idosubaru

Get Sil Glyde or some other high end equivalent. PERMATEX does sell a type besides their normal ubiquitous craptastic grease that’s been standard for ever - do not use that. I don’t know the stuff you mentioned but I’d say “no” unless someone really well versed in caliper grease says otherwise (not your average shop guy still using crap grease “my friends mechanic said it’s fine” is not helpful on this point). Pads are not your issue. I wouldn’t change pads until you isolate the problem or happen to get a set with new clips on rule those out. Don’t forget to check the slide pin bushings and brake pad retaining clips while you’re cleaning and checking grease. The details here are important - make sure those pins slide really smoothly and pads can move. Forget pads now - fix it and then do pads. Or do it all at once - new greaae, slide bushings, clips and pads. Thats what I’d do on I’ll maintained brakes. MC brace, like pads, isn’t important yet - fix the issue at hand first. The brakes should appropriately work and those two things alone physically can not fix inadequate braking. MC brace is almost entirely for feel. Properly operating brakes adequately stop the vehicle without braces and minor pad differences. Fix first then entertain the brace if you want harder pedal and quicker response. I almost prefer the control and feel subarus longer travel gives without a brace but some people want quick and hard bite. Mostly preference.

Here’s what needs done first: 1. Clean and regrease all slide pins front and rear with sil Glyde or high quality brake grease. They’re routinely sticky. 2. Replace or throw away slide pin bushings. They can prevent full seating of pads. They’re often problematic after brake work if they’ve seen any generic cheap grease which make them swell. They swell and hang the pin in the bore preventing the pads from applying full clamping force. Happens all the time, it’s very common. There are shops that are still using the generic grease. I throw the pin bushings away for years now and see no issues and subarus didn’t have them for decades. I don’t recommend that you can just replace them but I don’t need an unnecessary failure mode on my car. 3. Replace or check all brake pad retaining clips. They get bent or built up with brake dust/debris or corrosion and can inhibit pad movement. You can test them and inspect but they’re cheap at rockauto I’d just replace them once. Or buy pads that come with new clips. That doesn’t happen very often but on a new to you car it’s not a bad idea to make sure they clean and smooth, I’ve seen it before. 4. Bleed the brakes or verify for sure all of them were bled and enough was bled to evacuate the entire system. Start with those because they’re maintenance issues and poorly addressed by most people and shops and the most frequent cause of brake issues hands down - at least in the rust belt. I never replace rotors or calipers in the rust belt simple because quantitative data and causative issues tell a different story than blindly archaic idioms like “replace rotors and pads”. Once maintenance items are up to speed and no issues exist - then look at hoses. If brake feel is an issue and not performance (common if you’re used to other manufacturers) look into a master cylinder brace.

It’s so easy the manual isn’t even needed. It is THREE BOLTS. Although you didn’t say what vehicle - EA81 or EA82? I’m speaking of EA82s. I can’t believe you’re seeing the manual correctly or looking at the proper section for struts onky. Sounds like you’re looking at another section that referneces removing the struts as part of a much larger job. Is this an FSM or what?

just a plate on the back of the engine between the engine and trans. only accessible with engine and trans removal. plastic plates commonly leak, upgrade to metal plates. On the EZ30's I grind the back of the shims (side not touching the cam) until i gain the necessary clearance. i haven't gotten into them in a long time, can you do that on the EJ25's?

oh this is what that's about. that's too bad, the friction in those threads was surprising.

Lift the side of the engine that you’re doing and repeat for the other side - such that the engine is pointing up to gain more clearance and it’s much better than the valve cover wrestling. most people yank the engine, it’s more thorough and straight forward and provides access to other things. The headbolt clearance is very tight. Some people install all the bolt holes and then lower the head in place onto the gasket and block while trying to keep the bolts from sliding and hanging in something. It’s not fun doing that.

Registrations are annoying. I had like an hour and a half registration last week, what a waste of time. Definitely no fun if it’s time sensitive. Unfortunately bots or people were hacking in and creating new username and flooding the forum with trash. Not sure if that impacted security but maybe some changes made those turds go away. You said you wanted to say something, now you’re saying you were after something...the plot thickens....

just go get one you want and bring it back yourself. It’s totally doable. I’ve gotten cars running and not from thousands of miles away multiple times. Anyone can do it. And if you don’t want to you’ll find out why it’s not financially viable to do what you’re suggesting. GD needs remdiated, driver does as well, then gas and determining what vehicle body, color, style, options etc people want and lining it all up one for one to fill the spots and spread out costs and getting paid up front before the vehicles and titles are here. Sounds easier than it is.

You mean you typed and lost something? I’d just retype it and start over now that you’re here.

I would check valve lash for the reasons he said, sometimes exhaust valves get tight.

They could easily not fail before rust makes the car a waste of time anyway which sounds imminent, I wouldn’t want it as you describe it. If it’s that rusty I’d be lean towards leave them and plan on it lasting long enough to find something non rusty. You’re not saving any real labor doing it now it sounds. All that being said sure you sound like you’ve got time and parts so why not replace them? But that’s why you’ll hear it both ways. by this age who’s to say it hasn’t been seriously overheated in its life and already replaced? replace it....and then the rod bearings blow on you, awesome. These things were blowing under warranty with low miles and have had 20 years of significant failure rates.

I guess this is a dumb question - but what's the point of getting LED bulbs? Last longer? Will they be as forgiving, or better, in terms of weather, conditions, terrible roads, etc? If so I can't buy them quick enough, i hate replacing bulbs. Bulb output diminishes over time so it might be that they're the same as a Stock bulb that's new?

There are some reasonable online reviews if you can find a good one. I usually skim them for info. I’ve never noticed a difference. All I know is I haven’t replaced an XT6 bulb in 12 years, maybe 1 I’m forgetting. But my EZ and EJs I have no clue how many I’ve replaced. Why is that? I know xt bulbs aren’t awesome but I don’t find EJ/EZ stuff awesome either. Maybe they need adjusted like bushwivk said.

The AT plugs in the engine bay or the TCU are unplugged or the TCU is unpowered or failed (which is quite rare). You'll also have "locked" 4WD, drive it in circles on dry pavement and it'll feel like it's braking as well. If you do replace the trans I'd pull the entire lump and drop an EJ22 in at the same time and move away from the EJ25 while the opportunity presents itself.

A mechanics stethoscope and isolating where the noise is coming from may help - left, right, center, front, back...may be helpful.

1. Piston slap. If it goes away or lessens as it warms up, that’s classic slap 2. Replace the Timing belt tensioner. If a complete timing kit hasn’t been installed then install an Aisin timing kit. Replacing the belt only is such a poor decision I don’t understand why mechanics do it as a rule, it makes no sense at all mechanically or financially.

EA82s are great if maintained well. But I don’t know how much of a power increase they are, seems like a lot of effort for minimal low tier engine. Finding one that has been maintained well after 30 years is tough and parts aren’t getting easier to come by. Some dealer parts are probably obsolete. Ancient hoses and gaskets and unknown maintenance history all aside - give them new timing kits and tune up and maintain them and they run easily and inexpensively. Belts are easy just replace them and the pulleys every 50k. No big deal and there easy to do in less than an hour.

Put it in google calendar or time it with something. You’ll want to do those bearings in those pulleys again in 60,000 miles or 3-5 years if you still have the car. Like I said you just just google or ask - the parts are $10 and any shop can tap them in. For parts only (no labor) That’s $20 instead of $200 to repair the same thing. $20 for two bearings instead of $200 to replace the tensioner and pulley like you just did. And it doesn’t really take any more labor to do bearings. It’ll take them 43minutes instead of 38 minutes so you’re paying an hour labor either way.

Gasket. They are typically reusable but after 30 years things happen. clean surfaces and repair any fasteners that are compromised. The threads often strip in the heads. Clean, Chase, repair as needed. I wouldn’t be worried about using a bolt. In the rust belt the nuts all seize to the shaft and end up functioning like bolts on any repairs all the time anyway and I never see issues. Fiber fix sounds interesting, good to know though I hope to avoid rust altogether as much as possible. Did you use it over existing rust? i did read all of it, I owned the confusion with “I’m uncertain” rather than “you’re unclear” - you’re assuming way too much by thinking I’m trying to critique. I’m here to help not play games. Also - because I read the posts through I pointed out to someone else that what they typed didn’t line up with what was decribed and described that “stud” was going to confuse people due to well known and common issues there. It hardly matters. If the goal is to critique every online post then we have a lot of work to do!

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/119550-can-i-get-rid-of-these/

he says "studs" but is referring to "behind the cat" so i'm not sure exactly what issue he is having, but i don't think he means the head studs.

To say it simply this is no immediate red flag that the mechanic messed up, caused this or is ripping you off. Maybe it happened but it’s more likely due to the previous failure. As an illustration - To some extent the driver is most likely to blame to keep driving the vehicle too long with a failing pulley which then caused more damage. Without more info I would caution against pointing fingers and being demanding of the shop.

It’s hard to say without seeing it. Questions that might help us: 1. What happened when the first pulley broke? Did you drive it to failure or belt breakage or was it just making noise? 2. What all did they replace - post names/part numbers. We can work with real data but not foggy ideas. The most likely explanation is it’s not the mechanics fault and the previous failure caused isssues that caused this failure. The mechanic should have noted it, but he didn’t cause it. He is to blame for not seeing it the first time and maybe should feel bad for later damage, but not for causing the damage caused by you driving it to failure. Usually the *previous* failed pulley failed and then as it was failing it mangled the mounting surface behind it. Then the new pulley didn’t sit right and failed afterward. Or the mechanic may have not done something correctly or if they were wildly guessing and rushing and the only symptom they verified was a broken belt - they replaced the wrong pulley. There are two that commonly failed, maybe they replaced the wrong one. It’s hard to say without seeing it, this issue is so common either scenario is likely.

A stud or a bolt? “Exhaust stud” usually refers to the exhaust manifold bolts in the head. All Subaru bolts in the mid-range are 1.25 pitch metric threads. 6 mm bolts are 1.00 but they’re not used for parts that see stresses so I can’t imagine seeing one holding exhaust together. Can you mic the diameter? It’s going to be one of the following: M6x1.00 (I’m doubtful of this I onky include it because you said 6mm) M8x1.25 M10x1.25 If there’s two then use the other one to copy from. Take it into the store, or at home run a few nuts on it and see which one fits and take that nut to the store to check thread there if you can’t meausre at home. Run that nut onto Store bin bolts until it fits and then whatever that bolt is is what you need. Stores usually have a thread measuring board hanging somewhere to make that easy.

Awesome! Keep it up!