nipper

could just be the pump is shot, or the rack is shot. the cheap route would be to replace the pump from a junker and see what happens. nipper

Funky head gasket tightening is not a big thing. You know, the car is a 92, and it was severley over heated (causing it to stall thats pretty bad). You know engines do get tired and worn out. They dont run forever, though they come close. Did somone check the cylinder decks as well as the cylinder heads for flatness. Im going to assume this engine has some mileage on it. I would be more concerned with the fact the engine got baked. I would also do a leakdown test in the cooling system. Hydrocarbns looks for things escaping into the coolant, the leak down (or pressure test) looks for weakness into the cylinders etc etc. Blowing another head gasket within a year is usually a sign of a note so perfect repair. Also a compression test is in order. It is also possible that it is not a head gasket, but a cracked head or cylinder wall. Cast iron engines can be overheated like crazy and stay structurally sound. Aluminum engines really dont like it and the heavy damage can show up at a later date, thats why its important to never let a modern engine get that hot. nipper

Its one peice. Best bet is to look on ebay. Its not glass its a polycarbonite. hehe dont ask the dealership how much for one you will faint. nipper

Depends upon how bad the rack leak is. The problem is winter is coming. Leaky racks can sometimes be a bear to operate untill they warm up. i would just keep feeding it PS fluid as long as its not dripping on the exhaust pipes smoking you out of the car. Rack and pinion units are basically "power assist". Worse comes to worse you take the fan belt off the ps pump nag drive it as manual rack. I dont know if anyone else has done here, but the final option is to disconnect the hoses, drain the system. this way its a manual rack and your not fighting to push the fluid through the system. Is that the price a used rack goes for at a junkyard? that sounds like arebuilt one. nipper

AHA! i got it! Go to an automotive upholstery shop. The seat is only held in with four bolts. The are used to fabricating brackets for this situation, its more commmon then you think. nipper

do a search here on torque bind .... lots of posts about it, and you will learn alot more about it then us just summing it up here. nipper

hehe ild like to hear this one myself... maybe something with the alingment of the planets nipper

After the audi parts everything else will be cheap. The 6 vs turbo they have the same HP numbers, but the turbo has more torque. Personally i would take the turbo over the flat 6, as the flat 6 doesnt have that much history yet, and it alos requres premium. The turbo is lighter engine so the car will be slightly more nimble. If you were planning on towing i would recomend the 6, and only then. hehe i wish i had a turno im my OBW, i love the strong 2.5, but you know, no such thing as too much power nipper

er um ..... Remove the radiator cap and look for bubbles. Also take it ot a shop and let them test for combustion gasses in the coolant. Also cross your fingers. nipper

i had this and it was a cv joint that self destructed. i suggest the same. nipper

i would dissconnect both, and also clean the top of the battery. You can get a slight drain of voltage across the two terminals from any stray acid on the surface. nipper

My guess is a throw out bearing. http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/techcenter/articles/43837/article.html thats how a clutch works nipper

hrmmm thats the second h6 ive heard with a premature timing chain issue nipper

look at it this way, they been using assembly lube way before synthetic assembly lube has been around. Its really what makes you feel better, and as long as you use something. I have never used white lithum grease to assemble an engine, as it has no high temp proerties what so ever. Ive used grease, vasoline (it is petrolium based). For some reason white lithum grease bothers me inside an engine I use this http://www.valco-cp.com/Torco.htm nipper

They have a differnt light patern then here. Also since i dont know about the Japanese highway system or speed limits, it may be possible that they have a shorter throw too. nipper

At 184,000 miles thats a good run on any head gasket. I have 180k on mine, and if it was to blow tomorrow, i would blame age rather then deisign. DO a search on any car with an aluminum cylinder head, and you will see head gaskets blowing after 140K. I was told when i had my civic to expect it to go around 140K, and guess what happened, at 141K it went poof. The HG issue on a used subaru is a but overblown..... but just in case i still have it budgeted for the repair . nipper

The jet pump is a fancy way of saying siphoning . The tank is divded in two halves with a pipe connnecting them. There is only one fuel pump. The tank drains the drivers side first then the passenger side second, hence the need for two fuel senders. If you siphon the tank from the traditional method, you will only get whats on the fill side of the tank, which should be fine. If you really want to be sure you have siphoned all the fule out, you can always do it from the fule pump access cover. nipper

OOps i should have asked if it was an auto or manual. Yes check to make sure all the tires are the same size and age. If its a automatic the fuse holder will be on the passenger side of the car, under the hood, all by itself. Automatics can suffer from torque bind, its not a problem in the manuals, asuming all the tires match correctly. nipper

i have a 5 amp fuse in mine. Actually what it does is fullly energize the ducty solenoid, which from what i gather closes off the hydraulic circuit to the clutch pack. nipper

Thats how the VW baja bugs would do it. They had both parking brake cables going to the parking brake so it was easy to do. nipper

nice solid car, I agree timing belt and engine temp. The first time (if ever) that temp gauge spikes for no good reason have it checked out. Otherwise welcome and good luck nipper

I would vote for a used tranny, unless you are really attached to the car. Also the condition of the car itself (rust) would truly weigh in heavily on this. Get under the car and closely examine it for rust. 350 would save you the grief of buying a new car, but keep in mind that the car will not run for ever. without another mechanical intervention. nipper

Odd, i consider the early demise of a an engine as throwing a rod or spinning a bearing. Right now alot of the headgasket issues IMHO are moot. A lot of these engines are getting over 100k on the clock, and either have been repaired, or like any engine with over 100K on it, have an increasing risk of things going wrong on them. I would personaly by a subaru engine with over 100K on it as opposed to any other car manufacturers 4 cyl with 100K on it. Also part of the plan is what cost and risk are you willing to risk when buying a used car. Ask the owner if its had work done on it. As time has gone on, less and less people are having head gasket issues, because most of them have been fixed. Also it's not like it was 100%, but from one thread here it was estimated at about 12-15 % (no im not going to go through the 100's of threads here to find it). If your car was to blow a headgasket tomorrow, would you blame the poor engine design? i dont thnk so. Demise of the engine hints that the engine turns into junk once over heated. Some do, some don't. Usually when they do its because the car has overheated many times (gee my car has been doing this for a few weeks ...). Overheating an aluminum engine will quickly turn it into scrap if its done repeatedly. Unless one is buying a new car, one realy does not know how well the car was maintained, so you always asssume a risk. Personally the head gasket issue never figured into my purchase of my OBW. I wanted the more powerful engine. I did budget for it just in case something did go wrong, and so far nothing has. I have always worked off the theory on buying a used car, the lower the purchase price, the more likly i would have to put 50% more back into the car in the first year. Since i never pay more then 4000 for a car, it has sort of held to the low side of that esitmate. So far i am into the car for tires, and crossing my fingers on the torque bind issue. In fact i cant think of a single car out on the market today that i would cheerfully buy that at 180K other then a subaru. nipper

Just look at the y pipe, it will be very obvious to see. nipper

The dreaded torque bind. Do a search on it. Put a fuse in the FWD holder under the hood and if it goes away, you are now a member of the club. nipper