zyewdall

I'd have to agree with GD for the most part. I've owned lots of EA82's as daily drivers, and I still like them... but they are getting older, and harder to find good ones that haven't been worn out or beat up. The '93 and '94 legacies is usually what I recommend to people for a cheap reliable daily driver now. The exception is that for off-roading, the legacy is just too heavy for its suspension and tires, and doesn't have low range. So you have to mod it a bit to off-road it. A stock EA is not too bad, and they are more given to modding too. I'm going back to an EA81 for that (with an EJ22 engine

I think my FI Justy is actually rated the same horsepower as a carbed EA81 -- 75HP. In a lighter car. It's pretty zippy for an economy car, plus it handles quite well. And you can still drive through snowdrifts with it. Engine design could best be described as bizarre... but it seems to work.

Wow... I had never heard of a subaru Rex before. Even smaller thana Justy eh?

I've pulled the heads on an EA82 with 220k on it -- you could still see the factory cross hatching on the cylinder walls. They don't eat out their bores like alot of other engines do....

I had an '87 GL wagon that was fuel injected. Then introduced it a year earlier in California...

Stupid they may be at times... but number of brand new cars are touting something every 25 year old subaru had as a great new selling feature

You just discovered the hill holder And your hill holder is not adjusted properly. There's lots of threads here about adjusting it -- basically you need to adjust it so it releases the brakes just before the clutch starts engaging, rather than just after like it sounds like it's doing....

I hate automatic transmissions. Especially slushy ones. However, I though that the subaru automatic is one of the less annoying ones I've driven. The 1994 Legacy I drove for a little was not that bad. Required a little manual shifting, but not full time like the new chevy pickups at work which will never be in the gear I want them to be in if I don't shift manually. The '07 outbacks we have at work are a little slushier than the '94 was, but they have the slapshifter, so I just put them into manual. I think all of the new automatics have the slapshifter -- not sure what year they started doing that.

I don't know if I'd agree with that. I tried to replace the alternator on a friend's acura once.... you have to jack up the car, remove one wheel, and go in from the wheel well to do it. Maybe they don't break much, but at least the subaru is easy to get to most parts on. And, another friend with the same acura had the alternator go bad too... I said, "too bad".

Get one with the low range 4wd. That's really the defining benefit of the EA82 wagons over, say, an old impreza. Other than the low range advantage (which I really miss whenever I take my Justy or a Legacy up alot of dirt two track roads), they have less power, and the EA82 engines are not quite as good as the early EJ engines (I've had many of them with over 200k miles... so they are still good if they've been taken care of, but many have been neglected and over heated). Also, if you're used to the legacies, you'll find that the EA82 wagons are smaller and lighter -- I drove GL wagons for years, and now a Justy, and whenver I drive even a first gen legacy, it feels kind of like driving a bit boat. The more powerful EJ engine more than makes up for the weight, but I still like the smaller size for going zipping around dirt roads, or even just easy parking in town.

Did the car sit for a long time (like years) without being started? 60k sounds very low to be having ring problems on a subaru, unless it dried out and a ring stuck when it was started after a long time. Also...it's not really that much of a problem to just use it as is if you don't mind adding oil occasionally... I had a ford courier with 36,000 miles on it (it sat for about 14 years in a chicken coop at one point). It had 130psi on three cylinders, and about 40psi on the fourth one. Ran great (probably a little down on power) and got 27mpg on the highway. Burned about a quart every 500 miles, but no visible blue smoke except on a cold start.

1st gen justy? Undercarriage is the same as mine, but the shape looks a little boxier. I've never parked any of of my vehicles anywhere near long enough for that to happen :0

I had heard that they were an aftermarket OEM conversion option (the 4x4 wagons). I've never heard much about the peugot turbodiesels -- I generally stick to japanese or german engines.

Nice. I used to own the almost twin of that car -- light blue '85 wagon -- mine had the digidash and the sunroof though. And I paid $500 for it Z

1985 - 89 wagons and sedans were EA82, but I believe that the '85 through '89 GL hatches and brats were EA81. Both were 1800 cc's, and none of the parts places seem to be able to look up stuff by the motor as opposed to the car model -- so it's kind of a crap shoot at some places because you tell them it's an EA82, not an EA81, and they have no idea what that means.... Z

But EJ18's are alot rarer too. I've only every seen one or two EJ18's used, whereas EJ22's in old legacies are cheap and all over the place.

Agreed -- it's odd that it would have bad struts or bad alignment. I just picked up a '90 legacy with no front struts left -- 188k. But, it's been driven alot on bumpy dirt roads. I've never had to do struts on any of my other subarus, and several of them have been over 240k. I've also never had an alignment on a subaru, and i'm not exaclty nice to them. I've actually been quite suprised that I haven't knocked any of them out of alignment enough to wear the tires.

When was the last time it had a front end alignment? Sounds kind of like it might be a combination of struts and alignment. Alignment could also explain the turning left easier than right if it's really out of wack. Z

We didn't even get the EA81 past 1989 in the US, so any US supplier is unlikey to even have a listing for a 1993 EA81. You might have to check with a dealer in the UK or Japan to verify if that's the same as the 80's ones.

Low mileage EA82 engine with 5 speed 2wd -- should get good mileage (30+ ?), and be a good car. Not so much what most of buy old subaru's for -- hauling junk and 4wd. But if the other alternative is an old honda or toyota or nissan sedan, I'd take this instead (because then I already know how to work on it, instead of learning some other car....). Price is a little high for some areas, but decent.

I've never had that bad of issues with the EA82. They are not the best on power, but other than some timing belt issues (my own fault for not changing them in a timely manner...) I've put lots of miles on them without problems. I still much prefer the EA81 or early EJ22's yes... but the EA82's arent horrible. The justy.. well... it seems to be doing very well so far. I know that they are not known for very long lives... 100k miles or so. But, I'd still take it over something like a dodge neon or chevy cavalier which are truly cars that I would not take if they were free (unless they had a good set of tires that would fit a subaru, maybe Now.. turbo.... I don't think I'd ever drive a gasoline engine with a turbo. Seems like that's just asking for something to implode because it's more complicated than adding a turbo to a diesel, and has more things that could go wrong (detonation, not wanting to run lean, which are both normal for a diesel...)

Here in Colorado, probably not more than $1200ish depending on time of year. I haven't really seen the turbo ones fetching any more than the regular ones. But, I think that it might fetch more back east, because they are rarer back there -- people won't have five different ones to choose from. And, being rust free might be a selling point there too (it looks rust free from the pictures at least).

Was the turbo SPFI or MPFI? If it was SPFI, it should be possible to use the same turbo harness along with some parts off the turbo engine -- just swap the long block and forget the up pipe and turbo -- it will just think it has zero boost all the time now. If the turbo was MPFI though (the EA82 turbo's were MPFI, right???), the new engine won't have the right heads though....

The 9004 siverstars are nice... but they burn out in a few months at most (if you use them as daytime running lights like I do). Annoying.... the standard halogens are a bit longer lasting. I need to make a voltage dropper to switch in line for the daytime to save them, then I'd switch back to them. Z

I kind of want to get the EJ22 engine in the EA81 wagon for that.... so every once in a while I can pass the big shiny SUV's that think they can run down the old beat up subaru....