idosubaru

risk? what if something jams your timing belt covers into the belt and breaks it? and before you laugh, ive seen that happen but never had any broken "open" belts. do i say the covers are a risk and should be removed to increase reliability? no, just take your pick and move on, the tiny chances you're taking issue with are miniscule.

oil pans suck...they look simple but getting those bolts off is the easy part. after that you won't have clearance to get the pan out. what you don't see is the oil pan has baffles in it and the sump runs through those baffles, making it impossible to remove unless you unbolt the engine mounts, rear trans mounts (unless you want to try and not do that and strain other components)...and lift the entire engine up to gain clearance for the pan baffles to pull through the sump. this is one PITA job to start and then realize how tricky it really is. (that's how i did it the first time)

we don't, we hate the covers! it's nice that yours are friendly and easy to deal with. once you've owned over a dozen you'll realize that often the inserts in the covers strip, or get rusted and seize to the bolt...then they start cracking and falling apart and becoming a complete annoyance. without them the timing belts become a 15 minute job and not "under an hour". and as for the snow...i'm just guessing and have no proof, but i'm guessing most of us are not packing snow up under the front of the car! i drive through alot of snow and off road and have packed it to the point of being stuck but never had any in the front of the engine bay like that. that would suck.

i would also check the clutch adjusment or cables as well (unless it's hydraulic then you cant').

time it off the flywheel (manual trans) or flexplate (auto). under the intake manifold is a rubber plug in the bellhousing where you can see the FW or FP and they have the timing marking on them as well. before you go ripping the covers off though, might want to make sure the markings are clearly visible, rust and scuffing can make them unreadable. on the XT6 the middle cover is the least problematic and there is no rear center cover so it's easy to leave that one (i just use 2 or 3 of the bolts in it, not all). then you can still remove the rigth and left front and rear covers. can't recall the EA82 set up...

that's definitely the first thing to check, only takes a couple minutes. but that's not a fool-proof test, there's another failure mode that doesn't show up by doing that - a seized u-joint. they can seize to the point there is no play at all by hand, even the kind of back and forth play a U joint is supposed to have when not installed in the car. these won't show up by grabbing and shaking. you sometimes can see and tell by looking, but best to remove the shaft and check if you're not sure as they are difficult and possibly impossible in some situations, to spot visually.

nice links nipper. and that's just the tip of the ice berg...i won't start a hijack on the ones that i know about. complaining/common issues forum is an interesting idea, there probably is a good way to manage these kinds of things. on the same note - might want to post that in the site suggestion forum and see what they come up with or see if it's already been discussed (it has).

impact wrench or with a socket wrench and a long pipe or a breaker bar. bolt and crank are iron, you won't strip it. if you meant "how do i hold the engine in place while i do this", is it a manual or automatic transmission? for a manual put it in gear, put e-brake on and chock the wheels as best you can. for an auto remove the bell housing access plug and look for the hole in the flexplate, insert a stout 3/8" extension in the hole to keep the engine from turning over. this has been asked dozens of times as well, so there are plenty of useful threads on here if you run into issues or arent' comfortable with it.

good point, to their credit Subaru has done a better job than i expected them to do (but i'm skeptical of dealers anyway). why is why i recommend continuing to talk to them and search here for others experience resolving this. this isn't really about what Subaru should and shouldn't do. few on here could run a business successfully so it's no surprise that this thread gets side tracked into rants. a dozen years? the EJ25 was only 4 years old when his 2000 was made, that's not very old at all. it is wise to buy an engine that has been around for 5 to 7 years regardless of make or model to ensure issues are resolved in it. your decision making should reflect your sensitivity to this kind of information. subaru has no problem making long lived engines for decades. your short sighted view that one mistake means "buy toyota", isn't logical - the end result would be having one manufacturer in the world...or even none considering all manufacturers make mistakes. Subaru made the EA81, EA82, ER27, EG33, EJ22...and others for decades before the 2.5....and they all easily attain 200,000 miles. and the EJ25 easily makes over 200,000 with the possibility of an undesirable headgasket replacement in there. if one issue runs you away from a brand then you could theoretically not buy anything...because every manufacturer has made mistakes, just hope you don't buy them i guess if you like rolling the dice?

i'm at my parents house right now...they live right by the Hanover Watershed, Longarm lake i believe they call it. probably only a few miles from you. i almost always deal with the Hanover Subaru guys, have you tried talking to them much at all? i only ever had workings with the parts department since i do all my own work, but they were always about 50 times nicer than the dealers around baltimore...and i might be underestimating that. as for the "dont' work for free" comment. tell them they don't need to diagnose it, tell them you know the headgasket is bad and ask what they'll do for you. tell them you'll pay the $79 diagnosis fee if they tell you what they'll do once they test and find out what you already told them, and they're offer is acceptable. might want to read through and search some threads here, lots of people have posted success in having these fixed (but plenty have not either), but might be worth a shot to see if anyone else had it done at your mileage. all manufacturers have "issues" that are known. some electrical, head gaskets (others have these issues), wheel bearings, brake issues, 4WD issues, transmission issues.....it is not uncommon for particular makes, models, engines, chassis or transmissions to have one particular item that fails before the rest. makes sense really. it just so happens yours sucks bad and is expensive, so i understand the annoyance. but all manufacturers are probably aware of their weak points, but there are other considerations when determining how to handle them. and it also just so happens that Subaru's have fewer of these issues than other makes, making them and excellent choice if you like reliability, keep cars a long time and don't want to waste lots of time working on them. but...the caveat is you bought the one model that has the most issues in recent memory - TB (if it's an auto) and HG. "they said they'd provide assistance", well you talked to a shady person. maybe you're lucky, but in my experience people like that are everywhere. he was delegating responsibility (service rep telling you they would provide assistance). you go to the dealer and get pissed at them and his job is done. and he would probably say "$500 towards a new car is assistance" to which you and I would call that what it is "BS". have you tried calling him back and asking about your "assistance"?

agree with GD - the rear struts can and will poke through into the interior of the car. seen that before. i posted a picture earlier this year of a board members RX that rusted out underneath to the point where the rear wheels collapsed in and rested against the inner fender wells. the wheels were actually rubbing against the metal. not cool and definitely a safety concern. of course yours could be benign, inspect it closely and see how far it goes.

there's an EAxx push bar for $50 for sale in the classifieds. yours doesn't have front tow points? the XT6 has tow hooks up front?

or replaced with an incorrect sprocket. sprockets can get damaged, replacement with the wrong one could leave the dot still up front (but the wrong one in the rear) or could mean only the front one is wrong (rear is fine). i don't know if XT6 sprockets are different from EA82, but i do know they will interchange on the crank...there's another possible screw up.

why was it harder to get in on that side? just the axle issues alone? other than that the impreza axle's worked for you just fine? no swapping joints or anything?

on the older pre-EJ series vehicles you could access the studs enough from the rear to get them out and install new ones. not sure of EJ off the top of my head with no FSM to look at either. if it's like on the older ones - you just pound the old stud out. spin the hub just right and there's just enough room to get it out without removing anything but the wheel. beat the old one out. slide the new one in from the back side too. hold it in place while you thread a nut on the end that's sticking out. use the tigthening of the nut to fully seat the new stud. it needs to be pressed in, but using a nut will "pull" it through and fully seat it. after that, remove the nut and you're done. for what it's worth i drove on 2 front studs (out of 5) before...and 3...and 4...all for hundreds of miles. no i don't recommend it, but missing one wouldn't scare me a bit. i actually had 4 out of five shear off on me one time on a highway road trip, all 4 on one wheel. i found out that a brake caliper mounting bolt is the same thread pitch has a lug nut. i remove one and installed it in my hub to hold the wheel on, tightened the remaining one real good to finish the road trip since it was 1 in the morning and got new ones the next day from subaru. fun stuff.

ask for them to apply the $500 to labor and this motor will go beyond the honda accord mileage almost garaunteed. at what mileage should they quit honoring warranty work? taking one incident and completely writing off any brand is not in your best interest. that kind of operational philosophy really does you harm in the long run. dealers are dealers, to think honda and chevy are the holy grail of manufacturers and don't make good financial decisions that in the end piss off consumers is completely rediculous. but like nipper said, to each his own. i mean this in a constructive way....if this is how you're affected by poor consumer decisions and an unwillingness to deal with issues, then i'd suggest changing the way you make decisions. don't buy an engine or transmission that hasn't been in production for at least 7 years, and do some research on the vehicles you're buying. honda, chevy, dodge, toyota...have all made mistakes in car designs and all have good and bad reputations from consumers. talk to people that know alot about cars, have worked on alot of cars and you'll find this out. anecdotally make judgement calls based on personal experience and you don't help yourself at all.

seen this posted before, did you try a search? not sure what you'd search on, but i've read others having this before.

go with CCR for any new engines. an alternate and cost effective solution is to swap a used low-mileage 2.2...lots of info in other threads about this, no need to rehash here, but those are your best options.

you're in california, they probably are considered contaminated out there! actually, you should also be able to drop them at a scrap yard/junk yard, they'll recycle them.

mike is right here. if you bought a Subaru with two different tire sizes on it - what is the most likely explanation? that Subaru made one special vehicle different from all the rest, different from the FSM, different from the owners manual and never mentioned it? no, that someone installed the wrong size tire. if you noticed a difference in sprockets on an EA82, it would more than likely be due to someone previously working on it.

agree with GD - fix codes then proceed. wow, that's awesome! that sounds nice, but that's too idealistic, to expect only people that know XT's, or EA, or EJ, or Legacy to post to a thread....alot of things cross over and the experience/info is applicable. nipper contributes daily here and helps numerous people every day. being perfect is not the goal, helping is and nipper does that dozens of times a day. and yes there were a number of models with non-EJ engines in 91.

okay, what do you need? locking rear diff? LSD center diff? how can we help?? okay..serious, any damage? doesn't look bad enough that occupants have anything to worry about. hopefully that rear fender is okay?

should be fine. at 200,000 my biggest concern would be the timing pulleys. they are not as smooth as new...eventually they start killing timing belts and this is an interference engine. i'd want new ones with that many miles.

you can not swap sensor types. yours must stay flapper style and hot wire style must stay that.

same here, the tool i had was made by someone specifically for this application. in with the local dealer at all? i know people have borrowed tools from local dealers, if they would even have it of course. have you searched at all? i'd imagine others have figured out how to do this without the special tool but my memory on this is vague. the pistons won't pull all the way through, they have to come out the top (head side). that's why you can't just split the block. although you could try and see if there's room to get to the rod bolts like GD said.