idosubaru

you didn't disconnect the top strut mount bolts did you - the nuts in the engine bay? if you disconnect those the strut will have too much give to it and "bounce" rather than actually transfer the load to the bolt you're trying to remove. That's really bizarre they're that tight, i've had some rusted out northeastern crap baskets and i've never had a problem with those.

So a friend buggered up his fender on a 2001 Chevy truck...the same thing as a Z71, without the Z71 package, whatever that's called. So i thought, hey Subaru fenders are easy, surely a truck fender is simple. What the crack, it's like welded in place? I found it quite odd for an off road, 4x4, work truck, kind of vehicle. Which would you want more repairable - a vehicle grandma runs to the grocery store with or that? How do you remove those jokers? Are they easily replaceable?

Replace your radiator cap, that's a good place to start, cheap, and not a bad thing to replace anyway. Many aftermarket chains read your codes for your check engine light for free, go have that done. They should be able to pull from memory what made it come on. Or you can do what I did and buy the $30-$40 jokers off ebay, they're awesome and read and clear the codes for you. Well worth it to save time driving to a parts store and waiting on them.

Well I should have bought this thing about a decade ago. I have impact wrenches, but they're all lighter duty. I've probably lost days of my life if you add up all the hours spent on rusted and seized bolts/nuts/axle nuts. I tried to remove two axle nuts on a parts car that had been sitting for a few years. I had a 3 foot pipe over my socket handle and was jumping up and down on the end of it. Hit it with PB Blaster and a torch multiple times which "always" works...but not this time. I had been wanting one anyway so I picked up a 780 ft-lb impact wrench last night and used it this morning. Knocked them right off and didn't have to worry about holding the wheel in place to keep from rotating. AWESOME What an idiot for not buying this years ago. For anyone else contemplating - get one.

yeah, one of those starter ones holds them together, you can see which one passes through. the lower two are the tricky ones just because of room, but at least you have the axles and exhaust out of the way, that helps. try and use 6 point sockets and make sure you don't round the nut off on the bottom ones.

Nah, can't wedge under the bolts. Are you talking about the strut mount bolts? Those usually aren't that bad, i removed 4 today in about 5 minutes on an old rusty parts car that's been sitting about 2 or 3 years even. You just need length to break it free - use the wrench on a wrench trick, i have no idea how to explaiin that in words, but that's what i did today - two wrenches "interlocked" to double the length. or use a pipe over your socket handle. that's one of the greatest tools i have is my 3 foot pipe to put over my socket handle. you would have each bolt loose in 8 seconds each with one of those. or use good air tools. let it hammer them for a minute or two. if you're having this much trouble with those bolts you should forget you even have axle nuts unless you get better tools - it is 10 times harder (maybe more) than the strut mount bolts. i had a 3 foot pipe over a socket and was JUMPING up and down on the end of it the other day and it wouldn't come off. had to have a huge 780 ft-lb impact wrench to get it. and you have the added problem of it being under so much torque the wheel wants to spin...even with the breaks on and the wheel on the ground - the wheel will actually turn.

Okay, gotcha. Yeah I'm always worried about that too. I usually hit them with a chisel/hammer right quick where they meet the strut mount so it marks both at the same time because of that issue too. Particularly considering most I work on are dirty. From some of the more knowledgeable folks on here, that's a very forgiving "setting" anyway, so don't get a headache trying to tell if it's a degree off or not, it won't matter.

That's a good list there JCE. You probably would have been better off removing the engine. There are two lower bolts that are hard to see and get to, try any number of socket extensions, wrenches or whatever you have to get them off. All you have to do (with any car) is look where the trans meets up to the engine - remove all the bolts there. Remove the starter, one of those bolts/nuts holds the engine/trans together as well. If it's an automatic you need to remove the flexplate to torque converter bolts through the bellhousing access hole or the hole underneath. If you've had this much trouble until now, I believe you're going to really hate separating the engine/trans. It's quite a task and there's no "straight forward way" to do it. I mean there is, but it's a bit of a guesswork involved going around the engine and back and forth to finally separate it. To the OP - if this is an automatic transmission you should MAKE SURE you know how to reinstall the transmission. If you miss one important step, that people aren't aware of, you will ruin your transmission. Seating the torque converter is no easy task and it's a bit tricky to know if it's right or not. Based on your troubles so far, I'd be certain you know exactly how to do that and don't forget it.

Were the headgaskets replaced with Subaru gaskets or something else? Your model year engine will loose coolant at the rear of the engine typically. Now, having already been replaced I'm not sure what to say that opens up other possibilities. But I'd at least take a cursory glance at the rear of the engine where the head gasket mating surface is - only takes about 1.5 minutes to check that out. Some coolant loss is okay...so says subaru...the key is whether it gets worse or not. Have you actually looked under the car?

Did you remove the top strut mount bolt without removing the wheel? Anyway - yes the top bolt is a cambered bolt - did you look at it? It's OVAL, it doesn't matter what you do with the hub, wheels, CV, axle.....if that bolt comes out then your alignment is off. I mentioned earlier to mark the head of the bolt so you can reinstall it like it was, did you not do that? You keep asking for a "write-up", a more important tool is to follow the directions given. The best directions in the world don't help if they aren't followed. There's a way to reset it yourself, you'll have to search for that thread on how to do that.

Yes - those rear angle brackets - the small "L" shaped jokers you have pictured there. You put the struts on "top" of them, cool.

Yeah this is the one thing I'm not sold on about the H6. But I plan on having it another 100,000 miles so we'll see what happens. Thing that's annoying to me is the ideal solution in my book has been around for a long time - timing chain with an external and easily replaceable belt driven water pump. I do not like the idea of the water pump seaping or leaking and not being able to tell as easily.

Right, you tried to install the caliper brackets? The holes I believe are further apart. I know folks have upgraded their brakes over on the XT6 forum....hmmm...not sure if you can do it without upgrading to EJ hubs or not. You can swap to EJ hubs but I believe you'll need EJ axles as well. Which is actually a bonus and what I'll do should I ever need new axles or front bearings on my XT6 - since EJ stuff is much easier to come by.

Yeah the valve core stem has an oring at the base. Since those areas are clean and free of debris/water/etc, just snug it up a tad and you likely won't have a leak anymore. If you end up doing the whole gig, the ones at the compressor are the most likely to leak in my experience.

How long have you been driving them so far? Maybe they just need a chance to loosen up?

Remove brake calipers? It helps to explain what you're trying to do. I'm trying to help but this is hard to follow, lots of tid-bits and unrelated stuff going on here. It is not only pointless to mess with the axle nut, frankly it's a bad idea, there's no point in disturbing the wheel seal which protects the wheel bearings...who wants to go replacing those down the road?

As an update the 1997 Legacy GT air bag control module had two sets of security torx screws you could remove. One set is the larger ones (T40 or T45) that hold the bracket w/ module in place. The second set was a smaller head and only held the module to the bracket. Those smaller ones were very easy to remove, where the larger ones are real beasts. They require some serious torque and sheared off one of my Torx bits. If you have access to those smaller ones, that's the way to go. They're easier to get too and don't take much to loosen. Minus the fact that the SRS plugs are insanely complicated to remove, the Legacy controller could easily have been removed by just removing the radio and stuff just below it, that's it. The 1997 Impreza only has the larger ones holding the brackets in place, so you're stuck in that case. I see the bottom of some screws, like they are facing down into the floor, inaccessible.

I had the lift improperly installed so that would explain some of the CV vibrations and racket. I corrected it this morning and the wheel camber was noticeably better and the axles rode much smoother, no more noises....for about 3 miles.....then..... 10 miles into driving the axle was going BONKERS. Mad vibration, steering wheel lightly rocking, i honestly thought a wheel was about to fall off. These are fairly new axles - only a couple years old with very few miles. Kind of odd that they got this bad after "fixing" the lift camber. Did running them 50 miles out of camber like that ruin them or....

Nice job tom, amazing how much better it looks that way too. question - did you install the rear shocks "below" or "on top of" the rear angle brackets? i've got one side one way and the other side the other. not sure how it's "supposed" to be or if it matters. was wondering what you did. underneath technically would gain a few millimeters more lift, but doesn't much matter. i'll probably go with which ever appears to stress the strut bushings the most evenly.

The diff ratio isn't marked. I'm almost positive yours is a 3.9. There's a manual transmission gear chart that has the final drives all spelled out in intricate detail, you should find that thread. maybe it's int he USRM or somethign? Quick look and I didn't see any cheap ones in your area. Good luck finding one. Maybe a pull it yourself yard if you have time or craiglist?

the problem he'll run into dave is most places are going to want to replace something and charge far more than your rates you're getting for A/C work. you've got good connections and prices.

I'm confused, the axle nut doesn't need to come off, did you read my reply above? This seriously takes like two minutes, remove the top bolt and you're done. Use a breaker bar or pipe over the end of the socket (my preferred method) to loosen it. Or hit the nut with heat. PB Blaster, Liquid Wrench, or Deep Creep are also your friend if there's any corrossion. Sounds like maybe you don't have good tools to work with? Remove the two strut bolts. If you don't have the right tools to get those off you're going to hate life on that axle nut you're attempting to remove. Those are the hardest nuts to remove on the entire car just about. I've broken 2 1/2" sockets and a breaker bar on axle nuts - they are no joke. They require a 3/4" socket and a pipe as an extension to remove - unless you're really lucky you might get it off with a 1/2" without breaking it. But it's a 32mm if you really want to do things the hard way.

Being a used car, it's just a gamble. You have no idea what's wrong with it. But there's a chance it's just low. Get the a/c chargers that have the "sealant" in them. Check the valve stems before charging though and see if they're wet. Those can leak and only cost 50 cents to replace. Once you charge it, it'll be wet and impossible to tell if it was previously wet or not. Sometimes I even pull the easily accessible hoses/fittings (like at the a/c compressor) and replace the orings while I'm getting ready to charge it anyway. I charged a friends jeep last summer and it's still rolling just fine.

I'm not sure JCE, this is the first time I've ever messed with coil struts before. I've only disassembled XT6 air suspension. I think it's 3, 5/6 parts that I need. Basically, whatever includes the bearings. These were new struts (very few miles) attached to a parts car. I removed the hood and put a mangled hood on it and they were exposed, which rusted those bearings and is causing my issue now that I installed it on my car.

Thanks McBrat, mine is off, i started on it this morning.