idosubaru

i had zero luck with one and i tried it on a few different dents. different sizes, big, small, easy, hard, creased. got no results with it. get access and push it out from the other side. i've heard you can put dry ice on some dents and that may pop the dent out. might be nice to do it when it's warm, creating a larger temperature difference.

the best wipers are new ones. installing new ones has always been far more rewarding than any particular brand for me. find one you like and replace. in areas with snow and ice and bad road conditions i haven't found a substitute for replacing the dang things.

i'd go with the OE kit and your mechanic as well. most, but not all kits, come with everything you need except the clips nipper refers too. make sure the throw out bearing and pilot bearing are both replaced, even if they don't come with the kit. and replace the clips as well, which haven't come in any of the kits i've bought. fairly straight forward, he won't have any trouble doing this subaru clutch, even if it's his first one.

dragging brakes can also affect gas mileage. i've done a brake job and notice an increase in MPG afterwards. be sure the caliper pins are greased when the brakes are addressed.

keep an eye on the coolant level in the overflow and radiator and also your temp gauge. they will be your friends for the next couple weeks.

this is the case if you're separating the engine and trans in the car. if you have good tools and access and are familiar, which it sounds like you are, with this type of work i think you'll find it not that bad, just a tad annoying maybe. i just use new studs and nuts. i use studs from the auto parts store, they'll have boxes of them, just pick one that matches. they'll say "we don't carry that one" if they look up your model, but they'll have one nearly exactly the same that works fine. you'll figure it out if you take one to the store with you, very simple. i would guess he's quoting 5 hours total time. to remove. remove the exhaust. remove the rear driveshaft from the extension housing. unbolt the carrier housing from the vehicle, two 17 mm bolts i believe and it should pull out. 4 12mm bolt to actually separate the two halves of the driveshaft if you want or need to, but i don't think it's necessary if you don't mind it hanging in the way slightly. knock the two pins out of the CV axles where they attach to the trans. may have to unbolt the strut from the hub (two lower bolts) to gain enough clearance for the axles to slide off the trans stubs. ive removed axles from a trans by removing them once i started pulling the trans, but it required quite a bit of stress on the axles and some persuasion via large tools, i wouldn't want to do that on a non-parts car. disconnect the shifter linkage, easy. disconnect the speedo cable, unscrew it from the transmission side, that's easy as well. remove the rear trans cross member mounting bolts (4 i think). remove the flex plate bolts from the torque converter through the rubber plug filled access hole on top the bell housing. it's right underneath your intake hose/throttle body, can't miss it. remove plug and keep rotating the motor until you remove all the torque coverter bolts. disconnect the transmission wiring harness. unbolt the transmission fluid hoses. now you're ready to remove the bellhousing bolts and separate the transmission from the engine. gradually work your way around. i think you'll also have to loosen your engine mount bolts and get a jack under the front of your engine to tilt the engine/trans combo "back" so the tail of the trans starts pointing down. i could be wrong, but i think you'll need to do that to get the clearance for the trans to come out. and you'll want it angled that way for installation as well. if you need to tilt the engine in this way, it's not a bad time to consider replacing the engine oil pan seal if needed. the way the sump in the pan is situated the engine has to be tilted in this manner to replace the oil pan gasket, so now's the time to do it if you think it might need it. you can prep the transmission you're going to install ahead of time. install a new rear output shaft seal and torque converter seal. install new hoses on the transmission before installing it, much easier out of the car than in it. now's a good time to install an aftermarket ATF cooler and/or an ATF temp sensor if you think you'll need it. depends on your driving habits and what the vehicle is used for. install the ATF temp sensor first to get a reading on your temps. you'll want a new separator plate gasket (back of the engine, next to the rear main seal), and possible a new separator plate if yours is plastic. you can search about that here on the boards, you'll want a metal one as they plastic ones can crack. some say replace the rear main seal while you're in there as well. i typically replace them while i'm there, but i will say that subaru rear mains in my experience are the least likely seal to leak, so make your decision based on that. i recall two recently replace rear main seals leaking last year - mr. radon and steve - both had newly replaced rear mains start leaking on them. i'll also mention the torque converter shaft has what's called a ring seal on it. make sure you note exactly where and how it fits on the shaft just in case the used one you buy has it missing or it's loose. try and note the one that comes out of the transmission in your car, it should still be in place as you slide the torque converter out. it's like a C shaped graphite seal that goes around the shaft that slides into the trans. very strange seal, Subaru only part for sure.

editing looks good, cleaned up well. don't know if there's a way to avoid it sounding like "all EJ25's" have an issue....maybe "may have an issue" or "have higher risk of HG issues"...something to indicate that plenty still go 200,000 miles without issue as well.

when removing, i'll guess an extra hour or two to pull the engine and trans together versus dropping the trans. leave yourself plenty of room to go up with the lift to get it to clear the radiator upper support if you pull them together. the 4WD auto trans are rather heavy, but not impossible to move around yourself. but very difficult to install without any equipment or help getting it up.

not too bad at all. you can have the transmission out in no time if you drop it from underneath, but that's not the preferred way to do it. getting it back in that way is tough. easiest way, particularly for your first time is to pull the engine and transmission together out of the car. pull them out as an assembly, they'll both come out. much easier to separate them and reinstall that way. you'll want to take a special precaution, again particularly on your first time with seating the torque converter. the last 1/4 to an 1/8" is very tricky to seat and it's hard to tell if it's really seated or not. it'll look like it's seated but it's not seated fully yet. you'll have to gradually turn and twist it while pulling/pushing in and out for it to finally seat the last 1/4". do not attempt to bolt it up and pull it together, that will crack the trans oil pump. i actually did it twice the first time i did it to make sure i understood how it seated fully.

cool, sounds good. i figured as much from you, since you know me. my eyes were rolling since i knew others would jump all over that too...thanks for pointing it out!

i am in agreement with nipper and second his previous post. all that needs to be said is "all EJ25's from 1996-(sometime in) 2003 are suspect". there is no mileage gaurantee and not every EJ25 will experience this, so realize it's a small percentage risk and make your decisions accordingly based on all your variables...finances, resources, desires, needs, personality...etc. a break down of which models have EJ22's and EJ25's would be helpful, but the breakdowns of the various EJ25 designs is confusing and not necessary.

the solution is not always starting another thread. for someone needing HG info, it is time well spent to sift through what is here. rarely does one thread bare out info from all of the most experienced people on the board.

we are telling you that any non-turbo EJ25 from 1996-sometimes-in-2003 will fall in the category you're speaking of. if you go looking for debate s and information to contradict that you can find it. you can always find contradictory information on the internet about anything, particularly something like this with lots of oppinions and negative exeperiences. SOHC and DOHC does not matter. there are two failure modes dependant on model engine, but you didn't ask about that and that only muddies the water even more. either way, they are both headgasket leaks so i don't think you care which mode of failure it is. i'll say it again, any non-turbo EJ25 from 1996-2003 (mid-year) fits in this category you speak of. you won't find more specific info on here because there isn't any. if you want turbo info i'd check elsewhere for more comprehensive info and experience.

that is certainly not the case. there's a higher percentage rate of headgasket issues with these motors, they are not "garaunteed to blow" at any mileage. use the SEARCH function, just above and to the center/right in the solid gray bar. you can search the New Generation forum and realize that there are hundreds of posts on this topic. if it's a non-turbo engine, then any 2.5 liter engine from 1996 (first year made) to 2003 falls into this category. from 1996 - 2003 the only way to avoid the HG issue is to get a 2.2. i do not know anything about the turbo motors, NASIOC would be a better place to get more info on those.

thanks michael, i'll be sure to have a look at this, literally.

very few oil pumps exhibit significant wear, resealing them has always worked for me. but i have a new one in mine just for giggles.

graphite lubricant. i've been told by people more knowledgable than me that cables should be lubed with this type, not other types of grease. as for it not threading in, if you've tried multiple cables then it's likely your threads are jacked up or dirty on the transmission side. this is now in the USRM as well.

the float in the tank is likely faulty. i'm not very familiar with them, but they are accessed through an access port in the trunk (remove cover to get to the sending unit) under the carpeting in most soobs.

this is for an XT6, i'd imagine most EA82's are very similar if not identical. if you think you might want to regrease your speedo cable to avoid it failing or smooth out your speedometer, skip down to the bottom as i believe there's an easy way to do it that requires very little time/work. the end that threads into the transmission is plastic so use a 17mm wrench to get it out. very easy from the passengers side to unthread, don't even have to remove anything. pliers or channel locks can be used, but the end is made of plastic so squeezing it will deform it and not allow you to use a 17mm wrench in the future. if you're removing a bad one, then who cares. if you're removing a good one to regrease i'd stick with a wrench. once that is out, the cable just pulls out of the firewall and back of the instrument cluster. so it only requires one tool to remove. installation is the same. install the instrument cluster side first, thread it through the fire wall. this is the tricky part. you can't see the back of the instrument cluster, so if you want to play hit or miss it will take probably 10minutes to an hour depending how lucky you are getting it to hit and seat properly without being able to see or feel anything. lucky for us, there's an easy way. if you remove the bottom gray, metal cover plate that's held on by 4 phillips head screws you can actually see the receptor behind the instrument cluster very easily. look up and there it is, makes installing the speedo cable very easy. this is XT6 specific, but check your vehicle for covers/plates that are easily removable underneath to give a visual aide in seeing behind the speedo cluster. it offered no access as there's too much in the way, but it was very easy to at least see. guide it, seat it and you're done. including removing the cover plate it can be done in about 3 minutes. 1 minute to remove the 4 screws and cover plate, then 2 minutes to guide the cable in place. install the transmission side and you're done. regreasing is really easy. it's just a cable slid through a sheath. once it's out of the car you just wipe it clean and spray graphite lubricant all over it. it sprays on as a liquid but coagulates as a thicker lubricant as it dries. spray the cable down and spary some inside the sheath and run it back and forth a little bit to get everything covered. for those that might want to regrease: since i pulled this one out, i did it out of the car. but what i found is that the cable pulls out of the sheath from the transmission side. so you should be able to just disconnect the transmission side with a 17mm wrench, pull the cable out and reinstall it without ever messing with the instrument cluster side of things. i would highly recommend this for any daily driver that i plan on keeping for any lenght of time. i think this would take about 5 minutes to complete.

i replaced the speedo cable yesterday...it was actually twisted and seized instead of snapped. anyway, car hasn't stalled since. so either i haven't driven it enough yet or the speedo cable solved the stalling issue. time will tell. my last auto AWD XT6 i put 20,000+ miles without the speedo hooked up and never had any issues, so i can't imagine this would solve it?

here's the question - there's no way to convert a clutch style transmission to a hydraulic style clutch set-up? never seen one, so i don't know how the transmission side differs. can i install a hydraulic fork on a cable style transmission? that will not be an issue, that's very easy to deal with. the car was originally a cable style, so converting back isn't an issue either, but i'll attempt to retain the hydraulic clutch if i can. and for the same reason the return spring won't be an issue either if needed. trans crossmembers, axles and such are not issues, you're looking too hard. that's not relevant to the question. the more info i offer, the more the thread gets derailed...which i don't need to explain as the last two posts have proved that. for you it is, but this car is not for you. that it's a step backwards for you does not mean it is across all possible circumstances and users. i have a ton of subaru's and all the rest are 4WD.

it made this with or without the belt installed? the cam shafts are spring loaded by the lifters and cam lobes, so the forces cause lumpy turning and snapping movements at certain points in their rotation. is it more than that?

doubt it's cold enough down there, but doors can freeze shut as well. it would have to get wet and freeze shortly afterwards so i'm guessing in GA this wasn't the cause. sitting out in sunlight or warming up the vehicle for a significant amount of time may be the only fix in these situations. not being able to get it open makes it tough to remove the door panel and have a peak doesn't it? since i've chased no short of 3 theives in atlanta, one trying to steal a car, i think i'd leave it in the stuck but locked position over trying to fix it and find it won't lock. at this point you just need the door opened so you can remove the panel and have a look. i'd start pulling apart what you can from the inside, the door handle trim should be removable at least right?

i don't know the exchange rate and i'm not going to look it up but the timing belts are $59.95 in the states ordering on-line or from a nice dealer. those prices all seem very high on the parts. i would not buy the parts and ask them to install them, most places do not like doing that and many refuse. often they refuse saying they can't gaurauntee it or verify the proper parts, etc....they usually make up some excuse, but the bottom line is they make money on the parts too (as you can tell in this case). The local dealer quoted my cousin $695US for only replacing the timing belt.

yes makes sense. the only thing i didn't understand was the "bell crank". i'm guessing it'll make more sense once i get in there and figure out all the hydraulic gizmo's since i'm not familiar with them yet. last resort i'll have to swap to clutch cable, but i'm hoping to avoid that. with the transmission out, is there anyway to swap the EJ hydraulic clutch fork for the cable fork? or are the input shafts/transmissions actually different?