idosubaru

Front pinion seal. Or just swap in a used rear diff. They almost never fail and have zero demand. On parts cars I never sold one and routinely scrapped them.

scan for check engine codes. You could have a pending code that hasn’t tripped the check engine light yet. unlikely but it’s free and takes 2 minutes and is a good starting point. Do you notice any difference when warm verse cold? How about when driving slow or letting off throttle completely or at a stop sign? are there conditions when it’s more apparent? Test, clean, or replace idle control. Check for vacuum leak like Loose intake or vacuum hoses. It’s not the fuel filter.as the prior post said they’re cheap and easy so doesn’t hurt to replace. But Subaru fuel filters routinely last the life of the vehicle, the pumps have a huge sock/screen on them, and you’ve taken good care of this vehicle. If it sat for a long time and had rust issues galore and needed lots of work then yeah maybe a rusty tank clogged the filter and your pump is trashed too. By your description that’s not you. Otherwise it’s a terrible first guess. Too many anecdotal “successes” get reported as fuel filters when it was something else and they just didn’t know it. Its such a standard low grade answer that doesn’t make any sense in the face of reality. I assume fuel filters or gas used to be trashy clog prone garbage of some bygone decade or fail all the time on other equipment for as often as I still hear them talked about even though diagnostically confirmed demonstrable *Subaru* issues are basically unheard of.

If you get one with less than 36,000 miles see if you can get the extended 120k warranty? It can be added until the original warranty runs out but not sure if it has to be the original owner to add it?

Hahahhaa. Lmao Great point !

It's common across the entire automotive sector. I'd imagine it varies somewhat by years/models and maybe some are worse than other but there are issues across the board.

If the same generation I’d be surprised if it didn’t swap. That’s unfortunate you have to disassemble a new seat. I’ve swapped 2014-2017 forester lower seats. never dealt with the upholstery or a nonheated seat so I don’t know for sure but the wiring, electronics, and hardware are all swappable between various trims and options. Seems impossible the heated hardware isn’t the same like Larry said of the 90s stuff. I needed a 2017 steering wheel airbag and they weren’t available this summer, also with no timeline.

Don’t know for sure but 235/60 should do it. Try those on the tire size calculators. Subarus can almost always go up one tire size so 225 to 235 and play with the ratio. Those 235s will fit your stock rims just fine. If other foresters of the same generation, different trim or turbo, have different wheels/tires that may give a clue as well. Taller sidewalls are more forgiving of punctures too.

EJ swap sounds like the way to go. When bolting an EJ engine to an EA trans you make or buy an adapter plate, I forget what happens when you do it the other way around. Get one 3.9 final drive and keep your rear LSD. EA rear diffs are a cake walk to swap to 3.9 so you can swap your 3.7 LSD to a 3.9 final drive really easy. I’ve done it.

Not just failed transmissions but zero symptoms from not following those instructions. There would be noise, shifting, codes, or other symptoms…if it was an issue. But quite literally none - not one person in 10 years has done just a drain and fill and had issues. And I guarantee it’s been done tons of times. I mean look at how many CVTs fail. It’s not definitive but highly suspicious. In 10 more years we will probably find out it didn’t matter.

I got Amsoil for mine. What I’m unsure of is can the first Amsoil fill be a partial drain fill or does it need to be a full evacuation? I want to know what happens if you just drain and fill and drive without following those specific directions? What symptoms result? For all the specificity I’ve never heard one person say they had issues. Anything that requires something slecofic like that always has people posting online or calling me when they do it mistakenly. But not this time. After 10 years of silence on that this suggests it’s a nonissue or overkill for very rare conditions or CYA for not having a dipstick?

Yes look at the bolts - are they rusty? Because there’s a good chance they strip even if they aren’t rusty. Impact screw drivers are great but can’t use those insitu. Come up with a stellar method of removing them. EZ Outs are not the way. There’s like 60 of them so 3 minutes per rusty bolt is 3 hours just to remove bolts. I would not replace the chains. On a 300k H6 the exhaust valves may be tight, carbon build up in the heads, head gaskets may go soon, water pump may leak, and I’m sure it’s using at least some oil? The timing chains are far enough down the priority list they’re not a big deal. I know it happens but ive never seen a broken H6 Subaru chain. I’d consider the water pump more than the chains. At which point maybe you do chains and pump since they have to come off to replace it and you’ll have nice clean visible timing marker colored links on a new chain to work with rather than trying to eyeball which one it is on a 300k chain.

The units themselves are prone to fail. A 99 Outback is going to be like 95-98 legacy outback’s and there’s a metal rod connecting the control unit to the blend door. I’ve seen them simply get disconnected down above the passengers side feet. It’s been a few years since I did one so I don’t recall specifics but look up there and it should be obvious if it’s connecting and working properly. I’d look there first then assume the control unit is bad. Not sure what the vacuum contraption would be on a 1999, was that 99 Outback info you saw on rhay?

If you’re handy reseal the cover in the car and call it a day. You don’t have to pull the engine.

Friends have bought used Land Rovers for pocket change, had numerous maintenance issues and joked that it's cheaper to buy another used one for parts than constantly order parts. But on the other hand they have somewhat of an air of reliability because 'what else would you drive across Africa in?" Is it excessive parts and familiarity in Africa? Is it just South Africa? Maybe there was a particularly older model that was more reliable than modern mass produced models? Or maybe they're more reliable than I think?

Only other thing id check is timing tensioner but you have fairly classic piston slap by the current description.

Which one? I saw a “European” and Diesel formulation, and maybe theres others?

* edit my bad I didn’t see that he had replied. I’m almost positives he said he uses it. I bought Amsoil cvt for my 2013 and nearly positive I saw him talking about it. I’ll be doing a 2016 i just picked up shortly and will use it again. You could search his user name and Amsoil or maybe CVT to find his comments here.

It wasn’t resolved. Maybe less common than older models, but it still happens on newer ones. Yes there’s lot of piston slap diversity - some have piston slap, some don’t, some worse than others, some were repaired under warranty, some have had engines or pistons replaced since new, some shops install updated pistons, coated pistons or knurl the pistons when doing a headgasket job, at least two shop owners on here do it and others do as well…etc.

It’s piston slap. It’s benign and unfortunately no easy solution. headgaskets or major work, is a good time to consider having the pistons knurled or new Subaru block installed to address it

It’ll still be there when you and I are gone too. His are out of earths orbit or old ones in orbit gradually descend and fall to earth in 200 or 2000 years, they don’t get deorbited like modern satellites!

Best oil decision is to check it often. An average daily driver will have oil related issues due to low oil, not brand. If you really want to know send samples to oil labs and get it checked they’ll tell you how long your interval should be for that vehicle and if there’s anything problematic with your oil choice Run oil not additives. Use Amsoil Or anything else - there is zero data that lightly used vehicles are dropping dead because one ran Castol instead of valvoline. synthetic is superior but if you’re going to change it often anyway or it’s an older vehicle that uses some oil then it’s pointless or not a good fit.

225/60/16's run perfectly fine on my 2009 legacy with no rubbing. But they are very very tight with small wheel well margins. Snow will pack and freeze in the wheel well and rub and is harder to get off with such small clearances. Those are the same width and 2.5mm shorter than the tires you want to install. But you're installing them on an Outback so you should have plenty of room for that extra 2.5mm. (0.1") Use the following and click "comparison" to see dimensional comparisons of two different tires: https://tiresize.com/calculator/

Good job narrowing it down to #2 cylinder. Coil seems likely candidate to check and it failed right? Failed injector or ECU seem unlikely given those symptoms.

What’s this data and due diligence? You’re supposed to say “my car shifted funny should I replace the coil? Youre sure it’s a phase II 99 EJ22 and the proper FSM numbers? 99 is an odd year for EJ engines. They have both earlier EJ and later EJ characteristics Did you have a code or codes? Is there a reason you’re not confident the failed test means it’s bad?

You probably already do this but - use excellent quality 6 point sockets. No 12's. Use the combination of socket/adapter/reducers necessary to get a 100% perpendicular seat on the bolt and torque on the socket handle. It's fairly easy to get "close" on these, when actually it's at a slight angle because the socket or extension is too thick and doesn't have clearance in those pass through ports. Such a silly design. But I've done it before - had them rock/wobble/slide off because they're not perfectly seated. I hate them too but haven't had any 05-09 rear caliper bracket bolts not come out yet. A little valve compound in your socket adds grip and can mitigate small clearance issues due to rust/wear between the socket and bolt head. Unlikely to help in this case but if you've already got some laying around....?