idosubaru

i think you'll make out all right. the time to cool down may help you, all of the parts places i've had to deal with are usually very helpful and willing to work with me through various issues. i think you'll be fine. testing is no big deal, they have to test. people mis-diagnose things all the time. equating "lifetime warranty" with exceptional quality was the mistake. along nippers lines - that's not how it's done and if we owned the business we would understand and do the same thing or not survive the competition. the market supplies what it can sustain...for the most part (no pun intended). you screwed up their business model, i like that! for "critical parts" like this and to keep reliability your best financially unrestrained option is a new part. the best financially restrained option is an extra used ($20) one in the trunk!

turns out the two notches in the torque converter are different. so i just had to try the other side. it's obvious by looking, one notch has two notches at it's base that allow the circlip to catch into once the shaft bottoms out.

shop vac it out. another engineer, awesome. i'm aerospace. boeing or a contractor i presume?

here's what i did - get a knock sensor equipped (most are) EJ22 intake manifold that bolts to the EJ18 block. it was easy, on the EJ18 the knock sensor boss is there...and it was already drilled...and i think it was even tapped on mine....i did it a couple weeks ago and can't quite remember.

Speaking of 4EAT transmissions and that last 1/8" or so of the torque converter that's the important but tricky part to get seated. what causes this? It should be one of the following: The input shaft seating into the transmission? The torque converter seating onto the input shaft? Or the oil pump shaft (affixed to the torque converter) seating into the transmission?

dropping in an EJ25 engine would give you about 20hp and head gasket issues but they are expensive. with CCR you could get a newly rebuilt one though with a 3 year 36,000 mile warranty. a good tune up - new Subaru or Magnecor wires, and having the valves adjusted might bring back some power that's been lost. not sure if the 96 has adjustable valves or not. modifying a non-turbo engine is a long road with very little return, few...if any, are ever satisfied with it. "i think it's better"... "wait, wait, i know it is"..."it's still slow"...is how it usually goes. large off road tires and lift will slow you down. modifications that gain you significant HP also push the power band higher and loose low end. not sure what kind of driving you do but with the lift, tires, and moving your power band higher you could have some really slow acceleration from a stop. that was really annoying to me when i had to downshift all the time going up mountains/hills while highway driving. if you're waiting for tax returns to do modifications then i think you're headed the right direction keeping the legacy. overextending yourself is not necessary when you have a good vehicle already. hopefully some extra into the motor/lifting will get you what you need.

I am trying to install the torque converter into an automatic FWD EJ22 transmission. The shaft came out of the torque converter. I've done this before but I don't recall how. It appears like the two ends of the cir-clip prevent the shaft from going back into the torque converter. What do I need to do to get this shaft and clip back in the proper place? I put black boxes around the clip ends to clarify them. Even if I pull them together they still stick out too much to slide into the converter if I leave it in place on the shaft.

try this: swap the rear struts and see what happens. all you have to do is either rotate or swap the top mounts and you can use either strut on both sides. put the good strut in the questionable position. if this strut airs up fine..then that likely means the something is wrong with the new strut assembly (the one that wouldn't work). could be the strut, wiring, connector, or solenoid. should be very easy to find. if that known good strut doesn't air up then the problem resides on the vehicle side.

he did talk about that after i said the same thing. everyone is different and makes decisions in different ways. some subaru lovers are subaru lovers because of their anecdotal experiences with other brands! most of us have a few things in life where we are that way...turned off by one really bad experience...like a girl we'll never consider dating again, EVER AGAIN!!!!!

you mentioned ignition wires, the plugs should be replaced too...were they already replaced, is that why you didn't? fuel filter, air filter are good ideas too. any check engine lights recently? have the valves ever been adjusted - they are recommended at 100,000. at least the 97's have adjusted valves...not sure if the 96's have HLA's, if so they may not need adjusted. an important thing to remember about skip's suggestion is that you may not notice anything abnormal with the brakes. you want to make sure you regrease the caliper slides with BRAKE SPECIFIC caliper grease, not ordinary grease. they sell it at the stores, often little packs at the counter for a brake job. the slides loose grease over time and the brakes will drag...not enough to cause any issues, but enough to reduce gas mileage. i've seen mileage go up 2-3 mpg on a perfectly running vehicle after a brake job. yes the fronts are basically just as easy. you should remove the brake fluid reservoir cap to make sure the pushed fluid has a place to go and doesn't blow the seals in your master cylinder. the fronts are just a bit bigger, but easy.

Subaru OEM. if performance upgrades are in your future then NASIOC is a good place for serious engine mod advice, not that people here don't know you just get better exposure to that type of stuff over there.

the air suspension can do all sorts of crazy things, yes it can leak without making noise. if it's a huge leak you won't hear it, but that probably won't be the strut either. i would jack the car up first and manually test the strut to see if it will inflate and hold air. if everything else worked fine and your previous strut was just leaking....then the most likely scenario is that something is amiss with what was just installed - the solenoid or the strut. that's why i say - jack it up and test those components. the information we get from that will be delicious! glad you found the XT board!!

given the same engines (EJ25 in OBS and Forester, assuming you get NA and not the turbo) i don't think the gas mileages will be much different...assuming the Forester you get is well maintained and such. there may be a small difference head to head...but if you lift the Legacy that may make up most of the small difference.

i've delivered pizza back in college. the real issue isn't the vehicle at this point, they are for the most part very reliable. the real issues are what is the prior maintenance history because it doesn't matter how good the car is if the previous owner beat it to crap, didn't maintain it and it still has 20+ year old rubber hoses, belts, water pumps, seals, and gaskets. if all of that is original then it's just a matter of time before you develop ticking HLA's, oil leaks, leaking water pumps, hoses, etc. Not too mention alternators, wheel bearings, axles, and brakes need maintenance usually at some point. When I get a new XT6 i install a new alternator or at the very least put a spare in the trunk. 20 year old alternators with who knows what kind of abuse with dead batteries and such make for a hit and miss kind of thing.

hey you asked here instead of the XT6 forum! do you have our new address?? http://subaruxt.com/forum/ height sensor stuff - those are inside the strut and unreachable (well by conventional methods)....of course anything is possible with enough tools and effort. but i wouldn't start there just yet. if the strut is fully compressed, often times they won't air up right when first installed or if they've been sitting for awhile. one trick is to just jack it up so the strut is extended and then turn the car on - it may then inflate. or manually inflate it (using the connectors i'll detail below) and then it'll work fine after that. make sure your plug is clean and fully seated. you don't think the rear solenoid is leaking - there's an oring between it and the strut, did you replace that? there's also another fitting that the height sensor wires go through - 17mm i think..o rmaybe 14, anyway, make sure this is tight and not leaking as well. it has an oring underneath of it too. run 12 volts directly to the solenoid or ground it at the wiring harness in the engine bay by the front drivers side strut tower, i can't recall the details on which ones are what...though if facing the connector it's mostly the pins to the left that control the compressor and each strut solenoid. if you have the FSM it tells you which is which. this is probably already covered and posted on the xt forum. this is the first thing i'd do (assuming the major things are in order..plugged in), is to verify the solenoid works on the car and try to listen for it clicking while operating. good luck!

here's a tip - just stuff some grease in the broken boot all up into the joint as much as you can. you'll be amazed how much it reduces noise and vibration (at least it always has for me). yeah definitely will make it. i drove to the Gulf coast of GA from Maryland and back with boots that had been broken for a long time. they only clicked turning left....then when i got to driving in the sand in south georgia..WOW did that toast the axles. they were making serious racket and vibrations driving straight. got it home..packed some grease in there by hand and drove it a few hundred more miles until i found a good time to replace the axle.

Gloyale - the 88-91 FWD manual XT's are excellent for gas mileage. 40+ mpg in stock form. i bet you could get 45 with some playing around.....5 lug 16" wheels and XT6 electric power steering, remove the clutch fan...and play with the exhaust..

all stock connie, no aftermarket stuff. laser temp guage is definitely on the list. i think radiator and hoses are getting hot.... i remember checking them to see if i could tell if the radiator wasn't flowing right. but it hasn't overheated since the fall...back when it was hot out last, so i'm relying on memory. was your gauge reflective of what the engine and heat were doing and in the normal XT6 ranges most of the time? mine is predictable as a sunrise. was your quirky and unpredictable or predictable? another observation today....eventhough it's cold out and it never overheats...it did drift up above normal only after start up, warmed up, then dropped back down (remember i've owned 20+ XT6's i know exactly how they go)...went above normal, then drifted back down to normal. drove awhile on the highways, got off to get a bite to eat and it did the same thing when i restarted it...car already warmed up...temps drift up above normal...then back down and never go up again for the next 2 hours at highway speeds and driving around town. it never went above normal after dropping back down from the above normal (1/2 way) mark. drops back down and is rock steady? i have off tuesday i'll dig into this. i'll need to find a laser temp thing between now and then. what temperatures am i looking for, does anyone know? and where do i take them?

sweet momma...i have a vaccuum pump so i could arrange a little pump like that as well? do you have someone pouring in the master cylinder while your pulling the fluid through the caliper? dude, all that takes is some line and a catch can....awesome.

i replaced it with a Paraut pump from rockauto.com. now that we're talking about it the car was running hot before i replaced the pump, it was running hot when i got it. i assumed it was old radiator/fan relay related back then. the fan relay was shot and the fan wouldn't come on. of course i replaced those and the issue never went away. so i'm probably fooling myself into a couple hours of work that won't fix it. i think i have an extra radiator i could try but the radiator in it was new and was used in another XT6 i was driving that ran perfect. baffled, i'm thinking it's got to be a minor leak somewhere/somehow. i just checked and it's full of coolant....but it has to be a leak somewhere to be doing this.

i'm not a fan of my snow tires, but man they are awesome in the nasty stuff. i'd be interested to hear how your non-snow tires work in the spring.

i was thinking that had to be a relief hearing that it did it before - rules out all the engine/intake and your part. good thing he was honest! be interested to know how it's fixed if you ever hear about it again.

that's why i kept asking the same questions....that's very important information. same engine and if it did it before the engine swap, and you swapped the intake as well (which you said you did), there's a high percentage chance you just ruled out most sensors and wiring related fuel injected stuff...anything on the intake. that rules out a ton of stuff (most likely). MAF may be a good starting point. i wasn't sure if the EJ style had the "hot wire anemometer" style wires in them or not. apparently no.

this is out of my realm of expertise...if i have any...but snow tires do suck for most anything else but driving in slick conditions. i haven't "tested" the wife's OBS (the impreza hatch body style), but it seems to handle very well and doesn't roll/sway much at all. i doubt your existing struts are "bad", i think some minor suspension upgrades may help. hopefully others will pipe up and help with the specifics.