idosubaru

i think you're getting ahead of yourself on sensors and relays. ignition components cause your symptoms more often than sensors. i probably won't see this thread again or i'd ask questions. if the wires, plugs, cap, rotor and coil aren't new or giving good spark then i'd replace them all at the same time. if this hasn't been done recently, i wouldn't touch anything else until i rule out these igntion components. i've put about 350,000 miles on a couple XT6's and have only ever had one failed sensor (MAF) and no failed relays. replaced plenty of plugs, wires, caps, rotors and coils in that time though. i do think it could be a sensor, but i think you're chasing your tail if you don't rule out the ignition first. make sure the harness for the coolant sensor has tight and clean connections. corrosion causes problems that may not go away with a new sensor. check resistance/continuity of the wires in the harness (at the connector) to a suspected sensor as well for a short in the wire.

same as Ford Probe as well according to the box mine came in???? figure that one out.

how bad do you want to save $? do you know what you're doing? do you have another vehicle? have you done it before? this group is a good resource for you if you do try it. i wouldn't plan on rushing it.

right. i'm sure there are plenty of knowledgable folks that work for subaru, i just haven't met one in person yet. XT6 hasn't been on the market for almost 15 years and there aren't many, so it's easy to run across subaru employees that know nothing about it.

cybrid power steering fluid is only used on the XT6, nothing else. i've also called subaru dealers that had no clue about the XT6 power steering pump and had no idea about the special fluid. XT6 owners beware. don't listen to everything you hear...even if it's from a Subaru dealer.

pat, i think he's talking about the ujoint between the two steering shafts. the 8 or 9 inch piece you're talking about should connect to the rack at one end and the other shaft via ujoint at the other end. so if yours still has the ujoint in place he'd be golden. they sell hypodermic needles for greasing bearings at tractor supply stores. works on the timing belt pulley bearings for instance. get one of those, you might get lucky and be able to squeeze some grease in an old ujoint if there's any gaps. might be totally sealed though.

prybar is the way to go. use 2x4's, bolts or whatever to gain leverage and avoid pressure on the timing cover. screwdrivers are two small and not stiff enough to get good leverage behind the pulley. they work, but they aren't very efficient. you'd be amazed how much more leverage a prybar offers you, they are designed for that. i used one two days ago to pull a crank pulley off.

over the past 10 years i've played with a few exhaust set up and put 30 - 45,000 miles per year on my car so i pay attention to mileage. it's not going to make a huge difference. also will depend on your driving style and conditions. you can eek a few more mpg out of an XT6 for sustained long distance (highway driving), just by removing your intake snorkel, installing a K&N and welding on a good straight through muffler. no need to mess with piping size even for that. stock i think an AWD automatic will run about 26 mpg, after those mods you can get 29-30 on all highway miles. but when you make mods and try to *feel* that power and start mashing the gas you'll get worse mileage. for mileage, keep your ignition system in good working order (NEW). for sustained highway driving this matters little, but for typical daily driving be sure not to have excessive dead weight in your car. like tool boxes, enormous jacks....etc. like the last post mentioned, you'll notice a little more power up high and less down low. it's not magic, but you can tell.

delete - my bad.

rockauto is notorious for showing multiple model parts for XT6's, i would not buy anything from them. they have great parts and i haven't heard anything bad from their customer service but i know from looking up XT6 parts, they'll definitely list parts that are not XT6 compatible even after i specifically select XT6 parts. thepartsbin.com is AWESOME. they have yet to get a part wrong yet and i've ordered from them probably a dozen times. i highly recommend these guys for great prices and always the right parts. sometimes parts are cheaper locally, but for the most part almost all of their parts (for XT6 anyway) are cheaper than you'll find locally. rockauto will have some parts cheaper, but be sure you can verify the part number. thepartsbin is always right. i've reused axle nuts and washers without incident. the subaru dealer will definitely have an axle nut for you. of course they may want 10 dollars for it, but they should have it. as you know it is not recommended to reuse axle nuts so i'm not suggesting you should do it. only that i've done it a couple times on my own vehicles for many miles without incident.

can toast wheel bearings on an SVX.

make sure your mechanical timing (flywheel and cams) are timed dead on. i just ruined my XT6 by driving around with jacked up timing. had a bad distributor but couldn't figure it out so i just kept driving it for like 6 months like that. toasted my headgaskets and a rod bearing. i read afterwards a few articles suggesting that bad timing can cause headgasket failure. probably only in situations like mine where you drive around like that for many many miles.

i tried that rope down the spark plug hole method a long time ago and could not get it to work in my soob. i'm sure it does with the right rope size and and all. but definitely be careful, dont' want to snag it on an opening or closing valve and get material in there. probably really wouldn't hurt anything, but i'm a little leary about intentionally stuffing things in the cyilnders. it is a neat trick though, that's why i tried it (once). i'm about to do my OBS as well, there's no access hole in the transmission like older soobs to just jam a socket extension into? if you use a chain wrench i'd guess you cover the pulley with some rubber material so it doesn't mark it up?

the ports were cleaned but not worked in anyway. the intake all the way to the valves is clean, no hints of carbon or oil i typically see on heads when they are first pulled. i plan on hitting the ports even if i don't pull the heads. i can get to most of the intake side of the ports and smooth out all that nasty casting flash. i can get to that since the motor is on my bench and there's no intake or anything on top of it. i think i've decided to save the valve job for a build with turbo pistons. thanks for the input guys.

this may be a little tricky, but could be done with a helper and wouldn't take that long for two people that know what they are doing. (a lift would be really nice) turn the front wheel and count the number of rotations of the front wheel and the number of rotations of the rear output shaft (or rear tire). i know there's a power split between front and rear on an automatic, but i think the revolutions should be comparable with the car on a lift. the center diff *may* get in the way, but if your count doesn't verify 3.9 or 4.11 then you know the center diff was the problem. does that makes sense? you'll get one of three answers - 3.9, 4.11 or some bogus answer because of the center diff. but i think it will work.

you don't need new pullies, someone was confusing you and the other guy asking about timing belt pullies. he thought the original poster of this thread (with 80,000 mile OBS) was asking about the tensioners. but you were not, it was the Forrester guy or someone else asking about pullies. two different conversations, slightly confusing when trying to skim through the post. but tensioners are important, particularly on cars with interference motors (which yours has). if you have the money, the extra 100 or 200 for pulleys may be worth it considering a failed pulley can ruin the motor on these very reliable cars. 80,000 is very early for a tensioner to fail and by no means a *must do*. my 215,000 mile XT6 has some original pullies on it. i would suggest having a good mechanic inspect the belt. you can remove a timing belt side cover in about 10 minutes and check the belt. IF IF IF the belt was replaced, it would have been done relatively recently and it would be very obvious that it was replaced, because noone would replace it at say....36,000 miles. if it was replaced it was probably done recently....at 60 or 70,000 miles or more and the writing and condition of the belt would be very new. you're always good to go if you replace the belt.

got an XT6 a couple weeks ago with an extra engine he was building up. i'm putting the extra engine in my daily driver. the motor was in good shape, but he installed new head gaskets anyway (engine was not overheated or blown gaskets). but he did not have a valve job done. heads with new gaskets and reground delta cams are already installed. the ports are perfectly clean. already have mine out and this one is clean, painted and just about ready to drop in. i'm nervous that the valve job wasn't done or the head bolts weren't cleaned when installed. but i don't want to pull the heads, get new gaskets, get the valve job done and reinstall everything if it's not a huge deal. i emailed the guy if there were any cracks between valve seats, i haven't heard back from him yet. i guess i have space and an engine lift so i can always pull it again if i have too. any thoughts?

i'd use aftermarket low compression turbo pistons. trying to figure out a plan. i got 4 XT6's and 2 extra motors.....can't decide at the moment whether to drop a motor in my daily driver and build a turbo block out of a spare motor for later. or install turbo pistons right now. but i don't think i'm going to go that route. i'll just drop this motor in and start building another block with turbo pistons for a later install. thanks for the input.

if i installed turbo pistons in my XT6, but ran it NA for awhile before i installed any forced induction how would the car run? would it suck really bad?

compare the a/c compressor diameter to the crank pulley diameter to get an idea of what RPM range you need to run. the crank and a/c pulley are fairly close in size, so looks like the a/c typically runs 500 - 7,000 RPM's, easily doable with an electric motor. just might draw a!!loads of amps.

i fabricated a mounting bracket to bypass my A/C for most of the year using a smaller belt which i'm running right now (being winter and all). i attached a picture. there is actually a one size shorter (like 20 or 40 mm shorter) 6 rib belt that may fit without using any bracket at all. but mine works fine like it is, so i'm not going to try the shorter belt until this belt is ready to be replaced. i couldn't resize the picture to post here, so here it is: http://www.xt6.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3772

copy that, you'll be fine with stock fuel control. a good fuel controller would be nice though and probably smooth the car out a good bit if you want one.

driving on the curb trick is my favorite for low riders (lower than my soob). have your car lifted a few inches, that should do the trick. i seem to remember most soob trannies having magnetic plugs in the pan, not sure about yours though.

i've plugged dozens of holes myself with no problems. take your time and cut the plug down flat to the lowest part of the tire to prevent it from pulling out. i wouldn't trust a shop to do a plug, i'd make them patch it. they'll get some hee haw new guy to do it. i agree, if you took it some place, they should dismount the tire and patch it. being a new car i would think there's some kind of warranty on the tires. or they would at least fix that (the right way) for free. common place and easy to do. at 215,000 miles i've never gotten an alignment (owned car since 105,000) and drive a sensitive first generation 4EAT AWD automatic transmission. i always swap front to back, keep tires on the same side. so long as the tires are wearing evenly, that's what matters. actual tire rotation patterns and all are a waste of my time, that's why it's confusing listening to different people. tire condition is key. the transmission couldn't give a s!!t which tire you put where. OMG YOU ROTATED INCORRECTLY YOUR ATF IS GOING TO BOIL!!! it only cares about the actual tread pattern on the tires. sometimes tire wear or transmission power distribution dictate different rotating patterns but in my experience my XT6 has excellent wear patterns at 215,000 miles with no alignment ever. and i go offroading all the time, smashed the front control arm in half in the snow, installed all new suspension bushings, ball joints, axles and hubs rebuilt...and still no alignment. perfect wear patterns on my tires right now that have 40,000 miles and need replaced. and yes use a good torque wrench and do it yourself. very easy to do. why have your tires balanced. i bet they aren't balancing them. they'll charge you for balancing but since it doesn't need done they'll look at them for about 10 seconds maybe spin them once on the machine and say they're fine, because they probably are. but if it makes you feel better that it says "tires balanced" on the invoice, then go ahead and take care of your vehicle as it is a good one.

i thought only Autozone has scanners? advanced has them too? Back OT (ON Topic), if you're showing a code you're wasting your time fiddling with anything until you find out what code is showing for the check engine light. your car is completely different but BE ADVISED the FSM is DEAD WRONG for TPS adjustment on an XT6. don't bother trying it, you'll never get it to test by the spec's in the FSM because the FSM is BS. i'm not saying your car is like this, but check before you assume the TPS is bad. i wasted an assload of time trying to decipher this one night many moons ago.