zyewdall

Do they not have AWD dyno's? They do in Colorado. My problem here has never been passing them (with subaru's at least)... it's been the idiot techs breaking my vehicles on idle tests (ones older than 1981 -- they bent the tailpipe on one truck and melted all of the wiring to the back lights, which blew the fuse to all lights in the whole truck.... great).

Hmmmm. I believe that every EA81 I've owned has had some sort of aftermarket ignition modification. First one had the switch hanging by the wires (no key any more, just the switch), so I put in a generic ignition switch in the dash. Second one I can't remember for sure, but third and fourth ones both lost the start position on the switch so I put in an aftermarket switch on one and a big black pushbuttons for the starter on the other.

CCR in Lakewood, CO -- subaru specialty shop that rebuilds engines and such. I have the contact info somewhere, but can't find it right now... not sure if he's on the board here or not.

I'm trading an '82 wagon to Terry from CCR for a bunch of work he's doing for me. I know he wants the pugs and the engine from it, but it's got a good 4 speed tranny, and a really good windshield that you might be able to get from him afterwards.

Nice. What's the report on the condition of it?

I've never blown up either, but I've had the 4 speeds get pretty bad (3rd gear and reverse mostly), but I agree, the 5 speed is a better transmission -- we'll see how long it lasts behind the EJ22 in the impreza (that I just blew up the stock awd 5 speed in -- mostly the previous owner, not me)

Depends on how you drive on the highway I guess. I'm going by experience with a 97 impreza (which is probably comparable to the forester) and lots of 80's subarus (which all lose performance at highways speeds, no matter what tires you have on them). I had a 1990 Legacy that actually seemed to be worse with all seasons than snow tires, but the all seasons were 75 series tires intead of 70 series like the snow tires, so the higher tire may have outweighed the difference in tire.

H5? :-p

If you have studs, the high speed performance can suffer, but if they aren't studded, I don't notice alot of difference on the highway -- a little less mpg perhaps, and you wear out the snow tires prematurely, but well worth the better performance in the snow -- if you've always driven all season tires in the snow, you don't realize how much of a difference it is, but once you get snow tires, you won't go back to driving all season's in the snow. Z

Sounds like the alternator is not working -- could be a slipping belt (those usually make awful noises, but not always -- I had one get oil on the belt from a loose oil filter, and it just started slipping, with no noise), or the alternator could have died -- oddly the alternator on my '85 GL died right after I did a head gasket on it too. Also, make sure the wires are still connected to the alternator... it happens... For the A/C, just unplug the connector right on the A/C clutch and it should stop without affecting anything else. Or just remove the belt to the compressor (if its the outboard compressor... if its the inboard one, you can't remove just the A/C belt because the alternator belt goes around it too). Z

Got a DMM with a 10 or 20A scale on it? If you can hook that up to the battery between the positive terminal and the feed that powers everything other than the starter motor, then you can start pulling fuses and see what circuit it's on at least. Z

Are the stock rims wide enough to handle a 205 though? I've only run 175 and 185's on them.

Tryig to fix a friend's subaru... it's supposed to be AWD -- but the back wheels never kick in. Only about 110k miles on it, and it runs awesome other than this. Had AWD two winters ago, but lost it last spring -- and now it's snowing again, so it matters. Does the fuse in this year put it into FWD, or do you take the fuse out to make it FWD.... the dealer seemed to be saying that it had lost 4wd because the wire to the fuse had come loose, and they said they put it back on, which seems to be the reverse of what I thought it did -- fuse in makes it FWD. But, they were wrong -- still no AWD (we got lots of snow to test it the last two days). Now they want $1100 for a new (used) transmission installed. What is the chance that it is just the wire, and if not, what is it? I might fool around with the wiring this weekend and see if I can get anything. Doesn't seem like the clutch packs could be burned out with this low of miles, though it's possible I guess. Can those be replaced separately from the transmission (not that we have a indoor shop right now... The dealer was also saying something about a special ceramic valve in the rear of the transmission that only the '90 - '92 4EAT's had that goes bad. I had never heard that before. Ideas?

Colorado is really rough on snow tires -- I can get two seasons out of them at most and they are shot by the end of the second season... we tend to have snow and ice at the top of the mountain, but not down below, and warm 60 degree days all winter down in Denver. But, ice and snowdrifts all winter up here. And, early storms (like the 30 inches we got yesterday), and late storms (like the 34 inches I got on April 18th last spring). So... you end up keeping the snow tires on a longer time than other places (studs are legal year round here), but driving them on warm dry roads alot too. Wears them out fast. In a more regimented climate like eastern WA, or probably back east where the roads all turn to packed snow around thanksgiving and pretty much stay that way till the end of March, they'll last longer.

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=49618 Found the thread talking about side by side tests with the locked center on the 4EAT. Sounds like it's worth it...

Yes, they're not bad stock... but some of the old posts from Andyjo when he first did this to his OBS seemed like it made quite a bit of different being in 4wd vs normal awd. I can't find those any more (I think they may have been in the off-road forum?).

I tried pulling the imp out with the GL. Lousy tires, and the fact that imprezas are really heavy prevented that Pictures of subarus in the snow used to be on topic....

Woke up to about 18 inches of snow this morning. It's up to probably about 28 now. Took the Impreza Outback out. It's got good tires, but in the deep snow, you really feel the lack of low range. Gotta get the dual range transmission in there. No problem.... blew up the transmission in it about an hour later (I knew it was just about toast -- feels like I either shredded some input gears, or broke the clutch friction disk -- probably input gears since they were howling really loud before that) Guess that'll be the final motivation to get the new dual range transmission in there (in the proper location that is, it's currently in the back instead...) I was on my way to a friend's house so I walked up and got my old GL that was at his house. It's got lousy tires on it, but was pretty good otherwise. Plowed his road coming down for him -- for quite a while the pile in front of the car was as high as that pile remaining on the hood, but I just kept going, and luckily it was downhill enough not to stop. Would have been great to have video of that... but there was no way I was going to stop once I got moving. Then he came down in the landcruiser to pull the dead impreza out of the middle of the road. Dogs had fun (those are 130lb newfamutes -- so, that snow's pretty deep)

The goodyear tripletread seem to be a good all around tire -- decent on the snow if it's not often. If you regularly drive on snow, actual snow tires are a world of difference better than all seasons -- I like the Ipike's myself, but you can also get the Icebears for a more performance oriented snow tire. If you drive on ice alot, studs are nice too in addition to a snow tire.... if they are allowed where you are (oddly, they are illegal in most of the eastern states where it's alot icier, and are legal out west, where we get more snow and less ice....). I've also had decent luck just getting the really cheap uniroyal made in china tires, for all season tires. Not as good of wearing as Michelins that are sort of the best ones in my mind, but, 2/3'rds or less the price. A new set of cheapo tires is still better traction than a bald set of good tires...

Yeah, looks alot like my '91 justy... except with an extra cylinder. What year is it? I thought subaru stopped making the justy completely, but looks like they kept doing it under a different name in Japan? Z

Hmmmm. I think that the Forester shares more with the impreza than the outback, which I believe is a little wider (and might have longer axles). But, I haven't played mix and match with these newer ones very much, so I'm not sure. Z

Sounds like you lost the accessory belt. On the older subarus, it lights up all the engine warning lights when this happens (because it looses a signal from the alternator which lights up all the lights for some reason), even if the alternator is still good. So, it may be as simple as the belt, and the alternator might be okay. Do you know how old the belt is? Even if it's original, it should still be okay, but getting towards the older range of when it should be replaced. Z

If they are close to new, can you just find someone who carries the same size/brand of tire and get a new one to match? Some places will also shave a tire down to be the same tread depth as the old ones. This isn't a problem unique to the newer subarus, as more and more cars have all wheel drive. Most tire shops should know about it and understand why you need it to match exactly. Z

How long has it had the off-size tire on it? Have you tried driving it in tight circles on pavement... how does it behave? a common problem with the automatic transmissions if they are driven with different sized tires, is to start hopping around turns as if it was in 4wd with a locked center, like 4wd trucks.

What is the car? If the oil pressure light is on, it means you have insufficient oil pressure -- which could destroy the engine in a matter of minutes. It could be the guage has failed, in which case it might not be that much, but if it really has no oil pressure and it the oil level is full, and you haven't run the engine for more than a few minutes since it came on, then it might need a new oil pump -- at least several hundred dollars to replace that because you have to take of the entire timing belt assembly before you can get to it -- a bit of labor. If you've run the engine very long with no oil pressure, you'll need a new engine. What exactly happened? I don't see how the oil being low (a quart low is not enough to cause any problems in most subaru's I've owned, and even two quarts low is still okay, though it's right at the edge) could have affected the radiator.