edrach

Check the classifieds in your local paper, check craigslist, check autotrader, kelly blue book, NADA, and so forth. Remind them what they owe you is REPLACEMENT value (less deductible unless it's the other guy's fault) not what they are trying to tell you it's worth. Good luck.

That's tough; I wonder if they'd allow it in Truck/Suv class at the RallyX?

I tried clearing the codes by pulling fuse 14. I left the fuse out for more than 6 hours since I was using the Brat for work yesterday. Codes did not clear; they are still there. No CEL today on my 30 minute drive to work.

Welcome, from another ex-virgin. You are not alone.

I had the displeasure of replacing the clutch on my '91 Legacy about 3 months ago....I pulled the tranny. It took Corky and me just over 10 hours. I did rent a transmission jack for that repair. Two weeks ago, I had to replace the engine (don't ask). Pulled the engine, moved the flywheel and new clutch off the old engine and mounted it on the new engine, and re-installed the new engine. It took us 5 hours. Do you need anymore encouragement? We did have an engine hoist and did the job in my garage. Seems you have a block and tackle to hoist the engine out.

If you have doubts about the gas cap, replace it; it's not that expensive and will put your mind at ease....and might even prevent a recurrence of that pesky check engine light.

Go with Legacy777's info for checking the codes; well written and clear. If I can do it, anyone can.

Unknown, but I suspect it's quite old. Original car has 240K on it; JDM engine was installed at 190K with original manifold as far as I know. I pulled engine and used it's manifold instead of my own so it's conceivable the temp sensor is original; certainly no less than 50K if it was replaced when the JDM was originally installed. Update: I queried the previous shop that serviced the car that the JDM engine came out of and they never replaced the temp sensor.

Sometime, when the rains stop, drop me a PM and we'll take a trip to Pull a Part in Lynnwood and we'll (you'll) pull an axle for practice; with luck it'll be a good one you can use to replace the one you have with the torn boot. Timing check is in order for the backfire; I wouldn't tear into the carb unless I had a good reason; no sense fixing what isn't (or might not be) broken. Congratulations on the fine purchase; if this is the one on Craigslist or the one I saw up on 85th a few weeks ago I think you got a good deal. They are great little cars.

To some extent, sounds like a wheel bearing. Does the noise go away on right or left turns when you're keeping the rpm up? Another thing that masquerades as wheel bearing noise is a loose castle nut on one of the axles. Axle nut is easy to check, but bearings a little harder.

I was thinking of replacing the temp sensor since I had gotten a temp code on the old engine and have a 30 day old OEM sensor in the old engine. But I'm not getting any temp codes and the scantool indicates normal temps everytime I've accessed it. Thanks for the suggestions; I'll be trying something to loosen up the IAC when I get enough information together. Thanks.

Thanks Josh. No I haven't tried to clear the codes yet (too much rain out here to play in my driveway). Will disconnecting the battery actually do it on my '91 or should I follow the procedure for clearing ECU codes as per your website? Thanks again for your help.

I get the CEL only occasionally. Engine is warmed up and I come back, start it, and get idle around 900 plus or minus 100 (pulses slightly). At the same time I get a IAC duty cycle reading of around 55% which should result in an idle around 1800 rpm. CEL goes off within 5 seconds of my putting it in gear and driving off. My suspicion is that the IAC doesn't open consistently and causes that CEL. I'm discounting the Injector errors since the car runs too well otherwise.

I finally got around to pulling the codes (thanks Josh for the great write-up). Here they are: 14, 15, 16, 17, 24, and 35. First four are the injectors, 24 is the IAC, and 35 is the Purge Solenoid Valve. I'm really not too concerned about the codes since they happen so seldom, but I do want to address them. The 24 is likely the most critical since it's related to the intermittant slow return to idle speed (which is happening less and less often). I'm not sure I care about the Purge Solenoid; anyone know what it does other than run something through the charcoal canister? I'm wondering whether running a can of Seafoam in my next tank of gas will do something good for the fuel injectors as well as the IAC. My engine is a former JDM engine with 50K on it in someone else's car which I just installed two weeks ago to resolve the massive blowby issue of my original engine. It had only been sitting a month after a massive clutch failure. I would expect it has a total of 80 to 100K on it and runs well (certainly better than my original engine). Looking for input here since I'm treading on new/unknown territory.

Regarding tire size affecting your speedometer, you can calculate the error using this: http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

Try putting a wrench on the crank pulley and turning it over by hand (ignition OFF). If it doesn't turn 2 full revolutions you my have water in the cylinder.

I just bought a jdm motor that had been installed on a local car 50K miles ago. Transmission let go so the owner junked the car. I bought the engine and installed it in my '91 Legacy. Engine runs fine; after 50k of "break in" I would expect I'll get a few more good miles out of it. Wish me luck.

If you re-consider rebuilt axles again, try www.cvaxles.com.

Here are the measurements using the bcbrscantool on my '91 Legacy: Battery voltage, engine off: 12.24V " " , egine at idle: 13.86V Water temp after warm-up: 180 degrees F Ignition timing: 24 degrees BTDC (engine cold) Air flow signal: 1.20V Load data: 57 Throttle sensor: 4.76V at idle; volts drop off with more throttle. Fuel injector timing: 2 ms at idle Idle air control: 36% when cold at idle O2 sensor: 0.7V Max O2 sensor: 0.85V Min O2 sensor: 0.04V Correction coeff. of a/f ratio: ??? Ignition timing correction: 0 degrees Barometric pressure: 750.87 torr Fuel trim: 0.78% to 2.34% No CEL during these measurements.

I'm with Andy, the hardest part is removing the backing plate. Cleaning the rust and crud off the hub will help a lot to make that easier.

The inner DOJ on the axles is the most mysterious in terms of the symptoms it can present. The CVJ is always more obvious since it clicks on turns pretty consistently. DOJ problems are less obvious and can be just a slight vibration under acceleration or so bad that you think the tranny is about to fall out of the car and any other drivetrain related symptom. And there doesn't seem to be any way to tell by looking or wiggling or any other tricks to diagnose the problem. Whenever there's a noise that is speed related, I think drivetrain, and the axles are always my first choice when a visual inspection of the drivetrain doesn't find an obvious culprit. With the multitude of rebuilders out there who don't actually replace a joint "if it looks okay" I've learned that even newly rebuilt axles are likely to fail within the first month or two of installation. The rub is trying to prove it to the supplier.

/91 Legacy, non-turbo wagon. I was using VRG's scantool to get the measurements. I can make sense out of most of the items although my '91 has different names for some of the items. I'll take a run tomorrow with that sheet and report the values I read with the bcbfscan utility. Thanks.

I'm beginning to think the high idle is normal. My old engine suffered from low idle for so long I think I believed the high idle to be abnormal. Anyway, it seems to be limited to the first 5 minutes or so after starting the car....goes up to 1600 or so and stays there and then slowly coasts down to around 1000. I'm not so concerned about that now although I still think it's not quite right. I got a CEL again today after 3 days of no CELs. Happened again starting with a high idle condition (but after the engine was fully warmed up) but when it drifted down to 1100 or so it wasn't steady but went up and down give or take a 100 rpm or so. I had the laptop hooked up to the OBD1 connector and was monitoring the IAC duty cycle. Normally, high idle occurs when the duty cyclcle is 50 to 55% and as it drifts down to 20% the idle follows it down. When I got the CEL, the idle was oscillating around 1000 rpm and the IAC duty cycle was still at 54%. I suspect the ECU didn't like that disparity and threw the code. Again, as I drove off the CEL disappeared and everything seemed normal for the rest of the trip home. I'm not sure how the IAC actually works, but I suspect the ECU controls the % of opening electrically and sometimes the mechanical doesn't follow it resulting in the erratic idle and the CEL.

I believe CCR has an installation kit for their rebuilds...gaskets and such. Ask them, they'll tell you what you need. Did you get the clutch alignment tool I sent?

I used the EA82 flywheel since it's more massive; a little slower getting up to speed, but more momemtum when you're there. Works fine with the EA81 engine. Only hassle I had was the extra space I had around the smaller bolts. 'Solved that by cutting short lengths of brass tubing to slip over the bolts to take up the potential play.