idosubaru

if the elements are there, applying 12 volts to the harness will operate them without harming anything else. the harness at the seat is disconnected therefore it has no interaction with the rest of the circuitry in the car right? i'd be very surprised if the elements were there. but it's worth a shot.

best bet is to build one from a 3.7 lsd unit and an open 3.9. keep your eye on ebay as well, but they'll go for 300+ and i've seen 2 in the past 2 years. you will likely wait a long time before you see one on there though.

try doing a search, you'll get tons of commentary on this subject. easiest to get a 3.7 lsd and convert your existing open 3.9 using the internals of the 3.7. i believe there's information and a write up addressing this. do a search on this group and you'll have plenty to read for quite some time, with lots of lists of vehicles...

bad plugs and a severly clogged air filter can cause these problems. not likely, but i've seen it before and it's easy enough to check. a friend of mine had his truck (can't remember what it was) towed to his mechanic because it quit running and wouldn't start. his mechanic called him and told him he needed a new engine for $2,300. so him and his dad (who was in on the joke because the mechanic had called the house) drove over to talk to the guy. while telling the guy he'd help him work at the shop to help pay off the bill the guy started laughing and said, "give me 12.50, i replaced the air filter".

brake pads wear down and the caliper piston gets pushed out by brake fluid. this reduces the amount of fluid in the master cylinder and can cause the brake light to come on. and typically at the onset the brake light will come on and off as you're driving due to hills and turning, anything that shifts the fluid and triggers the sensor. like someone mentioned, just look at the brake fluid level. if it's close to "low" it probably just needs more fluid, this is totally normal. this would also indicate the pads are worn. inspect the brakes, if they are worn down and need replacment at 48,000 miles, that's a good indication that this car was driven aggressively, in heavy traffic or windy/mountain roads. not necessarily a bad thing, but like already mentioned i wouldn't expect it to be babied and this is probably the case on any used STi. if you turn the wheels all the way to the left or right sometimes you can visually inspect the brake pads yourself. brake pads have a wear indicator on them, a small notch in the pads. once that notch has disappeared it's time to replace the pads. but i'm not familiar with the STi so i don't know that you can inspect them without removing a wheel.

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?p=224635&posted=1#post224635 238,000 miles on the original clutch, that's reassuring.

clutch is nothing spectacular, just a cumbersome job because either the trans or motor has to come out. i'd avoid the dealer like the plague personally...actually i avoid them all and do it myself. but i do know a very reputable transmission shop in town that has been around for 20 or 30 years so i would tell someone to take it to them. dude that's nuts - 238,000 on the original clutch?

what is the key to avoiding wheel bearing failure? repacking them? proper lug nut torque? thanks.

look at the picture - your coolant temp sensor will look like that one, probalby including the green corossion!

the addage that AT gets worse gas mileage than MT is outdated. used to be *more true* than it is today. but those that say AT gets worse gas mileage (in general and not for a specific application) are regurgitating what they've heard others say. for certain applications, it is true but in general it only depends on the final gearing and the type of driving you do. so if someone says *this gets better than that* be sure they are talking about a specific car and know both transmissions well and aren't just repeating verbage they've heard in the past. the 4EAT transmission in the XT6 gets better gas mileage than the 5MT in the XT6. this is assuming everything else is equal - driver, terrain, gas, condition of motor...etc. at 75mph the 4EAT (i have two of them) runs around 3,000 rpms. at 75mph the 5MT (i've owned 4 of them) runs close to 4,000 rpm. it's louder and gets worse gas mileage at highway speeds. test drive both and see what rpm's they are at for highway driving. the one with the higher RPM at at given speed will have worse gas mileage. if they are equal, the manual transmission will get better mileage because they sustain less internal loss and are lighter. the 4EAT lock-up can be controllable. all it takes is installing a switch in line with one wire at the wiring harness to the transmission. very easy to do and well worth it for those driving off road or in the snow. with that, you have full control over lock-up, if you want it. technically you have more options than a 5MT. because you lock it up when you want to. But, when you don't have it locked up the computer can instantaneously adjust to driving conditions which the 5MT can not. if you're buying a new car you're off to a great start. a well taken care of automatic transmission can outlast the engine. install an AFTERMARKET TRANSMISSION COOLER immediately. subaru may install it for you. they are 30 dollars at the parts store and very simple to install and do wonders for AT's. a good transmission shop never returns a rebuilt or newly installed transmission without installing one of these as standard practice. by now, many older automatics are not as reliable as they are new because people haven't taken care of them, they have tons of miles without having the fluid changes, etc. that won't be an issue for a new one that you have control over. in the older transmissions (i've owned 1 XT and 6 XT6's) i find the manual transmissions weak. i've had problems with pilot bearings, throw out bearings and clutches. and i drove manual transmissions in the *early* days of owning XT6's, when they weren't nearly as old as they are now that i drive auto's. but i drive off road, mud, snow and stuff like that which is rough on a manual trans. city driving or an aggressive or off road driving style may lead to needing the clutch replaced which may end up costing more than AT maintenance. if you're not keen on maintenance or details then a manual transmission would be better suited. the manual transmissions are more forgiving. they are less sensitive to having mismatched tires and being towed improperly. if you don't rotate tires or blow tires and replace one with the wrong size or that's new and the rest are quite old....not paying attention to having matching tires...etc. these things can adversely affect an AT much quicker than a MT. MT are certainly easier to rebuild and much cheaper if you happen to have a transmission fail on you. and there are no computers and almost no electronics to cause issues.

it could go away. it could stay forever. you have a tiny disk only a few inches across stopping thousands of pounds of vehicle, it's not difficult for some of the energy to get dissipated into sound instead of heat. a brake job *normally* doesnt' make noise, but it's not unheard of, no pun intended. ask him what kind of pads he used. a different set or manufacturer of pads may help if the problem won't go away and is unresolvable and intolerable. i wouldn't call this an immediate concern so long as he didn't forget to tighten something. noisey brakes aren't a safety hazard (unless someone did something really stupid). i'd probably give him the benefit of the doubt if you trust him and wait a couple days. i wouldn't wait more than a week if you really want him to resolve this for you. brakes are so easy to do, with the wheel off for disk brakes the pads come out by removing ONE bolt. so he should be able to check it very easily.

don't know, but i hate to hear of OBS quirks as i just bought a 97 AWD Automatic OBS today!

Rockford has internet prices of 22.77 for the 430-09 (justy size), the 430-10 (should be for all other 80's subaru's) should be the same price, though i couldn't find a price for it.

a machine shop can rebuild them. you could even do it yourself. cut the old joint out with a sawzall type tool and then with some grinding and such you could probably do it yourself. i had a machine shop do it for about 100 dollars. can probably find a place to do it cheaper than that though. this is BETTER than a new unit because the ujoints are greasable and replaceable once they've been installed once. purchase the ujoints or get the part numbers from: http://www.staugustinefwd.com/ i think they run 29.95 per ujoint. seems expensive, you could probably get cheaper ujoints somewhere but i already had mine rebuilt so i haven't looked into it. IF YOU DO find a cheaper source let us know i might rebuild the ones in my other XT6's. i drive alot of miles (40,000+ a year) and drive off road alot in my XT6 so buying used wasn't an option....well after the 4th or 5th time it wasn't anyway. it was cheap, but i was getting tired of replacing used axles all the time. used ones are old and have been sitting around for who knows how long. depends what you want to spend and how much reliability you want.

yes they can. i've heard and done myself (not claiming i have any scientific proof or that i even heard this from a reliable person but i've done it) that it's best to use more than *one bottle* of the typical off the shelf products. of course my car has a huge gas tank (15.9 gallons). but even still, i've used up to 3 or 4 bottles at a time before. maybe that's a bad idea, but i've done it and my fuel injection is all stock at 207,000 miles i've never touched anything on it. ah...that's a lie my fuel pump did drip some around 190,000 miles so i replaced it. it worked fine, i assume all the rust got the worst of it. has any other work ever been done to the car? i'd think simple stuff before having the fuel injection "cleaned". how many miles do you have? what work has been done to it? O2 sensor air filter fuel filter tune up - plug wires, spark plugs, rotor, distributor cap (if you have one) if you have an Idle Air Control valve - spraying it out with a 2 dollar can of electrical contact cleaner will smooth up idles.

a friend of mine had a Ford Explorer that would randomly come in and out of 4WD. i don't know much about Ford 4WD's but figured i'd look, so i crawled under it and found a wire that was mysteriously ripped up, i'm guessing something from the road hit it as he doesnt drive off road or anything. i really didn't think i'd find anything but the wires were all scraped up and shorting out against the frame rail on the drivers side. spliced in new wire and the 4WD worked great. follow all the wires you can, like the rear speed sensor wire should be near the back of the transmission by the extension housing. the actual Duty Solenoid wire may be internal more than external so i don't know that you'll get a good look at it. this is in the snow right? if this was on dry pavement i'd wonder if something is wrong with your tires. do they match? are they properly inflated? are they wearing evenly? a mismatch will cause problems with the transfer clutch locking.

sounds like an alternator problem. have it and your battery tested. bad alternators aren't good for batteries and bad batteries aren't good for alternators. always make sure your connections are good and tight at the battery and the alternator. old, corroded or loose connections can cause bad battery and bad alternator symptoms. they can also make your battery or alternator go bad prematurely. my parents just replace their 10 year old battery in their van. just keep your connections clean and tight.

i installed a NEW axle two summers ago and it blew up within a week. what was i doing? driving less than 15 miles per hour in my parking lot at work, driving straight. it blew to pieces. the TCU was cycling the transfer clutches for the 4WD on and off, a good thing because it allowed me to turn around and get back to the parking lot where i installed another (used) axle the next day in the parking lot which is still in the car 50,000 miles later. i was driving between baltimore and DC just a couple months ago and noticed a guy totally spun out in the median. pulled over to help pull him out. no pulling him out - his 1 or 2 year old...can't remember what it was, dodge intrepid looking car, anyhow the CV joint had totally blown to pieces spinning him out of control somehow. the joint was in a bazillion pieces. wouldn't surprise me if their paying some guy 3 dollars a day in korea to assemble cv joints for 16 hours a day.

airbag light fixed for 400.00, what part costs 400 to fix that? the 4WD not engaging is unlikely to be rear diff related. if it's never been flushed, now would be a great time to flush your ATF but i wouldn't be surprised either way....if it fixed the problem or not. if you drive through snow or off road much i'd consider splicing a switch in place to manually lock your 4WD. (the technical terminology would be that you're splicing a switch in line with duty solenoid C, thereby locking your rear trasnfer clutch). then you control when lock-up occurs. then install a visible light which is connected to the same 2 pole switch so you know when it's on or off. don't want to leave it on when driving on pavement or lots of turning. this switch is nice, leaves the 4WD drive *locked* instead of the TCU cycling the DS C on and off as it detects slip. and if you're having a problem locking up, this might be a good work around and give you more capabilities. it's very easy, just a matter of splicing one wire, the one to Duty Solenoid C. unfortunately i don't have lots of OBS information so i can't tell you which wire. though i will find out soon because i am picking up a *new* 1997 OBS in a matter of minutes. i attached an under hood picture showing only the one wire you'd have to splice in a 4EAT. run this wire to the center console and simply install a switch to engage/disengage Duty Solenoid C....and even when it's *Off* or out of 4WD, it will act as normal and engage/disengage as necessary like it normally would.

60,000 seems way early. i'd double check your battery and starter connections first. make sure all are tight. autozone/advance auto parts will check starters for free. depends how much you drive, $, how long you plan on having it, reliability concerns. if you were in college i'd say get a used one for cheap. if you don't care about the loot, then get a rebuilt one for better reliability though a used one should last awhile....longer than 60,000 for sure. rebuilding the starter yourself is simple and very cheap. locating the parts is the tricky part. you need brushes and the solenoid i think, though i've never actually done an OBS. an electrical shop/distributor/supply house can give you the right parts. if you live close to a big city you should be able to find one of these (i found a huge supplier in atlanta years ago that stocked these parts, very inexpensive). if you have an electrical automotive rebuilder close by you should be able to take them the brushes and solenoid and they can hook you up with new ones and put it back together. don't forget to clean everything up real good with electrical contact cleaner (just a non-residue cleaner is all it is). spray internals down really good except greased areas (bearings). the details are making it sound more difficult than it is. my XT6 is at 207,000 miles on the original starter (unless it was replaced pre-100,000 when i got it, but i highly doubt it). owned another XT6 from 75,000 - 196,000 miles on the original starter (had all the original owners paper work - starter was never replaced). i keep meaning to rebuild this joker but never get around to it.

it has the 2.2 liter motor, those have less headgasket issues than the 2.5liter motors right? that's the impression i had. thanks for the tips, i'll be doing all the services myself. i'll have the trans fluid flushed and i'll install an ATF cooler as well.

Picking up a 1997 OBS AWD Automatic today with 61,000 miles on it. I plan on addressing the timing belt immediately. Then shortly afterwards i'll replace ignition wires, plugs, air filter, fuel filter, trans filter and all fluids (trans, oil, brakes, diff...etc). Any suggested replacement items or things to look for? It was recommended by a very respected subaru enthusiast to not touch the water pump or oil pump seals until the next timing belt change. How about the crank and cam seals? I've owned 6 XT6's (3 currently) so i'm very familiar with the older EA82 and ER27 motors. guess i'll be spending time in New and Old generation forums now.... thanks and have fun

Fox is on it - give it time. noise will likely go away. did you change the oil or just add a little? what weight? if it doesn't clear up post back.

the title of this thread says "smoking under the hood". need to know where that is coming from. seems something is dripping on something hot. need to fill in those somethings for us. if it's smoking....it's very possible it's leaking. let's assume you're not leaking under the hood...though that sounds unlikely to me if smoke is coming from under the hood. need more details. if you're seeing smoke out the tail pipe then i'm wondering if you're loosing anything? after 3,000 miles...any oil loss? any coolant loss? verify you're not loosing any coolant, transmission fluid or oil, get back to us and move on from there. do you have any busted CV boots (at the ends of the axles where they meet the wheels?) if they are cracked or busted grease can fling onto hot parts and burn off.

got some rusted crank pulleys and others. what's the best way to clean the rust and prevent recurrence when i install them? anything better than just wire brushing them?