Setright

Bein' in Texas, I'd recommend y'all to use the 5W-50 - aren't your summers hot ?

Mintex do make pads for Subarus. I use them, and I'm a big fan Either standard pads, or add an "X" to the end of the part number to get the Xtreme pads which stand up to trackday abuse, but remain useful and quiet on the road. Hawk also makes very good performance pads - and are probably easier to get on your side of the Atlantic.

Seriously folks, Valvoline Synpower is the best oil to use. I've just used it to fix the 3rd gear crunch on a 19 year old XT-Turbo

I've run Mobil 1 5W-50 in over 120k kms in a LEgacy 2.2, and thousands more in my 2.0 Impreza. Good oil, never had any ill effects. Of course, I do usually run 0W-40 in winter. Live in Denmark remember

Got a sunroof? The hoses could've come off, check behind the trim. Got a spoiler? Pull out the rubber bung "bumpstop" on the lower side of the trunk lid, tighten the nut...and the front one too. Torque only with your hand/wrist muscles, don't overdo it. Light cluster is a common leak point. How did you seal the new lights? Did you tighten the cluster bolts enough? Evenly?

I can confirm that the pin with the rubber bung goes in the bottom hole. The one you undo to swing the caliper up when changing pads. I can also say that if you use copper grease on the sliders, that rubber bung will expand and lock the caliper.....been there...done that...not too proud of that one. Using silicone based grease these days

We've bought the car Ordering in a new rad, cambelts...I'll get some photos in the gallery as soon as I can...

Yep, that does sound like the radiator isn't working 100%. Does you model have the cold air intake that sucks intake air from the area behind the grille? I ask because that places the top radiator hose in the middle of the radiator and this leads to a dead zone in the radiator where there is very little flow. This area will clog up and in time you have only 50% capacity....

Okay, Setright is a user on the XT forum! But where do I search for the factory manual???

Joost...keep an eye out for it...I work for Océ and plan to visit Venlo and the Nürburgring in the XT....maybe....:-p

I am in fact, Danish. Grew up in Singapore and attended the American school there for the first six years of my education. How do you like that? I am looking forward to becoming an XT owner Here's the car in question:

I love this website Had a test drive today: Yep, it's the real AWD deal, switch on the centerconsole and rectangular holes in the headrests. The car has 130k miles on it. The driving experience was quite a pleasant surpise. It all feels tight and well cared for. No slack in the steering, nothing but smooth power from idle to rev limiter. All the electric bits work. It's still on air suspension, but I'll keep in mind that coils are the future if I get a failure. Rust: Passenger side rear wheel well, or the actually the lower part of the trunk edge was under attack, but no holes and it's only a cosmetic worry. The bottom of the car is solid - I pounded it with a blunt screwdriver. HOWEVER, rear of the engine room, just below the chassis number, there is rust in the seam weld. I also tapped that with the screwdriver, and it made metal noises and didn't seem to have run away. Does anyone here know if rust there is a sign of something serious? Like, did it come from inside and will it expose a huge rust attack when I sand it down? The car has had numerous anti-rust treatments, and the rest of it looks and feels good in terms of rust. We are planning to buy this car as a daily-second-driver. My gf needs it to ferry her to and from work, a 30 mile roundtrip. At the price (Denmark remember!) if it can go for a year it'll be a good deal. If it lasts two years it's a really sweet deal. Oh, the radiator is looking old and I'll be sure to replace it, and the thermostat, hoses, and pressure cap upon purchase.

Another question: Is the XT permanent 4WD? Or is it 2WD until you engage the system? OR, is that switch only there to lock the center diff?

Thank you

Greetings fellow Subarians I've owned a 1992 Legacy, a 2006 Forester, and still own a 2000 Impreza. I'm considering expanding my horizon by purchasing a 1988 XT Turbo. I'm in Europe and I don't know if you guys also had the 1.8 turbos? Anyway, is there anything specific I should be looking for in terms of pending expensive repairs?? I do my own servicing and minor repairs, so I'm savvy with the usual used-car stuff, but I have no idead what weakness the XT had. Thanks

Funny, my 1992 EJ22 was very reluctant to give consistent readings. The EJ201 in my 2000 Impreza is 100% consistent. Never gives a false reading. And the oil pan and dipstick seem unchanged. The Forester 2.5XT (EJ254/2006) I ran for a year wasn't 100& consistent, it had to be parked absolutely level and still for ten minutes, then have the oil filler cap removed, dipstick pulled, dried re-inserted... Opening the oil filler seemed to encourage the last oil hanging around to flow down into the pan.

I'm with SuperNova. It's a much more elegant way of clearing codes.

Hmmm...The Jag is a very nice looking car, with a smashing interior and very nice driving characteristics....but which Subaru would be afforded for the same money? A 3.0 Legacy? That one meets the "Jagwaar" on all counts, except looks - which is personal anyway. Of course reliability is given in return.

Large Toe-in on the rear would give LESS oversteer and therefore doesn't support the ice/snow theory. Excessive positive camber on the rear would cause more wear outside AND reduce rear end grip. So, that's probably the problem. Factory toe is 0.0 all round with a tolerance. Rear camber should be -1.0 and cannot be adjusted. If it's larger than that, ie. closer to 0.0 or perhaps even postive, you may have a collapsed bushing somewhere.

Those pipes probably have a high-ish content of silicium, which causes a very fine structure in the rust, meaning less of the big flakes. The brake discs don't have silicium in them, they would be too weak for the job. Manhole covers tend to have high silicium content too, the weaking is compensated for by the large thickness of the cover.

Subylvr, that means the headlight switch operates like it did in my childhood Toyota Crown 2600 Super Saloon .....from 1978. It's a good system, lets you do the DRL thing and to leave the lights on for those dark road parking affairs you have to deliberately turn the switch off and back on. I like that

If you disconnect the cam-angle sensor on the front center of the engine, it will not fire up and you can dry crank as long as you like - just don't overheat the starter motor Just don't panic if you do a ECU code readout later and find code 11 - that's the code for a faulty crank angle sensor. I agree that priming the filter is tricky when it's horizontal, but pour some oil in there next time to at least wet the paper element.

Normal. My car evaporates off between 0.5 and 1.0 liters per year. It's only a problem if you stop topping it off and let it run low and suck air into the cooling system.

Don't your American models have a cold air intake above the radiator grille ?

There was a good group test of different air filters once, probably still on the net. A standard paper filter was given the index 100 and theoretic full filtration. The K&N returned 97. The report was obviously out to "damage" K&N and focused on the 3% dire entering the engine. HOWEVER, sifting through all the details revealed that those 3% were the really tiny particles. Not really large enough to cause engine damage. What they do is "thicken" engine oil and cause a power loss from added internal friction. A good oil filter and oil changes between 5 and 7 k miles (not many wait longer) will avoid that problem. Oh, and it also showed a 27% better flow rate for the K&N. I'm always the first to attack any daft aftermarket product (oil additives, etc.) but K&N isn't on my flame list. It works. Consider that Subaru's own STI division markets oil soaked gauze filters.