hard to tell where the noise is coming from. No vibrations in steering wheel, floorboards, or mirrors. I would say the noise is very similar. My guess is that it is the same thing but that our noise is more severe. My daughter just puts the clutch in or puts the transmission in neutral to avoid it. We figure that probably helps preventing it from getting worse. I'm planning on getting a FWD fuse to put in that fuse slot to see if it still makes the noise when it runs only on FWD.

Someone posted a video on Youtube with audio of what I believe to be the same noise. Here is the link: Even though I include the link it doesn't show up after I post it. The title of the youtube video is "Subaru transmission rattle on deceleration." It's 22 seconds long.

We changed the rear differential oil and the transmission fluid. I didn't see any metal pieces in the oil. The previous owner did put on new front axles and we don't know if they are aftermarket or not. I found a video on Youtube with what I believe to be the same noise. I'll post a link to it in a little bit. It never does it while accelerating.

My daughter has a 1995 Impreza (EJ18) with a manual transmission. When she lets up on the accelerator or is going down a hill a noise occurs. I made a feeble attempt to push the driveshaft around to see if a bearing has obvious play but didn’t find anything obvious. I did this 6-12 months ago, so we haven’t considered this an urgent matter and it doesn’t seem to be getting worse. Now that I’ll have some time off for the holidays this might be a nice little project. From the symptoms I’ve described is the driveshaft the likely source? The car has 178,000 miles on it.

Yep, it does cycle the purge valve open and closed. I blew through it and it definitely closes. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it doesn’t need replacing? Even though the computer doesn’t weigh the canister, is it supposed to be replaced when it exceeds a certain weight?

So I can plug in those green plugs under the dash on the drivers side to see if it closes the valve?