idosubaru

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.

my passengers side head gasket lasted 30,000 miles through my ignition problems. the current drivers side has 37,000 miles on it and it's leaking about a gallon every 100 miles internally. it's getting replaced this weekend. they still lasted awhile. but i drive over 30,000 miles a year, i don't want to be changing head gaskets once a year....grrrrr..... lots of variables involved....i just know in my situation there are too many coincidental things going on more than once for it not to be something wrong. i'm HOPING it's ignition related so i can keep this from happening again.

your car is not strange or different or experiencing anything non-typical. the problem will often come and go. is it tapping on one side in particular or all over the place? can you narrow it down to one or more particular cylinders (using one of those mechanics stethoscopes maybe?). if you can narrow it down to one or two cylinders, that would indicate a HLA (or multiple ones) is sticking. if it's across the board affecting them all then it's more likely oil supply related. i mentioned it before, you may want to try some ATF or MMO (not as good in my oppinion, but probably more *acceptable*). your lifters could very well be dirty, sticky...etc. so no amount of work on your oil flow will fix that. you can reseal the entire motor if you'd like, rebuild it if you wish, if you don't address sticky HLA's none of that will matter.....it will still tick. and it will run poorly when they are tapping, the valve train isn't working properly. it could be your cam tower o-ring as you mentioned. or the springs. in my experience i think it's more often the oil pump seals or sticky/dirty HLA's. did you clean the mating surface between pump and block? did you put a small amount of sealant on the zig-zag line where the two halves of the block come together? i have 200,000 miles...about 350,000 km or something and i use 10w-30 all year long with zero ticking.

those head gaskets should hold 10 psi just fine. you could try corteco gaskets, roughly the same price and i've heard good things about them. i'm installing them on my XT6.

i had the same thing happen to my XT6. installed new headgaskets. motor out of car, cleaned up everything, cleaned bolt holes, cleaned head bolt threads.....30,000 miles later my pass side HG leaked and looked EXACTLY the same as yours when i pulled it. now my drivers side is doing the same thing as the pass side did....i'm pulling it in the next couple days and i can promise it'll look the same, failure in the same exact spot. the same relative cylinder....front of motor has the leak. i read through a good bit of material trying to figure this out and i did read in two places that ignition problems can cause premature head gasket failure. one site even claimed "poor ignition timing is the leading cause of head gasket damage"....? i'd guess overheating, but whatever that's not the point. i had mad ignition timing problems with mine and kept driving it like that for a long time. maybe that caused it, maybe not. i still never addressed that timing issue, so who knows. i was never able to get the distributor lined up properly....long story with no end yet. anyway, i should go address that distributor. have you had any timing issues?

the correct spelling is w, h, e, e, l, b, a, r...**** that's a weird word. i like them s, e, a, t's though. what the freak? those are RX seats, never seen that before, they are really nice. but i've never really seen or been in an RX or really much of anything other than XT's really. i don't know that i could care any less what my car looks like, but i'd pick those up for 30 dollars. what kind of material is the checkered part? and what makes/models/years can they be found in? nice hit.

i'm not real familiar with the rear defrost, so pardon the lack of details. can you test continuity between the relay and the rear wiring? or test for voltage at the rear when the defrost is turned on? (i know i already said that, just trying to consolidate). is it possible for a relay to be compromised in some way that it still clicks but doesn't actually transfer power properly? have another relay you can swap in? if you verify voltage at the rear, then this suggestion is pointless obviously.

be patient - a break, like this sleep you're getting right now is probably all you really needed. getting the manual trans in is annoying at times. you sound calm so far, i'd be cussing the subaru engineers telling them that i'm flying over there and taking over their jobs cause they're idiots. i don't think you need to do this, but it is a last resort if you have a lift and get pissed. you could eventually say screw it and lay the motor and transmission on the ground and do it that way. then use the lift to install the entire thing. it's super easy to install that way, no hassles at all. good luck,

can you check for continuity between the wires at the glass and the relay or fuse box or wiring harness up front? i'd like to know if any power is even getting to the rear window. can you trace the wires to the window and give them 12 volts, see what happens? do you have a defroster light in the dash? if so, does it come on when you turn the rear defroster on?

other car manufacturers have the CE light flash the codes, not soobs though. does it always do it? did you try disconnecting the battery? is everything that you worked on hooked up and wired properly? it never had this problem before right? or has it always done this since the engine swap?

female connectors.....nice one, i get it! i feel so in the loop!

starter is a good place to look. i'd probably check the grounds first because it's easier and quicker. i've seen this exact problem (like this summer even) with a bad ground wire as well. Actually i still have a heavy gauge wire wrapped around my negative battery cable going to one of the ground points....need to clean that up and use some actual connections. since i added that wire it starts right up.