Cougar

If you want to repair it do a search on the net for mobile radio repair. There some good places to check with. You should also be able to find a used one by checking with some salvage yards in your area.

I've seen new engines that were about as clean as yours is Josh. I have heard of blueprinting and balancing engines but not injectors. What's up with that?

What you are seeing is the voltage drop caused in the wiring between the battery and the voltmeter. Unless you have a problem like MM mentioned. You could check and clean your battery and ground connections to see if that will help make the reading better. Also check and clean the fuselink connections. If that doesn't work then you could try beefing up the wire that feeds between the battery and the fuse panel. This will cut the voltage drop losses down. As long as you are aware of what is really happening with the electrical system it's not a big deal. You just need to remember that the battery voltage is really 1 or 2 volts higher than the gauge is indicating when you have a good load on the system.

You might want to check out Infinity's Kappa Perfect 8 inch DVC subwoofer for a driver. This will make some clean and tight SPL's.

You will have better sound with the new tweeters. The higher frequencies are better heard when you have the speakers near the same height of your ears. It will make a very noticable difference. You could also upgrade the original door speakers to improve their sound. Being an audiophile is not cheap. You need to decide how much you really want to spend when making changes. In mobile sound systems today, the sky is about the limit to spend on equipment.

My '01 service manual shows the plug location for the amp near the radio in the console so it may be behind it. As far as SPL levels go I wouldn't worry too much about it. One thing to look at in a driver is the sensitivity. You can have a 8 inch driver that will sound louder than a 10 inch if the sensitivity is better than the 10 inch. Also the size and type of enclosure will make a difference in SPL. You'll have plenty bass no matter what you choose.

I really like the style of the car. I hope it works out well for you.

You may have a bad connection in the dash area or the other lights burned out somehow. Try tapping on the back of the dash to see if that will help. If not, check the bulbs.

You could replace the cable or ask about what kind of lubricatiom you could use in it. Perhaps moving it in a different position will help this also. The temperature sensor may not be the problem and you really should get it fixed. It is very important to keep an eye on the engine temperature. Hopefully you replaced the right one as I believe you have two of them. The other one may have two leads to it and it is for the ECU, not the temperature gauge. If you did replace the right one then you have a wiring problem to the gauge or the gauge is bad. I don't think the gauges go bad very often so I would suspect a wiring problem. A ohmmeter would help a lot in finding your problem with this. Replacing the bad bulbs can be done but it is slightly difficult to do from what I have read from others. I thought someone had a procedure to look at on the board here somewhere but I could not find it. It is hard to say which of the units is not working in the keyless entry system, hopefully it is the transmitter. I would check out a shop that works on this type of thing and see what they say. The transmitters are fairly cheap on Ebay if you need one. There are a number of things that could cause your mileage to drop. You may need to replace the O2 sensor as they can go bad after time.

I would try to find out if pusles are coming from the CAS to the timing box. You may be able to use a test light to watch them but I am not sure if that would draw too much power from the circuit. It would be best to use a scope or possibly a analog meter will will work. I haven't tried it myself.

Jerry, it seems to me you could use a test light to figure out what is what on the wiring. Turning on the low beams will deliver voltage to one wire and ground will always be low. Then turn on the high beam and see what color is on. I would guess the black is ground.

Somebody please pass me a tissue, my eyes are getting watery. Welcome to the Soob famlly. I think your going to like it. Here in Alaska it's the same way also. These cars were built for the snow.

This problem may be caused by a failing power relay contact. I don't have a manual to help with this sorry to say. You may be able to to pin this down by taping lightly on suspected areas with a screwdriver handle while looking for gliches in the operation. I would purchase a service manual for the car that has some good wiring prints. A good service manual is "priceless" as they say.

Since you stated the gas gauge goes down to empty also when this happens it may be a power supply problem. I wouldn't think the ECU is in the circuit for the gas gauge but I can't say that for sure. It could be though that they have a common power connection somehow. Perhaps the power to the fuel pump is causing this to happen.

Welcome to "the family" BT. Glad you decided to get in on the good Subaru action. The T belts should be replaced at 60k mile intervals so you should be on the third set since new. The prices you show for parts and labor seem a bit low for timing belts but labor would be too high for the other belts, so you may be ok in that area. Get some good tires if you don't already have some on. You will like the drive in the winter.

Make sure your horn works. Another poster I helped out had the same symtoms you have and he had to replace the fuse for the horn. This fuse (#5 I believe), feeds power also too the ignition relay and hopefully is your problem. If this is ok then you may have a problem with the CAS (crank angle sensor) in the distributor. If the ECU does not see pulses coming from the CAS it will not turn on the ignition and fuel pump. It may be the ignition relay also at fault but I suspect it is really ok. My manual for an '88 model, shows the relay is brown and between the steering wheel and radio area. Not sure if yours will be the same.

To use your meter in the 10 amp current check mode you need to move the red probe wire to the hole connector marked for 10 amps and then turn the selector switch to the 10 amp position. When you are ready to test the circuit you must remember that you have to place the probes in series with the circuit you are trying to measure. If you try to measure voltage, across the battery say, you will blow the fuse in the meter. To place the meter in series, remove the negative lead of the battery and place the red probe on it and the black probe on the negative battery post. You will then will be able to see how much current is flowing. Do not let the any of the leads touch ground of the car or anything else. You need to keep the connections isolated while doing this test. I also recommend you clean the battery connections and try checking the voltage again. It sounds like you have a resistance in the connections.

My guess is that you are not getting spark to the plugs. Get a spare plug and remove one of the plugwires from a plug in the engine. Put the spare plug in the end and place the plug body on a good ground point of the engine. You should see spark when you turn the engine over. If you don't see any spark you will have to check that power is getting to the right ignition areas. I would also take a test light along to look for voltage. Using a squirt of starting fluid will tell you if the fuel is getting to the cylinders.

Hopefully you have a digital meter to check with. The advantage with them is they are usually protected in case you make a mistake in the setup of the meter. They are also easier to read than a analog meter. Set the meter to read DC volts with the function switch and set the range to read at least 12 volts. Place the red test lead in the "+" position and the black lead in the "-" position. You are now ready to test for voltage on the car leads. Place the black meter lead on a good ground point on the car and then place the red meter lead on the wires you want to test for voltage then take your reading.

I can think of a couple of places to look for a problem. From the sounds of it you have a bad power connection somewhere. I would first look at the smaller wire coming from the positive battery post that feeds the all the accessories of the car. There may be internal corrosion in the wire. Another place to look at is the fuselinks. These should be in a small box near the battery. The fuselinks can become loose in the connectors. If these areas are ok then I would check the wiring that is tied to the voltmeter.

I would guess you have a switch problem with this. You will need to get into the door panel anyways to deal with this. It could be the motor connections also. You could run jumper wires from the battery or a main fuse connection and ground too the motor and see if that will make the motor work. I would isolate the motor wires first before connecting like this though. If this test works ok then you will need to look at the switch for the drivers window for a problem. Hopefully it is just a loose connection rather than a bad switch. Having a test light will be necessary to check for voltage at the connections.

Welcome to the Subaru family Andy. I think you are going to really like the new car, especially if you get into some snow. If you are putting the dog in the back there are some options available but may already know about. One is a barrier you can get to seperate the back area from the seating area and another is a mat for the rear storage area to help keep things clean. Drive on, Glen

I recommend you get a block check done to see if exhaust gases are getting into the coolant. If you do have a head problem then you may want to think about going all the way or just getting a different car (a Subaru of course). By "all the way " I mean getting new heads at least, but maybe even a rebuilt engine. With the mileage you have on the car things start to happen. It would be costly up front but you would have a engine that would not give you any trouble for a long time. I would only do this if the rest of the car was in good shape and want to keep it for some time so you would get get the value out of doing the swap. If you don't plan on keeping the car long then just replacing the head would be the thing to do. If you do the swap, the people at CCR are great to buy a rebuilt from.

Glad you got things straightened out. Thanks for the feedback.

It sounds like you have a bad power connection somewhere possibly near the battery area. First thing you should do is remove and clean the battery connections, even if they look ok. If that doesn't fix the problem then look for a connection problem on the smaller positive wire that feeds the cars fuse panel and check the fuselinks. If that checks out ok then I would suspect a power relay problem.