idosubaru

take a sample of coolant somewhere and they test for hydrocarbons (what the HC stands for). HC indicates compression leakage past the gaskets into your coolant. never had it done, only read about it so i can't tell you where or how much it costs. if the car overheats and you turn it off and see bubbles in the overflow tank that is classic head gasket sign. if you loose any coolant at all, that is also a sign of leakage or head gasket issues. i would do a compression test before an HC test. you can do a compression test yourself.

i just told you that you can get more than whatever those values are that you posted. the values are mostly arbitrary, they try to stick to them as they want to pay as little as possible. they are good averages and general information, but the insurance company will pay whatever it takes to keep you from suing their nuts off. if you want your car fixed bad enough they will fix it. tell them you want YOUR car back, not another car payment. you've got to be aggressive and proactive and don't wait around for things to happen because they won't. if you don't have this attitude you won't be successful. if you do, or have a lawyer you can get your car fixed. if the cars *value* is 8,000 and it costs 10,000 to fix it i garauntee i could get the insurance company to fix my car (assuming accident isn't my fault). they will pay you AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE. the CEO is not making 3 million a year because he's willing to pay out as much as possible to claims. time to start thinking business and realize the insurance company is trying to take advantage of you...and YOUR the one that got hit! you didn't ask for a truck up your a$$!!!! but - even if you don't have a lawyer you can still accomplish this....i don't lie but know people who will claim to have a lawyer when they really don't so the insurance company cooperates. if they feel you're a push over and won't persue anything (which many americans are)...take this for instance...how many people actually debate the *value* insurance companies pay for totalled vehicles??? VERY few, so they don't expect you to either. but they want an at fault accident settled and over with. i'd start by talking to a lawyer, most will offer free consultations for a few minutes. they might even tell you that it's not worth your time to get a lawyer....but you don't tell the insurance company that. you tell them you met with a lawyer and are ready to take further action if they don't cooperate quickly. here's is the steps i would take: i'd get a free consultation with a lawyer (some will even do it over the phone). then find out how much to fix and add some to it, it's easy for the shop to miss minor items that might need tweaking afterwards. call the insurance up and tell them you'll sign a contract stating you won't persue litigation or continue seeing your attorney if they pay XXXXX amount to fix your car. YOU make the deal, don't let them make the deal. it takes a little knowledge and aggressive attitude, but it can be done. don't believe anythign they tell you, be persistent that you want YOUR car fixed and don't care what the internet or kelley blue balls has to say about car values. you had a great car in great shape and intend on keeping it. you don't want to get screwed with more car payments or a used car in with unknown maitenance history. be persistent and don't listen to them, they have pre-canned retorts and commentary on everything but it's all pre-canned and rehearsed BS regurgitated by the person your talking to on the phone. ask for the manager if you have to. when they know you mean business they'll start to crack and want to settle the deal. good luck and have fun doing it.

i've read through howstuffworks before but still wasn't sure why you can here the expansion valve. i seem to be hearing a quick burst at variable times on my OBS...10 minutes, 15, 7 minutes..i'll here a quick burst like someone is pressing a schrader valve in for a second. seems to only happen if the A/C is on, was wondering if this valve is doing that and if it's supposed to.

forgot to mention....if the accident was not your fault (which it sounds like it was not), then the ball is really in your court if you know what you're doing. they will fix it no matter what the cost. i am telling you this as a fact, not a matter of oppinion. they may want to total it and tell you they can't fix it, but that's BS. if you get on them and don't back down you can have the car fixed. you tell them you want YOUR car back the way YOU had it, the accident was not your fault, you've taken good care of this vehicle and do not have any desire to settle for futher payments on a new vehicle or a used vehicle with unknown maintenance records. you want YOUR car fixed because you know the engine and trans are well taken care of and it's their fault. don't get me wrong, they will play hard ball so if you can't handle it don't bother trying but i promise you they will fix it if you're persistent and mean business. someone may say it's totalled and that's all they'll give you...they are wrong, they are only saying that because that's what happened to them, that's what the insurance company wants. if it costs more to fix they won't want to pay that! but they will to avoid lawsuit or to mitigate a claim. the key is who was at fault. if you weren't at fault then this holds true. if it was your fault then you're in a trickier situation and you'll basically get whatever the car is worth.

it was a reality TV skit....you'll be on TV in a few weeks. okay, there really are alot of goofy people around and the closer you are to a city the more that escalates...in my experience, maybe yours is different...all the nice people in the city and a bunch of rude jokers in the country? anyway, weird encounters are good to notice but not that uncommon either. i like to weld razor blades around the inside of my stereo. paranoid, nah. wanting to laugh at someone trying to steal my junk, yes. not having anything worth much in my car and a low end stereo seems to keep thieves away, but i've since moved out of the city so no worries now. i agree with the car alarm, throw some remote locks on there while you're at it! i've chased 3 criminals - one broke into my house (guns not allowed on campus, which is a good thing because i hunt and have guns for said activity, glad i never had to make that decision but hindsight is 20/20 right?), one tried to steal a jeep two houses down from previously mentioned house, the other stole my bag at the atlanta airport. all in atlanta, real nice city. i caught them all, two are in jail. i'm gloating, but i'd never do it again. i've heard of a few cases since that time when people chased would be criminals and ended up shot and dead. glad that wasn't me.

shouldn't need an impact wrench and i wouldn't use a chain wrench on the crank pulley. if you do, cut up some rubber...like from a tractor tire tube and place it between the chain and pulley to protect it. every subaru i've worked on gave me no problems removing the crank pulley with a 22mm socket and either putting the car in gear (manual) or jamming a socket extension into a slot in the flexplate (auto trans) under the intake hose. just use a long breaker bar or pipe extension (that's what i do) you can also attach a socket wrench to the crank pulley bolt, rest it against the motor mount and crank the motor. it will bust itself loose, but don't do that unless you know what you're doing. it's very easy to do, but don't want to see anyone get hurt by my suggestions.

the frame is fine, i wouldn't expect any problems with the car if you can get it fixed. good luck with it. i can tell you for sure that if it is totalled the insurance company will take it, sell it and someone will fix it and sell it as a salvaged title vehicle. so either way it will end up on the road again, it definitely won't be parted out, it's too nice and someone will make $ fixing it and reselling.

make sure the transmission pan isn't dented. not likely, but possible and tough to track down.

hey - what is this expansion valve and what does it do/sound like?

shouldn't be timing as that really never changes assuming everythign else is nominal. you can unplug your O2 sensor and see how it drives. i unplugged mine and it won't affect highway mileage at all. done it a bunch of times. how about the ignition pack?

has the fluid ever been changed?

tightening or reinstalling probably won't work. you need to replace the pulley or the crank is toast. i think it highly unlikely the crank is toast. but a bad pulley can ruin your crank, so best to fix this immediately. not sure why it's wobbling, be nice to know. it's likely not a big deal now, but if you let it go too long it could definitely seriously damage your crank and that's a pain in the rump roast to deal with if you don't know what you're doing. (it can be done but you better have good machinists around). if it's a harmonic damper type crank pulley then a new pulley will likely be in order. personally i'd get an aluminum solid piece crank pulley and replace the stock one if it's a harmonic balancer type (which i think it is, i know the 2.2's are). all subaru crank pulley's i've seen are harmonic balancers but i've never seen a 2.5 liter motor. have the pulley checked and start sourcing another one.

pro's definitely. i picked up a soob with a bad tint job, all bubbly. no good. and while the tint may absorb some or all the UV...autoglass does the same thing so that's not really any added value. that's why you don't get sunburn while sitting in your car driving 1,000 miles on a road trip. (unless your windows are down.

sounds like a master cylinder. if the master cyilnder went bad while installing new brakes, then it wasn't done correctly most likely. the cap was probably left on the master cylidner while at least one piston was pushed in, that will ruin the master cylinder seals. if that were the case then the mechanic, not the car is to blame for that failure. now..on to your problem.... based on the pedal going to the floor i would suspect or at least want to start looking at something between the brake pedal and master cylinder. check to make sure that when you push the pedal the master cylinder is indeed doing something. will the fluid bleed out okay? in other words it is actually under pressure when the pedal is pushed? that will verify the pedal linkage and booster are doing their thing. was the new master cylinder properly installed and bled before anything else? there are directions tpyically with the new part on how to prime the master cylinder and get all the air out of it. if that was replaced then i'd possibly suspect the brake calipers. the calipers have an oring around the piston that can leak and then once past the oring the fluid could be partially or completely contained by the rubber dust shield around the piston as well. that is where i would suspect a minor leak that isn't detectable. caliper rebuild kits are inexpensive...a few dollars typically. was it bled correctly, i'm guessing so, sounds like you're tried alot. make sure all the pads were installed! forgetting one, the caliper piston could get pushed out of it's cylinder. another test would be to attach some clear hose to each bleeder screw at each caliper (one at a time). make a loop in it so no air can get back into the caliper. the fish air-line hose at wal-mart works okay, i have some that i use for bleeding. this will allow you to bleed without getting air in the lines AND you'll be able to see your fluid. if one particular line is indeed causing the problems then you should see large amounts of airbubbles in whatever lines is causing the problems....right, left, rear, front caliper line. this will narrow down where your bubbles are coming from if that's the case.

if it was a suspected oil loss problem i would check the oil pump itself for irregular wear. the oil pump will *see* lack of oil problems first since it's doing the pumping. the rotor and shaft should tell you if oil supply was low enough to cause damage. this may not be your problem now but since we're talking about it, that's what i would look at first if replacing a blown out seal.

guy over at http://www.xt6.net didn't seat his torque converter properly on his 4EAT when installing it and toasted his trans oil pump shaft i think. whatever he did he fixed it and i believe posted some information about fixing it over there.

X35 is parting out his XT Turbo with all his working MS set up on it. his parts and existing code may help???

seen some gas mileage posts in the past. here's what just happened to me. i was getting low gas mileage on my 2.2 liter impreza OBS....about 23/24 all highway miles. i did a tune up, new timing belts, rebuilt oil pump, cam seals, crank seals, spark plugs, wires, , fuel filter, PCV valve, etc. gas mileage went up maybe 1 mpg to 24/25. this was about 2 weeks ago. then i replaced the brake pads just a couple days ago for a trip this past weekend and got excellent gas mileage. getting close to 30 mpg on one trip. i'd say averaged a solid 28 with the a/c on at least half the time. either it took a couple trips for the tune up to *kick in* and improve gas mileage (i doubt it) or the brakes were causing a loss. brakes have always worked great with no problems at all.

seen some gas mileage posts in the past. here's what just happened to me. i was getting low gas mileage on my 2.2 liter impreza OBS....about 23/24 all highway miles. i did a tune up, new timing belts, rebuilt oil pump, cam seals, crank seals, spark plugs, wires, , fuel filter, PCV valve, etc. gas mileage went up maybe 1 mpg to 24/25. this was about 2 weeks ago. then i replaced the brake pads just a couple days ago for a trip this past weekend and got excellent gas mileage. getting close to 30 mpg on one trip. i'd say averaged a solid 28 with the a/c on at least half the time. either it took a couple trips for the tune up to *kick in* and improve gas mileage (i doubt it) or the brakes were causing a loss. brakes have always worked great with no problems at all.

i'd check into that bolt you jb welded on there. what is that bolt for? don't want to mess with the trans.

39 is a good price, but you still have to add shipping, installation, balancing, tire disposal fee (in some states) etc. if you suspect one being bad, i'd place that one on the back and be on your way. blow outs on the rear are much better than blow outs on the front. i don't recommend either, but that's the way to go if $ is tight. and don't forget your spare tire. full size spares are AWESOME. my guess is we will see you 700 miles later with no problems. i agree, best to replace them but dry rot is not that uncommon. you can also call around for used tires as well. not the best option, but an option for landing a 15/20 dollar tire.

haven't heard of anyone doing it on the XT6 yet scott. i don't think anyone has done it. if they have they haven't posted about it on the board that i'm aware of. i definitley wouldnt forget that because i would have talked to them about it by now.

water pump new in both XT6's. brand new pump, seals, tstat, etc... swapped in a third radiator and it appears the temps are back to normal. so it must have been two bad radiators, but that second radiator was good when it was in the last XT6 it inhabited. someone on xt6.net guessed bad radiators, so i guess he gets the 50 cents as well as one or two persons here. fantastic work guys, thanks for the effort.

are the ER27 and EA82 TPS sensors the same? theTPS in the ER27 motor (based on the EA82) will not come close to testing to the specs in the FSM - it's garbage. have to set it by ear. if the EA82 TPS is the same you could have the same problem. i've posted a couple times and have yet to see anyone mention if the TPS is the same on these two motors.

the EA82 lifters will work in your XT6 derrick. the cap will likely look slightly different, but it will work. the EA82 and ER27 have the same basic setup, just twice as much hardware in the valve train. to the original poster, by *rebuild the oil pump* what does that mean? did you replace the seal AND the oring/block gasket? everything should be replaced, if you skipped any then it will need to be done again. the oil pump gasket (between engine and oil pump) tends to want to get sucked into one of the two ports. there is a crazy rump roast way to fix this, but i haven't done it yet. basically you can insert a metal tube in the oil pump ports that will prevent the oring from getting sucked into the port. i haven't needed to do it, but know someone who has and it was an interesting solution. and a new pump is fine as well. they can fail so if you can buy new then do it. once i get my daily driver i'm throwing a new oil pump at it (has 220,000 miles on it, rebuilt once around 150,000).