edrach

Just a comment on the Forester that you are looking at. You will likely be paying for the timing belt job on this one (due at 105K) so add that to the price of the car. A windshield will likely run you another $250. Adding those two numbers to the price of the car put it well above a "good" value. I'm very fond of the Forester having just bought one in the last year from richierich. You might check his website for a "quality" Forester or Legacy (www.fixmysuby.com).

Having spent about 5 months searching for the "right" Forester, I think I can add some comments. Forget the '98 model year. It's a DOHC engine and I don't like the added complexity. Fuji only offered that engine in the Forester for one year and switched to the SOHC engine in '99. Unless you really have to have an automatic, go for the 5MT transmission which is hard to find in the Forester model. However, the added pickup and slightly better gas mileage is worth the search. We only drove one automatic during our search and it was a "stone." No pickup at all. Pay attention to the warnings about headgasket problems. If you find one that hasn't had it done recently, you'll be the one paying for it. Generally the first timing belt is due at 105K. If the headgaskets have been done by a reputable shop you shouldn't have any issues with them since the latest version gaskets and specific tightening technique seem to have done away with the problem. We finally bought a '99 from richierich for a decent price with all the onerous work already done. It had 110K on it when we bought it, and we're around 125K now. Only issue has been the viscous coupler started to give us trouble recently. Kind of unusual for the model and I don't regret having bought the car.

I bought all the parts from a dealer at a discount for $525. I figured they would run about $750 if the OP were paying list.

Considering the car has 160K on it, a burnt valve is not unusual. I believe the interval for timing belts on that model is 105K; so the conclusion is he waited too long to have it done recently or it's been 55K since the belt was changed. Long enough to burn a valve; but not likely caused by incorrect timing belt installation. He's dreaming if he thinks a buyer will pay $2500 for a car that MIGHT cost him only $3700 after having the burnt valve repaired. Almost $4K for a '99 with 160K on the clock is a stretch.

Yikes, the cost of a new rack is around $650 if I remember the last time I priced one. Check my other post about rebuilding kits.

A new steering rack is around $650 from the dealer. I had issues with mine on our '97 Impreza. I wound up finding a used one and having it rebuilt. There are two rebuild kits for the steering rack if I remember correctly; one is seals and the other is boots I think. They both list around $35 each from the dealer. I paid the local mechanic to install the kits and then install the rack in our Imp with whiteline bushings. The whole job ran me less than $250 for everything.

There are only two shops in this area that I would trust with that job. Smart Service in Seattle and Pacific Import Auto in Tacoma. I know both are very competant and depending on the age and model of your car, that price might not be unreasonable. I know the list price of just the parts that went into my last timing belt job (on our EJ22) was over $750 (we had a friend do the work). Add to that head gaskets and machine shop work and this could be another $1500, I honestly don't know. And to add to someone else's comment, Superior Import Repair in Portland is another quality shop, but certainly outside our area.

No it was a faded yellow 4 door sedan.

Try this group; might be a bit closer for you. http://www.formularallyx.com/

Three of us! Post some pics.

I saw one EA81 sedan; not sure if it's 4WD or not. Regardless, it's worth the visit. The Smokey Point PAP is the cleanest, nicest yard to work in that I've found.

Walked the yard today looking for stuff. Found about a dozen Legacies from '89 to '96. Lots of EA82s, a few EA81s, and even a Justy and a '93 Impreza.

Another source for factory manuals is www.books4cars.com. Not the cheapest but they have the most complete library I've ever seen.

Funny, that's what I was going to say/:) Good job searching! Actually, I had a similar problem last summer with our Toyota based motorhome. The charcoal canister was plugged with something and caused the same vacuum conditions with the fuel tank. It didn't result in fuel starvation, it actually caused the fuel tank to develop an air-leak to resolve the pressure differential. So add the charcoal cannister to your list of potential suspects.

Actually, what I said is that I popped a bead on a quality snow tire even though I did NOT lower the tire pressure. I was running at 36PSI and all three of us popped a bead on different runs (multiple drivers). My purpose is going with a rally tire with stiffer sidewalls and a stronger bead. I use a 195/70-14 tire for rallycross. Light truck tires will not fit on my Impreza.

AWD transmission requires that both the front and rear tires be almost exactly the same size. Resolve this descrepancy immediately or else you'll ruin the viscous coupler in your transmission. The coupler is a $575 part from Subaru plus the installation cost! Not something you want to mess with. The drag is normal if the tires on both axles are different diameters. You'll find that going around corners (sharp turns) will cause a "thump thump thump" due to the tires rotating at slightly different speeds.

I think Jerry (bratsarus1) has one of the EA82 types. Maybe it's for sale.

That's certainly pretty. Sounds like you fixed the ignition problem.

The primary reason in my mind for rally tires is the stiffer sidewall and bead strength. Even on dirt, I've seen people pop a bead because of excessive side loading on snow tires. Most of those occur because people drop the tire pressure in an effort to get more traction. I've had the bead pop on my quality snow tires even though I kept the pressure over 36 PSI. Speed is not usually an issue since most rallycrosses seldom get out of first gear; halfway through second happens very seldom; mostly due to the fact that there are not many long straights to get the speed up to the top end of 2nd.

Check their website. Most of their events are in Hillsboro, OR. http://www.oregonrally.com/

You can't go wrong with Smart Service. They now have two locations, one in Shoreline and the other in Mukilteo. They are the best in the Seattle area.

Well, they didn't capitulate until we took their insured to small claims court. Judgment easily went against them and it appears we'll be able to collect; that's the next step. And yes, ebay is a blessing in disguise. Although it pays to print out the final price since ebay scuttles the information after 3 months. VINbee.com gave me 51 pages of ebay sales for Brats for the last three years, but I couldn't get details on 99.9% of the sales from that. In any event, I'm starting to hard copy every ebay and craigslist ad I see to start a file to go up against the insurance companies that are playing hardball with those of us unfortunate enough to have an accident that totals the car. NADA is certainly not a help with their unusually low valuations for the Brats.

I'm looking into adding too (or replacing my mud tires) and I'm looking for a more versatile tire for rallyX in a 14" size. My understanding is the Falkens and Kumho rally tires are no longer available. I'd consider the Silerstone S55, but have heard they are not so good. I'm looking for a tire that's good on wet grass or soft dirt without being crappy in the unusual dry conditions. I'm also soliciting opinions about how the various brands actually perform on various surfaces.

Nice '82 DL; really pretty and I don't know why you're calling her ugly. By the way, your recent turbo sale was one of the comparables I used to justify a better settlement with the insurance company on our totaled DL.

'81 Hatch is different. This is an '82 Brat and vapor separator is in engine compartment and fuel filter is under the car on the driver's side near the rear wheel. Here's pic of our '82 Brat.