idosubaru

bent suspension isn't anything to run from. if just the suspension parts are bent (most likely) then just replace whatever needs replacing. dealing with rusted bolts will be your biggest problem, otherwise shouldn't be a big deal. with a sufficient enough hit it could have deformed some bolt holes or otherwise made it such that the new parts won't line up with the olds holes because of the damage....but it would have to be very bad for that to happen. i've fixed a couple like this (mostly front suspension) and it was an easy fix. like 25 dollar control arms from a pull it yourself yard. if the rear side boy panel is damaged that could be a serious pain if it's the...i think the passengers side. whatever side has the gas filler tube on it. i think that side has to be cut out and welded back in place. the drivers side would be easy, should be a bolt in affair though. check the rust and ask him to cut the price. perfect body XT's sell for 800, but that's not a terrible deal if it's a good car. and yes bad gas will easily keep a car from starting or running well. after setting awhile the HLA's (often called valve noise) can be quite noisey and this will be accompanied by lower performance because the valves won't be opening fully until the HLA's are pumped up to spec's. not a big deal normally, they should free up and work fine.

can you post a picture? the seals do have a metal ring as the very outer *face* of the seal, but it's covered by rubber. are you sure you're not seeing this metal face of the seal?

acceleration and top end speed are two different things. top end speed looks good on paper but is never used when you're talking 150 + mph so who cares. acceleration can be used all the time. so which are you arguing about? the wrx STi has 0-60 times of 4.9 seconds and the BMW you're talking about pulls a whopping 7.3....not even close. the BMW also does a 15.5 second 1/4 mile with a top speed of 96 mph (there are guys doing that here on this board in 4 cylinder turbo subaru's from the 80's!!!!). the wrx does a 13.2 1/4 mile at a top speed of 105. the wrx (non STi) has slightly slower times, but still beats the BMW - 0-60 of 5.4 seconds / 1/4 mile at 96 mph and 14.1 seconds. as far as off-roading, what does he mean by 4wding? if slop is part of this 4 wheel drive discussion then he is right because STOCK soobs don't have the ground clearance to make it through sloppy stuff or rock crawling, depends what kind of offroading you're speaking about. but some soobs have locking center diffs, rear LSD's and can outperform a big heavy truck in certain situations. safety is oppinion in, well my oppinion. i would rather have more control over size. cars are more agile and less likely to roll. i feel a good, observant and defensive driver who knows what they are doing can avoid more accidents than a large truck and are less likely to roll over in sudden reaction circumstances. i have steered violently and spun out to avoid an accident when a truck would have likely rolledover. i've also seen alot more trucks roll in situations a car never would have rolled. roll overs can kill, i don't like that feeling of not being in control. cars roll too, i know. but in certain situations and people with less experience i feel larger is better because it compensates for their lack of knowing their surroundings. i'm not a racer or claim to be a great driver, but attention to surroundings is my preferred method.

post your parts needs in the Parts section of this website and you should get some responses to what you need. you should be able to find someone willing to part with a dash, but finding one close will be the tricky part. if the XT6 dash is the same then i'd likely have one for you if you're interested. again - start a thread in the parts section of the website. i doubt there are only two XT's registered in florida. i know of 3 XT owners myself that definitely live and have the car titled in florida. that doesn't include the 3 or 4 XT6's owners i know that live in florida as well. for XT specific information try http://www.xt6.net as well. probably find some parts over there as well and there are a few florida members that might be able to help you locate parts. i know we'll hook you up somehow. good luck and post some pictures. BLACK IN FLORIDA!! AH!!!! no wonder you restored the AC FIRST!

i'd check your brakes all the way around. make sure the slides on the caliper are well greased and the brake pads are wearing flat and even. my 97 OBS was getting poor mileage and i replaced all tune up parts, timing belts, etc with no change. so then i attacked the pads (eventhough they didn't need it) and the mileage went up a few mpg. i really went into the brake pads only because i had never inspected them since i bought the car. didn't really think about mileage but noticed it increased after the brake job.

hard to say, sometimes the bearings may not be noisey unless they are under load (have belt tension on them). seems like you should notice it though. if it always squeaks you can start the car without the accessory belt and run it for 20 seconds to see if it squeaks still. this would narrow it down considerably to timing belt pulleys or drive belt pulleys. have you done a compression check?

definitely a great car. stick with the 2.2 liter motor, great motor. you definitely want to check the timing belt as it's well past due. you'll want to replace the belt, water pump, tensioners and reseal the oil pump properly (tighten screws in the rear of the pump....that's all over the boards here as a common issue). that is all regular 70,000 mile maintenance that you'll never know if it's been done or not. that's a nice ride and should last along time if taken care of.

nah i'm not. i'm going to test the old one once more just to make sure then i'm getting another shipped to me next week. this is from memory but i think the pump worked with very thick gauge wires from the battery (like jumper cables), but if i used thin wires it wouldn't do anything. so i guess that's why it wouldn't work on the car, thin wires throughout. any electrical guru's know what that means?

forgot to comment on the knock sensor. not sure, but something must be wrong with it if it's showing a code on your ECU. you said you tested the wiring harness side connections...if not i'd say check the plug and make sure one of the pins isn't bent or something wrong with it and make sure the engine harness plugs are seated tight. years ago i had an errant knock sensor problem on an XT6, a new sensor did nothing for the problem. i pulled the sensor and wrapped the threads about 20 times with plumbing tape and the car ran great. have no idea why and haven't seen that problem duplicated since so i doubt it'll work for you, but just throwing it out there. the ECU uses the knock sensor to adjust timing so i still think this needs to be addressed if you're getting the knock sensor code. if the timing is being adjusted by the ECU because of this problem then setting your timing might not work so well.

i've found the distributor really annoying to line up after having the engine apart. if you set it using the FSM - it says to bring the #1 cylidner to TDC..that's easy enough. then set the distributor pointing to the #1 cylinder on the distributor cap. well that's the tricky part....there are multiple positions where the rotor can point at cyilnder #1 depending where in the slots the distributor is bolted down. stupid instructions in my oppinion. in other words, if you're following the FSM it's very easy to be off because the directions are ambiguous at that point. i have a bunch of XT6's lying around and find the easiest method of lining up the distributor to be making it exactly like the others! if someone could post a picture of the distributor rotor position when the #1 cylinder is at TDC you'd be golden. then you'd know which way you need to go with it.

i'm with shawn, i have seen a distributor be off and the car be driveable. reset your distributor.

exhaust parts are typically straight forward. now the rust you may encounter and seized bolts are not. be prepared to shear off and replace a couple bolts and you should be fine. have whatever gaskets ready too, as the old ones probably won't hold up to reinstallation. other than that the catalytic converter is straight forward, a few bolts and you're done. do yourself a favor and spray the crap out of all the bolts you might think about touching with PB Blaster or Liquid Wrench. don't use WD-40, it's not as good. spray them down for like 3 days in a row before you work on it, you'll thank yourself later. well you might not because you might avoid the frustration of seized bolts if you spray them down good and not know the pain you're avoiding. as a worst case scenario just pretend for some crazy reason you could not get the converter installed...the good thing is the car would still be perfectly drivable. very loud, but drivable no problems. might have to use a hanger or bungy cords to hold the rear half/muffler up and off the ground, but otherwise the car will run fine....just real loud. those are the best repairs to try yourself, the ones that wont' leave you car-less. but i don't think you'll have a problem. if the yard sells you the converter, ask them to include any extra bolts with it, they won't need them and you might could use them if any of yours are rusted or shear off while removing.

definitely double check your timing belt marks and make sure they are dead on and also the distributor timing has to be perfect as well. the mechanical distributor timing first - then the elctrical timing of the distributor. distributor sounds set correctly if the car will actually run and drive. have you set it with at timing light yet? and about the delta cams, i just installed a set and they idle just fine so far. no adjustments needed. myphalx and i installed a set on his XT6 a year or so ago and had issues with the car idling. not sure if it was cam related or not though.

HLA's can affect how the engine runs. any backfiring or other noises? lots of questions can narrow things down - why did you do this reseal? headgasket issues or anything else? just oil leaks? if you didn't have the knock sensor code before the reseal and have the code now, i'd check into that before checking zillions of other options. start with what you know before making random stabs. first i'd pull the connector to the knock sensor. check the sensor out, make sure the plastic isn't cracked or falling apart on the top of the sensor. then inspect the plug that plugs into the knock sensor and see if it looks clean and in good order. then check the wiring just prior to the plug and make sure there is no exposed or kinked wire. with the engine running you can even grab the wire between two fingers and move it around a little at the plug and just prior to the plug, this will make the engine change sounds and idle if there's a short in the wire.

install the manual radiator and then install a 30 dollar aftermarket transmission cooler for your ATF fluid. be nice to your trans and forget the ATF coolant lines in the radiator.

yes, i'm an AE and work in satellite flight operations at NASA goddard space flight center. PM on it's way.

if you work these guys he is right, no need to be a member of anything. it is tricky, most people don't have the patience or skills to work a good deal unless the dealer you're working with is cooperative. and "invoice" is such a convoluted term these days. a dealer will "show" you an invoice that really doesn't have valid numbers on it, they are for the most part ficticious. that's why they still make money if they sell something at "invoice". that's why i say it's convoluted..."invoice" has been relegated to not much more than a word consumers think is the holy grail of car deals but doesn't really mean anything unless you're well informed about what you're buying.

the knock sensor code is definitley telling you something. if that sensor is cracked up it could be retarding the timing.... and definitely will cause the engine to run terribly. i'd find out why that code is flashing....check the sensor first make sure it didn't crack of fall apart. if it's the original it's probably old and brittle. check the wiring just prior to the knock sensor harness and the harness/connectors as well. how did you address the HLA's? did they sit for awhile? any tapping on first start up? subarus can run terrible immediately after a rebuild/reseal due to the HLA's not quite functioning right until they are fully pumped up and lubricated. and that's assuming they are working appropriately.

the relay is ruled out since the stock pump works fine. everything goes sour when the pump is installed so in my case it's just two wires and a pump. i'm getting another summit pump and if that doesn't work i'll go the Ford route.

"The car runs fine. No stumble....."

anyone ever install a summit racing fuel pump? i bought the same one that myphalyx has on his XT6 and i could not get it to work. everything works fine with my old 220,000 mile original fuel pump, but when i try to install the summit pump it acts goofy. seems straight forward even fit into the stock fuel pump bracket with almost no effort. i tried giving it power directly and it didnt' seem to work very consistently, mostly didn't work at all though i do recall it pumping once or twice when i had it wired directly with 12 volts. i'll have to give it another try for specifics but has anyone gotten this to work? any idea what resistance should or shouldn't be between the terrminals? IT'S TWO WIRES AND A PUMP, HOW HARD CAN IT BE!! pardon the caps...

sorry but that is really funny....unless they don't refund you.

nice hit frank. how was the wiring connector? was it a direct fit or did you have to cut and fit it? reminded me of an issue im' having with my aftermarket fuel pump.

flashing at start up is a sign of a current TCU issue. you need to pull the code to find out why it's flashing. when you fix the problem the flashing will go away.

when most are voting for drain and refill they are speaking of what they would do, so it's hard to recommend a place to do it for you. don't know if shops will do a drain and fill but it's as easy as an oil change basically so it's about the simplest exercise for a mechanic to complete. nobody touches my car so i'd say do it yourself. but if you can't, i'd say let anyone do it as it's a very simple procedure.