idosubaru

THanks, i wont' short the battery. Meter is in-line between the negative battery post and the removed negative cable. I rest the negative cable on the terminal with the mutlimeter probe attached then lift it off - probably 30 seconds, it seems to settle down - does that sound long enough? Ah - crack - yeah the slow blow fuses are the "bolt" down fuses in the main fuse box? I didn't remove those yet - I guess it's one of those circuits - what are those typically for - if there's a simple way to delineate that?

2002 OBW H6 VDC

awesome, glad you found that. subaru injector failure is very rare. how did you test it? an injector doesn't cause a coolant leak so that still needs diagnosed.

disconnected alternator post and connector all the fuses in the cabin fuse box are pulled all the fuses in the engine fuse box are pulled all the relays in the engine fuse box are pulled what else is connected to the power circuit? where do the engine/trans/VDC controllers pull power from? is that a bad battery? it's 2 years old. can i test the battery for a draw? battery starts and works fine. if i simply put the amperage leads on the positive and negative terminals of the battery will that tell me if the battery has an internal draw - or would that short it out?

if they're really rusty pounding wont' get them off - well the rotor will start to splinter and shatter and crack into pieces but i highly doubt that's good for your suspension/wheel bearings! i've had the screw holes strip trying to push them off. i've had the rotors shatter from pounding with a sledge. i've had pullers break the rotor edges where the pullers arms attach or break the pullers. granted that's rare and only one out of hundreds are that bad. you're in texas i doubt you'll see one that bad. original rotors need two set screws removed. they will never in a billion years come off an old Subaru in the rust belt without an impact screwdriver. need an impact driver or drill them ot. original rotors have two set screws. they are often gone and not reused or aftermarket rotors don't have the holes to include them. since yours came off with force it didn't have the set screws. rotors don't need replaced unless you have a vibration while breaking. i have 250,000 miles on my rear outback rotors - and that's normal. even if they're rusty the wearing surface will wear right through the rust down to good metal in no time. not a big deal. maybe your pads will last 38,000 miles instead of 40,000. no big deal.

michellin's are awesme. they're hte one big company who has excellent performance on nearly every tire they make. the other average companies all make great tires - but they make some lesser ones too or have some detractions. almost anyone can just buy michellin's the rest of your life and you'll be happy and only pay a few bucks more per tire. i highly recommend them unless you're really into penny pinching. corporately they're well respected and have excellent focus/vision on research/testing/hiring capacity....so it's no surprise their products are what they are either. i like supporting a company that's good to employees and has excellent focus that's more than just $$$$. win win all the way around. i received no compensation for my reviews. LOL the general altimax are decently priced and perform well, i've bought a few sets. they loose signifcant snow traction after year 1...it's like they degrade snow traction 20% every season. first year they're great, second they're okay, by the third they're not suitable for my snow packed roads at all. i have a brand new set on one car now and another couple year old set on another subaru - striking difference and same tire. i run dedicated snow tires though so i don't care.

it's not the water pump. modern Subaru water pump failure is nearly unheard of...at most they leak but you'd find the leak first and then identify the pump. 99% of the time they're replaced it's preventative or mis-diagnosed. get all the air out - the H6's are nothing special with burping. like any other subaru - take care and get all the air out. look for leaks and make sure the fans are coming on. replace radiator cap with a subaru one, blow out overflow coolant hose, make sure it's tight to the radiator, make sure the end is free and not obstructed in the overflow tank. make sure the radiator cap sealing surface in the radiator neck is smooth and sealable. bubbles in the overflow are indicative of an H6 headgasket issue but of course we have very limited info and you haven't confirmed any leaks yet. H6's often exhibit random bubbles, random overheats, and can even go months between any syptoms at all and can take years to get bad enough that people finallly figure out it's the headgasket.

what they just said - it's not as simple as "cut it and install a new one". they can still be seriously seized in the bushings/knuckle regardless of cutting...which can also damaged the knuckle housing. a shop is going to be less inclined to hack away and damage a knuckle - even if it's only cosmetic a customer seeing a banged up knuckle on their car woudl not be happy - a liabilty most shops don't want - so they're unlikely to hack away like one might do at home.

That's odd. By 150,000 miles they need the same exact routine items - plugs (and wires for the H4's), valve cover gaskets, oil cooler gaskets. Plugs and VCG's are a little bit more cumbersome on the H6 - but hardly noteworthy for someone with mechanical abilities/experience. Few people buy a car because it takes 2 hours less mainteance over 150,000 miles. If the newer vehicles use the same type spark plugs as the older 00-04 H6's - those things are awesome and easily last 100,000+ miles. Though they recommend 60,000 now, they used to say 100,000 and they look in great condition even at 100k. Plan isely and you can make 150,000 with one major maintenance interval - do the plugs, VCG's, oil cooler gasket, and accessory belt job at the same time around 100k. Not counting fluids/air filter of course.

bolt the Baja intake manifold onto the new engine and call it done?

how many miles? should you investigate further to find out why they're warn so badly?

since i'm an electrical doofus, I'm sure you know this if you're an electronic technician! but just in case - to be Subaru specific - in other Subaru situations you can "unpin" a connector by depressing the tabs and pulling the pin/wire out of the connector. And then repin a new connector. But how about this question: *** Is the wiring of the 2003 different due to it being a 4 cylinder or non-VDC or non-VTD? Probably VDC but might want to verify that. The FSM's are readily available online for free, I've gotten a few H6's for free online.

Or if the engine was previously overheated and how badly? Those are the larger considerations. I think Dan has used hundreds if not thousands of Fel Pro gaskets as a full time mechanic...don't quote me on that but he is crawlerdan on here - or it was someone else here that uses them routinely in his shop without issue. If they fail more and there are two views then maybe - is that because they're being installed by people less familiar with subarus, more concerned with cost - unlikely to do the job as well (resurface, block prep, etc). Is the gasket actually inferior or are "whatever is available at the local shop" more likeyl to be used by "lesser" mechanics and hacks than a Subaru gasket?

Turbo's are high maintenance - people do get $5,000 - $10,000 repair tags for them for a variety of reasons. You can google it - they blow motors and turbo's regularly. They can be great vehicles, can mitigate some issuse, and they're certainly fun but you're talking about 15 year old vehicles, risk is substantial.

what MPG do you get in that? noise while accelerating during turning is usually the inner axle joint - but that's usually on really bad joints that were left exposed/without grease for a significant amount of time, so that might be why previous poster seems to differ in that. i have one right now like that in my driveway. you can alleviate inner joint noises by swapping left and right front axle parts since the loading dynamics are different depending if they're installed on the left or right. for that matter - wouldnt' just changing the sides accomplish that or something simpler? but after your first axle removal debacle i doubt you'll want to touch that thing unless you have too, those are crazy when they're that bad to remove. was that car ever in the NE? noise after a front end job is often a brake dust shield or something rubbing that got tweaked during the job - but sounds like you've largely ruled that out with your good description/diagnosis so far.

fans, rad cap, thermostat, coolant leaks, make sure the overflow hose isn't clogged or resting against the bottom of the overflow tank/preventing flow. get all that easy stuff out of the way. boil the thermostat and i think shops can pressure test a rad cap. headgaskets are definitelyl possible. compression test is pointless. 5 gas analyzer of the coolant or pressure test the cooling system is better. the chemical tests sometimes work and you can DIY those. but they're not as accurate as the analyzers. i've yet to ever see a failed tstat or radiator cap - many dozens of times i've hoped it was that and it never has been. they're super easy and cheap to replace so they're a great starting point. i think they're failure rate is skewed by the number of people that have seen symptoms go away after replacing - when really it was an air bubble, or the symptoms returned later anyway - thereby mis-confirming the success of the original repair.

find the coolant leak. 115k tells us the car saw lots of city traffic, sat for an extended period(s) of time with little use. those don't do great things to engine longevity. if it is the headgaskets, pulling the thermostat might help it run cooler/less pressure and mitigate the leak while you limp it along.

Others on here use the copper spray too, ivansimports does like a dozen EJ engines a month I think and puts something on his, though he doesn't give a brand/specifics: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/129488-ej22-head-gasket-replacement-question/ More important IMO is resurfacing the heads and block. If you're looking for additional precautions I'd look into resurfacing the block. Not just for flatness, but quality RA/surface roughness.

at least you know it's just a leak and not something that's going to fail/break down.

There - it's clear as day - a huge flashing NEON billboard sign is telling you it has TPS related issues. The code is not for "the throttle position sensor" but rather "The Throttle Position Sensor ***Circuit***". One of the wires from the TPS to the ECU is compromised. Test resistance of each wire from the TPS to the ECU. Knock sensor is the most common EJ sensor to fail by a looong shot, might as well replace that too.

Has the CV axle ever been replaced? A Subaru axle wouldn't likely make that noise. Aftermarket axles are trash and can probably fail in limitless ways. Load based CV axle symptoms are due to the inner axle joint, not the outer where the typical clicking symptom related to turning occurs. The focus here, if any, would be on the inner joint, not the outer. I've never seen an inner joint only make noise - they usually have some vibration associated with them. Does yours have any vibration associated with it? Whine under load with no other symptoms is usually the front diff. Probably a bearing.

I think they are the same left and right but I can't remember exactly. i know the air suspension rear struts are different but memory tells me coil overs are the same left and right in the rear?

Yeah, I picked it up from you. Oh my! used part, have a shop press it, sell the tool, you chose wisely, that tool is not worth using by hand IMO. That gives the impact a work out, i put my 1,000 ft/lb 3/4" gun on that.

1 am on an 800 mile night road trip, all the lug nuts but one sheared off an XT6 wheel. i used one brake caliper mounting bracket bolt from each front and one rear stud to finish the trip. used a panty hose as a serpentine belt on a 1988 XT to charge a dead battery at idle, then drove the car home 20 miles. XT6 4EAT transmission issues. trans wasn't shifting properly/undrivable. disconnect TCU it defaults to "locked" 4WD and 3rd gear. perfectly drivable, with binding and only in 3rd gear. It was too rusty to do a trans swap on but I drove the car for a couple years like this after i installed a switch to manually control the Duty C (just one wire) and switch back and forth between locked 4WD and FWD.

and i've used it for one XT6 and one OBW now, thanks! i wouldn't want to use that tool without air tools, that's some serious wrenching!