pontoontodd

Battery in my 96 Impreza died, looking for a replacement, even the cheap ones aren't cheap. I have an Odyssey in my Outback and it's great but I don't want to buy another $300 battery. Local Subaru dealer wants $124. Rockauto sells a Deka Intimidator for $175. Considering a junkyard battery, don't plan on keeping this car for more than a year. Any other deals out there? Sooberoo - did you make sure the battery light comes on when you turn on the key? My friend had problems with one alternator that wouldn't charge since he had LED bulbs for some of the idiot lights and that was enough of a change to keep the alternator from charging. Check voltage at the battery, not the alternator, with the car running and making sure it's at least 14. Also, your brake lights shouldn't be a high current load.

The expansion valve has just two connections and some kind of metal diaphram looking thing with a copper tube that ends in a bigger copper tube clamped to one of the lines. Presumably some kind of temperature compensating orifice. I have no idea if or where there is an inline filter. I did not flush out the evaporator or condenser. I would think any added restriction from a clogged filter, evaporator, or condenser or collapsed tube would give me more pressure drop than normal, not less, but I guess that's why I'm asking.

The clutch engages and turns the compressor, but still no pressure drop, now maybe 10-20psi, but not the 200 or so it should have. I replaced the expansion valve which is mounted in the car with the evaporator. What is the compressor expansion valve?

Cruise is still shutting off on me occasionally. The light on the button turns off, it's not just cancelling. Is there a relay for that aside from the one in the cruise computer? I tried a different cruise computer from a junkyard and it does the same thing. I replaced the expansion valve in the AC system and there is still no pressure difference between high and low side with the compressor running. Could this be caused by insufficient oil? Or should I get a different compressor? For a few days the engine was cutting out at about 4000RPM in first gear at full throttle, like you turned off the ignition. Never at part throttle or any other gear. Cleared trouble codes and hasn't done it since. Been messing with some other minor things and waiting for some shock parts to try something different. Also getting serious about finding another rust free H6 Outback with under 150k miles, preferably 2001-2004 non VDC.

How much longer do you think it will be until you drive it? Looking good, love your paint booth!

It looks like you should make your skidplate wider to cover the exhaust if you're worried about it. You could probably just add a piece on each side to cover each exhaust pipe. Attach the outer ends to the old swaybar mount brackets. I have heard the European market Outbacks have the exhaust going over the passenger side of the engine crossmember like the turbo cars. If you can get one of those manifolds or something from a WRX (a lot of people upgrade their exhaust, you might be able to get a stock one cheap) it would help. The part of the exhaust that runs along the trans and driveshaft is probably going to be one of the lowest parts of your car no matter what you do. I wound up replacing the section of mine from the cat to the rear diff with 2.5" .095" 4130. Kind of overkill, but more practical than trying to make some kind of skidplate for it. Only one dent so far.

You probably know this but I think the BRZ trans is completely different than the 6MT in the STI. Stock BRZ trans is good to about 400hp. If you've got a t case after it, it will probably last a long time. Anyone ever mess with alternator wiring? Mine works but can't keep up with a half dozen 55W HID lights and the AC/radiator fans. It's supposed to be 90A stock. The wire plug has three wires. One is 12V just fused to battery +. Another is switched 12V with ignition. The third one is an open circuit last I checked. My friend tells me that is some kind of load circuit and he's read depending on whether you ground it or give it power, it changes the output of the alternator. Cruise is only staying on for short periods of time while driving now. Couldn't find any relay that powers it aside from the one in the cruise control computer, so I've got one of those coming in to try. It will stay on indefinitely with the car parked and ignition on, engine not running. Doesn't turn off when you shake/tap the cruise computers, so maybe it's not that. Still haven't decided what to do about AC, same pressure on high and low side with compressor running. I've tried both H6 compressors I have. Any thoughts on that? Could the orifice be blown out? Where is that, mounted to the evaporator?

Went through this and my notes and I think all the information is here now, added a few things to the first post.

I really think you want some kind of square tube lifting part that goes on the hi lift, square tube receivers in the frame, and maybe even a locking pin that goes through them. Like a trailer hitch. I would just use those, you could always mount a winch or something to them later. The square tubing will keep the jack from tipping over and the pin will keep it from sliding out. If you put one near each bumper frame mount that would probably suffice. You could put them on the sides of the car too, if you do I'd get them as close to the suspension mounts as you can and notch the pinch welds so they don't hang down.

Thanks. I think you're right about the Subaru being the jack of all trades and master of none. Several of my friends have commented they don't know of anything else that can cruise comfortably on the highway, drive off pavement all day fairly well, and drive back home with (usually) no major problems. It is definitely a compromise between road comfort, high speed off road capability, and low speed rock crawling. Even deciding how wide a rig you want is a compromise between being able to do narrow trails or go in between big rocks and having more suspension travel and being more stable. At the moment I've decided to stick with what I have. Where we live we have to drive 300-2000 miles to get where we want to ride off road, so it has to be good on the highway. I'm not excited by rock crawling or mud bogging so I don't need giant tires and a lot of clearance. It would be cool to go faster over rough terrain but the current suspension is good enough to be fun, and I think we can improve it more. One of the biggest improvements we could make to the cars would be the 6MT/R180 with a lower first and second. You really can't beat on the 5MT and R160 with the H6 and big aggressive tires or they will break.

Makes sense on the T100. Yes, better dampers and better tuning make a huge difference. Ours are built around Fox shocks with reservoirs, which are considered some of the best in off road. I think they're tuned pretty well right now, no comparison to stock in terms of ride quality and durability. I didn't notice much difference in ride between the a-arm setup we made and the struts we have now. There is probably still room for improvement in tuning. And I have some ideas we're going to try soon to improve them further. If you haven't seen what the top Dakar racers can do with 12" or less of suspension travel, you should, they are amazing, but the 2WDs at least have larger tires than we do, which helps. All that said, something with well tuned shocks and 12" of travel will never be able to keep up with something with 18-24" of well tuned travel over rough terrain.

So I charged the Impreza battery this morning but it still wouldn't crank. Put in the battery out of the donor Outback and it fired right up. Drove it for at least an hour around town, with a half dozen stops but none of them long. Never overheated or puked out coolant. When I first got home it was bubbling into the overflow, maybe a bubble every five seconds. Used the magical test fluid and that never changed color, but after it sat and idled for a bit it stopped bubbling too. So I'm guessing the head gasket(s) are starting to go but aren't too bad at the moment. Might do the head gaskets this weekend. While I was driving around some guy pulled up and asked if I was looking for another Subaru. His daughter was driving a 99 Outback and rear ended someone. They had supposedly just done the head gaskets, exhaust, timing belt, rotors, tires, and heater core, it has 118k on it, 4 cylinder auto. I checked it out, it would need the lower radiator support pulled forward and a new radiator, but I have a couple of those in my basement. It has a good set of snow tires and alloy wheels. Clean cloth interior, smells like they smoked in it. It's about as rusty as most Subarus that age around here, body doesn't look too bad but probably half the bolts would break off the first time you tried to turn them. All the CV boots look good. He wants $600. I'm tempted to buy that and scrap/sell the Impreza. I really need to get another rust free H6 Outback. Still would like feedback on cruise control and AC issues with the 99 Outback.

That's why I'm considering something different.

How about just a T100 with the 3.4, then you wouldn't have to swap engines or axles? Not that the 3.4 made a ton of power either.

Hahhahahaha. You're obviously not American or you'd know more and bigger is always better! Seriously though, there are times when we have to slow down because the trail is too rough for our current suspension. Not anywhere near as bad as the stock suspension. In something with say 20" of travel and 33-37" tires you could go much faster over rough ground than we do. As an extreme example the winner of the Vegas to Reno runs it at twice our average speed. There are street legal prerunners that are basically a trophy truck with air conditioning, so that's not just race cars. The bigger reason would probably be to get a real low range/lockers, bigger tires, and more interior room. It would be nice to have a large enough area behind the front seats to sleep comfortably.

The cruise control is mostly not working now. For months it has shut off every hour or so. Now it's every minute or so, sometimes the light doesn't even come on when you push the main cruise button. I have the button from the 2002 donor, going to try that first. Then try to find the relay. Hoping it's not a wiring or signal issue. Anybody have this problem before? Also still wondering what would cause the AC pressure to be same on high and low side other than compressor not compressing, any advice on that would be good too.

The STI axles aren't much longer, less than an inch if I remember right. Just making longer axle bars isn't too expensive, the real problem is to fit longer axles in most IFS trucks or FWD cars you have to widen the suspension too, so the thing winds up seven feet wide to get a decent amount of travel. Probably not a big deal out west, maybe even desirable, but a lot of the trails east of the Mississippi are tight. I've thought about those Toyotas. They are generally reliable, and as you say you could get the sort of transfer case and lockers you'd want. You can obviously fit bigger tires. And you're right about the shocks being much cheaper/simpler than struts. We are already making 12" of wheel travel though. The Toyotas don't have much power stock, even with the six cylinder, and according to Wikipedia the 4Runner is a foot shorter than the Outback. Overall it would probably be cheaper than what we've done with better crawling ability but a worse power/weight ratio. I would like to get a ride in one of those. What 4.3 do you have in yours, GM?

Front and rear it would be easy to have receivers that wouldn't hang down. On the sides you could put them right where you're lifting the car in the pictures, the stamped "frame rail" hangs down a few inches there. You would have to notch the pinch weld.

I assume you will make a larger platform to attach to the bottom. One thought I had if I got one was to put specific lifting points for it on both sides and front/rear of the car. Since I already have 1.25" square receivers in front and rear, I would attach a 1.25" tube to the lifting arm of the jack. That way the jack is less likely to tip over.

The CV axles aren't limiting us in the Subarus. It's more of an issue of tire-body (structural body, not just fenders) clearance at full bump. At full droop, it's a bunch of things. Tie rods are binding. Springs can only be so long to fit above the tire when fully compressed, so they can only extend so far. CVs are close to binding too. Subarus have much longer CV axles than most other cars or even IFS trucks. The only thing I can think of that would be similar are VW/Audi. Thought about going Mitsubishi, like an Outlander, they basically have an EVO drivetrain and can supposedly take 400hp. Biggest problem is the front CV axles are short. Perhaps with rzeppa joints on both ends and a ball spline you could get good travel, I doubt that would be cheap though.

I've been talking to a bunch of people about other cars/SUVs that would be better for what we're doing. Without going wide I don't think we're going to find anything that rides better than the Subarus with more interior space for similar money. We mocked up wider control arms in the front on one side of my 99 Outback to see what that would do for us. Right now bump travel is limited by the tire hitting the part of the body that supports the fender and strut tower. Since this is the part of the body we started to rip off at the V2R it is obviously important structurally. Maybe we could cut it out and replace it with tubing and get a couple inches more up travel. We would have to go about 7" wider per side to get the tire entirely outside that part of the body, and it still wouldn't clear when steered at full bump. With a control arm about 3" wider than what we have now, we would have another inch or two of droop travel for a similar CV axle angle. The other advantage of widening the arms is that the strut would be at more of an angle so the spring could probably go alongside the tire rather than having to be above the tire. That would make more suspension travel and spring selection easier. Not really worth making longer axles and modifying the struts for another inch or two of travel though. In the rear there are similar issues, so for now I'm going to leave it at the current width. I do have some ideas for improving the shocks that I'm going to try to get parts for this week. It really is already a huge improvement from stock, and it's not too often we have to slow down because roads are too rough. I put a different AC compressor on the 99 Outback, added some R134a, and it's still reading the same pressure (50-60psi) on the low and high side with the compressor running. Is there a chance the orifice is blown out or something? What else would cause this aside from the compressor not compressing?

I'm glad you got it home with minimal damage. If you keep going solo you should figure out some better recovery method(s). The electric jacks and recovery ramps/sand ladders have worked well for me. Or get a winch and build mounts and wiring to put it on the front or rear of the car. Slow but effective if you're near trees.

I'm still not sure how you're going to lift your car with a high lift, but if you have one it would certainly be easier than a bottle jack. You should be able to get a 12 ton bottle jack for $20 or so. Yes, you will probably have to stack stuff under the car and prop up the jack and do it in stages. There are telescoping hydraulic bottle jacks too, you get more lift but they're more expensive and the second stage can't lift as much. By far the easiest solution would be to find someone with a tractor or big 4WD and beg or pay them to drive over there and pull your car out. If you do that or try the winch again I would pull on both tow hooks, especially considering your car is rusty.

What kind of jack do you have? With a good hydraulic floor jack or bottle jack if you dig out a spot for it you should be able to lift the car. If you can't lift it enough in one shot, stack blocks of wood or something under the car, lower the jack, stack some blocks under the jack, and do it again. Even if you had a hi-lift you probably have nowhere on the car to lift with it. Were you using the pulley with the come along like in those pictures? Do you have a decent chain or something that won't break?

It doesn't look hopelessly buried. I think you could get it out by jacking up one corner at a time and putting branches under the tires. It will take a while and some digging. I haven't done much with my 2002 but I think the radiator support on those is fairly strong, just watch if you jack up on that so it doesn't bend. Yes, I've used one of those winches, I think it was rated at 4 tons. You will probably want to use them like they are shown in those pictures so you have more pulling force. If you unhook that other hook and don't use the pulley you will get more length but half the pulling force. If you can get one with solid toothed wheels rather than the stamped and riveted wheels, they hold up better. If the winching goes slowly but doesn't require a lot of force you could try putting branches right in front of the tires and try to winch it up on them. You could try tire chains but if you can get them on you can probably just put branches under the tires and drive out without them. Take plenty of boards, shovels, heavy ropes, chains, or cables.