GeneralDisorder

You dismount the slave and clamp it fully retracted with a large C-clamp, etc. Then you have an assistant slowly depress the pedal with the bleeder cracked. At the bottom of the stroke you close the bleeder and have your assistant pull the pedal back up. After they do this you watch the level in the reservoir over the next several seconds. It will slowly drop as the master cylinder pump chamber is filled through the tiny orifice between it and the reservoir. If it does not drop have your assistant pump the pedal up and down rapidly a few times and then pause to watch the fluid level drop. Once the level stops dropping you repeat this procedure several times till you see a strong flow of fluid from the bleeder with no bubbles. Once you are done close the bleeder and check the pedal - it should be rock hard (slave is still clamped). Reinstall the slave and you're done. With two people that know how to perform this procedure together the entire process usually takes about 5 minutes. GD

All the mounts make a difference. I would just get Group-N mounts from Subaru and replace all of them. GD

Did you use the engine mounts off the old engine or the new one? We have found that old squishy mounts contribute greatly to clutch shudder. Bleeding the hydraulic clutches is easy. There's a trick to it. GD

We are currently at $2,750 for the job. Add $400 if you want radiator and hoses along with it. We are cheaper than most of our nearby competition and we include more value-adding parts such as the complete 105k service with the HG job. There's a lot that goes into the pricing structure - overhead these days is crazy. I am fortunate to not be renting my property and thus not subject to commercial property rent increases in the last few years. By far the largest expense is payroll and taxes. As I frequently have to point out to people - driving is a privilege - not a right. It has to be earned. Either by spending money or spending your time. Doing the job yourself has it's own inherent risks associated with it including the prospect of the vehicle being in a non driveable state for sometimes a week or several weekends or more depending on your skill level and time you have available to perform the task. Weather you pay to have the job done or not is a DIRECT reflection on what your time is worth. If you make $13 an hour delivering pizza then your time is worth X. If you make $60 an hour as a commercial electrician then your time is worth Y. If taking a week out of your pay to do this job would cost more than having us do it (or even the same or slightly less if you also take into consideration warranty and turn-around time) then the choice is obvious. So you ask yourself - what marketable skill do you have and does that put you in a position to fix it yourself or pay us to do it? Of course there are other considerations such as physical ability to do the work, some technical skills and reading comprehension are required, etc. GD

Just get cheap NGK plugs and gap them at 25. They will put less stress on the ignition system and last longer with a smaller gap. GD

I say do what you want. If you want an XT then get one. It will be a valuable learning experience. It will take a lot of leg work to find parts. And you will be working on it (and learning) more than you will be driving it. But for many of us - that's just part of the hobby. The endless, frustrating search for dirty, broken, used parts with a 50% chance of finding something that will work for just a few more miles..... Personally - I got off the train. I realized that I want to USE my machines. Not spend endless amounts of time fixing them and trying to find or make parts for them. Make the decision - do you want to DRIVE the car or do you want to endlessly WORK on the car? The XT choice leads you down one path, and the newer car your parents want leads you down the other path. My choices have led me down the path of vehicles for which I can easily (not necessarily cheaply) obtain parts (and service information), and that give me pleasure to drive. I can tell you that the XT fits neither category. It's nigh impossible to find parts for, and it's underpowered and terrifying to drive. GD

That additional air is added weight and lost fuel economy. Better to fill that tire with Helium or Hydrogen to offset the weight cost. Might as well do all of them while you're at it. GD

Reuse head bolts. Get the 770 gaskets from Subaru. Don't buy cheap junk gaskets. Not worth your time. Hood sticker will state CA compliance. GD

Oh I have several electric bicycles. Exceptionally fun things. Also not a problem to work on them as they are generally composed of generic interchangeable parts - batteries are just a stack of 18650 cells - few electronics and easily interchangeable without any VIN coding, etc. Pretty much free to do whatever you feel like on them still. Like cars and electronics used to be (and still should be). I fully acknowledge the superiority of electric motors and PWM three phase drives. Worked on them extensively in the commercial sector. I just don't at all approve of the current state of the consumer automobile industry. The focus is on profit, product obsolescence, and preventing independent repair and maintenance. They can take all that and shove it where the sun don't shine. GD

Iceland - really cheap electricity. HUMVEE's have good visibility compared to MRAP's. More armor means smaller windows and lots of cameras. But as far as electric vehicles go - I'll never own or work on them - or probably anything made after 2004. Complexity is the enemy of reliability. Add to that the lack of right to repair and the intellectual property concerns of modern manufacturing, plus the need for corporations like Subaru to show ever-increasing profits and sales by throwing away old vehicles for essentially no reason other than they can't be fixed due to lack of replacement parts, or lack of information to economically repair them..... all in the name of profit. The "environment" would be better served by Reducing and Reusing (the two R's most people forget about) than by creating more plastic things that in reality can't be Recycled anyway. GD

I see you are local. We do offer a LINK ECU with adapter harness for the 95 and 96-98 cars. Would be far better than trying to use the factory ECU. GD

That display is an indication of a failure in the CAN High circuit. Probably the gauge cluster isn't able to communicate with the ECM or BCM on CAN H. You will need an oscilloscope to troubleshoot the CANBUS lines. Could be a wiring issue or more likely one of the modules is shorted or open on the CAN H and pulling the signal up/down or causing it to float due to a termination circuit failure. https://support.squarell.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/94/0/can-high--can-low Replacing the computer requires reprogramming the immobilizer - which is synced between the ECM, Body Module (BCM), the gauge cluster, and the chip key. This is very involved level of diagnostics that many shops are not equipped for. Even many dealers have no one on staff that is capable of diagnosing this. You will need to find someone in your area that is familiar with CANBUS diagnostics AND the proclivities of Subaru's. GD

Foreign Engines Inc. in Lynwood, WA GD

Yep. Head gasket failure. Replace the engine with a JDM if you want to keep it. Otherwise it's scrap. GD

Beware of what parts you use or the shop uses. There's not much on the market that's quality for these cars. Can't get any of the clutch parts from Subaru anymore, or even Exedy. You might end up $1280 poorer with a clutch that lasts 40% of the normal life. GD

Secondary O2 doesn't play a role in fuel trims on pre-05 models so wouldn't cause running issues. Might cause a CEL, but that's it. GD

Well the ECU gives fuel for the measured airflow (on cars with a MAF it's measured directly, on cars without it's calculated from MAP and IAT). It only knows how long to open the injector based on it's assumption of fuel injector flow rate and known fuel pressure of 43.5 across the injector. If the O2 sensor says it's too rich on the exhaust side the feedback loop starts to "trim" the fuel by applying a percentage reduction to the injector pulse width. The ECU is perfectly capable of reducing the pulse width all the way to the minimum allowed, which would probably be more than a 50% reduction in idle pulse width (depends on the injector size and characteristics that are generally not published with OEM injectors). The code is thrown once the trim value exceeds the limits set in software - which is generally some period of time above 25% reduction (so -25% fuel trim). This will then trigger the P0172 code indicating the computer believes something is dramatically wrong. GD

Subaru's target standard GM pressure across the injector which is 43.5 psi. 19" of vacuum is 9.3 psi. So you should be seeing 34.2 psi fuel pressure at idle. It will jump momentarily as manifold vacuum drops on a throttle stab. If the regulator isn't able to regulate down then that would seem to indicate potentially a restricted return line. GD

Road trip starts Oct 1st. I'll have my phone and my laptop and I'll likely check in out of sheer boredom going 55mph through the desert. GD

I've done it but it's been a long time and only in stock configurations (IE: engine in a Subaru). I did get (painfully slow) data from my 91 Sport Sedan...... if you want more than 1 data PID the refresh rate is about 1 Hz. Pretty much useless. It would be best to rip that stock ECU out of there and install a LINK plug and play board. They have one that will connect directly to the OBD-I ECU connections and they aren't expensive. Gets you full stand alone tune-ability and fast data. Plus you can sh!t can the stupid MAF sensor and all that BS plumbing nightmare. GD

They often leak through the splines rather than the seal being bad, and some RTV under the nut will cure it. GD

2WD axles sometimes had larger joints because they carry the whole weight of the car. Also turbo models had larger joints. All the relevant information on sizing can be found in the FSM. GD

Normal sockets don't fit as it's a special thin wall design. If they did fit then I doubt Company 23 would have a market to produce a plain old E14. GD

Yep - you got it. Can't stress enough that you need a NEW PCV valve from Subaru (no other sources are acceptable). And the hose is 1" ID or just buy the hose from Subaru. An old piece of an idle air hose from a 90's car will also do the job and typically aren't hard as a rock. GD

Should be relatively straightforward but the fear is that there could be bottom end damage due to being run low on engine oil. And the price of the short block with the value addition of the warranty vs. the price of the rings, potentially rod bearings, and the labor generally makes it non-viable. The rod bolts require a special socket. Company 23 makes them. GD