LeolaPA

I'm doing the right rear. I bought this on Ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/23-pcs-Wheel-Bearing-Press-kit-Removal-Adapter-Puller-Pulley-Tool-W-Case-Front/252815242820?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 I found a couple videos on Youtube that seem helpful. One thing that seems to be a big issue is getting the long bolt out. I already checked that bolt last weekend, and mine can be turned and will come out, so I don't have that to worry about. One video I watched was 57 minutes, and half of that was the guy trying to get out the long bolt. I'll look to see if I can post a link to that one.

Thanks guys. After I posted this, I read on another forum that one person's opinion was that the NTN was higher quality than the Koyo, so all the comments are really appreciated. I DID buy a bearing removal/installation tool on Ebay which didn't arrive yet. It allows you to leave the knuckle attached to the car. That should be good if the tool works as it should.

I looked at Ebay for wheel bearings, and I saw lots of sellers with lots of deals, but I decided to go with the local dealer because they have a nice discount for online orders, and I figured I'd get the latest most up to date parts for my car. The OEM bearing is supposed to be Koyo from what I read, and that's what I expected to get from the dealer. When I picked up the parts today, the bearing I got was NTN instead. I know they make bearings for the timing belt area, but I was a bit disturbed that I spent the money to go to the dealer when I could have gotten the same thing on Ebay probably cheaper.... This may be more of a rant than a topic of great discussion....

Thanks for everyone who commented. I did change the oil, and then let the car sit over night, and it was cold the next day when I checked again. Maybe some oil was up the tube somehow.

Young people are pretty interested in their phones and friends, and not so much checking car oil.

It may have been something like this that happened. I changed the oil, the next day I check a cold engine and can't get a good reading.

Thanks. If it was a car I drive I wouldn't worry about it, but my daughter drives it, and I have been telling her to check the oil, but now I see it possible that she could get a bad reading which I have never seen before in a car. I just changed her oil and it had to have been down at least 2 quarts, but it's possible that she didn't realize it because of the bogus readings

A couple days ago I changed the oil in our 1999 Legacy with the 2.2 motor. I put in slightly less than 5 quarts of oil and a new filter, and when I checked the dipstick the level was just slightly above the Full hole. OK, so the car sat overnight, and I thought I would check it again before driving it today, and the dipstick reading is way over the FULL level. Added note: when I say "way over" I mean like it was like 2 or 3 quarts over.....way above the area where you read the oil level. WAY OVER.... not a couple ounces over........ I wiped it off and checked it again, and got the same thing. After repeating that wiping and checking about 6 times, I finally got a reading on the stick that was normal....pretty much the same as the day before when I changed the oil. So, is this just something we have to do, dip it and wipe it 6 times to get a real reading? I don't have this problem with my other Subaru, a 95 with a 2.2 motor. I know that the motors are not identical...Subaru changed a lot of things in the 99. Thoughts?

OK, I got it and put it in today. I might upload some photos showing what I ran into. Basically the fan mount locations were off, so I had to slot the flanges on the fans to make those fit. Also, the top bracket could not be mounted without slotting those holes. I didn't have enough antifreeze, so I haven't driven the car yet. So, I would not recommend this to someone who doesn't have the tools and patience to do some modifications

Great! I imagine if you are in Colorado you used a California seller. I picked the one from my link above because they ship from New Jersey, and their feedback was pretty good. From the photos, it looks like all the sellers are selling the same item.

Update: I couldn't find a 96 GT radiator and fans that was reasonably priced, so I decided to pull the trigger on the Ebay aluminum radiator. I know that it will take my fans and top mount brackets, so it should be simpler for me to install. It should be here end of the week. I may start a new topic for this.

I didn't hear much on this forum for a couple days, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the all-aluminum Ebay radiator. The guy has over 300 positive feedbacks and only 2 negative in a year, and I just figured his radiator will take my fans and my top mount, so in the long run it could easily be replaced with something else if needed. Thanks for responding! I'll post my results on the other topic, or maybe start a new one.

I started a topic on aluminum Ebay radiators a couple days ago. I have a 95 Legacy wagon with the 2.2 motor, and have replaced the radiator twice already due to plastic failure. One person recommended using a 96 GT radiator which has metal tanks, but I'm not sure my fans will fit that. Have you ever done that? Do you have some other input on that topic?

Thanks so much for the tip about this all metal GT radiator. I see on Ebay CSF model 2500. Some sellers show it interchanging with the part number that comes up for my non-GT model. I see it as cheap as $146, and another one APDI 8012082 for $114. So that's a really good tip!

Lostinthe202 said: "A couple of red flags, for me anyway, is that their mumbo jumbo implies that this is US made and they are trying really hard to make you think that, with all the red, white, and blue, and the "ships from NJ." Only their mumbo jumbo is clearly written by someone who speaks, or types, English as a second language. I'm not saying this means the product is bad, just I don't like being misled. Might try sending them a message with a question about the product, like what aluminum alloy they use, see how quickly they respond and how well they answer your question. Let us know if you get it and how you like it" I have about half a dozen sellers of the same product saved on Ebay. All of them are in California except the one from the link, which has a warehouse in New Jersey. I noticed the same language. The radiators are made in China, and likely the sellers are also Chinese importers. I wrote to them and asked a question, and got an answer back very quickly. That is better than the last two sellers I dealt with on Ebay. One didn't answer any questions at all, and the other one answered my email 2 days after I sent it. So they are responsive. I watched a video of a guy installing a similar radiator into a Miata on Youtube. His worked out. There are also some videos of people who weren't happy with their radiators. I am leaning toward doing this because I have replaced the radiator TWICE in this car, and it was plastic failure each time.

I guess if I never had a problem with the spectra one, I wouldn't be thinking about an alternative. The plastic on the outlet is very thin. I design plastic parts as part of my job, and I would never make a part so thin, especially when there's going to be a hose clamped on it. I WAS very careful not to overtighten the clamp. So it lasted 3 years and I don't want to do it again. Clamping on to a metal outlet seems better....

Oh, I agree, however there is no option to purchase anything similar in my area. All the parts sellers sell radiators with plastic ends.

Three and a half years ago I replaced the radiator on our 95 Legacy with a Spectra one. It recently failed. The ridge on the end of the pipe where the upper hose attaches just separated and the upper hose slid off. I'm hesitant to get another one, because the plastic is SO THIN and I don't want to do this job again because of plastic failure. Has anybody bought any of these all aluminum radiators like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/291936775151?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT If so, I'd be interested in your experience in fit, leakage, etc. I'm tempted to get one for our car.

Just an afterthought to pass along: I was a bit hesitant to suspect the wires because my experience with wires goes back to my 66 MGB. Back then the wires were so bad that they cracked after they got old. You could literally see sparks come off the wires all over the place at night. Today's wires are incredibly good compared to that. I have never seen a cracked wire on my current cars. BUT...I suspect that what's going on with bad wires is some sort of break or vibration problem where they crimp the metal spring ring onto the core of the wire. Maybe that's not it...but that's a theory I speculated about today. The bottom line is that they can LOOK good, but that doesn't mean that they ARE good.

OK I think it's fixed. I bought a original Diamond Subaru coil and a set of wires on Ebay. The seller did not know the brand of the wires, but the ad claimed that the parts had 200 miles on them. I started with the coil first. It made no difference. I did the wires on the passenger side next, since that's where the code reader found a misfire one day, and had to do it quick before work. That seemed to fix it. So I put the "new" wires on the other side the next day, and it DOES seem to be fixed. Thanks to 1 Lucky Texan, Rooster2, Fairtax4me, and mikaleda for all repeating about the wires. Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment on my question. I appreciate all of the comments.

I cleaned the PCV and replaced the front O2 sensor over the weekend. It didn't help. I was passing the Euro Garage in Leola today, and saw them cleaning it out. Apparently they moved out. I was looking for possible Subaru parts, and got into a conversation with a mechanic who was there. He felt that the spark coil was a possible culprit. This was mentioned by 1 Lucky Texan earlier. I think I'm going to look into that next. My Windstar was having a similar problem a while back, and it turned out that the coil was cracked underneath. So maybe something similar is happening here.

I still have the wires on the car that were on it when I got the car. I think they are original, but I need to check. I did have a guy do alignment on the car a few weeks ago, and I should check to see if he loosened any wires or bumped anything under there. Yesterday I drove the car with the code reader on from absolutely cold, and the temps all read the air temp to start and the water temp increased in a way that looks accurate to me. It didn't seem to hesitate yesterday either. I'm wondering if my daughter bought some bad gas.

I did not work on the car over the weekend because it was extremely windy here on Saturday, and I was busy also. Today I plugged my code reader in to read the temp readings on my drive to work. The temps seemed pretty normal. The car had run a minute before the reader got plugged in and was reading the info. The coolant temp was 100 and slowly rose to 190 as I drove. (Like I said, the car had run a minute or so) The car ran fine this morning. So this also is puzzling.

I know people here will scream, but I put in double platinum autolite plugs. The reason for that is that I have a Windstar Van that came with them from the factory. A couple years ago I had to replace a coil, so I decided to change the plugs also. I was astounded to see that with over 100,000 miles on them they were still good! The gap had not opened up, they were not eroded...nothing bad. So I was so impressed that I started buying them for all my cars. I did not change the wires.

Thanks for the comments so far, guys. I will check into those things this weekend if possible. The car does have new plugs. I put them in earlier this year. I know that these cars operate on some kind of pre-programmed basis until they get warm. Could the coolant temp sensor affect that? Once in the past with another Subaru the local Subaru experts recommended one for a similar problem, and it didn't make any difference.