idosubaru

thread repair inserts are excellent, and should work every time they are installed properly, particularly in this application...they are used very extensively in exhaust manifold threads. so i'm not sure what happened but they certainly did not come out or fail because they can't do the job. they were installed improperly, either the wrong size was used or they weren't installed right.

a machine shop can make a threaded insert for you as well. any material, size, shape you want.

port deposit? never even heard of that. remanned axles don't have a good reputation, i won't even install remanned axles on subaru's. i had one less than a week old blow to pieces on me. i've used Subaru only or MWE since then. i'd install a used subaru axle before a remanned, the soob axles are very tough and rarely break. 'ive seen other remanned axles break on the boards as well. all that to say...i wouldn't rule out the remanned axle just yet, but i'd certainly look around.

excellent, easy fixes are the best. you'll likely need a 32 mm socket to tighten it. in very rare cases i've seen 36mm nuts. they need alot of torque to tighten. best bet might just be a local shop, tell them what happened. i stopped by two weeks ago and asked them to loosen two axle nuts for me and they did it for no charge...they shouldn't charge much just to tighten a nut! and it needs alot of torque, so make sure it's really tight. where in MD?

you might be able to check, i have a few EJ25's at my place...some with blown headgaskets, i'm pretty sure you can visually tell if the headgasket has been replaced. once it's replaced it's golden, they use a newer updated gasket. the ones i have, the blown ones are just a thin one piece design you can tell without even pulling the motor apart since part of the gasket sticks out at the top and bottom of the long block. just look down by the power steering pump. if it's been replaced you'll see a multi-layer design gasket....this is just from looking at the ones i have, i'm not real keen on the differences..and i could be mistaken, but i've seen two types on the EJ25's i have so i'm assuming that's why. i have one in my garage right now with 83,000 miles - and a blown headgasket. myself, i don't recommend paying top dollar to any of my friends if money is a concern at all or something like that is going to leave a bad taste in their mouth. if a $1,500 repair bill, or you can do it yourself and that stuff doesn't bother you, then buy it. for people that i know that are leveraging all they have and paying as much as they can for a car...if that's the case i recommend against an EJ25. it depends as much on you as the car...some people have a very demanding demeanor and get very upset if they incur a problem...wanting to dump the car, call it junk, never buy Subaru again, etc, etc....if that's you, then you might want an EJ22 vehicle. otherwise, a great car, excellent reliability and very functional. check for torque bind too before you buy. search for "torque bind" on the forum here. basically drive in figure 8's, tight circles and see if there's any binding. which leads to the next point, when you get it be sure to plan for a timing belt and also change the transmission fluid right away. many people don't, so i make it practice to change ATF in any used Subaru i come across and do not know.

agreed, make sure the mating surface of the hubs and wheels are clean. look for wheel weights to make sure none fell off.

double check your lug nuts and axle nut to be sure they are torqued properly. make sure the cotter pin for the axle nut isn't compromised somehow. i would replace the cv axle, very common and your symptoms and mileage are about right for cv issues. but...it could be something else...like strut top, ball joint or this sway bar issue i've never heard of. if that's a 2000 or OBW specific thing, i'd definitely look there first, hate to see you replace an axle only to find it wasn't the axle. you could swap axles...they are same left to right. if the knocking changes sides, you know it's the axle but that's alot of work to diagnose!

where did you get the wheels from? were they dirty at all? did you have them balanced before installing them? wheel weights can fall off.

what he is saying is that it might not be "tire" related, but "size" related. if that's the case, new tires won't solve the issue. the shorter wall doesn't absorb much. there are always trade offs with any performance upgrade. larger tires, low profile rims, they handle better, but you also feel and hear the road more. it could easily be the cheese-ball no-name tires as well. tires of any size can make plenty of road noise. in fact, just different tread patters or manufacturers can vary quite a lot in noise. snow tires tend to be much louder for instance, not because of size though. i can't tell how loud this is or how sensitive your hearing/sensory systems are, but i would think good tires should be comfortably quiet for this tire size, it's very common.

i can't imagine resorting to welding to fix this. helicoils work every time if done right and so does drilling and tapping. figure out how big the hole is and use the appropriate sized tap/bolt. use your drill bits to "measure" the hole, then tap accordingly. this is hard to imagine, but if the hole is really huge, then tap it for some steel threaded rod and insert that flush to the block with red locktite. then drill and tap inside that steel rod whatever you can get to fit. 8x1.25 will definitely work as you can do that inside the stock studs...so if this is as bad as you say it is, and you have to go this route you can do this steel rod method and probably drill and tap to the original 10x1.25.

both are electric fans and appear to be running well. pulled the radiator and flushed it. blew the radiator and condensor fins out, they looked good. condensor was dirty with bugs/debris, but not enough to cause issue i don't think. still some in there that i couldn't get out, but passing air well, i could feel it coming through. i'm going to move the ATF cooler somewhere not in front of the condensor and replace the top hose. these two things may help. outsidetemps are cooler now, so it'll be hard for me to tell if anything is different for right now.

once they get bad, you can also disconnect the rear driveshaft (or remove the two front axles, driveshaft is really easy though) and just drive the car in FWD or AWD. it works.

interesting. mine will still go up without the a/c...has to be "hotter" and more demanding conditions though, but will still do it given really, really steep grades up hill. i'll be checking my condensor as well.

i'll be an echo of those guys...sounds like it, change the fluid anyway maybe? was it ever driven with mismatched tires or towed (improperly)?

let me go through that check list above and see what happens before you tell me you're out of ideas..that's too scarry! what would a different grade of fuel do?

the a/c parts aren't hard to replace or get to at all, they are typically very easy actually, with the exception of whatever is behind the dash. everything else is really simple actually. funny how a system that's really difficult to work on yourself is one of the easiest to replace parts on.

yes, my XT6 has a 4 cylinder bumper..or cover. good point nipper, so i checked into it and it was mildly interesting! the XT and XT6 bumper covers, and all other bumper parts are the same part number, there's no distinction. Subaru includes time in the R&I, O/H of the bumper to install the headlamp washers for the XT6. weirdo, makes complete sense but i wouldn't have guessed that. i want the headlight washers anyway and i have a "real" XT6 bumper (though it's in the wrong state at the moment), so that's on the to-do list and may have just got bumped up in priority! my check list: clean condensor fins move ATF cooler different radiator hose (probably Subaru) flush block swap bumper

just take it to the shop, don't bother testing it. if it's all new, it's probably not leaking anyway, i'm assuming all the o-rings and schrader valves were replaced as well. and the major point is that they will test it first before charging anyway, so save yourself the time and effort, you're paying for that service no matter what. most of the newer a/c machines are awesome, it's almost mindless. it's completely automated...they hook it up and the machine just starts doing everything automatically....evac, test for leaks, pull a vacuum and ready to charge...without a mechanic even being there. if i paid for all brand new a/c components like you did, i would have a shop do it as well.

don't know that i'd dump oil and pull a vacuum right away on a new system. it may pull out a fair amount of what you put in. you'd at least need to somehow distribute the oil internally. i'm not very familiar with starting from scratch like you are, so i'll be interested to see what others say. i'd plug around some automotive and a/c sites on the interent. should only take a couple minutes on a serach engine to find what you need, there's a ton of very good information out there with step by step instructions, that's how i figured it out. not that people on here can't help, but an existing, complete, detailed step by step posted on the internet might be more helpful than a few pages of threads here. i know the ones i've read addressed exactly how to do it and how to do it if you're installing a new compressor...for example, how much oil, what kind and how to add it.

that's what i would think, but it works fine in two other XT6's and it's new OEM Subaru. i also installed another radiator in this vehicle and the temp behaved identically.

i tried finding that before as well various times with no results. that would be excellent information to have.

if you're replacing it yourself make sure you know exactly how to seat the torque converter. common and costly mistake if you don't. lots of info on the board here, i've posted it probably a dozen times myself. if you want to expand your options you can go with other make transmissions, you'll just have to swap the rear diff to match the final drive ratio. depends how "exact" of an interchange you want. other than that, a junkyard or those parts databases should be able to tell you the exact interchange. it won't be anything earlier than 1998, because yours will have a spin on trans oil filter on it that prior years do not have. also, if it's just torque bind that you're experiencing you don't need to replace the transmission. are you sure the trans is completely toast?

sounds like the tire is bad, they *should* be able to tell if the wheel is bad when they balanced it. is the tire the same brand and same level of tread? i'd imagine a new set of tires would resolve this, but i'm sure you're not interested in paying for that. remember your AWD system is sensitive to tires matching, so pay attention to that.

hot....3/4 of the way up the temp gauge. i could make it go to red if i wanted to, crank the a/c up on a hot day cruising up a steep gradge. voltage seems okay, it's a new alternator, haven't noticed anything else but i haven't really checked it either. every day i drive home i climb a really steep hill, the temp gauge will creep up above normal every time i climb that hill if it's hot out...whether or not the a/c is on. so i think we can rule out the a/c or a bad gauge since it's so predictable on steep grades. it's just worse with the a/c on. the common denominator is temperature and steep grades...all pushing the limits of the cooling system, so it's not operating at full capacity. it did this last summer when i first got it, but summer went away. never ran hot all winter at all...now that's it warm out, it's doing it again. i'm going to find a new hose (different brand than the one on there now), i just marked the crank pulley (to see if it's slipping at all), and maybe flush it.

could you describe when it runs hot? always, highway or city driving? and when it's running hot, do you get hot heat in the cabin? any debris in front of the radiator preventing it from getting air flow? are your hoses collapsing? radiator cap(s) old? sounds like you were talking to me on this one nipper? expensive radiators and what not probably means XT6. i have another thread active right now, sorry i hijacked this one. radiator is a brand new Subaru radiator that worked fine in two other XT6's of mine.