RodA2003

Well it would not start with the key a couple od days ago, and fiddling with the shift lever had no effect. I repeatedly tried jiggling it between park and neutral, but no joy. I could hear the new starter relay under glovebox click, and the starter solenoid click too, but the starter failed to turn. Connecting the soledoid to the battery worked though, with the starter spinning at full speed. Any ideas? Rod

Thanks for the tip. I'll try that next time and report back. Rod

Pretty sure it's not the starter. I replaced that earlier to no effect. When it does start, it always cranks at full speed. Don't think it's a battery or cable problem. A new battery recently had no effect. When I hot wire the starter, I connect the + battery post to the solenoid relay - starter is getting its power through the regular high current wire, which is always connected. So I am not bypassing the battery cable. Car has AT, so maybe it is the interlock switch for detecting the park/neutral position? Rod

My 97 OB is dificult ot start sometimes. Symptom is that turning the key fully clockwise sometimes takes several seconds to get the starter motor turning, and sometimes it fails entirely. I thought it must be worn contacts in the ignition switch, or a bad relay in the starting circuit. I assume that it's not the starter itself, as connecting a wire from the battery to the solenoid on the starter always starts it immediately. The several seconds of delay is always worse after the car has been unused for some time. Recently it consistently failed to start, so I disabled parts of the wiring until I found the relay under the dash, right under the glovebox. At this point I had the starter disconnected, and I could hear the relay when I tried to start. With the starter connected, it still failed to start. I cleaned the contacts, and it started immediately. I replaced it with a new Subaru relay several days ago, but since then the delay has grown again, until today it failed altogether, and I had to hot wire the starter. Does all this mean it must be worn contacts in the ignition switch? The switch module looks pretty hard to take apart. Rod

For a 99 OBW, does anybody have an idea of the camber degree relationship for the marks on the adjustment boltheads? Didn't find anything in the achive.

P1507 Idle Control System Malfunction (Fail Safe) I got the above code on a MT 2000 OB. Any pointers on how to fix the problem? Idle speed is a bit erratic. Rod

Might want to check the compression on the other 2 cylinders. I had the same symptoms after doing the HGs, and I had to reshim the valves to make the compression good on all cylinders, then it ran fine.

I get this code ever few months on my 97 OB (225,000 miles). I just clear it and it goes away for months. You can clear the code display manually by disconnecting the battery for 10 minutes or more.

What is the best way of flushing the AT? Another post suggested removing the return line from the ATF radiator (top hose?) and runiing the engine for a short time.

I think it is easier to do all 4 from underneath. Don't even open the hood. Rod

Agreed, the MPT does the equivalent of a limited aspect of a mechanical differential, but it is lacking other features normally considered part of a differential: 1. An input shaft with two driven output shafts. 2. An inbuilt gear reduction. 3. Neglecting very small frictional losses, the input power equals the sum of the power from the 2 drivern shafts. This last point is important. With friction plates or viscous couplings, the differential in power between input and output is all wasted as heat, and not used to propell the car. So I think it is very misleading terminology to call such devices differentials. See also http://www.car-videos.com/whatis/differential.asp

Is it true that for 97 Outbacks with AT at least, there is no center differential? In looking at http://www.endwrench.com/pdf/drivetrain/Ft4EATTransmissionsW98.pdf there is a description of the muti-plate clutch pack (MPT) that says how the duty solenoid determines the amount of AWD. It also says that the power to the rear goes from the reduction power shaft through the MPT to the rear drive shaft. There is no mention of a center differential anywhere. I think others have suggested that the MPT (or viscous coupling for MT cars) performs a limited slip operation for a center diff, but that doesn't seem to be true. R

I think they are used threaded holes. I recall that the spak plug boot had a matching bump to go in the holes. Rod

If you clean up the underside of the engine, and then run it, it should be easy to see if the oil leaks are from the back, or front, or both. It is much more likely to be from the front, which is relatively easy to fix. If it is from the back, the engine must be removed. Then replace the rear crank seal and redo the silicon on the rear oil gallery portal. I did this job in a weekend and have had no leaks since.

When one does it properly and consistently, it gives better car control, and much less wear and stress on all the power train, save the clutch linkage and throwout bearing. My clutches typically last 200k miles plus - the clutch fingers that the throwout brearing contact typically wear out first.

Maybe the idler pullies if the bearings are rough, and the bottom dust seal on the timing cover. I don't see any reason to tensioner securing bolts.

I know this topic has appeared many times but I didn't see a clear explanation of my OBW symtoms: Car has 210,000 miles, and there is moderate torque bind on turning. I checked the tire circumferences and the back were about 3/4 inch more that the front. It this enough to trigger a problem? I also jacked up one side of the car, started the engine and put it in drive. Both front and rear wheels turned at about the same speed. By putting the hand brake on fairly hard I could stop the rear wheel turning, though I didn't notice the front speeding up in response. I then tried putting a fuse in the FWD socket. This time just the front turned, but noticably faster than in AWD. Is there any harm in driving the car in FWD mode? Seems to be differing opinions on this. There was also a claim that wear on the clutch pack could cause torque binding, but I would have expected the opposite. Are the symtoms indicative of a failing duty solenoid (the FWD test seem to invalid this), or a worn disc pack? Rod

I think I drilled a small hole at right angles to the axis of the bolt. It went through the plastic and part way into the nut, but not into the bolt. I the drove a rivet nail into the hole to stop the nut from turning while I unscrewed the bolt.

It's quite easy to remove the EJ engine and leave all the AC components in the car. It's clearly designed that way. The OB is far easier to work on than the typical transverse engine car.

Anyone notice this? See http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/01/13/national1142EST0537.DTL

It's quite possible to do the valves with the engine in the car and without the special tool. It just requires a little patience. The preemptive gasket change is a good idea, though you can probably go to 150,000 if the cylinder compression are good. My 97 OB needed them at 180,000.

I looked carefull all over the case and saw nothing with a locknut as descibed in the manual, just several bolt heads. (Also, I didn't see any external oil filter that others have mentioned.) I wanted to check the adjustment because the transmission seemed a bit loose: accelerating at 50mph will cause the engine speed to go up several 100rpms for instance.

For what it's worth, Chilton's manual for my 97 2.5 Outback says that one can adjust the brake bands for the automatic transmission by turning an adjuster on the left side of the transmission, above the oil pan. Trouble is that I cannot find any such thing. Do I have to remove the oil pan to do it?

It's also a good idea to lightly smooth the block and oil cover surfaces with gasoline on 600 wet and dry. I always do a final clean with alchol. Did you use something like Permatex Ultra Black, and wait 24 hours afterwards? I recently did the front bearings too. It would be best if you have a hydraulic press for this - I somewhat damaged the tread on my 6 inch vice pressing them in.

Did you make sure that you polished the shaft where the oil seal touches, and lubricated it with a drop of oil? I've done the repair on several cars and never had a leak. Possibly teh O ring dropped on assembly.