edrach

Temp sensor is a common failure item on the early EJ22s. Turns out there are two of them; one reports to the temp guage and that's okay. The other reports to the ECU and apparently sets the fuel mixture. Code 35 if I remember correctly. It is under the Idle Air Control assembly and has a brown connector with two wires coming out of it. Having replaced two of them in the last year I can tell you it is a pain to unplug and remove/replace. But it's do-able; just needs patience and perserverance and less than 30 minutes. Oddly enough, when I replaced mine the other 4 codes it was throwing went away also. You might try Legacy777 on the Legacy Central board (and our USMB); he's the resident expert on early EJ's.

Only time that happens is when the splines are rusted; or someone is thinking about EA81/82 axles. EJ axles come right out.

Early XTs had 55A alternators I believe. With the advent of the EA82 engine stock output went to 60A. 60A should be more than sufficient for your car.

If you add a cooler for the transmission, install a temp guage for it also. If you're concerned about the tranny you might as well have an indication that you got your money's worth.

145 ft-lbs; same as the older cars. More works ok also.

Hydraulic engine valve covers have 5 sides; solid lifter valve covers have 4 (rectangular). Call Jason in parts at what used to be Auburn Subaru for the gasket set; toll free # is 1-866-528-5282. (

You can post anytime you want Pat; I did not take any offense from your comments....just trying to clarify my rationale. Try and get some sleep Pat:) .

Sorry, Pat, but I have had similar electrical gremlins in the past and found the solution to be a faulty connector from the ignition switch to the main power; I've replaced no fewer than three of those assemblies as well as wired around the culprit connection on a fourth. It comes from having three brats and 5 mid '80's wagons come through my family and stewardship. I won't say that the connector IS the problem, but I've seen it so often that I'd bet a beer on it....also, it's a 5 minute check to see if that's it and a 5 minute replacement if it is. I'm basically lazy and look for the easiest and simplest solutions first before I get into the complex time consuming stuff. The liklihood of having 5 different causes for 5 different electrical gremlims is pretty remote unless we're dealing with a grounding issue.

The solution is here in your statement. Get a replacement ignition switch and harness. I'm willing to bet if you check the connector from the ignition switch you'll find a brown spot on the plastic connector indicating a poor connection to power (bad connection gets hot and plastic turns brown). I've seen this on a number of the older '80's cars. In most cases, replacing the harness has fixed it; in one stubborn case, I butt-spliced #10 wire around the connector on the main power wire. If the part is too expensive, check the local Pull a Part yards for a "good" switch/harness assembly (good means no brown spot).

I'll defer to Dr. RX on this method; he's done more of these than I have.

I get around 23/24 around town and 27/28 highway with my '94 Impreza with the EJ18 engine and 5 speed manual. Much better than my '91 Legacy which gets 20/21 and 24/25 also with the 5 speed manual. I'm convinced the automatic costs you at least 15% in decreased gas mileage. Both cars are AWD. FWD cars should get more.

Odd, it worked for me this time, first time. Cool pix; did the rain happen in the middle of the event or have you got a madman running a water truck? Looks like a great venue. I'd love to get up there, visit friends, and rallycross. I'm looking at the September date and hoping a local event doesn't fall on the same weekend. Thanks for posting the pix.

Nothing else is needed to do to the pivot unless it's badly worn. When re-assembling, do not tighten the bolt while the suspension is off the ground. Replace the nut and bolt and leave it loose. Drop the car off the jackstands and with the weight of the car on the suspension, tighten the pivot bolt.

I personally like to remove the bolt from the A-arm and separate it from the engine crossmember. I've never needed to remove the swaybar mount or loosen the strut assembly. A steady tug on the wheel hub is usually enough to slide the DOJ off the stub axle once the roll pin is knocked out.

Look closely at the axle where the roll pin is; one side of the hole is bevelled slightly and the other is not. Punch the pin out from the unbevelled side; and punch it back in from the bevelled side. Go to Sears and get a Craftsman #42885 WF punch; it's just the right size. Make sure the axle nut is loosened before you jack up the wheel. Also, you don't need hammer to knock out the axle from the wheel hub since the EJ models are splined and slide out easily compared to the older EA models. When re-installing the new axle, remember that the DOJ can go in two ways, 180 degrees out; one way is correct the other will leave you 1/2 tooth off and you'll not be able to get the roll pin back into the hole. Look closely at the inside of the bevelled hole to check whether there's a spline tooth or notch centered over the hole and match it with the stub axle on the transmission and you should be okay. Or, install the DOJ and check if the holes line up; if not, remove and rotate 1/2 turn and re-install. Good luck with this. Hint: if you have a pull a part type wrecking yard, find a Legacy or Impreza and "practice" removing an axle. I like to make all my mistakes on a wreck and not on my own car; I've learned more at PAP than in my own garage about working on my cars. Oh, DOJ is the inner joint of the axle as opposed to the CVJ which is the outer joint. Sorry, if you already know this, I'm just trying to cover all bases.

Sorry link doesn't work for me.

One other thing, if the previous owner did some "creative" wiring in that area of the radiator, he might have reversed the wires to the fan in which case it will run backwards and force hot engine air forward and retard cooling air flow when driving. Odd symptoms, car would run fine when fan was off; as soon as it warmed up the fan would start and then the car would overheat when moving and cool down when stopped. I've only seen one case of this, but it's easy to mis-wire the fan. Reversing the wires on the thermo switch will not cause this; the switch doesn't care which way the electrons flow.

If you have the two pin thermo switch on the rad, you don't need the ground wire on the radiator since one side of the switch is power and the other goes to ground. Switch closed, fan should run; open switch fan should be off.

What's the battery voltage with the car off and with the engine running? It should be around 12V DC with the car off and over 13.6 or more with the engine running at around 1500 rpm. That's one problem that might need to be resolved. Fan likely has a bad thermal switch, connector, or bad ground on the radiator as well as a possible bad fan motor. Thermal switch mounted on the side of the radiator grounds the fan motor and power should be present at the connector. Thermal switch can't complete the path to ground if the ground wire for the radiator is missing (small wire to the top valance from the top of the radiator). Poor fan operation would only cause overheating if sitting at idle. There should be enough airflow through the radiator at cruising speed to keep the car from overheating. Depending on the age of the car (or the miles since the water pump was installed) will determine whether the water pump is at fault. Try to get a copy of How to Keep Your Subaru Alive, 2nd edition. It will cover basic repairs for your '87 and help you along.

For those of you who were there, another super fun event. Fine weather, no water truck, lots of dust, a great course with the top cars taking just over two minutes to complete a run. And an added bonus, pretty much on time; we got four runs in the morning and afternoon and were out of there by about 5 pm. I got to try out my new camera and it works pretty good (suitable for an amateur like me). Pics can be found in my album at http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/photos...ry.php?cat=889

No worries. I was just happy to get a chance to see what works with my new camera and what doesn't. So far I'm pretty happy with it.

For those of you who were there, another super fun event. Fine weather, no water truck, lots of dust, a great course with the top cars taking just over two minutes to complete. And an added bonus, pretty much on time; we got four runs in the morning and afternoon and were out of there by about 5 pm. I got to try out my new camera and it works pretty good (suitable for an amateur like me). Pics can be found in my album at http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/photos/showgallery.php?cat=889

Arrgh, I think this is the same weekend as a (for me) local event. I'll have to check the local schedule for this. Thanks for the update.

Funny, I've experienced the same thing on the EJ18 I have on my rallycross car. So far it hasn't let go in the last 4000 miles since doing the timing belt but it does worry me a bit. I think the proper fix may be to install a helicoil and then re-tighten.

My '91 Legacy wagon (EJ22) has been my daily driver for over 5 years now. I've recently added a '94 Impreza sedan(EJ18) as my "play" car for rallycross. I've pretty well matched the gas mileage numbers mentioned in a previous post, but that might be primarily due to a difference in overall car weights as well as the smaller engine size. The EJ18 certainly has more power than my old EA82 powered '86 wagon but that was a carb'd engine so maybe not a fair comparison. Driveability of my two cars is quite similar since the Impreza has more get-up-and-go than I expected. The only difference I note is that the low end torque of the EJ22 is better since I'm able to leave the car in 5th on long steep hills with the EJ22 when I have to shift down to 4th with the EJ18. Either car is just fine as far as I'm concerned as long as you have a manual transmission; I'm personally biased against automatics. The only suggestion I have is to stick to the '96 and earlier EJ22 engine since the '97 and newer EJ22 is an interference engine.