idosubaru

good point - 1997 OBS and i'm in maryland. light bulb is not easily accessible. the wiring is, anyone know which wire supplies power? i think they'll see black tape, so that probably won't cut it. i'll just have it inspected and worry about it if they fail it. they'll want to fail something to feel like they're actually being productive and make me feel like i'm getting something for my money so maybe that will give them something to write up. i tend to think it won't fail for that, but figured i'd address it if there was an easy way. thanks

anyway to get the air bag light to turn off besides fixing it? i need the light out now, will fix the air bag later. drivers side is fixed, awaiting manuals and parts to fix the passengers side. until then, i'd like the light off to pass inspection. don't even know that they care, but would rather it be off just in case. anyone ever posted how to replace passengers side air bag? thanks hot dogs,

need to determine if the oil pressure sending unit and gauge is working correclty. there may be nothing wrong at all. or it could be something very serious that could ruin your engine if you keep running it. you mentioned "high rpm's the pressure drops off", i'm wondering if maybe you should look at your timing belts or the oil pump itself. maybe under heavier loads the belt is slipping over the pump sprockets. either because the belt is old or the oil pump has a problem. i've never heard or seen that happen, but something to check as a last resort.

why did you do all that cooling system work? electric on the fans water pump hoses thermostat sounds like you may have had overheating problems prior to doing all this work. if so, the overheating or running hot may have caused some damage. hopefully not of course but running hot is not good on motors, particularly 15 year old gaskets.

fill it up, let it idle awhile (keep eye on Temps). check under car, check hoses and look underneath the car and hood for leaks. is your passengers side floorboard wet? heater core leak may not be visible, but you probably would have noticed the coolant in the cabin by now. at cold start check your tail pipe and look for coolant coming out the tailpipe. remove your oil cap, look underneath of it, see any white foamy stuff?

pull the hoses from the heater core and blow them out with compressed air/garden hose of water. you'll be amazed what comes out. if it's really bad, you'll need to do it to the lines prior to the heater core as well and flush it all out.

is the gas cap tight or leaking? start it and go stand by the exhaust pipe, is it dripping or notice a gas smell? probably won't drip as it will likely evaporate but maybe if it's enough it would. let it idle awhile and pop the hood....stand there and smell for gas and look for leaks. after letting it idle awhile crawl under the car and look at the fuel pump. they can leak but work perfectly fine.

i think that tool is really long in order to reach further into the engine. from the front and back, pistons 1, 5, 2, and 6 are accessible with short nosed tools. 3 and 4 i think need to be long and skinny to pass through the access holes to the center cylinders. i know someone in canada borrowed one from the dealer for a weekend. i'd guess most dealers probably don't even have it and wouldn't loan out tools like that.

it's not nearly as bad as it sounds...if you know what you're doing before the job is started. front motor mount, top mount (pitch rod) and rear trans mounts are only a handful of really easy to get to bolts. the oil pan not being clean and smooth is the only tricky part when you go to reinstall, everything is fairly simple really. it's like 15 degrees with 30 mph winds here today so any job sucks right now. i'd put the car up on jackstands for more room...but then you need a larger jack or 2x4 to get the front of the motor to push up. not a big deal, just verbally vomitting because i'm at work!

support the front of the motor with a jack and 2x4 or whatever you like to use. remove the front motor mount. remove the top pitching rod from the top of the motor/trans. remove the rear transmission mounting bolts. loosen the motor mount bolts. with all motor/trans mounting points loosened or removed, lift the front of the motor up. the rear of the transmission should swing down some. may want to use more than one jack for safety/more flexibility in movement. try removing the pan, if it won't come off then keep jacking the motor up until you have enough clearance to pull the pan around the sump. be very careful installing the new gasket, the pan will likely be rough and the bolt holes will most likely be rounded and bumpy, making it easy to not get a good seal. be sure to get the oil pan as flat as possible where it mates to the motor. not flat = not a good seal. you can also use an engine lift if you have one instead of the jack option. just need the motor/trans assembly to rock *back*.

i noticed light hesitation and reduced gas mileage from a local cheap gas station in my 4 cylinder XT about 10 years ago. my 4 XT6's i've owned since then have not had the same problems (that i noticed). the XT, eventhough i got it at only 3 years old would not get very good gas mileage from this gas. being only 3 years old, the car was in fabulous condition at the time. i believe us northern folks have to deal with manipulated gasoline in the winter, i believe it's chemically different in the winter to reduce emissions but also gives decreased gas mileage. i think it's mandated on a state-by-state basis. shouldn't make a huge difference though. driving style will definitely make a huge difference in gas mileage. city/highway. go easy on the accelerator and your gas milage will change as well. if i'm getting on it in my Ford Truck i get 15mpg, if i drive lightly i get 18mpg. that's a substantial difference - 20 percent. any recent tune ups? ignition components? O2 sensor? fuel/air filters? best just to replace all these low dollar items all at the same time and be done with it.

mr radon, you tired of me yet? get the oil pump shaft seal from http://www.thepartsbin.com or another online source. i like thepartsbin, they've never sent an incorrect XT6 part and their online catalog is not confusing. i would not replace the pump, but if you don't mind spending the money on a new you definitely won't hurt anything. my XT6 has 207,000 miles on the original pump (and i've had other XT6's at 198,000 and 196,000 on the original pumps) and they all had excellent oil pressure. i've never had issues with noisy lifters. someone has to have some spare lifters or even bad lifters sitting around they'd send you and you can use the caps off of them. i thought about the same thing, installing them without the caps as they seemed entirely cosmetic. i may even have some lifter parts at my parents house if i remember to check next time i'm there. there is an excellent aluminum head speciatly shop here in my town that has experience with EA82's and was very familiar with how to approach these heads. they do all of my head work. of course that's thousands of miles from you so what does it matter?

O2 sensor socket i bought does not work on my AWD XT6, not nearly enough room between the sensor and front diff. vehicle dependent.

change your PCV valve maybe? if you're not loosing any coolant then you're probably fine. i'd be sure to change your oil very frequently if there's that much water in the system. you haven't had any engine work done recently (intake or otherwise) that may have allowed coolant to mix with the oil?

can you get a wrench in there? that's what i always use. dropping the exhaust may give you more room to work with. you could use a torch around the catalytic converter if you've done that before and know how to do it. torch the threaded area around the O2 sensor but not the sensor itself. then try to break it loose. or spray the O2 sensor down with liquid wrench a couple days in a row.

those sprockets are no match for a crow bar or wedge. just be careful not to damage the aluminum block. slide them off and replace the seal. behind the oil pump - at 12 oclock and 6 oclock you can see very faint lines where the two halves of the block come together. this is the only place sealant needs to be used. use a very small amount to fill in the cracks around this mating area of the block. i use a dab of grease to hold the mickey mouse gasket in place.

if you have coolant in your cylinder i wouldn't pay much attention to the compression readings. i'll put it this way, i wouldn't assume a high reading is a good thing. i've seen cylinders with coolant in them (known due to later disassembly to be blown head gasket) that will show compression ratios over 10 percent higher than what they SHOULD be. for example, having 150 psi in all cylinders and 175 in the cylinder with the blown gasket. the coolant in the cylinder probably messes with the compression ratio and may reduce some blow by and compression loss that would normally occur with gases. no matter about my speculation or reasoning, i've definitely seen it happen...unfortunately! if this is an EA82 - the headgaskets are easy to do. rusted bolts are the most time consuming issue in my experience.

wet or dry? can anyone explain that to me? can the thicker EA81 sleeves be installed in an EA82? the pistons can interchange, what about the sleeves? probably interferes with a water jacket or something?

i'd look into CCR. don't really see any reason to go with anyone else unless you have a very reliable and quality local guy to do it. while the motor is out: take hubs to a shop and have them replace the wheel bearings take calipers to the shop with a rebuild kit and have them rebuilt or do it yourself (kits are like 10 dollars and super easy to do) have the alternator and starter rebuilt these are items that can leave you stranded. well spent money if you like reliability and not being stranded somewhere. ship your fuel injectors off to be professionally cleaned (RC Engineering for example).

where exactly is the pitting? anyone want to slap an arrow on the picture? what causes it?

i've removed O2 sensors or disconnected them from more than one XT6 and they run just fine. gas mileage drops some, but nothing atrocious. if it's never been replaced, best to replace it as it can lower gas mileage some if you're worried about it. if the car ever had major problems, coolant loss, lots of additives thrown into the gas tank they may degrade the O2 sensor some. why not just replace it and be done with it?

double post

all XT6's alternators are identical. if you've ever taken an alternator apart, there's solder joint inside of it that causes the demise of most XT6 alternators. resolder and drive on. i've got a rebuilt one so i've never done it though, but know someone who has.

archemitis, you can definitely do this without any problems, don't worry about it. pull it off and never think about it again. just be careful with pets in the interior, small dogs and cats will depress that freaking diff lock button. if you plan on leaving it like that for awhile i'd cover it up, remove it or something so it can't accidentally be unlocked while making a turn in front of oncoming traffic. i'm repeating what miles said, because he's right. remove the rear half of the drive shaft and leave the part in from the trans to the center differential support. the rear half will come off by removing eight 12mm bolts, very simple. then you can run different size tires front and rear too...not that you'd want to but you could.

ignition - could easily be. but i'd guess plugs, wires, cap and rotor before coil. because i've had 207,000 / 198,00 and 196,000 miles on 3 different stock coils.