zyewdall

Yeah. It'll flash in long and short flashes. The number of long flashes is the first digit of the code, and the number of short flashes is the second digit of the code. I think the USRM has a list of the codes. My Chilton's did too. Z

Ouch. That IS bad mileage. A bad tank of gas (like the E10 that they sell here in the winter) would give you maybe 20% less mileage -- but not half the mileage you'd expect. What were you getting before? Thermostat stuck open or clogged injectors would be my guess. Does the temp guage seem normal? Also, check to see if there are any fuel leaks -- maybe it's leaking out, not being used.

What code does it give? (connect together the wires near the windshield wiper motor -- two black ones I think? or maybe white or green -- and there will be a blinking light under the steering column inside that gives the code) It could be the O2 sensor, which perhaps is being affected by some oil in the cylinder, but most likely is unrelated. If your oil pressure is still good and it's not overheating, the head gasket probably won't have any effect on the engine running, or the computer, in my experience. Mine was to the point of burning/leaking a half gallon of coolant every 20 miles, and still ran perfectly fine as long as I kept water in there so it didn't overheat.....

You are probably more likely to break axles with low range 2wd, because it's twice as much torque as any one axle will see otherwise. I know that on old landrovers and jeeps this was one idea behind only offering low range in 4wd, to keep from breaking axles. That being said, I have my car in 4wd low sometimes when I don't need 4wd at all, but just want the lower crawling speed.

Subaru axles are easy (and clean) compared to my VW rabbit I was fighting with yesterday. Trying to reassemble the inner right CV joint -- you know the one right under the middle of the car under the exhaust manifold, laying on my back with grease covered ball bearings falling out of the CV joint on me. Ick.

I've got one of the mexican built 1990 GTI's right now that I just put a diesel engine from a '89 jetta into. The diesel engine runs fine (hot wired it and started it for the first time this morning), but when I started looking at the wiring under the dash to wire it up the ignition switch and such. Bleah! and I thought my '89 GL had too many wires.... The subaru is way simpler to work on for most mechanical stuff too. And yeah, rabbits are pretty unstoppable in the snow. Except when compared to a subaru.

Huh... wrong thread maybe? On the 2006 forester, I don't know for this car, but I do know that many new cars actually do have room for a full sized spare, but just come with the donut because it's cheaper to sell you.

Hmmm. rereading your question, perhaps you mean to use a different tranny, but still use the EA81 engine? And not replace both like I originally though. I still don't know of any longitudinal rear wheel drive trannies that subaru adaptors are regularly made for....

Well. The problem is the only thing remotely the same shape as the flat four EA81 is the VW flat fours. The air cooled ones are neat, but low HP, and the water cooled ones don't live very long compared to the subaru ones. And none of them bolt to any stock longitudinal trannies either (that I know of) But maybe if you put a different tranny in there, you could move the engine back, and fit an inline four in there. It'll still be hard. I am trying to put a VW diesel engine in my '89 GL, using the original subaru tranny, and there are no adaptor plates made for it, and I'm going to have to move the radiator, and maybe cut the hood too.

If you are going to use the EA82 engine from the loyale, just find a '85 - '87 carbbed EA82 and you can swap the entire intake manifold onto it. The compression ratio is a little higher for the SPFI EA82, but other than that, the SPFI and carbbed engines are the same from the intake manifold down. You'll also need the distributor from the carbbed one.

You can melt end of the steel axle off. I did that on a 24' box truck -- right front wheel bearing went out, and the whole right front wheel/hub/disc brake melted off and took of on it's own. Luckily we were only going about 30 on a flat highway with a wide shoulder when it came loose (5 miles from the end of a 4000 mile trip). Thing handled almost the same skidding on the axle beam as it did with two front wheels.... The thing we were most worried about was the glowing red wheel starting a forest fire as it bounded away on its own.

Yeah, yeah... be advised that no one here in CO uses turn signals either (or maybe they're just all burned out). That's like rural colorado and washington. Don't even need to see the vehical.

Yeah diesels hate running cold, but they also (at least mine) warm up very slowly when idling. A certain amount of warming up is necessary to get it to actually run, but once the oil pressure is up there for the turbo, it is running smoothly, and the white smoke has ceased, (between 30 seconds in the summer and 4 or 5 minutes in the winter), I either try to start driving it really gently, or I turn all the accessories on to increase load, because otherwise, it can idle for 15 or 20 minutes (when it's 15F outside at least) and still not move the guage off the bottom. I also try to run it nice and hot and floor a few times a day to burn off any carbon buildup during the low temp starts. I've been getting crappy mileage in my truck the last few weeks -- 20-21mpg on the last two tanks instead of 24-25 usually. I think its partly because I'm warming it up longer cause it's been cold, operating at colder engine temps till it warms up which uses more fuel, and probably also because I've been in 4wd going slower too.

Well, we do have pretty bad pollution in Denver (brown haze over the entire city till the wind comes and blows it into Kansas), but I think we have a much lower population density. The whole denver metro area is 2.4 million, and new reports this morning were talking about 7 million people just trying to get to work in NYC with the transit strike. We also have a few coal fired power plants helping create smog for us, but so to you, upwind in Ohio and such. We also have a retarded state government, that almost eliminated the entire emissions testing program entirely this fall, because it cost too much. Yeah it's a hassle, but without it, we'd have even dirtier air than we do now... Rocky Mountain National Park already doesn't meet air quaility standars in the summer because of the car exhaust coming up from denver. What about pre-OBDII cars?

Of course automatic transmissions suck, by nature. But if you're asking about mechanical durability, not personal preference, from what I've heard, the new subaru automatics are very good, and some people have even recommended them over the manuals for longevity (since the subaru clutch isn't quite up to serious off roading without dual range). If it hasn't been abused, it seems like 100k is pretty young for either a manual or auto tranny. If you don't mind driving an automatic, I wouldn't avoid it just because of maintenance concerns. If you want to find a manual, try looking in a big city for a good deal. Often easy to pick up a manual tranny car for cheap there, because everyone wants an automatic for idling in traffic and yappin on their cell phones.

They seriously pull the codes when they do the inspection??? I never realized how easy our inspections here in Colorado are. No roadworthy inspections at all, and only a dynamometer run, gas cap check, and make sure the CEL isn't on, for the emissions.

Yup. Clockwise to screw them in. Loosen the bleeder valve to let off pressure and its a little easier. Still usually involves some swearing. I usually use a pair of 8" needle nose pliers to turn it. They seem to go in very slowly, but after a few minutes of turning and grunting (and don't stab yourself with the pliers either), it's done. If you have someone else to hold the caliper while you do it, it's easier. or maybe that tool that iamtheq showed. Is that seriously the right tool and not some chinese puzzle?

Yeah. Some good suggestions above. It should go faster. My '89 GL wagon (which is SPFI instead of carbureated, so has a little more power), has a top speed on the flat of about 85mph. The person I sold my '85 to said he got it up to 92mph -- not quite sure how, since I never got it above 85, and that was going down hill.

I backed into a drift pretty hard once (turning around), and when I tried to pull forward again found that all four wheels were off the ground.... hehe

Well, you could take the bulb out. But they probably check that it comes on before starting it and won't pass it if it always off. It's likely to be the O2 sensor, if the car is still running fine. Is it seriously 100 miles to the nearest auto place? I didn't think Maine was that big. You can get your own OBDII reader for about $120, and reset it yourself. Don't know how long it'll stay off if the problem is still there though. Another thought -- does this car automatically turn the CEL on at a certain mileage to make you go in for scheduled maintenance?

What about welding a new steel plate on the bottom of the car, then through bolting it? if it was a large enough plate (say a foot by two feet?), you should be able to get enough area to keep it from moving. I've seen similar stuff done on old scouts from the east coast, where the entire bottom of the body rusted off, and was replaced by sections of diamond plate.

The O2 sensor being bad doesn't hurt anything, but it can make your gas mileage decrease. A generic O2 sensor is $20 or so for my car -- you just have solder the wire to it. I don't know if you can use the generic sensors for the newer cars (mine is '89), but you might look into it. I've heard that subaru's don't like Bosch spark plugs. Wrong heat range. I use the higher end NKG ones now -- can't say I really notice a difference, but I did replace a set of worn out NKG plugs with nice new expensive Bosch ones once, and didn't get any increase in gas mileage that I expected with new plugs. Who knows.

I don't know about manuals promoting good habits... I'm so used to manuals (and almost never drive an automatic) that I automatically jam my left foot hard on the brake whenever I drive an auto... ooops, that's not the clutch.

Think about Colorado, Washington, Oregon, or California for a rust free Loyale. Especially California. I got an '87 Gl with 220k miles without a spot of rust on it that was a California car. Even the Colorado ones don't look that good, and they do look good compared to east coast. There was a lifted '85 GL (same as the loyale, only with dual range) for sale here recently, $1500.

If it's fluffy snow maybe. But then if there's a hidden rock or chunk of ice, your oil pan or oil pressure sensor takes the brunt. Ouch. I've thought about making a full width winter edition skid plate for my friend's '90 legacy. Last winter she ripped the plastic skid plate off, and has actually ripped outer CV boots off and blown side walls out of tires coming up her driveway when the ice filled ruts have formed. Just driving up to her house in the winter is more serious offroading than most SUV's ever see. I'm a little suprised she hasn't taken off her tie rods yet.