idosubaru

ah, that's pretty good. i only get a tad better than that on all highway driving in my impreza all tuned up. i was wondering if the impreza gas mileage is body design, weight, gearing or engine related. or combo.... i bet it'd get good mileage in an XT frame/trans. what trans do you have in there?

i get 26/27 in my impreza with a EJ22. what are the EA guys getting that installed these? i get the feeling i'm going to get single digit numbers due to the off-road and turbo installs!!!

wonder what causes that intake gasket to pop out like that? my JDM motor came the same way, i replaced the gasket before dropping the engine in figuring it was a freak occurrence. but you had it too? how odd, i've never seen that on a USDM engine with zillions of miles on them.

imdew, can you send that to me as well? grossgary @ yahoo DOT com

has it always done this since getting the tires 6 months ago or started some time after getting the tires? i'd have the tires balanced. the place that installed them may do it for free. you can even check yourself, look at the outside and backside of each wheel and see if you can see balancing weights or a spot where there "used" to be a balancing weight. one may have fallen off. hard to tell visually because old ones may have left marks and there might not be many....but a visual check can sometimes show something. take it and they can check for you. if you've been off road or hit any potholes, any kind of hard hits like that, it's more likely to happen. if you are feeling it in the "floor" so to speak then it's likely a bad ujoint. unfortuantely unless they are near failure the ujoint problems i've seen can not be diagnosed unless the driveshaft it actually removed from the car. they'll be seized, lots of slop or very lumpy....the seized and very lumpy variety failures are diffiuclt if not impossible to diagnose on the car. that being said....on this new of a vehicle i'd suspect something very strange to be at work here. can't imagine a bad u-joint this soon.

i got coil overs on mine. XT6 FWD struts all the way around. most set ups will make the car ride "nose down" that's why he's saying flip the rear top hat. for a little effort you can get new struts and check out our conversion write-ups on http://www.xt6.net tons of information there on swapping.

stock size is the only option that i know of. but new, not used. at 20 years old the stock ones have seen better days. did you hit anything to bend it?

sounds like it's in the same position as the XT6 TCU, probably alot of the EA82, if not all are located there. glad it's going away...hopefully the new fluids does the trick.

sure thing. good luck with it. the 2.5's aren't very nice in the head gasket department, lets hope it's something else.

can you use a flexplate off the car you're trying to match as a template?

check for spark at the coil now. keep working your way "back" so to speak. no spark at plug, now narrow it down even further. if your coil is sparking then your problem is between the coil and plug (wires, distributor, cap, rotor, t-belt). if the coil is not sparking then all of those items are ruled out....with the exception of the CAS in the distributor *maybe*. this will help us help you, let us know what you get. just ground the coil wire like you did when you tested the plug wire. guesses: ECU, transistor under the coil, and the coil are common issues. got another coil and transistor to swap in (quick and easy test)? any recent work done, attempted jumping of the battery, motor get wet?

sounds reasonable. i'd probably look into subaru options, they might be easier to swap around.

if they are not subaru OEM spark plug wires, then get another set. i've seen brand new off-the-shelf spark plug wires from auto parts stores cause cylinder mis-fire codes exactly as you say. the newer EJ motors like you have are not forgiving at all. stick with OEM Subaru only spark plug wires. you can attempt to test this by swapping ignition wires around. clear the code, then swap the bad #2 ignition wire with your #1 cylinder. if the code comes up next as a #1 cyilnder misfire then you definitely isolated the wire as the cause. even if it stays at #2 though it could still be wire related but much less likely. i'd swap in a coil pack before an ECM. both can be had cheaply on here or at a junk yard. call and search around, i was looking for an EA82 ECM and saw the prices range from $35 - $609 for USED ones. i took the $35 route.

+1 XT6 lift kit! (i know...ha ha ha on me)

this will not work on your manual transmission. only the older ones with a Differential lock can accomplish this.

someone slashed 3 of my tires in my 88 XT years ago. this was in highschool before i knew anything about cars. i drove to my parents house 25 miles at about the same, no more than 30 mph tops. the tires eventually came off the rim. made it home, got new tires and all was well. drove the car a few more years after that into college and never had any problems with it. didn't even bend the rims. stock steel wheels with hubcaps as opposed to aluminum i guess prevented them from bending.

great cars, great motor. it is old so the air suspension is for sure the first thing to worry about. look to convert to coil over if you like to keep things simple, cheap and reliable. the turbo has oil and coolant lines to it. that's fine....except when they leak that basically pumps oil and coolant away from the motor. i'd replace any related clamps, hoses or o-rings first thing. the head gaskets are the first things to go. at this age/mileage the turbo's put too much stress on the motor to take any overheating or negligence in the maintenance department. at 20 years old it's very easy for the car to have been overheated or driven hot at least once...not good on 20 year old head gaskets. some tips of checking for head gasket issues - look under the oil cap for a milky type substance, start the car up when cold and see if any coolant/water blows out the exhaust pipe. see if there's any oil in the over flow tank. run it for awhile and make sure it doesn't overheat at all. after it's warmed up, get out of the car, pop the hood and see if any bubbles are coming out of the overflow tank. bubbling is bad. check to see if there are any new cooling system parts - radiator, water pump, hoses. i'd buy the car even with bad headgaskets, but i'd like to know before i start talking price.

first - completely ignore the passengers side cam, this is a two step process. install each belt indepently, not both at the same time. line up the MIDDLE of the three marks you're talking about. line up the drivers side cam - install the drivers side belt. once that step is complete, then start thinking about the passengers side belt. rotate the crank shaft one complete revolution (360 degrees) and bring the same middle mark to line up again on the bellhousing. now line up the passengers side cam and install that timing belt. once you're done you'll notice that each belt is 180 degrees off from the other. when one cam mark is down, the other is up. if they are both up or both down, it is wrong. rotate the engine around at least one time and check that both belts are lined up dead on before continuing. no point in putting everything back together if it's one tooth off, which is easy to do.

friend of mines explorer wouldn't get out of 4WD and i crawled under the truck, found a mysteriously cut wire. spliced it back together and all was well. i'd keep checking the codes...wondering if those others were residual or legitimate. if they are actual codes, all three, then i'd definitely expect a wiring harness plug or wiring somewhere. many squirrels/mice around your place? they like to chew on wires. also wondering if the TCU has issues if it's multiple circuits showing up. didn't you have at least one (if not two) vehicles with a cracked/broken rear window? the TCU is located directly underneath the rear window on the drivers side in an XT6. i'd wonder if any glass or water could have gotten on it/in it and caused issues if this is one of your cars with broken glass.

the transmission fluid and transmission itself are designed to run at a certain temperature. running at the designed operating temperature should be your best bet and i can't imagine significant gains below that. overheating the fluid is bad and what you're trying to avoid.

if no water circulates through the radiator it seems coolant is not moving for some reason....but i can't remember if it had heat or not.

i think i'd try to extract those codes before doing anything else to the car. if it's flashing, the TCU knows something and that will only help you. just get a long piece of transmission hose and run it from one side to the other. did it to my grandmothers car a few weeks ago when her radiator ATF cooler sprung a leak. ran fine. for the cost of hose you rule out the radiator. one minor bump in the pan shouldn't cause alarm, but a big dent might be worth looking into. got any large magnets to pull it out? drill a hole and pull the dent out, then weld it back shut. that would be quick. pulling the pan is very annoying as the old gasket will be caked on, hard to get off and the new gasket likely won't seat right on the pan because the screw holes are all non-flat. they get concave so to speak and end up making the new gasket leak in short order. really annoyihng...just like oil pans if you've done those. should be able to order just the gasket for a couple bucks, i've bought them before without issue. but that being said...you might be better off replacing if not the filter, the o-ring at the top of the filter. the filters really aren't worth replacing because they aren't much of a filter. they are only a screen, a fine mesh screeen and i've never seen one have so much as a fleck of dirt in them. i've replaced them but have to be honest and say i've never seen one that needed it. so if you're not wanting to spend the $, then don't you won't suffer for it. but....with your issues i might want to look at the o-ring that goes on the filter where it slides up into the trans pump. there's an oring around the filter outlet. maybe that's causing loss of pressure to the system?

sure it's not a turbo oil line?

all of the EJ cars are very similar in terms of the motors and transmissions. the 2.0, 2.2 and 2.5's you can even swap heads on...that shows the similarity a bit. many parts are close, or identical or swappable. for exhaust - i'd have one custom made, forget aftermarket parts. except headers if you really want to go that route, but i don't think there's much return available there but what do i know i haven't tried. would like to see someone do it and post numbers. i know the older models better (like the XT6 that i've owned about 15 of), they're good for an additional 3+ mpg highway miles by removing the stock POS muffler and playing with the intake a little. i have an impreza and am curious what difference a muffler would make on it, but it's too young to bother replacing stuff on yet. if you want good offroad capability you need to splice a duty solenoid C switch in to control the lock-up of your rear transfer clutches. lock them up and these things are AWESOME offroad. makes all the difference in the world. i have that and an LSD and i never worry about getting stuck anywhere. do a search there's plenty of information on this board about how to do this if you want it. for cruise - your throttle body and wiring is probably all there, you just need to find a car with it and scavenge the parts off of it. i'd check to see if your wiring plugs/harness is in place on yours, if it is then it would be MUCH easier to add the cruise, i'd bet alot that stuff is there. cruise control stuff is typically mounted to the passengers side strut tower, look there for some unused plugs/harnesses.

you can always just stuff grease all up in the broken joint too, that quiets down your CV's for a good week or more. yours sound like they are on the brink of blowing to bits, but might be worth a try if you need to drive it. 50,000+ miles on fronts and well over 100,000 on rear broken boots with never a breakage. when they start clicking while driving straight i stuff some grease up there in the broken boot and replace the axle with the next brake job or tire rotation. the only annoying part is crawling under the car and the grease splattering out...but better than the axle blowing up. it NEEDS grease. if you're going to drive with broken boots, at least add some fresh grease from time to time. they'll last a looooong time if you do...check my mileage statements above done it more than once.