zyewdall

Well, I decided to get rebuilt axles for both sides because my outer boots are torn. $50 each vs $7 each for the boots, but I figure if I'm putting in 3 or 4 hours of work to change them, I might as well not have something else on the axle fail in another 10,000 miles.... don't know if that's a good theory or not, but that was my thinking as of yesterday when I ordered the new axles... never tried the split boots, but I almost bought them instead this time. On the cruise control, my old '85 GL came with factory cruise control -- perhaps a junkyard would have one you could get? The other thing you could do is get a vernier throttle so you can hold the gas pedal at a certain position. A friend of mine has done that to a couple of 70's pickups that didn't come with cruise control, and to my '84 diesel truck. Doesn't repond to changes in grade like real cruise control, but nice on flat highway. Just remember to hit the big red button before putting the clutch in Zeke

Yikes! This is one reason I carry a small 5# ABC fire extinguisher under the passenger seat. A quick reponse by the driver can keep a small wiring fire from turning into a totalled vehical. Especially on the more remote highways where emergency response may be 40 miles away. I started carrying it after I saw a minivan with a small engine electrical fire go to a burned out shell (tires, doors, seats & trim, windows, everything, gone) 30 minutes later when the fire department arrived. Zeke

Jack up one wheel -- should free up any tensions in the drivetrain and it will go right into 2wd unless there's something binding up in the actual levers.

Sounds like the head gasket. My '85 did this -- no symptoms except the coolant was always getting low. Got to the point where I had to fill it up every 100 miles before I finally broke down and did the head gaskets. If you're lucky it could also be the intake manifold gasket I guess.

Hmmm. When mine went out only the splines in the hub stripped out. Axle looked okay so I just put a used hub on it and called it good. I also drove another 50 miles to the junkyard to get the used hub... Rear wheel drive.

I'd seriously consider going west to get a car. They usually use gravel on the roads out here (till the last few years at least), so windshields go to heck pretty fast, but rust is not that big of a problem. Even now that their using the magnesium chloride goo on the roads, rust isn't as bad as the east, because humidity is so low. I am suprised to hear that there's any rust on a '98, as my '89 is mostly rust free still. Best would be somewhere in California, away from the coast. You'd have to pay for a ticket out here, and a few days to drive it back, but you'd get a much better condition car I think. Have any long lost relatives/college roommates out west somewhere you could drop in on? Start looking on craigslist in whatever area seems promising. Here in CO, newer subaru's are usually listed for about 4 days before being sold. Some much less than that. So, if you are only here for a few days, you'll probably still have decent choices to shop around a little. Another thing I've found, if you want a manual, look in the city -- prices will be cheaper cause no one wants them. Same thing if you want an automatic, look in the mountains where no one wants them. Although this time of year is not a good time to be looking at subaru's in general -- high demand because snowstorms are coming. On the clutch, an old subaru should still feel nice and smooth. Of course there will always be slight differences between subaru clutches and honda or toyota or whatever else clutches. When I bought mine, the clutch was almost undriveable. A minute later, after adjusting the cable, it was fine. It "could" be that simple, or could be major trouble. Good luck.

There's been a couple of threads on the existence of diesel subaru's (bascially concluding that there aren't). I hear the Tribeca is supposed to have a diesel in a few years, but I would hope they also give a diesel option in a normal subaru too. Sorry but I think the Tribeca is the ugliest thing subaru has ever made, even including the brat, 360, and the weird 3 wheeler from back in the 50's.

Have you tried a different set of tires on the front? I had a perfectly good looking set of tires, that made a horrible vibration at lower speeds. Not quite what you're reporting, but it couldn't hurt to rule that out.

Right above that it says it has a V style engine. Geesh people.... You'd think they'd never seen an H4....

Yeah, in my '85 subaru the alternator failed, and the battery voltage got down to about 8 volts (still running, though a bit rough). The battery light never came on, but all the other idiot lights did (Brake, Oil pressure, EGR). If only the one brake light is coming on though, it's probably not the alternator. A quick voltage check with a multimeter can rule it out though.

So, in order to keep the prices from going sky high from people buying so much gas, they sell crappy gas, for a high, but perhaps not sky high price. This in turn destroys people's engines, which reduces demand for gas, and the prices will come back down. Makes sense to me.... I think I'll start selling washwater from my bathtub as fuel. Sure, it's lousy fuel, but it only costs $2/gallon guys.....

I got an 11 and a 13 when my disty was out, but I never got a 12. I don't have my chilton's handy, but it did have a list of all the codes.

On my old '85 GL with the digital dashboard, one of the ones on the left side was the cruise control. It was almost the top of the line model, and still had three blank ones there though...

Yeah, I forgot to mention that I do keep my snowshoes and cross country skis in the car in the winter time. Mostly just for recreation, but also, just in case....

What's the trouble code? It should tell you exactly why it's on. Ah, Roamer beat me to it.

Yeah, I'd check the main castle nut. I had a similar problem, and couldn't find anything else loose, so I took it to the shop to have new wheel bearings put in because it was the only thing I could think of, and they tightened up the big nut for me and it was fixed.... a little embarassing that I didn't think to check that first.... I also had similar symptoms on my older suby just before the axle stripped out. The castle nut was still plenty tight (seized actually... took some work to get it off), but the axle ground out the splines in the hub. Not sure why, but it had the same feel as a loose nut until it stripped and I had to put it in 4wd to move....

Quite likely. It's rather hard to find here even.

Synthetic 5W-40 in wintertime (easy to start even below zero), 15W50 in the summertime. Burns about a quart every 1200 miles, but amazingly enough, doesn't leak yet. 1989 GL, 203k miles.

Hmmmm. I haven't bought gasoline in several months. But I just got my subaru back from my friend who was borrowing it, and I'll see if it's getting the same mileage as before. I keep rather anal records about stuff like that. I did notice yesterday that gasoline is now up to the same price as biodiesel. When I switched to driving the truck earlier this summer biodiesel was a dollar more a gallon.

The double pulley one is from an AC equiped car. The alternator/PS/waterpump belt runs on one set of pulleys, and the AC belt runs on all the same pulleys in the second groove, plus the AC compressor. Since the AC never works on old subarus, I usually take off the AC belt, and just run the one, with nothing on the second set of grooves. So, yes, it should work fine to replace a single pulley alternator. Just ignore the other pulley.

So, I'm putting some silicon spray lubricant on all the moving parts yesterday -- throttle linkages, door hinges, and such. The clutch cable was sort of stiff, so I put some on it. Now it makes a loud squeak/groan under the dashboard when you depress the clutch. No change in the stiffness. What's up with that? I guess you're supposed to replace them, not lubricate them....

Under normal driving, I try to change it every 3,000 miles for regular (10W40 or 20W50), or 8 to 10,000 for synthetic (5W40 or 15W50). Although I also usually burn/leak about a quart every 1,200miles, so you could sort of figure I'm changing it every 6,000 just through that....

No CB, but I've got a 2 meter ham radio in '89 wagon. Bolted on the shelf on top of the dash on the passenger side. The antenna cable runs up over the sun visor, through the two passenger side grab handles, then through the back hatch opening to a magnetic mount 51" whip antenna in the center of the roof. Being right in the middle of the grounded metal roof should help with the radiation pattern because you've got a better ground plane. Plus it's up on top of the car for a little more height that way too. For power I've just got it plugged into the cigarette lighter -- I know I should hard wire it since it draws 150 watts transmitting on high power, but it's held up fine so far. I've seen one old suby around here with three or four antennas on it. One must be a HF set, because he's got a side mounted antenna thats good 10 feet high on it. Zeke

It could also be if the clutch is dragging just a tiny bit -- like if it is engaging just a bit too close to the floor. When my clutch cable stretches, it becomes hard to get into reverse, and later into first, but second is usually fine. I've never tried the 2nd to reverse trick, but often had to do second before I can get it in first.

'89 was the last year here in the US. I heard that the new outback wagons and foresters are still available with dual range trannies in europe and australia.