idosubaru

at least I installed them on the proper side. on mine the SJR is right side up when standing at about the side view mirrors. so I need to rotate these one bolt hole so the SJR is perfectly flat when standing at the bumper? i'll try that tomorrow, hopefully that helps with the camber a bit. thanks for the feedback for the lift-illiterate scott.

My wheels are noticeably angled out (camber?), so I'm wondering if I installed them wrong or that's just the nature of a lifted XT6?

Actually these have a flat "plate" on top, it's not just blocks. so i can't go by the cut on the blocks so to speak. The top is flat no matter what, the offset is given by the tube between the two flat plates. Since there are three nuts/studs, does that mean there are 3 possible ways to install the strut? Wish I wasn't on dial up and didn't already install them I'd post a pic.

Just get further under the car, with light, and a rag, you'll see them. Passengers side easiest through engine bay, drivers side from underneath.

Gotcha, be nice to have an FSM schematic, did you get that? That would narrow down all the critical parts. Like you said, probably one small relay or something out there. You hooked up the throttle cable and everything? I know folks that have done this and said it's straight forward, so you're just missing something.

Yeah, this is getting really technical, which is a good read, but this guy wants to fix his car cheap. Like I said, every single car I've done nothing to has held up fine. There are shops and dealers that gasket slap EJ25's. I don't recommend that, I'm just saying it's not always super-end-of-the-world-critical, so I think with the info given he'll do quite well to get a good seal.

If you didn't add the brake switch, I'd start there since that's something you know you need. It would not surprise me if the system did not work without the brake switch - that's a safety device. Hitting the brakes without turning of the cruise control sounds like bad mojo!!!!!

The noise is much, much better and very light now, but still there. I'll replace it at some point.

ah okay, you're talking about the passengers side right? knock those out from the top, the exhaust is in the way from underneath...well, you said you removed the exhaust - all of it or just the rear parts? that's probably the issue, you just can't see it. remove the air box and intake tube. sometimes you can do it with those in place but being your first time and you never said what vehicle, just take it off. looks like you ahve a long punch, those are perfect for knocking that one out from under the hood. if you don't have a long punch, put a socket extension backwards over a short punch to extend it.

After spraying down and greasing the strut it has gotten noticeably quieter and does not pull any more at all. I'm surprised all of that pulling went away. The pulling was the worst part, so I'm glad that's gone. I can tolerate the very light sounds until I get a chance to replace the top hat.

The 97 Legacy SRS controller did not work in the 97 Impreza. They were actually different manufacturers so I wasn't too optimistic about it. I learned the bags dont' deploy if the wrong box is installed! I'm hoping it was the box anyway, someone previously hacked this SRS system up, cutting wires and ripping stuff out, removing brackets. Goofballs.

pin is about an inch from the end of the axle on the trans side. on that inner face so to speak, that flattened area. wipe it/clean it and get some light down there, you're missing it. it's thinner than a pencil. it's like looking for your valve stem, if it's taking you 20 minutes to find it something is seriously wrong. i'm just trying to figure this out since i can't tell what you're doing, so don't be offended, but have you ever done this before and do you know what you're looking for in terms of an "axle pin"? just making sure, sometimes things are much harder the first time around.

creating multiple threads is really confusing, i guess the posting didn't show up for you or somethign? folks post in one and not the other and things get confusing, then one gets deleted and you're left with half the information. your threads can be edited if it was information you were trying to correct. one thread says forester, the other thread says outback? based on this description i'm betting it's a front strut. Probably something benign if you don't have any other issues. My first thoughts are heat shields (very common noise makers) or front struts, at that mileage they could easily need replaced. Of course typical ball joints and tie rods should be checked as well, looking in particular for broken boots/leaking grease.

Can you give any more info? 01 outback - H6 or EJ25? Probably something benign if you don't have any other issues. My first thoughts are heat shields (very common noise makers) or front struts, at that mileage they could easily need replaced. Of course typical ball joints and tie rods should be checked as well, looking in particular for broken boots/leaking grease.

Make sure all the connectors at the alternator are good and not corroded, brittle, or poor. Bad connections cause lots of electrical issues. Lots of national chains and others test alternators for free, sounds like a good idea to go do that. If you start seeing your Brake, battery and other dash lights faintly come on your alternator is definitely needs replaced/rebuilt.

Oh no, that's why details are important. There's a much simpler way. Leave the axles connected at the hub side and just pull them off the transmission. No need to remove the axle nut. The easiest way to do it is to loosen both of the bottom strut mount bolts. Remove the top one and leave the bottom one in. Pull the hub out and it will "rotate" on the bottom strut mount bolt - pulling the axle right off the trans (assuming you knocked the pin out of course!!) Keep in mind that upper strut mount bolt is your camber bolt and affects alignment, so mark the HEAD (not the nut - it's not cambered, the bolt is ) relative to the strut body. It's not a machine shop exercise, so don't get all crazy over it. Once the wheel is off you only need to remove the top strut mount bolt, loosen the lower nut and knock the pin out on the transmission side and off comes the axle - takes a few minutes, that's it. I've even removed the axle from the trans without removing the wheels or messing with anything, just knocking the axle pin out. But that's a real pain and not easy to do, everything has to be lined up just perfect for it to come off.

SJR has the front strut extensions for EA stuff - and they are offset a bit - is there only one way to install them or what? i already installed mine and didn't really think about it until after the fact. so now i'm left wondering if they only are to be installed one way or it doesn't matter? if it is one way - how?

more info - not sure what you're trying to do. drop trans? replace axle? take something else apart?

i would suspect a vacuum leak. with the engine running, just squirt some starter fluid around the manifold, vacuum leaks are really easy to find that way. did you pull the engine or leave it in the car?

good point - all the ones i've done were previously running daily drivers that were loosing coolant. none were significantly "blown", wouldn't run, or sat for a long time, etc.

most of the time you can just clean the contacts and the wiring harness connector. you'll notice how green and corroded it is. try that first, then you don't have to remove the sensor. the sensors rarely fail, every single one i've ever seen has been fixed by cleaning the contacts, i've never seen a failed CTS. but i've only owned 30 or so EA/ER vehicles . scrape the contacts with a tiny screw driver, sandpaper, etc. Clean the inside of the connector too, it's tight in there but find something to clean it up. even easier - the XT6 CTS connector is actually the same as a part sold in the HELP! sections of many national auto parts stores. good chance the EA82 is the same, been awhile since i looked at one.

is there a chance he could just readjust those retaining screws if they're out of adjustment? one guy I know that did this with his XT6 ended up with blown diff after blown diff. i was under the assumption that the first time the diff went bad (not sure what failed though), it made other things "out of spec" and ruined what ever new parts he put in there later, which ended up failing shortly afterwards. anything he can check to avoid that or was that just a bad experience/workmanship?

There's actually some really neat write ups in here about doing it yourself. Can't remember who, but one of the Alaska guys I think wrote some specific and interesting info on doing it. I don't recommend it at all, but I've helped out a few friends that didn't want to spring for any more than gaskets, so I gasket slapped them without doing anything. To my knowledge all of those cars are still running, one guy is getting ready to sell his, it's been running for 5 years now no problem after gasket slapping an XT6. I'd recommend the Fel-Pro permatorques like all us EA82/ER27 guys use all the time, don't know if they have those for EA81? I would be more worried about using cheap gaskets. I've done enough "gasket-slap" jobs that I wouldn't be that concerned about it. Particularly if you're taking the extra step of trying to flatten them up a bit. Again, I'm not recommending it and I don't personally do it - but I do understand folks situations. And you very well may have more time than money, in which case if you have to do it again it's not a big deal. And there's a good chance (in my experience) you won't have to do it again.

probably simpler to throw a used trans in it, i wouldn't bother repairing it. subaru transmissions can be had for cheap often if you look around. that is - after you verify it's not exhaust shields, axles, driveshaft or something else. good luck. stick with that PT after the surgery too, that stuff is huge.

having owned 30 or so of them i obviously like them. i've had one as a daily driver for a very long time, putting 45,000 miles in one year on one and driving a 120 mile commute as a critical employee at NASA for real time satellite operations, missing a day was not an option. but i also do preventative maintenance. other cars are easier to maintain, you would want the subaruxt.com forum to help you along. it's rather easy to keep an XT6 running for very little money, so the expensive parts hurdle is one you can run around. all the expensive parts can typically be remedied in some way if it's an issue. any 20 year old car is subject to abuse too - so no matter what it is the real gamble is the 20 years of prior ownership. they are reliable...or should i say, "were reliable", but don't expect it out of the box for any 20 year old vehicle. they are cheap and old cars now and most have been abused, it's much harder to find one that hasn't been neglected in all sorts of ways than it was 10 years ago. back then, it was easier to get a nice one in great condition and well taken care of. they're way nicer than EA82's, they drive substantially nicer and have enough power to be nice to drive. the first gen legacy's GD talks about are easy to find cheap, if you can put up with how ugly and unassuming they are. i'm not one to care about looks very much, i never ever wash my cars, and hey i drive a goofy looking XT6. the only one i ever entertained getting was offered to me for free, i turned it down. the impreza's might look nicer to you and the impreza hatches are nice for functionality if you like that kind of thing.