zyewdall

Given my experience with vehicles that have sat that long with old fuel, it's probably turned to varnish in either the injectors themselves, the fuel filter, or the pump. The one's I've been doing have usually been carbureted, so I'm not sure if the injectors could gum up, but the filter and the pump certainly can after about 10 years BTDT So.... try with starter fluid and if it runs on that, it's the fuel system. Putting new plugs and wires on it just for kicks wouldn't be a bad move either.. you know you are probably going to need to replace them anyway after you get it running.

Everyone seems to run xW30 oils in their subarus... I always run xW40 or xW50 in them, and it keeps the oil burning down -- a quart every 2,000 to 3,000 instead of a quart every two tanks. Usually 5W40 synthetic, or 5W50 synthetic. Then again, I've never had a subaru with under 200k miles on it,

Are you sure it's from the clutch, and not somewhere else in the drivetrain, as the car starts moving? Typical problem with hill holder is if it's too tight, it locks the brakes and you can't move. No noise... just stuck car. Other thing to check is that all the bolts are in that hold the tranny to the engine... I had one that would shudder sometimes when launching in 1st gear. When I finally took it apart to put a new clutch in I found that it was missing the lower two bolts, so they could move relative to each other.

I've found that parts places have a very difficult time getting the right axles for subarus -- especially '85 to '89, because both EA81's and EA82's were produced at that time, and they catalog them both as 1800cc engines. yeah... but... and they have no idea what an EA81 or EA82 is. I've started getting them from the dealer even though they are about $120 each there, just to avoid the hassle of making a simple axle replacement into a 2 or 3 day job to finally get the right one.... for some reason, everyone wants to give you 25 spline ones for EA82's the first time.

I knew about the ghostwalking, but the 2007 outbacks we had as company cars seemed pretty nice to me, in general. A bit sluggish compared to older ones due to the automatic transmissions.... I actually liked the headlight cutoff on them... very sharp cutoff with the low beams, but good brightness and side to side spread... I hate low beams that are just dimmer versions of high beams... I thought the heat was adequate, but I'm used to vehicles that don't have adequate heat... so it was better than most of them I would avoid all of the sedans, and imprezas from 2008+, due to the hideous styling, but that's just me :-p

I've always run 70 or 75 series on my old legacies, and they behave fine if the rest of the suspension is okay -- not as nice as 60 series wider tires than the newer ones take, but still not tail happy. I rally them on gravel roads alot, and one in good shape will handle cornering on washboard better than a GL series, even though it's heavier. My current one has no rear struts (well, mechanically they are they, but no damping action at all), so it does not do well on bumps... and it's a little tail happy on loose dirt. It does make awful thumping sounds from the back sometimes though, so that's the first thing I'd check. Then all the rear suspension links and such. Rear struts are expensive for some reason... I found a good used set for $100 each for entire assemblies, but they are $125 new for just the struts, not full assemblies -- unless someone else has a better source than I could find.

My "new" '90 legacy wagon sometimes is missing reverse.... shifter goes to the right location, but it doesn't go into gear. If you fool around with it a while eventually it will. And sometimes, it goes right in the first time. I'm thinking it's a shifter linkage that's just too loose? Sound right? 327k on the transmission if it's the original, so that wouldn't be suprising if it is... all other gears feel okay though.. not like the EA81's tend to get with their loose bushings. Edit: I read a bunch of similar posts, but all were for automatic transmission... mine is a manual. I think the transmission is probably fine... since it doesn't make any noise or anything, and reverse feels normal when it does go in. And the AWD seems to work properly... power to the rear wheels, but no binding.

What year legacy? I consistently got 27mpg at 75-80mph (pretty much floored), 30mpg at 55-60mph, and 36mpg at 40-45mph highway (yes... following a VW bus on I80 for almost 1000 miles), in a 1990 5MT AWD. The 2007 automatic outback's at work only got about 26-27mpg at 70-75mph highway with the EJ25... still not bad for a bit heavier car.

A '93 impreza has an airbag? I thought they didn't get them till 1995? Or did they get them earlier than the legacies? Z

The '90 legacy I just picked up has 326k on it (not sure if it's the original engine or not), and it averaged 25mpg on one tank, and 27.5mpg on another... that's driving it as fast as I can on canyon roads, pretty much. I don't think that's too bad..... It's kind of odd to think that this legacy is actually older than the first subaru I ever owned, a '82 GL wagon, was when I owned it 10 years ago. My Justy -- 4wd, 5 speed, gets about 33mpg reliably, and up to 36 to 40mpg on highway trips. It's not something most people would drive long distances.... 70mph is top end (rpm limited mostly) and it's like driving a go cart. I just drove it 1100 miles to salt lake city and back though... From a reliability standpoint, I get the impression that it's more like an american car.. 150k and you need a new engine, vs what we're used to out of subarus. Yeah... I wish they'd bring the diesel over to the US...

Hmmmmmmmm.... so the "bad starter" was actually due to stoned people trying to do auto mechanics... they had connected the ground cable to the positive starter solinoid terminal, and the positive wire was just hanging below the starter, unconnected. Duh... And they had put in a new battery, but neglected to clean any of the crud off the terminals, so they were not touching the metal 10 minutes of minor work, and it starts fine now. No idle till it's fully warmed up, so I got a replacement Idle Air Control to put on it, which hopefully will solve that. Z

The idea of getting a complete assembled kit sounds great.... that would turn it into about an hour per wheel, or less -- maybe 20 minutes per wheel if you had your shop together, compared to a bit longer fooling around with the spring compressor and all. That being said, I replaced a set of front struts that was completely failed -- zero resistance going in or out at all. And, the rest of the assembly seemed to be fine. It also needed one new ball joint, but other than that, the beating did not seem to have affected most of the suspension other than the struts themselves.

Selling it... it needed another $1100 to pass emissions, and I didn't have it... That's after taking 8 months to get the title for it. The low range on it was awesome though... I took it places this summer that there's no way a stock impreza would have gone. I kind of want to do a dual range full size outback -- 96-99 style, sometime, when I get more money. Z

Just picked one up for $600 -- 326k on it, 5 speed, light blue. Everything appears to work, and it runs really quiet and smooth, and quite a bit of power (engine alledgedly has only 150k on it). Sounds like it might have a bad right axle bearing and the starter is shot, and of course it's got a few dents and some minor cracks on the windshield, but other than that, not a bad deal. Found a good set of barely used studded snow tires for $250, and it'll be a good commuter for the winter.

I just had to laugh when I saw the title for this... coming more from the old gen side, an EJ22 swap means going from about 85HP to at least 140HP... a stock EJ22 has so much more power (than an EA82) that needing more power out of it is not usually the problem.

Maybe on the wagons... I think the sedans might have taken a narrower tire stock. And 2wd ones took a smaller tires stock as well, IIRC. Z

I'll have to see... they probably match in size, since I almost never get anything other than 175/75/13, but type I don't know... I think there's quite a few singles, but there might be a pair. Z

I still think about putting my spare mitsubishi diesel + 4x4 tranny into my sasquatch.... if the stock engine didn't run perfectly fine already in there...

You're on the other side of the country.... but I have quite a few random 13's in my storage... Z

So... 1991 Justy, MPFI... it's throwing two engine codes, a 62 and a 43.... electrical load, and throttle. The check engine light comes on intermittently while driving, usually under light load or coasting, but usually goes out under sustained flooring of it. It runs pretty good, other than occasionally hiccupping while shifting, and occasionally refusing to start when hot (acts like its flooded). So....got any ideas what it might be? or what the heck these codes mean? Z

You asked for opinions.... I use 5W50 or 5W40 synthetic in mine. Synthetic because it starts better in the winter -- you can hear how gooey the regular stuff is at 0F. It seems to rev better with the synthetic too. And with 5W50 it only burns/leaks a quart every 4 tanks, instead of every tank like with 10W30 dino (240k or so on it). Switching to 5W50 in the winter and 10W40 in the summer might work too, except it's hard to tell when winter and summer switch here in colorado (combined with my propensity to travel between the mountains at 10,000feet elevation and the flatlands down at 5,000 all the time too.... it'll go between -10F and 65F in the "winter", and 30F and 100F in the "summer"

How about the stock courier rims (from a '72 to '75 or so, I'm thinking) - -those are alot more carlike looking than the white spoke ones. Z

Junk is a relative term. I admit the Mitsubishi trucks aren't as reliable as a toyota or subaru.... but my D50 sure was a lot better than anything made in the US.

Maybe.... I priced them on Rock Auto, and for the front cat it was $180, for the back cat 220ish, and then another $100 for the O2 sensor in the back (which is the wrong one for some reason -- guess it's not the same as the front one that Checker auto sold me. If it's just bolting and unbolting stuff... I can do that. I do have a wirefeed welder, but would prefer not to have to weld exhaust pipe together under the car since I don't have a lift and welding while laying right under it isn't so much fun BTDT It's a '97 outback impreza with the 2.2 liter, if that makes a difference. Z

Well.... I took the impreza into the shop to figure out why it still wouldn't pass emissions, and they said the cat is disintegrating and sending bits back into the muffler (explains the exhaust rattle...). They are estimating $1000 to fix it, and that's not including if it needs a new muffler. Ouch. I priced out the same components myself, and came to $500 in components alone, the cheapest places I could find them. So much for the dual range impreza... Not sure when I'll have the cash to fix that.