I posted here a few weeks ago about having a '98 Impreza Outback Sport with a speedometer that's stuck at 40 mph most of the time and a transmission which sporadically has issues shifting gears. These two issues occurred at exactly the same time, so I assumed they were related. Someone replied to my previous post and suggested that I might have a bad VSS and that I would need it replaced. I finally took my car to a mechanic who confirmed my suspicions and told me that I in fact had two bad sensors, one for the speedometer and one of the transmission. I am awaiting a quote for the parts but I have already warned from a mechanic that they would be "expensive", however, from what I have read online, these parts shouldn't cost me more than $50 each.
Where can I check for these parts online? And if I find them, is this something someone with limited automotive expertise could repair? I just moved to LA and I'm pretty much expecting to get ripped off by the first mechanic I've run into, so I'd rather know as much as possible about these VSS' and their replacement, so I can avoid that happening.