idosubaru

i don't know turbo motors well. be careful with the rattle in the tin can, if it's pinging it could be very bad for the motor. ill let someone else that knows better explain. the HLA's are the "lifters". hydraulic valve lash adjusters. i'm wondering if the cam is problematic. what happened to this motor in the past? the cam lobes can get worn down...maybe something happened to the cam on that side. pull the valve cover and have a look at it. rotate it by hand and see if you can tell the valves are opening and closing properly/all the way. compare to the opposite side (good compresssion). valve covers are easy to remove, just a few 10mm bolts. don't start the car with the covers off oil will spray everywhere. i've done it for a few seconds before....not recommended unless you really want to.

stay newer than 2001, i believe that's when the phase I 2.5's ended. if you go older get a 2.2 liter, those motors are awesome. i personally don't like the newer ones because they don't have a center locking differential like the old ones have. they should have kept that option in my oppinion. locking the diff is so much better than any LSD variant. but they are nice and do drive very well in the snow. i did my cousin's timing belt on her new subaru at 100,000 miles of trouble free driving. one cracked cv boot, that's annoying but no cause for alarm. you'll find subaru motors quite robust and the blocks will run longer than most people care to give them good maintenane for.

they suck, they always fall off. look at all the 90's subaru's running around with steel wheels, most are missing hubcaps in my area. including mine before i installed wrx wheels.

sure thing, i've learned alot from this board as well. one of the best groups i've seen. glad you scored a set of OEM wires. remember to pat yourself on the back in 3 years when you've forgotten about them and realized you haven't had any issues since.

NICE! can't beat that. glad it worked out for you. if they did a drain and refill then i'd have it done again as draining only gets a small amount of the old fluid out....maybe %50 at the most. i usually do 2 or 3 drain and refills on mine to get it all out. drain, refill, drive a little then repeat. an aftermarket cooler is a great idea as well. they are $30 from the store and are far more effective than the stock radiator mounted lines...those aren't even true coolers in my oppinion. trans are expensive, the effort now is worth it.

http://www.1stsubaruparts.com great prices subaruparts@johnphils.com a board member, also great prices and quick i've had great service from both.

do the bearing and spacers come "attached" or completely seperate? i only recall one "piece" but memory is probably to blame.

i don't think 2.5 liter owners happen to be more likely to maintain their car any less than any other car purchaser so the HG failures can't be blamed on habits of owners. you're unlucky. you accumulated all the possible failures. while not likely, they are small percentages after all. most people (not every car, still small percentage) have just the head gasket or just the wheel bearings, seems you've gotten them all. or you have a bad/dishonest mechanic. knock sensors and master cylinders do not typically go bad. i've got many 100's of thousands of miles on subaru snad the only failure i've ever seen is a dirty connector for the knock sensor. nice guy charges nothing to fix it, bad guy charges lots, replaces sensor and makes a big deal out if. i've never had a failed master cylinder or knock sensor on the dozen or so subaru's i've owned (and they are mostly really old high mileage ones). not sure why all this cost $1,000, but maybe you need a new mechanic if it didnt' all happen at the same time, right after the warranty ran out. your personal experience, while regrettable, is one of millions. one car does not make a majority or by any means indicate a "trend". your luck ran out, 174,000 on an american car? if it's all stock that is quite remarkable, i'm sure there are a few disappointed cougar owners out there, i highly doubt (read, i know for a fact!!) they've all made it to 174,000 miles without incident. you feel it's rediculous and you should, you've gotten a worse car than most. not sure what to do in situations like that, you're kind of hosed. i'd be pissed too, but i refuse to buy new cars to avoid the bad attitude i'd know i'd get if i were in your shoes. i put 125,000 miles on a subaru XT6 i bought with 75,000 already on it. awesome freaking car, i treated it like dirt while in college (used tires, whatever i could get away with cheap) and never an issue. had a clutch go out, but that's acceptable with 200,000 miles and off road playing. i love the old soobs, thousands of trouble free miles for the cost of two car payments! woo hoo!

im still not positive on this but i think the bearings are really two bearings held together by a sleeve (second hand information). so it's kind of like a set, which may have look like one in my faded memory. i'm emailed someone about this. if they relpy i'll post.

i was confused by the "inner" designation as well, i just recall buying one bearing for the front and it came with the right bearings and seals. didn't have to buy "two parts" for one hub. one box did it, had the bearing and seals in it. there's an inner and outer seal but only one bearing as far as i know. again 2 years ago so my memory is vague. i know someone who did this more recently, maybe i can get info from him.

if you want to remain that optimistic, don't get an XT6! they never have jack and are usually wrong. ordered a distributor and they handed me one for a 4 cylinder, checked the part number and it was "right". ha. i avoid that place like chicken flu.

if you have low compression on both cylinders on that side then i'd guess the timing is off. are you positive the belts are aligned correctly? they are often done wrong by non-subaru familiar people. each cam mark should be lined up with the flywheel/flexplate mark, but each cam should be 180 degrees off from the other. one is up, the other is down. make sure they are dead on, it's not that hard...actually it's really easy once you know these motors. if you have low compression on one cylinder and it's fine on the other then that doesn't sound too good - gaskets or rings. blue smoke out the pipe...isn't that a sign of oil? lets' hope not, these things can smoke alot after a head gasket job, rebuild, etc. oil and coolant gets down in the exhaust pipe and doesn't go away until the car is run and heated up. and they can be a beast to start with the fuel being old, fuel lines being empty for awhile, coolant bubbles, oil not fully circulated, etc. a failed HLA can ruin compression as well. any HLA noise (often called ticking, valve noise, etc)?

can you tell if the shaking is the ABS operating the pads or a warped rotor? the ABS would be more of a pumping sensation, a warped rotor would be a pulsating, shaking vibration. probably hard to tell the difference. pull the tires again. leave the emergency brake off if it's connected to the front brakes. now turn the tires by hand slowly. a warped rotor will give itself away by feeling a tight spot as you turn the wheels. in other words every time one spot on the wheel gets to 10 o'clock you'll feel it get tight for a bit then free up....that means a rotor is warped and that's where it's *catching* the pads. check both sides. if it's doing it that bad, you should be able to tell by doing this. if you get nothing, try removing the wheels and turning the hub (assuming the rotors stay seated with the wheel off, some don't).

you can replace the rear clutch packs with a used unit. but with that many miles you may want to go with a used unit. unless you're really confident of the condition of your auto trans....you know it's in great shape and was taken care of, that might be worth the risk as opposed to getting a 100,000 mile unit of questionable prior history. kind of a toss up. if you could find clutch packs cheap, it might be worth it unless you know you can score a complete trans for a good price. buying from someone who knows the trans would be better than a random junk yard, who knows what it's been through then. run it in FWD until you find a good deal. people do replace the rear clutch packs themself, it's not that hard from what i've heard. huck has done it and said it's like a motor cycle clutch or some weird comparison like that, he said it's fairly straight forward. and it can even be done in the car, another beautiful thing, just tilt the trans down i think and you can swap without removing the trans.

i know it's annoying and a pain but you would be much better off in the long run getting OEM subaru wires and NGK plugs unfortunately. there's a reason everyone is saying this. these motors are brutal on spark plug wires, they need to be specifically designed for these motors, the deep plug wells and difficulty in seating. aftermarket wires often short out the side or elsewhere. the only exception i know of is Magnecor, they only offer one of their sets of wires for the 2.2 and 2.5 liter motors because they had so many problems with the design/layout of this motor. i have a set on my OBS. the previous aftermarket wires sucked really bad. i seated them right, used the appropriate installation and grease on them and they still sucked. i only used them while i awaited delivery in the mail of the ones i ordered because i was getting a CEL.

i'd change it, it's a good idea. most are 105,000 miles (the new belt you install will be a 105,000 mile specification belt). but i'd change a few miles before that. engine is worth too much to put off installing a $69 belt. (of course it'll be much more if you're paying someone else to do it). i replace the water pump on the 105,000 mile belts because if you install the first belt around 90,000 and the next will be due close to 200,000 that's asking alot for the stock water pump. on the older 60,000 mile timing belts i'd essentially replace the water pump with every other timing belt change (at 120,000 which is close to where you're at now. closer than you'll be by the next timing belt change which will be close to 200,000). they can make it that long though, but i'd rather replace it. main reasons are that in order to replace the water pump you have to remove the timing belt anyway, so it's "right there" and doesn't require any extra work other than a couple bolts to get it off. but if you do'nt replace it and it fails in a year, then you're paying another huge bill (same price as timing belt) or taking the time yourself to replace the water pump. and another reason is that a failed water pump could ruin your new timing belt, wich isn't good on an interference motor because a broken belt can cause serious engine damage. good idea to replace the crank seal, oil pump oring, tighten the oil pump screws (on the back), and cam seals as well. all of these extra's cost about $20 - $30 and are right in front of you once the timing belt is off. that being said - the mechanic can look at them with the belt off and only replace the ones that are leaking. i know a good number of people with 200,000 mile vehicles that have never had any seals replaced. so at least make darn sure he looks at the seals for leakage. actually you can check right now, under the very front of the motor, where the plastic, black timing belt cover meet the engine. if there's oil on the left or right side then a cam seal is leaking. if it's leaking in the center then the oil pump/crank shaft seal is to blame. replace them. (be advised, a sloppy oil pour can result in some oil on the drivers side where the oil fill tube is, it will eventually make it's way down to the bottom of the motor). pardon the length and good luck. i go to ohio once a month, i hope you're not up there with the lake effect snow and cloudy days, that gets old!!!

are you sure it's AWD? if it's AWD and has a duty solenoid C then you just need to find the Duty solenoid C wiring. as a last resort crawl under the car and look at the very rear of the transmission, the extension housing that the rear driveshaft is connected to. there should be two sets of wires, one for the rear speed sensor and one for duty solenoid C, i think those are the only wires on the very rear of the transmission. if you can post a picture we can tell you which wire(s) are for Duty solenoid C and you can splice into it there. pretty sure the speed sensor is more *top mounted* and the duty solenoid is on the side sort of. but i'm not positive. the speed sensor might be dead center on the top and hard to find/see but it's been awhile since i've looked at an auto trans. let us know what you see on your rear extension housing...

i would think different vehicles have varying responses. they have an effect on XT6's based on my experience and others that have used it. not very much, i wouldn't consider it a "performance" mod, but i do get a little better highway gas mileage with them. speaking of which, i'll do some tests with mine as it's not in right now. and i have one for my OBS too that's not installed yet. when i get a chance for a highway trip (consistent, all highway miles) i'll do a test. did it about ten years ago between MD and GA and got a little better MPG but it's hard to be sure since it was so long ago and out of memory.

pulling engine is up to them, i'd bet they don't since it's not absolutely necessary. but i don't know. either way the belt is due soon, no way i'd leave that old 95,000 belt on there for any longer. i'd verify they are replacing both gaskets and not just one, they should since the motor is all torn down anyway. suck to replace one and then the other goes out in a year....big job. pretty sure they always replace them in pairs, so you should be straight.

his is a manual trans. the center diff is just about that...centrally located. nothing like the clutch packs in the rear extension housing of the AWD automatics. completely different animal. nice work swapping in the used set, that's the way to do it and you didn't get hosed with the "you need a new trans" line.

post in the "parts wanted forum". be nice to include a picture if you can. i have extra impreza seats, i'm sure someone has legacy seats. call the yards, they'll have something or can look it up for you and tell you who does. i'd look for a low mileage replacement, they won't be that expensive. new would be $$$$$.

knock sensor detects knock and retards timing depending on input. located on top the motor, typically under the throttle body somewhere, not sure on your specific model (eventhough i have a 97 OBS!). typically the connection just gets corroded, dirty or not seated right. check the connector (wiring side) and the sensor for dirty contacts and clean it up. or replace the sensor. (a used sensor would probably do fine, new ones can be steep and they don't fail all that often). or get a new one if you don't mind.

i saw you sign up at xt6.net. why didn't you post? we don't have www.xt6.net for nuthing? www.thepartsbin.com is where i get alot of XT6 parts from. they have never sent the wrong parts. i did my front bearings awhile ago and i'm almost positive i got them from the parts bin but it's been almost 2 years now so my memory is vague. i know a guy with an extra bearing or two as well. i'll give him your email address if you're looking to buy a set. here's a set i've been eyeing up for quite some time, just to hold onto as extra's. i may pick them up if i don't have another set in the barn and i do the 5 lug swap on my XT Turbo: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Nissan-Maxima-Stanza-Subaru-XT6-Front-Wheel-Bearings_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33564QQitemZ8026093261QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWD1V

piston rings or valve seals. i'm not an expert on this but i recall reading somewhere that these will be more obvious sometimes at idle than at speed. moving too fast to see it at speed, it's mixed with more exhaust and dilutes it, the oil burns more (or less) at higher rpm's reducing the amount of smoke you see...or a comination. just throwing that out there. from memory seems i see more cars smoking really bad sitting at redlights than going down the highway, but hard to say i don't see many smoking that bad. a compression test is super easy and might tell you something? a leak down test, while a little trickier and you need a compressor, would be better.

yes, they had 2.2's. i have two 97's and one 98 and they all have the 2.2 liter in them (i think they do anyway!). the 97 definitely has a 2.2.