idosubaru

i've replaced them once or twice on a daily driver just for easier access with a socket. try to tigthen it to proper torque and see if the threads will hold it and to verify they aren't stripped. if the threads and screw are good and it's tightened properly they don't fall out. i'd want to find out which of those is the issue. chase the threads with tap and die and tighten it with locktite will help but still don't know why it fell out. i'd do a thread repair before rivet- rivet would make for one sucky road side repair IMO.

if they got a good engine from a yard (as opposed to some questionable craigslist special) - those EJ22's are one of the best engines Subaru ever made. assumign it was reasonably maintained and went to the junk yard due to a wreck or rust or normal situation like that - those engines run forever with very minor maintenance. they're about the cheapest more reliable 100,000 miles you can get out of a subaru. if it's a1997-1998 EJ22 then it has an interference timing belt and the belt, pulleys, and tensioner should be replaced once you fix the drivability issues. and the timing (mentioned in my step #3 above) should be checked immediately to avoid valve damage.

post a picture of the engine and we can identify which engine and maybe more. here's the order I would proceed: 1. CHECK ENGINE LIGHT - is it on? 2. if it is go to advance or other and have it read for free - post the exact codes here (not employee's interpretation of the code). 3. if there's no light and it's running terribly then the timing should be checked. you can remove the side timing covers (they're just three 10mm bolts each side) to view each cam timing mark. line up both cam pulley marks with the notch at 12 noon in the plastic timing cover just above it and see if both cams are lined up at the same time. if they are then you check the crank mark and see if it's lined up when those two are - google it or we can tell you later if you do this. 4. knock sensor is by far the most common sensor failure on those engines - they're $8 on ebay and one bolt (just a 12mm socket and long extension) and 8 minutes to replace. SUPER CAKE. 5. NGK plugs and wires are necessary - how old and what brand are the plugs and wires? 6. check for wiring issues - look around for any signs of something compromised or non-stock.

call your dealer and ask them if they already deliver parts to your area/closer. dealers sometimes have delivery drivers and routes and can deliver to various other places. or they may just mail the parts to you. there are tons of online dealers ship parts, ebay, amazon if you're in a pinch. H6 engines routinely have serpentine pulley bearing failures. The bearings should be considered maintenance items like oil changes. 1. replace both pulley bearings every 60k-100k - they fail all the time. they just tap out with a hammer and socket and back in the same - make sure to tap the races not the face seals. 2. you can get new bearings on Amazon for $10 each or so, 6203 sealed bearings 3. DAYCO 89007 is a replacement pulley available at many auto parts stores that will work as well. it's not "listed" so you can't look it up by vehicle, but it fits and works. replace power steering lines. suction side shouldn't matter, it's not under the excessive pressures the supply side is. if hoses and orings don't fix your issues you may need another pump. i'd probably install a used one as new is too $$$$$, aftermarket i don't trust, the don't often fail, and used are so cheap and easy to replace. www.car-part.com unsure about the radiator hose.

1. you are comparing last summer (before you took car off road for rebuild) with summer blend gases to winter blend gas you've been running since the rebuild this winter. for the eagle eye hyper milers, it should go up any day now as stations start switching. 2 maybe it's not actually getting worse mileage - you love that new go pedal feel and can't get your foot out of it...or the old engine was such a basket case you were driving cautiously. what all did you do to the engine? post previous and current gas mileage - is this a 0.5mpg difference or 10 mpg? how many miles have you put on it? have you driven enough to get an accurate measure - consistent highway miles or inconsistent urban/mountain driving?

On older ones theres a shift lock device (forget what it's called??) on the shifter that just gets sticky and prevents the car from startung unless it's in Park. On those the inhibitor switch on the side of the transmission isn't the issue. If that mechanism is compromised it can act like it's not in park when it is in park. Jiggling frees it up. I'm unsure how 2005+ are set up. If it's doesn't start and you shift to neutral to start it - what happens? Tell her to quit spilling coke and food down the shifter area. LOL

You can swap away regardless of EGR. An EGR vehicle with a nonEGR engine runs perfect. There's a very simple work around written up on this forum on how to get rid of the CEL. It's easy, just moving vacuum lines. Cake. Or just ignore the light. I used to remove EGRs for fewer parts and simplicity and ignored the light. As to which vehicles have which. In 1995 auto EJ22s always have EGR and manuals do not. That distinction I think usually holds in later years too but there are rare exceptions. 1996+ I prefer to visually verify, I would not rely 100% on model and year alone to determine EGR or not on those. Although with that work around it's so simple it doesn't much matter which you get.

Nice. Thanks. There are thre plugs - check, fill, and drain? Check and fill are two different plugs? Weird. What does the owners manual say - unserviceable, no change interval or take to dealer ? To be fair for that $269 they're usually also providing free coffee and snacks while you wait. LOL.

I would focus closely on what drives the tach. Maybe search or start a new thread for that. EA82 works the same as an XT6 so someone should know. My guess is the distributor but maybe there's more to it than that. You could pull the disty and maybe you'll find slop or issues in the bearing inside of it. I've never seen the bearings fail but heard plenty with noisy and rough bearings that there must be failures and symptoms sometimes.

I've done that exact swap EJ25 Phase II heads on Phase I block. I forget what gaskets I used but I recall it wasn't widely known, is google that information. Its out there. I think the pistons hit the heads unless a thick gasket is used. You could also consider swapping the Obase II pistons into the phase I block but I don't mess with pistons without a more compelling reason and I think others more versed than I suggest avoiding it as well.

That's tricky. Are you positive you got all the corroded wiring out of the CTS connector wiring loom leading up to the CTS? If the corrosion is really bad, a foot back into the wiring then just replacing the connector might not be enough. No check engine lights? I'd probably swap in another MAF, IAC, and distributor since they're easy to swap and only take a couple minutes. Checking timing seems like a good idea - maybe trying to see if the tensioners are loose and not holding tension under load or something like that. Clearest IAC issue is stalling when you let your foot off the gas. But I'm sure it has other failure modes as well depending how it's sticking. Distributor is either set right or it's not. The distributor does house the crank angle sensor, I've never seen them cause intermittent issues, just no start conditions. But it's rare and the only ones i've seen sat for extended periods (which i guess is the case of most XT6's by now LOL). When you say the tach is dancing - is it dancing erroneously or it's a relevant indicator to what the engine is doing? I think the tach is driven off the crank angle sensor in the distributor....but it's been awhile since i've even thought about that, like 10 years! The knock sensors are brittle and easily fail if they're ever removed/touched. Could be retarding timing if it's compromised.

Gotcha, I saw "ECU CEL" in your title and assumed you thought the ECU's were different. I called that link an "example" that the ECU doesn't matter....but clearly you knew that... I'm going to guess the wiring diagram and FSM is hard to find?

Has this car ran flawlessly since you bought it new in 1995 or did you apply for a salvage title after finding it abandoned in the forest? Are the green connectors under the dash connected? If so - disconnect them. They're test mode connectors only, not meant to stay plugged in. The spark plugs and wires are now 22 years old - that's WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY overdue for changing and these engines aren't forgiving - make sure they're NGK plugs and wires. Have you tried to read the codes with an OBDII scanner? (Advance, napa, autozone, and others all read codes for free) Does this car run and drive? If it has multiple codes - clear them and see which come back first.

Awesome, good job following through. The XT6 isn't a very well known platform so it can pose some challenges. The IAC's routinely just get gummed up on those just carbon build up inside the pathways, so in some ways there's not much worry about one not working. Cleaning usually works, they can fail but it's rare. Either way in the life of an XT6, one or maybe two IAC's will last forever so cost of new is nearly pointless IMO. i just have some extras in the garage. Those are the two most common engine/electrical issues in XT6's so they're wise to address.

thanks for the follow up and glad you got it back up and running with a simple fix!

Yep EJ stuff is everywhere and easily available. my first thoughts would be to look at 2000-2004 outback OEM axles, same aftermarket debacle exists with EJs. Rears are generally done via XT6 rear hubs - which still leaves you with EA rear axles.

woah congrats on the move - are the roads worse or better in the mountains!?!

If dozens of axles are breaking no matter the brand then there is, by definition, no existing axle based solution after thirty years of time. That sounds like a different topic to me. The only axle option is to wonder if every new model is different than the last 30 years of unsuccessful ones. Opinions will differ regarding the efficacy of being guinea pigs and hoping for decades. usage is clearly a key factor with any physical component. Still left with the same facts - Aftermarkets break all the time in milder use when OEM are not. It's a mess no matter how it's looked at. Personally I Imagine a restaurant where people puke 50% of the time they eat there - it would be unacceptable and never survive. But aftermarket axles get a free pass. Part of me doesn't want to participate in that and it helps that OEM are still available and in three decades have never even been close to outperformed.

I'm confused....."slow battery drain"....."dead battery"....."won't turn over" Dead battery Bad battery Dirty/corroded/loose cable ends If that's not it - I'd be more clear as the title says "battery drain" and "won't turn over" is somewhat ambiguous - I read it literally - the engine isn't moving/turning over. Others might think you mean it's cranking but not firing.... And never forget if you have a carb, they're not unknown for having issues.

Passenger side belts do seem very "loose" on EA82 and XT6's, that's normal but not bad idea to check since there is a "tensioning procedure" so to speak. Air Control Valve is, with the CTS, the most common electrical component failure on XT6's: 1. remove it and clean it. they get gummed up and can't open/close properly. ideally you get the thing to open and close while you're cleaning it to get all the build up out of areas, but that's not easy. 2. replace it. #1 usually does the trick, #2 is simpler i some ways. If you clean/replace the IAC and preemptively address possible CTS connector degradation these things easily run forever on just regular maintenance - plugs, wires, cap, rotor, timing components, and oil leaks. for the CTS I get fuel injector plugs that are identical and replace the CTS connector, get a new CTS or just clean the tabs, and you're done. The connections and guts of the connector get corroded over time.

Did you know there are people that never have issues with 2" lifts? You need to find one, give them $10 to chant their psychic mojo into your car and then you're done. I've never had axle issues with straight 2" lifts (no dropping of crossmembers). This is really easy: 1. Get an OEM axle and reboot it. I just found a couple hundred used axls in 13 seconds online, I assume some are OEM. or 2. Call FWE in Denver. Aftermarket axles suck. 5 lug swap: XT6 knuckles = XT6 axles. EJ knuckles = EJ axles. Either way the answer is the same as 4 lug: 1. Get an OEM axle and reboot it 2. Call FWE in Denver EJ 5 lug opens up the door for far greater axle selection if availability becomes an issue look to that route. Aftermarket axles are a great fit for people who love taking apart their cars multiple times for the same thing. There's a *very common* denominator - people with multiple questions and issues are running aftermarket axles. People running 2" lifts without issues are doing what I said above.

Replacing the oil pump has fixed 100% of the EA82 and ER27 TOD vehicles i've worked on as well as for many other folks. Clearly this is problematic if new aren't available...but.. 1. reseal the oil pump 2. replace the oil pump There are other failure modes but i've never had to go further than that personally. If the vehicle is 300,000 miles or had a rough life then it seems obvious internal issues with the hla's are more likely. most of the stuff i've worked on was 150k range stuff, not 200k+. Sometimes resealing it works but usually I just wanted to avoid doing the job twice so I'd replace the pump. Again that's problematic if new pumps aren't available. Which makes me wonder - why have new (or replacement/used) pumps fixed so many TOD issues? What happens to the old ones? If that question could be answered - old ones may be able to be reconditioned? I haven't seen any abnormal wear or issues with the pumps I've replaced that simply had TOD (I'm ignoring catastrophic failures). http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/136547-ea82-er27-ticking-tod-hydraulic-valve-lash-hla-noise-diagnose-and-repair/

wiring is the hard part need a stand alone engine management system custom wiring harness stripped and built to marry to your vehicle need to be mindful of immobilizer set ups which limit swaps. engines - google them. you need to determine what you want first: bare subaru block, used or new, short block, long block, used block, used engine...and which one times each of those variables. there's quite a few options.

Are these original or stock/normal Subaru rotors? Highly unlikely it's the pads being too thick, try again? How did you compress the caliper pistons? On double piston calipers, one piston will compress more than another and press the other piston back out a little bit even if you have an old brake pad across it's face, so it's not fully compressed. Depending what you're using you have to compress each piston a couple times. You're in seattle so rust isn't likely and issue but if the rotors have rust build up maybe they are keeping the pads too far out and increasing the overall pad/rotor/pad thickness. What exactly is happening? Can you get the caliper started over the pads at all or it won't even start? Google brake pad thickness for that vehicle and measure yours to compare.

1. Did you read what John said - most likely issue is drivers side timing belt failed or is not lined up properly. It takes a Phillips head screw driver and 2 minutes to test - far easier than replacing an alternator (which is easy anyway). Pull distributor cap and crank engine - does the rotor turn? If not the belt is broken or compromised. 2. Separating crank pulley can also cause low voltage. The alternator doesn't spin fast enough because the pulley is slipping and not turning fast enough. This is also likely in your case because: A. Alternator previously was fine before the work B. Crank pulley is more likely to be damage by the job you implied C. That would explain two alternators having identical failure symptoms (its not the alternators)