richierich

If you pull of the exhaust without disconnecting the wire, it will pull out of the socket. If you resert it in there is a possiblity that he got the wires in the wrong spot, or one of them is not push in correctly.

I edited your headerline so it made sense. RS are Single Point Fuel Injection (SPI) non-turbos, and are only Pushbutton 4WD. Basically all show and no go.

I do not believe they are updated. I have seen no signs of change in part #. Usually I see it about 80-100k miles, or 5 years old. After we replace the spark plug grommet, etc I have seen no comebacks, but they don't have more than 40k miles on any of the ones we have done, so I guess time will tell. The grommets just seem to get hard and brittle. Dusza Beben, you just seem to be masking the problem. You have an external oil leak, even if you can not see it unless you pull off the plug wires. Someday it might get bad enough to fill up the spark plug well with oil. I recommend you fix the cause of the problem, not just the symptoms. Though the grease on the spark plug wires are not a bad idea against future problems.

The spark plug wires go through the valve cover. There are spark plug grommets that are suppose to keep the oil off of the plug wires and the plugs. The grommets get hard and they start to seep oil onto the wires. The Valve covers need to come off and replace the spark plug grommets, and should replace the valve cover gaskets as well as the valve cover grommets, and new spark plug wire (cheap from the dealership than aftermarket, btw) and spark plugs if it is time.

Had one customer tell us that he talked with a tech at the Subaru Factory and they said that faulty grounding was part of the reason why headgaskets failed in the 2.5 DOHC. Something about the electrical pulse and negative effects on material the headgaskets were made of. We just kind of nodded, and said we would not disturb any of his extra grounds. Anyways, you got to figure that the original grounds are getting older and not working as well as the use to. At lot of electricial problems, (no start, alternator failure, etc) can be traced back to bad grounds. So my opinion is go for it. I need to reground my BRAT motor, as I see corrsion on both of the current grounds.

I was joking about the cat, but do use Lysol everywhere. I have tried carpet cleaners like resolve, and I am not inpressed with ground in stains like coffee or dirt. You have to get the dirt loose to get it out and carpet cleaners in my opinion only try and get it off the rug fiber and not the ground in stuff.

While you at it, throw the chain wrench away and don't use it to tightened the pulley back up, or the cam pulleys. Just get them as tight as you can and that will be good enough. Forget what you have read on the board about wobbly front crank pulleys and needing to replace parts and motors because of it. Don't heed mechanics advise and tighten the cam pulleys correctly, it will only do internal damage to the valves. No big deal. The Haynes manual tell of one sensible way to do it. If you find it damaging the crank pulley you need to use an old rubber belt as a buffer. It doesn't lie, it just doesn't want to get sued when someone puts the breaker bar on the wrong side and it goes 180 and smacks the other guy standing there in the face or someone forgets to unplug the coil pack and does some damage to the motor.

My wife and I have one, matter of fact it is our most used credit card. We use it for going out to dinner and larger purchases over $100 Our other card is a MBNA but it doesn't have good reward (cheap stereos, dinners, etc) so we don't use it. My company car is cash back, but only $300 per year, so I am looking for something better. Any incentive based card is only worth having if you pay it off every month. Example most cash back, flyer miles, etc are about 9.99%, and you get 1-3% back. Whereas a regular card is 6.99%. So to get a 1-3% back, you end up paying 3 more percent yearly. That and that a lot of the incentives never get cashed in make it a fair deal for the credit card companies. I am thinking about getting a frequent flyer card and using it for all my purchases, if anyone has one they like let me know.

Should have done a search on this before you started on this project. Many people have figured out you can use the breaker bar and turn the engine over to get the nut off, but haven't figured out how to properly tighten the nut back on. Sounds like you have damaged the front crank pulley, the woodrift key and probably the crank. The only proper way to fix it is to take the crank pulley off and inspect the crank and the woodrift key. Driving the vehicle with a damaged crank pulley will only cause more damage to the crank. When you have the car fixed right, you will want to get a chain wrench and put it around the pulley while you tighten the nut down to specs. Good Luck.

We do a transmission flush and then add a limited slip additive. Mostly happens in vehicles that have not had the tranmission fluid changed regularly. I would change the fluid again in 10-15k mile depending on discoloration and smell and then add more conditioner at that time. Has been working well for our shop. Richie

Lysol Basin, Tube and Tile Cleaner, in the aerosol can. That stuff is the bomb. I use it on everything, even the CAT!!! For small stains I use a rag and put a little brake clean on the rag and then dab the stop until it comes out. Or a professional steam cleaning like used for carpets.

Wouldn't have missed it for the World. I think that was the BEST cross country turn out since WCSS3, except for Tim & Vicky not being able to make it. Thank you Ken & Zap for the months of preparation putting it together, and Corky for spending his time in a booth registering everyone. Lisa and I had a blast Ow, and sorry for being the stupid drunk guy. (j/k) I also thought it was uncool for someone who was invited to be a vendor to handle himself so inapporately.

We can have a part out party at the shop, I'll supervise, . Just got to find a Sunday that Mike doesn't work.

Not about the looks, it is that the third row seating sucks. I have had many customer have to leave the Subaru family cuz they needed larger vehicle. That third row is a joke.

You should call a dealership and ask how many hours it takes to do the job. I believe Subaru book time is 3.0 hours, extra .5 for waterpump. If you took the distributor out, extra 1.0, crank seal is .5 hours, cam seals 1.0. They may use another book like Alldata to figure out times which can be different. Currently we have a timing belt special of $199.00 (parts & labor). I agree that a job is harder if you do not take it apart yourself. If you came in and already took it apart I would charge you the 3 hours @ $180, because we would spend a lot of time look for bolts, etc. Most shops have to give you a written estimate if you come in and drop off the vehicle. I always put a price in, or if we do not know what the problem is we put in the diagnosis time, and put "call and advise" and then call the customer before we start the work. Regular customer usually just put a cap on what we can do (say $200) before we have to call and get more approval. Might want to look into your state laws about written estimates and your rights as a consumer. But most likely you have to chalk it up to experience. As Ed said you might have wanted to get some tensioners or the cogged bearing replaced as it might be causing premature T-belt failure. And any oil or antifreeze getting on the belt will reduce the life, so get crank, cam and oil pump leaks fixed.

You vehicle has a flat motor like a volkswagen, it is common for flat motors to use a little oil. My ea81 BRAT uses about a quarter every 1000 miles, very good for the age/ mileage (149k). But you question is why hasn't it burned oil before 135k miles? When oil gets old and dirty the oil it starts to break down, as the vehicle gets older build up of slugg in the engine will make the oil dirtier faster. If you are really worried about this, which I do not think you should be, then you should do an oil log. Change the oil and filter. And then check the oil every 500 miles, write down how much it has used, Add oil at 1/2 liter incriments. Always check the oil cold as that is when most of the oil is in the pan, so it is most accurate. What I think you will find is that up to 2000 miles you vehicle will hardly use a drop and then as the oil gets old and dirty it will start using more oil. You may want to consider a throttle body cleaning or add some cleaner that cleans the injectors and throttle body. My wife's 2000 Legacy GT has 64k on it, and never used any oil even when I was over due by 1000 miles. But we took a trip to Boise ID, and we got back and I down a quart even though it had only been 2000 miles since the last oil change. And basically it is because we ran the car for a long time and the oil gets hot and it is easier for it to burn. That is why it is always advisible to get you oil change before and after a cross country trip. Hope this post made sense and answered some questions. Richie

I want a pony and a ........ If you can find that carpet, and maybe a window regulator. Ow and if you decided to get rid of the maroon tailgate you can bring that and I can have a look at it. Richie

Lisa and I will be there on Saturday. Richierich Edit: We will be there on Friday, sometime, don't know why I wrote Saturday, must have been in a hurry. :-\

I didn't know you still had the Turbo Legacy. Sad thing is that is only half of them, he needs a panoramic lense to get them all. Love the color of the RS, very jealous. Richie

So have you decided on a time for meeting in Vancouver? And what time we are heading out? Are you guys going to be taking 1-205 or 1-5 through Vancouver? There is a rest stop about 5 miles N of where 1-5 and 205 come back together.

An oldie, but looks like a goodie. Thought you guys might like it over here.

We got one , its black,too. But not in Wanatchee. I would say they are pretty hard to find. Only come up for sale once in a blue moon.

Get one, sell one plan... What kind of plan is that? Hope my wife doesn't hear about that plan.

Overheating because of headgasket failure usually takes a while, before the car can overheat, it has to push the antifreeze out of the engine and into the radiator and then out of the radiator and then into the overflow bottle. So is there antifreeze coming out of the overflow bottle or spewing out of the radiator? Really is sounds like a stuck thermostat or a air bubble in the system. Replace the thermostat, take the upper radiator hose off of the radiator and fill the motor block through the upper radiator hose, after that stick the hose back on and then fill the radiator. You then need to test drive the car around the block and if that is ok, take it for a freeway drive, come back and look for air bubbles in the overflow bottle. Check the fans but they take a while before they will let an engine overheat.