Hey, was just looking at an 88 XT6 4WD on CL and was wondering if these are pretty good cars, all my Suubs are EA81 & EA82, not familiar with the 6 cyl. Pros and cons for these cars. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

i love mine

the ER27 engine in the XT6 is an EA82 engine with 2 more cylinders slapped onto it. same pistons, rings, rods, valves...

 

after that almost everything else is compeltely different. the steering and the air suspension (AWD only, not FWD) are two of the weirder and problematic XT6 issues...

 

if it's AWD then beware of the air suspension. plan on converting to coil overs as the air is very tricky, failure prone at this age and parts are really expensive, and noone will know how to work on it. if it's FWD then it already has coil overs so no worries.

 

steering is electric and typically people don't know how to fix them. they usually need new brushes installed. special steering fluid as well, no ATF or power steering fluid recommended on these jokers.

 

if the tires don't match, be cautious as that can ruin an AWD transmission. if it's FWD don't worry about it.

 

biggest cause for concern is overheating. this engine will run forever, but even the best engine gets destroyed if overheated. problem is this car is old...almost 20 years old. radiator is probably old and in bad shape. if you're lucky and it's new or in good shape, then you're not as lucky as you think...it's probably been replaced which means the last one failed and the car may have been overheated before. same with water pump and thermostat, i replace them right away, no point in wondering if it's 20 years old or not. radiator and coolant hoses and radiator caps too. radiators are REALLY expensive because no aftermarket version was ever made. Subaru only and big dollars. this unfortunately encourages people to put off replacing them.

 

the transmissions don't have many problems either. when you get it changing fluids is recomended and changing the ATF (if it's an auto) is highly recommended if you want it to last.

 

keep them from overheating and running out of oil and they will usually run about as long as you feel like relpacing brakes, rusted out exhaust, tires and other maitenance items.

Thanks for all the info, I might stick with the 4 cyl's for now, cheaper and easy to find parts for.

Heres the link for the XT6, pretty cheap considering the mileage. Does this look like EV's old XT6?

I was also wondering what kind of mileage do the xt6's typically get?

Mine gets about 20mpg in town and 30-32 on the highway. It is an all wheel drive 5 speed.

Mine gets about 20mpg in town and 30-32 on the highway. It is an all wheel drive 5 speed.

Thanks, I looked all over for previous post with this info to no avail.