idosubaru

here they are, only $75: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=49775

sometimes subaru prices aren't as bad as you'd think. price them online as well. or get a used one, they can be had fairly cheap. if you have your old one you can have MWE in denver rebuild it for you, they are highly regarded on this site. they may even have these newer axles in stock. they are listed under the Vendor forum i believe.

to talk about whether the EJ25 has head gasket issues and try to chalk it up to "age and mileage" seems less than fair to anyone who doesn't know much about cars - all anyone has to do is type "head gasket" in the search function and see all the 2.5 threads comes up. that removes our own bias and let's users make an informed decision. if it were strictly age and mileage related then EJ22's would be blowing away the EJ25 posts because they've been around for much longer. but they are rare. i agree, they are good engines, it's two gaskets, i don't see a big deal in that mysel either. but depends on your definition of bad. a $1,500 repair bill won't hurt me, but i don't think everyone can say that. so it's good for others to know. but EJ25's blow headgaskets at 30,000 - 50,000 - 80,000....a trend that wasn't seen in the EA82, ER27, EG33, EJ18, EJ22....a pre 100,000 mile head failure in one of those engines if nearly unheard of. we should each make a thread about our oppinion and just copy and paste the link every 4 days this comes up!!!!

could it be for an aftermarket pressure gauge?

i knew i should have driven it yesterday. they didn't seem to indicate it had any torque bind issues though, it's all while driving straight. that seems to suggest the clutches are fine. i'll have to drive it next time i see them.

are you guys compensating for the larger diameter tires and speedo being off? speedo will record fewer miles than actually travelled with larger tires. i routinely install larger tires and get better highway gas mileage (adjusting for the increased circumference/speedo difference). my car is covering more ground (larger circumference) with the same RPM's. but i'm talking completely different application and tire choice. i want better mileage and dont get wide, aggressive tires. but that should compensate for some of the loss on the larger tires as well.

i echo what GD said. if it's for power definitely don't go with the ER27. i've owned 10+ XT6's and have played with these motors for close to 10 years. not worth all that effort in my oppinion. i guess the hp numbers look way higher than EA's, but they are sloooww and there isn't much modification to be done to them. go with an EJ series motor and trans swap (or get an adapter plate to keep your EA trans). if power is the goal, get a turbo motor. if reliability is the goal, go with an EJ. pretty sure the ER27 will drop right in your EA cross member. the XT6 just has a front motor mount that the EA motors don't have. you'll have to fabricate something for that unless you want to chance it (i wouldn't). but the EJ will drop right on your crossmember as well. by far the easiest (and much cheaper) way to do this is buy an entire car. i've gotten 4 free XT6's and other free subaru's and plenty others for real cheap. an EJ series subaru can be had for chump change as well. you've got a lot of time, so find a place to store it and keep your eye out for a wrecked EJ or something. turbo EJ motors can get expensive, a cheaper solution may be to install a non-turbo EJ and put a turbo on it, others have had excellent results doing that.

being in florida i can understand, insane quantities of blinding rain are much more common down there. 80's wipers probably are lacking for that area.

1999 Legacy SUS, 100,000 miles, 2.5. 4EAT auto trans, AWD. when going down a hill the transmission won't down shift, stays in really high RPM's. i haven't driven in it yet, but they said it does it every time, they know exactly when and where it will do it on the roads they take. this is in WV, so lots of hills. ATF was replaced by the dealer when troubleshooting and they got nowhere. then a local mechanic said he had seen this before on this year vehicle. i found that to be a strange comment since i've never seen it mentioned here and couldn't find anything while searching. trans would also at one point go into reverse while at a stop light when it was in DRIVE. that was fixed though, i imagine just the linkage had issues? anyway, the other down shifting problem still exists.

nipper is dead on. replacing that axle should in no way cause that to be happening. new axles with issues aren't that rare, seen it a number of times with other people on this site and i've had a brand new one explode within a week of installing...first time i ever saw the inside of a CV joint...all over the ground??? since then i'll always install a used Subaru axle before any aftermarkets.

sounds all minor. that engine and trans have a fine shot of making lots more miles. if you post pictures of the bad areas may be able to help more. replacing the window motor will be the tricky part. i'd get a used 2000 window motor ($25-$75) and have your friendly neighborhood mechanic replace yours. price one at Subaru, but i'm guessing they're through the roof on their prices.

i'd get another used unit (post on the wanted forums) and go to town on that one if this car is your daily driver. rain-X is awesome, i highly recommend it. although it works best at 35 mph and over in my soobs.

as long as the rear diff is the right ratio it doesn't matter whether it's LSD or not.

remove the one on the passengers side and you have a one wiper EA82!! the blade is easily adjustable with a little playing around you can get a different blade, any length you want installed on the arm of an XT wiper motor. you'd probably have to swap over an XT cowel, that doesn't sound very fun. the transmissions on them are very hard to find by the way. if you find a good one and regrease it though it should be fine for the life of the vehicle. sounds like a lot of work for a strange feature! not sure about the controls...i guess it shouldn't be too hard to install the right wiring/plugs. might be a simple splice and go.

+1 for GD's comments. thicker oil, different brands, additives and such can change the TOD but it's usually only temporary and very temporary at that. like GD said, did you replace the cam tower o-ring with a brand new metal reinforced o-ring and not a generic rubber o-ring? how long did you drive this car with a leaking headgasket? were you adding coolant for a long time and driving it? the solution most of the time is resealing the oil pump. a few of the XT6 guys (the XT6 oil pump is very very similar to the EA82), have had problems with the gaskets leaking soon after being resealed. i haven't had this problem but my guess is that the oil pump either gets warn...i don't think so because i've never had the problem on any of my many XT6's and haven't seen it here either. but i'm wondering if the plate of the oil pump that gasket sets in gets warped over time (particularly on an engine that ran a little hot...yours needed new headgaskets right??). this aluminum is very thin and seems like even a little warping would cause the new gasket to easily get pulled inside the suction port of the oil gasket. another cause of TOD is a faulty HLA. if they are frozen in the wrong position they will cause noise or if they are sticking. change your oil often, you don't want the HLA's getting dirty. adding MMO and ATF to your oil isn't probably the ideal solution but it can help free up sticky HLA's. the two bad, frozen, HLA's i've found were both out of an engine that had bad headgaskets. this engine was driven for quite some time with bad headgaskets and i'm assuming the coolant/water mixture in the oil and resulting condensation may have gotten into the HLA's and caused them to corroded/stick internally. i spent 3 days trying to get them to move a millimeter with tools, heating in an oven and soaking in solvent and they never moved. both were #3 cylinder on the passengers side.

double post woo hoo!

i can't imagine it being that hard to score an exhaust manifold for this engine. any chance of the 2.5 manifold bolting up or are the heads complete different? a 2001 Legacy Outback exhaust manifold for $75: 1-800-870-2799 a 2002 Legacy Outback exhaust manifold for $25: 1-800-243-6554 doesn't say if it's 2.5 or 3.0 though. Super Repair in Colorado has 2 2003 Legacy Manifolds but I don't think they list whether it's for the 2.5 or H6: 1-888-442-6508

the EG33 is essentially an EJ series engine i believe, so it will bolt up to any EJ series transmission no problem. don't know about motor mounts and such though but i'd suspect it drops right in (i mean heck the EJ series motors drop right in the old 1980's EA82 subaru's, complete different body style). but of course there's no way to be sure. i would stick with your current torque converter. i'm sure it'll bolt right up to the EZ flexplate. is your engine coming with the flexplate? i'd bet the flexplate from your 2.5 bolts right up to the EZ motor, but be nice to have the EZ flexplate as well for comparison. i second the notion that replacing the EZ headgaskets would be way over kill. people swap 20 year old EA, ER, EG and EJ engines all the time and with the exception of the EJ25, very rarely do you see anyone replacing the head gaskets even on these decade or more old motors with tons of miles on them. rarely an issue, i wouldn't even consider it.

i had a bad one and every time yo'ud shift or hit the gas you'd here it torque and whomp the underbody. guy that bought the car from me fixed it. i priced the bushings for him, they were available for $60 or $80 online. you end up buying the entire assembly, the 4 bolts that slide through and hold the diff to a plate which is all one piece with the bushing. i got lucky and one of the XT6's i picked up had a brand new on in it, so that went in my daily driver.

at 105,000 i'd definitely hold off. i've put over 50,000 miles on broken boots with clicking CV's...they are not going to fail and be a reliability issue. so when they finally do break you have pleeeeennnnttty of time to have them done with a brake job or something like that. same with bearings, they should give you ample warning, i've never had any bearing failures on a couple of 200,000+ mile soobs. i pre-emptively had my replaced at a little over 150,000 on one vehicle just because it was very old and i was redoing alot of front end work, but the originals were fine...and i think they're now on someone else's vehicle! the EJ's do have some wheel bearing issues, more so than older soobs but i'd still wait. they make noise and give you a heads up, i wouldn't do it as maintenance. 105k seems early.

more information would be helpful, it's hard to guess why you're asking this? the answer is "No." replacing the timing belt by no means requires coolant replacement. a proper timing belt job in my oppinion (and many others) includes a new water pump as well, because it's *right there* and easy to get too with the timing belt off. if the water pump comes off and part of the coolant is drained then it's not a terrible idea for the coolant to be replaced anyway. if they do make sure you get the 2.5 special additive/conditioner stuff as well, i'm sure they won't forget it, but mention it if you don't have a dealer do it. but the answer to your question is a resounding "No." if that helps you out at all.

yep, all done from up top except maybe a couple timing cover bolts. once you get a look under the car you can pinpoint the oil leaks. leaks on the outside of the engine block, passengers or drivers side from the front of the engine are typically cam seals. centrally located oil leak will be oil pump or crank seal.

awesome news, thanks for the update.

+1 don't use it unless you have to. in rain it really won't do you much good, helps to blow through some large puddles at excessive speeds if you'd normally hyrdoplane...but if you're driving like that, be careful! 4WD helps and has better control if you start sliding, but hopefully you're not reaching break away speeds around turns. morning bump for a good laugh! HEY LOOK is it bird, is it a plane, no it's GD earning his nickname!! woo hoo!

i don't know how EA81 transmissions are, but if you have an automatic transmission you can pull the stub out of the transmission. remove the axle from the hub and drop it down so it's hanging on only by the transmission stub. yank on the axle quick and deliberate and the stub will pop out of the transmission. this will allow you to work from the bench. if it's a manual transmission or different than the EA82's then this won't work. i bought some cobalt drills for drilling out a hardened steel water pump bolt. they sucked, didn't even touch it.