NOMAD327

I have done the rotors on my 99 legacy and once the caliper and caliper bracket are out of the way, the rotor will come off without disturbing the axle nut. Nubs is correct in suggesting using the threaded holes to jack the rotor off the hub. I would put some penetrating oil around the center hole and then after a bit of time, put some pressure on the hub evenly with the jack screws and then if it still doesn't come, apply a bit of hammer with it under the pressure.

The way disc brakes work is there is a piston down in a bore. There is a square o-ring that fits into a square groove slightly down into the piston bore that seals to the surface of the piston. As you step on the brake pedal, the piston moves out slightly to apply the brakes, and the square o-ring is extruded outward along with it from it's groove. when hydraulic pressure is removed, the o-ring snaps back, and drags the piston a tiny bit with it, releasing the brakes. This is all that retracts the brakes, there are no springs like with drum style brakes. This arrangement also makes all disc brakes self adjusting. The problem with a worn out caliper is the rubber o-ring gets hard and won't snap back. The surface of the piston is also a potential trouble spot, most pistons are satin finish chrome plated steel. If there is moisture in the brake fluid, the plating on the piston can break down, and can even flake off, jamming the piston in the bore. (this is not usually a problem!) normally a caliper rebuild is just a matter of replacing the rubber seal and dust boot, and making sure the piston is intact, and that there is no scale or rust in the piston bore. (some systems have a plastic piston that can crack or deform, maintenance is the same otherwise.)

a lot of equipment rental places rent out impact guns (usually electric but sometimes pneumatic with a matching air compressor). The problem there is the sockets they have are normally sae size, not metric. It may be an option

It's a common method of failure for a mechanical seal with worn down rotating faces to leak when stopped and leak less or not at all when running. The pump replacement you are planning will take care of this problem. I would naturally look over the pump related seals and gasket contact surfaces in case there is another problem.

If all wheel drive, the front and back axle ratios must be the same when you're done.

my OEM seal turned to hard black crap in 60,000 miles, I put in a new OEM which had a different appearing rubber, but I wouldn't be afraid of an aftermarket one under the circumstances.

I would look for tires that have a mileage guarantee. Even with proper rotations, many tires do not reach their design life on a Legacy. I was considering a firestone tire, and my dealer told me they would not make it to the 40,000 mile mark of the guarantee, but to bring them back in and they would pro-rate another set. I ended up buying Michelin Hydro-edge as timing happened to work out for them being on sale at sears at that time.

Sounds right commuter, My info on the #5 main bearing is based on 99 model year DOHC which is phase II block even though it's still DOHC, I wasn't aware of the central location on the earlier model year engines.

I found the PFR5B-11 NGK at advanced auto for $10 each, best price I found, and those are the original equipment plugs for the car. List on those plugs most places is $15 each and a lot of the internet sources wanted $12 or more with shipping extra. My kid who is on a budget bought Autolite APP3924 for about $4 apiece. They are double platinum and made in america. Very high quality appearance and seemed to match the NGK's for dimensions very well. The car runs like it should on them, so they may be OK to use. The plugs on this engine are real difficult to change, so I bought the NGK not wanting to have to redo the job if there were any problems.

It's done by the fit of the #5 main bearing into the case and would require a full teardown of the motor to repair. As it's a problem I have not heard discussed here, I suspect it is an uncommon failure on Subaru. That said, I would be concerned there might be some unusual problem with that individual motor, either abuse by a former owner, or a manufacturing defect that allowed oil pressure to run low. Out of curiosity, I would inspect the old oil pump for a failure of the back plate or o-ring that may have allowed oil to internally bypass, reducing engine supply. I personally would probably abandon that motor, even though I would normally suggest rebuilding. On the Mitsubishi engines I mentioned before the condition is popularly called crankwalk and is believed to be caused by piston oil squirters that bleed the bearing oil away from the bearings. Owners of those cars usually bypass their clutch switches and start in neutral with the clutch engaged, and avoid sitting at long red lights with the car in gear and the pedal down. Automatics can have this problem but it is much more common with Manual transmission. As to the CCR engine option, there has been a lot of discussion here, on the subject and many satisfied customers. I would read past posts and evaluate cost.

Normal reading for crankshaft end play is .0012" to .0045" with the service limit being .0098". If your end play is 1/16", that's about .0625" or close to 50 thousandths over. This kind of end play would probably affect the crank position pickup accuracy, which could cause all kinds of misfiring. It also will put a tremendous amount of strain on the pistons, rings and the rod bearings, as the entire reciprocating assembly is pushed out of alignment. I assume you have manual transmission to have such extreme wear. To be certain, I would make sure that I'm not flexing the rubber in the harmonic dampener. You can probably work the shaft forward with your bar, and then measure position to something immoble, then just push it all the way back and take a new measurement. I have seen this happen on mid 90 Mitsubishi engines, and the .050 to .060 thrust range seemed to be about where the crank position sensor started to rub and throw the ignition timing off.

The steel bolts are a lot stronger than the aluminum engine is. The engines that require new bolts with every head removal have bolts that are required to be tightened to the yield strength of the bolts. Our bolts are not tightened that far, and will snap back to their original length when removed. As long as the threads can be cleaned and are intact, they should be reuseable.

Loctite makes a product called quick metal which is made specifically for repairing worn out keyways and fixing similar problems. It’s a thick silver liquid in a tube which you fill the worn out area around the key with. Like most other Loctite products it sets only when assembled in a joint, depriving it of air. It requires clean dry parts like other Loctite products and sets up at room temp. I have seen it hold up for a period of a year in big industrial drives that reverse direction under load twenty times a minute. At that rate, I would expect it to last nearly forever in a crank key application which is lighter load and turns only in one direction. If nothing else, it only takes a few minutes to perform the repair after disassembly, and should it not hold up, there is no permanent damage from the repair itself. I don't normally see it in stores, might have to get it from a bearing supply house or online loctite distributor.

If you use the unlock button on the inside of the front door, it should unlock the liftgate. There is a manual latch handle under the trim above the license plate which opens the liftgate. It is not like some wagons where the key operates the latch. On Subaru's the key just blocks the external handle from working

I had an oil leak on my 99 outback wagon DOHC 2.5 and 66,000 miles. It had a very steady oil drip from the front. This tends to find it’s way onto the exhaust pipe and does cause a bad smell. What was found was no problems with anything other than the actual lip seal, A couple dollar item. The Original seal's rubber lip was rock hard, to the point it would crack if you tried to bend it. It is common knowledge on this board that a front oil leak will normally be treated with removal of the oil pump which is almost no additional labor, to seal it’s back side. There is a rear plate held to the main oil pump body by a few small screws. They are to be loctited and tightened, as they have been known to loosen on some vehicles, which would open an abnormal leak path. On mine, there was only one that was slightly loose. Removing the pump exposes a small inexpensive o-ring that is also suspected of causing leakage problems and naturally replaced. The oil pump is more or less glued to the front of the engine block with an RTV sealant. This is also a potential leak path, and is renewed with pump reinstallation. All of the oil pump leaks are fixed by this routine seal renewal with only a couple dollars of parts and minimal labor beyond that to obtain access. Subaru recommends resealing the original pump and not replacing it as a treatment for leaks. Some people have had problems with cam seals leaking oil. Mine were all tight, and my mechanic has said he has not seen any leaking on a Subaru in his experience except at very high mileage. I would not reinstall a used timing belt myself, but some people do. I replaced my timing belt, water pump and thermostat in hopes that the motor will now go well beyond the 105,000 mile point at which it would have to come apart again for the normal timing belt change interval. The separator plate in the back of the motor is plastic on some models and is normally replaced with a metal piece if it is ever exposed. The balance of your oil leakage was probably just that miserable 3$ part on the front of the engine, and the rear leakage could have been lived with until it caused clutch problems. What happens there is oil that gets into the clutch itself, will cause a slipping clutch. Since the fix for the slipping clutch is to remove the engine and this exposes all the problem parts, there is no reason to do a preemptive fix on the back of the motor before there is a clutch problem. Since the front end work is done with the motor in the car, and the rear work can be done in it's time without repeating the front end work, The front end repair work should be done by itself. The rear end work can be done if and when it's necessary. Unless there are signs of big oil leaks at the rear, I would only do the front end repair right now.

I had a mercury cougar that came with the orange dex-cool stuff and it stayed very nice looking and the aluminum internals also stayed very clean. It must never be mixed with green antifreeze as they are completely incompatible. If you want to shift over, perform several flushes to get rid of the old fluid. The bottom thermostat on Subaru makes getting a perfect drain and a good refill more difficult than on most cars. I have taken to changing coolant every two years on all my cars in hopes of avoiding heater core failures. I have had a couple in recent years, and it's always a remove dashboard job on newer cars. I change fluid every year on Subaru using generic brand, just in case it will help with head gasket life. The trick I have found to getting a good refill on a Subaru is to disconnect the upper radiator hose from the radiator and pour the new coolant mix down into the hose, then fill the radiator. Coolant poured down the hose goes to a pipe that enters the top of each cylinder head and you start out the job with at least a 90% fill. It gets the engine full of coolant before you start up the car. The air vent on the radiator near the top hose is OK at the very end, but doesn't do a lot until almost all the air is already out.

I had an oil leak on my 99 outback wagon DOHC 2.5 and mid 60,000 miles. It had a very steady oil drip from the front. What was found was no problems with anything other than the actual lip seal, A couple dollar item. The OEM seal's rubber lip was rock hard, to the point it would crack if you tried to bend it. It is common knowledge on this board that an oil leak will normally be treated with removal of the oil pump which is almost no additional effort, to seal it’s back side. There is a rear plate held to the main oil pump body by a few small screws. They are to be loctited and tightened. On mine, there was only one that was slightly loose. Removing the pump exposes a small inexpensive o-ring that is also suspected of causing leakage problems. The oil pump is more or less glued to the front of the engine block with an RTV sealant. This is also a potential leak path. Some people have had problems with cam seals leaking oil. Mine were all dry, and my mechanic has said he has not seen any leaking in his experience. I would not reinstall a used timing belt myself, but some people do. I replaced my timing belt, water pump and thermostat in hopes that the motor will now go well beyond the 105,000 mile point at which it would have to come apart for the normal timing belt interval. I would expect you can lower your labor cost by at least $100 if you shop around, the trick is to find a shop you can trust to do the work

The system is drawing a vacuum on itself as it cools down. The radiator cap is supposed to allow overflow bottle water to be drawn in to relieve the vacuum and is not. The small metal center of the cap bottom in the middle of the rubber washer is probably stuck to the rubber washer.

I believe these are a straight or bolt type thread, If you have clearance to get in with a weld torch, you should be able to weld a new steel thread insert to the catalyst body. I would start with a nut that threads onto the new sensor and cut it down to about the thickness of the broken off insert. If it's a bit bigger around than the old insert, that may cover up any damage to the shell. If need be, a flat patch could be applied and a new spot picked to weld on the nut. The internals are meant for high heat, but I would weld a bit, and then let it cool awhile before proceeding to avoid melting the beads. I will guess that the thread is about an 18 mm, but they may vary from brand to brand.

Pushing either button six times should have done it. The obvious question is if the battery could have been put in upside down. It's easy to flip those button batteries and they should fit equally well in right or wrong orientation. If it's not in right, the little red LED probably won't flash when you push either button

Older cars with distributors driven at half crank speed by the camshaft spark only to the cylinder of the moment. The crankshaft sensor fired coil pack type ignitions common on almost all new cars fire the two cylinders opposite each other in firing order at the same moment. One gets a spark when needed at roughly top dead center compression stroke, The other cylinder gets a spark that has no effect at roughly top dead center on the exhaust stroke. On a Subaru the front cylinders are paired in this way, and the back cylinders are paired similarly, but roughly 180 degrees out in rotation. I don't know why the coil pack cannot fire the same polarity to both sides at once, but they generally at least, do not.

With an open deck engine design, removing the cylinder head will allow you to look down into the coolant jacket all around the cylinder wall. closed deck engines are like a solid flat piece at the head gasket surface with some relatively small holes that match up with holes in the cylinder head for coolant flow. since the top of the cylinder walls are completely connected to each other and to the side walls of the engine casting, they are more rigid and more able to withstand the side to side forces generated by the moving parts.

All loctite products break down at 200 degrees which is useful if you come upon bolts that have been assembled with the red threadsealer which is not intended to allow you to unwrench the fastener at a later time. If the washer is threaded on all the way when you start in with the plug it will stay out of the way during assembly. Crushing the washer and torquing the threads is all that's needed to keep the plugs from ever backing out.

I have pulled plugs from a couple of my Fords at the recommended 100,000 miles and the original Motorcraft platinums looked like brand new and the engines ran as original and still got equal or better fuel economy to new. I pulled a couple of NGK platinums from 2.5 DOHC Subaru's at 60,000 miles and they also looked like new and still performed correctly. Engineers refer to cars (like most newer Subarus) where one coil feeds two spark plugs, and fires every crank revolution as a waste spark ignition system. (There is a wasted spark during every exhaust stroke) Using a single platinum spark plug on such a car will give two rapidly degraded spark plugs for the following reason. 1/2 of the plugs always see a reverse polarity spark. The reverse polarity sparks will cause material to be transferred from the large ground/outer electrode onto the narrow platinum center electrode's exposed end surface. Double platinum plugs have the fine wire center electrode, and have a small chip of platinum attached to the outer electrode. This prevents the transfer of metal and the resulting fouled plug. I would use either conventional plugs or double platinum in a new Subaru. If you have had trouble with single platinum plugs, that is normal behavior for our cars. I have found the correct double platinum NGK for $10 a piece which is pricey, but better than $15 list, and have used Autolite double platinum for $4 a piece and found them to look good and work good so far. (20,000 miles).

The rear gate may have been damaged in the past with a gate from another car then put in it's place. I believe there are little stickers on the gate that has the auto vin number on it. If it doesn't match, that's your problem