DerFahrer

Touche! Our 97 Ford Econoline at work has 63k miles on it. We bought it about 6 months ago with 35k miles I think, we put 200 miles on it a day, and it's all stop and go driving, so I do understand that it sees some extreme conditions. But we've had both front brake calipers lock up, and even now it will pull to the left sometimes and pull to the right sometimes under braking and brake pad smoke will emanate from the wheel being pulled on, so that sounds like a prop valve to me. Both my cars which are much older and have many more miles still have every last original brake component. The transmission also sticks in 1st gear sometimes and bounces off the rev limiter at 50mph for a few seconds, even after an ATF flush and refill. The column shifter completely came apart and had to be replaced, althought that didn't fix the brake lock (can be taken out of Park without applying the brake) and the indicator is stuck in 1... Other Ford experiences: I had possession of a 90 Ford Bronco II for a very short period of time. I was assigned to fix it up so me and my grandfather could turn a profit on it. It had 115k and was on its 2nd engine. Well, it had a CEL on, and damned if I knew how to pull the code. The valves tapped like crazy, the fuel gauge didn't work, I think a shift rod was loose in the transmission, and there's more I'm forgetting. And just for the sake of completeness, look at the amount of recalls Ford has every single week and look at the severity of the problem. I can't remember the last time I saw a Subaru in the recall list.

I seriously seriously doubt it, but I'm not 100% sure I'm saying no...

Ideally, it would be at 150 psi or a little bit more in all 4 cylinders. But the most important thing to check for is consistency between all 4 cylinders. For example, if you have one cylinder down considerably, you might have a burnt valve or a damaged cam lobe or incorrect cam timing. If you have two cylinders down on one side of the engine, that's a strong indication of a blown headgasket. Stuff like that.

It sounds more to me like piston slap. Search these forums for that term, that should educate you. It's not as bad as it sounds...

I can remove and replace the starter on my 91 Legacy in 20 minutes.

FLAcharlie, right click and save as on this video (you need Quicktime to play it) and tell me if this noise is similar to what you're experiencing: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/thomasck/XT6-Pinging.MOV

Ford quality??? Nice use of an oxymoron If it's going to be a company vehicle though, you could get something with better gas mileage than the Legacy. Might I suggest a base Toyota Matrix? Roomy, versatile, reliable, excellent gas mileage...

The Bosch plugs are the wrong heat range, whereas the NGK's are the right heat range. Plus, if you bought platinum plugs, you just sacrificed performance and fuel economy for plug longevity. The platinum plugs will last longer, but the engine will prefer the copper plugs. If that doesn't concern you a whole bunch, then leave em in and they'll at least last a while. But I'd rather change them more often and have the best plugs I could. 4WD actually hurts acceleration, since physics dictate that you lose more power through the mechanical inefficiencies of the rear drivetrain. It's only good for traction off the line, which only matters on slick surfaces.

Obviously a 90-94 Legacy AWD auto should bolt in with no mods. But you could theoretically put ANY new-gen Subaru auto in if you want to do some crazy wiring stuff, and you make 100% sure you have the same ratio in the front and rear diffs. So if you found a wrecked WRX auto, you could pull the tranny and rear diff, and after you wire the whole thing, have a WRX autotranny with VTD in your Legacy!

Yes I recommend the Haynes manual. It's really not that good, but you can't get anything that at least has instructions and pictures any cheaper. This is where I love the EJ22's, the spark plugs are on the side of the head instead of going through the top of it

Hey Phaedras, glad to see another old-school Subie owner in Orlando, we should definitely meet up sometime. First off, hate to tell you this after you've already gone and done it, but ditch those Bosch plugs. They get along with Subarus as well as Shannon Dougherty does with Paris Hilton. You will have decreased performance and gas mileage, and may experience hesitation. Go back to the NGK plugs that were in it before. Is it an AT or MT? The 4WD is pushbutton I presume? It will give you ungodly amounts of traction in a fast corner, but don't make a habit of that. It's good for off-road use and that's about it. Frequent on-road use will just tear your transmission and axles apart. Like they said, just a halfway decent set of metric sockets and a good ratcheting wrench will allow you to take this car almost completely to pieces and put it back together.

You might have actually. The AT OIL TEMP light is about as useful as the Oil light. It only comes on when the condition is so critical that the component in question is about to self-destruct. Your tranny has as good as 240k on it, that's pretty damn good. I also think it's time to get out the checkbook...

Legacy - more sporty, handles better on-road, weighs less, arguably looks better Outback - more utilitarian, handles better off-road, weighed down with luxury, looks tougher There is a nonturbo wagon and sedan version of both the Legacy and Outback. Go to www.subaru.com they have the entire 05 model line there...

Manny (avatar382) has an XT6 clutch in his monster XT. It holds great and can probably more power on top of that.

Yep, no contest. Two more cylinders is two more cylinders. 30 more hp, and probably a similar torque spread too...

subGSR is in NZ... He has a beautiful collection of old Subies...

Hey, good to see another FLdian on here I'm going to say something weird and say it's not related to the engine at all... Pinging/detonation only occurs under load, whether it's at 20mph or 80mph. Bearing knock can happen anytime you punch the gas real quick, and Subarus rarely have bottom-end problems anyway. I'm going to say it's your speedometer cable. The situation you've described sounds exactly like an issue that Myxalplyx had on the XT6 boards, and there were many suggestions of a speedo cable... Only started around 80mph and stayed as long as he was going that speed.

Here's my yet-to-fail fix for that code. Swap throttle bodies. Pull one from a junkyard. I have swapped throttle bodies on my car to have one that still has its factory settings (I played with stopscrews when I was younger :-\ ). Then I did the same with a coworker's 92 Legacy who had the same code. Problem fixed. The idle switch is built into the TPS, which is on the passenger side of the throttle body. The TPS is set from the factory in a certain position, you can see the white marks on the screws. It's best not to mess with that, so if you just swap the whole thing, you won't have that problem.

It is completely impossible for a thread about a drain cock to steer completely clear of at least one innuendo

Cool, hope to see you there Austin. Now what about Manny? avatar382, get your monster XT over here!

Build date is inside the driver's doorframe.

By the way guys, any Outback XT or 3.0R AT is going to have VTD, so the split will be 45/55 not 90/10...

That reminds me actually, I never retorqued the lugs on my XT after putting alloys on some 1000mi ago

ABS is not a federally-mandated system, Phillip. There are still quite a few cars for sale today that are not equipped with ABS. The fact of the matter is, with these wheel sensors gone bad, his ABS will not work properly whether the fuse is in or not. I also think you need to correct the situation ASAP, but I can't bash you for not having an extra $260 sitting around, that is a lot of squiddy...

Don't even need directions. Sure, I'll show up...