idosubaru

probably just need to pump up. i'd give it a little more time unless you suspect a serious issue that may result in damage. i don't know the car, maintenance, what it sounds like, drives like etc so hard to make an assessment. i know of one person that used permatex grey type gasket sealant on the cam carriers. some got sucked into the oil port and the HLA's were all loud on that side. he posted pictures of the "blob" as he called it. had to disassemble, remove blob from oil port in the cam and all was well. one good reason to use anaerobic sealant on the cam carriers and oil pump instead of anything else.

the interior of one auto awd parts car is already stripped of seats, console, steering wheel, carpeting, etc... so it's worth at least a look.

220,000 miles, rusted very bad all over the place, every body panel just about is compromised in some way. body is shot. motor is locked up (hit some firewood on the freeway). time to move on, body is terrible and extensive drivers side door/rear fender damage from a little fun in the snow. i hate body work, i'd rather start with something decent and no rust. i have an auto parts car with the interior already completely stripped, so it'll be easy to at least track down the wiring to see how ugly it is. thanks alleyboy, i have the FSM's as well...i might need help translating them though if i look at them!

i have one already soldered up ready to go if it's the same as the XT6 (which i think it is). just have to splice it in place.

check out my permanent fix to the coolant temperature sensor. it's rarely the sensor that is to fault. save yourself money and future issues: http://www.xt6.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1767&highlight=coolant+temp

dylan, your best bet is to pull the power steering reservoir off and install a new o-ring. i believe between the reservoir and the pump there is an oring that leaks all the time. from what i've heard that oring is the major cause of power steering pump leakage and it's super easy to do.

look at that link he just posted. those three pulleys in the picture are the "bearings" your mechanic is talking about. buy these new here, or repack like the thread i mentioned earlier. looks like a good deal, go for it.

i will if i have to. i'll check the harnesses first and see what's there and what is not.

i already have a switch to lock the rear transfer clutches which is essentially the same thing. it would be cool to use the Center Diff button and the instrument cluster DIFF LOCK light in place of my existing radio shack switch and custom mounted LED. hhhmmmm...wiring. we'll see, luckily i have a parts car and my old daily driver auto which has now become a parts car so i can have a look at it.

turbo's can get great mileage considering the horsepower they can put down. the trade off isn't necessarily that bad, depending what kind of mods and how much power you want. but you can get significant increases without much mileage loss. i wouldn't worry too much about loosing low end if you want to experiment. like i said, the intake/exhaust mods don't make a huge difference and that applies both ways. i doubt you'll experience any significant loss that you'll feel, i doubt you would experience any loss at all. i've never noticed any loss with intake or exhaust mods except when running straight pipe (no converter, no muffler) also when i installed modified cams. again this is all from older subaru's i haven't played with my 2.2 at all. but NA motors are similar in regards to lots of effort required for HP gains.

i think that's the best approach. i won't ever try to remove one again. find it highly unlikely that seal could be broken. there is an o-ring up there that is why i removed mine to replace it. it wasn't nearly as tight when i reseated it as it was when trying to remove it. i would have rather left it like it was knowing how tightly seated it was. i recall someone from the old yahoo boards years ago mentioning that it shouldn't be messed with because it's pressed in, but i don't know how true that is. i will say that when i got mine out the orings was brittle and in terrible condition, flattened, hard and cracked. looked more like a cracked washer than an oring. not that i've seen. would be hard to diagnose though, might be easier to assume it's oil pump, main bearing or some other oil supply component related. it would be tough to pinpoint that as the cause. wonder what CCR does with theirs? they've done a ton of these things.

there is an XT6 specific site http://www.xt6.net you will find lots of XT6 information and owners there. 2 things come to mind, first is a tune up. distributor cap, rotor and plugs. wires dont' typically cause issue but not a bad idea to replace if they have any age to them. replace all of these items at the same time. use NGK spark plugs only. replace the PCV (use subaru only) while you're at it. though this isn't the cause of your problems. second thing i'd check is the MAF (mass air flow sensor). it's the electrical gizmo bolted to your air box. the only physical way to check it is to remove it and look inside of the sensor box. you'll see very thin wires stretched across the intake air flow. if one of these wires breaks you'll encounter issues similar to what you're having. even if those wires are intact though the MAF could still be causing an issue. get a used one for $25 and swap it out is my suggestion. any MAF from an XT6 will work, Automatic AWD, FWD, Manual, transmission doesn't matter. i think even some 4 cylinder MAF's will work, but no worries an XT6 MAF should be easy to find. not much of chance of this being an issue if the check engine light doesn't come on, but the coolant temperature sensor (the one next to the thermostat housing and coolant housing - to the left of the alternator) causes all sorts of issues in over half of the dozen XT6's i've owned. look at it and see if the plastic harness is in good shape. check the connections inside of it and on the sensor that screws into the block. any green corrossion or bad contacts there will cause issue. but they will usually show up at idle and start up, so this most likely is not it. at 106,000 miles this thing should be about half way through life, so i'd get it fixed. they run forever (like most soobs of this vintage). unless it's transmission related (doubt it) i can promise this is a sub-$50 fix with a 99 percent certainty. i've owned 10 or 15 of these things, though none were FWD.

the POWER light flashing means the TCU (transmission computer) has a stored code and sees an issue. this may be speedo cable related, but i'm not sure of that.

i want to convert my AWD XT6 manual trans to an automatic AWD. issues: wiring is probably not in place, but i have two auto AWD parts cars. anyone know if the wiring is a matter of taking out the automatic AWD wiring and installing it in another chassis or is it completely intertwined with the existing engine wiring? i would think the engine wiring should almost stand alone since it's the same across manuals and autos. then i could also use the stock center diff lock button and instrument cluster DIFF LOCK light instead of the switch/light i installed. driveshaft, TCU, center console, pedal assembly (which i hate..) should be straight forward. tips, hints, suggestions, ideas appreciated.

awesome! thanks for sharing!

have the tires checked, you may have lost some wheel weights and your balancing is off. after that i'd check the ujoints on the driveshaft if it's AWD. best way is to drop the shaft to inspect. sometimes you can tell a bad ujoint with the shaft on the car, but if it's not really bad it can be hard to check without actually pulling it off (or at least one end so you can work the ujoint by hand).

"harmonic balancer" refers to the crank pulley. a pulley is a round piece of metal. a harmonic balancer is the same round piece of metal with some kind of damping mechanism designed in it. subaru pulleys (maybe not all of them, but most that i've seen) are metal with a very thin rubber ring about midway across the radius. this gives it the name "harmonic balancer". harmonic balancer and crank pulley are very often interchanged in conversation. a subaru motor will run fine on a one piece "non harmonic balancing" type of pulley and plenty of people here are running with them in place. but stock they do come with a "harmonic balancer" type of pulley so call it either one.

yeah that thing is annoying. did you have the fortunate job of pulling it out too? they are crazy hard to get out, i think i'll leave it next time.

in gear (i think 5th??). loosen the bolt first while the car is on the ground so you have the weight on the wheel. just loosen it, then jack it up and take it off completely. block the car somehow so it won't "roll" as you're cranking on it. if it can't go anywhere, the nut has to back off. holding brakes on can help.

like he just said (he knows his junk!), make sure the coolant level is full with no air bubbles (sometimes hard to get all the air out of those coolant systems). also make sure the thermostat isn't stuck (they cost about 5 bucks, so worth replacing to make sure). unfortunately it probably is a headgasket. installing another motor is a bad option unless it's been rebuilt (see CCR for one of those), otherwise you're installing another old motor with a possible bad headgasket. the new headgaskets are not prone to issues that's why a rebuilt motor is a good option. headgaskets can be replaced for about $1,000 - $1,200 is the going rate at a dealer, a little cheaper if you can find an independent to do it. another option is to find a 2.2 liter motor and swap that in place. you can find those for a couple hundred (i have one for sale for instance, shouldn't be hard to find one locally) and be done with it for well under $1,000. then no worries about cracked block, warped heads, etc. the 2.2's are known as great motors and have few issues. TONS OF INFORMATION on this board about headgasket issues, replacement and swapping in the 2.2 liter motor. sorry to hear about your car, but with the new headgasket in the 2.5 or a 2.2 you've got a great car that will last a long time. good luck

i've broken 3 sockets and breaker bars. got a 3/4" drive finally and put a huge pipe on it, works like a charm. 1/2" just won't stand up to some axle nuts (alot of them in my experience). spring for the 3/4" if you can, i finally did at the advice of others and i'm glad i bought that thing when i did, should have done it early. and saftey note - that's why you wear goggles when doing this stuff...or should, most of us forget on something like that or don't think about it. we have a member at xt6.net that got hit in the eye, not a good thing he made out okay considering what could have happened, but still not good.

you'll get a wiiiiiide range of oppinions since everyone has different needs/wants/desires/etc. i haven't heard/seen much info on newer NA soobs, so it would be cool to see your results. the 2.2 is popular enough that you should be able to research some exhaust/intake mods here on this site by doing a search. yours is a 99 i believe, which is the year the 2.2 changed significantly according to ccr (and they know their junk), so it could differ some, but i wouldn't expect too much. short oppinion: bottom line, exhaust/intake helps a little but i wouldn't expect much. long oppinion: NA motors are not worth the time/money on improvements in mine (oppinino). turbo motors can experience significant gains easily, NA motors can not. i've had redesigned headers, high flow cat, high flow muffler, all new exhaust, upgraded cams and intake modifications and it all really amounts to....not much, but that's relative of course. i can do all the work myself, so i don't mind playing. i get better highway gas mileage with a better exhaust so i do it to my XT6's, but that's vehicle specific and won't necessarily help other models. problem with NA is exhaust intake give you so little increase in performance that it really just starts a downward spiral in terms of wanting more power, for me it's better to be happy with my NA the way it is or look for a turbo. myphalx (on the board) has extensive dyno testing of intakes, exhaust, cams, timing etc. not much gains to speak of, but he did get like 7hp by just advancing the timing and i think he had to run higher octane with that.

rear strut could easily be bent, that's my first guess. if not, i'd get an entire rear hub assembly and swap it in, not that big of a job and someone on the board probably has one they can send you for not much $.

it's worth fixing unless there is major damage and should be much cheaper. $850 definitely isn't worth it as you can buy a motor for $200-300 or less. i just sold a motor with new head gaskets, timing belts, water pump, and pulleys for $250 so paying $850 for just that work is too high. the harmonic balancer is the crankshaft pulley. get a used one from the yard or a board member for $25 and that's solved. if you're really cheap, just weld it together if it's not damaged. the main crank pulley is really two pieces of metal with a very thin rubber ring between them. this ring seperates from the metal causing issues. if the pulley is damaged then no need to repair it, just install a used one. you can also temporarily get by with wedging self-tapping screws into the old pulley between the inner and outer metal, this will hold it together until you find a used one or get one mailed to you. if the pulley came completely loose and was damaged though, you'll need another. by bearings he is speaking of the timing belt pulley bearings. buy them new from http://www.thepartsbin.com for about $25 each or just repack the bearings with grease. i did a write up on how to do it here: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=50430 and it costs zero dollars....okay, about 53 cents for the grease. takes about 2 minutes to do each bearing, well worth it and it works great. it's also possible to just reinstall the old ones, but that's not a great idea if they are noisey or they could even be sticking/frozen if they are bad. bearings - repack with grease (no cost), used crank pulley for well under 50 bucks and cost of new timing belts (25-50 bucks) and labor and you're done. replace the water pump while the timing belts are off as it's behind them and you can get them cheap from rockauto.com or http://www.thepartsbin.com. $15-$30 for a new (rebuilt) water pump. good luck and if the car is in decent shape, it'll keep plugging along no problems. try to find someone that will install a used crank pulley and buy those parts from the online discount sites. maybe your mechanic is willing if you give him the parts? if he quoted $850 i'd be scared to trust him unless he's just not familiar with subaru's.