NoahDL88

Go with him on this one, he's the expert.

That sounds odd, maybe you got the wrong kit, or the parts got mixed up? The pilot bearing should spin freely. The throw out bearing should spin free as well and slide on the shaft that goes around the input shaft, you shouldn't have to press anything.

You bring up a good point, you don't want to attract mice to kill them, you want them to stay away period. (still think you should sell the car though)

No states like it when the tires stick out further than the fenders, some states just care less. Ironically Washington they are sticklers on cars, but on trucks they seem to care less. Listen to Ratty, he speaks the truth, lift the whole car, the money you spend on the super duper lift from SJR will save you mucho time and effort later when things just work. I've changed enough axles on enough rigs that I'd rather not do it if I don't have to, especially if its because of something easily fixed like axle angle. Ratty has been running a SJR lift on his last rig for a year, and I'm about to pick up one myself, I've spoken with Scott and seen his process, his lifts are the bee's knees. There are others who make lifts to be sure, and many are members of this site as well, but I'd worry about getting a lift kit for an old Subaru from someone who isn't even on the forum, just my .02 Do a search on lifts on this site, you'll see many different options, SJR, Mike Appel, Bill Omlin, HTi Good luck.

First thing I noticed, sad Subaru is sad If you want a car that gets great gas mileage as a commuter this is your rig though, if you're light on the go pedal you should get North of 30 mpg

Here is a novel idea, "sell" it to someone, have them insure it and pay you say 100 dollars a month to "borrow" it. That way it gets driven every day, is fully insured against theft/damage and when you come back their lease is up. Sure it will have more mileage than when you left, but hey, its a Subaru. Maybe let your parents borrow it? I know my parents wouldn't turn down borrowing a 3 year old car.

Its a leggo, its not a rare car, sell it, sell it, sell it. Why take the hit on depreciation?

Jack the back of the car up and spin the wheels, see if one or the other makes a noise.

For turning, and suspension travel, believe me, finding out you didn't cut enough out of your fender when you're trying to make a panic turn and have a tire lock up is not as much fun as it sounds.

Older MPFI EA-82's had a flapper door MAF and newer ones have a hot wire, probably changed the plugs when they changed sensors.

I saw a line on an EA-82 I took apart years ago, turns out one of the oil control rings flopped over, probably on assembly and cut a groove, it had over 215K on it and burned less oil than the engine I had in my DD. Probably from the piston or from a contaminate, either way you should probably re-bore the cylinder to get rid of it, or find a "new" EA case.

Tex has a 3.7 in his offroader, He finally got it offroading and should have a good report for us, but he says on road the AWD makes the car much better all around, and since the car is 95% on road it is a no brainer choice for him.

It is my understanding that you should have 10 psi oil pressure for every 1000 RPM, so if you have at least that you should be fine. you may just need to pull apart your lifters and clean them out.

if you want oem only, did you try calling the OEM? Or the Junk yard, but you may have a hard time finding the right color, then again, the one from teh dealership will probably come primer anyway.

Doing some quick research the expensive ones are not terribly more accurate than the cheap HF one, 4% vs 3% However at 150 ft/lbs that is the difference between 4.5 ft/lbs off or 6 off. New they will probably be very similar, but after years of hard use, the higher quality wrench will be closer to the 3-4% than the cheap one.

They are fine for wheels, but if I was doing a head gasket I would not rely on a 20 dollar torque wrench. They are not calibrated, can not be calibrated, do you really want to save 30 bucks on a tool for a job that would cost you 2000 at the dealer? I have a Matco, and it cost a bundle, but I can take it to the Matco man and have it re-calibrated year after year so that I know when I torque a cylinder head to spec that it is in-fact in spec. A torque wrench is a precision instrument, just because it looks fine on the outside doesn't mean its accurate on the inside.

Airbags deploy based on 2 of 3 sensors getting the necessary G forces to activate the "trigger" A deer is no way big enough or can cause enough force to need the airbag. The front hit on the forester, it just may have missed the threshold for triggering the bags, or it may have been on an oblique angle that kept them from firing. Deployment can also be effected by the wheel speed of the vehicle, depending on manufacturer.

You drop steering the same amount as the crossmember, a sleeve and weld will do nicely. if you don't drop the center you will eat axles like candy, they are strongest when they are level, the farther away from level you go the weaker they get. They also may be too short and pull expensive parts away from other expensive parts in a non-repairable fashion.

Having been part of 3 Baja 1000 teams I would recommend getting the rule book and building to the regulations. It would suck to travel all the way down to Ensenada and find out you can't play because you failed tech. Yes, there are a tremendous amount of classes that you can be in, but even the most basic class has very specific safety and modification rules. There is a class running the 2.5 outback engine, rear mount, they are pretty wild. Vibration will be your biggest foe on the course, not heat, speed, impact other drivers, Vibration kills everything, batteries, connections, hoses, engines.

It is my understanding, and I believe it has been verified before that turbo and non turbo ECU's are the same.

Brake fluid is hygroscopic so it is a good idea to change it out every 3-4 years or so, but it won't add much to the effort you need to push the pedal down unless there is air in the system. I usually judge it on the beer scale, if it looks like lager its great, if it looks like a pale ale its got some time left, if it looks like a dark ale/stout, its time to swap it out. Did you try the parking brake instead of the regular brakes?

Seriously, you think that brake fluid is creating a vibration from your engine? I've got ocean front property in Kansas that i'll sell you cheap. Brakes vibrate because they are out of round, a condition that is related to speed, if they are stationary they will not vibrate, or cause vibration, period, end of story, Fineto. Try using the parking brake, its a load issue on your drivetrain, and should, no, I'll say will not change when you just use your parking brake. Anyway, its a load issue, there is a vibration that is either caused by or effecting your engine. It is not uncommon for an engine with problems to vibrate more at idle then when at higher RPM, it could very easily be the timing belts or the ignition components that you replaced, either you didn't tighten all the bolts or you got a bad plug or wire. If its not the engine it could be a mount, engine or tranny, I had a friend who's car would always stall on hard right turns, his left engine mount was torn in two and the engine would flop over and kink the fuel line. It could also be an issue in your transmission, sticking solenoids could be putting a load on your engine and causing the engine to over compensate to maintain proper idle speed. Seriously, If its not a moving part, it is not the issue, but it is your car, so if you know better than us and want to do whatever you want go for it, I just don't understand why you came here asking for help if you're going to ignore our suggestions to save you time and effort, and in the long run money as well.

Car repair shops have large versions of that device, been in use for years, if you really wanted to get creative you could use the vacuum from the cars engine as suction so you don't have to do the pumping yourself. Just make sure you don't suck any fluid into the engine. They are also great for rear axles on cars that don't have drain plugs, pretty much anything that needs to be drained on a car.

I don' know if these cars also have a lockup torque converter, if those are sticking, or not retracting all the way then they can cause the same symptom as well.

+1 on the vacuum booster, plug the hose and see if the idle is smoother. Anything stationary on the car won't be the problem, except for possibly the engine mounts, but those rarely fail, but checking can't hurt once you've ruled out the vacuum booster. Axles? really guys, probably not.