eekay Posted May 15, 2009 Share Posted May 15, 2009 It very well may. But, luckily this forum is packed full of people that will certainly be able to give you a serious helping hand if you decide to DIY. Give me a few hours to get to my garage, yank my wheels and such and get my car up in the air. I'll poke around and see what I can find out about that open area... My 9.3 cups EJ22 makes me feel like my **** is 2.8 decimeters! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b707guy Posted May 16, 2009 Author Share Posted May 16, 2009 Thanks! Hope you're not going to all that trouble just to have a look! I just raised the left side with a floor jack and placed a jack stand under the frame hard point behind the left front wheel. I then crawled under from the front and had a clear view of what you see in the pic. Wheel removal wasn't necessary! While I'm confident in my ability to DIY this, my wife doesn't have the patience to wait for it. She'd rather me (operative word there...) shell out the dinero and have it back the next day or so. I feel there are at least two issues here, one being that the engine oil is going somewhere, and the red fluid, which could be one of a few things, is another, and while things are apart, I'd just assume go with upgraded head and valve cover gaskets. If it was just me, I'd be all over it, but since the wife and kid will be driving it while I'm somewhere else in the world, I'll take the conservative approach and have our mechanic have a go at it. He's had three Subies over the years, and his current '96 has nearly 200k on it, so I trust him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eekay Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 Seems fair to me... And sorry it took so long to get back about it, but yes... The flywheel is viewable from that angle above the oil pan. Mine is also wide open. So, that's normal. Funny how I never noticed that. *shrug* My 9.3 cups EJ22 makes me feel like my **** is 2.8 decimeters! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b707guy Posted May 18, 2009 Author Share Posted May 18, 2009 Thanks for the back-up, good to know it's normal. Still seems a bit strange, though, but I guess if it's worked all these years in all these cars, so be it! Car gets a professional look-see tomorrow, I'll post more when I get the diagnosis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b707guy Posted May 24, 2009 Author Share Posted May 24, 2009 Well, the source of the mess under there, and the smell (despite my feelings otherwise...) which started this thread, was engine oil getting out through the front crank seal, a $7 part. Of course, while digging into it, our mechanic found a few other things that needed attention: the radiator had been punctured by a fastener that was too long, apparently as a result of the repair work done years ago after a minor collision. When the fastener was removed, the new leak that "sprung up" was not repairable. So new cooling system components. Also, the timing belt and tensioner were in need of replacement, not surprising given the age. The red fluid was transmission fluid from a few leaky connections. The head and valve cover gaskets were actually in good shape, so I didn't want to mess with them at the moment. So for now, it's nice and clean underneath! Thanks again to everyone who posted thoughts, theories, etc! These repairs should last a good long time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eekay Posted May 26, 2009 Share Posted May 26, 2009 Excellent! Glad to know you found the source and it wasn't super terrible. My 9.3 cups EJ22 makes me feel like my **** is 2.8 decimeters! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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