Daskuppler

I would add SeaFoam if you're going to use a cleaner/solvent. My 02 will tick and the oil light will flash on startup for a while when oil is due for a change. Usually goes away after fresh oil

What's your thought on Amsoil CVT fluid? Is it better to stick with Subaru for this application or is Amsoil equal/better?

I have not done a.compression test. The head gaskets have about 60k on them and I don't really have any other symptoms. Exhaust smells normal, car starts and runs fine, and the heat doesn't come and go on a drive. If it's gone when in it starts, it's always come back in a few minutes and never disappears after that. Reving the engine to move coolant and bubbles doesn't help. Temperature gauge is rock solid as well. I guess I could. Pull spark plugs and check for coolant. We'll see how it progresses.

They are manual controls and cable driven. I can hear the blender door moving so I don't think that's the problem but who knows. I'll see if I can check temperatures on the hoses, that might be hard but could be helpful information.

Awesome thank you. He's not familiar with Subaru so I figured I'd check here.

The kit only said 2 minutes and I saw 10 minutes pretty commonly online so I just kinda picked an arbitrary number. I can run it again longer, the radiator attachment didn't want to seal terribly well (I could hear it leaking if things weren't perfectly set) so I didn't want to leave it to long, I figured the results would be moot anyway. I was hoping but over pressurizing I could push it to leak a little more even if it was a small leak. It might be worth buying a kit. For what it's worth, the engine was cold during the test and had been sitting for 12 plus hours, the garage was 35 degrees.

I have quite a lot of tools as well and I usually purchase over rent, but I just rented this time (it ended up being brand new so there wasn't any abuse on this one). Pressure held at 23psi for 25 minute so I would assume there's no leaks unless the cap is bad but it's brand new from Subaru. A buddy said there is usually a vacuum driven actuator allowing hot coolant to flow to the heater core and that they can go bad. Is there something like that present on Subarus?

I looked in that area, there was a lot of debris but almost all of it blew out with a compressor. There was a little bit of stuff on the hard pipe, but it wiped off and was mostly just dust. The block has a little bit of stuff stuck to it that wasn't removed with compressed air, but no real signs of a leak here. The auto parts store rents them locally so I'll go grab one and see what happens. I don't think it's likely to be head gaskets as I don't have any of the other symptoms I've had in the past.

Are you referring to the two pipes/hoses that end up going through the firewall to what I assume is the heater core? There some some buildup on the front of the block but I think it's from the oil filler tube and is pretty oily. Would it be best to check when it's hot and see if there is any steam or localized odor under pressure? The smell of coolant is strongest at the top of the block and towards the front. The heat has not gone out since and there have been several heat cycles. I did notice some debris on the radiator fill port so I wiped that off in case it was preventing the radiator cap (new from Subaru) from completely sealing. When the radiator was out for the water pump and timing repair it looked sound (it's only got 15k or so on it), I did not see any green residue buildup or obvious signs of leaks. I replaced the lower radiator hose, the top was in good shape. Coolant levels were spot on the full line in the overflow and the radiator did not take more than a couple of ounces before it was overflowing. I do not, but I can get one if that seems like the best rout to go.

Nothing there either. The smell is only outside of the vehicle.

Heater went out again this evening. Ran for about 5 minutes got to operating temperature and the vent she went from cold to hot instantly. Never went out again during the drive. I had a smell of coolant in the garage a couple days ago but there were no visible leaks and no coolant on the floor. The heater worked fine every time until this evening when I picked the car up from the tire shop.

Whatever the auto parts store has, cut to length, and crimp new ends or see what Subaru offers.

It's likely the positive cable at the starter end.

Probably the valve cover gaskets. Very easy fix.

I agree, they are far from military spec, but they work well and are beefy compared to the standard stuff. I run them on my Xterra and have an amp, light bar, and winch hooked up to one terminal. It's all clean and there are never power issues.

My first thought would be a bad cable running to the starter or ground if the battery meters fine but doesn't crank could be luck that it started other times. I would replace the positive cable running to the starter and the negative running to the alternator. If there's any corrosion anywhere, I would replace the terminals as well. Something like this is nearly indestructible but may be hard to use on the positive terminal depending on your setup: https://www.amazon.com/Ampper-Military-Battery-Terminal-Vehicles/dp/B07JJKVHD1 Maybe a bad relay?

Hello Everyone, I have a 2002 Impreza TS currently riding on 3 bent steel 15x6 5-100 wheels. The tires are almost new, less than 10k on them so I don't really want to go to a 16" wheel and get rid of the $800 in rubber. The wheels were apparently bent at time of install, but the shop won't cover new rubber only the labor to remount and balance. I have been working with Discount Tire and been through 7 or 8 different wheels all of which are either unavailable, on back order, they only have 3 of them, or one of the 4 is miraculously damaged prior to shipping. I have checked Tire Rack as well and they really only offer one or two different wheels which I don't like and/or don't want to pay the hefty price tag for. I live in a state with many potholes and snow/ice so I don't want the cheapest wheel around but, but I certainly don't need a rally spec wheel. Or should I just stick with replacement steel wheels? Does anyone have any recommendations on where to purchase a decent set of wheels online?

I'll run with that, thanks!

I run 5w30 AMSOIL and PurolatorOne filters in all of my cars. I've never had a problem. You can't really go wrong with the oil as long as it's a name brand. I have heard Castrol Edge (black bottle) does better for high mileage cars than Mobil but again, change at the appropriate interval and you're probably fine. I would not add and Lucas products. My 02 Impreza 2.5 has 137k '14 Forester runs 0w-20 but has 118k 87 Nissan d21 has 190k 06 Xterra is 100k

Awesome, thanks! I got it all put back together with a little red thread locker on the one heli-coil I just could not get to torque down all of the way. Everything torqued down fine. I did notice on startup, there was a pretty loud and high pitched whine from the front of the engine. It dissipated with time and fluctuated with RPM. I ended up replacing all of the timing pulleys, tensioner, and belt, could the whine be related to any of the new parts? I torqued all the new timing parts down to 29 ft-lbs

Great information, hopefully the HG holds on for a while.... What do you use to repair threads? do you think a little bit of thread locker on the one loose heli-coil will tighten that up enough to torque it down or do I need to remove the whole thing, get a new water pump gasket, insert a new heli-coil (this would be the third one in the hole), and go from there?

I used Felpro triple layered gaskets. It was about 65k ago, I've learned a lot since then and buy very few things from auto parts stores anymore. The new gasket on the water pump is metal but I'm still struggling to get one of the bolts to torque down completely. The heli-coil starts to spin at about 6 ft-lbs. I was thinking a little bit of Loctite on the heli-coil, let it cure, and then thread the bolt in. This is all assuming it starts to leak again. My heat ddid partially go out this morning, but I'm hoping that's just remnant air in the system after refilling. No visible leaks yet.

haha, my bad on the spelling. We actually just got back from Scotland.

I did think about putting in an 8mm bolt opposed tot he factory M6 but I didn't think it would fit through the hole on the water pump or gasket, maybe I should have gone that way. I'm really hoping it doesn't leak I only got the one bolt torqued to about 6ft-lbs. I'm going to pick up a bottle of the Subaru Conditioner today along with a Subaru radiator cap. If it still leaks, maybe I'll try one of those epoxy/Loctite thread repair injections since this is a pretty low torque application. I think I can access the one bolt without removing the timing belt.

Yeah, meant to say that but forgot to include the heli-coils. We'll hope for the best. One of them didn't feel super tight. They were a pain in the rump roast to do in that area.