idosubaru

first link of a yahoo search brings up this page showing color code at 259 for cream yellow: http://www.indysworld.com/80s/general/specs/general/1982brat.html best thing to do is just stop in an auto body shop and ask for a rough cost to get your started. or google it, i'm sure there's tons of info about car painting costs. painting is very expensive. it's labor intensive and materials are expensive as well so you get what you pay for. it's easy for things to suck bad if it's not done right or done cheap. you'll have to decide if you want a cheap job that may be risky or a quality job. a wild guess is about $1,500-$2,000 for a top notch job. extrapolate down from there as quality decreases. MAACO has cheap jobs in the $200-$500 range and they're cheap. bumpers may flake, won't be perfect, but it'll look okay...for some length of time.

here's the actual electronics for the 4WD MT control. but i don't think the size limits permit clarity and i've already spent enough time fooling with it.

just to be sure, there isn't any wiring at the trans for the diff lock, so do you mean wiring for the trans or wiring for the diff lock controls? i think that's what you mean? there's wiring for the solenoids that control vacuum flow to the actuator which essentially just pushes and pulls the mechanical linkage on the side of the trans. do you have the actuator? (large round disc shaped gizmo). as long as you have the large disc shaped actuator you just need to provide vacuum to that in order to activate the diff lock. you can literally pull any vacuum hose and attach it to that actuator to engage the diff lock. so - you just install a solenoid that is activated by your diff lock switch that essentially controls the vacuum to the actuator. Subaru Xt factory service manuals are hosted in full for free, you can find the link at subaruxt.com. i attached a pic from the FSM of the actuator, solenoid that controls it (which is what needs wired in to the switch), etc.

auto or manual? i might have an XT6 driveshaft available. if you get it, be sure to check us out at subaruxt.com for XT specific info. we have the entire Subaru XT FSM hosted their for free too. be sure to get it.

Nice hit! Thanks, do you know which bushings and how do you know when they're bad? Is it obvious or does it take some "testing"? The only bad bushings I've seen have always been pretty much completely shot...even missing. Not sure if there's an in-between so to speak? no, not a fleet, only my wife and i drive them and all of my wheels are different. OBW, Legacy, Forester XT Turbo, WRX, so no swapping possible.

i had good luck here asking the local Subaru dealer who does their machine shop work.

headgasket leak. i'd add two bottles of subaru coolant conditioner immediately.

no spirited driving, though lots of twisty and bad roads around these mountains so a bad bushing sounds worth a look. they seem to fail so rarely though hard to imagine on a 2002. no noises or other issues so i'd imagine the rear diff and strut are fine as far as i can tell. struts can cause wear like that? we carry no weight as a daily driver, maybe 200-300 pounds in the back when we travel. yes this car has VDC, rarely activates though as it has a little VDC light in the dash and makes a sound when it does activate.

yes, use the special spark plug chaser tool. they make one that you insert down through the hole that does not engage the threads. then once it's through you "expand" the chaser threads at the bottom so they engage the good threads at the bottom of the hole and then chase out. someone just used this tool on subaruxt.com and said it worked. heli-coil and timeserts are thread repair device and are the same type product, just different brand names. you drill out the bad threads and then tap the hole with an included proprietary tap. then it comes with a special tool that allows you to thread in a special insert (looks like a spring) that has outer threads that match the ones you just drilled and tapped - and inner threads that match the original threads of the spark plug. a nifty little device. being a stronger material than the original aluminum the repaired threads end up being stronger than the originals. you just need to manage the debris from drilling and tapping to keep it from getting into the cylinders. fill them with shaving cream or maybe there's other tricks for that.

piston slap should be gone by the time the car reaches operating temperatures. thing is, some are bad enough that it only gets quieter once car is warmed up and doesn't completely go away - just depends, not always the same. if it decrease directly with temperature it seems like it's a good candidate for piston slap, but hard to say since you sound confident it's not it's good to explore other possibilities too. if this thing does have HLA's....which i think it does...then frequent oil changes are huge. we deal with this all the time in the older gen stuff. sea foam, MMO, and even ATF are added to free what may be sticking HLA's. in those cases usually the sound is noticably from one side or area...wherever the problematic HLA is. or it can be oil supply related, meaning the oil pump needs resealed. in those cases usually it's all over the place because it's affecting all of them. does your sound like it's from one side or both....or centrally located? that might help a good bit to determine that.

You should get good at replacing them and nothing should rust or seize if you keep taking it apart so the freebies might not be so bad to just keep swapping!?

by driveshaft i assume you mean the driveshaft to the rear diff and not the CV axles right? just making sure. I'm not sure what he would have welded, that's really strange. but anyway.... That rear driveshaft is a two piece unit. If it's the rear part - those are the same across all EA82 vehicles and XT6's regardless of auto or manual trans. So that should be easy to find. If it's the front piece, the part that actually goes into the transmission then you'll have to get one from a manual transmission or an automatic transmission as that is where the length difference is made up. but again an EA82 driveshaft will work as well. if you want to buy the entire driveshaft to match then you'll want one from the corrseponding trans - auto or manual - and EA82's will work.

Why is the motor bad? Is it not repairable? Sometimes repair is a better option on this motor. Any Ej25 from 2000-2004 will work. So by that definition MT or AT does not matter. 1999 Foresters (and I believe Impreza RS only) will also work, but those are the only models from that year as the other ones got the earlier version EJ25. a 1999-2002 EJ22 would also work (and you wouldn't have to worry about replacing the engine again because it's a better motor ) There are a few cases where the cam and crank sprockets have to be swapped out, so hold on to your old engine just in case but I would expect that more in EJ25 - EJ22 swaps. I'd recommend new timing components on any used motor, particularly these interference jokers. Also - keep in mind that 2000-2004 EJ25's require the Subaru coolant additive, be sure to add that once it's installed and fluids are filled. 2000-2002 EJ25's were under Subaru's extended headgasket warranty due to that issue - might want to try to find one that's already had them done or plan on doing them before installing the engine. You can look externally to tell if they've already been replaced before. Replacement generally solves the issue.

as for piston slap, there are varying degrees and the EJ18 may sound different than the EJ25? if it's HLA's that should be obvious as it would likely come from one side and not the other...unless multiple ones are fouling. maybe it's the oil pump? has it ever been resealed? the rear backing plate screws notoriously come loose on all EJ engines (same pump). i don't know that i've pulled one that didn't have at least one screw loose. not sure what the symptoms would be if they were all loose but i'd imagine something would happen - maybe that's what's happening? if you want to keep the car a long time maybe you could plan on a complete timing kit replacmenet ($80 on ebay) and resael the oil pump while you're in there. 60,000 trouble free miles after that until the next tbelt change.

definitely none of those - it looks like normal wear, there's nothing odd about the tire tread, looks perfectly fine by itself. the tread is getting lower faster than the rest, by a good margin apparently. bad memory tells me the last set of wheels/tires did the same thing, but i'm not sure. i have multiple matching sets of tires/wheels and multiple subarus and swap between winter treads, etc so hard to keep track sometime. cars101 seemed did not definitely seem to mention that the H6 VDC models got the VLSD rear diff, so i'm not even sure i have VLSD or not.

the problem is aftermarket axles. they have a high failure rate. i'm not saying every single one fails...so sure you'll see plenty of "success stories". facts are aftermarket has a certain percentage failure rate. to some people it's worth the risk, to me it is not. you'll have to decide where you fall. they leak early, clicking, vibrating, i've even seem them explode (after 100 yards of driving no less), etc. best bet is a used subaru axle and reboot it. or MWE out of colorado, he's been rebuilding subaru axles for a long time. a little more expensive than a cheap aftermarket but it's a %100 success rate.

very odd for an EJ18, but maybe they can have piston slap? classic piston slap is a knocking sound when cold at start up that goes away when warmed up. it's benign and you can drive the car forever like that. sometimes timing belt tensioners fail and make a knocking sound too, which can easily be mistaken for an engine issue. but - that's usually with the new style tensioners, i've enver seen the old style tensioners fail which is probably what yours has. not sure if they can knock too but i'd imagine they can. remove the drivers side timing belt cover (very easy, just 3 10mm bolts) and watch in there when it's making the noise, you can see the tensioner pulley moving and giving some. or listen to the timing belt covers with a mechanics stethoscope. if it's ever been run low on oil then an actual engine knock could be the cause in which case the engine is hosed. you'll need another block. the good thing is EJ18's aren't worth anything because demand it low and they very rarely fail. easy to pick a known good one up cheap. i bought one with 80,000 miles and 60 day warranty for $150, runs great. i used it for a swap, not to replace a bad engine though.

what he said, either car is going to go to 200,000 miles with about the same maintenance costs so i'd get what you want, those few thousand miles aren't enough to worry about in my opinion. timing belt is coming up at 100k - i'd do the transmission fluid and coolant then too if it's never been done. as to costs, i'd guess Texas isn't a Subaru rich area? where I live and more so where GD lives there's Subaru's everywhere. i'd guess prices average lower down south, i saw very few subarus in atlanta when i lived there for 9 years. Dealers make the most money on used car sales, they absolutely clean house. They don't have much into that car at all so they're making a ton of money on it. Have you tried craigslist or autotrader? personal private party sales are far better buys for the kind of car and price range you're looking for. you'll get a one owner vehicle rather than something that's traveled, been auctioned and ends up at a dealer who knows nothing about the car. who's more likely to personally sell something....an abused, neglected, or problematic vehicle.....or someone with a great car? what's more likely to be traded in? granted it's a tiny risk on such a new car but given the costs and other advantages, actually talking the original owner, is something i prefer and have had excellent results from.

for this engine Subaru spark plugs wires are best. aftermarkets are a gamble, i've seen them cause issue right out of the box so i don't waste my time any more. subaru wires are cheap and last like 10 years anyway so not really worth it. good news is that if you get a check engine light it's not a "BIG problem!!!". annoying and frustrating, yes. but it's simple, just read the code and let us know what the code is. big problems are hard to diagnose or difficult repairs, none of which this will be.

yep, same minus the 2.2 liter non-interference engine in the MT 1996's (only year and model for the OBW EJ22). the Ej22 will easily interchange into the 98 though, plug and play...with some minor notes. the 96 EJ25 will have a small metal plate installed over the crank sprockets of the timing belt that the 98 won't have. just ignore it, no big deal, it was only there for shipping purposes. body parts are all interchangeable. what size wheels did the 96 MT's get, i thought it might be an inch smaller but not sure.

same swap as your EJ22. less reliable, more power, but as far as complexity, it's essentially the same swap you already did with the EJ22. you can yank an EJ22 and the EJ25 will plug right in. so if you want more power drop the EJ25 in yours and demote your EJ22 to your dad!

nah, everything works fine, i've replaced both rear and front pads. that's bizarre, i wouldn't trust the mechanic, i guess yours or your driving is just different. guy i knew that worked in the alignment field said it's a waste, cars don't "loose alignment" for no reason - how often are the doors, windows, and hood and trunk and all sorts of other parts that have alignment in them ever get aligned. never had uneven tire wire on the dozens i've owned and never paid for an alignment, except on this car. maybe that's my problem, i went and got an alignment! tempted to get this one aligned again and see the spec's, ask them to be mindful of it. can something be wrong that they won't pick up? could the tire be straight /aligned but still wear unevenly - doesn't seem like it right?

the tensioner itself, just by it used, i've never seen one fail....but i've only owned 20 XT's and am moderator of subaruxt.com. the easiest way to install is to retract it with a right angle screw driver and bolt it in place, then yank the screw driver when you're all done. it holds it retracted, got details of doing that on subaruxt.com. i have the subaru tool and it's nice but i actually use the right angle screw driver method still, like just last week. GD - the XT6 bearings i'm pretty sure are much more difficult than that to remove. the ones i've tried, i ended up shattering the sliding surfaces before the bearings even budged at all.

ebay, rockauto, and thepartsbin.com are decent sources for cheap parts. to clarify - what do you mean by "tensioner" - do you mean just the hydraulic tensioner itself or are you talking about the tensioner pulley assembly? it's a two part mechanism on the drivers side. and there's technically a passengers side belt tensioner assembly too, but i'm assuming you're talking about the drivers side. if it's the hydraulic part, just get a used one they almost never fail, not worth the cost for new. if it's one of the assemblies, technically you could have shop press in new bearings. bearings are typically a few dollars a piece plus machine shop top, might just let them do all of them. you can also use a needle attachment for a grease gun, pry up the bearing seal, inject grease, and press the bearing cap seal back down. i just did one this week on an XT6 that way. not perfect but usable and cheap. at $150 you might as well buy a complete kit on ebay for $299 that includes all the pulleys and belts.