heartless

just out of curiosity, what kind of plugs and wires did you use? Basic NGK plugs are the recommended type for this car. cheap wires can also cause problems. Had a set of cheap wires start arcing after getting to full operating temp on a road trip once - we were about halfway home at the time it started acting up. one of the plug boots had cracked and allowed the spark energy to arc to the block instead of going to the plug... a few wraps of electrical tape got us home and the wires got replaced asap with quality NGK wires.

you are correct that I was thinking of the 105K mile interval, but not the 2.5 engine... most new belts sold now are of the 105K mile type, even for the shorter interval engines... regardless, at 25 yrs old, it really should be done, just as routine maintenance, and peace of mind. When I get a "new" (to me) Subaru, especially when maintenance history is unknown or dubious... this is one of the very first things I will do with it - a complete timing job - which also means coolant change, radiator hoses (the 95 was very close to bursting a hose when I got it. could actually see daylight thru it in one spot) and all new vacuum lines. More often than not, I will do plugs & wires, an oil change, fuel and air filters, too, just because. Radiator gets a good inspection & a rinse during the timing job and, if needed, will get replaced. The only Subaru to live at this house that hasnt had a timing job within a month of arrival is the other half's 2004 LL Bean Outback, and that has the H6 & a timing chain...

there should be a sticker or possibly an engraved date on it somewhere... one of our local retailers uses an engraver to mark the purchase date on thier batteries the stickers are sometimes just a small one with the last 2 digits of the year, so it may not be obvious what it means. regardless, most are only good for 4-6 years anyway - depending on the battery. at roughly guess-timating 5 yrs old, it is about due for replacing... but getting back to the odd readouts - how long had the car been run before the 1st reading (the "replace battery" one), and yeah - 12.9 v? i missed that...

at 25 years old it is long overdue for a timing belt service (regardless of mileage, but at 86K it would be due soon anyway)... Myself, I would do a complete timing service, including new belt, pulleys, waterpump, thermostat, & possibly (probably) radiator hoses. I would also go through it and replace all the vacuum lines and the accessory belts - all of this just because of the age. Another possible is radiator cap... anything rubber will dry out and/or crack with age. Complete timing kits with just about everything you need can be purchased online for under $200. Vacuum line is also cheap. Do NOT skimp on the thermostat - it does need to be either OEM or the Exacstat thermostat by Stant. Cheap thermostats usually cause more problems than they solve on Subarus. Good quality antifreeze/coolant (it does more than just keep the system from freezing/boiling over) is fine, it does not need to be purchased from a dealer I own a 1990 Legacy LS wagon, and loved it. Great car. Drove it for 7 years & she has 236,000 on the clock (had just over 152K when I got her). Sadly, I live in snow/salt country and rust has gotten the better of it, so it has been retired, but still ran beautifully...

did the first one do a full system check? or just check the battery? If they just checked the battery that could be the difference in the readouts - looks like the second did a full charging system check

I just did a complete front brake job on my 95 Legacy - parts purchased from Rockauto.com Bendix brand front rotors - $16.12 ea Bendix brand front pads - $14.87/set Remanufactured calipers - $36.79 ea - complete with brackets, all new hardware (including new crush washers) & a high temp grease packet w/ea total cost for front parts - $120.69 (plus shipping) job took a couple of hours taking my time, and less than a pint of fresh brake fluid. Anyone that quotes you more than $350 for the job is a big rip-off, and even at that, I think I am being quite generous. And seriously - there are plenty of members here that live in the PNW - somebody should be able to either give a recommendation for a decent shop, or possibly give a hand helping get the job done...

Yeah, I know they wont look pretty for long, but as long as they function as they should I will be happy. I thought about painting them, but didnt have any high temp paint handy, and needed the car functional asap. and keeping the rust at bay is pretty much a lost cause around here once started...and the car already had it started pretty good before I got it. I intend to run the wheels off it for as long as I can. I now have another issue that I need to look into - as soon as the weather dries out enough... developed an exhaust leak on the way home yesterday - had been raining pretty heavily and hit a couple of larger puddles in a rutted road & she suddenly started rumbling... Murphy's law strikes again... get one problem fixed and another rears its ugly head...

Haha, yeah, I think the rear rotors were the originals...that is the only explanation I can come up with for the excessive amount of corrosion... the fronts I think had been replaced at some point, but still quite some time ago. the calipers - the pistons wouldnt compress properly, they would go back part of the way, but not all of the way, and the upper slider was seized up on one, the other was on its way to seizing. I managed to free up the seized one to get by until I got replacement calipers, but that pin was in pretty bad shape. I got reman units from Rockauto on a closeout deal - no core charge to mess with - works for me. came with all new hardware and a packet of high temp grease with each caliper. Front rotors also came from Rockauto - Bendix brand, and snagged a set of Bendix front pads as well - price was better than I had been paying for Wearever Silvers at the local Advance Auto... rear rotors and pads came from that local AA store - was shocked that they had the rotors in stock! bought online with a 30% off coupon & picked up the next day. The car had been through a couple of owners previous to me - the original owner, who took pretty good care of it, and then a friend of the OO bought it for thier son...teenage driver... needless to say, the care went downhill... I picked the car up cheap due to a bad tranny (no reverse). Brakes were given a cursory inspection at the time I bought it, had fairly new pads all around, and the rotors didnt look too bad at the time so they were left alone - that was a year and a half ago... the old girl has 221,100 something miles on her now... she was due a new set of stopping shoes.

just did brakes on my 95 - new rotors all around, new calipers on the front and all new pads. Stops much nicer now.. one of the rear rotors was getting pretty bad...as in down right ugly. What I found after taking the wheel off... and the back side... Fronts weren't nearly as bad, thinking they had been replaced at some point in the car's life... but the calipers were having issues, so decided to replace those too... note the gunky buildup on the back of the caliper - there were no crush washers on that one (pass. side)... and the fronts now look like this. =)

yes, make sure the upper pin is well lubricated, and the boot is sealed properly after reinstalling caliper. Also make sure the part the lower pin goes thru moves freely as well (part 6 in your diagram) that is the part that is the most likely to seize up and not allow the caliper to move freely. There are "rebuild" kits for these if you need them, you dont have to replace the whole caliper, unless you have other problems, too, like the piston not compressing... there are kits for that too, but...

have you gotten an owners manual yet? If not, I have one or two lying around I would be willing to part with for shipping costs.

did you also change the idler pulleys and other related items at that time? I had my 1990 jump time while driving due to a weak/worn out tensioner... just a thought...

if you are in desparate need of that heated seat - go to your local Target, Walmart, name your favorite Big Box Store here and get one or two of these: heated seat cushion i have one, it works great for a cheepie. definitely warms the backside on a cold winter's day - and I am talking 20 below here...

no sunroof, not antifreeze, and the ACsystem drain tube appears to be intact.... you definitley have water getting in from somewhere - door/window seal, rust hole in the floor pan - something... my best guess - unless your car is a rustbucket, would be a leak around/near the windshield on the passenger side somewhere since that is the side that is getting wet... or as fairtax suggested, a plugged up door... Door would be easy to eliminate quickly - just pop off the door panel and see if there is any standing water in there... If not, back to the windshield area...

Keith those of us that have a few decades behind us have generally owned plenty of cars over the years, myself being another of that genre. Granted, the greater majority of my car ownership, up until 2000 or so, was mostly with American name plates - Ford, Chevy & Chrysler products. When I bought my first Subaru I found that sure, a lot of my prior wrenching experience did carry over, but there was still a LOT to learn specific to these cars. I had never owned a car that had timing belts before - all previous cars had timing chains that required little to no maintenance, and if they did, it was a major undertaking. the simple facts are this - the fastest & most efficient way to fill a Subaru cooling system - and almost gaurantee no issues with large air pockets - is basically the way described above. It isnt about what the radiator "looks" like, or even how it functions - it is about efficiency and making sure there are no large air pockets left in the block that can potentially cause overheating problems. do a search on refilling or "burping" the Subaru cooling system here - you will find that pretty much everyone recommends the same method. Why? because it is proven to work well... heck, I learned it here! and it has worked well every time I have done it that way. (FWIW, we have had multiple Subarus here over the last 14 plus years) or keep a closed mind - entirely up to you... for myself, I will continue to do it the way I described above because I know it works from experience - both from others, and my own.

I have never understood the logic of removing the upper radiator hose to fill the block. It is done that way because of the location of the thermostat on a Subaru EJ engine. The upper radiator hose is completely open to the upper tank of the radiator so filling the radiator has exactly the same affect as removing the upper hose to fill the block. No, it doesnt - filling the block by filling the radiator only is a bottom up proposition - and with the thermostat at the bottom of the system, the bottom up thing just doesnt work very well - unless you have hours to waste filling extremely slowly... It is a completely unnecessary step and a waste of time. On a Subaru EJ series engine (or any engine with a bottom thermostat), it is not a waste of time - it is actually a time saver...

To refill with a minimum of air left in the system: Start with the front end of the car slightly elevated. ramps are great, but jack stands can work well, too. I like to have the drivers side just a tad bit higher than the passenger side... 1. fill the block first thru the upper radiator hose (disconnect from radiator) - when you cant get anymore into the block thru that hose, reconnect the hose to the radiator. take your time, it takes a few minutes for the coolant to work its way down & completely fill the block 2. open the bleed valve on the passenger side of radiator (large phillips screwdriver) 3. fill radiator - again, take your time, let the coolant percolate down thru all the little passages. 4. when the coolant level reaches the bleed valve, close it back up. 5. top off the radiator as needed. close cap 6. lower the car to the ground 7. fill overflow bottle to the proper level 8. start the car and get it to full operating temperature - drive it a few miles if you need/want to. 9. park, shut it down and let it completely cool - check coolant level in overflow bottle and top off as needed. If you have taken your time refilling the system and gotten it filled properly, you should not need to open the radiator cap. simply keep an eye on the overflow bottle for a week or two to make sure it stays at a consistent level after driving/cooling completely for several cycles. any small amounts of remaining air in the system should work themselves out and the system (if working properly) will draw in coolant from the overflow bottle as needed to replace the air - this only really works if the air pockets are small, tho. weeping headgaskets may/may not be an issue - if they are bad enough, they can draw/suck air into the system. would definitely try the Subaru coolant conditioner to see if it helps.

very glad that you (and your car) are ok! and yeah, something as important as the brake system should be made of something more durable... I have found huge variances in the quality of aftermarket replacment lines, too - some have the anti-corrosion coatings, some dont... be careful of what you buy/replace with!

it is possible that the drain hose is disconnected/broken inside the cabin... or - you have a leak somewhere on the right side of the car... or - your heater core is shot and leaking on that side...

donut spare should be put on the rear of the car, AND FWD fuse inserted (on AWD automatics) until a proper tire is put on the car. the reason for this is it lessens the impact/stress of the mismatched tire on the drivetrain (donut spare is a fair bit smaller). source: owners manual (for 1st gen Legacy's - have several)

make sure your plugs are gapped properly - do not just assume they are - take the time to check them and adjust as necessary. Owners manual should give you a gap range - I know for my 95 Legacy EJ22 it is something like .039 to .044 (your Forester EJ25 may/may not be the same) - I generally try to get all 4 around .040 - just slightly above the lowest number in the range. This allows for normal wear of the plugs and still staying within the gap range.

a heavy frost shows it, too - which i had this morning... and low single digit temps went out and started the car, adjusted the heat settings and turned on rear defroster - went back in the house, fixed a coffee to go, put the dog in her crate, turned on the radio for her, etc - started out the door - remembered I needed something, back in, grab that last item, and out the door finally - probably 10 mins... rear window was just barely showing signs of defrosting to be fair, the windshield was barely starting to defrost, too... sidewindows? yeah, right...LOL have I ever mentioned how much I dislike winter?

adding a second ground wire might be a worthwhile experiment, but even that is gonna have to wait for slightly warmer weather right now - supposed to be quite cold all this week - single digits to very low teens during the day, below zero at night - and I dont have an indoor spot to mess with anything...it sucks when you have a garage, but cant get a car in it! LOL

if you replaced the rear hatch, there is no telling what happened to the grid. Glad you got it at least partially working. Mine is the original hatch & the grid all works, but is pretty weak - it takes a while to heat up enough to do anything. When looking at it, I can see areas where the grid lines are thinner - years of cleaning the inside of the glass, wearing it down, maybe? I dunno... hoping to try out the grid repair kit when the waether warms up again so it will hopefully work better next winter.

There is no need to yell... and actually, specific year is sometimes very helpful...