Bushwick

^ I vaguely remember that as well as I think I asked a more generalized question over a year ago about physical fitments of certain years, but forgot about the wiring and something was said then they changed something, as well as sedans being slightly different with the rear windows or something. That's gonna make it a little more difficult as there are more 98-99 wagons around than 95. About a 2 years ago someone that knew one of my neighbors had an identical wagon as mine (same oddball coloring too) and it was completely rust free. Was hoping to see that more as I wanted to say "contact me" if you ever blew the motor or just wanted to sell as it would have been the perfect parts car :\ Are the rear doors as easy to get wiring out? I had the paneling between the door jamb off when wiring in tweeters but don't remember seeing a connector.

I'll pull it apart then and inspect the contacts in the switch. It didn't start acting up until it got really cold, and I've had an ignition lock become troublesome after extended cold as well in another car (fresh oil helped that). Thanks.

Youtubers MCM did their "Gramps" build, which started as a 95'? Legacy/Brighton Wagon and they retrofitted an EZ36 and turbo'd that. Then they swapped the running gear, engine, turbo, etc. into a newer styled body. They got it into the 11's and it appears to be a daily driver. I suggest googling "Gramps" and watch their earlier videos with the original body as that covers most of what you'd need to mod yours, save for differences between your earlier model. While theirs was already AWD, they still swapped in a better trans and rear. If you forgo a turbo and use the OEM engine management and looms from the donor, your life will be easier. If at a later time you want to turbo it, at least it'll already be running and will be somewhat less overwhelming.

Buy the car then correctly reconnect the 2 blue spark plugs wires (on driver's side of engine) and run it a bit and see if the engine starts running better You might not need to swap your engine. It looks like they reversed the wires and attached the end that should fit on the plugs, onto the coil instead. Usually right angle plug boots are meant to be on the plug tips as they are often longer and will clear the tight bend.

1. What's the correct way to handle this? Unhook wiring in door and pull donor's wiring loom out, then pull hinge pins? Or can the wiring be unhooked just inside the cabin area? 2. Also, anyone know if they drastically changed connectors within the years that fit? Not concerned with speaker connectors, but am concerned about windows and power locks. 3. And just to refresh memory, 95' thru 99' Wagon are the only ones that fit, correct?

Well, it appears to have been well taken care of from the first two pictures linked. Last two pictures only open up to a thumbnail size so hard to tell. Personally, I think $5k is too much, especially for a base engine variant with dubious upgrades. I only paid $850 for my a 95' Legacy wagon that needed a rear crossmember (paid $15 for a 1 year old crossmember) and it had some exo-rust and needed a nicer rear hatch. It had 172k miles and everything worked and still driving it. Talk them down.

Low and high speeds work correctly, but I've been experiencing an issue with the intermittent wiper setting where it's been clicking at the column stalk base and not working as it should. Is this a common issue? If so, what's typically causing it? Almost sounds like it has a tiny relay at the base of the stalk that's getting erratic power and will work/not work if the arm is moved slightly. Would rather fix it than replace, although it might be a good time to try and upgrade to a variable speed intermittent from an Outback if possible?

Although probably not your particular issue, O2 sensors can cause random misfires. Depending on how bad they have shorted internally, they can cause other issues too, especially if they are screwing with the computer signal, and takes a few minutes to try and rule out. If actual timing checks out to be OK, I'd disconnect the battery for a bit to reset the codes (you have been doing this between repairs, right?) then reconnect, start engine and see if codes even persist. If they do, disconnect neg terminal again and unhook both O2 sensors (don't let wiring loom sit on or near hot exhaust). Restart engine and see if the codes appearing are the same or not. Should get both O2 codes but hopefully no misfire codes as it should be running in a closed loop. Fairtax is probably right, but if not it won't hurt to rule them out. Should also inspect grounds and connections for corrosion, loose reconnects after previous repairs, brittle wires, improperly routed wiring that may have melted, etc.

With sensors disconnected, engine should run in a closed loop. You'll get CEL, and MPG will suffer, but it should at least run, and should help rule out a sensor that's shorted internally and messing with the ECM. Ideally a multi-meter should help detect issues with O2 sensors, but it can be more difficult with intermittent issues. Just disconnecting them is a crude, but effective way to quickly rule out if an internal short is present. You could have a clogged cat too. The honeycomb can melt into a blob that resembles blown glass. Sometimes only part of the substrate melts, while a small section remains unaffected and allows some gases to exit. On light throttle/slow speeds, it might not be noticeable as the engine is still able to pass through the restriction. A vacuum gauge is paramount to troubleshooting a clogged exhaust if it is actually an issue. A cat can clog from overly lean and running too hot, which can occur from fuel additives to malfunctioning O2 sensors. If your exhaust is really sooty, that'd be a rich condition.

Funny, all my engines run perfectly fine w/o oil, gas, or vacuum additives. You guys are putting the equivalent of sugar cubes into your cars and are experiencing placebo effects. How about doing before/after pics of your engines and tell me what changes. If you are routinely changing your oil and running good quality oil, there should be nothing wrong. Still trying to figure out what it's doing for fuel system when the car only has gas being put through it. It won't disolve grains of dirt that end up in the filter. Getting on the gas pedal while getting on an onramp should dislodge any minor carbon build up. Hell, spritz a little water into the intake will do the same thing w/o possible cylinder wash though you have to know what you are doing. Seriously can't believe people defend snake oil with ZERO proof it's doing anything other than placebo anecdotes. But by all means, drop $$ and claim something is better.

Did you get it running? Being the engine is an interference engine, you DID hand crank the engine so it went through a complete combustion cycle w/o any mechanical blocking, right? Meaning with a ratchet connected at the crank pulley nut, you cranked engine by hand through a full intake/exhaust opening/closing event and it didn't bind? Never ceases to amaze me how often people will forgo this important step and end up bending a valve or 2. Had an uncle that was rebuilding a 69' Cutlass and ruined his engine. And a bit of irony his son did the same thing after building up a Lancer.

If you want silent lifters, do them the correct way and remove them and bleed them in clean oil until only clear oil exits. You'll get a nasty black gunk being ejected until cleaned. If lifter will not pump back up, replace it. They can and do fail beyond a point of no return. Google "seafoam ruined engine" and take your pick on why it's a bad idea. If that doesn't persuade you, by all means add a dangerous snake oil additive to the oil and you can post in a month how your engine needs replaced or why there's metal shavings in your oil filter or you have a knock all of a sudden. Or if additive was added to the gas, probably posting how engine lacks power, your cat is glowing bright red, you have codes and CEL, cat needs replaced, etc.

P0325 usually means it's bad. Pretty sure mine had that code and it would sometimes clear itself, then reappear. After a bunch of testing, discovered the wiring on the actual sensor itself developed an internal break where it makes a 90 degree bend up to clear the trans towards the ECM-side harness. Bending wiring cover while watching the ohmmeter verified this. Actual sensor was not cracked like most people seem to experience. I *could* have tried taping the wiring into a position that allowed for the circuit to not remain open, but that would have been a temp fix. I went with a rockauto sensor. Chinese knock-offs (if they were purses it'd be a felony) quite often cut every corner possible. They might "work", but they aren't subjected to any quality standards, so you are definitely taking a serious risk. If it shorted internally and burned you car to the ground, not like you can sue them or even figure out WHO "them" is. A couple examples worth noting is I read how some tire molds were stolen from a Chinese factory that produced American tires. Tires were then created using the stolen molds and found their way into the US market. Tires were created using inferior rubber ingredients. Tires failed while in use. Other example is Chinese knock-offs of discontinued amplifier outputs found in older home stereo amplifiers. People dissected these and compared to dissected OEM counterparts. The knock-offs were built with thinner connections, weaker internal areas and cheaper wiring. So it'snot a matter of what you pay anymore, it's a matter of IF the part was faithfully reproduced to OEM standards. When you buy the$40 part, you are getting OEM quality. When you buy the $6 part, you are technically getting an illegal knock-off that was reverse engineered and reproduced with inferior quality parts. If you bought or even sold a knock-off purse, it'd be a crime. But these electronic knock-off parts are blatantly ignored despite the potential harm being much greater than a cheaper Loius Batone purse.

When I was heavy into the early Fox Mustangs, some aftermarket covers being sold were actually designed to increase the rigidity on pumpkin area. Some of those had internal sections that helped strengthen the main cap areas. Without seeing the inside of the finned pumpkin cover, it appears to be mainly for better heat transfer and some rigidity increase. As long as some air IS moving across the fins (hard to say if air is moving or stagnant around here given how airflow UNDER a car doesn't always do what you think it should) it'll greatly help with lowering oil heat. So this would be an upgrade and help keep oil cooler under towing or hard off roading, etc. Also, even if the the inside of the cover doesn't add any sort of extra support for the main caps, the fins WILL add some structural strengthening to the entire assembly. Probably not going see full benefit on a stock-powered car, but on higher HP it'd definitely help in one way or another. And having it dissipate heat more efficiently than a smooth, stamped steel bowl cover, longer life should be the norm. And hey, remove it, polish the hell out of the aluminum and the bolts and you'll have a cool looking pumpkin cover.

If worried, try and score something that has a warranty offered. Within the past 3 months, had 2 batteries go completely dead. One was around 1.5 years old (had a 3 year warranty) and other was around 2 years old (5 year warranty). Considering how expensive batteries are nowadays due to lead scrap prices, having warranties made a world of difference.

Have you inspected the fusible link in the underhood fuse box yet? My 95's link had cracked and corroded, and out of the blue car wouldn't start after stopping at a grocery store. So it went from zero issues to sitting 15 minutes and no-start. Figuring it was probably a fuse or maybe ignition coil, decided to do a quick visual starting at underhood fuse box and immediately noticed the link had cracked casing and the wire was corroded with a weak break. Fiddled with it and engine fired right up. Got it home and inserted a temp fix. Went to Auto Zone and bought a section of fusible link, and soldered the ends to the factory connectors (factory connectors appear to be stainless or very high quality steel, much nicer than the generic speaker terminal variety). 1st section I bought "worked", but the actual wire got too hot with engine idling despite being the same diameter roughly as the factory link. So went back and bought next size up and it remained cool to the touch. Dunno if the upgraded EZ36 alternator had anything to do with it (nearly 65% bump over the amperage of stock) or not as the factory link was hardened and cracked. Anyhow, it takes 10 seconds to inspect and will NOT allow engine to start to if faulty.

Is your area of Idaho flat, farm lands? (like what Iowa mostly is?) Or are there a ton of trees, hills, etc. like in OP's pics?

I know this is old, but you'd be better off just removing the printed resistor (183) as it's not as easy to fix a cut trace as Texan leads you to believe. Also, with the resistor out of the circuit, you can probe it for it's resistance. With it's resistance known, you can temporarily solder in 2 very small wires (one at each end where OEM resistor was) and try attaching another resistor close in value as the default one. I suspect you could possibly fine-tune the delay effect. If willing to risk it, could possibly try a straight wire jumper in lieu of the resistor and see if the spray vs. wiper relationship looses the delay. Could also lift the resistor out, get it's value, buy a 1/4 watt traditional resistor and a small switch, and wire a switch into the circuit. Glad to see I'm not the only one that doesn't like the way wipers work nowadays. Worse effect I hate is when they spray once, then wipers keep going 2-3 rotations after the sprayer stopped. It almost always causes streaking.

It can be either up or downstream O2 sensor. They might not even throw a code either. My 99' Saab 9-3 had a similar issue some time back. Only codes it popped were for the O2 heating elements (both sensors). Car ran w/o issue for over a year, then started getting the random misfires. In my case, the after the car warmed up for roughly 5 minutes, going down the road it'd misfire. Then it'd eventually straighten out. Near the end, that got worse and would continue to cause the misfire. Last time I was running catless briefly and it back-fired with so much force it blew a new muffler apart at the seams! I 1st replaced the front O2, but misfire persisted. Replaced downstream O2 and problem cleared up and never returned. Upon close examination of downstream O2, the metal casing on the outside was cracked and rusted (where wiring loom enters sensor). Mind you, it never threw any codes other than the heater element. But even that shorting out can cause all sorts of issues. Try disconnecting one then both sensors and driving the car. Engine should go into limp mode as it can't detect either sensor. See if problem disappears.

Do NOT add seafoam, and NEVER add anything to the oil other than OIL. It will do ZERO for an engine already running OK. You risk damaging an otherwise healthy engine with that crap. It's like what an accountant that's never wrenched a day in his life would see on the shelf and think "wow, I've got to use this". You've done everything or are doing everything you possibly could to make it run it's best. I'd replace ALL the vacuum lines and the fuel filter. If you want the car to be quicker, drop curb weight.

Lucky you. Wish that snow would head east. Mid/upper 50's today and tomorrow, with upper 60's and thunderstorms/rain on Saturday/Sunday. Very weird winter thus far. Normally it's snowing by Thanksgiving. If it stays like it is now, probably going to break all sorts of records for the wrong reasons.

Had one of those in the mid 1980's. Remember wearing shorts and playing in the yard.

We've had an unusually warm dry spell in northern Ohio. Normally it'd be in the 20's with actual snow coverage. So far, only seen a light dusting that barely covered car windshields and been hovering in the 40's-50's otherwise. Basically having an extended Fall.

What's wrong with it the CEL is on? What's the exterior condition like? What's the interior like? What's been done to it? What's it need? These are questions you should answer in the for sale post as people will be asking anyways. Pics almost always close the deal faster.

First, stop adding snake oils hoping it'll magically fix itself. You've been here long enough to know you should do a full tune-up (oil, plugs, wires, fuel filter, air filter, run a tank of premium through it in case gas is old, and reset the battery in case it's had work done, and inspect all vacuum lines). IF after all that it's not running right, then start digging into the idle air valve, etc. What exactly do you think sea foam is going to do to a healthy engine anyways? Other than possibly ruin it? Only non-mechanic types resort to snake oil.