TKFlight

Do the oil change yourself? There's a video on youtube of Jiffy Lube doing this, a news team had hidden cameras as the unsuspecting Jiffy Lube workers told an actor what their car need. When it never needed it. Ranged from injector cleaner, radiator flushing, and other nonsense things. Never heard of Monro around here. I also never go to these supposedly "Professionals", I know more than everyone in those places combined. Offer to do it yourself family members bite on it since its going to be free of charge.

Auto Manufacturers do change suppliers and use different items/materials in motors due to different motor designs. I doubt this is a case of a design flaw, seems like just a mediocre part made out of mediocre material. This happens with a lot of auto companies, you see a lot of this stuff and that's why I don't understand why people decide to never drive this such auto manufacturers car again. They are more than likely to have problems with another auto manufacturers vehicle than they are with another, its the way it is. Some years auto manufacturers have a really good generation of cars, then the next gen doesn't perform as well you can't get it right 100% of the time. Subaru, to me, has been one of the most reliable auto manufacturers out there. I've had my run ins with fords, jeeps, dodges, not that they are bad vehicles Subaru has just shown to be reliable. A taken care of 2.2 can last 300K upwards, a well taken of 2.5 can last just as long if maintained. If you throw out the deadly HG issues, with the late 90's DOHC's and Subaru looks insanely good as a car manufacturer. Moral of my story is, these people never buying a certain car again is a horrible way of thinking. Whose to say their next car wont be such a disaster? It just irritates me when people say these types of things.

I've read up on this actually, there are people who have no problems at all with oil consumption in those cars. Then there are people who have abnormal oil consumption going on and no signs of any leaks. Its weird its like some cars got faulty parts then some got non-faulty parts, maybe a supplier issue?

In reply to what I said earlier about my PCV valve. OEM PCV came today, went out in the freezing cold and put the new one on. The old one looked like it had been replaced before, no threader sealer tape or anything on the threads but still looked past its primed and had a thud rattle. Which is a concern since I probably had a vacuum leak this entire time with no thread sealer tape. The car is 10000x different, throttle response, hesitation, idle, even the swift into the next gear is smoother(I longer get a kick back). The subaru just gets up and moves no more slugging up hills I can't even describe it, it feels like I am driving a completely different car.

You shouldn't be losing a quart of anti-freeze from driving it gingierly the day before, you shouldn't be losing it at all. The occasional topping it off is normal, but needing a quart just from driving it gingerly the day before isn't normal. The anti-freeze is going somewhere, and it sounds like HG's. These late 96-99 subarus are notorious for head gaskets, more so than other generations, I've seen it twice already in my short life so far.

02 sensor is most likely the reason why the car is running rich. P0442 is showing up because there is an evap leak somewhere, could be showing up because evap canister/hose leaking. Even an incorrect fuel cap can set this off. The 02 sensor failed, its an easy fix but usually they are on there pretty good due to constantly being heated and cooled.

I understand the practice, after the snake was bit on the nose the mouse was knocked unconscious or dead. Very scary when the snake isn't eating they are really finicky when something like that happens.

I believe it, I've seen mice bite snakes right on the nose. Making the snake not want to eat. Hopefully he gets this solved because I would freaked out driving around knowing there's a mouse in the car.

Peanut butter is good but have had times that the mice have licked it clean like said above. One of my friends had a mouse get out of a box from the local pet store, to feed to his snake, next day he went to go to work it came out of the dash and crawled up his leg. Started shaking his leg when the mouse fell off he stomped on it.

Possibly in the dash? Mice can hide just about anywhere don't rule anything out. Have you driven it recently?

Check for bubbles in the overflow. I do agree HG's are really prevalent in the 96-99 years, but its an issue with just about all years also. If no bubbles in overflow or rad, check to see if the thermostat is an OE one. If it is still doing it maybe try burping the system again? I wouldn't drive it until you get the overheating problem solved, you will easily warp the aluminum heads/block if you keep driving.

Could be rear axles, bearing would be a grinding sound. I would even check the bushings they are known to make strange sounds.

Loose belt or bad belt? Worn CV's? Power steering pump maybe low on fluid, or just a bad power steering pump.

Very interesting. I'm ordering the plugs and wires shortly and will post back with the results.

Still OEM or a place like MWE/rebooting OEM axles yourself is the way to go, these aftermarket axles are hit and miss. There was just a thread and someone stated, that they got a new CV put on buy a mechanic and the clicking was still there. Then the mechanic said its not the axle, that infact it was the differential the guy said the mechanic told him it was going to cost $900 and $3000 if the differential was dead. Just a real world scenario and that person isn't the only one that had happened to. This is why places like USMB and other subaru sites are so important, I've noticed a lot of mechanics do not understand subaru's. They will simply just replace an axle on a subaru with a bad aftermarket one and tell the customer that the noises they are still hearing isn't from the newly installed axle. When really it is. My opinion on aftermarket axles is, if you can get a good pair they usually will last you a long time. I know someone who bought ones off ebay still on for almost 2 years. I have NAPA Maxdrives, they work good I have no idea how long they will last though. There's people that have used NAPA's and had good results. Moral of the story is, you can get a good pair of aftermarkets and not have any issues. As above with people saying they had goodluck with EMPI's.

Ordered, would drive to a dealership but the drive isn't worth it. Going to be ordering the plugs and wires shortly, I hope I can get a nice day in the near future. Its been seriously cold in the north east. Is Teflon tape good enough for the threads around the PCV? Also, how would I go about changing the hose?

Correction. It is actually NGK BKR6E-11 or Nippondenso/Champion Equivalent. Haynes manual states gap should be between 0.039 and 0.043.

I know this is unrelated to spark plugs, beck arnley has a pcv valve for $2 on rock auto or should I just buy the OE one? I heard beck arnley is just rebagged OE products. Nice, can't wait to see how to do the mod.

I'd definitely be interested in watching that video. I seen a thread on another site saying that the gap is supposed to be .044? Is that correct?

Ok, I read somewhere the gap is .044? Is that correct for N/A 2.5's? I stumbled upon my old gapper and dielectric grease yesterday, made me think about my spark plugs in my subaru. I think I'm going to stick to the coppers since its what the motor calls for. Really? I haven't changed the plugs/wires yet since I've had the subaru, and there is definitely pinging and lugging on hills. I think maybe the last owner got cheap plugs or they just need to be replaced.

01 legacy gt 2.5 Thanks for the info, I assumed they were copper but confused on V-Power So throwing money away if I bought the BKRE-IX11, I assumed that I know they last longer but didn't know if it was worth buying them.

Last time I checked the service manual it said either NGK BKR5E-11 or Champion equivalent. Just say I do an ebay or amazon search for them, they always come up but it always say "BKR5E-11 V-Power" what does that even mean? Also, is there a iridium plug that I could also use?

There's still hope it may be ok, stop driving it or the heads are gonna warp. Or you could just end up with a scrap motor. Any pressure in radiator hoses? You said the thermostat you pulled was aftermarket? I'd replace that with an OEM one and see what happens

Did he use a OE axle? You can get very unlucky with these aftermarket subaru axles. They may look fine and sealed but on the inside they are garbage. From what I've gathered a lot of mechanics do not understand subarus at all, just my personal opinion. Clicking noise when turning, to me points to the axle still if an OE one wasn't used. EDIT: Didn't see that, sounds like your typical bad aftermarket CV axle. Don't let this guy rip you off man, you can buy an OE subaru axle for way way cheaper than $900.

What a buy that is to bad its cross country for me lol. head gaskets, even though subaru said they corrected the problem after 2004, I believe, still reports of HG's after 2004 Check the fluids, they will tell you how the car is running. Like said above trans fluid. I'd also look at the coolant, see if the reservoir is gunked up etc. Look for any rigging, can't tell you how many people buy cars that are rigged together and get burned. Imdew nailed the 3 big ones. You know what the mileage is?