idosubaru

HA HAAAAAA!!!!!!!! i love that name!!!!!!! HARRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!! + 100 HP!!!!!!!!

waste of time.

i was posting a general answer to previous poster (not you). i've had good luck playing with the intake and exhaust and getting additonal mpg gains on highway driving. exhaust mods only helped on older generation subaru's, haven't tried it on newer generation yet. i also agree driving like grandma is not an option for me!

"How to increase gas mileage" get a car that gets good gas mileage. making a car that gets bad gas mileage get good gas mileage is no easy task. there are good EA82 and EJ22 vehicles that get 35-40 mpg. and they can be had on the cheap. my insurance went down when i added a vehicle, multi-car discount. cheaper to have two vehicles per person. or swap in a transmission that has better gearing. mileage varies wildly across the same motor EA82's or EJ22's, but the trans makes a huge difference.

it would be nice to know why the brake fluid lines were opened and needed bleeding? replacing the rotors and pads does not require bleeding, so i'm wondering what else was wrong that necessitated the opening of the lines? i'd vote for bleeding them again as well. lots of tips on the board here for doing that. i've had a few times when the brake pedal feels like it's going lower and then it firms up after a couple times of pushing it in. don't know why, i always assumed the pads needed to seat fully and the pistons needed to come out of the bore after being pushed in to receive the new pads. this would only be applicable if the pads were replaced after bleeding. have you driven it much? if the pistons in the calipers were pressed back in without the brake master cyilnder cap being removed, this can damage the master cylinder. or you could just have master cylinder problems.

are you sure the water pump is leaking and it's not something else? 98 2.5's have head gasket issues. just checking, hate to see all that work and $ not fix your problem. might want to order in new pulleys too and replace the ones that are noisey and dont' feel "like new". probably the sprocketed one by the oil pump, they seem to be the first to start making noise. being an interference engine and the fact that yo'ure not goign to be in there again for 100,000 miles you want to make sure all your pulley bearings are good. once the bearings seize in a pulley your 100,000 mile timing belt will slide over it and last about 1,000 miles. they are expensive so an alternative to replacing them all is buying them all and returning the ones you don't need. you can also replace the bearings if you have access to a press and buy the bearings.

yes. my retired (rust) daily driver has 220,000 miles on it, still has the same air struts it had when i got it 5 years ago with 100,000 miles. never replaced any air struts and they are in excellent shape still. i can not find that thread, i don't believe it's still here? here's a link to the write-up at http://www.xt6.net: http://www.xt6.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4173&highlight=air+strut

the top of the struts have bearings in them and they are open. you can probably just look down the top of the strut and see them, they are well exposed on the XT6. water poured on top of the strut will get into those bearings. probably why most air suspension set ups have the plastic covers to keep stuff out of those bearings. that's just a guess, either way be cafeful putting water on top of the strut.

remove the drivers side wheel and inner plastic liner. you'll see 5 fittings exactly like the solenoid fitting on the compressor assembly. there are obviously 5 of the exact same o-rings here, replace all of those as well. the location of the 4 "outside" fittings/hoses are unimportant, they do not have to be reinstalled in the same positions. all 5 are identical to the ones you just replaced. there are also o-rings where the air-lines screw into the tops of the struts, replace those as well. be careful with the soapy water test on the tops of the struts, there are bearings on the top and they are open. soapy water will toast those bearings. better just to replace them, it's easy.

second time around head gasket failures are not common, i can't recall seeing any on the boards. i can't imagine they'd use an "old" headgasket, they probably can't even get one. they are well aware of 2.5 engine work and would do it right. highly doubt you have anything to worry about. if you're still concerned, ask the dealer/check the invoice for the part number they used.

nope, didn't think about that! good call, it's a bad idea.

good point, could be either one. he gets nothing or something?

if it does it every time, try jumper cables and another vehicle/battery. do that a couple times over a few days. if it fixes it, then the battery is to blame. i would think battery before other things except maybe a ground, but battery is simpler to replace and diagnose so i'd start there. more info on car would be golden like previous poster said.

as much or more important is the width. get a size skinnier tire. you can always go up or down a size or two. go one size thinner and look at the tread. the rubber compound can make a difference as well. i'm guessing sticky performance tires don't do as well as hard rubber/high mileage tires, but that's just a guess i'm not a tire material expert by any means. these won't be performance tires, but i'm doubting you're auto crossing or anything. skinnier is better in snow/rain too, another plus. if you get much larger diameter you're speedometer/odometer won't be accurate. thinner might give you what you want without the speedo discrepancy. you won't get more than a 1-3 mpg bump in my experience. if you drive alot maybe that's worth it to you.

it all went away with one bottle of sea foam? that's awesome.

push the caliper arm towards the engine so to speak (away from you) and it'll slide right off the pin. clean up all the dirt and old grease and lube it good with new grease. the slide it back and forth a few times to spread the new grease around.

the 2.2's definitely don't have head gasket problems. being around longer (since they came out well before the 2.5's) you'll see some 2.2's with issues more related to age and maintenance than design. EJ refers to newer motors. the numbering is the size of the engine. EJ22 is 2.2 liter, EJ25 is 2.5 liter, etc. there are variations among them as mentioned. subaru came out with a "new" head gasket design that your engine surely has, doubt you'll have any trouble with it.

sometimes just the wiring or connections at the alternator, headlights or battery are to blame aren't they?

could he just sawzall or torch the axle off?

refilling can't hurt...but then you risk getting air bubbles in there too. i don't think draining just the overflow tank will buy you very much. the heads are almost certainly already out of spec, probably salvageable but they should be checked and milled.

anyone? bump.

too heavy to carry while you're in route to steal it?

leave the old axles in. i've run fronts for 50,000 miles and rears for 100,000 miles with broken boots, they won't fail. if they're clickign while driving straight, pack some grease in by hand to quite them up. otherwise you could do it, but probably better to just sawzall the axle close to the hub and leave the old CV in the hub at least to keep the wheel seal and bearings protected.

you would likely make it....i don't advise it but you could make it. you said you have "unlimited time", in that case if you make sure you don't drive it overheating you'll make it home. might take awhile but if you stop/cool down when it starts to overheat and make sure it's full of coolant you'll make it. i've had to do this before, take a ton of towels/blankets or somethign similar along if you're actually loosing coolant. when you need to add throw the towels and such over the fill cap and remove it. if done right it'll blow like crazy but you contained it with all the towels and crap and then can refill it. otherwise you have to wait for it to cool down to overfill and that takes forever. if you're not loosing coolant then you just have to wait it out. that you're making it 40/50 miles now makes me think you should be fine, just shut down before you overheat. if it's leaking into the block (which sounds like oil/coolant is mixing) at all i don't know that i'd want to do alot of engine work on it, coolant in the oil is horrible on the bearings. i'd want to do the work right and plan on having the car another 100,000 miles. i'm guessing you don't want to dump large sums on a good EJ25, they are expensive and hard to come by. in that case i'd get a used EJ22 for a couple hundred and slap some timing belts on it and install that. then sell your EJ25 with blown gaskets, someone will want it believe me. it'll help pay for much of the EJ22. it'll be done quicker too. head gasket job is big and can run into issues. you'll have to pay for machining of the heads and probably best to have them checked if you've driven that much on them. but that's me, i'm an admitted EJ22 fan. the new gaskets will solve your issues though and there is EXCELLENT information on this board about doing the head gasket job. so if you want to and have time, tear it up. start practicing with the search function and you'll find what you need. good luck, hope you get it going again.

good point D, but if you're not getting stuck and can't do that in AWD the field isn't nearly messy enough!