idosubaru

he put it in 4wd once and said it *seemed* to stop, i wouldn't rule out anything just yet. easy things to check are always nice to start the process of elimination.

i'd check the driveshaft. they can also seize, meaning the ujoints are almost stuck in place and will feel tight by grabbing it. you can visually see damage or pull it out and the joint won't budge....actually it might even be hard to get out because the joint is so stiff. does this thing have hub caps or a center cap? lug studs/nuts could shear off and rattle/clunk around inside as well.

that's good to know that the pick up tube oring is accessible. like i said, noone in the XT6 world has attempted it that i know of. jacking the front of the motor up and lowering the rear of the transmission is the way i do the oil pan gasket. cam carrier gasket is silicone based as you now know. that's OEM. i've seen those gaskets distorted just as you mentioned. someone made small metal inserts (our of muffler tape i think), to install inside the mickey mouse oil pump o-rings to prevent them from being sucked into the ports like that. your felpro kit included the two cam carrier reinforced orings? the XT6 fel pro kits i received did not have those. and they didn't come with the RTV sealant for the cam carrier either. that's an expensive kit to not be complete! the XT6 kit retails over 200, local place cut me a deal at 150 fortunately.

just realized it's manual steering. sounds like normal non-assisted power steering. 2 - sometimes 4wd can be stubborn to disengage. i wouldn't immediately call it a problem (except that you shouldn't drive on pavement like that as everyone else has said).

change oil like a champ. soob's have HLA's (hydraulic valve lash adjustors), nice because they never need adjusting, they can't be adjusted. but they don't like being dirty. they stick, the seize and they make lots o' noise when they do. clean oil = clean HLA's, which is good for you. tigthen your valve cover bolts (don't strip them or go nuts, just make sure they aren't loose), the grommets under the bolts degrade over time and allow the valve cover bolts to loose their hold on the covers. lots of oil can come out of these things. takes 5 minutes to snug up the 10mm bolts around the covers. pay particular attention to the bottom bolts. if you're lucky, might help some of your leaking. of course old subaru's can leak from anywhere, but this is quick enough it's worth doing. can also tighten oil pan bolts if you like. check wiring - make sure battery, alternator wires and cables are all good, clean and tight. this will save headaches down the road. also check your ground wires, not sure where they are on your car. basic tune up is a good idea - plugs, wires, cap, rotor, coil, air filter. do it all at once so you're not trouble shooting weird problems next year. tranny fluid, so i guess it's an automatic? transmission coolers are an excellent 30 dollars spent if you don't like replacing transmissions. inspect your radiator - so you have an idea how good/bad it is. replace your thermostat, it's cheap. old headgaskets don't like overheating. other than trans cooler and tune up, everything else is essentially free or very cheap.

i concur, you can generally pick up a few used transmissions for the cost of a rebuild (for an XT6 anyway). if you have space, grab an extra one when you see a good deal. i do it myself, but if you don't a transmission shop should swap them out and replace the filter for you for 150-200 bucks. it's a very easy job with the right equipment. 250 for a used trans plus 250 for install = 500. i'd rather pay that twice (which isn't likely if you shop smart) than 3,000 for a quality rebuild. don't forget to drain and fill the diff fluid in the trans. i installed a used one i traded parts for 50,000 miles ago.

"up" sounds right, but i didn't want to say that without actually seeing it.

arrow points in the direction of the airflow. imagine you were a molecule and wanted to find the way INTO the engine, follow the arrow.

how about a fuse?

tighten your valve cover bolts. the grommets get worn, sometimes snugging them up will drastically reduce oil leakage. it's very easy to do with a 10mm wrench and takes very little time. 5 minutes maybe, it's worth a try.

it's debatable, maybe or maybe not. MMO is probably less impactful in those terms than ATF or synthetic motor oil. also depends on oil leaks. we were working on kevins (myphalyx) XT6 and his crank seal was about to come off, it was cocked in place and wobbled by touching it and leaked. that kind of leak is not going to get any worse by adding MMO. but on cars of this age, usually it's the gaskets that are leaking. valve covers, heads, cam carrier/head junction. whatever you do, keep changing your oil. it's easy to think you're adding new, fresh oil so why change it. not so - keep your eye on your oil color. change it when it starts getting dirty. you can add two quarts of *fresh* oil and the oil in the pan will still look black and dirty. get it out of there. these motors (the HLA's) do not like dirty oil. they will seize, they will get stuck, they will tick.

tied as the most lowered XT6 ever since nearly every AWD XT6 on the road has been like that at some point. i've driven like that for extended periods, it is no fun and unsafe. it may handle well in autox...IF the track is smooth...any bumps and the car becomes highly unstable. when you hit a bump, it *bounces* and you have no weight, no traction and tires (front or rear or both) can easily slide out from under you. someone destroyed their rear drive train (axles and diff) driving around like this, though i never had any problems like that. in college i was driving from atlanta to auburn, AL on a daily basis (100 miles one way) like this about a dozen times. the bridge joints were killers, brace yourself for those...

in the XT6 world it is recommended to never touch this pick up tube. they do not come out very easily at all. i would wonder if the o-ring was distorted by the process of getting it out. i have been *told*, though not by what i consider reliable resources because i can't remember who told me this, that the oil pump pick up tube is essentially pressed in place on an XT6. best to have a machine shop do it. like i said, i have no actual experience with removing it myself. of all the XT6 guru's that i know, i don't know of any that have removed this pick up tube, so you are now considered a legend. i did attempt to remove it a few years ago and when i got this advice i decided to just put the oil pan back and leave it alone. that was 50,000 miles ago and i haven't had a problem with it, i'm at 203,000 miles now. definetly post more info on how the reinstall goes with the pick up tube. i was always curious about it since it stumped me a few years ago.

when HLA's first start getting noisy an immediate oil change regardless of brand, weight or type will often quiet them down. i've also seen instances where changing the oil weight will help as well.

kevin you meant to say EA82T right? not EA82? just checking, i'm getting half confused with these night shift hours and all these cars you keep buying!

you're the only one who can make the financial decision. the subaru itself should last along time. seems you are having more than average problems for your vehicle, is it super high mileage? if you're taking it to a shop - are you sure they are 100 percent reliable? i've put over 300,000 miles on XT6's and i've never had wheel bearings or brakes fail (i've never even replaced rotors) and 3 of those had 200,000 or more miles including my daily driver. the shop you take it too may be fixing items that don't need attention. with the calipers, wheel bearings and timing belts done you should be getting close to reliable. hopefully...with a good mechanic your water pump (and oil pump, but i bet they didn't) should have been addressed with the timing belt. older cars can be tough to maintain if you don't keep on top of it. for someone who is paying someone else to do the work (which i never do)...but i would recommend either keeping the car you got or getting something with very low mileage (almost new). why? because if you get an older car you're looking at timing belts, water pump and all that other stuff all over again. not really gaining anything over where you're at now. and i never recommend buying new cars. i'd try to have a plan of attack over the next year. replace (or have rebuilt) the alternator, starter, battery, spark plugs, wires, distributor cap, rotor, ignition coil and fuel pump. say...do one of these every month or every other month or all at once if you'd like. save some money by finding a decent place to rebuild your alternator and starter which would be much cheaper than buying new. these are critical items that may be nearing their lifespan. keep your old ones as spares or sell them for a few dollars to get some of your money back. you should be able to replace all of these for say - 250-400 dollars off the top of my head. i'd replace any of the above items well before replacing a CV boot myself. i have driven 50,000 miles on a broken CV boot, doesn't hurt anything (stay out of sand and other extremly gritty material). if it starts clicking while yo'ure driving straight then start thinking about replacing it. but those other items are much more important in terms of reliability. good luck whatever you choose,

sounds like you're doing good so far, gotten this far with no questions. it does get faster with time. if you have good tools to break the axle nut loose, this job can be very quick. best to use a new pin, that's what's always suggested though i've never heard of one breaking or coming loose and i wouldn't ever grease the roll pin. be sure you didn't mash one end of it out of round, that will prevent it from easily entering the *second* hole that you're trying to line up. the hole in the axle has to line up with the hole in the stubby shaft underneath. any lip or deformation on the pin can keep it from going smoothly. if tapping it doesn't work, then it's not lined up correctly. crawl under there with a flashlight and leave the axle pin and hammer alone for a minute. look through the holes and get them to line up by hand, until you can see through it, get an idea of where it should be.

on a recently acquired subaru i'd plan on frequent oil changes - keep checking it to see if it gets dirty prematurely. if the previous owner didn't change the oil much it could get dirty very quickly. if your lifters aren't dirty or stuck now, frequent changes after you start driving it will reverse whatever contamination they received by the previous owner. i have never replaced an oil pump on 5 XT6's in the past 10 years after many hundreds of thousands of miles of driving. i've had three motors with 200,000 + miles and no ticking. where i live subaru stocks oil pumps for the same reason they stock XT6 power steering pumps. they can charge 200 for an oil pump and 600 for a power steering pump.....but to fix either one of those pumps the parts are only a few dollars. dealers never rebuild parts for you. they won't rebuild your alternator, starter, power window motor, power steering pump, brake calipers....yet all of those parts (except the alternator) can be rebuilt for less than 10 bucks. and often an XT6 alternator just has a bad solder joint in it that can be cleaned up resoldered. maybe they will rebuild them if you ask, but most people just take the dealers word for it and replace the part with new.

bad engine mounts could cause additional stress to boots as well. my boots are breaking at 30,000 miles or less (which is less than a year of driving for me). time to try something else - like engine mounts as mine are toast. i've tried different manufacturers including original subaru axles and don't get much life out of any of them. i even had a brand new axle blow apart last summer. my cv joint ended up in about 87 pieces lying on the ground. balls rolling around and everything, glad it happened in a parking lot.

the air suspension isn't all that difficult to maintain. you need to be able to source parts and do some work. but once you get it working and understand it, it's not that bad. don't let it seem confusing - it's only a computer that uses the solenoids, compressor and tank to fill up the struts. not really that complicated. i put off working on it for too long, thinking it was difficult. make sure the compressor and the solenoids for each strut work. the solenoids are likely in the engine bay right next to the top of the struts in the front and connected to the struts in the rear (i have only worked on XT6's so im not 100 percent sure of the XT). buy a bunch of o-rings and replace ALL of them. at each air line fitting you'll find o-rings. at the air tank, compressor, solenoids, replace them all. these are common leakage points. if your compressor is bad, it's likely because it ran too long because of an exisiting leak. the orings aren't hard to replace but do not break the air lines fittings. they are fragile. a piece of tubing with a slit cut down the length of it so you can wrap it around the air line will slide down and pry all the fingers apart if you can find the right sized tubing at a hardware store. imagine a short piece of straw cut down the length so you can slide it over the air line....slide it down and it will pry the fingers open without damaging them. now with that picture in your mind, find some better material than a plastic stray at the hardware store and you'll have an air line removal tool. or borrow/buy one from subaru. if you want your struts to last and they have any age to them...pull them off and use some fittings from the parts store to extend them all the way with an air compressor. you'll see where the rubber air bag meets the metal lower portion of the strut. be sure to wire brush this really good, make is smooth and paint it with some type of very resilient paint. rust at this juncture is what ruins most struts. the rust builds up and will gradually break down the rubber where it meets the rusted metal portion of the lower strut. i've yet to have any struts leak air from anywhere else but this point where the rust forms. take care of that and your struts will last a long time. best bet is to find a cheap source for parts and buy one of everything, that way you have it on hand just in case. you already checked the compressor, right? and yo'ure sure it wasn't putting out any air? again if your compressor is indeed bad, be sure to replace all of your o-rings and keep your eyese out for leaky struts - any leak will cause the compressor to cycle on all the time and shorten it's lifespan. give 12 volts to each solenoid - you should hear them click open and close. i'm not familiar with the relays so follow the instructions from others for that as i've never had issues with them. now that i've said too much.....make sure your compressor does or does not work and we'll go from there. with the compressor off, be sure to remove all the old orings and replace them with new. also - apply grease to the new orings when you install them.

i've read that bad engine mounts can stress cv axles. one cv manufacturer suggests that bad engine mounts are the leading cause of axle failure. which got me wondering because my engine mounts are in bad shape and i too have replaced numerous axles.

keith, unfortunately i don't know the answer, but you are wise to find out. i know for the XT6 AWD auto (4EAT) transmission, messing with that retainer is critical. only thing i've been told that is if you're just removing it and reinstalling it, to mark the retainer and housing and count how many turns it takes to come off. then install it the same way it was. as for new bearings i don't know. in my case it wasn't necessary so i didn't end up doing it.

check your cv boots...see if one is ripped. clicking while turning is almost always a cv boot. very rarely is it something else. they CAN click even if the boots are not torn, but usually they'll be torn. check behind each wheel and look for clicking. should be in the front, i've never heard the backs click but check them as well. i think you're wasting time looking at anything until you're positive your cv joints are fine.

can you just install the head and gasket properly? the oil pump was turning when you cranked it, so the engine block should be fine. it never ran, so it didn't over heat. i can't imagine the head is damaged. if this is an EA 82, these motors are really easy to work on.

i resealed (head gaskets and up) an EA82 this summer and them things are super easy to do. i've owned 5 XT6's so i'm used to the 6 cylinder, more work, more parts, bigger parts, less space. the 4 cylinders are AWESOME. so much so that i wouldn't mind having one now because they are so freaking easy and better gas mileage. you could easily crank that job out in a day, i do without air tools. the headgasket could easily be done in a day as well. (a long day, but a day) are you planning on cleaning the lifters out while you're in there? it's time consuming but a really good idea once you're in there. if a lifter gets dirty, stuck or noisey there's no way to address it externally. i'd seriously consider doing this if you plan on keeping the car for any length of time. now...getting it done without encountering problems is nice. i'll address the common problems i encounter. rust - bolts get rusty, they shear or become stuck. and many EA82's are older than my ER27's, the ones i worked on are always more rusty than my XT6's. have a bottle of liquid wrench. don't use WD-40. go the day before and spray down every rusty bolt you can see that you think you'll touch. spray it down 2 or 3 times before you actually start the job if you can. timing belt cover bolts are notoriously rusty and tricky. cam pulley bolts, radiator fan bolts, timing cover bolts....all suspect to rust. timing cover bolts - you will turn the bolt and the insert that the bolt it's threaded into will turn...so the bolt never backs out. you can play with it and sometimes get it to break loose - but it's tricky. often i'll punch the insert out from the back and just slide the insert back into it's spot when i reassemble. so i never actually remove the bolt, i just leave the insert attaced to the bolt when i remove the cover. as you can tell, some don't even leave the covers on anyway so maybe that won't matter. but you can keep your covers in tact by punch or pushing the insert out from the back. i drive off road and through snow alot - in my experience the covers will keep the cam sprockets from rusting. leave the covers in place and mine stay nice and clean. i have the covers off now because of something i've been meaning to get to for months and they are rusty. but it's just rust. have some grease available to hang the rocker arms from the valve springs.