zyewdall

150,000 miles. Not bad at all. Does it have the 2.5 liter engine (I don't know that the non-US market got in different years). If so, you should ask if the head gaskets have been changed, as the '97 EJ2.5 had issues with the head gaskets. Also see when the timing belt was last changed, since this is an interference engine.

Is the tranny fluid full, and good fluid? Only thing I can think of is that sitting stopped in drive is heating the fluid up after a minute, and causing it to do something.... not sure what though....

Pull it as far as you can upwards into 4wd. Try starting from a dead stop in 2nd gear. If it's really easy, it's got low range. If it feels like trying to start it in 2nd normally feels, it doesn't have low range. 2nd gear low range is about the same feel as 1st gear hi range as far as rpm vs road speed.

Yeah! How about four or five of them, hooked back to back like a big caterpillar. That would be awfully hard to get stuck, because the chances of all five segments being out of traction at the same time would be pretty low. Turning it around would be a pain though. Maybe make it dual controls at both ends so you don't have to.

Either the little screw that holds the rotor in place fell out and the rotor is spinning on the shaft, or you are missing some teeth on the drivers side timing belt. If the rotor isn't turning, the plugs won't fire, because the rotor isn't connecting them to the wires. This sounds exactly like what mine did when the belt went -- looked fine still, till I took it off, and found about 2 inch of teeth missing where it went around the crankshaft pully. Try cranking it with the timing covers off, and I'll bet the drivers side timing belt doesn't move. Zeke

Not necessarily. Bring the second car along with its own robot driver, following you around on the trails. Should really freak the jeep people out.... subaru doesn't even need driver for offroading.... http://www.darpa.mil/GRANDCHALLENGE/

I never noticed a problem with the GL/Loyale headlights. The car can't go fast enough to overrun the headlights generally (and I'm usually on backroads with the highbeams on). The low beams are better than my truck which has the four small rectangular sealed beam halogens. Several other people have commented that it didn't seem adequate when they borrowed my car though -- probably used to newer superbright ones like 83sub4wd said. I didn't know they had deregulated. I like that they're glass, so they don't yellow like alot of the much newer plastic ones I see on other cars. I do have a chip in one of mine, that leaks. As far as availability, all of the parts stores here carry a good assortment of square and round sealed beam halogens, plus the halogen bulbs, so I don't see either as an issue. And, yes, it's disconcerting when you are on a backroad, and you can see the shadow of your own car in front of you when you already have your highbeams on, because some yahoo in a giant SUV with 6 headlights is driving up your bumper.... happens to me fairly often but other than that, I don't have a big problem with my headlights. I have though of adding some driving lights pointed slightly to the right and left -- for seeing deer on the curvy mountain roads. I'd hook them up so they were only on with the highbeams, so I wouldn't be blinding anyone with them.

CEL is probably from the oxygen sensor (if it still runs okay). Autozone probably won't know how to pull the codes from this -- you have to plug two wires under the hood together and read the code from a blinking LED under the dash. The writeup with details is somewhere on the board. Personally, I'd try to sell it for $1200 or $1k (no rust!!!), and buy an old GL wagon for $500 (around here I see a dozen for sale in that range every month) Won't look as pretty, but it'll have 4wd and you can make a nice offroader with a little lift. You do tend to fall in love with them... I still regret selling all of my previous ones (even though there were reasons I got rid of them). But I can't really have 5 of them sitting around, right....

Yeah, a '91 loyale is exactly the same body as a GL wagon from '85 to '89 so lifting it isn't the problem. The problem is not having low range in the tranny. If you put bigger tires on the there, the engine won't have enough umph to go up steep hills. But, you can always swap in a dual range tranny from a GL too to get the lower crawling gear. Neat subaru fact of the day: The dual range in subaru 4wd's is not from a transfer case on ouput shaft of the transmission like in most 4wd trucks. Instead, there is a stepdown unit in the input shaft of the transmission, before it starts going through all the gears (R, 1,2,3,4,5). This saves alot of weight, and essentially allows the use of a front wheel drive transaxle (with an extra driveshaft coming out the back for the rear wheels). But some people put a transfer case one the back of the subaru transmission, put a divorced transfer case and axle for the front wheels (instead of the one inside the transmission that is stock), and take off the original front axles which come directly out of the transmission. I only learned this recently.

I love your outlook. People on the next gen forum are freaking out when the head gasket goes. The only thing you can think of that's bad about it is that there's snow on the ground and its 5 degrees outside... :clap:

Well, first of all, loyales are 4wd, not AWD. They have single range 4wd. The GL wagons from '89 and earlier had dual range 4wd (except for some of the turbo ones which were AWD with a locking center diff), which you sort of have to have if you're doing a lift and putting bigger tires on. I like 4wd (without the center diff) better -- but you can't use it on pavement. If you're used to 4wd trucks you know this. My personal recommendation is a '88 or '89 GL, because they still had dual range, and had fuel injection which has more power and less problems with vacuum lines. Or a '81 - '84 GL or hatch. Those had a different engine which had less power, but a little more low end torque, and doesn't have timing belts. And not quite as complicated of carb. My personal experience with my GL wagon (not lifted), and my 4wd mitsubishi pickup is that the subaru does better under snowy conditions than the truck does, until ground clearance becomes an issue. Even with a bunch of cinder blocks in the back of the truck it seems like I'm spinning the wheels more. As far as the head gaskets... You can probably find a new EA82 engine for $250. I redid the head gaskets in one of my subaru's, and it took way longer than swapping engines would have taken. About 4 weeks of evenings (interrupted by some snowstorms, if I recall). It wasn't that hard, and was sort of fun to see all the internals, but I can swap an engine in a day and a half, and some people on here claim a day. In general, the old subarus are very easy cars to work on (compared to all the transverse engine fwd cars at least) Other things to look out for is leaking oil (they're known for leaking -- keep up filled), and timing belts. People are always breaking timing belts, because no one ever replaces them on time. They are non-interference engines, so you just stop till you put a new belt in. You'll find that this forum is awesome -- there's almost nothing I'm afraid to attempt, because if I get stuck, theres someone on here who's done something even crazier.

The smoke after a tight curve could be from oil getting into the cylinders. I know that if you lay a subaru over at a sharp angle for a while, it'll blow blue smoke for a few minutes when you start it up again (don't ask how I know...). Perhaps the centripital force going around the curve is enough to burn some oil.

The problem is that cigarette lighter plugs were never designed as 12 volt electrical sockets. Everyone uses them as such, but it's a bad idea. Because they are illegal in houses (and dangerous) we use 240 volt 20 amp sockets instead for the 12VDC (which actually meets NEC code if there is no 240vac present in the house). For an Ipod, I'd use an RCA plug for the DC power connection. It'll handle up to about 3 amps easily. And if you're going to be running 1500 watts from an inverter in the car, I'd hard wire it to the batteries with #2AWG cable though.... that's what my truck has for its inverter (though I would still never use a hairdryer from it... I never do in my house either)

Yes, it's possible that the fuel pump/wiring could go bad from just sitting -- or at least I too have had that problem. Pickup sat for about 9 months (with stabil in the gas), and started up right away, but after about 20 minutes it stalled. There was no fuel in the clear carbureator bowl at all. Turns out there was something fubared in the wiring to the fuel pump, though the pump itself was still fine. Replaced the wiring, and it runs fine again. I suspect a mouse or rat may have chewed something while it was sitting, or maybe just corrosion. If you can get it running again, it might eventually repair itself, strange as that sounds. I have another truck which sat for 7 years while the engine was rebuilt. When I first started driving it this summer, it had all kinds of electrical gremlins, but oddly enough, the more I drive it, the more stuff works like its supposed to.... relays loosening up again I guess.

They wanted to replace the differential fluid, or the actual differentials? The differentials are the things that allow the two wheels on different sides to turn at different speeds when you go around a curve. The back one is easy to see under the back of the car inbetween the wheels -- the bulbous thing the two axles and the driveshaft all go into. The front one is inside the transmission. I second the suggestion to have the tires checked.

Yeah, my dad's '96 OBW cost $6,300 in WA (from a dealer) with 140k on it, three years ago. I don't know if the NE is like Colorado, but here, any subaru's on craigslist are usually sold within three days... so jump on it if you want it.

I'd get a new engine and drop it in there. A year or two ago, I did a head gasket on my beloved '85 GL (after doing alot of the block seal stuff, which worked for a few months), and it took four weeks (and then the carb and alternator died, and it needed a new heater core too). I ended up getting rid of it shortly thereafter. I wish that I'd just bought a used engine for $300 (which I know now is a two day job to swap), or even done the SPFI swap. Not that I don't like my '89 GL I got instead, but the guy I sold the '85 to drove it for 6 months then sent it to the crusher when the starter motor died (a rust free body too...

Try holding the pedal to the foor while cranking it -- somehow this sets the computer to stop giving it fuel. I stalled and flooded my '89GL once (same engine as yours) and couldn't get it to start for half an hour of trying. As soon as I held the pedal all the way to the floor and cranked for about 5-10 seconds it sputtered to life.

Yeah... they don't have a timing chain on the four cylinder, which would be what the '98 had. If he can give you records that the timing belt and head gaskets were changed as he said, it sounds pretty good. Low mileage for most the '98s I see. Out here, that would be a reasonable price. Maybe try talking him down to $5 even if it needs new brakes soon.

Any white smoke? Any leaks? It's quite possible that the head gasket is blown in such a way that water and oil aren't mixing, but it is burning coolant. And you can't always see the white smoke either, in my experience.

If you're thinking about kludging an EA82 pump on there, why not just save yourself the trouble and leave the pump out completely? Although my '84GL had a power steering pump, it was disconnected (no belt, no hoses). Still seemed to work fine.

190k counts at high mileage? I've only once had a subaru with less than that (bought it with 189k). My dad's outback wagon has 168k now, and still runs great. I've heard of people getting up to about 300k on one of these engines.

I remember about $60 at Checker for a rebuilt EA81 master cylinder. Seems like EA82 might be similar? The shipping stuff is crap -- if you pick it up at their store it comes on their regular parts shipment even if they ordered it from another store, and they shouldn't charge you shipping. Or at least that's how Checker is. About 75% of the stuff I get there they have to order, and I've never paid shipping.

Yeah, regrettable that so many manfacturers are showing turbodiesels in the car shows, but when they reach the floor in the US its always a gas.... I want a VW Taro pickup (European/african market rebadged toyota hilux from the mid 90's, but with solid front axle still, and will happily cruise at 85-90 on the highway with the turbodiesel, and also climb piles of rocks and sanddunes with 1,000+lbs of gear in the back). There is supposed to be a 2 liter diesel H-4 subaru engine introduced in the UK this year. Wonder if it'll bolt to an EJ or EA transmission..... The 70's FJ landcruisers had plenty of low end torque with their inline 6. Nothing above 50mph though..... Never driven a toyota pickup (except for the Taro I guess) newer than '89, so I don't know how they are...

To me having a loud car is a sign that you are either not a good enough mechanic to maintain your own car, or that you are too poor to maintain it properly (I know alot of people in the second category, and I can't really fault them). When in civilization, I don't pee on public sidewalks, and I don't let my cars get too loud. Simple courtesy. If I'm out in the country I pee where I want, and I don't worry about it so much if the muffler falls off.