zyewdall

Once or twice a year, my old EA82 actually can outperform a new BMW... Put about 4 inches of slushy magchloride filled snow on the street.... the beamer was squirming sideways every time he touched the gas and almost went perpendicular when going around a turn -- at maybe 10mph. I put the subaru in 2nd gear, low range, and floored it. Went right around him without even spinning the tires -- man I like brand new studded snowtires sometimes... and it's sort of fun the few days a year when my 84HP station wagon can accelerate faster and corner better than a 300HP sportscar....

'82 GL wagon.... nothing extreme, just figuring out just how much like a jeep I could treat it... slid off a snowy road into a tree and bashed up the drivers door once. And it was in a terminal case of body rust (but not frame rust) when I finally got rid of it. Still ran great though (well, no idle left since the carb was shot, but still started in the cold and ran fine while driving). Z

Brown? I think the light blue ones are more common around here :-p

Well, first of all, what is the code? (hook some wires together under the hood, then look a the blinking light on the ECU under the dash -- there's direction on that somewhere on here) Second... mine has been on for a year and half, and I passed emissions in Boulder just fine last spring -- less than a quarter of the allowed levels. So, whatever the oxygen sensor is(n't) doing, it seems to still be running okay... MPG is still around 28 to 30 too. They can't fail you for the check engine light any more I think... people complained that people could pass on the highway monitoring stations without even seeing the light so I think they stopped looking at that. Z

I've seen this brat... I wouldn't mess with it with any normal 90's SUV.... a 70's FJ cruiser maybe... but it lives up the monstaru name...

Mazda. I think they switched to electronic ignition with the new style in 1977

Well... I don't. Alot of my friend's cars I'll help them with... but not this one... I did offer to find them an old subaru instead:) Who decided to put the ignition module on the back bottom of the freakin engine anyway.... halfway under the exhaust manifold which can cook the electronics :-p and when the fuel injection rail starts leaking, it drips on the exhaust manifold and the cracked insulation on the ignition module....

LOL. I didn't actually think my '89GL was that slow because I'm so used to it... till I took a ride in my friend's new 2.0 turbo saabaru. Holy _____ I agree that an older subaru, if in good shape, can be a very reliable car... my '89 GL was a two owner car when I got it (compared to the 15 owner car my first subaru was....), and it's still going strong -- better than alot of newer cars my friends own...

Ummm... the 4 runner is a station wagon too... that's what all SUV's are... Have you taken a look at the off-road page? From my experience (several subarus, IFS 4x4 truck, and solid axle 4x4 truck), the subaru is way better in everyday driving in snow, slush, dirt roads etc... where it starts breaking down is where you need the ground clearance or articulation that the trucks have, especially the solid axle ones. The low range isn't as good in the subarus, which most of the time can be made up for by their better handling... you can go down trails at speeds that would bounce a solid axle truck off.. but for the slow steep crawls over rocks... it can be a little bit of a problem. I've seen even the old single range subies from the 70's do some crazy stuff though. You can compensate for the ground clearance with a lift and bigger tires.. but the lack of a good low range will be the biggest problem. I've also heard that subaru's have insuffient power in the sand, but I've never driven mine there so I can't comment on that. The small size of the subaru will help a bit, compared to a large truck like the 4runner -- I can take my diesel rabbit up some crazy roads because it's small enough to drive around the rocks that a full size pickup has to drive over... and it doesn't have low range, a lift, or 4 wheel drive. I guess I would say... if you really drove the 4runner to the limits of it's capabilties... the subaru won't quite keep up... but I've also seen alot of SUV's turn around well before I did in my subaru, and almost lost a new Ford Explorer on narrow forest road once... and I wasn't even close to turning around yet. I just priced out upgrading my '82 subaru, and I think I came to about $1,700 -- but that included an EJ22 swap, but not the pugs (which I already have). IIRC, the lift was only about $500 for parts.

Well it is really low miles, and in '89 they had fuel injection. But, it's got the automatic tranny.... so I probably wouldn't pay more than $1500 or so even with the low mileage -- but I'm not counting the rust free as worth much either -- out here, it's not that hard to find lots of rust free cars of that era. In PA, maybe that's worth a $1000 premium.

If you think subaru's are trouble, you should try to keep a 20 year old chevy cavalier running.... I have a 31 year old truck that's almost brand new (estate sale, the old guy kept it in the garage and amost never drove it). Alot of things about it are comparable to any new vehical, i.e. nothing's worn, runs nice, doesn't leak, etc... but alot of things are like any 31 year old vehicle... have to regap the points, adjust valve tappets, readjust the brake clearances, grease the u-joints, etc... stuff that you don't have to do on a new car because newer designs have superceded these older designs.

It could be related to exactly when the auto fuel filler clicks off. My dad found that with his '96 OBW, it would give a check engine light if he put extra little pump of gas in after it clicked off, but not if he just let it shut itself off. My theory is that perhaps he was flooding the charcoal canister system by overfilling it or something like that.

Any EA82 car should work. '85 to '94 I think (obviously only the EA82 ones from those years). Since it's an '89, its SPFI, I assume, so an '88 to '94 body would have the correct wiring harness... otherwise you might have to swap the intake manifold to whatever came with the body, carbed, etc... Not sure about the '93 and '94... did they go to a MPFI EA82 then? You might consider going farther afield than PA -- if you could get one from CA or OR or WA somehow, you could get a completely rust free EA82 easily. East coast is just horrible for cars (I was shocked when I saw a friend's '98 outback from Boston -- my '82 wagon was in way better shape rustwize...)

'88 and '89 had SPFI and dual range... and CA '87's. ....and third gear seems to go out on them for some reason. I've never had any issue with the 5 speed dual range though -- slightly lower lo range too (1.59 vs 1.49 IIRC).

Yeah.... my daily driver is still the '89GLwagon, but I admit I've been tempted by various 90's legacies or imps recently -- and one of my coworkers just bought a '05 Saabaru this week -- the 2.0 turbo sure is nice..... the 89 is still going fine too, but has 230k on it now... how much longer? I'd miss the low range though (yes, I do tend to use low range in daily driving...)

Isn't the H6 engine chain driven... might be easier to work on retrofitting the chain drive on an EJ22 than building an EA81 to the power of an EJ22 ? Z

So..... apparently the timing belt slipped on one of our new company cars -- 06 Outback wagons. One morning it ran like complete crap and stalled within a few seconds of starting. It was running perfectly the day before when we parked it. The dealership took a look at it, and said something about the cam seals leaking alot of oil on the belt, making it slip, and since it's an interference engine...... They rebuilt it under warantee (17k miles on it) and we had it back two days later, so it's all good again... but I was just wondering if anyone else has ever heard of this. Not something I'd expect of a subaru of this newness, for sure.... (old EA82's snapping belts... now that's quite common...) Z

I'd agree with that. On icy, packed snow, or wet or just gravel roads... AWD is great (we have an 06 outback for the company car). On the deep snow, jeep trails, gluey mud, etc.... lo range and 4x4 is better (my old GL wagons). Don't underestimate tires though -- all wheel drive or 4 wheel drive is useless if none of the tires can get a grip... A fwd diesel rabbit with good studded snow tires is actually a very formidable car, believe it or not.

I've done it once before a few years ago in a 24 foot rental box truck. Right front axle bearing went out and heated up red hot and melted the end of the axle off, and the whole wheel/rotor/everything went bouncing off into the field glowing red in the dark. Again, only going about 25 mph or so luckily.

Actually... I can't steal the lug nuts from my VW, because it doesn't have normal studs.... the lug nuts have the stud attached to them, and they thread into the hub, instead of having a stud sticking out that the nut goes onto.

Thanks, I'll order some. They do look suspiciously like the lug nuts for the alloys on my VW now that you mention it. I could just steal them from there for a few days I guess..... and remember not to drive it till I return them

Nice. My tires aren't quite as big as yours, but still rub, and I need to lift it... So you're one of those light blue loyales that there are so many of running around boulder eh.... I've owned two of them at various times (and two light blue EA81's too), but currently no blue ones in my fleet... Z

Yup, those are turn signals on the hood. And the roof is sort of modified... it's a touring wagon, and I added a solar panel laminated on in front of the raised section. And.... I'm an incredible moron. Apparently I didn't torque down the lug nuts on the left rear tire last night, and it came off on the road today going about 30mph... some wierd vibration and just about when I was thinking I should pull over and see what was wrong, the wheel came completely off and bounced down the road next to me. Chewed up the alloy rim a little around the studs, and of course I lost the four special lug nuts for it. :banghead: So, I'm back to the 13" spare.... Can't believe I was such a Dumb--s.

Finally got tires on them, and put them on the '89 GL today. Ipike 195/75 R14 snowtires. Boy are they bigger than the old bald 175/70 R13's.... A few rubbing spots on the edges of the fenders while turning or going over bumps (stock suspension, no lift). I took it on a brief spin with some highway and offroad... handles really well rallying dirt roads, but gets squirrelly around 65 or 70mph. Offroad is nice and alot smoother than the 13's, except for constant rubbing as I go over bumps -- little bit of "adjustments" tomorrow. Overall, I'm happy with them, though I still want to get the lift and EJ22 on the '82 wagon and put them on that eventually. Z

WTF? I don't even take off the crank pullies when I do a timing belt?