jonathan909

Not at all (conclusively diagnosed, that is). I'm just doing the anticipatory legwork based on your initial answer. I'm under there now, unbolting crap (tank covers, exhaust, propeller shaft), getting ready to unhook the tank, and hoping that the manual is wrong in telling me I have to drop the entire rear suspension, because it sorta looks like if the front of the tank tilts down enough to clear the floor pan the front of the diff might not actually be in the way. A girl can dream... We have a few self-serve yards, but honestly, the weather here has been so damn miserable. Normally there's one late spring honker of a snowstorm - a foot of the heaviest and wettest that takes down trees and power lines and that's the end of it - but this year there's some kind of torture underway. Hovering around 0C, light snow on and off every day, cold wind, winter just saying screw you I'm not leaving. Not the most desirable time to be crawling around in the boneyard.

BZZZT! Sorry, that's not the right answer! But Vanna has some lovely parting gifts for you. They don't have the KYB springs, whether with or without the strut. Struts and mounts only. That's why I was looking for some feedback on the springs they do have. Please trust that I'm not trying to bring all this wrong-side-of-the-border tedium to your lives. I just want some parts...

They list the KYBs - cheaper than Rock, actually - but not with springs. And... wait for it... Do You Ship Internationally? We do not ship outside the United States. We only ship to the Continental 48 states. On some products shipped by air freight we can ship to Alaska and Hawaii. We do not ship to Canada, Guam, Puerto Rico, or to any international destination. We also do not ship to freight forwarding companies or hotels.

Rock has KYB for the struts (and mounts if needed), so I'm fine there. It's the springs that are the hard(er) part. Honestly, I doubt many of you fully grasp the misery of getting stuff over the border these days. Either shipping is exhorbitant or sellers won't ship here at all. For those cases I have a friend with a Montana mailbox (he lives just a few minutes north of the border). But even though he got a commercial carrier permit so he could fetch stuff from it, the feds changed the rules, forced him into quarantine (despite having come into contact with nobody during the hour he was in the US), and threatened lose-your-house sized fines. So now we've got six or eight months worth of stuff piled up there that we can't get. Which is why - as much as their super-low prices - I like buying from Rock. They ship here via fedex without breaking the bank.

At least I can get that stuff here - I wanted to get a couple of cans of their MP HD (on your recommendation) and found it's not sold in Soviet Canuckistan. Had to smuggle 'em in from Montana two summers ago.

FYI, dealer just quoted $85 USD for each spring and $135 USD for each mount. For comparison, Rock carries API at $32 USD or Moog at $43 (plus $18 shipping) per PAIR of springs, so $20-$25 vs. $85 per spring. We're talking >3x the price to buy OEM locally. I asked previously whether anyone could offer any opinions on the API or Moog, but nobody answered that one. Also, there are two different API parts listed - w/ and w/o "self-leveling suspension". How do I tell whether that applies? They also have the KYB top mounts for $22 ea, so that one's easy if any are needed.

...though this body is by far the worse of the two '01 H6 OBWs. The fender rust is uncharacteristically severe, so I really hope I don't find terrible things when I get up in there to unbolt the struts. A little strange, actually, because the POs were both (only two, I think) local.

Yes, I've done a few - both front and back (and a couple of non-Subaru). Again, one of those things I don't do often enough for it to be "natural" and I usually seem to make one minor mistake or another during reassembly and have to recompress the spring - just dumb not-paying-attention stuff. I don't think I've ever replaced a top perch, and just used Rock cheapies (FCI?) in non-demanding applications. I'll check with the dealer shortly, but to date have found that "not priced outrageously" does not necessarily apply north of the border.

"Meets or exceeds OEM specifications" indeed.

Any thoughts on aftermarket springs (i.e. API, MOOG)? I'll check with the dealer tomorrow, but based on past experience I don't expect any love from those guys.

Feynman's actual van! Not a realistic depiction of working with thermite, though. You don't light that stuff with a match...

True dat.

Okay. Now that I'm thinking about it, the ABS was firing the brakes during these events. That's why I made a mental note of the road having been clean+dry - there didn't seem to be a legit reason for the brakes to be getting busy. [edit] - I didn't answer your other question. Pretty sure the road surface was smooth, as it's new - part of the enormous multi-billion-dollar ring road around Calgary that's been under construction here for more than a decade and still has a few years to go. On the shocks themselves, I seem to recall distant-passed threads strongly recommending KYB. Does that recommendation still hold? (Naturally my quick comparison is to others at Rock for 1/2 or 1/3 the price.) Incidentally, if the springs are cheap from the dealer, it could be another rare case of it being cheaper to buy locally rather than from Rock once the shipping is factored in (springs = big and heavy). For me, about the only other part like this has been brake rotors.

On a note related to the '01 OBW gas tank replacement discussed previously... Dropping the tank is apparently going to require unbolting a lot of stuff, including a driveshaft and the rear suspension, so I think I'll be doing the rear shocks at the same time. They just seem soft, but I also noticed some weird behaviour last summer. I was coming into a cloverleaf-style offramp at highway speed (or a little less) with a light boat+trailer (I'd have to check, but probably no more than 600 lb.) behind me. As I was beginning to turn there was some quick blinky activity on the dash indicating some kind of VDC or skid behaviour. It wasn't a hard corner (after all, the boat's behind me and I'm not looking for trouble) and the road was clean and dry. Would this be the VDC system reacting to soggy shocks?

Honestly, how would I know? I've never bought a new car in my life.

Well, I was - but it's pretty much back together now. This was a matter of necessity, because around here it's a real problem if a car won't move under its own steam. PO had really just started the job - rad, AC condenser, intake manifold, crank pulley out - before realizing what he was getting into. My guess is that he took one look at the timing cover and threw in the towel. I mean, he was trying to do this on his back lawn, not even on a concrete pad. So after I got it home I decided that until it made its way up the queue it should be able to start and run - which would also help me assess the leak, which is pretty bad. I've had a couple of good experiences with the coolant conditioner, but I think this is rather too severe for that, and the car and motor (not its first, as I recall) came with a really long story too complicated to commit to memory. So I'm making no (optimistic) assumptions about my initial state beyond "looks bad". Oh - and as for the timing cover bolts, between here and Texas (where this car apparently also spent time) it's pretty dry, so I don't expect rust to be a big problem.

Understood. I still plan to go ahead with this, but want to stress that I absolutely respect the rationales offered above. But where they are driven by necessary commercial/time considerations, I'm not so constrained; if I have the time available to invest so I can put my limited cash elsewhere (my eye's on a Supercat 20 in Texas at the moment), that's what I'm going to do. But the time/money equation isn't the only thing driving me, either. As the old Stiff Records slogan goes, "Try everything once, except incest and folk dancing". I haven't yet pulled apart an EZ30, I know that I'm going to learn some new stuff, and if that includes, "They were right, this is stupid, I wish I hadn't done it, and it's time to buy a JDM", I can accept that outcome too.

When PO started in on it, he'd only bought one gasket, so it's certain he only planned to do the bad side, which is obvious - it's a serious coolant leak to the great outdoors. I'd figured on doing both Just Because, but given what you gents are saying I may just do the one. On the other hand, the effort overhead, particularly in the timing cover alone, is significant. I'll have to think about it and see how it goes.

Sure, I get it. This is a pure cost-effectiveness argument rather than there being something reliably unrepairable about the EZ30.

What's the problem? Just too much time+effort to do the job, or is there a problem with the results?

What, you mean just replacing it? Sorry, man, I don't spend that kind of money on cars - I need it for boats. I'm sure I mentioned this here a while ago, but if not... Back around the beginning of last year I drove by one of those portable moveable-fluorescent-letters roadside signs, set up to promote a used-car dealer. Sign said "30 CARS UNDER $15,000". Doing the mental math, I drove on thinking, "yeah, that's about right".

Technical Service Manual aka FSM - I use the terms interchangeably (sorry - I'm always jumping between mfgrs). On page ME(H6)-22 it says: E: PROCEDURE S143001E45 It is possible to conduct the following service procedures with engine on the vehicle, however, the procedures described in this section are based on the condition that the engine is removed from the vehicle. Camshaft Cylinder Head I mean, if it's sorta reasonably possible I can dig in, and if it gets too miserable (e.g. tilting the motor as you describe) I can always say "screw it" and yank it.

Not to get all OT, but for something like that a wiki is the right way. I've built one from the ground up (for the boat in my avatar, the TriFoiler). It's some work, but easy and a lot of fun once you get going. Thing is, you really need a subject big enough to justify it, and just having, essentially, a group-editable FAQ (because there are already so many other Subaru fora out there) isn't excuse enough.

I have some minor crap to take care of first, but the next big job is going to be head gaskets in the '01 H6 OBW we picked up cheap last winter because the PO had started pulling it apart and quickly found himself out of his depth. I've been assuming that I'll be pulling the engine because everything looks just that much tighter in there (than the EJ25 OBWs and Foresters which I've done in situ) . But I'm just browsing the TSM now and it says the heads can be done without pulling the motor. Can anyone confirm/deny this and relate helpful experience?

My point is that googling returns essentially the same answer: Hundreds of people commenting who have never actually tried it either - specifically on a Subaru.