zyewdall

Sounds a little atypical for subarus. I've never bought one with less than 180k on it, and while one of them did seem to have an inordinant amount of problems, you can't really call it a lemon for that when it's had 8 owners and 220k miles, and you don't have any maintenance history. My first one had all kinds of things fall off, but it still ran fine, and considering I bought it for $50, the value per dollar was still really high. My current one has 206k on it, and since I've owned it the non-scheduled maintenance has been a new headlight bulb and a radiator hose.

Yeah, subaru's are nice that way. I've bought them for $200 for parts cars, then decided to drive them instead and passed emissions with flying colors. Better than some of the horror stories I've heard about some other brands -- my landlord's '87 dodge dakota with 120k on it took a complete tuneup and a brand new carbureator before it would barely pass.

I thought that either 60,000 or 100,000 miles was the recommended timing belt interval, so it's a little odd that they want to do it at 90,000.... But if 90,000 IS the right inverval: I believe this is an interference engine, so yes, it is necessary (or you'll have to replace valves and pistons and heads when it eventually breaks). Since the water pump is driven by the timing belt on this (I think?), I'd replace it at the same time.

Because when you are making a turn, the front wheels have to travel farther than the back wheels (in addition to the wheels on one side traveling farther). Take a look at the tracks you leave in fresh snow or dirt when making a tight turn, and you'll see how the front wheels go farther than the back ones. If you are going straight, the front wheels and back wheels are each turning the same distance, so it doesn't matter if the center diff is locked.

Get a pump for any carbureated small gas car and you should have approximately the right delivery and pressure. They aren't real picky.

If they want a hummer, a subaru is probably totally out of the question. Both have a certain status around thier name, which may or may not have anything to do with the actual car. Most subaru people wouldn't be caught dead driving a hummer, and vice versa. There are logical arguments about why the hummer is a good off road vehical. But it's still a Hummer, so I would view driving one as a form of public humiliation. Maybe a H6 or Tribeca would entice them though, as those are getting pretty far away from the old subaru paradigm of cheap 4wd car. For long term reliability, I'd get something japanese. The subaru's, or a 4runner or landcruiser, or lexus if they want really high end. My friend was just telling me this weekend that she expects her new Ford Explorer to have something major go wrong around 60k miles. This is while we are driving to go skiing in my '89 GL with 206k, because it's better in the snow anyway.

Well, my 2meter is still just plugged into the cigarette lighter outlet. I don't know if the radio harness can handle another 15 amps (which is what mine draws on high power transmitting) in addition to everything else on there. CB's are usually lower power than ham radios, but you don't want to overload anything. If you want a more hardwired way than just plugging it in, I'd try tapping into the positive and negative wires going into the back of the cigarette lighter plug. Zeke

Haha, that's funny. We don't get slush in the ski lots here till March or so usually. Some really nice powder up there (slopes, and all over the roads) this weekend though.

I will be gone for a week and a half starting on saturday, but it's only about 10 miles from where I live here. Let me know if you want me to take a look at it.

Talk to them -- see if they can hold it a month. I don't know how it is in wyoming, but in CO you have to post a bond for twice the value of the car as part of the process of getting a new title. More money... But that thing is probably worth at least $1,000 unless it's rustier than the picture implies. I might go have a look at it tonight

Saw this on craigslist this morning. I'd go get it, but I'm flat broke, and also under a car moratoreum order from my roommate/landlord... $300. '79 brat. http://denver.craigslist.org/car/122473931.html Zeke

Nice pics. Makes me miss the desert. We didn't have any subaru's in the sahara, but we did get a 6wd russian military dumptruck stuck for a while.

I've been following that thread too. Way to take initiative and actually do it, instead of just theorizing more and more about it on the computer :banana: Sounds like it works good. I would have, but my car's a manual, with locked 4wd already ('89 GL) The weird vibration you mention when both front are rear were spinning on the ice could have something to do with the auto transmission perhaps? I know that 4wd pickups with automatics (an older dodge dakota in particular) sometimes act weird when going slow through deep sugar-powder snow where you are spinning all the wheels. Where a manual would just happily spin the wheels and eventually get through (or stuck), the automatic starts shuddering sort of like the clutch is juddering, except it doesn't have a clutch. Anyone else know this effect that I'm talking about? I don't know why it might do this.

Hmmm. I'm pretty sure I've gotten it before, perhaps from Quaker state or Chevron though. ??

That's probably because they are so expensive that their demographic clientel wouldn't ever buy them. The Michelin EnergyMXV4Plus ones that I looked at were something like $90 each at Costco for 14" tires. (yeah, I know that that paper gives prices that aren't that bad -- but the particular size they had were for some reason...) I'm also not sure if they even make any of the low rolling resistance tires in the 13" size, but that shouldn't be an issue with your newer subaru.

Uh. That's a new one. The OBDII readers I've seen actually have a reset button on them.

140k miles? That's still virtually brand new. Mine had 220k when the body finally rusted away, and it still ran fine. Just keep changing the oil regularly.

Yup. EA81 engine.

I used the copper spray gasket stuff on them, and actually reused two of the old gaskets (between the two cars I merged, I found a set that wasn't broken and was still all flat and smooth). I used a grinder on the wye pipe to make it nice and smooth on top of the flange and take the rust and old gaskets off, and the block already looked good. It's held for a few months so far..... I've found that I usually end up taking the studs out of the block, rather than the nuts off the studs, when taking old ones apart. The subaru studs are pretty big diamter compared to most 4 cylinder engines, so it's not as easy to strip them, but I'd still be careful.

I assume you've already read all the stuff on rolling resistance and looked up the number for the different tires on the web? http://www.greenseal.org/recommendations/CGR_tire_rollingresistance.pdf I haven't used any of the special low rolling resistance tires yet, so I can't offer any direct experience. I did switch out my low profile 14" tires on my rabbit to regular 13" ones which have the same outside diameter, which theoretically should improve rolling resistance. I also happened to have an extra set of almost new michelins for the subaru sitting around that I wanted to use, instead of buying new 14" tires.

Didn't the parking brake move the rear wheels for the newer ones? If it's a caliper that also has the parking brake to it (like the fronts of all the old ones), you have to screw the caliper in, rather than press it in with the C-clamp. Otherwise you damage it. Make sure you find out which is the proceedure for yours (if you have a parking brake on the rear). Zeke

Really? On my EA82, it is just a gasket, and it's a sort of funny one too. It isn't just the large 3cm diameter hole, but a meshwork of little 4mm holes in the middle for the oil to go through.

In winter time, yeah, it sounds a little thick. 5W40 or 0W40 is what I usually use. In summertime, I don't run anything less than 50 in my car. Keeps it from burning quite as much. Keep it around for the next oil change going into the summer.

Where to get it? -- you can buy pretty cheap ($25 or so) steel rims for snow tires, and put a cheapo tire on it. I think you can buy them individually, not always in a set of four. Or see how much a junkyard wants for a subaru wheel. EA82 wheels are cheap, but I don't know how available used wheels from newer ones are. Where to put it? Under the hood of course. Unless you don't have one of the cool subaru's.... I assume since this is the next gen forum, you don't. Does the place for the small spare fit a larger one? On some cars it actually does, but they just don't give you one. On the outbacks, I can't remember if it's big enough or not. I've also see people mount it to the top of the hood like the old jeeps, to the front bumper, or stick on the roof rack. If your normal spare spot is large enough, that's probably the best though.

Yeah, I think you are right about that... On the wire, it should be one of the four terminals on the back of the actual ignition switch -- power in, ACC out, RUN out, and START out. At least on my '82 GL that's how it was. If you can get access to this (or find the pigtail that leads out of the ignition switch) you should be able to use the multimeter to determine which one turns on when it's in the ACC position and tap into this line. Also, did you check the fuseable links in the engine compartment?