idosubaru

i've been considering upgrading my 10+ year old air hose recently. what do you mean a "two foot tail"? is 1/2" better than 3/8"? did you get a storage reel for it? retractable...?

Good oil changes are key. Every single TOD i've encountered was repaired with a new oil pump. The pumps don't show wear or issues so I'm not sure what "causes" it, I just know that new pumps solve the issue most of the time. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/136547-ea82-er27-ticking-tod-hydraulic-valve-lash-hla-noise-diagnose-and-repair/ TOD is so common and oil pumps so often the cause that i wouldnt' consider one used one determinate. it could still be the pump. The only ones I've seen that were something else were due to prior engine issues compromising the HLA's - they're stuck or seized. 1. was the car previously overheated? 2. has it seen excessive use - offroad, towing, really long oil changes, run low on oil? 3. is it a 300,000 mile engine? you say it's 150k so looks like it's not unless that's vehicle mileage and the engine has more? A problematic HLA should be a bit more obvious because the TOD is limited to one cylinder/area. Stethoscope may help You can replace offending HLA's - it's been a long time since they've all rusted away around here but i've seen them stuck badly enough that they don't compress in a C clamp. pull the valve cover on the offending side and rotate the engine by hand to see if one of the HLA's is notably different than the rest - too much clearance or not moving at all or collapsed - it doesn't pump up. If it's stuck mid-stroke it might be hard to tell insitu. *maybe youll get lucky and be able to find a bad one just by pulling the valve cover.

call them and ask. what you do with the valve train probably depends what cam you get and the condition of your existing valve train. it's been a long time but i feel like you can check your rockers/have them tweaked too? they do this stuff all the time for years (decades now) and are great to work with. just ring them.

maybe whatever caused the radiator to partially clogged also did the same with the heater core? i think thermostat failure is far more rare than comments suggest but it probably needs checked? i've never really done a flush so i'm not sure. ; i ran a garden hose through a forester radiator and a known good radiator in my garage. the forester radiator barely trickled water through it while the other one flowed fine. not that this is a fun test when it's frigid out - i don't even want to change oil right now much less run water through a radiator. LOL

those H6 engines are awesome, they easily go very high miles. i favor 01-04 H6's when helping friends buy cars. 1. replace both serpentine pulley bearings. they fail all the time. i'd replace them every 60k - 100k. they're only $10 or less and takes 30 minutes to replace. get a high quality japanese 6203 bearing (i think it is) ,tap out the olds one, install the new ones. DAYCO makes a pulley that's interchangeable 89007 pulley if you don't want to mess with bearings, just buy the pulley and swap. 2. replace the ATF for sure. great trans, don't leave oil in it for ever. you do't have to do a flush you can just drain/refill like engine oil. do it 3 times as it only get 33% or so of the fluid out each time. ; 3. change the front diff gear oil and coolant. rear diff gear oil is smart too but they almost never fail or leak or have issues so while they can incur issues most make it to 250,000 miles easily no matter what. Drive it another 100,000 miles. Common issues: a. A/C orings - i have a write up on how to fix that for a couple bucks. b. fuel pump cap and oring - the tabs on the cap crack and the oring spits out. nice to have a new oring and cap on hand just in case or replace them preventatively and keep the old cap as a back up. easy job. less than an hour. c. valve cover and oil cooler gaskets leaking oil. i replace spark plugs and valve cover gaskest at the same time when needed. spark plugs are 10x easier to replace with the valve covers removed - which always eventually leak oil. more than likely they've already been replaced if they aren't leaking. this is a few hour job or half a day or more if you work slow/unfamiliar with SUbarus. alternator (and battery of course) is the most likely thing to leave you stranded. they're so easy to replace a cheap plan is to just have a used one in the trunk ready to go just in case. it's a cheap way to avoid getting stranded. i generally focus on alternators and fuel pumps to avoid getting stranded in high mileage vehicles.

subaru parts website shows this rough distinction: 190 is a 2000-2002 block 390 is a 2002-2006 block this isn't very "block" specific but maybe it's simply EJ251 and EJ253 differences: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaru_EJ_engine

oh goodness i thought he said "his" had headgasket issues - yeah if it doesn't just motor along and forget about it until it starts overheating. very well may never have issues. though they're often sold with existing issues so wouldn't surprise me if you had issues - then saw it's normal....but if not - run it.

i get that you're venting and the general customer service on low cost options is frustrating. but it doesn't sound like parts geek did anything wrong - if the shipping costs weren't known, should have moved on to the next option. and you generally do "get what you pay for" with cheap product sometimes - no customer service for instance. this is a great treaching moment, rather than angry at PG, teach them to be a smart and savy buyer.

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/153118-ej22-or-ej18-swap-into-ej25d-dohc-vehicle/

what he said. uncanny timing but an easy fix and discerning what happened seems unlikely. how far did you test drive it and did you wind it out hard?

great, got it all done then. the "failed" springs i've seen in 00-04 outbacks hadn't broken either. and when removed they looked identical to the new springs being installed. and yet on the vehicle they had obviously collapsed and lost their ability to support the weight of the vehicle. seems like yours were the same.

the only part that matters is the part where the new valve cover gasket will seat. most of the stuff you're pointing to is just sitting on metal and is entirely benign. you want the valve cover gasket sitting on clean bare metal - clean that part. it's delineated by a clear line in your picture where the old gasket set. clean that to bare metal.

got it. good luck tracking it down.

what do you mean by "front rear"? can you describe the sound more or post a vid? how have you prevented it from occuring - decrease acceleration and steering angle? rythymic pop-pop-pop/click-click-click very loud at full steering wheel lock, up an incline, under acceleration - while rare, it is classic axle joint noise. it's so directly tied to physics - steering angle, hill, acceleration, it's not really mistakable for anything else if you've seen it before. but like he just said it is hard to be affirmative simply for the fact we can't hear it...hence my questions to describe the sound.

yep, if it's sagging then the springs are shot. another simple option in the future is to just hit those two lower bolts really quick one day as a "test" to see if they'll loosen reasonably well or not. might start moving and you be like "hey i can do this" or you be sweating and say, "nah worth ma time".

my bad, i was thinking rear hatch, not the corner lights. was the previous bulb damaged in anyway? i have seen the bottoms of the sockets be very warn. any moisture intrusion into that lens/light assembly?

how much time you got? replace the cams and see what happens? might be out of it for only $100. in some ways - those engines are great - cheap, reliable, fairly straight forward to work on and make an easy 250,000 miles with little effort if the oil is never compromised and they're not overheated. so to that end - a used engine is a great fit. replace the valve cover gaskets, PCV valve, reseal the oil pump, replace the cam cap seals and orings and the water pump with new timing belts and address the timing belt pulley bearings. you'll make 100,000 on nothing but timing belts after that on oil changes and ignition stuff (plugs, wires..) three common issues - each takes a few minutes and couple bux to address, i just do them when i first get a dialy driver XT6 and then you're done: water temp sensor always corrodes, cut it and install a cheap and easy fuel injector harness with pigtail. same with alternator connector - they're brittle by now. clean out the IAC - just remove and blow it out wiht carb or brake cleaner. an EJ swap isn't a terrible idea either....but out there those EJ engines are probably expensive.

the wiring often breaks in hatches right where it passes through wherever it's hinged at the body and hatch. there's a rubber grommet the wiring passes through and the wiring breaks there. you can check for continuity from the socket connections (at the bad bulb) to a chassis-side connector, i've found them in the passengers side footwell kick panel before for this same testing. if there's no/limited connectivity there then you likely have a break in the wiring where it bends all the time from opening/closing. annoying to diagnose, easy to fix. remove rubber grommet, splice in one new wire. it's often the case that more than one are damaged. make sure everything else works in the hatch.

ABS/non-ABS knuckles are the same - but the backing plates and hubs are different. should be lots of AWD with ABS available: www.car-part.com the rear hub has the ABS tone ring bolted to it and the backing plate has the mounting hole/bolt hole for the ABS sensor. so you need the ABS hub and backing plate. technically speaking you could use the ABS hub and ABS backing plate on a non-ABS knuckle but then you have to do a complete wheel bearing job. if you don't mind disabling ABS you can install a non-ABS unit and it'll just have no sensor and the ABS won't work and the brakes will work like normal brakes.

what engine/vehicle/year? did it come with factory A/C or dealer installed A/C? have you tried to install it yet? when i've done A/C deletes I just measure it - wrap something around the pulleys and measure it. the digits in the part number for belts usually include the length for the belt.

those bolts are beastly but the good news is they don't really shear off or strip. use a 6 point socket and a loooooong pipe. i'd have at least a 3 foot pipe available to slide over the end. a 2 foot cheater bar is gonna be light if they're rusted enough. penetrant doesn't penetrate certain bushings and extremely rusted fasteners. outside the northeast or easy stuff like bikes, household, etc gives a skewed perspective on how good it is - it just doesn't get into cancer ridden metal. i have a YIELD ($20 - $30 a bottle) and i use it and PB Blaster as needed but it's not all that helpful on rusty vehicles. if you can - soak a rag with it and stuff it all up around the bolt over night so it can saturate. but honestly i wouldn't even do it on a rear strut - they always come off with an appropriate extension/pipe. if it's really rusty or tight - loosen the bolt a turn or two and then go do something else to let the bolt cool down. the metal heats up when removing due to that all that friction. it will literally burn through a glove and burn your hand they come out so hot. but that heat also makes them prone to shearing off - it causes metal to expand and compromises the material properties, making them more prone to shear. that's a very helpful thing to do on rusty fasteners - loosen - go do somethign else. loosen - go do somethign else. but again - strut bolts on those aren't prone to shearing. cheap struts can be very questionable. i've got a 2003 with "new" struts in it right now from a friend - and they are atrocious. the car just floats and bobs around like crazy. i'm stupified they would make a product that does this. cheap mounts also suck - some people have posted pictures here and other forums of them "bulging" at the top, and i had a strut blow through a 1 week old srut mount last year - just pushed the rubber bushing right ouf ot he metal mount. you can do all the work and just have a shop compress/install the springs/mounts for you. that might allow you to get a decent KYB strut installed with minimal price difference. for 1 or 2 years I think i'd just stick with the aged struts on the car rather than installing cheap struts? can you just ignore it?

what's the "brass" colored inner ring inside the hole? Can you post a picture of what that is supposed to look like? repair looks reasible. be nice if you could just weld it and be done with it. stop at a machine shop and ask if you're not set up for aluminum. i've had machine shops do some awesome work on stuff like that and they've never charged me what they should have. one engine block i had shear a chunk of metal off with at timing bolt - i worked with a machine shop to make a plug/insert - outside tapped with a die and the inside drilled/tapped like the original hole. drilled the case and tapped it to thread in the outer part of the custom insert - then the inside of it was already drilled/tapped the origina hole size.

in my experience - that is usually (like almost every time) the inner joint. doens't make much sense since the inner joint doesn't articulate much, but that's just what i've seen. my 2003 has been doing this for about 2 years now. i'd guess....i've never measured...and this might vary by joint since there are a few varieties....but the inner joints click less per second and can sound more ominous poppopopopop there's a really good chance you could just clean and repack the joint and it'll be good. over time the grease gets watery and just runs out of the joint. or you could clean/regrease the inner joints and swap axles from side to side or swap the passengers side joint onto the drivers side - reboot/regrease. this changes the loading dynamics and with fresh grease you'd likely not have any issues. guys do this on older Subarus with excellent results. but i totally get not wanting to do that. i'd get a used Subaru axle and reboot it. www.car-part.com if you are chomping for new I'd get one from FWE in Denver if available. he's really busy and doesn't market himself much nationally but i've bought from him before. adds up quick though, cost of axle, shipping, core...so it's not cheap. just a reasonable one stop shop and a guy that's been doing subaru axles for decades.

what he said - a proper brake job and tires will make a huge difference different brakes wont' make any noticeable difference. properly working, your current brakes will lock the wheels. different brakes can't "lock the wheels more" - they both trigger the ABS - relegating stopping ability to the tires ability to stick - as LT just said. unless you're racing, towing, dealing with adverse conditions that need to dissipate massive heat.

the roll connector - check it and make sure it's not damaged? or replace it - for only $30 i'd give that a whirl and see if it fixes your airbag issue. the seat - seems like that should be a rather simplistic switch/sensors - get an FSM and see if it has a schematic/resistance/testing metrics for that sensor. test the sensor and it's associated wiring in the seat and go from there. you used new Subaru airbags? what I do is just buy a used SRS controller module - are you positive it was "reset" properly?