idosubaru

are you sure the rear air struts are bad? i'd bet they aren't. if both are deflated it could be something else. it could be a 50 cent o-ring. or it could be the computer or something else. if you're sure the air bag is leaking you can blow tire sealant in the air strut to seal the leaky bag. the front is easy, just blow it in the top...not sure how to get to the rears to do that though. replacement with regular (non-air) struts is the best option by far. the air suspension is expensive and difficult to troubleshoot if you're not doing it yourself and have a horde of extra parts. if you want to trouble shoot - at the drivers side front strut top in the engine bay should be a long connector (female) that doesn't plug into anything. it's just hanging there by the strut solenoid. facing the end of the connector, each pinout grounds a solenoid. facing it from left to right on the top row is: Front Passengers Side, Front Drivers Side, Rear Passengers Side and Rear Drivers Side. if you ground each of these pins (just run a wire from negative battery to the pin, that's it) you should hear a click at each strut. that's the solenoid clicking. anyone that doesn't click means it's not working and needs to be replaced. the rear passengers side is hard to hear yourself while grounding it on the opposite side of the car so listen carefully. i'd be comfortable with using a used air strut assuming it's in decent shape and cheap. inspect the bag and make sure there isn't significant rust where the air bag meets the bottom strut support. the metal rusts and rubs on the air bag. the internal height sensor can fail, but that is rare so if the bags good i'd go for it.

i do 3 drain and refills as well. one drain will only get half or less of the ATF out. install a transmission cooler while you're thinking about the trans. a well spent $30.

you're positive it's HLA noise and not something else...fuel injector? how long have you been running synthetic? if it's not horrible i'd probably run with clean synthetic and frequent oil changes for awhile and see how it gets. some ATF or seafoam may help if nothing else does. oil pump ever been resealed? that may or may not help.

that's your problem, you let minor things get in the way of progress!!!!!! you'll get large fines and tickets, but they let you off when you get to court and knock the fines down to nothing. sometimes they even let you go.

socket wrench with a hammer. pound that handle hard and it works like an air impact wrench. if the starter is still in place you could give it 12 volts if you can get a battery to the car. put the socket on the crank pulley and rest it against something solid. bump the starter and that'll knock it loose as well. you won't have one but a long crow bar or digging bar placed between the lug studs will keep the wheels from spinning. a similar item, but thin, can be wedged through the rear ujoints to keep the rear output shaft from spinning.

buy the generic $3 bag of o-rings like he said. it'll have the ones you need. be sure to oil them before installing, don't install them dry. not sure what you should oil it with...preferrably lubricant from the a/c system, but maybe motor oil, brake fluid may also work. while the system is open, replace at least both compressor fittings and any other fittings you can easily get to (condensor/receiver/drier)

buy the generic $3 bag of o-rings like he said. it'll have the ones you need. be sure to oil them before installing, don't install them dry. not sure what you should oil it with...preferrably lubricant from the a/c system, but maybe motor oil, brake fluid may also work. while the system is open, replace at least both compressor fittings and any other fittings you can easily get to (condensor/receiver/drier)

thanks guys. i'll check to see if the latch works. i'll bet mine is spring related, i don't recall it having much spring to it...but didn't really pay attention either as mine have always worked.

that is a great tire size tool, i've used it many times. i agree with the larger tire sizes as well. i've used larger tires that should have had a %6 increase but noticed only a %3 difference in odometer inaccuracy. so it must have been around %3 low.

how did you know it was a broken cable and where did it break? the latch at the cap seems to work...it holds the door shut but won't release it. it pries open like you said.

post this in the off road forum, they may know better. use an on-line tire size calculator to figure out total diameter and compare to what some other guys are running (they probably have 15" or 16" wheels). but there aren't many outback XT offroaders so info may be limited. some vendors (Allied Armament) have made lift kits for some EJ models so they may know as well how big you can go on a stock setup. the search function might be your best bet on this...

can you post a picture? something is certainly weird. you're sure it's not coming from the ATF fill tube where it fits into the trans? you need to verify that part of the transmission housing is flat where it's leaking. if it's flat and the pan is flat it should work. are you sure it's the right pan as well? i guess so if it fit and the gasket fit? i'm still wondering if it's really the pan and not something just above it...which is why i ask about the fill tube/dipstick tube.

just got a new XT6 the other day..finally found the AWD Auto i wanted. the fuel door latch doesn't work. i push it and nothing happens. never looked at one of these jokers before, any clues? did a search and couldn't find anything...except posts where people didn't know how to open it!

how old is this vehicle? the radiator could be plugged up. no coolant loss? are the fans turning on when the car starts to overheat? i'd look into the radiator being plugged. when the car is warm...feel the hoses and make sure both are hot to the touch. a clogged radiator will often result in one of the hoses feeling "cold" to the touch. after that i'd think about the water pump....not sure on how to test it.

get a good valve spring compressor. i bought one from advanced auto parts and it's a POS for the older subaru motors. does not work well, if at all and is dangerous having lack of control with all that pressure.

this has been discussed/argued in other threads but i don't know that you need the proportining valve anyway. try searching on some other threads if you have questions about that as i'm not positive.

the engine and transmission come out of the engine bay as an assembly. no need to pull them apart, just pull them at an angle. XT6's will come out the same way as well.

old radiators become inefficient. how is yours? how is the radiator cap as well? in my experience, compression testing is not helpful in diagnosing head gasket failures. all of the slow leaking gaskets i've seen that run and drive fine will test fine. as a matter of fact i've seen them test higher than the other cylinders if they start leaning towards "getting worse". i believe too much water in the cylinders somehow bumps up compession artificially or the gauge just doesn't like it. whatever the reason, i've had good readings on bad head gaskets. i'm not saying yours is.

i didn't think these has retaining screws but wasn't sure. older soobs do. unless i'm mistaken i think the rotors should come off if you take the caliper bracket off. let someone else chime in but that's how it usually works. newer ones usually have no problem coming off. some taps with a rubber mallet if it's stuck at all. if you jack the front of the car off and try to turn each front wheel slowly you can probably isolate which rotor is warped and only replace that one. you'll feel the wheel "catch" at one point of the rotation. this is the bad rotor. make sure your caliper slides are greased well and the piston moves in and out fine. a sticking caliper will heat up and warp the rotor.

if you wanted to risk it you could keep on going since it's a 1996 which is a non-interference year. not that i recommend that. the tow bill and follow up "emergency" repair bills usually aren't pretty. my buddy has 200,000 on his toyota he bought with 60,000 on it. supposed to change belts every 60,000 and he NEVER has. if he wasn't 1000 miles away i'd do it for him.

are you talking about the axle nut (big joker, usually 32 or 36mm)? i didn't think you need to remove the axle nut to get the rotor off. should only need to remove the brake caliper (both pieces) and any retaining screws on the rotor.

i would be very surprised if a parts store had a new one. you can try on-line with advance/auto-zone/etc... to see if they carry it at all but my guess is dealer only.

it's at the top of the block towards the front of the engine, the bolt head is on the passengers side. i know exactly what o-ring you're talking about, didn't think about that. picture is no where to be found. i'm going to compression test and clean it off see where it leaks from after that. now that i think about it, the oil dipstick always popping out leads me to believe it's blow-by as well.

when pushing the caliper pistons in did you unscrew the cap to the master cylinder? if not, this can blow the seals in the master cylinder. it's not that uncommon for master cylinders to fail during brake work....why would only be speculation but i guess a master cyilnder close to on it's way out gets subjected to slightly abnormal use during brake work and finally let's loose. who knows, all i know is that i've seen it happen a few times. actually i've never seen a brake master cylinder fail independently...it's always been right after brake work, but i've only seen a couple fail. i like to bleed the brakes with air hose that they use in aquariums (you can get it at any pet store or wal-mart in the pet department. this clear air hose lets you see the fluid as it's coming out (and if you loop it around properly you can bleed yourself). anyway...being clear you can see if there's air bubbles in it. if you're constantly pushing air bubbles through the hose then you have a leak somewhere (look for fluid) or your seals in your master cylinder are bad. if the calipers are installed and you're not loosing fluid, in my experience it's always been the master cylinder that causes soft or no pedal pressure. though other things can go wrong, i've never had to diagnose the brake booster or anything else so i can't help you there.

i tightened the bolt and it did slow down the leak considerably....but it was still leaking. and leaking from other places as well (like mjdc suggested it would, good call!) i was using 10w-30 oil. i switched about a week ago to 20w-50 and it hasn't lost any oil since then. maybe it's due to something else and maybe i'll see oil loss shortly but it appears to have "gotten better". i'm going to clean the engine and do a compression test and see what i get and how much it's leaking.