Kilroy

I've been shopping for struts for my '90 Legacy wagon, is there a reason to go with the OB struts over the OEM struts?

Thanks for the reply Reveen. I noticed that the stock front speakers have a steel ring that raises them about 1/2", that may be why they had clearance. I am looking for the lowest profile speaker I can for the front. Good to hear the 6.5" fit in the rear though, I'll start looking for some soon.

Has anyone tried to mount a 6.5" speaker into an early '90s Subaru Legacy stock cutout? I have checked with Crutchfield and it states that a 6.5" (and 6.75" for that matter) will fit into the factory cutout front and rear of a 1990 Legacy Wagon. I have measured the factory speakers and they are 5.25" and I can't see how anything larger will fit in that space. I would surely like to mount a 6.5" speaker in them as they give better mid-low response, but I just can't see how it would fit. Anyone?

The 2 shafts are rock solid, absolutely no slack between them when I twist the shaft or pull it front to back. As I stated, the only movement I can get out of the entire shaft is about 1/4" clockwise/counterclockwise and then I can't rotate it by hand anymore.

What I mean by 1/4" is that I can rotate it a little bit before it stops, then 1/4" the other direction before it stops. I am grabbing at the front of the shaft and the entire shaft front to back rotates like that. The center connection seems to be very firmly connected to the front and rear shafts.

I got the car up on ramps and gave the driveshaft a good thrashing about. It rotates about 1/4" by hand before being engaged and it does have some play front to back. It moves front to back within the rubber boots, but I believe it is supposed to have a little bit of play in it. Can anyone confirm this?

Great link nipper, thanks! My ABS works TOO well. It will work for about a minute after I start the car and the ABS will engage when slowing down for a turn, then the ABS light comes on in the dash and they no longer work at all.

I have plenty of wire lieing around, looks like that is the way I will be doing it this weekend. Thx!

Me: Nice run to Tim Horton's, engine should be at operating temperature now. Let's get at it. OOPS, I had better find my compression guage now. Brother: How long do you figure this will take? Me: Not long, maybe half hour or so. Where is that damned guage? Brother: Ahhh, good coffee. Me: Yup. Dammit, I know that guage is here somewhere! Brother: When was the last time you used it? Me: Hmmm, probably when I checked my compression on the truck when I lived at the house in the city. Couple years maybe... Brother: Oh, you mean that one you loaned me a couple years ago that is sitting in my Bronco II back in the city? Good guage, that one. Hell, I think all my friends used it too. Me: GODDAMIT!!

You need to mate your speaker components (including the subwoofer) to amplifiers that will provide the appropriate power to keep them within their RMS range. You will be running your 4 speakers to the Pioneer amplifier, so make sure that the Subaru subwoofer is going to get enough power from the head unit's amplifier. You can mount the Pioneer amplifier beneath your passenger side seat, but before you do that have somebody sit in the seat and check your clearance. If you have a few inches of clearance remaining between the bottom of the seat and the top of the amplifier, you may want to consider mounting the amplifier on a riser to give it a little bit of airflow beneath it. Rubber grommits make a great mounting surface and ensure that you aren't grounding against the vehicle's body (in this case you will have carpeting there, I am sure) and dampens the vehicle's vibration being transferred to the amplifier. I'm not sure about your OBW, but with my Legacy Wagon I am seriously considering mounting my subwoofer in the spare tire well. You can mount your subwoofer on the bottom side of some MDF and put a steel grille (not the cheapo grilles that come with speakers, real expanded metal grille) over the subwoofer, then put your carpetting back over the subwoofer. This will allow you to use the space above your subwoofer without the worries of damaging it. Be sure to check the subwoofer on a regular basis for any dirt/debris that may have fallen into the cone. This is, of course, subject to the spare tire well allowing you enough space to mount the subwoofer. Infinity makes a line of low profile subwoofers that really help in limited space enclosures.

Thanks for the input guys! I don't have a remote trigger, but my brother is coming for a visit this afternoon and I was going to put him to work turning over the ignition while I check the compression guage.

I was going to do a compression check today, but got a little confused while reading the directions to do it in the Chilton manual I have. I've done compression checks on older V8s, but this is a little different. The manual says to disconnect the high tension lead from the ignition coil. Where is that? Pretty sure that is the centre wire on a distributor cap, but there is no such animal on the EJ22. It then says to disconnect the cold start valve. Where would I find that? There are no photos to indicate in this manual. Then I just remove the injector connections, screw in the compression guage and have someone crank it over with the gas pedal floored. Need to get to that point, though.

Thanks for the reply, this is the type of definitive information I need before I go back there and tear somebody's head off. Then I look like an rump roast for not knowing.

Roger that! My thoughts exactly. Just to be sure, this is the O2 sensor right before the Y pipe on the exhaust?

I have no choice to go back to them if it is a transmission related problem, it is under warranty for the next year or 20,000 km. There was absolutely NO vibration in the car before I brought it to them. With the exception of the solenoid codes from the TCU and 2nd gear starting to slip, it ran perfectly. Therefore, before I am satisfied that the job was done right, I will continue to be a pain in their asses until I feel that any problems are corrected. I was damned near positive that the halfshafts had to be removed to get the torque converter out as I have removed 2 of these transmissions myself. They charged me for the rebuilt torque converter, which is why I posed the question.

ROFL!

I got my Legacy back from AAMCO a few weeks ago ($3300 after all the BS I went thru, including a 3 hour charge for them to figure out that I needed a new TCU) and when I suddenly let off the gas at highway speeds I get a nasty vibration all the way back in the transmission, right under the shifter. I took it back to AAMCO and we took it for a test drive, the tech that was with me admitted there was a vibration there. While the car was in their shop (for 3 months!) I had a call from them and was told that the passenger side halfshaft needs replacing as it has some play in it. At that time I could see them for the scam artists they were and told them not to touch anything other than the #*%&@ transmission. So, now they told me that the play in the halfshaft could be creating the vibration. I replaced the halfshaft last weekend with a new one, still have same problem (and there was nothing wrong with the old halfshaft). While I was punching the roll pin out, I noticed that there were no way that halfshaft could have been removed during their transmission rebuild. The roll pin was mushroomed on one side and rusted right up. It was obvious that the roll pin had been there for years. Do the halfshafts have to be removed to do a transmission rebuild including replacing the torque converter with a rebuilt one? AWD Auto transmission.

I checked my mileage yesterday as I thought I was getting horribly bad gas mileage (420km/261 miles per tank) and I am getting 20.6 miles/gallon. This is about 85% highway driving on my way to work each day. Gonna have to change my O2 sensor soon to see if it helps. I purchased this vehicle not only for the extra traction it will provide in the winter, but because I thought I would be getting 28-30 mpg. :eek: :eek: EDIT: I just got off the phone with Subaru and they want $242CAN for an O2 sensor!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I currently use Liquid Wrench and I always have a couple of cans of WD40 on hand for door hinges, but only because I get it from work for free. I've been keeping an eye out for PB Blaster, but can't seem to find any in Canada.

It really does sound like a MAF or ECU problem. It's exactly what happened when my MAF started going south. You can pick another ECU up at a wrecker for about $10 too.

My ABS light comes on after a few minutes of driving. I know the ABS works as it has kicked in a few times as I am leaving work and need to stop on the icy road before taking a left out of the parking lot. Once my ABS light comes on, it no longer works. I am changing one of my halfshafts tomorrow, so I was planning on removing the tires one at a time and checking if there were any ABS sensors that may be shorting or just look like there is a physical problem. I'll check the relay as well, thanks for the info.

Color me jealous!

What kind of transmission is putting down that power?

Whoa, never would have suspected a physical problem like that.