NorthWet

Gear oil is probably leaking past the stub-axle seals. These should be replaceable in-car. Some knowledgable folk have recently discussed having never seen a leaking rear main on an EA82, and nobody chimed in to say that they have had a bad rear main seal. If you really want to pull the tranny, there shouldn't be any nasty surprises other than stubborn bolts. The torque-converter/flexplate bolts can be a pain to break loose (if corroded). You also want to make sure that the TC stays with the tranny as you separate engine and tranny; pulling the TC loose from the tranny means that you have to make sure it goes back on correctly or nasty (non-repairable) things will happen to your tranny.

The speedometer is driven off the front diff's pinion, so if it is reading something then the tranny section is not this problem. Ring&Pinion and differential are pretty tough assemblies, so I would suspect something "weaker": 1) A stub-axle may have pulled loose from the tranny. 2) DOJ (inner "CV" joint) may have been hyper-extended. 3) DOJ cup may have broken 4) Outer splines (axle or hub) stripped. (Problem with pre-Legacy; not sure if Legs have this problem.) Front diff is "open", so if one wheel "slips" nothing will happen. AWD might be spoofed by this slippage and not engage rear drive.

Power-flushes are pricey; drain and refill (partial change) isn't. If you don't have serious problems now, I don't see a problem with a couple partial changes over the next month or so. More of a preventative thing than a "fix", so any changing is a good thing. Changing the diff oil wouldn't hurt, but probably not necesary; gear oil takes less of a beating than ATF. Noise may just be worn bearings in the diff. (A little bit of wear makes for a lot of rumbling.)

Pressure plates are pretty sturdy; just think of all the abuse they take for 40-120k miles. There big problems are if they are tweaked by tightening one bolt while the others are left untightened, or if flywheel and pressure plate aren't compatible (wrong PP or flywheel not machined correctly) so that "fingers" go overcenter.

Brian, now that you have a simple answer and before you get all Zen-like again , something to consider: Incandescent lights have a high surge current when first turned on; give some extra margin on the lighting circuit(s). (As in, the previously posted math does not apply during transition periods.) I LOVE math!!! It has an answer for everything, including "normal"! (Which, according to math, I am not.) :cool:

Go with GD on this: Change the EGO (O2) sensor. Relatively cheap, very important to the FI mixture, and you will know it is OK for the next 50kmiles or so. Worth checking to make sure the CTS connector isn't all green and corroded (doesn't seem to be so much of an issue with the SPFI as with the MPFI).

Darn English units of measure!!! If you tightened everything up evenly, the pressure plate should be fine. I might be a little worried about the bolts, but if they didn't snap under the overtorque they will probably be fine at the proper torque.

Everybody has their favorite ways to completely fill the cooling system. Pumping the hose sounds OK. Trying to get car in a nose-up attitude will help. I usually try to do my best and then have patience, sometimes taking a week to totally fill a drained system.

It should be reasonably responsive, and reach freeway speed quickly, but it isn't a powerhouse. The timing belt(s) may not have been put on correctly (easy to get one tooth off on them). Also, how did you check the timing? The green connectors next to the windshield-wiper motor need to be connected, the timing set at 20degrees (unless specs say different for your year), and the green connectors then need to be disconnected. Other possibilities are normal tune-up issues: Spark plugs and wires (critical in my experience), distributor cap and rotor. Some sensors can cause issues, like the EGO (O2) sensor and the coolant thermo sensor (CTS). Either can make the ECU set the mixture incorrectly. Any gas mileage issues?

Both the crank and cam angle sensors are sealed magnetic pickups; nothing that I can think of to "clean" except maybe thier connectors. The coolant temperatiure sensor (CTS) is also a sealed unit (contains a semiconductor thermistor) and also would have little to clean except connector. None of these should be able to be affected by CV grease (due to location and being sealed).

I would check out what 4x4_Welder said about lifters not rotating; I am not sure if Subarus are designed to or not (probably are). What does the wear on the lifter bottoms look like? Were they sticking in their bores? Those pictures look odd, almost like the lobe edges were crumbling. Were all of the damaged edges towards an "end" of the engine (i.e. - all were on the rearward edge of their lobes)? That might make a case for the non-rotating lifter.

Yup... and yup. Green comes "close": Within .0006 of minimum. I can't recall having ever seen specs smaller than 0.001inch, not even on my motorcycles. Most I have heard of were 0.002-0.003 range. This is the best argument I have seen against using thicker oil.

My first thought was damaged rim and maybe shock-loosened axle nut. Just reread post and you said head on... not likely to shock the tie-rod too much. I would be more concerned about the control arm (kind of) but more so about the leading link (runs from control arm backwards to near the tranny mount). That leading link is there to handle fore/aft loads. I did something similar in my 510 years ago, and ripped loose the mount for its trailing link (same concept, different mounting direction).

Ok. Manually shifting doesn't cause any more wear than shifting from Park to Drive and such. Behave yourself and you should not have any problems. BTW, when was the last time you changed your ATF? Good cheap insurance, especially if delivering pizzas.

Newer 4EATs (mid-90-ish?) have spin-on external filters.

U-joints, like any mechanical part, gets a wear pattern after awhile. With the Subaru's IRS, the driveshaft angle remains almost constant (doesn't have to deal with rear axle going up and down), so the maximum deflection of the u-joint hasn't changed in a few 100000Km. Now it is asked to deflect a little more, and this *can* introduce issues. I am not saying that I think that this is your problem, but it certainly might be.

The rear wheels are driven through a wet-clutch pack in the back housing of the transmission, and this pack requires fluid pressure to engage and connect your rear wheels to power. "Engaged" is the normal state of this clutch pack with the engine running. There is a Transmission Control Unit (TCU) controlled valve (Solenoid Duty "C") that releases fluid pressure to this clutch pack when activated, removing drive power to the rear wheels. The FWD fuse bypasses TCU control and supplies constant activation to the solenoid. The common failures seem to be: Failed solenoid, gummed-up clutch pack components (so they stick together and don't release), and damaged clutch-pack that is "welded" together. Some overlap of these problems, and different degrees of involvement. If the FWD fuse works, probably just gummed-up components, possibly with some scarring of the clutch pack plates. The dealer is probably planning on replacing the clutch pack and the solenoid. Possible damage? Energizing the solenoid could shorten its life, and when it fails (or the TCU THINKS it has failed) you will be locked in 4WD. (Bad failure mode IMHO.) I have just begun to personally explore this problem, so others could give you better, first-hand advice. If it were me, I would try a couple transmission fluid changes first, probably with a tranny-cleaner like SeaFoam added to help clean things up.

"Borrowed" the following from another website: Plastigauge: Green- 0.001-0.003, Red-0.002-0.006, Blue-0.004-0.009, Yellow-0.009-0.020. Looks like Green for you/us. IIRC, this (green) was the stuff that I used to use all of the time; should be fairly common.

For the EA82, clearances are listed as 0.0004-0.0021inch, so similar for the EA81 sounds reasonable. Gosh, that is tight.

Ummm... If you look in the FSM that I loaned you, it probably says what the clearance should be. :-p

It is common for used engines to have overheat indicators (the ones that I have seen are plastic/polymer). They are on all of the JDM-import engines that I have seen. Small Claims Court probably wouldn't do much good as the amount probably exceeds the Court's upper monetary limit. (Used to be $1000, but that was last Millenium.)

A member mentioned that they had been told that it couldn't be done (at a Jiffy Lube-type place) and I haven't read anything from someone who has had it done. I am assuming that you have had it done, so now we know!

The biggest problem that I have found is that it is difficult to check level after adding fluid; I usually have to wait 30 minutes or more for the ATF to clear the dipstick tube. For checking, just do the usual pull, wipe, insert and quickly remove. Hold the dipstick so that light glints off of the surface of the ATF on the stick. You are looking for dry stick and glinty, wet ATF.

Our family's DD is an SPFI sedan with 3AT, and I can't think of any scenario that manually shifting will better control wheel spin on takeoff. As soon as you step on the gas the tranny should shift into 1st before the power comes on, and the takeoff should be just as smooth as if selector was in 1st. Any noticeable hesitation in automatically selecting 1st, or shift shock from it selecting 1st would point at tranny issues.

Often that grinding, graunching noise is the axle splines sliding in the hub splines. Common mistakes are to put the slightly dished washer (under the axle nut) on backwards (dish facing outwards) and/or not tightening the axle nut enough (officially 140ft-lbs; others recommend upwards of 200-250 ft-lbs). If the axle has been sliding long enough it could damage the grease seals on the hub, which would then need replacing. If the seals have been damaged for a long period, the bearings could also be affected.