idosubaru

be sure not to confuse oil or ATF burning off the exhaust with exhaust fumes. if there is previous oil or ATF on there or you have a very small leak (or a large one) it could hit the exhaust and burn off and it won't smell good.

be sure not to confuse oil or ATF burning off the exhaust with exhaust. that will smell terrible and gets carried all over the place, the guys next to you at the stop light won't like you.

do you have an exhaust leak, that would be my first guess. just having a leak below you will be enough to be annoying. an exhaust leak below the floorboard can also leak through bolt holes that hold the seats in place on some vehicles. those bolts may be rusted, stripped and have enough play in them to allow some fumes to enter the car.

i never pull the radiator to do timing belts, i doubt it was removed. keep an eye on coolant level. if you had a bubble, the temp gauge would likely move around a little. keep an eye on it. check to make sure the thing has a thermostat in it. people remove them for various reasons. keep an eye on your coolant level. make sure you have hoses going to your heater core, it's possible it could be bypassed, not likely but best to look as it takes 2 seconds. i've seen these hoses/heater core get clogged. pull both hoses...attach garden hose to one and turn it on, and let it blow all the coolant and/or dirt and grime out of the heater core. this could free it up, seen it work before.

the transmission does not always go into fail safe mode when the POWER light flashes. POWER light coming on when you stomp on the gas or accelerate is normal, that indicates a power mode, basically that the transmission will use different shift patterns for better acceleration. that is normal. first thing to check - there's a shift resistor usually connected by the strut tower. if this is faulty or has a bad connection, you'll get the POWER light. i have mine unplugged because it gives firmer shifts, and my POWER light comes on because of it. but i don't care, because it doesn't affect anything else, just better shifts, less lag. this droppiing resistor could be bad. if you have an extra, swap it out. at the end of this post is a list of numbers indicating the faults - this resistor is not included in that to my knowledge so i'm not sure how it's supposed to work. ALSO - if your POWER light is flashing but the trans doesn't appear to be in "limp mode"...safe mode, whatever you want to call it - in other words it drives fine and doesn't lock the center diff then i would defintely check this resistor. when this thing is unplugged it makes the POWER light blink but doesn't affect any functionality of the trans. also - before doing all of this and after you check that resistor - how is the fluid? how old is the filter? as old as these things are ATF flushes, new filters and transmission coolers are EXCELLENT ideas for anyone that wants to put lots of trouble free miles on an auto transmission. POWER light blinking 16 (or is it 17) times at start up indicates the TCU has a problem with something. POWER light indicates the TCU is receiving one or more signals that it doesn't like. you can coax the TCU to spit these codes out, it's a real pain in the a!!. like turn on ignition, shift to park, do 3 jumping jacks, turn your radio to NPR, drive in reverse uphill for 0.3 miles, remove left tire, shift into 3rd gear, push your 1st hold button, click lap belt and drink 2 bottles of water... here's another thing to try and i'm not going to explain it, just try it. if the POWER light blinks at start up....try this....while the car is running turn the steering wheel all the way to the left or right and drive the car (don't hit anything!) for like 20-40 feet. keep the wheel turned all the way, turn the car off and then try to start it again. it may not blink this time. this will only work if the center diff (transfer clutches) are engaging and your 4WD is locked....and it's a long shot, probably won't work but does sometimes. if it's the dropping resistor or something then it won't. okay here's how it really works...this is going to sound so convoluted and dumb, but i promise this is the the way to read the codes: START THE ENGINE and allow it to warm up for about 2-5 minutes... Turn ignition all the way off. 1) Turn ignition ON (don't start the car) 2) Check if POWER light comes on (if not, light or circuit is faulty) 3) Turn ignition OFF 4) Shift into "D" range and turn 1-HOLD switch ON 5) Turn ignition ON 6) Shift into "3" range and turn 1-HOLD switch OFF 7) Shift into "2" range and turn 1-HOLD switch ON 8) Depress accelerator halfway (I just tapped mine to the floor once) If the light stays lit continuously, the range switch, 1-HOLD switch, idle switch, or the circuits of any of the above may be faulty. Otherwise you should get 11 blinks (total of 12 if you count the 2 second blink before the items are checked) (pay attention!!!) A "no problem" condition should be represented by 0.1 seconds of light, then 0.9 seconds of off time for each of the 11 things on the list. A problem consists of 0.6 seconds of light and 0.4 seconds of off time. These times are very close, but you'll be able to tell a difference I promise. Quick light is no problem, long light is problem. You'll have to count to see which one indicates the problem! List of items checked... 1) Speed sensor #1 2) Speed sensor #2 3) Throttle sensor 4) Shift solenoid #1 5) Shift solenoid #2 6) Shift solenoid #3 7) Duty solenoid B 8) Duty solenoid C (4WD only) 9) ATF Temperature sensor 10) Ignition pulse 11) Duty solenoid A good luck,

yeh.. they were both OEM.. I dont run anything thats not from the dealer __________________ 86 GL Wagon - 4wd DR 5 speed Man. EA82, de-emissioned Hitachi carb MODS: Complete SPFI Air intake, Ultra White Foul Weather Lights, Accel Superstock Coil i didn't know Subaru carried Accel Superstock Coils.

i'm not sure how the wiring is routed in the XT, but in the XT6 the O2 sensor wire runs through an opening in the cross member. it is unlikely but possible for the wiring to wear through and short out against the cross member. probably not your problem since you likely have all new wire there, but something to check if the wiring is old. good luck mike

i had a newer CV joint blow apart last summer on my XT6 and someone else on the xt6 site just had a brand new one with like 10 miles on it blow apart as well (like within the past week). sounds more common than i thought, not exactly the kind of part you want failing. really confused my AWD. lock up - no don't do it - lock up - wait maybe i should'nt - let's try locking up. i hit my toggle switch to lock up the transfer clutch to get me to a parking spot. would really suck for this to happen on a FWD.

if it only leaks going up a hill, idle it on a steep hill for a few minutes and keep an eye on it. or just let it idle flat for awhile and keep your eye out for leaks. gettings the revs up a little might help as well. there's a reinforced o-ring between the cam tower and the head, this oil port can often leak. as can the cam tower seal and valve covers and valve grommets...just about anything on a car this old with who knows what kind of prior maintenance or lack of. if you can't see where the leak is coming from, maybe it's not clean enough.

i had this happen last year on my XT6. don't recall how old it was, but it wasn't all that old. the outside drivers side joint just blew into pieces right after putting it in drive at like 10 miles an hour in the parking lot - metal and ball bearings all over the ground. luckily i have AWD so the rear wheels got me back to a parking spot. if your car didn't vibrate and now it does after the axle broke - could it be that the axle damaged anything when it snapped? did it happen while you were driving fast? did it slop around? maybe something hit your rotor or tire? how long did you coast or drive after it broke? if it vibrated and slapped around enough maybe you knocked a wheel weight off or hit a rotor? i doubt this is the case though. are the tires properly torqued and the axle nut tight? if it's awd, u-joints can cause enormous vibrations, so bad you can't see out your rear view mirror. good luck

one of your rims could be bent or you could have a bad tire. next time you have anything done ask if their machine can check the wheels for out of roundness or bent spots. check for missing wheel weights, they can fall off. any dirt on inside your tires? mud? i would never do it, except that i have use of a free tire balancing machine. there are balancers that can analyze all 4 tires and all 4 wheels and tell you the best combination and best position of each wheel on which tire to give you the best balance before you even balance. then certain machines can balance the wheel as if it were loaded and running on the road. the one i uses has this function, it's a sweet machine. i haven't actually dont that, so i can't attest to any results. if it's AWD or 4WD, the drive shafts have caused vibration on every 4WD subaru i've owned (all XT6's). i drive alot off road, lock my transmissions transfer clutch often and drive lots of miles, so that's part of it. but the weak link in all of this has been the u joints. i just had my drive shafts rebuilt with replaceable/greasable ujoints after replacing 3 times with used units. i'm glad i did. drive shaft is easy enough to pull out - just some 10mm bolts on the XT6. drop it and i would be VERY surprised if your u joints were free and not lumpy.

sweet...that's what i was hoping your response would be. glad to hear it michael. hope it's fun.

i drive an XT6, and i would not reseal an oil pump (i've done 6 or more) without using sealant. DO NOT put it on the mickey mouse o-ring. that's not the point, and i believe that's what everyone else is saying, don't put it on the o-ring. we are in agreement. there's more to the story than the o-ring. the two halves of the engine block come together behind the oil pump. look very closely (at different angles with different light) and you'll notice a faint..or not so faint, vertical zig-zag pattern where the two halves of the block come together above and below the rotor housing of the oil pump. the sealant should be pressed into this zig zag pattern. run your finger over the zig zag, often it doesn't feel perfectly flush, this is why it is recommended to put sealant there. go light, just enough to fill and smooth any gap created by the mating of the two blocks. and don't get it on the oil pump-to-block o-ring like everyone is telling you not to. someone can correct me if i'm wrong, but i always do this on my XT6 and it has 200,500 miles with no oil supply issues at all.

im not sure about the TPS on the EA82's....but for the ER27 the FSM IS WRONG. i'm 100 percent certain of this - the XT6 ER27 motor TPS will NOT test within factory specifications listed in the Subaru Factory Service Manual. if the EA82 uses the same TPS, this may also be true. they share some parts, this may be one of them. i'd check into this before swapping your TPS. also - a few years ago my TPS was causing drivability problems. i swapped out the TPS....still wasn't working right. i noticed that if i flexed the wires prior to the TPS, the motor would stall, rev up, idle crazy, idle correctly....it was all over the place as i flexed the wires. i spliced in a new wiring harness with as much new wire as i could get and it fixed it. good luck and hopefully someone know if the TPS on the EA82 is the same as the XT6.

subyluvr, earlier in the thread they mention using this on a NA car may not offer any value since the oil isn't heated up by the turbo. do you feel it's worth it for a NA vehicle or did you get a turbo?

have you addressed the intake ports? opening them up, matching them to the gasket and intake runners? i think more gains can be had there, but i'll admit i don't know a ton about the EA82. i resealed an EA82 this summer and had the cams done (delta cams) and the heads ported and polished and the thing ran awesome. it was in an XT. i've owned one XT and 5 XT6's and i was really impressed how this thing drove. i actually told the guy to NOT spend all that money on cams and head work, but it turned out much better than i thought. then it had a coolant leak - tiny hose under the power steering pump that i fixed in a few minutes. then it had another minor leak and he sold the car for like 300 bucks on ebay before i had a chance to look at it.....someone got a nice deal, if they knew what was in it.

exactly what he just said....pull panel, remove some screws/bolts and it comes right out. clean and you're done.

yeah, start cheap and easy - fuel filter. how's the air filter?

ignition components. plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor. good, cheap maintenance that solves many driveability issues and helps performance/gas mileage. i'd start there and get back to us after that. check for spark - if it's weak you can usually tell with a visual spark check. check each wire. or pull the plugs and see how they look. personally i replace the all the ignition components quite often. sometimes this problem could be timing belt related too. under load the timing tensioner could not be holding properly and artificially *changing* your timing when under higher loaded. this probably isn't the case, i'd start with easier things first. but if you pull the timing covers you might be able to check the tensioners and belt condition.

i'm thinking there may be compatability issues as the 4EAT tranny uses the stock TPS to some degree. if we can retain the stock TPS, then the tranny should be fine, meaning "it should work". really i need to finish my motor before i get into this, i just had some time today to plug around and was concerned this won't work on the auto tranny, because i'm not a fan of manuals. i have one of each, but hope to get rid of the manual. i read over oddcomps pages of logging his project, very interesting. i wish i wouldn't though. i would have never considered EDIS before seeing his results. as many Ford's as i have to fix with retarded problems, i think it will be tough to convince me to degrade my reliability with Ford parts. (no offense, i do own a Ford truck). driving 40,000 miles a year, i need more reliability than my friends seem to get from there fords.

why won't megasquirt work with the auto tranny? what are the limitations?

kevin, can you swap your OBS or XT6 horns in it (and leave the original in the trunk so he can see that you swapped) and see if it helps. don't worry about mounting it all professional, just get it *to work* and then swap them back when you get home...unless your horn does seem really low, then replace the joker. you can splice in any horn, shouldn't take but a couple minutes. maybe the fuel cap can cause the fuel tank problem. i've seen fuel pumps leak (the actual pump itself, not the hoses). minor enough leaks that the car ran fine (not counting the gas mileage). check all your fuel lines i guess, looking for wetness or cuts around the metal clamps. lame excuses to fail.

i'd guess a bad u joint on the drive shaft if you have 4WD/AWD for a vibration that occurs at a certain speed while driving straight. if you drop the drive shaft (easy to do), you can inspect the u joints. a bad u joint will be very obvious - the joint won't move or it will be very tight and *lumpy* feeling. sometimes you can even tell just by looking at the u joints. could also be a wheel bearing or tire (don't let tires fool you, they can cause strange symptoms). sometimes rotating the tires will show you it's the tires because the vibration will change or *move* for the lack of a better word. you can try removing your tires and spinning the hubs by hand, you may be able to feel a bad wheel bearing (then again, maybe not). also look for play and noise in the bearings if you take a closer look by pulling the tire. if it only vibrates around a turn, at a certain angle and speed then i'd guess a ball joint first, but may be your problem regardless.

WJM, i figure you saw this - but to keep relevant information together someone else posted in another thread: "Misfire at high RPM was due to a badly clogged air filter."

ignition is a good place to start - plugs, wires, cap, rotor. pull plugs and check them. not familiar with turbo's but with your mods do you think you need a non-stock temperature range plug? could your air-fuel ratios lean out too much at that high RPM? kevin had mad problems with his XT6 running really lean in the high RPM range. you might pull your plugs and have a look. if one plug looks different than the rest you can isolate it to a single strung problem (that plug, that wire, that cylinder). if they all appear the same then who knows - cap/rotor, timing or fuel (injector, pump, FPR, filter). doubtful it's fuel, but maybe it's not getting enough at high RPM.