heartless

your owners manual should have recommendations for plugs in it, use what is recommended by that - not what a parts store wants to sell you.

we didn't put an actual torque wrench on it... threaded nut on, snugged it while it was in the air. put a steelie wheel/tire on and put the car on the ground, then tightened as much as we could. it is supposed to be in the 150ft/lb range, right? if the rain holds off, I will be going out to verify 100% that the caliper is not binding later today. may take her for another spin around the country block...roughly 17-18 miles...and see how it does.

it's ok Nipper - it happens to the best.

i do know these folks are not the original owners of this car. But I do know them well enough to trust that they have not overheated it badly - prior to them getting the car, however, that is a complete unknown... both the Foz and the 95 Lego are autos, so compatibility should be no problem as far as that goes. I will be completely honest about not being real keen on the idea of rebuilding the EJ25D - just dont care for the motor at all... so it would probably be best to yank it and sell if anyone wants it. around my area, however, there is zero market for that engine. Subaru's of the older vintages are relatively rare here - most are newer (mid 2000's & up) and even those are not super common. anyway - pics of the car... last pic is the worst of the rust that is visible - drivers side rear wheel well and the corner of the rear cargo area window...

the 1990 should already have the external tranny filter - look down between washer fluid bottle and the engine, there should be a round filter down there attached to the subframe - roughly the same size as the oil filter, maybe a little bigger bad news is: it is NOT a spin on type filter, it has in inlet and an outlet that hoses attach to. finding a replacement is the fun part.

bumped into some old acquaintances at the grocery store this afternoon, got to chatting and discovered they have a 98 Forester they may be interested in getting rid of... the good - body is in decent shape (for Wisconsin), interior needs a good cleaning, but otherwise is intact and complete, including the cargo cover and rubber cargo mat. has 149,595 on the clock...it starts right up, but needs some exhaust work. the bad - has the dual overhead cam 2.5 & they said it recently started to overheat. He wants to yank the thermostat and toss it (he is a Chevy man...) I told him he would destroy the engine doing that, the problem is failing head-gaskets, not the T-stat. so anyway... I may have a chance at picking this up... the big question is - would it be worth picking it up? How much would you be willing to give for it? and how much of a pain in the backside is it to fix the head-gaskets? or would it be more worthwhile to swap it out for a 2.2? (keeping in mind I have a running 95 Legacy donor car) Or should I just skip it all together? will post up a few pics shortly

brakes were my first thought and I went after those right away, but I can definitely triple check the slide pins to be positive both are working in harmony (were previously checked individually) - may be a couple days before I can do that - weather is taking a turn for the worse here (rain for the next couple) the original hub has 228,000 plus on it, so I kind of suspect that one really is the bearing. about the same mileage as my old car had when it lost a bearing (the 90 LS) the used hub has 156K (+/- a few) but the history of the car is kind of an unknown. we just recently picked it up as a donor car (body has been pretty abused, including a destroyed windshield & hood from not latching the hood properly). It has been sitting for a little while, but how long, I am not sure. could've been a month, could have been all winter... I suppose I could always get a new bearing installed in the old hub.... argh... so frustrating, right when I may be starting a new job! and to add to the dilema, I may now have a line on a Forester.... but that is another thread...

Heat is your only symptom? yes, at this point... initially (before the hub swap) I was getting some noise as well, the noise is no longer present, just the heat, and it took some miles for it to present... 15 miles from my house to the gas station - no heat was noticed when I checked it around 4-5 miles into the trip. Get a temp gun to confirm? the difference is pretty obvious just by touching the wheels - the one is hot to the touch, while the rest are cool even after driving nearly 30 miles. I think I have a cheap point & shoot thermometer around here somewhere, tho... Maybe someone else can give their readings? Not really sure what good that would do, but.... Parking brake? Is that adjusted? Parking brakes were completely eliminated on this car (had major rust issues), so there is no way that can be the problem. what are the odds of having another bad wheel bearing? from a 156K car? more later, I have to leave for a job interview...

as far as I know, the forester struts should fit the 1st gen Legacy's fine with the correct top hats installed. I believe I ordered mine from Rockauto, with a few misc parts being ordered from an online dealer site as they weren't available on Rockauto's site...

all right - so fixed the rubbing noise - it was the tone ring. took it out for a test drive - first 4-5 miles seemed to go well - stopped at a stop sign & checked the hub for heat - it felt cool to the touch, same as all the others. Continued into town to swing by the bank then gas station for gas - and the hub was warm - not super hot, but definitely warmer than it should have been. Drove home - and it is warmer, but still not so hot that I cant hold my hand on it for a moment. This car has all new brakes - rotors & pads - the rear calipers have not been replaced or rebuilt, but the pistons move smoothly in the bores and they move freely on the pins, so I don't think it is hanging up... but I suppose anything is a possibility... comments? suggestions? i really need to figure this out...

if you think it was difficult getting "stock" struts in place, try putting the Forester struts in. LOL but I do like that extra height. dropping the sway bar does make a huge difference. @ rooster - nice idea, but not gonna work very well on a Suby - too many other things in the way. dropping the sway bar from the sub-frame (2 bolts) is the best way of getting a little extra working room. once the strut is bolted up, a jack under the knuckle will push things back up high enough to make bolting the sway bar back up easier. been there, done that.

LOL, believe it or not, we did NOT have to cut that one...or any of them! we have several "tools" in the arsenal for freeing stuck, rusty, and otherwise difficult bolts. we did end up cutting one, simply for ease of removal sake - didn't have to do it, but it made things go a bit more quickly. the good news is the used knuckle is all installed, but, I have something rubbing funny - it is rotational, but not the brakes themselves - still present when applying the brakes... going to check it out today, but I think I know what it is... the tone ring was loosened (don't ask), and we forgot to re-tighten things during install... should be an easy enough fix if that is where the problem is.

mark where the glass sits in the channel to make reinstalling easier, remove it, drop the lift assembly out of the way and install your door handle. that is going to be the fastest and easiest way imho. not worth cutting into good metal and opening it up to rust formation.

Rock auto is worth bookmarking. excellent prices on name brands. and they have warehouses all over the country so shipping is usually very reasonable and they send magnets too.

awesome! thanks lmdew! =)

http://www.partsgeek.com/tdkj1jx-subaru-legacy-spark-plug-wire-set.html?utm_source=shoppingcom&utm_medium=pf&utm_content=hcs&utm_campaign=PartsGeek+ShoppingCom&fp=pp&utm_term=Subaru+Spark+Plug+Wire+Set http://www.amazon.com/NGK-FX41-Premium-Wire-Set/dp/B000C5O1N0 http://www.rockauto.com/?mfr=NGK&partnum=8004 personally, I would go with Rockauto.

all of the above, mostly when damp out, but it started happening all the time just before I figured out what it was. also had a cheap, parts store brand plug wire go bad and start arcing on a 3 hour drive once, same symptoms. managed to get off the freeway and checked things out, saw it arcing. wrapped it with electrical tape to get home with it (was not a fun trip) I also HIGHLY recommend the NGK wires, and NGK V-power plugs. I wont run anything else in an older Subaru yeah, those in the link would be the right ones, but you should be able to get them cheaper than that - seems to me I paid around $45 for mine

I would definitely try swapping the tires front to back and see if it makes any difference.

ok, didn't want to just start prying on things if it was something that should be turned off... and I kind of figured it was mostly to protect the tank, but haven't ever messed with any of the inner rear suspension stuff before so... and yeah, I have been lucky.

umm, beg to differ just a little on the coil pack - the one on my 95 Lego went bad - but was pretty obvious, even in daylight, it was arcing pretty good. the good news is that any coil pack from 90 - 95 will work just fine - I pulled the known good one off of my retired 90 Lego and havent had a problem since.

your answer is right there ^^

ok, so have a rear wheel bearing going on the daily driver - 95 Lego with Forester strut lift and nearly 230K on the odo... had picked up a parts car with way fewer miles (156K) and am trying to pull the hub without messing with the infamous lateral link bolt. this means unbolting the other end from the car. we have everything loose except one bolt...this one: what is with the knob looking thing on there (in the red box) and how do I get it off? there isnt a lot of room and being right next to the gas tank, well... gonna be kind of limited in what I can do in there.

i also have a 95 AWD auto, and 1st to 2nd shift is fine - even dead cold on 25 degree mornings. 2nd to 3rd, and 3rd to 4th do take a bit of warming up however... slow/odd shifting between 1st & 2nd woud be a bit of an oddity.... sirtokesalot - are you 100% certain the odd shifting is between 1st and 2nd? is it possible it could be 2nd to 3rd (and up). 1st to 2nd usually happens pretty quickly, and on mine is quite smooth - pretty much unnoticable unless I am watching the tach.

yes, a broken belt will cause a "no spark" situation. Timing belt would have been my first suggestion - before sensors. timing belt turns cam sprocket which triggers cam sensor (drivers side) - if the cam sprocket isnt turning, the cam sensor has no input, thus no spark. as for the 2nd black connector, it is up in there, just need to peel back more tape - on my 90, one was quite short and kind of a pain to get to.

swap to standard coil over and be done with it. I did on my 90 Legacy that had blown out rear air struts. just source the parts for complete coilover assemblies, pull out the air struts, install the coilovers and done.