GreaseMonkey03

I have the driveshaft pulled out of an 03 forester automatic donor car and it's not going back in. My car is a 97 legacy outback 5 spd. I'm assuming the front pinion is different which if it is that's fine I can swap that out. Any other differences that would stop me from putting the forester driveshaft into the outback? It's not being done just yet, just need to know if I should hold onto it or not.

Scanners have different functions depending on what you need it for. If you just want one to check codes, the cheap autozone scanner will suffice. I have one from harbor freight that has live data, readiness, and one car memory but no abs. So really depends on what you want out of your scanner. I'm personally not a fan of eBay for stuff like this. I don't know how much support there is for upgrades and if there is an issue the return process is a PITA. Just my .02

Because transmissions are expensive.

I would suspect a bad ignition switch to be honest. Unless I missed some other symptom in the thread. When you shut it off, what happens when you mess with the key, jiggle it forward and backward a bit and in and out. See what the lights, fans and relays do.

No problem. I've done way more Honda clutches than I have Subaru ones but they are quite similar if I remember correctly. Easier actually because of access. That being said, I've had some very stupid things cause a clutch to not engage. There is also a safety that won't allow the clutch to kick in if the refrigerant is too low, but i have a feeling that's not the case here. cross your t's and dot your i's before you pull the trigger on it being the clutch. Could very well just be a fuse.

The pressures will read high when the compressor is not running so that's normal. Make sure the little ac button is lit. Make sure the fuse is good and then check if the clutch is getting power with a test light. You'll want to check it with the car on and the AC engaged making sure the little ac button is lit. If it's getting power then the clutch is probably the culprit. You can jump it too there's no danger there although you could jump it with the car off to see if it engages. You'll hear it if it does. If there's power. If the clutch is the problem, you can get a clutch kit for it and you won't have to change out the whole compressor. You'll need circlip pliers I believe and make sure you put everything back the way it came out. The center lock nut can be a little tricky since the pulley will be spinning freely. I usually hit it with a small air ratchet but you may have some luck jamming a screw driver into the face plate somehow.

It does help to keep debris or nests out of the blower motors fan at the very least.

Get all the marks lined up again with the old belt and turn the crank pulley by hand a few revolutions. If there doesn't seem to be anything hitting, start her up and see how she runs. That's if the belt just slipped and didn't break But whatever shop its in isn't handling this?

I'm no alarm expert but that doesn't sound right at all. Can anyone confirm that the panic alarm shuts the car off? did you check the condition of your battery terminals?

Which is why it's so important that the codes be checked. I wouldn't trust him any farther than I can throw him. Get the codes first. As a seller, he should be willing to get a code printout for you. They're free at autozone.

Ah. I understand now. I wasn't counting faulty axles because I see this as an industry issue and not a Subaru issue. The only axle I've ever had fail out of the box was on a Honda, but I wouldn't call it a Honda issue. Any reman axle for any year make or model could fail. Thems the breaks. And that applies to any aftermarket part. I also personally am over the moon happy if a reman lasts 30k or more. Let's be honest, if you think a $50 dollar axle should last you 100k miles then maybe the expectations aren't realistic. You get what you pay for. I'd still put a reman in a paying customers car before I put in a junkyard axle. And I wouldn't use a junkyard axle in my own car either. If I want or expect quality and longevity, I'll buy new. If you want cheap, you get cheap.

Yes I was referring to the carrier bolts. Lol.

Yowza. Take a deep breath my friend. Woosa Yes I said I was a "bit" suspicious. And I wondered out loud if the issue is exaggerated due to other factors. I NEVER said Subaru axles were not robust. I NEVER said reman were as tough. And the issue of them being installed on modified vehicles is also entirely different. there are many factors involved in the life expectancy of an axle. So I never said you were wrong, I simply said there may be more to this than meets the eye. Which one would think is common sense to come to the conclusion that in all these cases it is literally impossible for it to always be the axles fault. Ever seen an axle explode from a loose axle nut? I have. Perhaps someone seeing that could assume it was the axles fault.

Well then. That's interesting. How did that happen? ????

Does the car alarm and panic alarm sound different? +1 for checking battery connections.

First place I would look is wherever it is that you changed it so they would stay on.

As far as aftermarket axles and their failure rate. I'm a bit suspicious of this. I've been using reman for years on customer cars. And while any part has the potential to fail, axles in my customer cars last for years. I have yet to have to replace a reman axle. I'm curious how much of this failure rate has to do with improper installation or poor maintenance of the boots.

Forester struts have different style brake line holders than the legacy/outback. It'll work, but you have to make it work. 03 and up forester axles won't work. They don't have female inner/stub axles.

Worked out very well. Did a quick write up in the retrofitting section outlining what fits and what doesn't and why. Only got the front suspension done so far but rear is hopefully soon to follow.

Here we go. Before and after. Definitely worth it.

Not difficult at all. Most modern bumpers have an attachment on each side at the front of the wheel well. Usually a screw that goes straight up into a tab on the fender. Then the sides pop out/in into a rail of clips. The front differs from car to car a bit more but it's usually pretty obvious. Bolts or pins along the top by the radiator, probably a couple along the bottom and whatever harnesses might be there for fog lights or temp sensor etc. it's really not a hard thing to tackle. Just get in there and you'll see for yourself.

ob uses plastic bushing style end links. Forester uses ball joint style end links. looks like the forester lower control arms reflect this offset. So they will need to be modified or you can just use the forester end links. Don't know how much room there is to "make it work"

So I finished the front swap today from an 03 forester into my 97 legacy OB. Figured I'd post notes in case anyone needed the info as there are some minor differences. If you're gonna do this or something similar, have tools. Lots and lots and lots of tools! I did this at work side by side on two lifts with access to a compressor, torch, welder and a shop full of tools and it was STILL challenging. But I also dropped the entire front as one unit. It would be way easier to take it out piece by piece. That's how I put it back in. A jiggle jack only helps so much. If someone can tell me how to post pics I'll gladly do so. I can't from my phone, I think the files are too big. Anyway, on to the meaty stuff. The lower side frame rails on the forester won't transfer over. Don't even try. Impossible unless you reengineer the whole damn car. Crossmember is a direct swap. Only difference here is that the forester has mounting locations for the side rails. I also used the aluminum spacers from the forester. Different design but way lighter, won't rust and bolts direct. They are also the same height so no extra lift. Steering rack is a little trickier. You have to keep the power steering lines from the OB, they hook up but the bends on the rack are slightly different so you will need to remove the bracket that holds the lines together. The splines are also different on the input shaft of the forester. I cut and welded the top portion of the OB intermediate shaft to the bottom of the forester shaft. Measure and mark 300 times and cut once! I used the forester tie rods. They look the same or at least close enough. Didn't want to take it apart only to find out the inner is a different thread so I didn't bother looking. Front sway bar is also a direct swap. Forester has slightly different bends due to side rails but bolts up. End links are different but since I was using the forester control arms it didn't matter. Mounting location is in the same place and you can probably use the plastic OB ones. Control arms are the same except for the design of the end link mount. Boxed on the OB vs a tab on the forester. Knuckle is different mostly because of ABS. The OB abs reads off the inside of the rotor. The forester unit reads a tone ring on the axle. My only advantage here is getting larger rotors (and a lot less rot, which is why I did this swap). I haven't tried to tackle the abs yet. Didn't even look at the plugs. I'll update when I figure that out. I have a complete donor car which means I also have the 16 inch wheels, the rotors will NOT fit inside the 15" wheels on the OB. If you use the forester struts, swap the brake hose too. I have brand new OB struts and springs installed so I kept those and used the OB brake hose. The only differenc is in how they mount to the strut. Both bolt to the caliper exactly the same way. Axles are not interchangeable because OB uses stub axles and forester doesn't. The OB axles fit fine but don't have the tone ring. So I'll order 02 forester axles to hopefully be able to get the abs to work. The spline count at the hub is the same. Don't need to do anything with the brake lines but the bends are close enough so I will probably hack the last few inches or so into the OB because they are ready to rot through and one already did. Motor mounts are slightly different. Forester mounts have placement tabs in addition to the stud. OB has only studs. For whatever reason I was having trouble lining up the forester mounts. Most likely because of the way the engine was being suspended from above. I reused the OB motor mounts but I'm certain the forester ones will fit so I'll try those again when I put in the lift kit. So everything minus the axles,knuckles and rack is a direct bolt in affair. Rack can be made to work. Knuckle works but abs is unresolved at this point. As far as the other way around (from OB to forester) nothing swaps over except maybe the control arms if you use the plastic end links. Hope this helps out the OB parts hunters out there!

Lots of cars have aluminum suspension bits. I don't know what type of alloy they are but I refer to them simply as aluminum. I didn't get a look at wall thickness. They were noticeably lighter but by how much I couldn't tell you. Probably not enough to be worth it, I'd stick to the steel myself but I know people look for al bits to swap in so I figured I'd pass it along. I don't know enough to know what the advantages are when wrx al bits are swapped in. Maybe camber? I'm not entirely sure.

Makes sense.