idosubaru

you've left out what may be the most helpful bit of information - ***why*** didn't it work? length, style, spline count, OD...?? i've seen damaged splines where an axle wouldn't slide onto a trans stub or into a knuckle. it's possible the axle would work but is damaged. some early EJ axles from FWD versions have a different spline count on the inner joint. you can google which ones that is. people used to like them for transmission converstions or older gen conversions which has the same spline count on the trans side. that would be my first guess - they assumed it was the same but it's different.

I would also verify all the work you've done - get it back to original ECU and sensors and make sure they're all connected/nothing damaged. SUbaru ECU's don't typically fail outside of some significant cause - so that's likely an incorrect diagnosis. any time a shop says to replace three separate items you have to wonder: 1. three things all decided to fail at the same time, a probability of probably 1 in BILLIONS. bad luck on you. 2. the diagnosis was incorrect. normally it's #2. i'd start over, go back to the original stuff and verify every single connection you've worked on since it last started to make sure something isn't disconnected, wrong, or damaged. when somethign worked - was worked on - and then doesn't - there's always a strong possibility that something was compromised in the work rather than some unknown.

88 GL hatch is an EA81 and loyale is an EA82. there's another thread where it's said the exhaust manifolds have the same bolt pattern/interchange with each other but the sections from there back are routed differently.

if the car is pristine and has no cancerous rust or body damage - then there's no compelling reason it went to the junky yard. usually that means something major is suspect - usually the engine or transmission. given the propensity of headgasket failures in those engines, that's a good possibility. those engines don't leak externally so a visual inspection doesn't tell you anything. if it was for a daily driver i wanted to be reliable and maintenance free for 5 years, i'd pass.

read the check engine light codes with another scanner. i've seen 05+ stuff not register on one scanner but register just fine on another. if you don't have another one to try, stop by one of the auto parts stores and have them read it with their scanner - it's free at most chains.

sometimes the initial burning is just residual fluids burning off from tear down - ATF, oil, and coolant can all drip down in the exhaust. that should subside pretty soon after the initial drive though.

makes sense. the only one i know and talk to regularly is one and hasn't bought new but he could easily be an outlier for a variety of reasons.

Can google NAPA subaru axles for a bigger scope analysis: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/81090-napa-axle-discussion/ usually you get a good axle from anywhere, sometimes they're bad. you probably could have exchanged the AAP ones and been just fine or if you buy 10 axles in the future from NAPA more than likely 1 or more will be bad. there's a low failure/issue rate but it's still insanely high for "new" parts. My approach for repeatable, time saving, no hassle axles for the life of the vehicle: 1. reboot Subaru axles 2. buy used Subaru axles for $20 - $33 from www.car-part.com and run them as is or reboot them 3. MWE

that's what i was thinking, it seemed like it should have been aligment related - it would be weird for both sides to exhibit identical issues after a collision or ever for that matter. in this case both sides incurred similar issues due to similar causation. that makes sense. i've repaired lots of wrecks and it would be weird for each side to be the same unnoticeable damage. when doing the axles - mark the top strut mount bolt head to strut knuckle relationships and retain that orientation. i use a grease pen or chisel to mark location. transfer that location when you reinstall to retain alignment. ball joint works - but if you run into any rusted pinch bolt or rusty ball joint issues - stop before it turns into a debacle - the number of sheared pinch bolt, cracked knuckles, and busticated ball joint debacles grows weekly, just google it. if they pop out, awesome. if not, don't get in so deep you're hosed, just do the strut mount bolts.

i wouldn't worry about bushings or swaybars. if you have axle issues - keep using OEM subaru axles, buy used ones, reboot them. aftermarket axles, at least in the US, are low quality. they're not even great for normal vehicles, but worse with lifted. i've had aftermarket axles work fine on a normal subaru and then have issues when lifted. install OEM Subaru axle and all is well.

pic clearly shows two door. Every true RX I've seen is two door, I think that's the only option:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaru_Leone There are other turbo coupe variants but I don't think they are an "RX"

RX, look at the picture for condition and doors? EA82 turbo tstat housing? Those are different from non turbo?

Dave and I have some pictures in the link below, it's my personal account and 100% safe if it looks unfarmiliar to you. Mostly vehicle pictures at this point, with the exceptions of some wheels and brat caps: Brats (a few of them) RX Turbo (Loyale) Wagon Brat rear bed seats (i think they're all in the vehicles, maybe one set isn't) https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4mb7lefdofkhztf/AADJN9LQ80uTjA14IK8WgD2qa?dl=0

strut mounts are usually good for the life of the vehicle, but they ocassionally fail. oddly on Subaur's it's not the bearings that fail, but the rubber bushings. i've never seen fronts fail, so i'd just leave them personally. i've only ever had to replace one strut mount and that was simply due to rust - it was an old rusty subaru with lots of issues and the rear mount was disintegrated. they can fail of course, but it's not common particularly for an average use daily driver. i'd reuse struts mounts or get used/new Subaru mounts. aftermarkets have issues. lockmedic had new ones bulging and i had a different brand break 3 days after install last year. strut rod right through it and into the rear of the vehicle. http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/110-gen-2-2000-2004/180242-why-you-shouldn-t-cheap-out-strut-mounts.html it still could be the control arms too - did they rule those out? i would also get under the car during the work and pry on the transverse mount bushing, control arms, and make sure nothing is notable loose. maybe even pull measurements of both control arms - they are symmetric and you can pick similar points and pull a measuring tape across them. make sure all points are the same. rack boots come with hardware - but it's often zip ties - you can just reuse the SUbaru clamps, they're robust and usually last forever. aftermarket boots last 2-5 years, subaru boots last 5-15 years, so i usually opt for Subaru but i can understand the access and cost of aftermarket too.

also - it takes about 2 minutes to get a rudimentary check of existing pressure. the auto parts store/wal-mart cans with a pressure gauge on top will give you an idea of how much refrigerant you have. just buy one and use the guage only, not even the refrigerant. at least you'll know what's going on without relying on some weird servie/warranty/broken something in your car scenario. http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/interdynamics-ez-chill-r-134a-refrigerant-plus-oil-with-leak-sealer-18-oz.-mac-134/7010015-P might even be able to just get one of these hoses, i think you can use these without a can attached, would be cheaper as it's not including any refrigerant. but it would allow you to buy and use the cheaper normal 134 cans if needed: http://www.idqusa.com/product/gbm-2cs_r-134arechargehosewithin-linegauge start there. or a different mechanic/second oppinion - but that might hose your chances of having them cover it if they were part of the situation/cause.

Done deal - $4,300. Settled for almost half. Legal route wasn't appealing. There are laws in place for consumers and businesses. They have the right to file for ownership of the vehicle for unsettled accounts. Escalating on our end may have prompted that. While they likely wouldn't have won - it would require time, resources, vehicle sitting for who knows how long (at which point - what are they going to do to it?), and uncertainty. This seemed overtly questionable enough I suspected he'd settle. Guy obviously encounters this a good bit, talking in circles and could take a beating with any retorts because he just doesn't listen or care. Been in business for 20 or 30 years and he's heard it all before. this involved high profile people/organizations/situation, overtly abrasive techniques weren't a good fit. that is one tool in a big tool box. more approaches = higher success rates. if i can win and avoid people hating/disliking each other in the end, that's a double win.

it would be tough to get a proper weld in the vehicle probably - space, electrical, plastic, plumbing, dirty, proper angle and pulling of the bead - but even if you pull the transmission to get perfect access at it - that should be far better off than entire replacement. it's not that expensive/hard to pull a transmission. ideally the trans is pulled and sent to a machine shop. i've done that before on repairs like this - pulled an engine and had them do it on the engine. they can: 1. repair it as is 2. machine a screw type insert to replace the existing bolt. i've had this done before. they'll remove the bolt, fashion a plug with outer and inner threads to match against what existing material and space allows. one tricky part that happens is the metal doens't always just shear off in brittle ways. someties the material tears/yields/stretches some before breaking and this causes it to not line up perfectly. like one half or one part does line up fine but the other side is "high" so to speak from localized spots yielding "becoming longer" so to speak. a little filing down and some attention to detail will bring the peice back together. i've done that before on transmissions. but it probably can be repaired in place, i'd give it a try. it wouldn't be expensive and what's it going to do - leak? then repair it again.

You can always get right back into one too, it's not like you can't buy another one. And yeah you'd be out some loot - but you're paying insurance and loosing (in payments and/or depreciation/liability) right now anyway if financial is the driving force, but it's not. Some possible lines of thought: if you go through cars fast then yeah just move on and own what you want/drive at a given time. It's not like you're the only person changing vehicles ever year or three. maybe wait the whole summer to decide so you get a full years driving experience out of it - maybe the WRX will change your tune in the summer? there's a heavy novelty in owning a vehicle - or most things in life for that matter - what's in your garage, what other people see, your ability to say you have/own/did/earned something, knowing you have a recogizably performance driven car....for most people the loss would be greater than you can put down on a piece of paper. if you're prone to change your mind and likely to dread getting rid of it, then you might want to hold on to it. i love having multiple cars for the two of us, i guess life changes but i wouldn't want only two vehicles any time soon. i can dedicate one as a tow vehicle, winter snow vehicle, road trip vehicle, have options (manual, auto, cargo space, passengers space, gear space), i'll run low tires on a summer daily driver when it doesn't rain to put off new tires until snow season, and can someone borrow a vehicle, less worry about down time if i want to do some maintenance to a vehicle. it can be quite practical. there's minimal costs like insurance and registration, and this varies based on how you buy vehicles, but for me it ends up not costing any more in terms of dollars per mile to own multiple vehicles. that might be tougher to pull off if i were buying brand new vehicles.

used heads are the simple solution and usually cheap. used EJ25 heads often come from a block block - which has a good chance of being run out of oil, oil having metal bits run through it, or overheated significantly. you at least now have heads that were known good. i was wondering if the valves were bent uniformly or varied? and if the variations corrseponded at all to the locations you had trouble sealing.

Except for really bad events - it's always the control arm and/or strut that gets bent. Technically you should be able to figure out which of those 4 components are bent and only replace the damaged one. Or replace them all to not diagnose/measure. (can you post pictures of the control arms/struts here?) 2 struts and 2 control arms should fix your issues. that's $150 in struts and $200 in control arms maybe - so $350 - $400 in parts. ***Imdew is parting out a car with the conrol arms you need i think - maybe he can ship you both of them. You might be able to get the struts from him too You are correct - used struts won't last as long as new as they are wear parts - but if they're cheap they'd be a great alternative here. No messing with spring compressing, less down time, and verify inexpensveily that the issue is resolved and then have a non-wrecked set of springs/top hats to use with new struts later if needed. Another option if mechanics isn't your thing you love to do with free time - remove the struts from the vehicle, and take them and your new struts to a shop. they can do the spring compressing/swapping for you. i'd use KYB outside of heavy experience with another brand. i've seen some name brands perform terribly on Subarus. i would ask one more question to the group at large - i would think you want someone with body/collission/alignment repair experience to diagnose it. that *might* be a mechanic but usually is not, most mechanics aren't familiar with or use measurements, body points, frame racks, and body repair. wouldn't it be best to go to a good body shop/collission repair center? they do this stuff ever day and can pull body datum points to actually measure everything and see what is actually damaged. granted - you need to find one that charges reasonably, ask them up front about measuring for control arm/strut location/alignment stuff - get a rough price. they're used to 4 and 5 digit insurance claims and often can be busy and expensive depending on supply and demand in your area. and honest hour on your car would be cheap and actually tell you what's broken. i would hesitate on a Subaru technician, specialists typically charge a premium, often charge to diagnose, and wouldn't be a huge boon on this crash related issue unless they *just happen* to have significant experience with wrecked vehicles and are going to pull body dimensions (which i doubt will happen).

brake lines above the gas tank leak due to rust. you can't see all of the line without dropping the gas tank. the fluid just collects up there and dries up into old caked on dirt/dust. at first it starts seeping through layers of rust. it's not a hole, but layered rust and the fluid makes its way out and may vary based on environmental conditions. once the rust blows out - then you'll get a big leak, loose your braking, and see fluid dripping down the gas tank. i'm not sure how to test for that - but that happens often enough and i've never herad of any causes of any other "mystery" brake fluid loss that doesn't result in fluid leaks being seing. behind the piston boots can take on some fluid, but they dont' hold much until they leak/show.

oh wow. yeah considering how robust subaru a/c systems are that doesn't sound normal. the blend door sholdn't be related to the A/C charge....something certainly sounds amiss.

what is your hope? a shop takes the blame? a shop to fix it? a shop to replace it? talk to machine shops or people that work with machining processes (not automotive mechanics). that is entirely repairable, but a tpyical shop isn't going to want to touch it because it's outside the scope of nominal mechanical repairs done at a shop. there's no techincal resource like ALLDATA or FSM for that repair and they're not typically trained that way. if you don't know machine shops - look them up in the phone book and call and ask. or ask local shops who does their head jobs, milling, resurfacing. call those places. a machine shop well versed in cutting, lathing, welding, wouldn't be shocked at that repair and easily find multiple solutions. if that was my car i nearly guarantee i could repair that and be done for the life of the vehicle in multiple ways in my poorly equipped (compared to a professional machien shop) garage. most wont' work on a car but call around and see what happens. a shop similarly damaged my friends engine and the dealer said the whole engine had to be replaced because the threads couldn't be repaired. from 1,000 miles away i knew the stupid thign could be repaired. i kept calling machine shops describing the situation until one said they'd have a look at it. they repaired it in the parking lot for him for a couple hundred bucks instead of the $6,000 or whatever engine replacement they wanted to do. car ran like 10 more years another 100k or something. with a little resolve it can be done. if you rely on the opinion of one or three local shops you're not likely to get anywhere.

it's worth a check - just disconnect the exhaust somewhere and drive the car. if the issues go away - you just confirmed the converter is problematic. you can drop it from the engine (wear ear plugs it's super loud) and drive it around the block - if the issues go away you know it's the converter. or unbolt the flange in front of the catalytic converter and support the exhaust so it doesn't bang around. if it drives fine - converter is the cause. that being said - other manufacturers have much higher catalytic converter failure rates, i think you can google "Make-model-so-and-so cherry red exhaust" and other descriptions of clogged exhaust and get significantly more hits than Subarus.

Start here: *** Read the check engine codes and post them all on here, the actual 4 digit numbers. Any advance auto parts or autozone will do it for free, it takes 10 minutes or less. Or buy your own scanner on ebay for $20, they're super handy. Plug it in and press enter and scan - it's really easy to use. *** what is it doing when it's running bad? 1. starts fine or has trouble starting? 2. idles fine or no? 3. drives fine until it warms up, then it sucks? 4. does it run worse when it's raining or humid? 5. do the spark plug wires look ancient? No! changing the rear O2 sensor will not fix the drivability issues. it will still run just as bad as it currently is -so no, i don't recommend doing that. Probably not actually. It might fix the problem, but it probably wont' too - so you don't really want to put money into a car that you don't want to keep.