zyewdall

I spotted this last week while I was down on the Navajo reservation in Arizona amid a whole bunch of old dissasembled chevy trucks down in a wash behind one of the settlements. Looks like a front wheel drive 5 speed coupe to me -- not sure what year exactly. It was on the road not long ago apparently. Tags on it expired in 2001.

Hey I like that. I always liked the old woody wagons, and I think the forester looks pretty good as one. Way better than silver or tan that most cars nowdays come in. Bleah. I do think that dark blue or red would better than brown. I especially like the big chrome hubcaps -- maybe it's just me, but alloy wheels never did it for me.

Same here -- already sold. Wonder who got it. I was pretty excited about getting a '98 outback for only twice as much as I paid for my old GL wagon. Even if it did need a new engine. Oh well.

I don't really like turbo's on gas engines (diesels are a different matter -- I really like my turbo on that) so I'll let other people answer the turbo specific questions. On the other questions: 4) If you want a little larger diamter tires, run 185/70/13's instead of 175/70/13's. They're actually the same diameter as the low profile 14's that alot of cars run. People do put 14" peogot wheels on them, or even 15" toyota truck wheels (with modification), but that's for offroading. And you have to raise the car to make them fit, which seems to be the opposit of what you want. I have seen lowered ones occasionally, but I'm not sure how. You'll find that hardly anyone does this. I personally like mine stock. Enough ground clearance for some snow and dirt roads, but still handles well on the highway. Not like a little honda civic hatchback, true, but way better than any SUV or my truck, especially in snow. 5) Check if you've got a warped rotor maybe? 6) These are vacuum controlled switches. There is a canister on the passenger side firewall of the engine up under the dash sort of, with vacuum lines going to it. If there are leaks, or if the canister has a broken diaphram, it won't change. The panel vents is the default position, so that's where it goes to if something breaks. On mine, it switches to the panel vents whenever I go up a steep hill and the engine vaccuum goes down. 7) Don't let them overheat -- they blow head gaskets if you do (duh). Keep clean oil in them (they tend to leak and/or burn it, although they'll still run forever). Change the timing belt every 60k, unless you want to get stranded when it breaks. They're non-interference engines, so no one ever changes the belts on time. That's pretty much it.

I think Cougar may have it. Or: Electrical Gremlins. One of their favorite habitats (other than british cars) is old subaru's. To fix this requires proper karma, fung shei, an exorcist, a little application of voodoo, and a little bit of jedi powers. A mere voltmeter and copper wire seldom has any effect in my experience.

Yeah, you need those, but on mine at least, those are not the same studs that hold the fan on. IIRC, the studs that hold the fan on are on the pulley, not the water pump. Or actually, I think there are bolts that go through the pulley to the water pump, then studs on the pulley for the fan. I don't know how subaru managed to make an car that had mostly interchangeable parts from 1985 till 1994, yet used three or four different water pumps in one year...

Hmmm. Sounds like a grabby clutch. I think this is usually from getting oil on the friction disk -- possibly from a leaking transmission seal, or main engine seal? Anyone else have ideas?

Yeah. They couldn't seem to get the right water pump for mine either. Took three times to get the right one. Apparently it's different if you have the factory AC vs the dealer AC, or no AC. The two different AC version are only 5 mm different but enough to make the belts not line up. Plus the studs are different, like Caboobaroo said. If you get the one for a car without any AC, it doesn't have any studs, because they didn't have an engine mounted fan, apparently.

Probably not adjusted correctly. First check that it actually has the hill holder cable going from the clutch release fork to the hill holder cylinder under the master cylinder. I've seen ones that have been disconnected and taken of. If it's not adjusted right, it will release the brakes before the clutch starts engaging. If it's adjusted to far the other way, it'll never release the brakes . You need to find the point where it releases the brakes just before the clutch grabs.

We need more info! Is the whole car shaking? Can you feel it more in the steering wheel, or pedals, or just general shaking? Does it vary with the speed of the car. Or going around turns. How about if you rev the engine in nuetral. It is an automatic or a manual? Any noises associated with it?

So. I've found a really nice looking '98 legacy outback wagon for sale. For $1,000. In the ad, the owner said it needs a new engine, for $3 - $4k. My first thought was that the head gaskets went out on it, and I can fix that pretty easily. But then I thought -- what if he snapped the timing belt on it. What would that have broken? Probably enough to make it cheaper to get a used engine than rebuilding it? We'll see if he calls me back with more info on why it died. No matter what, I still think it would be well worth it even if I have to throw a used engine in, but just wondering what happens in an intereference engine when the belt goes. Zeke

In the right application, it could be alot of fun, you're right. I think for what most people use a blower for, it would be great. We have a 300' long driveway, and some parking areas for 10-20 cars, and a blower would take forever. We have a old 3/4 ton chevy truck dedicated to plowing, and it gets thrown around alot even weighing 7,000 lbs. Ramming the piles of snow at the edges to get the snow farther away/higher is what really does it. It can't handle stuff over about 12" at once unless it's really powdery, so we end up plowing it two times during some storms. For the big spring storms, the backhoe has to come out (or when the plow truck gets high centered -- it has happened). If we had a smaller area to plow, I think a subaru would be great for 4 to 6" of stuff.

If it's not getting up to operating temp, it could explain the poor gas mileage. My GL takes about 3 miles through the city to get up to full temp usually. I try to bike if I'm going less than 5 miles or so (and don't need the cargo space).

Could you have knocked something wrong on the carbureator when you were in there? Does it get up to proper operating temperature? Thermostat stuck open, and colder weather is affecting it? Dunnno. You replaced all the stuff I'd normally say to replace.

Is it an auto or manual? Do you drive like a grandma in the city? It still seems sort of low even for city driving, but if you are really stomping on the gas and brakes alot, maybe not. What kind of hydrogen injection system. I'm convinced that those violate the first law of thermodynamics, but I'm also thinking of trying one if they're not too expensive, mostly just to see if the supposed combustion efficiency increase really does outweigh the losses from turning electricity from the alternator into hydrogen. EDIT: this should actually be in the New Gen forum. Legacies aren't old gen.

Yeah, rubber gets old after 8 years. Replace it just because sooner or later, it'll start leaking, or blow a hose. Same with the fan/alternator/etc belt. And if you're in there to replace the timing belt, do the water pump at the same time just for good measure. I have a '61 landrover with the original hoses on it, so they certainly CAN last longer. They don't leak (probably fused to the block by now), but I would not drive it more than a mile or two without replacing them though -- they bulge ominously.

I had a '87 and and '89 GL, and the '87 freaked me out when I first drove it because it went up to halfway on the temp scale, and I was used to my '89 which always sits at 1/4 on it. Both seem to have decent heat, and they never vary from where they like to sit, so I guess both are okay. I haven't checked to see if one has the 192F thermostat, and the other has the 180F thermostat.

Call them Leone's then -- that's what both the EA71's/EA81's and EA82's were called for the whole 20 years or so outside of the US, instead of this DL/GL/Loyale stuff. I love going to the parts store and ask for parts for a '89 Leone Yeah, I love the dual range in mine, but I'd still take a pushbutton 4wd one over most other cars out there. I will never ever own another automatic transmission though. As far as the trim levels, I don't notice that much -- perhaps why I'm not impressed with the gadgets on most new cars.

Probably because the suby will get at least 5mpg better mileage in that sort of stop and go use. Old subaru's usually cost about $500 -- why not have him get his own.

Yeah. There is a lighting relay or two. I think my '82 GL might have had three. One for running lights, one for low beams, and one for high beams, because I just lost my low beams. If the car warmed up, the low beams would start working again. I never did find the relay, as the rest of the car gave out soon after that.

I've never been able to push the clutch fork by hand, even on perfectly good cars. It's actually the pressure plate fingers that you are pushing against here, so if that is it, replacing the pressure plate is what you'd have to do. Unless somehow it is REALLY binding up. The pressure plate fingers are so strong compared to even some really gluey grease that I have a hard time imagining this. I had a '87 GL that had a really stiff clutch. I tried lubricating the clutch cable to no effect, and it just seemed to get worse. It seemed to slide fine when not attached to the release fork. I put a new cable on there, not expecting it to actually do anything, and it completely fixed it. Some people have also said stuff about proper routing of the clutch cable -- I can only find one logical way to route it, but I guess if you had it wrong somehow, it could bind up.

Yeah. Lots of subies get used for paper routes and mail delivery. The things to know is that you're going to have to replace the brakes, and probably the clutch, alot sooner than if you drove the same number of miles on the highway. I can't really think of anything else that will be harmed by it.

Ah. No pics, but give me a few weeks, and I'll get some more . I did 19" of fresh powder in my stock wagon -- barely noticed it. But that stuff you're in looks wet, judging by the lack of snow on the trees.

Tempting if you live in the northeast. But... for the undercarriage, I spent $30 for four cans of really expensive spray on tar undercoating, and did my truck in about two hours. Even if I redo this every two years, it's wayyyyy cheaper than the dealer. I know I should wash winter salt off every week, but I don't always get to it, so I invested the time to tar coat it instead. This was a 21 year old truck that didn't come with a tar undercoating (with no rust!, since it lived in New Mexico and central Washington before I got it). I don't know if the newer subaru's come with factory undercoating already, but my '89 GL did, either from the factory or a previous owner. Just make sure you don't get it on the exhaust system. Phew!

Hmmmmmmm. Will it fire if you spray ether into the throttle body? If so, it could narrow it down to just the fuel system, and rule out the ignition system. What were the exact codes thrown? Not to chase codes, but it might help us think of something else that would also throw the same code. Had you done anything that might have knocked any wiring harness connectors loose?