89Ru

Concur about false negatives on exhaust gas testers for radiator bubbles. Fluid didn't change color. I had the same problems sucking up coolant into the tester. Had to use a turkey baster with a hose to draw down radiator fluid. Gives a false sense of reassurance. The only positive I got was on tailpipe gases...yep, its exhaust all right.

Well the old dewalt DW292 electric impact got the axle nuts off in less than 5 seconds. Not rusted though. Pulled the axle out. Tried to manipulate the joint to get it back into shape but it wasn't happening. Took the inner boot off and looks like the tripod style triple-toroid bearing assembly doesn't automatically slip back into the grooves in the cup unless the toroids are at the outer extremes of the center ball. Just like GD said, there is no keeper mechanism to prevent the bearing assembly from falling out of the cup. Once it falls out, its probably not going back in unless you can fiddle the three donut shaped bearings back into the cup slots. Looks like OEM axle has a stamp in small type on the inner cup, "NTN" grey coated metal. Engine bolted up ok to trans a lot easier after the axles were taken out. Lost a bunch of gear oil. No axle stubs to keep it in like in the 90's. Well I wanted to change the gear oil anyway...

Good to know nothing damaged except for boot. I have a corded dewalt electric impact, can handle lug nuts and then some. Maybe time to upgrade to the HF earthquake wrench. Old style OEM had green painted inner cover. How can you tell OEM for later models? I'd rather have it rebuilt then go aftermarket.

Driver side inner boot torn. Has to come out. How to loosen the axle nut with no engine? I usually use brake power to hold the wheel.

2007 Outback Wagon 2.5 with 5MT. Engine going back in after head gasket job. What I am having problems with is both front CV axles are somehow locking, they don't rotate freely. Passenger side inner joint is all stretched out. Driver side inner joint was at an awkward angle. The inner joints don't have freedom to flex 360 like they should. All wheels off the ground. In neutral. Parking brake off. I tried to stretch the inner joint on an old axle all which ways to force it to fail but couldn't. These are the new axles with the pin-less inner joints. FSM says to lever them off the transmission. PS axle is aftermarket for sure, maybe also DS. Car is new to me this summer. Do these axles need replacing or can I just take them out and coax them back into shape? Some background: Before the engine removal I disconnected the transmission mount crossmember and supported the front of the trans with a jack, figuring the extra degrees of freedom of movement with the unbolted supports would help lining things up going back in. Both front axles left in place. I left the exhaust hanging by the transmission bracket so now picture the front two cats mated to the passenger side straight pipe all loading the transmission toward that side. During the engine reinstall I tried various pitch and roll changes of the engine and trans to get the bellhousings to line up. Somehow the trans got into an awkward roll to passenger side weirdness and wouldn't budge. Pulled the engine back out. The driver side axle's inner boot was bent at an ugly angle and stuck, LF wheel would not turn more than 45 degrees. I finally unbolted the center trans exhaust bracket and then was able to lift up the bellhousing and rock the DS axle into a normal position and free it to spin. PS inner joint is still all stretched with the boot sucked in. Sometimes the RF wheel won't turn. Engine is just minding its own business on the crane. I'm doing all this manipulation standing in the engine bay.

2007 Legacy Outback FSM, SOHC section https://sl-i.net/FORUM/showthread.php?18087-Subaru-Factory-Service-Manuals-(FSM)-Every-Model-USDM-EU

Switch to engine assembly lube for head bolts, use no oil. Grind slots in an old head bolt, fill with assembly lube and chase the threads. Run all the bolts down the threads after chasing. Replace rusted bolts. Lube the top of the washer and the mating surface of the bolt head. Leave engine side of washer dry.

Ground slots into a head bolt and chased all bolt threads with assembly lube. Lubed bolts well and ran them in and out several times w/o heads on. Oiled cylinder walls. Might have slopped some oil on the fire ring for the driver side. After remachining heads I reinstalled with new dealer 770 gaskets. Used no sealant. Torqued heads following procedure without skipping steps. Zero stick slip on the threads this time. Assembly lube did the trick. Have 15 psi into dry cooling system, test setup as in previous post picture. Went out with the family for Halloween. Came back and its losing pressure, just over 2 psi in 7 hours which is better than last time around with the sanded heads, about 2 psi in 2 hours I think. I soap bubbled all the joints last time around and nothing leaked except coolant at the gaskets. Kind of wondering if this will seal up after it gets up to temp. Short of picking a gasket sealant (horrors) I am out of ideas.

Got heads back from new machinist. He used a diamond cutter. Pressure test setup

Frozen caliper is easy to diagnose. One rotor will be hot, sometimes smoking. Use an infrared thermometer to check rotor temp. I have this problem also, off and on for a while, on a 2002 H6 3.0 outback sedan, 320k miles. At 60 mph, the steering wheel shakes, enough that I don't want my wife driving the car. Drives fine other than the shaking. Mine is a bit different than what you describe. It appears when letting off the gas, worse on hilly roads just at the transition from flat to downhill. Over time, I have tried changing CV axles, front struts and bearings, inner and outer tie rod ends, ball joints, new power steering pump, new tires all around. These all have helped make the problem less or go away but it comes back, not as severe but I don't think I have addressed the central issue yet. As it seems to be related to the position of the car on the road and whether power is applied or not, I have suspected a suspension/mounting related problem. I would lean toward the lower control arm as heartless describes.

Found a new shop that claims to machine to mirror finish with carbide cutters on a PCM mill machine. Will drop off heads tomorrow morning. I asked about measuring surface roughness and didn't get a clear answer. I'll ask to check if the surface is square with a height gauge. Two other shops in the area gave this guy a recommendation so going with the majority. Crossing my fingers that these can be reworked. New gaskets arrive tomorrow.

Can't figure out how to get pics over 2mb to show up yet. Do these look too rough for MLS gaskets to seal? I'm going to take the heads to different machine shop on my next day off and see what they can do. http://i444.photobucket.com/albums/qq166/89ru/IMG_20181020_204143202_zpsjrpy4hnq.jpg http://i444.photobucket.com/albums/qq166/89ru/IMG_20181020_204052240_zpsywe7ojti.jpg http://i444.photobucket.com/albums/qq166/89ru/IMG_20181020_204010939_zps7rscg61f.jpg http://i444.photobucket.com/albums/qq166/89ru/IMG_20181020_203945342_zpsdu8ry94o.jpg http://i444.photobucket.com/albums/qq166/89ru/IMG_20181020_203934441_zpstrjeafnh.jpg http://i444.photobucket.com/albums/qq166/89ru/IMG_20181020_203915589_zpsnonsqao7.jpg http://i444.photobucket.com/albums/qq166/89ru/IMG_20181020_203858052_zpsltupd2ln.jpg

Thanks for the specific details. I definitely had some head bolt creaking with engine oil. I've got some Sta-lube from O'Reilly's. I wish my machinist was willing to invest in some new tools. He wouldn't buy a helicoil kit last time I needed stripped threads fixed.

Perhaps this is one of several errors. I skipped steps 3,4 and 5 below. Was following some advice that stated these steps were for new bolts only. I started on step 6 with existing bolts. One other question. How many passes do you make? I found that the early steps take 2-3 repeat passes in alphabetical order to get all bolts to the specified final torque for each step.

Ido: I did the pressure test to avoid having to install in vehicle and pull out again if it leaked. Have no idea if putting fire in the hole would get it to seal up. My guess is someone else worked on this since I don't think it has OEM gaskets. I'm assuming that MLS with copper sealant spray isn't OEM for the EJ253. GD: The tool for surface roughness is a bit pricey for me lol. Everything is apart. Felpro gaskets aren't deformed or scratched that I can tell. I'm using new torque wrenches from precision instruments. Marked the bolts so I wouldn't overtorque when doing the angles. A bit of stick slip when torquing down. I rinsed the bolt holes with engine oil and cleaned the bolts with brake cleaner and dipped the threads and washers in engine oil before installing. Will get 770 gasket and bolt back together dry. I don't have an old head bolt to make into a thread chaser but I can buy a new bolt and make one. Just use a grinder to machine 3-4 slots parallel to long axis of bolt, fill with grease? This is my first time doing head gaskets so any tips are greatly appreciated.

2007 Outback 2.5i EJ253 with AVLS. 100k miles. Basic problem: Can't get heads to seal with 15 psi into cooling system. Dropped 1/2-1 psi shop air in one hour. Filled with coolant. Dripping coolant on driver side in multiple places. Next step is to use some kind of sealant on the gasket. What I'm asking is which sealant. Details below. History: Bubbles in overflow tank and gurgling noises in cabin. Never overheated under my watch but I just bought this car, have only 1500 miles on it. Did radiator exhaust gas test twice, once before sale and once after for two minutes, both clear. Drives great btw. Hot heat in cabin. Radiator level drops and would not draw coolant from overflow tank on cooldown. Coolant temp fluctuates as expected with significant air in system, between 180 and 210. Blue exhaust gas tester solution stayed blue until exposed to tailpipe fumes, then turned yellow. Tried new radiator, new water pump and hoses, bled air I don't know how many times. Finally got fed up and pulled engine out, pulled heads off, valve rockers, and cam cover and sent to local machinist. Existing gaskets: unknown vendor MLS (multi level steel) with copper spray. Machinist said warp at .002" and .004" and machined them down. New gaskets: I used Fel-Pro solution: PermaTorque MLS with LaserWeld, gasket #26415PT with the blue coating. Reused head bolts. Rinsed bolt holes with oil x2. Skipped the bolt stretching steps and just did the torque to 7.4, 22, and 44 ft-lb. Then 80-90 degrees, 45 degrees, and lastly 45 degrees on center bolts. Cam covers resealed with permatex ultra grey. Reinstalled rockers and let sit for 24h. Left timing belt off and cams loose. Did leak test as mentioned with air into throttle body coolant hoses. Tied heater pipes together with heater hose. Tied water pump intake to coolant crossover pipe with scrap hoses. Won't hold 15 psi shop air with sealed cooling system. Filled with coolant and slow drip off DS head with 15 psi. Unbolted. Rechecked flatness of heads and short block in eight locations with t square and .002 feelers, pretty much unchanged from before installing. Took heads back to machinist and he just laughed saying no one in this state can measure Ra smoothness, he has been doing this for 40 years and does them all the same. I showed him the Felpro handout stating machine to 60 Ra (600 Rz). He suggested a can of copper spray. He did say he has some other type of cutters but they come out "the same." So where to go from here? Do I need a new machinist? I've seen some use permatex aviation gasket sealer. Subie dealer says use composite gasket p/n 11044AA633. Since this car already had MLS gaskets with copper spray I'm thinking of abandoning Felpro and going with Subaru OEM gasket. In that case, which one? Sealant or not? I have a bunch of pictures to upload when I get a minute.

On Ebay, ask the seller of the Mizumo kits bundled with the Aisin water pump to be sure of the Mitsuboshi timing belt. Some kits with the Aisin pump have the ITM ENGINE COMPONENTS timing belt.

Was reading the repair mistakes and blunders section of RockAuto news and saw that USMB made the forum of the month. http://www.rockauto.com/Newsletter/index.html

Bearing for the idler pulley is 6203. Parts tech may find it under alternator bearing for some chevy truck (TIMKEN 203FF is one option).

Did the transmission handshake and TCU reports no trouble code (2 Hz flashing on the AT oil temp dash indicator) Forgot to mention I am getting P0851 now. Looks like I need to adjust the position of the inhibitor switch, it has play in the screw slots for that and an alignment hole with a special tool...that could have been the problem in the first place. The PO had the transmission rebuilt and not all the dash gear position indicators light up so maybe it has been needing adjustment all this time. My first auto trans this century and it looks like I'm getting schooled by it.

I was hopeful, but I still have to override the shifter lock. It could be two problems occurring simultaneously, or they could be connected somehow.

Put a new inhibitor switch in and the backup lights are working again. Its starts too

Did some searches on the buzzing...seems like its a transmission duty solenoid and buzzing is normal. The shift lock solenoid has either gone intermittent or something is disabling it. Sometimes I press on the brake and I hear it release, other times it does not release and I have to go to manual release.

2002 H6 3.0 auto won't crank. For the last month when the car gets warm it would not start (just silence). Always started after sitting overnight. Now with the weather getting warm, after sitting for a day and a half its just silence apart from fuel pump and starter relay click, dash lights good. Tried a jump and still nothing. Narrowed it down to the inhibitor switch (in a MT this is called the neutral safety switch). Sits on the passenger side of the transmission and provides a short in P and N gear selections to allow the starter to crank. You can fool it into starting by shorting two pins together with a small paper clip. Connector is on top of the transmission just ahead of the firewall. T3/B12 pins 11-12. Looks like a new inhibitor switch is needed. Rear backup light also does not work and the dash gear shift position indicator lights are wonky. Problem is now my gear shift is locked I think because of my tinkering. I can unlock it by sticking a paper clip in the little hole to the right of the shifter...but what else is going on? I started the car with T3/B12 disconnected (despite a sudden electrical buzzing sound from underneath the car with the key in run position). Does the TCU get upset with B12 unmated and lock the shifter? How do I clear this? Reset the TCU/ECU or will it clear itself once the inhibitor switch is replaced and the car can start normally... code 852 is the neutral switch input circuit high