idosubaru

i missed the "had this problem before"....how long before? how many times? they may just be trying to blow you off, i'd be persistent and ask to speak with management. they don't make money by working on as many warranty claims as possible, sometimes some convincing will do the trick. like they say...the squeaky wheel gets the oil. which drives me crazy because i like to be fair and reasonable, i don't like being persistent and rude...but that is what usually gives results with moronic, questionalbe mechanics. after this issue....take your soob to the VW dealer!

sounds like your VW dealer is better to deal with than the subaru dealer. electrical issues are very very rare, even in 20 year old subaru's. unless they experienced some kind of damaging situation (already mentioned). if they worked on the problem before i agree with you, i'd expect them to fix it if it was a problem before the warranty expired. i would have disconnected the speedometer cable before rolling over the warranty mileage until they fixed it. with some persistence they may still fix this. can you take a look at your warranty contract and see if there's a grace period for pre-warranty issues? make sure you don't go beyond the time frame or mileage if there is before getting on their case. i'm not up on the warranty details, but you still could get this fixed.

look at trends and statistics, not individual experiences and results from questionable dealerships/mechanics. you are not a mechanic or well informed about cars, therefore your experience could easily be tainted by things not related to the vehicle at all. did you buy the car used? did you take it to more than one mechanic for a second oppinion? what kind of electrical issues? has this car ever been wrecked, flooded, damaged...etc? lots of info left out to make an "informed" decision. was the battery every connected backwards, car jump started? lots of things can cause issues that aren't attributable to the vehicle. VW's? if my friends could make it to 100,000 miles without loosing massive amounts of oil, mufflers, breaking down between maryland and west virginia, CE lights coming on and breaking hoses (all of these this year by the way) on their VW's (which i end up looking at and/or fixing)....maybe i wouldn't completely laugh at the thought of choosing one of those as my next vehicle.

i drove one of my old school subaru's for a long time with that symptom. it never got worse or caused any issues. i didn't know much about it at the time except the car drove fine. that pause before going anywhere was odd though.

you can find an entire steeering rack (which will have the tie rods on it) and swap steering racks. they can be had for cheap, $25-$50 and aren't that hard to replace if you can do it yourself. the control arm and strut could have issues, but replacing the tie rod will get you back on the road. if you're trying to save on the expense, drive it and see if it pulls or your tires wear unevenly before deciding on replacing the rest, or an alignment shop may be able to tell you if your strut or control arms are bent, because then your tire would be out of alignment.

you'd get a ton of information using the search button. you can wait for responses of course, but you'll learn alot more by spending some time with the search button. i have limited experience with turbo's so i got nothing to add.

what motor/vehicle? EA81 or EA82? you can't have both - drive it for a month - and fix it later. pick one, or pick the other, but doing both won't cut it. if you drive it like that for a month, the short block won't be worth putting any work into it as the coolant/water in the oil will destroy the bearings. i did this myself and had very little oil/coolant mixing. after installing new headgaskets the motor didn't last very long. developed a severe rod knock, which i can almost gaurantee was due to the water/coolant in the oil. i swapped engines shortly afterwards. run it now and replace the motor later. or fix it now and save that motor. if you fix it now the beauty is that your motor is good, you won't have to pull it and you save yourself that agrivation in the future.

i will second this thumbs up. i've bought many hundreds of dollars of parts from them. XT6 parts are easily screwed up by others, but they have yet to get one part wrong. i like that they even carry that metal reinforced OEM like o-ring for the cam carrier housing on ER27's and EA82's/EA82T's. never seen another store carry those. i've seen insane turn around times as well. call and it arrives the next day and a half. not always, it's variable, but occasionally super quick.

big end gone? what does that mean? the metal noise should have warranted an inspection before continuing. i'd guess oil pump related, but sounds very strange if the oil level is fine. i'd expect a leak to cause this. make sure the engine is as bad as you think, could it be something simpler? timing belt, bad pulley bearing?

yep! what he said (whatever that means)

check the CTS for corrossion and green stuff on the contacts. very common. how old is the ignition stuff...cap, rotor, plugs, wires? ignition wires are all plugged into the right place? i know on the EA82 (non-turbo), the ones i've worked on would bog down and cut off or idle horribly if the oil cap wasn't on. i noticed on one that i couldn't get to idle that it idled fine every time i leaned into the engine to try and find out what was wrong. turned out i was pressing on the oil cap. there's a rubber seal under neath of that oil cap. i replaced that oil seal under the cap (comes in the head gasket set...never knew what it was until then) and it idled fine. that's the simple stuff to check. you're positive the timing belts are dead on and installed properly?

is the fuel leaking all the time, only when the car is running or you don't know? is it leaks when you're driving, then it's likely affecting the supply of fuel to the engine and could cause idling that bad...but it would have to be a terrible leak. i've seen fuel pumps spewing gas everywhere but the vehicles would still start, idle and run okay. by the sounds of it being at the seam or fuel sender related i'd say it's probably not related to your idling, but you'll know more once someone looks at it. should be obvious once you nail down the exact source of the leak. you can try pulling codes or diagnostic, but probably won't find anything. a very important question...has there been any recent work done to the vehicle? how old are the ignition components? plugs, wires? air filter? i'd install new plugs and wires (Subaru only on the wires) and then the coil pack if those items don't fix it. then get back to us. ignition issues cause a majority of the rough idle, rough start issues that come my way.

i forget the years and models, but if you have a plastic rear separator plate, install a metal one while the engine is out. get a clutch kit - new clutch, pressure plate, throw out and pilot bearings. i'd be mostly concerned about the water pump. the oil pump and seals could wait. i would replace them but if you keep an eye on the oil and fill it up if it starts getting low, then you can wait and do them the next timing belt change. the front crank seal is integrated in the oil pump, so it's actually easy to replace with the motor in the car unlike the older subaru's. just keep an eye on the oil and make sure no leaks develop or get worse. i think this is a 60,000 mile interval timing belt. so you're looking at 180,000 or more before the next replacement. you're asking the stock water pump to make it 180,000 miles. it can make it, but plenty stock pumps fail well before then as well. the water pump isn't that hard to install....it's kind of chump change compared to pulling a motor. you can sustain oil leaks, but coolant isn't really a consumable item, if you start loosing it that's a very bad thing. i'd do everything now, but what i'll recommend to you and feel confident about is to do the water pump, thermostat and hoses/clamps now and then at the next timing belt do all your seals and replace most of the timing belt pulleys unless they are really good and tight.

if the check engine light has ever came on, you need to read the codes and see what it's throwing. follow up and let us know. these guys have two gas tanks for your vehicle for only $75 and they're in Ontario..>ROCK ON!!!!!: 1-519-621-3240 1-800-265-9817

a skilled mechanic can find a way to plug that gas tank. but if it's leaking due to rust might be best to replace anyway. won't know till they look at it. or as a last resort, replace it with a used one. in the states it wouldn't be hard to find a good used one for cheap. sending unit and fuel pump are completely different. as for the idling. does the check engine light ever come on? first thing that comes to mind on any EJ motor like yours is the ignition. these motors are very sensitive to good functioning ingnition so make sure your plugs and wires are good. does it run, drive and shift fine? is it just the idling that's the issue? check TPS and throttle cable and there should be something that controls the idle - i can't recall how the EJ does that since i haven't seen that problem yet. also - a vacuum leak may cause your condition as well....look for a cracked intake hose or disconnected/cracked hose elsewhere. spraying starter fluid around the hoses will show you the leak, the engine will rev up if the fluid gets sucked in. while you're doing that, be sure to squirt the intake manifold gaskets as they can leak as well.

i'll also thumbs up to the over-torque method as well. i clean the crap out of my bolts and bolt holes, get them squeaky clean and i still tighten them over like mentioned above.

the 1991 XT was MPFI 1.8 liter.

order a rebuilt from MWE, they are highly respected and do great work in Denver CO. $100-$130 for axle and shipping probably? i'm flying to Denver Thursday and taking two with me for those guys! often they have axles in stock, so no wait (i have an XT6, a real freak of a subaru so they weren't sure they'd have it): http://www.ultimatesubaru.net/forum/...ad.php?t=49775

i've seen some that the little rivet needs to be lined up with the indentation the caliper piston. this would most likely be old school stuff though that im' thinking about with the faced pistons and front e-brake. for newer stuff i don't think it matters, but i've never paid much attention to it either. i've never seen a subaru old or new gen need anti squeal or grease or anything added. slap them pads, replace rotors as needed and you should be golden.

let me clarify "the only way to tow an AWD auto Subaru without risking damage"...yes. i do it all the time. when i settle on this new house im' buying a flat bed trailer. tow dollys are annoying anyway, can't use them for anything else. at least a flat trailer is multi-purpose, wish i would have thought about that ahead of time. flat trailer rentals aren't that bad if you want to try that route. driveshafts can be annoying to drop. i've done enough to know that rusted bolts are not your friend. and you can't get to them all at one time. so it's remove one or two (there are 4 total)...then jack car up so you can rotate by hand or roll car and hope you don't go to far...gets annoying to try and get them all out. not terribly difficult, but annoying. rain, time constraints, darkness, wet ground, limited space, rusted bolts can make things ugly. i've had some where i could not get the bolts off...the nuts would just round off. REALLY ANNOYING. the longer the vehicle has been sitting, the more likely rust may be an issue. go flatbed anytime you have the opportunity, but a dolly works as well.

for head gaskets i like fel-pro, OEM and corteco. the XT6 doesn't require a retorque even with factory gaskets so that's never been an issue. but big plus on the EA82's i've done.

yes, Dima is running ATF i believe. others have posted of serious leaks (as the owners manual suggests i believe) in the past though.

subaru says you can tow their AWD manual trans with all 4 on the ground: http://www.subaru.com/owners/carcaretips/index.jsp?pageid=towing&navid=TOWING_A_SUBARU i'd decline on doing it with an AWD. with the car on and in neutral though it wouldn't be any different then coasting down a hill in neutral (which probably isn't recommended), but wouldn't hurt for a short distance. like Manarius said early...who wants to find out how long, how fast you have to go before or if it does cause issue?

i've towed dozens of times on a dolly by removing the driveshaft. the only thing turning is the wheels and rear diff. the transmission doesn't even spin since the driveshaft is removed, it can't. it just sits there. if the transmission can break with the driveshaft removed on a tow dolly, then it can break while sitting in your driveway, so i hope you're parking it on a flatbed at night! (just a joke!) rear diffs are unaffected. if a rear diff was affected by towing, then tow dollys would have never been made. also...when towing, both rear wheels are going forward. the same as when you're driving. disconnect the driveshaft and tow away. i'm almost positive the manuals say to disconnect the driveshaft before towing. don't scare the non-knowledgeable, this is how numerous threads and misinformation get propogated.

do not go the rebuild route, it's not worth it at all. i wouldn't worry too much about what AAMCO guys said. they're used to seeing Fords, GM's, Hyundais.....they could be right, but Subaru transmissions are quite resilient. though the TB issue is prevalent. make sure all the tires match (even brand should match since same size but different brand can vary by a decent amount). then do the flush. do 3 drain and refills yourself if someone else won't do it. i'd wonder about the metal flakes too, i'd want to see them myself. and why in the hell did they pull the pan? that's BS if you ask me. that's just asking for future sealing problems on the pan/gasket mating surface if it was for no reason. the clutch packs can be replaced in the car. find a used transmission...possibly even a broken transmission and swap rear extension housings. it can be done in the car, without removing the transmission. if you supplied the rear extension housing, a shop will install it for you. just stop in and ask around. the local transmission shop in town will install your-supplied transmission for only $150 - $200 including a new ATF filter (which for the in pan variety i'd just refuse anyway, not even worth removing and worrying about that stupid o-ring on the neck). i'd say that's on the low end for costs...i'd expect closer to $300-$350 range, but it doesn't take long to swap a trans when you have good equipment. transmissions can be found in the $250-$400 range without much problem, so this could be well under $1,000 depending on prices. i'd install the FWD, do the flush and just put some feelers out for another transmission. post on the parts wanted forum here.