idosubaru

I hear you. I've owned XTs for 23 years, about 20 of them, and plan on keeping my current one til its wrecked or (hopefully not) rusted.

Why not cover the entire bag with cement and inner tube? Oh okay I thought the cement in tire patching was rubber cement, but you're saying they're different, got it. I wasn't really paying attention yet as I've just been trying to find patches. I'll do a test run with it on a completely blown sacrificial strut for practice working with it. I'm not using or recommending fix a flat type stuff. I was just relaying hands on experiences and data points, which I find helpful. Others have used it on Land Rover/Cadillacs. I'm unsure which brand/type fix a flat was used but it worked for years. I think they fill it at the bag and it didn't get back into the lines or cause issues (probably disconnect controller but I'm unsure?). I'm definitely not recommending it nor doing it. But I like real world practical experiences for data points. It could help someone limping a car along until they convert to conventional struts in the future and is affirmative towards the types of repairs you and i are discussing here. If a bad idea works then a good one should be pretty solid...so to speak. If anyone has seen fix a flat stuff used before, it would help the pool of data to share what vehicle, brand repair, what failed, how it was added and if the controller was disabled.

Oh happy days: I installed XT6 / EA82 calipers on EJ brackets: 1. 1993 FWD Impreza front caliper brackets. 2. Swap the XT6 pin and caliper onto the EJ bracket So now we can easily run EJ knuckles and axles and retain XT6 and EA82 calipers with front Ebrake.

Thanks guys great suggestions, I thought folks would just make fun of me for not swapping. Lol

Silicon ultra black would be simple! People have used fix a flat stuff on other manufacturer air bags. One concern is it may plug air lines and the solenoid if it leaves the strut. No big deal if you don't care about the system functioning as normally intended

Duplicate

Do you know the difference between vulcanizing cement and rubber cement? Is it pliable ? You think the bags are similar materials as tires? It's not so much an area or spot so a patch won't work or would be temporary and recurring. It's an entire circumferential region of the bag. The rubber just degrades and very slowly leaks but doesn't completely fail (I mean so E do). I'm trying to address that. Maybe it's a northeast rust belt chemical thing mostly? I've seen like 10-20 rear struts do the same thing - degrade around 3" below the top rubber/metal juncture. One XT6 I had years ago (I've owned at least 20 of them) had some thick white stuff covering that area. I didn't think anything of it at the time so I'm not sure what it was. I have a set now covered entirely in The Right Stuff and so far they're holding. They were previously leaking. But I'd rather have a better adhesive/sealant and a top layer for support.

Given how absolutely terrible and nearly non-functional ABS can make mountain snow driving it almost needs a kill switch. ABS performance is entirely dependent on material conditions of the tire. If they're suspect (namely, aged or exposed) - disable the ABS. If they're excellent brand new tires it'll perform great on that vehicle. What I currently do is run any aged tires on one vehicle that I just drive when it's dry, and good tires on everything else - but that's only easy if you've got more than one car per driver available.

if that picture is the CV joint you used - it needs a circlip in that outer end groove to hold it into the diff. if the circlip is in place (even though it's not in the picture), buy two new ones from Subaru and see if that helps.

you seem to be addressing a failed strut - a tear or hole. i'm looking to address current struts before they fail. i'm looking for something that's a pliable filler and adhesive. i'd like to cover the entire strut with a pliable, flexible adhesive/sealant and then cover that with patches for added rigidity. the rear bags tend to crack in the same band (i've thrown away like 5-10 over the years) and will start leaking very slowly, not really a full on hole or tear. what kind of tube are you going to use that can support 110psi without any support since most are designed for use inside a tire? do you have a line on tubes that aren't prone to deterioate when exposed to the environment, UV, as they're generally designed to be covered (in a tire)? if the struts are kept operational they seem to hold up well. the ones i've stored have seemed to fail terribly even though they're stored inside a garage even. nearly all the rear air struts have started really small leaks, i mean like a bubble every minute kind of thing, not a full on tear. i guess the rears are made out of a thinner material?

if the piston boots are fine - ignore the rust and reassemble. sometimes i'll knock the loose stuff out just for kicks that is surface rust and entirely benign. those pistons are thick and will never rust through before something else fails. the bore and parts of the piston you can't see are the critical areas and covered by the piston boot. i've driven many years with even slight cracks in piston boots. if you have a cracked piston boot then replace with a used caliper. if you're up for a little extra grunt work you can rebuild the caliper. even if the boot was torn i'd just assemble it as-is for today and plan to deal with it in the next two years, get your parts ready, etc.

Nice, an 88 I think? what struts are on it? We are basically all members here too but If you have any XT specific questions subaruxt.com is sometimes helpful or if you want to list your parts for sale there.

Hahaha. Sold! Payment already sent. I've never shipped via craigslist so don't take it personal! I was going to ask if you were a forum member! That's awesome, good to see you here.

On 20 year old high mileage vehicles It's usually difficult to verify with 100% certainty the engine is original, never repaired, or the instrument cluster hasn't been swapped.

2.2's (and EJ18's) are beasts. They can make 300k easily - they're almost boring for an old engine - you can expect it if they haven't been abused. They're much more forgiving with oil, cooling and don't have headgasket issues, compared to EJ25. EJ25s have headgasket issues and arent as forgiving if run hot or people are a little flippant about oil change intervals. If you repair the HGs, never run them hot, change oil like a champ, and address oil leaks quickly, they do great as well.

nope, that's like putting a better exhaust on your horse and hoping it runs faster. not quite that bad, but closer than the other way round - lots of effort for tiny gains. It depends though - if you want actually fast 0-60 times then it's true. If you just like to tinker yourself and play as a hobby, or want to feel or look or talk about being faster with a few friends, or have a list of mods to put in signatures and Facebook, with small gains then do whatever you want - custom exhaust, lightweight pulleys, significant weight reduction, lower the vehicle, lightweight wheels and tires, see if anyone is doing higher stall torque converters or valve bodies for CVTs if that's what you have, remove your AC system. Then you're in a couple thousand dollars with meager gains and still getting killed at the track. NA (normally aspirated) engines don't respond like FI (forces induction) engines due to basic laws of physics, people are under the misconception that "mods make more power". That's inaccurate. "Mods on turbo engines make more power" is accurate. They respond drastically, but your engine does not. So yes a complete turbo swap is in order. That will most likely require a complete custom ECU controller and tuning which is highly involved and technical. I'd just buy a turbo vehicle, much simpler and cheaper.

Old thread but my dealer charges $75 to program "any number of keys and remotes at the same time". So I bought a couple extra keys and remotes off eBay and had them all programmed for $75. If memory serves me right they said they have to have all the keys and remotes together, even the ones you currently have to program a new key. They're programmed "as a set" so to speak. I think that's what they said, unless that varies by model or I misheard. The eBay keys and remotes worked fine but I did make sure they had decent reviews, they look identical to my originals, may be OEM for all I know, and didn't buy the first key that popped up in a google, eBay, or Amazon search. I wanted to know if it's a proximity thing or the key needs inserted, I think I asked here before and it people think it needs inserted. If proximity, I wanted to just hide a key in the steering cover and use whatever key blank I wanted. If I didn't have three kids I'd be figuring out a work around because I don't care or need it, Id guess someone's done it by now?

1988 XT manuals for free download at www.subaruxt.com Engine, trans, brakes, steering, suspension, driveline - everything mechanical under the entire vehicle is identical to your 88 wagon.

Thanks guys!

Suggestions for buying and shipping parts off craigslist? Just consider it a gamble? Seems solid - good pictures and communication. Could do eBay. Any other suggestions? Dislike sounding like I don't trust him....but forum members borrowing and never returning FSMs and parts, hard to ignore.

270,000

Oh yeah good point, there's also that ushipper place. You can put up what you want and people with open loads can bid on it. I've never done it and didn't get anywhere the one or two times I tried.

Awesome. I'll look into it. Tires run like 40 psi and these systems are 100+. Think that matters?

Rear bags leak slow with no holes. If you were to use a sealant to cover a rubber air suspension strut bag and wrap it with thin rubber what would you use? What is a strong adhesive but still pliable? Sikaflex? The Right Stuff. Something else non automotive? Also - what's a good way to hold the rubber tight to the strut after it's all assembled? A few ratchet straps would work but be clumsy. Maybe some coffee or other can cut in half and wrapped with straps would apply some even pressure? I did two today as a test with some Right Stuff and industrial rubber. I'm going to do another set as well with something else. Probably get some slightly thinner rubber than I used this time and look for a different adhesive.

Yes SRS light on means the system is not operational and won't deploy via controls and software. I'd look to the fuse, if equipped, or controller power to disable. Pretty much a nonissue. Airbags rarely deploy. Of all the totaled and wrecked Subarus ive repaired I'm surprised how unlikely they are to go off even in totaled vehicles. I don't even "disconnect the battey" when I repair airbags #iamarebel. LOL. On 2004 and earlier you just swap the blown airbag with one off eBay or car-part.com (takata notwithstanding) and carry on. No programming or anything, swap and go. Replace controller if necessary, just swap a cheap used one in, but often it's not needed anyway. So it's at least easy. 2005 I'm not sure if that's integrated more than that but I don't think it is. I've been wanting to look into that.