edrach

Especially since cutting out the original harness connector out will require butt splicing it into the new car. Actually more work than unplugging and getting a normal connector harness.

Cool, a reverse connector; no need to go to the junkyard and cut one out of another car.

Before he gets too excited, check the bulbs. The most common, simple solution is probably the correct one. He might have not noticed one is out until the 2nd one failed. If both failed together, a likely cause is a faulty alternator putting out too much voltage which could make both bulbs fail in very short order. An alternator with a bad voltage regulator and putting out more than 16V will fry the bulbs pretty quickly. I've had that problem twice over the years on two of our numerous Subarus and both times replacing the alternator (and the bulbs of course) fixed the problem. Any good auto parts shop would check the alternator output and Spokane has two excellent autowreckers (one a pull a part yard) and he might luck out with getting a used alternator if he needs one. As far as I know, the headlight circuit is not fused on the earlier models (all that I have experience with); I suspect it's the same on a 2006 model. And it's pretty early to have a headlight relay fail (I've never had to replace a headlight relay in a Subaru; even after 200K miles). 2nd edit: I checked the wiring for our '99 Forester in the Factory Service Manual and found the headlight circuit IS fused (sorry for the misinformation on my part). However, there are separate fuses for the right and the left side. Since both high beams still work, that means both fuses are okay. I still think both bulbs are burned out.

Unusual problem. For a while I thought you should just return the radio to where you bought it, but when I re-read it a few times it dawned on me that you were talking about the existing radio in your car. A couple of thoughts, see if you can find a similar model car at the junkyard and cut out the existing connector with about three inches of wiring behind it. Then you can re-install the factory connector by matching wire colors and butt-splicing them together. Then use the adapter harness that you bought with the new stereo. If that doesn't work, find someone who has the wiring diagram for the radio for your model Subaru and then butt-splice the adapter harness directly into your car. Between the wiring diagram and the info with the adapter harness you should be able to get it working. As to the missing screw, you should be able to find one in to match in the metric hardware section of any decent hardware store. Good luck. Edit: Bite the bullet and go back to where you bought the replacement stereo and pay them to install it.

Craig is correct. In high you'll be in 1st or 2nd; in Low you'll be in 2nd and 3rd. My experience with the Brat was that when in 4 Low, the transmission would pop out of 4 Low if you really got on it or hit a bump the wrong way. The bad part was that when it popped out it wound up between Hi and Lo and you had no gear connected until you pulled up again or pushed it down into High.

The center cap shown is the standard 'cap for those wheels. The black stripes are also normally part of the 15" pugs. The only caution is not to get a 390 rim which is a metric size and requires VERY expensive tires.

NAPA might have extra long stud bolts.

If you continue to have problems, I have a factory manual for an '84 model and can probably scan the wiring diagram for that part. Sorry not to get the drawing up; I lent my FSM to someone and need to get it back before I can scan the schematic.

Do a quick search on Pug alloys or Peugeot wheels in the For Sale forum and you'll find numerous posts with prices. I've seen 15" alloys go for an asking price of anywhere from $150 to $300 depending on condition. Also, must have center caps AND lug nuts to get the best price. 390 rims are worth next to nothing unless they have good rubber on them. Once the tires are worn out, 390's are only worth the price of aluminum at the metal re-cyclers.

Many of the after market parts stores have a tester for many of the ignition modules including the Hitachi one. Have them tested at two or three places if you can, because some stores are more interested in selling you a new one than really testing them properly. Have them tested repeatedly until the module is fully warmed up since, failure is often related to temperature. Just a comment, if you think it's bad it probably is. Ignition modules tend to fail intermittantly and after they get warmed up. Failure gets to happen more often until the module is replaced. This module costs anywhere from $90 to $200 depending on manufacturer and warranty. I found that the $90 ones work just fine once you get past the first 30 days of the warranty. When I had two Brat and two early GL wagons in the family, I used to pick up the ignitors I found at the local PAP (under $5 each) and take them to the auto parts store and had them tested. Each of our EA81 cars had an ignition module in the glove box. I might even still have a few lying around. This is a comment I got from the counter person when I had a Schuck's module tested. "Schuck's modules tend to fail about a week after jump starting someone else's car with your car." I don't know if that's true or not, but I had brought the module in for testing when I had intermittant "no spark" failures on my brat. And I had jump started someone else's car a couple of weeks earlier. Testing with a multimeter: I don't know if that's accurate. If there's a short or open that's permanent, that might work; but the modules usually fail after they warm up and a multimeter won't test under those conditions. Also, there are three test points: the two obvious ones and the grounded metal base is the third one.

Peugeot lugnuts are different between alloys and steel wheels. Here a pic: http://www.indysworld.com/80s/general/wheels/pugnuts.jpg There's also a third type of lugnut for the pre-1970 504 steel wheel. I don't have a picture of that. Update: I do have a picture now. On the left, is the standard alloy lugnut. Next to it the standard steelie lugnut. Third from the left (and this is a guess on my part) is an alternate version for the alloy wheels. On the far right is the lugnut for the very early 504 wheels.

Good work so far. Sounds to me like the clock is the most likely culprit, but we'll see. As to the cost of the relay, have you checked the price of the fuel pump lately. Individual parts can be pretty pricey. One of the reasons I check the wrecking yard before I go for expensive items.

Those are the typical symptoms of an old fuel filter. For some reason it's aggravated in very cold weather. It probably won't go away until you replace the ff, but it couldn't hurt to pour a can of "dry gas" into the tank with the next fuel fillup. I don't see much benefit from draining the fuel tank; I'll leave that up to others since I've never had to do that even on my '82 or '84 Brats.

I'm with GD on this one. The vapor "separator" in the engine compartment is not really a fuel filter. The fuel filter you need to replace is down by the fuel pump (underneath the car near the rear wheel on my Brat....not sure where it is on your car). Replace that first, before you look for more complicated reasons for the symptoms.

I can't help you on the location for the fuel pump relay. But if anyone knows whether any of the EA81 or EJ relays are the same I might be able to get you one for cheap. I have a collection of them from the local Pull a Part yards. In either event, I would suggest a junk yard relay rather than spending $115 for a dealer purchased one.

EA81 and EA82 cars the socket is 36mm; EJ cars it's 32mm.

I can only address three of your questions from personal experience. The weber 32/36 carb is a significant improvement in driveability. I can't confirm an increase in gas mileage since I loved taking advantage of the increased torque. I think if I could have driven more conservatively with it, that there would have been a mpg increase with my '84 Brat. The 5 speed conversion is certainly an improvement since it drops about 500 rpm off your cruising speed on the highway. Again, I didn't see better gas mileage, but that's just my driving style. Torque cam from Delta Cams did improve low end torque and pickup. I don't have any data on mpg differences. http://deltacam.com/camshaftgrinding.php

Nice link; should go into the USRM for safe keeping. Also I stopped at Harbor Freight yesterday; their cheap multi-meters start at $2.99 and go up to $20 with a fairly decent digital mm at $30.

Subaru is offering money for rallycross for 2011. http://www.scca.org/documents/contingency//11-Subaru-Rally.pdf http://www.scca.org/documents/contingency//11-Subaru-Rally-Claim.pdf

If you don't have an electrical multimeter that reads volts and amps, get one at Harbor Freight or anywhere else. They shouldn't run more than $20 and they're quite useful. If you feel flush spend a little more for a digital version; it's much easier to use. Disconnect the negative terminal from the battery and put the meter on the high amps range (DC amps) and see if there's any current (amps) registering on the meter (red lead to the minus terminal on the battery and black lead on the cable). If nothing registers, repeat in a lower current range; repeat again in the lowest range if you still get nothing. Normally with the ignition and all accessories off, you might get a reading around 100 milli-amps (milli-amp=1/1000th of an amp). If you get more than 1/2 amp current draw with everything off, you have find out where that's going and we can discuss that in another post. If you don't see much current draw, put the negative terminal back on the battery and remove the meter and set it to DC volts; set it to a range that will read from 10 to 20 volts or thereabouts. Start the car (in neutral or park) and measure the voltage from + to - on the battery (black lead to minus and red lead to +). At idle the battery voltage should measure around 12V and maybe up to 13V. Have someone in car increase the engine RPM to about 2000. The battery voltage measured should climb to 13 to 14.5V at the increased RPM. If it doesn't get above 13V, the alternator isn't putting out enough voltage. Either the alternator belt is loose or the alternator is bad. If the alternator is okay (based on the voltage measurements) and there's minimal current drain as measured in paragraph one, the battery is likely bad and should be replaced since it's not holding a charge. Not unusual, even for a new battery, especially in the winter when it gets down to freezing or worse. I went through two "new" batteries last winter from Schmuck's before I got a good one. Of course, you can always take the car back to where you bought the battery and have them check it (usually done free by any reputable shop), but then you wouldn't have learned anything!

I'll agree with the first half of the comments, but disagree with the 2nd half that indicates the car would be ready for the scrap yard with high mileage. I have a '97 Impreza which is my daily driver as well as a rallycross warrior for the last 6 years I've had it. It's on a rebuilt engine (previous owner didn't change the oil as often as he should have) and a replacement transmission (rallycross IS hard on the transmission), but the car turned 200K miles yesterday and should still be good for another 100K with just routine service. Fortunately, I no longer live in the rust belt east coast.

I can understand the bearings lasting 250K miles in a 5MT transmission, but I've found the synchro (especially 2nd) starts to crunch around 150K. I don't think gearoil will change that symptom much, but I've had good success with Redline NS gearoil in extending the life of the synchros.

Wow, you were certainly busy when you finally got to it. Hopefully, it lasts a long time for you. As to the green color: some brake fluids come with a color additive so one can tell during a complete flush that the old fluid is gone and the new fluid is in. Subaru's OEM fluid come in blue and yellow and the idea is to alternate colors periodically. Hopefully no one mixed the fluids in a previous service.

Just got this from my most recent issue of GrassRoots Motorsports, but it's apparently old news (released 11/12/2010). Travis Pastrana has left Subaru for NASCAR. Here's one link: http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/nationwide/news/story?id=5792650