GreaseMonkey03

Is the car shifting normal? if so, reset it and see if it comes back. Sometimes a drop in voltage or a glitch in a sensor or solenoid will throw a code. If it's shifting fine I would just reset it for now and see what happens.

If you're planning on pulling the body harness out with the door I'll say a prayer for you. If you, for whatever reason, can't get it back down in there or across the back to the left pillar as the diagram shows, you're in for a world of hurt. I've gone digging through a lot of harnesses on a lot of different cars of all different years. It is the biggest bane to my existence as a mechanic. The most headache free route is to pull the harness out of the door and keep it attached to the car. It will take you all of about 5 minutes to pull the panels off the inside of the hatch and take a look at what I'm saying. Worst case scenario is that one section in particular is boxed in and you have to cut an access hole. But I doubt it. The last thing you want to be stuck with is a fully harnessed door and not be able to get the harness back in to the car. A lot of blood and cursing has resulted from things like this in the past.

Have you checked for vacuum leaks? Definitely check those codes. Check engine always goes off when you disconnect that battery. The code will most definitely give you a much better idea of what is going on.

Is it OBD2? Any codes stored?

Sounds like you have a few unrelated issues. Check to make sure you seated the wires on to the coil properly.

Skipped timing would likely give you a cam/crank correlation code or something similar or would have a slightly rough idle. Issue sounds mechanical from the description. I would start by pulling off the cover. Be mindful of falling bits so you don't lose them just in case.

Don't worry too much about it. Easier done than said. Pull the panels and have a look. Then you can decide which route you want to take.

I would advise against a splice. I have to repair these all the time. It usually involves removing the boot to expose the wires that have been cut over time from opening and closing the hatch. The room allowed is so minimal that each splice has to be offset to allow for free movement at the joint. And that's with just two or three wires having to be repaired. You also don't really want a weak chain in the link at the point where the wires get the most stress. Be methodical. Take your time. Do it right. You'll thank yourself for it later. if you attach a wire to the harness of the donor car before pulling it out, you can use that to pull the harness of your car back through.

I must have misread. I thought he had no codes. But still can't figure out why the car would shut off if that were the case. He didn't mention it running rough either. Oh well

Dave I can't even picture that but the description has me cracking up. I remove a lot of hubs from the back with a matching size impact socket and a mini sledge.

I haven't taken one of these apart, but on most cars the harness runs along the outer edge and branches out to the individual plugs for the lights. Take the inside cover off and unplug and un clip all the wires and run it out of the old one. Then run it back through the replacement. Now would be a good time to reinforce the harness between the hatch and the body. They tend to break at the bend.

A fellow New Yorker. Welcome aboard. Lots of info here. I'm new to the forum myself. Enjoy

Heat is your friend on almost anything Subaru. That and a big hammer. Never underestimate the power of a few firm hits to loosen things up. On smaller bolts like the pinch bolt, even a cheap torch will help. And patience. Lots of patience.

McGyver would be proud!

Awesome. Any time I diagnose, I always start with the simplest thing first. More often than not you save a lot of time, money and gray hairs.

Probably because the post size required for sufficient flow wouldn't fit a 22 mm bolt. Maybe? Don't know. I'm not an engineer for sure. I do know this though, next time I have to remove a supercharger and manifold and all of the air and coolant plumbing just to change a knock sensor, or have to spend 6 hours trying to change an O2 sensor, I may put an ad on Craigslist to find a random engineer so I can beat him to a bloody pulp and get my frustration out.

Another small thing you can try is to turn the key on and off a couple times before you start it to prime the fuel pump. The increase and drop in pressure itself could be enough to free up the fuel flow IF the root cause is a frozen line.

I'm slightly confused. Is it a 420 or a 402? You mentioned both. If it's the egr, that could explain some power loss. If it's a 420 it's not benign, it's generic. Could be a couple of different things. Usually, but not always, if it's one of the O2 sensors at fault, you will have an additional code to the 420 like a B1S2 for example. You can somewhat check the flow of the cat two different ways. Using a temp sensor to check the temps at the immediate front and back of the cat with the engine at idle or firmly placing your hand over the tailpipe, preferably NOT after it's been running for a long time. If the temp at the back of the cat is excessively hot or there is a large difference from the front, the cat is most likely clogged. A clogged cat can cause a fire among other issues, so it's not something you want to ignore. If it's a 402, check vacuum lines to egr and pull the egr and clean thoroughly to see if that helps.

Wouldn't those symptoms continue persistently on each consecutive start until the engine was warm if that were the case? even a minuscule manifold leak would continue to create symptoms for at least a minute or so wouldn't it? Same with the injector seals until they warmed up and the likelihood of all of the injector deals leaking isn't that great. Granted, I don't live in sub zero temps so what do I know. I would still eliminate the possibility of frozen lines before I rip the fuel rails off the car.

Never had an issue ordering parts but rust is always a major issue and they all leak oil. The rust will make certain things like the calipers almost impossible to service and makes removing nuts and bolts a hassle or even dangerous. Keep everything lubricated under the car as best as you can.

Born and raised Dave. Lol.

my gut tells me it's the wires. If changing the wires doesn't move the misfire, then it's most likely the coil. Wires should still be replaced if it is. From the way the misfire is acting as you described it, it's very unlikely that it's the valves (mechanical issue) causing it. A bad valve is a bad valve. Also worth mentioning, sometimes on these cars the wires can be left improperly seated or walk themselves out as it's kinda hard to get the leverage needed on them sometimes. Make sure they "click" onto the plug and if you're not sure, pull it and do it again. This could possibly be the "louder" noise you're hearing.

No experience personally. But from experience that I do have, ANY part can fail. If you take that into consideration, it would probably be best to buy local in the event a failure occurs within the warranty period. Less hassle and less down time for the car. Also worth considering, some manufacturer warranties are affected if they are not "installed by a professional"

What oil filter are you using? Aftermarket oil filters are notorious for leaking on these for some reason. So much so that valvoline created a Subaru specific filter exactly for that purpose. If there's no oil above the filter itself, that's the first thing I would suspect. Use either the valvoline or a Subaru filter if that's where the leak is coming from. I don't know why they leak, but I know for a fact that they do. Maybe the gaskets can't hold up to the heat? Your guess is as good as mine.

Decent is relative. If you look for generic or universal spring insulators, they look like coiled ribbon, you can put those on without removing the strut and they are cheap. All you need is a cheap screw drive spring compressor which you can borrow or also buy cheap. Jack the car, remove the wheel, compress the spring a little and then thread them onto the spring. Or have him do it. You can do the same with the factory insulator but you would have to cut it. Otherwise the entire strut assembly has to come out and get pulled apart again.