GeneralDisorder

You have CV axles that aren't garbage? You have EA82 oil pumps? This seems unlikely. I stand corrected..... "They ain't worth a fast flying f*ck" - does that work out grammatically? LOL. GD

Yeah they aint worth nothin. Especially the auto's. Can't get any parts and those 3AT's were trash. The pump drive splines like to strip out and you can't get the pump drive shafts anymore. All the EA's are what I consider "dead platforms" - there's no parts to drive them regularly. I'm considered an "enthusiast" and an "expert" around here I guess - that's all just an unintentional result of my personal need to maintain and repair my own fleet of vehicles. Once a vehicle can no longer be supported I simply move on. I have no emotional attachment to them - I'm still driving 80's vehicles primarily but I've switched to GM platforms that have HUGE support for parts - both new old stock and reproduction. The Subaru's have no support so their usefulness and thus their value is limited. 20 years ago I drove EA's because they were REALLY cheap and the junk yards were full of parts. Now there's nothing and in any case I'm not a starving college kid anymore and I have no time to haunt junk yards. It boggles my mind that anyone would bother with these vehicles at this point - any amount of research will tell you they are not a viable platform and newer Subaru's have turned into absolute electronic trash. So essentially the entire brand is dead to me. We repair them at my shop because we have the expertise and the experience and there's a HUGE number of them in our area and they are always broken so it's a great business model. It's a terrible choice for the consumer but it makes me a lot of money so 😃 GD

A working converter will generally show a pretty flat rear O2 signal around 700 millivolts. GD

The solenoid grounds through the transmission case. Make sure the transmission ground strap is in place and has clean, tight connections with proper star washers to bite through paint. GD

If the cam journals aren't spanked from this many engine failures, and assuming they were resurfaced the first time they should be fine to just run through the parts washer and bolt up to a new block without any surfacing. Not enough miles or enough heat cycles to leave any significant fire ring damage, etc. GD

Nothing EA82 is a hot item in the US. There's very few left on the roads and their value is very low. Honestly there is virtually no market for them. I can't imagine even a really nice example going for more than $2500 to $3000 and it would have to be something AMAZING to even ask that. You can pickup nice EJ powered cars for that price range and there's just not really any desire for the EA82's. Parts are impossible to find and they were underpowered and a pain to work on. Really there's never been a significant collectors market in any old Subaru's except Brat's for a short time when the Baja came out - and that fairly quickly passed and their value went back down. No old Subaru is going to be a "hot" item like the K5 Blazer's and full size Bronco's from the 80's. And they made a LOT more of those. Square body K5's are being valued over $20k by NADA. Old Subaru's aren't even on the radar. Similar to other 80's stuff that no one wants - who wants a Ford Granada or a Chevy Citation? People want to forget that junk. They are valueless and likely to stay that way. GD

🤣 This is now a comedy. This dealer clearly hasn't got a clue how to put an engine together. Typical. Very hard to find qualified techs these days and obviously the warranty department isn't pushing Subaru to replace all the proper components. We did have one reman FB engine fail but it lasted over 13,000 miles. 78 miles is an indication of improper assembly IMO. I doubt the engine block was that poorly remanufactured. These are really pretty terrible engines though. None of this surprises me. GD

It is against federal law to resell converters as a legitimate car dismantler. They can ONLY scrap them. That is 100% true. And factory cats are absolutely more expensive new than scrap value so if they had good ones or ones they could tell were recently replaced they would certainly be looking to sell them for $800 (half the price of new OEM) rather than scrap them for $400. Prices aren't that high right now on the scrap side - they aren't low and never will be but they have been tipple what they are currently in the past. We deal with this question all the time from customers - we recommend OEM converters. They typically last 150k+. In your case it's a rust problem but that's pretty much the cost of owning a car on the east coast is it not? I don't see a way around it - get OEM exhaust and protect it going forward the best you can. Or scrap the car and buy a new one. Isn't 15 years considered pretty much the life of an automotive product where you live? I would say move somewhere that cars don't rust if you don't want to deal with these problems..... GD

You need to follow the tests outlined in the service bulletin - have you done the ohm test on the rear harness? GD

Subaru's, as with all (stock) modern vehicle engines that I'm aware of use "bypass" filtration. As such oil has a path around the filter - which it WILL take especially on cold start - high differential pressure across the element due to cold oil, and also will take when the filter element is plugged up due to contaminants or in this case metal. When the bypass valve opens you get un-filtered oil being fed into the lubrication system as well as the potential for debris to be washed out of the filter element as the oil must first flow past the dirty element before exiting through the bypass valve. One reason I only use WIX filters is the inclusion of the up-front bypass design that allows oil to bypass without flowing over the dirty element. It is not so much the heads that are a concern - they can generally be saved. Cams can be polished and so can the journals. But this must be done and it's generally beyond the scope of a dealer or mechanic and the heads need to get sent to a competent machine shop. The AVCS camshaft sprockets can't be cleaned as they are considered non-serviceable by Subaru. They must all be replaced with an engine failure. The bottom end probably failed after only 300 miles due to insufficient cleanliness and re-use of contaminated components from the previous engine failure. We see this all the time. GD

It could be they have changed it to 36 months and unlimited mileage. I'm not sure on that. Subaru of America uses a contract remanufacturer(s) to recondition the short block assemblies. When it comes to this process they are necessarily done largely or entirely by hand. Each core engine is slightly different with respect to rebuilding. I'm sure they basically always use new cranks, rods, and pistons but reconditioning of the crankcase itself introduces some amount of variables that have not been entirely adequately examined and considered. Failure rates are absolutely measurable and it's not just the the reman short block but also the dealership cutting corners and reusing components that have been touched with contaminated engine oil and potentially are carrying damaging bearing materials that can recontaminate the replacement engine. Technicians often are unaware of the consequences of re-using components such as camshaft sprockets that may contain damaging metal shavings, etc. GD

All too common unfortunately. We had one (13 OBW) that made it 13k before it threw three rods. The reman's come with a 36k 3 year warranty for reasons..... If this is a dealer new or reman short block Subaru will cover the entire cost. GD

Class action lawsuit on the rod bearings. Rod bearing failure will cost generally about $10k on up. Piston ring lands are weak and can shear off. Cost to fix with forged pistons is on the order of $5-$6k. Broken firewalls due to weak pedal assembly mounts. Intercoolers are plastic junk. Fuel economy is honestly terrible for a daily. Fun factor is kinda meh in stock form. STi's are pretty fun but really they get pretty meh also after you drive one that's stock for a while. You'll quickly want more power. It's a slippery slope - almost no one ends up leaving them entirely stock. Then you have the CANBUS electrical mess. That's a whole different topic and applies to almost all vehicles ~2005+ or in the case of Subaru about 2008+. Personally I can't own anything from the last ~18 years on the consumer side. It's all plastic crap that's smothered in electronics that's all the "intellectual property" of Subaru and essentially that means you really don't own the car at all - Subaru just lets you use it for a fee and when they decide to no loner support it you will have a nice lawn ornament rather than the car you "paid" for. GD

Amsoil Break-In should only be run for 500 to 1000 miles as it is non-synthetic (one of their only products that is, in fact). GD

We replace them with Subaru OEM remanufactured transmissions. Cost to do so is about $9,000. Last time I needed one they had 53 of them in the local warehouse. That's how bad this problem is - they stock 50+ units at any given time just in the Portland warehouse. They are junk, they are disposable, and you shouldn't even consider towing with it. Out of the question IMO. Tribeca's run the 5EAT transmission. They aren't great either but are stronger than the CVT in a '13. It's a station wagon with a weak transmission and an underpowered 4 cylinder. Rent a U-Haul TRUCK and pull the Subaru behind it with a car hauler. You rip that CVT out and you'll be in a world of hurt with tow bills, repair costs, and who knows where it decides to stop moving..... RISKY. GD

Subaru's use Variable Reluctance sensors and as-such only have a signal and ground. They do not use 5v. GD

The CVT in those models is hot garbage. Have replaced many of them and Subaru has replaced a lot more under the extended warranty. Just did one a couple weeks ago that had a total catastrophic failure at 134k. Customer came in today about something unrelated on her 13 OBW and was lamenting the purchase as the parking brake ECU has now failed and the transmission was replaced at 70k. She just wants rid of it and called it "junk". I would agree. I wouldn't tow ANYTHING with that model. They can't even reliably haul themselves. GD

Passenger seat will require replacement for the SRS malfunction. GD

Likely somewhere on the evaporator case buried in the dash. It doesn't appear to be in-circuit unless you select blower speed one so I would ignore it for the purposes of troubleshooting. Run the fan at level 4. GD

It's a pretty known quantity that you have bad rings. Subaru lost class actions on this point and I've seen it first hand hundreds of times. GD

The guide can be clearly seen from the exhaust port. They typically protrude about 1/4" or so. Any that have moved will be obvious in relation to the others - we typically see them move anywhere from 1/4" to 1/2". At some point if they drop far enough it generally results in a burnt or bent valve (piston strike). They are often oily as well due to the dropped guide causing the stem seal to dislodge. And yeah - the gates kits are hot garbage. Just did a full kit on a car last week that had a Gates Chinese water pump fail with about 50-60k on it. That's almost worse than Ford 5.0 Coyote water pumps (but not quite). GD

90,91 is 4.111 92-94 is 3.90 Outbacks are 4.111 You need to change the rear diff to a 3.90 The VC is sealed and not serviceable on the all the 5MT center diffs. Your ability to see it is irrelevant to it's existence. GD

That is exactly correct. Cylinder pressure forces the rings to seat faster. And really - when we are building high performance engines - it would be dangerous to send them out without testing them at full power to ascertain and program the proper fuel and timing maps into the computer. Not doing so could result in detonation and engine destruction in short order. GD

We prefer the Amsoil 5w40 Euro full SAPS for Subaru engines. They don't consume it as easily and it provides excellent high pressure protection for Subaru's narrow rod bearings. As far as break-in...... we don't believe in it AT ALL. First off there should be NO metal to metal contact with the exception of some ring seating that takes place..... on the first revolution of the engine it is "breaking in" and on the second it is "wearing out"...... that has been our experience. We build high performance Subaru engines, we heat cycle them a few times, and then they drive about 50-100 feet over to the dyno bay where our tuner drives them on the rollers for about 5-10 miles and then goes to full power at WOT. "Break-in" is a CYA on the part of the engine builder. If the engine fails they are hoping that the customer being "gentle" with it will result is less collateral damage. Break in is something that has not been applicable to internal combustion engine construction since the 1970's and at this point is absolutely an "old wives tale". What "limitations" are placed on your driving habits of a brand new vehicle? None right? Exactly.......... And we have been doing this for ~40 years combined experience with ZERO customer complaints. Take it or leave it. GD

If you get a new block from Subaru that has the updated rings then oil consumption due to that specific cause should be alleviated, yes. GD