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danbeane, Foot on the brake, seat belt buckled up, and pull the brake release out. If that doesn't get you moving, get out the owner's manual and the 18 inch rod and screw driver handle from under the rear floor in the cargo area. Following the diagrams in the manual, insert the tool rod into the appropriate socket in front of the rear passenger wheel, after removing the rubber cap, and turn the handle the required 200 to 250 times as instructed in the manual. After all, its an emergency brake release backup system. Then get to the dealership when you can and get the system corrected. Its a pain, I know, but after all, with a product that has some 30 000 parts or so, sometimes things go wrong. No big deal.

Jarl is correct. What usually happens is the plastic clip (#5) has broken, or come undone and allowed the rod to pull out free of the outside handle, or the rod has bent out of shape and is no longer long enough to activate the lock. If the clip isn't in the handle, look for it in the bottom of the door. You may be able to reuse it. If its broken, just buy a new one from the dealership. If the rod is bent too short, remove it, bend it back into shape lengthening it and put it back into place and test the door lock. You may have to relengthen it a couple of times to get the right length. The only other problem I've come across is the outside door handle may have the tab that the clip and rod go into broken off. In that case, a new or used handle is required. None of this is rocket science, but the location of the handle at the door's rear and the cramped quarters take some patience and a light source to see what's going on. Some cars require that the glass be pulled from the door first so that you can get to the door handle, but those are rare. Good Luck!

From what you describe the car may not be worth fixing, unless you have access to the parts cheaply and you can do the work yourself. Buying a used engine and tranny from a wrecker and then paying a mechanic to drop them in may prove to cost more than the car is worth. As for a replacement motor and tranny, try JDMTigerJapanese (do a Google search). Good Luck!

Check out JDMTigerJapaneseEngines in a Google search. A phone call may get you what you need, as their website may not be 100% up to date. Forget the turbo ideas, or you'll be right back where you are now, unless you have the money to play in those circles, which is not the vibes you're giving us. Good Luck!

Nickel Plated, You've asked for opinions. Don't waste your money or your time trying to butcher an 03 OBW into something it is not, nor will ever be. You chose the wrong car and engine for your tuner dreams, as you've stated in your first post. And if you bought an 11 year old car because it was in your price range, is it wise to be spending money on anything other than fuel, insurance, replaceables such as tires, brakes and wiper blades, and unexpected repairs? If you must have a speed demon, then upgrade to an OBW with the XT(turbo 4 boxer) or the H6 (6 boxer) engines and go from there. Better still ... buy a WRX or the STI.

Robert11, The heaters in any Subie OBW I've ever owned would drive you out of the car. We got -8 degrees a couple of times this winter, and my 2012 was toasty after she came up to temperature. Its never been an issue. I do recall my 07 OBW was cold on the passenger side until I discovered that the floor carpeting was folded over the discharge tube to that side, A simple folding of the carpet under the tube fixed that PDQ.

Robert11, I'm going to go out on a limb here ... you are referring to the seat heaters? If so, I've owned one OutBack Wagon from each new generation since 1997, and the seat heaters all worked their magic. They have two setttings, High and Low, and toast your tush fairly quickly. I suspect the 2014 and 15 will be just as good.

upnorthguy, They just pop off or pry off using a flat bladed screwdriver, and underneath will be a screw or bolt. It either pops off from the very end, or from the side, or the end where the strap comes out. Even if you break a tab removing it, simply put it back on with some silicone seal. It'll stay put, but still make it possible to remove it at a later date if necessary.

natetru, If the dipstick pops out, there is too much crankcase pressure. It may be a simple fix as just replacing the PCV valve, or much more serious and bears checking out. If it blows the dipstick, you can bet the front and rear main seals won't be far behind, and the clutch not far behind those. Realistically, you need to be able to steal the car as is, simply because you have no idea as to what it'll cost to fix. Check JDMTigerJapanese online for a used JDM motor. It might prove a better route to go. Then again, a good indepent mechanic might give you the answer you need. From what you've given us its hard to say what you'll be up against. Check the retail prices for similar cars of that age and mileage and condition, and then subtract at least $3000 or more to be safe. If he won't agree to that, .... walk away. Good Luck!

jvinson7713, Having had 3 or 4 sunroofs out of various cars over the years, the last being an 04 OBW LTD, I suspect one of two reasons. Sunroof glass sections are glued to a metal surround frame, similar to how your glass windshield is glued to the frame of the car. This frame will have a bolt welded at each of its corners. The sunroof/glass assembly is bolted to its the tilt and slide mechanism. At each of these bolt positions the factory may have added one or two shims to align the glass with the roof skin when in its closed position. It is possible that one of the shims was missed or has fallen out, or that the park mechanism has been bent or broken. The only way to tell is to raise the sunroof in its tilt position and pop off the plastic covers over the corner bolts and look. With the covers off, you may be able to see where the problem is. Hopefully nothing is bent or broken. If a shim will fix the problem (or 2 of them) cut an ordinary washer of the proper diameter for the bolt (such that it looks like a "U" and slip it over the bolt before you tighten the nut. Be very carful not to force the glass sunroof up or down. Let the motor do the work, as the plastic parts that attach to the geared whip that moves the sunroof may break or strip. If any parts of the lift/park mechanism appeared to be bent, it may be possible to straighten it, or maybe not. If parts are required to fix, the entire sunroof assembly may heve to come out of the car. Not hard to do, but time consumming, hence many dollars at the dealership. As I said, I've repaired several over the years. Its easy if you have some mechanical apptitude, have some tools, a place to work, and can have the car out of commission for the time it takes to repair. Get back to us if you have more questions. Good Luck!

unknownjerimiah, From reading your post, which makes no sense in many areas, since you haven't completed any thoughts that you originally started with (Reread your second sentence????) , you are in over your head on many fronts. Your car is 14 years old, and unless you have other cars to drive besides the Subie, and more than just a little disposable income that is suggested by your post, you have no business modifying this car. You obviously don't understand the minefield your are walking into. Save your money for the things that are really needed, oil changes, brake jobs, timing belt replacement, new tires, insurance, etc., and wait until you are further along in life where you can really afford to be putting money into a toy. And if it goes down hill ... it won't be of any consequence then. You don't come across as being there yet, not by a long shot. On top of that, if you're going to modify a Subie, you need to start with a WRX at least, as there aren't any real aftermarket performance parts for the lesser Subies. Sorry to be so blatant, but you asked for opinions.

Gentlemen, I have repaired rubber seal missing sections using black silicon seal. The trick is to make a mold of the seal shape using plaster/silly putty/wax or something similar, and then covering that mold with wax paper or handi wrap, to keep the silicone from sticking to the mold after its cured in 24 hours. After making up the missing or torn section of weatherstripping, trim to fit the original seal and glue in place with more black silicone (24 hour curing time required) or black weatherstripping adheasive. I've used this method on T Top seals on a Corvette years ago, and on a 300ZX window seal. In both cases the fix lasted a few years until I traded the vehicles. Part of the success was that the seals that I was fixing were of a firmer consistency in the locations where they were installed on the cars. I'm not certain as to how this repair would stand up to constant use on a seal that was flexible or thin. Good Luck!

bucknarly, Not sure if this helps, but check out the tranny listed at JDMTigerJapanese.com. They have a 5 speed tranny with 45 000 miles max for $399.

jmcquaid1987, First off, congrats on the new ride! I've personally owned 4 OBW LTD's, one from each new generation since 1997, and each one was better than the last. You can use the emergency brake whenever you park the car. Its actually for use when you park the car on any sloping ground where it might roll away, as a backup system for the parking pawl when you place the transmission in Park. You may have seen movies and YouTube videos where the driver uses the parking brake momentarily for speedy turning manouvers, but the electronic version in your car is NOT for this. It can not be applied quickly and released quickly as it is motor driven, and therein is the problem with this version. Be that as it may, it is intended also as a way to stop the car should your brakes ever fail, and it will do exactly that, in an emergency. Be aware that being mechanical and motor driven, and situated in the water/rust/salt/dirt environment on the underside of the car. Not using it regularly leaves you open for it seizing and not operating when you need it, or upon application, seizing and not releasing. Use it or lose it. Actually the same can be said for your rear wiper motor. My advice would be to use it at least once a week. Myself, I apply the emergency brake on my 2012 everytime I turn the engine off. I'm not kidding, I really do. After having had one of my 5 speed sports cars roll out of my driveway into the street, I just got into the habit on all of my vehicles. Many will say this is overkill, but I've never had a repeat of the runaway vehicle or had the need of an emergency brake system repair.

DmanForester, This is nothing like I've seen before on any GPS I've ever owned, but may have similarities. There are millions of fake products that originate from China, and this may well be one of them, or it may have been manufactured in China for Subaru in your market. That said, it appears as if the unit has locked up and requires a reset. If you can get the unit out of the car and look for manufacturer's labels, you might find a manual you can download for free online. Baring that, try the following: A couple of the units I've owned over the years with touch screens, have a reset button hidden under the frame surround of the screen. With a small screw driver and careful prying the frame can be removed to reveal the reset button. Usually you hold down the button while powering up the unit to get it into rebooting from scratch and reestablishing the software. Other units I've owned have the reset on the touch screen. In this case, you touch and hold the screen in the upper left corner while you power the unit up, or the upper right corner, or and so on until you find it. If these three ideas don't do the job, find someone who speaks Chinese. I'm not kiddin! Maybe they can give you some ideas after reading the screen. Good Luck!

jarl, All air bag equipment, including seat belt pretensioners, have a wire harness connector that is yellow in colour. Only these yellow connectors fire the bags. That said, if you wish to install the seats with the airbags, and the seat belts with pretensioners, and don't wish to hook up the SRS components, don't hook them up. So if your base car doesn't have the wiring for the side airbags and the pretensioners on the seat belts, put the LTD seat belts and seats in anyway and just don't hook them up. BUT if you can wire them in and find the cable work you need to do so, you'd be much farther ahead ... and much safer in an accident. Good Luck!

harterwhite, I towed a 17 foot fiberglass runabout with an inboard/outboard 4 cylinder motor. Combined with the trailer it may have come close to 3000lbs, but that is a guess. It may have been slightly more. I only towed it 20 miles from storage to the river back of my house, and it is absolutely flat land for 150 miles in any direction. I would not consider towing that heavy for any distance beyond what I've described. The 04 Subie was an automatic and I locked the tranny in 3rd gear. If you have a manual tranny, check to see if you are not to use 5th gear when towing. Some cars state such in their owner's manual.

Check that sunroof. First be sure that the front one swings up from the rear, and then that the rear sunroof slides back. Obviously, the reverse is true when closing them. Check the headliner at the front overhead map lights for water stains. (This generation had some cars with a minor front water leak into the map lights up front, that would lightly drip on you when cornering. Not a big deal to fix, and you can do it yourself without special tools.) Check the headliner at the rear of the car in the cargio area for water stains. Then lift the rear cargo floor, remove the black foam tray over the spare tire to see if water is in the tire well. (Water here or headliner stains means the sunroof rain channels are full of dirt and the drains need to be unplugged, or the roof drain tubes have split. This is a more involved fix, but again any backyard mechanic can repair it, but its a $500 dealership repair due to labour.) Personally, I have done both repairs on an 04 OBW LTD that I owned, but that was 2 OBW LTD's ago. If you hear rattles from the rear of the car, check the overhead shoulderbelt storage for the middle rear passenger, located in the headliner just inside of the tailgate opening. If not correctly inserted into the headliner compartment, the belt fastener will rattle, and from the front seats you can't tell where the sound is coming from exactly. Good Luck on your purchase!

theram, Obviously something about the brake work you did was not correct. Either the drums are out of round, or the brake shoes' arch is incorrect and the shoes aren't contacting the drum for their total length. You may even find that the shoes springs are incorrectly installed, or the short springs that fasten the shoes to the backing plate have popped off, allowing the show to twist sideways and jamb against the drum. Regardless, you won't know until you pull the drums off and have a look. Good Luck!

outbaker4214, I agree with rooster2. You most likely haven't had the brake parts cleaned and lubricated in years, and the pads, caliper pistons, or slide pins have seized sufficiently in one place that you have to almost stand on the brake pedal to get any movement of the parts. Worse still are brake systems that haven't been flushed and had the brake fluid replaced in the required 4 years, as stated in the owners manual. Usually the pistons seize in the caliper (sometimes they can be cleaned up, but not always if they are pitted) requiring new calipers. If the seized parts have not been allowed to remain frozen for too long, all of the parts may be able to be taken apart, cleaned, lubed and reused. If they've been ignored, the repair bill could be rather large. A car with go but no stop is an accident going somewhere to happen. Good Luck!

ssims, I can't recall how the insides of the 3rd generation Subie remote look, because I've moved on to a 2012 model. But, some remotes have buttons that over time get dirty and refuse to activate or do so intermittently. Open the remote and see if there is a rubber/silicone pad that can be removed. Frequently the underside of the pad has a carbon/brass-like button that gets dirty. Clean it with a pink eraser. Do the same for the printed circuit board where the button touches. In fact, do all of them. Some remotes have a tiny button on the circuit board that is soldered in place and can't be removed. In this case, remove the battery from the unit, and spray the button/s with electrical contact cleaner and then cycle the switches many times. Do this two or three times. Regardless, put the battery back in, after giving the contact cleaner fluid time to evaporate, and ensuring that your battery is good, try it out. If that doesn't do the job, then your receiver that actuates the locks has lost its programming, and needs to have it done again. As I recall, having done this same job on the 07 OBW LTD I had before the present car, it was quite involved with pushing the power door lock switch to spell out the programming code. Its not rocket science but it is involved. You should be able to find the code programming procedure online, as that's where I got it, but that was many years ago. Good Luck!

Mcfuggin, The front clips I was referring to are for 1990 - 1996 Nissan 300ZX's. I was looking for replacement engines, etc. for my 90 ZX, if and when that day comes. I really never looked at the Subie parts at the time. And, yes, they have great prices on engines for just about any Japanese made car.

Larry, Typically the black inside surround is removed by taking the screws out along the inside top. You then pull that surround out toward the steering wheel. You will have to lower the steering wheel first, and may find that you have to remove the plastic surround on the steering column. If you do, access its screws from the bottom of the surround and pry the two sections apart. Once that black surround is removed, you'll find 4 screws on the outside edge of the gauge cluster to remove. Then pull the gauge cluster toward the steering wheel, press in on the locking pins of the electrical connectors on the cluster's back side to remove each one. Each plug is different and can only fit back into the correct spot of the cluster when you put it back together. At that point you can remove each of the bulbs from their socket to replace them, which may mean a trip to the dealership if they aren't readily available from an auto supplier. Be sure to have removed the ground wire from the battery before you attempt the repair. One short circuit could mean several hundred dollars worth of repairs. Its been years since I've pulled a Subie cluster, but I believe you'll find that this is pretty close to what you'll need to do. Good Luck!

McFuggin, Don't know if this is a route you want to go, but it is an alternative. Check out these guys online: JDMTigerJapaneseEngines. They sell complete engines, trannies, combinations of both, and even front clips including the engine and tranny. All units are from the Japanese market where outrageous taxes on cars over 3 years old force everyone to junk them starting year 4. Consequently, the parts seldom have more than 45 000 miles on them. Tiger buys them by the container from auto wreckers in Japan. They ship all over North America, and the prices are more than reasonable. With a little checking you might even find an Japanese Domestic Market engine supplier closer to home in a large city. Good Luck!

I presently own a 2012 OBW LTD H2 that was imported from the US into Canada in 2013. The car has the TPMS system, standard on all cars in the US, but not legally required in Canada.