idosubaru

he ended up needing the entire gear/hub shaft combo. it pulls out of the trans, but not easily. i used a ratchet strap to put a lot of tension on it then it came out with a couple pries of a large screw driver.

Alternator. Have it tested at a shop (many places do it free) or swap in a used one to test. Definitely remove and clean your battery links.

if oil and coolant are mixing, that's a bad sign and shouldnt' happen on these motors. is it "really" mixing, like in the engine? i've heard of folks that see oil/coolant on the ground together and assume that means it's mixing, that does not. EJ22's are better motors. no piston slap (less likely in an EJ22), head gasket issues, bearing noises, etc. get a low mileage, known good condition, EJ22, and redo all the timing belt stuff and related seals and you're good to go. all of the information you could possibly want is already on here about EJ22 EJ25 swaps. start reading through those. 1995-1998 EJ22's are your choices. a 1998 will have a bellhousing that matches yours, the earlier ones will still work but are different. 1997+ EJ22's are interference engines, so make sure you replace the timing belt, water pump, seals, and all the pulleys before installing. ebay kits are $180 for everything - belts, pulleys, and tensioner.

there's some info here about mixing heads and blocks. NASIOC has a good bit too.

yeah this is a known issue that happens sometimes. with some searching you can read all about it and fixing it. might even be some suggestions on replacing the relay...like finding a cheaper source or different part (since the originals are prone to fail). if a later model is the same, i'd try to get one of those.

trying to remove the MPT clutch gear/hub from an auto transmission. referenced in this thread: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=95817 circlip is off but the hub doesn't move at all on the splined shaft. he said the hub/gear combo is weakly welded together so brute force isn't a good option....not for him anyway! i'm ready to put a tow strap and my 4WD Kubota to it I guess that might do bad things to my head. no room for the gear pullers i have to get behind it. any tips? can i hit the center around the splined shaft with a torch? or bad mojo?

Yep, trash the air system and move on. Just get struts all the way around for legacy's. If you're trying to do this on the cheap you can replace just the front or just the rears and "trick" the system to continue to air up the others. But legacy's are easy to find parts for, just swap them all. I keep the air suspension systems on my XT6's, but i've got tons of parts. I have a lot of experience with them and they're not worth it for the average daily driver. The system can actually be very reliable. In my commuters I've actually replaced fewer XT6 air suspension components than EJ front struts. But it'll require a lot of time replacing about 20 orings and reconditioning your struts which most folks aren't prepared to do.

yep Dr. Krazy, that's it exactly. So I just need that one passengers side cover. What's your address...ha, ha, ha... Not sure why the online sources are all showing multiple covers, but I'll just call them and get the right part number. Thanks all.

no i don't know. 1.25 pitch it's a 12 or 14mm bolt head (i think 12). not sure about the bolt size though...probably an M10 1.25, just a hunch. they're cheap, just buy a size or two up or down? another easy solution is just to try a couple other bolts from the car that aren't necessary and when you find the right thread that works take it to the store with you and get one to match. hardware stores have the little hanging do-dads to tell you what thread pitch a bolt is you bring in. all the bolts that size on the entire car are 1.25 pitch and they only use standard sizes, so others will fit.

thanks folks. that's awesome. who are you? first post helping somebody out, where do we get more folks like you!!!??? for the parts i need looks like 2.5 and 3.0 liter stuff is the same. item #7 is the problem child. OEM places like subarugenuine, 1stsubaru, and others show something different, very similar but slightly different. i think it was a different legacy/wagon bumper or something. they showed a right and left cover, the opposedforces site does not. is there a left and right cover? your H6 photo's are JUST a bit too high to show those bumper covers. i'll try and find some other OBW H6 bumper photo's tomorrow on ebay and stuff like suggested. i bought just the bumper cover, so not sure what else i need.

I just installed a new bumper cover on my 2002 OBW H6 VDC with fog lights (round) Anyone have a picture of a front bumper? I was hoping to see one and what covers there are. It looks like it's supposed to have a small cover or two but I'm not sure. The online parts listings and pictures aren't very helpful.

awesome, i ordered that. thanks! boiling grease? how does that work? submerge the bearings in there and the grease should work it's way in somehow? even with the seals in place? i won't try that, but curious nonetheless.

right on, it is different for sure. i've pulled both on multiple vehicles with 4EAT's. it's a tight squeeze and you should have good equipment and chains because it gets quite "vertical", but they do come out. seems like that would be the easiest way to do this. it's repeatable and straight forward. or at least, get the angle you need to pull the engine out of the transmission. even if you just hold/support the trans in place rigidly. you only need the angle great enough for the engine to clear the radiator top support, then pull as far as you need for the TC to come out of the trans.

great, thanks Frank. where in the world do you get a dental scribe, i hate to see what those things cost!!?? are you saying you pull the entire seal off? and you have no problems reseating/reinstalling it? i'd be worried about it coming back off. i usually just get a tiny access area going and have a needle fitting for a grease gun to shoot in there. then push the seal back in place.

i wouldn't buy axles mail order, return/warranty is a hassle. the only ones i'd order through mail is MWE axles, go with them.

why not just pull the engine and trans together? then pull the engine out of the transmission - the TC will come with it. the TC is easily replaceable, just grab one from another vehicle.

I've experienced the same thing and I can understand where Gloyale is coming from. But also, I do not know what slipping clutches in an auto feels like. It is odd - it's totally binary in nature. Like - totally fine - then totally not. Totally in drive/gear then totally nothing - free reving in neutral. There's no in-between at all, there's a definitive line. So it might be hard to imagine it being "clutches".

keep driving it while you source and put together the EJ22 swap stuff. while annoying, the ticking won't hurt the car. the leaking water pump, that sounds more ominous. everything you mentioned can basically be ignored or worked around though annoying. replace the water pump and drive it another 6 months, year, summer, while you get the swap ready.

i would guess the sensor on the brake pedal is just bad/sticky. replace it and your cruise will probably work fine. or there's a vacuum leak. but i'd expect the first possibility more on a car as new as this. good luck!

yeah i went that route like a decade ago. PITA so far. i haven't been able to get the bearings out of the pulleys. last attempt on a good working pulley, the pulley shattered before the bearing moved. do you think this should be doable without a press? i mean, i guess i know the answer is "yes", but i wasn't able to do it. frankly building all the adapters and set up to do it sounds annoying when i already have a method that works. i'd like to be able to do that, but like i said - i'm not having any problems with the current way of doing it, so it's really not worth my time or money. i'm getting ready to do the bearings in my H6 idler and tensioner. if that goes well maybe i'll try another XT6 pulley.

Track the noise down a bit, front of engine, back, trans, sides? Should be able to narrow it down for sure. Any difference in gear or out of gear? Ebay has timing belt kits for only $80. Includes the belt and all new pulleys and tensioner. By this time I would guess most, if not all, of your pulleys need replaced anyway.

be sure to verify the one you need, there are two style distributors. i believe the 87.5 XT is different than earlier versions. if the disty is the same but the connectors are different, you can swap pigtails just by unscrewing it at the base.

the answers depend on the choices you make, not just "bigger rims". just because you get larger rims, doesn't mean you increase the rolling diameter. most folks get thinner walled tires to keep the same rolling diameter and that's where the "handling improvement" comes from. "Yes" you'll have a negative impact on the performance of your car. "Yes" you'll have a positive impact on the performance of your car! thinner walled tires = less gives = "better" handling but a harsher ride, you'll feel more. if you have a lady friend, she'll probably think the new tires suck! if you stick with the same sidewall (which increases rolling diamter) then increase overall diameter which affects your speedo (or not, they're not all that accurate and usually low), acceleration, and doesn't improve handling (side walls still the same). that's a rough break down - sounds like you should read up on a tire site and search this stuff on the internet if you're not familiar with this. the differences aren't ginormous all the time...so we're talking about nickles and dimes here for some of this stuff. they'll handle better, but ride worse if you get the thinner walled tires, which it sounds like you're doing. so choose accordingly. few things are "free"...meaning all positive and no side effects. there are some fantastic 16" rims out there, even some Subaru rims. it seems to me the impreza platforms handle very well with 16" tires for daily driver use. but i haven't driven a newer forester. maybe they're worse, but they are based off the impreza. increase the air in the tires to +5 over the listed numbers in the door jamb. might want to price out tires too, 17/18" varieties verses 16" if price or availability mean anything to you. if you use snow tires, keep the old rims for winter tread.

wow - the similarities are uncanny! sounds like a 4EAT failure mode. be interesting indeed to find out what caused this and why. on mine - it ended up getting worse over a couple months. at first i could turn the car on and off once...then a few times to make it quit doing that. then over time it also started to loose higher gears. no 4th, no 3rd...all the way down to only 1st gear and all through that time it would do the same thing as described above. *** the only odd part is the turning the car off/on to get rid of the symptoms when they first started to appear. not sure why that would have any affect on a failing trans. actually i was driving back from a board members house in KY when i lost 3rd, so it was 2nd gear from KY to MD - that was AWESOME! 17 hours or something sick like that, guess i'm lucky i made it at all.

we can disagree, i can afford it but don't consider it the best way.