idosubaru

leave it in and keep adding it. it's not very much, so it's no surprise it will take awhile to do anything sometimes, if it does. i've used 2 quarts before and even 2 quarts of ATF in my current 205,000 original miles XT6 with no problems. absolutely no tapping from this thing, not even a little in cold weather or idle or whatever. i run Mobil 10w30 all year. original oil pump and everything else. machine shop that rebuilds alot of motors and heads in my area said that even regular oil with frequent enough oil changes will gradually *clean* your motor...but i bet that takes a long freaking time so i wouldn't count on that getting you anywhere. but once you get rid of the tick, keep changing your oil frequently for that reason and you should be good to go. you changed the oil pump seals already? is the tick coming from all around or one particular side or one particular cylinder? have you already diagnosed all of this?

there's nothing you need to change to the fuel system. the things i would say you really should replace: there's a reinforced o-ring that i've only seen supplied from Subaru and www.thepartsbin.com that you will want to replace between the cam and the head at the lower corner. get new cam seals as well. optional things to replace: there are also metal clip on orings that attach to the cam carrier that you can replace if you'd like. OEM Subaru parts. there are two on each cam i believe (one is circular, the other is round, you'll need 2 of each - one for each side). not a bad idea to get some engine assembly lube for the cams and followers as you install them. of course timing belts, water pump and oil pump seals while you're in there. while you're that far, it's not a bad idea to replace the head gaskets especially considering you're going to be messing with the boost. or you can worry about replacing the head gaskets later once you're done *tweaking*. i personally wouldn't replace the cam followers, but i've never had problems with them. good luck, these EA82's are awesome to work on, as i say all the time. i'd like to pick up a 4 cylinder XT so i have something simple with good gas mileage around.

depends on time/money. i think pulling the motor offers little in rewards to effort ratio. i have an engine lift and do it without a problem, but in general i wouldn't say pulling the motor offers anything worthy of the extra time and effort. these 4 cylinders are awesome to work on, you can do the heads in the car and be done with it in no time. the only advantage you have is to replace the rear main oil seal and gasket on the oil separator....along with the transmission stuff if you want. but the oil separator is a very minor issue (though it's dirty and the stock one is basically heavy paper) and the rear main seal rarely has problems (not nearly as much as the front crank seal in my experience). i've pulled a couple 200,000 mile blocks and haven't seen a seep around the rear crank seal. one guy on the xt6 site says they never leak and he never replaces them. that being said, having the motor out is nice, easy access and definetly don't touch the block. pulling the motor and transmission out together is always a nice option, it's very clean and easy to do that way. if you have an auto, it's much easier to seat the torque converter properly with the both out of the car. all you have to do is loosen a couple tranny mount bolts, pull the axles (no bolt) and drop the rear drive shaft if it's AWD (very easy to do). if you wanted to save money and just replace the gaskets then i'd recommend replacing both head gaskets even if only one appears to be leaking. a friend blew a head gasket, i replaced one side because that was the only side gushing coolant. after reassembling after replacing one gasket, turned out the other side was leaking as well...i guess due to overheating. both heads were fine. valve job, valve seals, test and mill head, replace gaskets and you'll be driving a long time. make sure the heads and block surfaces are CLEAN. and the head bolt holes as well.

mine have 205,000 miles on them and work great. i do have a rebuild kit ready for whenever i get around to it or they fail. i just did a set for myphalyx and it was straight forward to rebuild them. i had never done it before and bought the kit and completed the job with no problems. can't beat it for 7 dollars or whatever the kit costs. much better than 150 dollars for new calipers. it is very typical for the piston to be tight to push (turn) back in. even after the rebuild it was grueling to get the piston to move in and out by hand. i would suspect the brake master cylinder or fluid first. did you bleed in the correct order? did you make sure that while bleeding the master cylinder the reservoir didn't get to low and suck air into the lines? seems odd to me that you don't have any braking in the front? if both front brakes are sketchy it would be coincidental that both calipers are sticking unless something out of the ordinary happened to them....they both sat on a shelf for 10 years for instance. does your emergency brake work? that is connected to the fronts...at least on the XT6 it is. it will help seat the pistons and pads.

if it were anything internal i'd suspect the valve train before the rings. the valve issues are easy to address if you or someone you know can do the work. all you have to do is pull the heads and take them to a machine shop. reinstall your heads and new gaskets and let me know when you see 350,000 miles. not sure what motor you have, but the EA82's are super easy to work on in my oppinion. if you straight up pay a shop to do it, it will be very expensive and very few will do it right (for a reasonable cost). check your spark plugs and see which get dirty or fouled up, you might see a particular cylinder causing problems. a compression test might tell you more.

cam and crank seals are good to replace or at least check. in tearing down kevins motor, his crank seal would wobble just by touching it, it was crooked and could have easily come out at some point. all are easy to do with engine in car.

the resulting time, damage and annoyance may or may not be worth it to you. i've never done it so i shouldn't say much, but it can definetly be done. not knowing anything specific about your vehicle, but some of these 4WD soobs have clips and such that need to come out first, be sure they are removed before pounding. or you end up with dented hubs and pride like me. i started the process then dropped the hubs and bearings off to a machine shop.

make sure the main wiring harnesses are plugged in. for the XT's there are two main wiring harnesses. they can be very tricky to push ALL THE WAY in. looks very simple, but sometimes they aren't seated all the way and maybe you could have an inoperable trans if it's not plugged in. on the XT6 these two connectors are on the passengers side of the engine. check these. they are very large and it's like they are sealed or something, making them very hard to press together sometimes. you could pull the ATF hoses off and see if any fluid is being pumped through them. if no fluid comes out, then that's likely a sure sign you'll have to pull something (trans or motor). is it possible you disconnected or contacted the shifter linkage for any reason, maybe thought about pulling the trans...etc? i'm only familiar with the XT6 auto trans, but the TC is slightly tricky to install. the FSM explains it well. it will seem seated, but still has like 1/4 " to go or something like that. sounds like it might be the same for this motor. that being said, i know someone installed an XT6 without lining the TC up properly and the transmission was indeed trashed....i think it destroys the pump somehow. AGAIN - this is XT6 specific so i don't know how much of this pertains to you. if you really think you need to pull....checked wiring harnesses....then i'd consider pulling the motor and trans at the same time. makes installing the TC much easier. and then if you do have to intsall a new tranny, it's already out. with the motor out, the trans is literally only like a couple more bolts and just pull it out attached to the motor as an assembly. and reinstall the same way. very easy and clean.

the least expensive way to do it would be to replace everything on one side and see if it fixes that side. if you chose to replace the hub, control arm, axle, ball joint...whatever. trans and diff every made any noise or do anything funky?

first - i really have no idea. big questin - has he ever replaced a front axle? being that it's BOTH front axles i would start considering what in the transmission or differential (i'm not familiar with FWD vehicles) could cause this. maybe there is some kind of binding or compromising situation in the trans or diff causing this. seems strange and i can't think of what exactly that could be, but the only common link between both front axles is the transmission. if it were one hub doing this i'd say replace the axle, hub and ball bearing at the same time just in case. but having the problem on both sides seems to eliminate the parts independent to *one side*, which is why i'm questioning the diff/trans. maybe someone here can suggest something further. if you still suspect something *at the corner*, i'd replace the hub and axles and ball joints. is it possible it has the wrong axles, control arm, ball joints or the axles have been warn in some way that makes them not fit tightly and wear the hubs down? can you check the spline count on the axles? i've found transmissions for 200 - 300 before....i mean this is a last resort and i'm by no means saying this even could be the problem, just giving you information up front. either way, replacing a trans isn't that hard and doesn't have to be nearly as expensive as most people think. no way i'd trash a good running subaru for this problem unless you're in a good position to get another suba....(edit politically correct)...another car.

bought a house this week with a barn that will turn into my garage very shortly. let me know what you need/want done (I've already got some projects lined up). my other XT6 isn't driveable yet and my truck doesn't have a spare and has expired tags (i just got it), otherwise i'd start the project on my daily driver XT6. i almost laughed when i saw your signature posted to this thread, i thought for sure you were going to comment on the oil leaks.....us XT6er's have plenty of experience with them! that's alot of working hot dog!! make sure you're having some fun.

you're safe hotdog, he said "If" he had a daughter, so it's all in good fun for now. i love fishing, i have some big hooks of my own for when i have some daughters, how bout choo?

all this for 30 mph...settle down. carl lewis RAN 29 mph. let's hug, make up and talk subaru's. there's guys on this board doing 100+ on a regular basis. start another thread (or website) if you're concerned about that. i'm being serious, not trying to be a smart rump roast. someone's driving is their own responsibility. if they drive crazy it's their fault or their parents. you're not genetically programmed to push a gas pedal. it's learned behavior or lack of restraint. do you think it was AWD (they might all be AWD for all i know)? i know nothing about the wrx, but doesn't it have LSD front and rear AWD? would the AWD wrx have better traction than the AWD XT6? the manual XT6 you can sit a little better if you have the manual or modified auto tranny to lock the center.

try to rule out the turbo as quickly as you can. loosing oil at the turbo isn't great, might cause more problems for you later. in general oil leaks are much more annoying that dangerous....smoke, spots on pavement...etc. keep checking and adding and don't neglect oil changes profusely just bedcuase you're adding *new* oil. if you're loosing oil at the turbo, that should be obvious by looking...i think. i can't imagine it's all that hard to distinguish between a turbo leak and a valve cover leak. snug up your valve cover bolts, that may help a valve cover leak. or just replace your valve cover gaskets. if the motor is too dirty/oily, spray it off with engine cleaner so you can identify the leaks. if that's an EA82 i'd suggest a new mechanic. 600 for a timing belt and water pump seems high. i hope he resealed your oil pump and replaced the cam and crank seal while he was in there otherwise your new timing belt gets removed (another couple hundred dollars) all over again just to replace parts that cost less than 10 dollars. i rebuilt someone's EA82 this summer for 1,200 including ported heads, repaired heads, valve job, performance cam grind, complete head gasket job and reseal, all new timing belts and pulley, rebuilt oil pump....blah blah blah.... my point is that a timing belt and water pump should run you about half that or less. unless you have the dealer do everything. good luck and have fun

greg, i haven't seen the tire, but firing from the hip i wouldn't rule out a bad tire. swap tires in the rear and see if it happens to another tire before swapping anything unless you know it needs it. or rebuild your entire rear end if you got the time/$. i'd double check your bushings and such in the rear and that mechanical linkage. good luck and have fun,

buy a used one at a pull it parts place or from someone on the group and have it resurfaced by a machine shop. probably your cheapest solution if you can find a good deal and have a decent machine shop with good prices. i sold my extra XT6 flywheel for...i don't remember but it wasn't very much. or....... FIX YOUR XT6!!!!!

i forgot to mention...on the XT6 there is actually a way to wire a momentary switch into only 2 wires under the drivers seat (where the computer is located). if you wire this switch with two particular wires you can throw the switch and it will raise the struts to the *high* level. if you throw the switch again it will lower the car to the *standard* level. i know 3 people that have done this on the XT6 and gotten it to work, i tried last winter and it was not working on mine for some reason. there appear to be very minor discrepencies in wiring on certain vehicles (at least on mine)???? not sure, but mine wouldn't work but others didn't seem to have a problem. i tried 3 different computers and still no luck. unfortunately i don't know the two wires off the top of my head and it's confusing to explain it over email. best to look at the FSM wiring diagram, the computer is already wired for height control (the canadian models have selctable height control, the pod on the left has the height control button that the US models do not). just splice a switch into the appropriate two wires and yo'ure done. i'd like to look into it one more time and try to get mine to work. the US and Canadian models are identical...the US models have the same computer and circuitry, they just don't have the button in the control pod. this would be by far the easiest way to accomplish any height control. wouldn't have full control, but would give you a high and low. i'm really pissed i couldn't get mine to work. i hope someone here can get it to work and show pictures or document the exact wires.

don't know anything about this, but is it possible that the stock coil doesn't supply a spark for the entire length of contact of the distributor rotor? but the accel coil does? i have no idea, just throwing that out there. i am about to get a new coil and would like to *upgrade* if there is such a thing, so keep the commentaries coming i'm not sure what i'm going to do. but at 204,000 on the original coil i think it's time. what about MSD since we're talking about coils, don't them make coils? accel can't be the only one out there.

if you jack each front wheel up you should be able to tell which bearing is bad. try to make the wheel *wobble* with your hands, you should feel the bad bearing has some give or noise to it. if you're not going to do this yourself, you could remove the hubs and give them to a machine shop along with a new set of bearings. that's probably the cheapest solution unless you have a decent mechanic. having a spare set of hubs makes it even easier. you could always buy a used hub as well, which are obviously not as reliable as new bearings. i've put 200,000 miles on 3 different sets of front and rear bearings on XT6's and have never had them fail.

someone mentioned that a bad height sensor on an XT6 air suspension will prevent the compressor from turning on. i can't verify that as i've never had that problem or tried anything with it. i would be interested in having full control as well, but leaving the stock suspension computer intact most of the time. i'd like that function for driving off road and in the snow. if you get anywhere with this, let me know and take pictures or something. that would be awesome. i'll do the same if i get around to it, but it won't be anytime soon. gary

easy to deal with, no big deal. if it comes out - put it back in. if it strips the threads in the head then get a helicoil kit to "install" new threads. you could consider drilling out larger holes and tapping them to use larger studs. be advised, you may have to drill exhaust flange/header as well for the bolt to pass through. if only one of them strips out....leave it out. i currently have at least one missing on each side for whatever reason and it's been like that for quite some time...and no leak at all. not even a little. AND I EVEN INSTALLED THE ORIGINAL FREAKING GASKET when i did my head gaskets. i resealed the entire motor and because i was planning on doing more work i just reinstalled the old, horrible looking exhaust gaskets and held on to my new ones. that was 30,000 miles and over a year ago....still no leak....and still none of that *more work* i was planning on doing....well that's not true i did weld up new exhaust beyond the y pipe.

i like ignoring noises for 50,000 miles until it starts clicking while i'm driving straight then i start thinking about when i'll get around to changing the axle. nice idea with the cat, that's awesome!

causing blown head gasket, is that what you're asking? bolts and bolt holes need to be clean, super clean. overheating? radiator, thermostat, hoses. i'm currently exploring bad timing as being a major cause of head gasket failures. (i've read it a few places and some people agree). i had horrible timing issues (long story that i'm not sure i even know why/what happened)...anyway my new gaskets lasted 30,000 miles on the pass side and almost 40,000 on the drivers side.

forgive me if the details aren't exactly right, this is all from memory. there are two sprockets on the oil pump shaft. behind the last sprocket or maybe even connected to the back sprocket...again my memory is weak, but there's a *plate* of sorts. a very thin piece of metal. i'm thinking this plate may have detached and whir around, causing this sound. i'd check for a loose plate on the oil pump (with the car off). if i were home i'd check my extra oil pump, but i'm at work. i highly doubt you need to replace your oil pump. 3 XT6's 198,000 / 196,000 and my current daily driver at 204,000 miles with the original oil pumps in them. if you can't find the noise, might have to though.

about 10 years ago i saw a rag-top XT in a Reisterstown, MD parking lot. I was in highschool and didn't think anything of it. This was before i knew anything about cars or subarus so i never inspected it, i just assumed they "came that way". knowing what i know now i wish i would have inspected it, leaves too many questions. i'll never know if it was a convertible or someone tried to make it look like one. convertible XT's have been nothing but legends and photoshop artwork.