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Sounds like the coolant hoses coming in and out of the throttle body right? There are two hoses, one goes into the block you might be able to reach with long needle nose pliers. The other goes into the coolant crossover pipe, unfortunately that's directly below and behind the throttle body. You'll have to remove the throttle body and dig close to the center of the block to replace it. Get a spare gasket on hand before you do this, sometimes the old one rips when you disassemble. They're reusable if it comes out in one piece. Don't go crazy on torquing the bolts back on, the soft aluminum threads tend to strip.

Did you notice the old pads wore evenly when you pulled them off? There's one pin that has a rubber damper inside, that tends to swell and cause pads to wear lopsided. It eventually causes sticking issues because the pressure is more like a parallelogram than square. I remove those when redoing brakes.

The reservoir cap isn't sealed but it's strange to have it leak. With engine on, steer left/right a couple times quickly, if the oring was leaking it would suck in air and cause a whining noise and random choppiness in the steering wheel. You could have someone steer back and forth while you check in the reservoir with cap off and see if there are any bubbles. I don't recall ever having fluid leaking out the top of the reservoir cap, but guessing if there's an air leak at the top where the steering pump is, any fluid higher than the reservoir will eventually drain back down into it. Betting either that upper host end is so hardened and brittle, the rubber can't contract any more even with the hose clamp. The oring is under that black elbow, I usually replace it with whatever fits from the auto store.

Yes the one that runs along the radiator is the culprit, but you could get both of them considering it's a 20 year old car now.

It's unlikely the high pressure, that's a pipe from the steering hose that only turns into a hose somewhere behind the engine. If that one even leaks a little you'll lose all power steering within an hour, it's like 200psi. There's two low pressure hoses, one comes back from the steering rack and into the reservoir, unlikely leak. The other one goes from the reservoir back into the pump and is all rubber, that's probably the culprit. I don't know what the name is... it's the "really squiggly one".

Good luck! Don't pull off the hose though if you don't have a replacement onhand. If it's already brittle, it'll leak even more or worse it'll break apart at the clamp area.

Is that the one with the plastic reservoir on the side? Those rarely leak. It's more likely the rubber hoses have gone brittle and are leaking at the clamps. Check the hoses first, likely need to change those out only.

With the spark plugs out, crank the engine until you see oil pressure. It'll crank pretty fast and build pressure after a couple tries. Also don't prefill the oil filter, if the oil pump wasn't preprimed it'll take very long for the air to overcome the oil stuck in the filer. If you're not sure, just crank it with no oil filter until you see it spit out oil, then the pump is primed. Put back the filter and crank for pressure. I'd crank until the oil light goes out, let it rest while I button up the some things, come back and test crank again to confirm the oil light instantly goes out. Then you're sure everything ready to fire up.

Engine size doesn't matter as much as SOHC vs DOHC. SOHC belt is same on 2.0, 2.2, 2.5 SOHC engines. DOHC belt matches all DOHC EJ. You'll still need to make sure the tensioner matches the one you have: old style vs new style. And water pump matches: side exit or bottom exit.

If anything, inspect the donut flange area. if it's rusted out I'd just replace the entire thing. A sometimes leaking and sometimes not spring loaded donut flange makes it hard to chase the inevitable p0420 code. The muffler end can fall off and it wouldn't set codes. No resonator wouldn't bother the neighbors, it'd bother you with highway droning if you're sensitive to that.

Great job finding the issue. It just occurred to me that if it happened to one window, it might be the same on the other ones.

Before you order, go to your car and pinch all the hoses connecting to the pcv valve. Chances are they're already hard and brittle, probably crack or won't seal up if you take it apart. You might be better off ordering the pcv assembly with new hoses attached already.

it does sound like bearings. try spinning the wheels while holding on the the spring coil. it amplifies the vibrations. if there is a bad one, you'll feel nominal vibrations on the other wheels and really different vibrations on the one with a bad bearing.

Probably overthinking it, I've taken them apart and put them back randomly with no issues.

I don't know about newer axles, but for 2007 and earlier were all made by NTN. Look for the NTN stamped on the cup. If the axle doesn't have a name stamping or serial number, it's an el cheapo.

Actually I realized the pics I posted above have the 770 on top, and 670 below. The top center area is different, but for your use case either is fine. They are both MLS designs.

Ah, I copied wrong, it should be 11044AA670 gonna edit the original. Thanks

Did you have the heads resurfaced at a machine shop for this rebuild? If so, go with the MLS ones, 11044AA770 or 11044AA670 Look up how to press back the tensioner with a c-clamp for reuse. Going too fast can pop the internal seals. This video looks like the correct way.

There's only one high pressure oil passage on the top of the gasket. If it's flipped backwards that would explain the leak. It's the topmost oval one. It should match to the top port

You mentioned you're doing it in car right? At this point, might as well remove the radiator to get the best possible outcome for tapping a hole... especially if it might break through into block.

I don't know if there's a definitive procedure for creaking bolts. I could tell the if a creaking bolt has gone beyond it's yield, it just feels springy when you tighten. A good bolt can creak too, it's sometimes due to the threads in the block not matching the threads on the bolt. Good bolts that creak still feel as stiff as ones the didnt creak. I run them in and out a couple times lightly with a drill and clean/relube the threads. then try again. Be aware MLS gaskets deform as part of sealing, and then bite a bit into the aluminum at final torque. You shouldn't loosen the bolts all the way once you started, if you need to work on a problem bolt, back off the other bolts as little as you need to and always leave them in tension. At the torque wrench stage, try and keep everything creak free. Keep cleaning and relubing if needed. After that is the 1st 90 degree stage, some likely creak, you need to remember the feel of the good bolts and decide. It's the last chance to back off and redo. The second and final 90 deg stage, if it's a bad bolt you will definitely feel it. Never go more than 180deg total for those two stages, if it felt loose after the two stages... it's overstretched already.

It's not recommended to reuse headbolts, but I've reused headbolts before. You'll know you have a bad one when you do the final torque and it squeaks too much or just doesn't feel tight. I have a bunch of used ones laying around so it's not a big deal. It might be a show stopper if you don't have spares on hand.

Any silicate free coolant is fine. Subaru coolant conditioner was a rebranded stop leak to keep the composite gasket from flaking off. Subaru MLS shouldn't need any conditioners.

i find a table, bench, any flat corner with a L and taller than the entire axle. hold axle vertically into the corner with outer cv facing up; slam it down hard so the outer cv catches in the corner L. it's like a reverse slide hammer, mind your toes.

Angle looks bad. Get some more washers on the upper bolt to space it back in line. you might need a longer upper bolt. I did something like this when I still had the narrow wagon swaybar with the wider sedan control arms.