Cougar

Good to hear you found the trouble, where was it at? I just noticed your location. There most likely isn't many Subaru shops out there.

One of the four links should be a black one and it has the highest current rating of the four. If there was a normal piece of wire installed in place of the link then there may be some wire damage. Hopefully not. I assume the trouble with the high current draw happens when the ignition is turned on. If that is so then you might try replacing the link with some jumper wires tied to a headlight bulb. Having the bulb in series with the high current load will limit the current draw to a safe level while you try to locate the problem. By disconnecting suspected trouble areas the light should dim or possibly turn off when the problem is disconnected. I would suspect the problem is most likely under the hood somewhere.

See if the engine will start up when you spray a little starter fluid into the intake. If it does start then you most likely have a fuel problem. Replace the fuel filter and hopefully that will fix it. If that doesn't help then the fuel pump may have a problem. If the starter fluid has no effect then check the ignition for a problem. Check the power to it first. For the torque bind issue you may need to have a shop look at the trouble.

I would first make sure power is getting to the ignition system.

I had this same kind of trouble with my Outback when I was trying to get the car inspected. The battery was dead and it cleared the monitors. After the second attempt to set enough of the monitors by driving around the tech pulled out a book he had that told how to get the monitors set. The list I copied down was simliar to what Nipper stated and even had more proceedures to do. You shouldn't have to reset the ECU, the proceedure starts with the ignition. I started the trip from the turn out lane of the highway I used to make the trip. By the time I got back to the shop for the testing I had enough monitors set to continue the test. I think our state required to have at least three monitors set in order for the testing to continue on. After last April we no longer require an IM test to be done due to the cleaner air we now have.

Thanks for the informative post Grossgary. This should help a number of folks. I have to wonder if the O-ring issue is due to gas additives like ethenol.

If you haven't verified power is getting to the ignition system first you may waste a lot of time in hunting down the trouble. Whenever the ignition system isn't working, making sure power is getting to it is the first thing to check. Even though wires are intack it doesn't mean they are live.

If you haven't yet made sure there aren't any blown fuses you need to do that.

Thanks for the pointer about the bleeder outlet JCE. I was confused and thinking of a drain valve in my previous posting.

If you don't already own a test light probe that is used to verify where power is getting to I suggest you purchase one so you can do some testing with it. Using the probe, verify power is getting to both sides of fuse 7 in dash panel. That fuse supplies power to the relay contacts for the heater grid. Also verify power is getting to fuse 1 and fuse 15 in the same panel. Power for the relay coil is bridged from there and fuse 15 supplies power to the timer. If those things are okay then you can try swapping the relay in the fuse panel with one of the others near it. I think they are all the same. If that doesn't help then the switch circuit isn't working for some reason. Since the relay coil is turned on by a making a ground connection you should be able to ground the blk/blu wire tied to the fuse panel on pin f14 and turn on the relay. That will verify the switch circuit is at fault. My first suspect for the trouble would be a broken wire in the door jam. To see if that is the case, locate the timer module and ground the blue wire going to the timer. If that turns on the relay then the blue wire to the switch has a break in it. If that doesn't turn on the relay then the timer may be at fault. Use your probe to verify power is getting to the module on the red/blk wire. The timer circuit is really for a safety. Many folks would forget about the circuit being on after it is switched on. The circuit draws a good amount of power and leaving something like that on all the time wouldn't be a good thing.

The valve is at the bottom of the radiator. I'm not sure if all models have one.

Having a block check done is a simple and cheap thing to do to see if there is a headgasket problem. The stop leak may have clogged some of the radiator passages so it isn't workind as well as it could be.

You should be ok. The secret to getting a good solder joint is to apply a good amount of heat to the joint while flowing the solder to it and then quickly remove the heat after you have enough solder applied. Then don't move the joint until the solder has hardend.

See if swapping the relays for the fans changes things. If that doesn't help then you may have a fault inside the ECU with the Main Fan circuit.

The warning lights should turn on when you turn on the ignition switch. It may mean there is a blown fuse somewhere or a bad connection to power. You need a test light to check for power. It should be geting to the panel under the hood and also to the dash panel when the ignition is ON. To get the starter to run it needs to have power getting to the solenoid wire. If that is ok and you hear it click but not turn on then the solenoid contacts are bad.

That dark stuff you saw is most likely dust that came from ware on the clutch disk. If there is no pressure on the fork that presses on the pressure plate to disengage the clutch and the clutch still slips you are done. The clutch assembly is bad.

I think you are correct. The blk/wht lead is the lamp lead and comes from the warning light in the dash. Power from the ignition switch runs through that circuit to power the exciter inside the alternator. The yellow lead should be for the regulator voltage. It should tie to fused power from the battery but I'm not sure if it goes through the ignition switch also or direct. Edit: I was wrong with the above advice. I checked my manual and it shows the battery 'sense' lead is the blk/wht lead and ties from a fused wire from the battery to the 'S' lead of the alternator. The other 'lamp' lead or warning light lead is normally a wht/red wire color that ties to the warning lamp in the cluster and then to switched ignition power. The Yellow color wire is usually used for the wire between the minus side of the disty and to the tach in the cluster. Make sure that the yellow wire isn't that lead.

You don't want any oil near the clutch assembly. That can make things worse. You are going to have to take things apart and most likely install new parts. You can't fix this kind of problem using a vacuum cleaner, even if there is debris in there.

Do the selected lines have a vacuum going to them?

You don't have a battery problem but it does seem like you have a fuel delivery problem. You might try replacing the fuel filter to see if that helps. If that doesn't help solve the trouble then I suggest you check the fuel pressure to see what that is doing. You may need to replace the fuel pump.

What makes you think the clutch and pressure plate are ok and you don't need to replace one or both of them. It sounds to me that is the trouble.

You're welcome, for the help.

To see if there is a backfeed problem coming from the alternator disconnect the small connector on the back side of the alternator while the engine is off and the device is making the noise. If it goes away when you remove the connector then there is a problem.

Hopefully you checked the relay while it had a load on the contacts otherwise if there was voltage drop problem with it the drop wouldn't take place and it would appear to be ok voltage wise. Now if you measured the resistance between the contacts while they were closed and no resistance was read then it should be ok.