carfreak85

@GeneralDisorder What do you recommend for EAs? I think ideally, one should run an oil with high ZDDP additives, or an oil designed for flat tappet engines. The viscosity is more about temperature, but the additive package is important to consider as modern engines generally have a lot less friction than a 40-year-old design.

Pretty sure the EA82 and the XT DO NOT share the same gasket.

Shop around. Some dealerships use "matrix pricing" which equates to $$$. I buy from out of state and have parts shipped to me, and it's still cheaper than going to any of my local dealerships.

This little guy failed on my parent's 2014 Forester. It's buried under the cowl panel, from what I remember, and you have to buy an assembly to get the OEM part, IIRC. Seems like a common issue.

3-door or 4-door version?

As I recall it was an issue on SVX and first-gen Forester rear wheel bearings.

This is in Wisconsin!

Swapped in a control knuckle from the JY with stock bearings. Wobble eliminated... I tried to look up orientation instructions for the 7027 bearings, but was only finding dimensional specs, so gave up, leaving two LF knuckles with 7207s installed sitting on my bench. Front axle CVs are both notchy (OEM axle is much worse, surprisingly), so out come the NOS EA82T front axles along with inner DOJs supplied by @Nico. More to come when it's back on the ground. Got sidetracked grafting a new bellows onto the inner shift boot.

If you have all the parts to install the shield, do that. If you feel like spending the money on a blanket, it will help, but can also absorb oil and cause a fire IF a leak starts. I run both a blanket and the OEM shield on my RX-RA.

I've been sitting on these bearings for a while and finally got around to installing them. The passenger's side went back together without issue but the driver's side doesn't seem to be torqueing/pre-loading properly and the entire CV/hub/wheel assembly can rock in the bearings, even when torqued to spec. I tried over-torqueing the axle nut, with no effect. I installed a different knuckle with different 7207s (same hub) installed with a press instead of drifting them in, and it feels like it might even be a little more loose. Spring washer is new, cone washer might be as well, but I don't recall. Axle is not original, but is an older, quality replacement, not the new, failure-prone crap. What am I doing wrong or not recognizing?

I've had luck reaching out to U.S.-based coilover manufacturers providing dimensions after I've told them what I'm trying to accomplish.

OK, ohm'd the plug wires, and the Densos (that were a few years old, but by no means ancient) were coming out at 7-9 kohms, while the new NGKs I installed were in the 3.5 kohm range. The throttle related hesitation has all but disappeared during normal driving. Spark plugs have not been change yet (NGK iridium 11s), but the spark plugs were dry of oil or water. There is still a slight sag in power after the 1-2 shift on cold mornings, which was the original symptom, so I guess we're back to square one.

No TGVs on this engine or fun camshaft toys like some of the later EJ253s. Never engine swapped either. I will look into that today.

Fuel pump is original to the chassis during our ownership (200k miles +/-). ODO shows 257k, but ODO was replaced under warranty prior to our ownership. We hooked up an SSM2 and were able to trace the TPS plot. Shows 0, shows 100, no wacky movement otherwise. Ran the FSM diagnostic procedure and it passed as well. MAF has been cleaned a couple times, haven't banged on it yet though. @GeneralDisorder has mentioned dropped valve guides not being an issue on '99 EJ253s, but I could be misremembering that...

Hooked up the SSM2 and monitored the Misfire channel during the stumble. Nothing registered while it was happening. Stumbles pretty badly at times at low throttle/low load pulling away from stops. Car will accelerate through the stumble with WOT, but you can still feel periodic hesitation in the acceleration, but not the 'bring-you-to-a-crawl' low-speed stumble. Coil checks out, IAC checks out.