boomer308

The day after I posted my question, I took the car to the garage where I bought it. After about 15 minutes of checking under the car, the mechanic asked if I had taken the right front wheel off. I told him no, and he said one nut was missing and the others were so loose he could turn them with his fingers. He tightened the nuts and replaced the missing nut and no more noise. He also checked the other wheels. When I bought it, he said he did some brake work, so I think he failed to tighten the nuts.

This may sound like an odd question, but how is the A/C turned on in a 1999 Legacy Outback? I"ve tried adjusting the various control buttons and the two that slide, one with a blue line by it, the other with a red line. I pressed the A/C button in and tried it with the button out. All I get is warm air. I presume it needs recharging. Does that sound right? If so, is that something that can be done at home? I know a few years back it had to be done at a garage with special equipment to keep pollutents out of the air. Now a different refrigerent is used. Is recharging the A/C a complicated job?

Yesterday I drove my 1999 Legacy Outback, 2.5L to the postoffice a couple miles from home. On the way back home, a "clunking" noise started in the front. It seemed to be coming either from the center or the from the right wheel area. As the speed increased, the got quieter, but was faster. As I slowed down, just before stopping, the noise slowed down, but got a bit louder. Does this sound like a drive shaft problem, wheel bearing, brake problem or something else? I've only had the car a couple months so I hope it's not something expensive to repair.

1999 Legacy Outback. Battery has been draining. Last Friday the garage determined it had something to do with the internal lighting. The mechanic removed the fuse for the lighting and the car ran fine over the weekend. I took it back today for more testing and the mechanic said there is no power to the glove compartment light or ashtray light. He did find a missing fuse (not the one he removed Friday). He put in a new one. He told me to take the car home to see if it runs down again. The car is an automatic with floor shift. When I pressed the shift lever lock button to shift from Park, there was a clicking sound that seemed to come from the dash in the area of the speedometer, etc. I asked the mechanic about this and he said that was normal, that it was just the shift lever lock releasing. He said if I didn't hear that clicking, I wouldn't be able to shift from Park. I told him it didn't click before and he said maybe that missing fuse that he replaced had something to do with it, but he insisted the clicking is normal. Is the clicking normal when the shift lever lock button is pressed to shift from Park?

I bought a 1999 Legacy Outback with about 120,000 miles. The garage I bought it from said the timing belt had been replaced once, but didn't know when. What is theexpected life of a timing belt? The nearest Subaru dealership quoted a time of 3 hours to replace the belt. Two other garages said the same thing. One garage said on a Subaru that's a big job and would take about 13 hours. Who is right, the dealership, and garages that said 3 hours or the one that said 13 hours? Could the 3 hour quotes be for replacement of the belt only and the 13 hour quote be for replacement of the belt, pulley and water pump? Is it always necessary to replace everything?

A couple weeks ago I bought a 1999 Legacy Outback. It has a radio, cassette player and 6 cd changer. The controls for the cd player are on the dash, under the radio and cassette controls. My problem is I can't figure out where the cds are inserted. I can't see anyplace on the dash where they would go. Under the front passenger seat there is a black box bolted to the floor. It faces to the back. The back side faces the front of the car. There are several wires connected at the back of the box. If I open the back door and get down on my knees and twist around enough to see under the front seat, I can see on front of the box printed, "Cd Changer" or "6 CD changer", or something similar to that. It is a Subaru product. I can't see any way this box would open or any other way to insert cds. It seems a very inconvenient place if it's necessary to get out of the car, jam myself onto the floor of the rear seat to somehow load cds into that black box. If that is how it's done, where do the cds go? I don't see any openings.