idosubaru

not being prone to failure i don't replace in pairs. the only reason i've ever had to replace tie rods, even on 80's subaru's, is due to broken boots and i don't consider that justifiable for replacing in pairs. that's a horrible place to take a gamble though, so i can understand. but i've never even really heard of Subaru tie rod failures so never been to worried about it.

Is there a reason not to trust the person that did the work? In the future it might be worth finding somewhere competent so you know your machining work is up to par. If you have a close Subaru dealer, asking who does their machine work might be a good start.

ah yes, i've seen the "v" shaped indentations on the cam orings as well.

make sure it's not something else. the new style timing belt tensioners are notorious for making a loud rapping/slapping noise that sounds terrible when they start to fail. the tensioner has "give" to it and bounces, particularly under load. although that is on the drivers side so should come from there, but still i'd check. i replaced one last summer just like this. just make sure it's not something else first. piston slap, failing tensioner, timing belt, oil pump, etc. you'll want to stick with SOHC, they're a better engine anyway.

I'll throw this in for discussion since our experiences seem to differ. HLA failure is rare in my experience. I'd even say i've never seen it since the only two seized hla's i saw were on an XT that was driven with bad headgaskets for a very long time, like stupid amount of time. Outside of that i've never replaced HLA's, had TOD that wasn't alleviated over 19 years of daily driving and owning 20 or so XT's. It's also a rare issue with the long time owners on the XT forum. Maybe rust AND TOD is just too much to bear so they all hit the scrap yards :lol: I believe I've only driven two extensively that had over 200,000 miles though, yours has a bunch? Recently the administrator/owner (austin) of the forum had TOD that wouldn't go away with multiple attempts to fix it. I sent him a new oil pump - it finally cured it. I've never mic'ed them but I bet they'd test in spec. Actually - I think he mailed his bad pump back to me. I'm kind of curious to install or mic it but I know I'll never have the time. Actually I'm reassembling an XT6 now that doesn't have the pump on yet...hmmmm.....how daring am i? Why is no one else piping up? i'd be interested in hearing from others that have experience with lots of EA's and a few hundred thousand miles under their belts. My appologies if the air bubbles are incorrect GD - the most common problem in XT's is often the gasket getting sucked into one of the ports. There are pictures of the deformed gasket if you've never seen it, this happens over and over again. I assumed introduction of air was the symptom of that failed gasket, pretty sure really bad cases show bubbles on the dipstick but maybe it's just volume reduction? Wonder if there's any reason an XT6 would have better HLA performance? That is most of my experience although I've owned a few XT's as well and the XT guys on the XT forum don't seem to have any more issues with them? Is 100,000 miles more wear on a 4 cylinder than a 6?

no, the circlips are typically really "loose" so to speak and seem to dangle off the end. fairly certain that's normal, i've always left them like that no problem.

a used EJ25 is a joke in my opinion but everyone is different. too many piston slap, head gasket, and lower end failures. if you only need 50,000 miles then a minimal repair on this one will probably work. headgasket, timing belt components. if you do repair it, make sure you use a Subaru only headgasket. if you want 100,000+ miles out of it (which is probably what i'd aim for if doing an engine swap) you could still shoot for repair too, it's not impossible, but i'd start leaning towards an EJ22 or EJ18 swap myself as well. though i think i'm the only goofball to go for an EJ18 swap. you can probably get $200-$400 for your EJ25 by the way, which would probably pay for an EJ22 or EJ18. EJ22 = cheaper and more reliable, it's kind of hard to beat that. and it's plug and play, bolts right up.

As long as the machine shop knows what they're doing you should be fine. Before they proceed they check the specifications and make sure the part is good and has enough material to work with. If not they let you know, "this isn't turnable." Brake rotors/drums have the spec's on them usually, not sure about the flywheels but you could take a cursory glance just for kicks. You could ask a shop to mic it for you if you're curious.

yep, you're golden. don't do anything but pop it back in place. if the circlip is still on the end of the stub you're golden, if not you'll need to fish it out first. but they almost always stay with the stub so just pop it back in. there is a seal there though so carefully pop it in without damaging the seal.

thanks for the tips dave, i would have waited longer to try and remove the tube, glad i did that and got it over with. i was planning on installing the entire tube from my daily driver into it, but thought i'd try pounding it first. put the old cracked up dipstick into the DD and can replace it when i get home, i should have a couple lying around too, though i never knew to save the tubes.

if you don't overheat it or blow the turbo they can rack up some high miles. but good luck doing that on and EA82 T:lol: if you put a complete timing belt kit on it ($60 on ebay), new water pump and resealed the front of the motor you'll probably get another 50,000 miles out of it easily....if you keep it from overheating and running low on oil. EA82T's are notorious for overheating and they usually do bad things to the motor really quick when they do - blown head gaskets or worse. at 20 years old there's a lot of hoses, clamps, turbo, radiator, thermostat, water pump, etc that can cause coolant loss. and they aren't really worth anything on the open market so few people want to put the necessary maintenance into them - like timing belts and water pumps,etc.

you're right it's the original fluid. only has 58,000 miles so the fluid wasn't terrible but definitely a more dirty orange than pink color - it's over a decade old, change the fluid people!

Got it, I 'win'. LOL. I pulled the entire tube off, thanks Dave that was easy, just one 14mm bolt. With it off the car I pounded the lip from underneath with a hammer and screwdriver and it eventually worked it's way out. It was like pounding a bearing out - press fit. Oddly enough there was hardly any rust or anything? I mean a very light bit of surface rust inside the tube at the top where it seats but not much to speak of. Here's the odd thing - I reinstalled the same tube and used the dipstick out of my daily driver Lsi - went in perfectly smooth just like it should. But the original dipstick wouldn't even reinstall after I had removed it, it was like it was "too big" or something, would have had to be pounded in....can the dipsticks "swell" or something?

Woah - so you're saying you've pretty much seen them permanently "welded in place"? That sucks.

New $400-$600 depending on model Used $20 (1-877-459-1415 has one for $19.95 if you want, but i wasn't sure which trans/engine you have since you didn't say) They take about 20 minutes at the most to replace, all of three bolts or so. It's one of the dumbest parts of a Subaru to replace new, there's no justification for the cost at all. My guess is they're going to total it, so you might as well start looking. ECM's for this car are going to be $500-$600+ just for the computer. Which is dumb since used ones cost $35....or less. Personally I'd hope they total it - then buy it back. The insurance company hands you a check for $7,000 or whatever, then let's you buy the car back from them for pennies on the dollar -let's say $900. Then you get it fixed and you make a couple grand. Buy backs are really cheap because it saves them the logistics - paper work, transfers, towing, auction costs, etc which they won't get much for this car anyway. Cash in hand is good for them. They also need to clean out the spark plug wells and wires. "some of the spark plugs"? Does it have a CEL - I bet it does. Someone else just washed their engine on this board a week or two ago and the car either ran rough or wouldn't start. They took the wires all out, dried everything out and all was good. Of course if it's flooded bad enough mabye you should ditch it.

99 Legacy GT. It's one dipstick verses another. Automatic transmission dipstick won't budge or turn. Casualties: piece of meat hanging from my hand and a bleeding gash in my elbow from the conflict so far. Current situation: The ring/handle is destroyed, it cracked in half and broke off. Then I tried the base and it's starting to crack and a huge chunk broke off. I need reinforcements and medical attention! Debrief: Do not drain fluids before making sure the dipstick comes out and wear protective gear at all times.

ECU failure is really rare, most 1980's Subaru's are running with their originals. This suggests two things to me: Yours is probably fine. You might want to post your problems here and get some feedback. Theres more collective experience and knowledge here than any shop in the country. And the good news is since they never fail that means buying new is a waste of money and used ones are dirt cheap, there's absolutely zero demand. Folks parting them out dont' even bother keeping them.

yeah i wasn't insinuating that was the case here, just throwing it out there for general TOD talk. i think in those cases it is a deformed oil pump gasket (mickey mouse) which you didnt' mention. do the measurements include any kind of flatness measure - like uneven-ness? i'm thinking along the lines of head warp? what i've seen is a propensity to deform the gaskets as mentioned above, they get sucked into one of those two little holes. it's my guess that in those cases the pumps are slightly warped enough to prevent the gasket from staying in place. not sure how many miles it would take for a new gasket to become permanently deformed. i wish i had some of the old oil pumps i replaced that had ticking to check out, but if i do I don't know it.

you need to see a diagram, FSM, or picture. we have EA82 FSM's for free download over at subaruxt.com. but i'll try again. if you re-read my reply i think it's pretty clear. i mention three parts to reseal the oil pump and you're asking about whether i mean cam and crank stuff. no no no no no. it says "oil pump shaft seal" ? with the oil pump removed, the rear of it is accessible. you remove the 12mm bolt with the timing belt on...OR...once the pump is off hold the rear of the oil pump while removign the 12mm bolt. sometimes it just slips in place so removing the 12mm won't work, it just jumps teeth on the timing belt. size of your thumb does not sound like a crank shaft seal, sounds more like the oil pump shaft seal. on the EA82/ER27's the oil pump and crank seal are completely separate - oil pump is driven by the timing belt, not directly by the crank like on EJ stuff. maybe that's why you're confused? it's between the oil pump and engine block. you need to see a diagram/picture. you should be able to poke in any part number you have on various subaru sites, or call and ask them, or search here, and find out exactly what part you have and which you still need. some of the subaru vendor sites even have exploded diagrams don't they?

we have the chevy compatibility posted on subaruxt.com, i'd look it up but i'm on dial up so you're on your own. !

since TOD can come-and-go often times, a lot of suggestions tend to be anecdotal and not long term solutions probably like you said. treatment probably only works in cases where they're stuck - but not so bad that they're damaged or not going to "unstick" so that's a very small number. on vehicles other than seized HLA's i've had 100% (all 4 or so of them ) success in new oil pumps solving the problem, and know others that have as well. the only HLA's I've ever replaced were completely seized and wouldn't move in a vice. I've never put any faith in the FSM in terms of squishing and pre-filling. I just install them - stiff as a board, squishy and all if they made no noise prior or replace seized one if there was noise...and never had tapping issues. seems like folks that maintain them well have very few issues with TOD, all of the long time XT owners that have had them for years on subaruxt.com seem to never have issues..and probably many here too? after 20+ years it's not hard to find ill maintained EA82's, particularly when in many parts of the country they're barely worth scrap prices.

yes, definitely replace the o-rings, they are typically very brittle by now. it's just an oring behind the cam cap - the part the seal slides into. just remove that cap and replace the oring behind - a couple 10mm bolts and that's it. call subaru....or search here i'm sure the part number has been posted before or maybe it can be found online? thepartsbin.com has a cam seal set that includes both the seal and the oring, you can see it there, maybe it'll cross reference a part number? pull the oil pump and reseal it. three parts: oring/gasket - mickey mouse gasket oil pump shaft seal oil pump oring no screws or anything like EJ stuff. remove the 12mm bolt holding the sprocket on the shaft before removing the timing belt - or use a 1" socket on the rear of the pump to hold the shaft in place to remove the bolt.

the oil pump is hosed, get another transmission. you could attempt a rebuild by swapping oil pump parts from the old trans to the new...depending why the old one is hosed? i know folks have done that before....memory tells me they've posted about it here. just the rotor ended up cracked or something fairly simple...like one part. but it's a fairly involved job and mostly comes down to making sure you take note of the front diff - the backlash is crucial to get right...or retain since you're just reinstalling the same front diff. you can save the old trans, pilfer the rear 4WD bits and duty c which sometimes fail or even retain the best parts between all the transmissions you have. keep the best clutches/hub that have the least amount of notching/grooves.

like he said, write the code down and post here the actual code number.

Ej swaps are covered fairly well here and answer most of your questions. Have you tried searching any, should get lots of hits here? Which motor will depend what country you're in - you might want to update your location so it's easier to answer questions. EJ engines drop into an EA82 fairly easy...but there are some caveats depending on what EA and what EJ. EJ won't bolt up to an EA trans without an adapter plate. and of course nothing is plug and play about it so you need the entire wiring harness and ECU. there are instructions here on doing that or even folks that cut and label wiring for you. Bram, Fury, Subarudave, and others are members that have done it. Bram and Fury have lots of information on their swaps at subaruxt.com and Subarudave has lots on here about his.