DaveT

Does the ac work? Without the ac working , it takes a lot of heat in some conditions to defog. Other possible cause is coolant leak from the heater core, but that should be accompanied by a sweet smell.

Somick, I think we are referring to the same V belt idler. It's under the ac compressor, the one for the short V belt. That was the initial noise source.

The idler bearings are pretty much done when the timing belts are done, which is around 50 to 60 k miles. I've run them for many years, both ways. Since 1988.

Some things that may help from my recent experience - Started the car to drive home a couple days ago. I hear a high pitched sqeeeeeeeeeeee. Hmm.... sounds like a dying bearing. It faded after a bit. I got home, not really worried, as it takes longer than that for complete failure. Took off the fan belts, sure enough, the A/C idler's bearing was shot. Replaced it from my stock of contact sealed new bearings, and put it back together. Next day, took it for a drive. Started to notice a similar but less pronounced dying bearing sound. Hmmm. Took off the driver side timing belt. Yep, the idler's bearing is toast also. The seals are dried out and cracking, and crud got into it. Maybe running without the covers allowed more crud in - BUT I would not have heard it's death rattle until it had gotten MUCH worse - and that much closer to being stuck on the side of the road with a broken belt. Just have to install that bearing now, then check the 2 adjuster bearings. If you rebuild these, use bearings with contact seals, not just rubber [or other unspecified] seals.

you cannot get at the blend doors, heater core, AC evaporator, or the ducts on the drivers side without removing the dash. IF they only got into the blower, maybe they didn't go through the whole thing. In mine, they had. The passages are oddly shaped, and to get them cleaned, they had to be oriented in several positions to get all the crud out. They had also left fragments of stuff they eat, and poop in the evaporator fins, and all of that had to be cleaned out as well. NO way to do that under the dash.

My 87 came with that problem. I removed the dash and cleaned the entire system with bleach and other cleaners. Put hardware cloth in the intake ports that lead air into the hvac system. Had to restore the foam on the flap doors on the hvac box, as the mice had removed allmost all of it.

I'd the cranking sound an even 1 2 3 4 rythm, or sychopated? Broken belt is noticable un even.

Those spanner nuts are the adjustment of the preload on the bearings. Theoretically you could unscrew one to look. But you must mark it, and carefully count the turns. And if you don't get it back exactly, the mesh adjustment will be off. That would be bad for the life of the gears and or bearings. The fsm has the details of what to do when assembling the diff into the housing. It does not sound like fun.

If you turn those, you have to re set the ring and pinion gear mesh...

Oem gaskets. Best thing I ever found for getting steel bolts out of aluminum castings is this : heat the casting to near normal operating temperature. Use a heat gun and or a space heater and a thermometer. Then carefully begin working the bolt loose, rocking it looser & tighter gradually. Adding penetrant doesn't hurt, but the heat is the key.

Most of this points to axle / wheel bearing / brake problems. Very different than the pinion shaft bearings above. I have not had any other major transmission bearing failures.

If it is about 2 times per wheel revolution, it could be the pinion shaft bearings are shot, and the pinion moves forward until it hits the differential carrier. On a 3AT, it does this on engine braking, but will seem normal with acceleration.

The hack job wire I found on my 86 was wired to keep the AC relay energized all the time, so the compressor ran in any hvac mode except off. I was unaware of the mod when I first replaced the compressor, so I added a switch to turn the compressor off manually. When I eventually got a second similar car, I immediately noticed that the compressor would switch off when I hit the gas from a stop, helping noticeably with acceleration. Investigating that function was how I discovered the hack modification on the 86.

It's a pretty odd thing. The sensor is a bi metal thing with a contact. The other contact is on the diaphragm that is moved by oil pressure. The meter is a bi metal arm with a heater. The sensor heater is in series with the gauge heater. So when the sensor heater bends enough to open it's contact, the gauge bi metal bends a corresponding amount, moving the needle proportionally. It is normal to be open when at zero pressure. The FSM also warns NOT to apply 12V to either heater directly, as excessive current will flow and could damage them.

Part of the normal operation is a momentary run on start up of any hvac mode. On cars in this age it was common, not just Subarus.

Sounds like the sender is no good. The sender for the gauge should always have some resistance I would think. The fsm probably has a detailed ohm check. I'll have to look it up.

Not sure. But it was a real hack job. A wire was run to a bolt that mounted something under the dash. Just stripped and wrapped around the bolt, bolt tightened down. Too long ago to remeber- this was in 1988 - but the wire either tricked the unloader so it was always on, or parreleled it to cause the always on. Other thing to check is a microswitch in the heater vent mech. Really need the fsm to see all the details.

It is normal if it engages for a few seconds and then releases in not ac modes. My 86 did this always compressor running thing. It came with a worn out compressor. I investigated the schematics, etc. And found that some genius had added a wire to force the compressor to run in all hvac modes. I removed the wire, and it only ran in ac and defrost. It also released if you hit the gas when at a stop, to free up power for acceleration. All my newer ones functioned similarly. Some didn't have the unloader relay though.

Yes running without a y pipe is noisy. Even with only a y pipe is noisy. I moved the catalytic back so it is not under the passenger side DOJ boot. Made all stainless, so I never need to buy or make another one. No more fighting with rusted bolts if the exhaust has to be moved for other work. The EA82s are not limited by the stock exhaust as far as power goes. Only a tiny change at best.

As far as I know, I am the only one who has built a customer y pipe for an ea82. I never saw anything other than oem or aftermarket stock style parts, but most of those options are getting scarce. Not much bolt on performance related made for these cars specifically, since they are not in that sort of group.

That situation it makes sense. Just beware, the crank seal may not be the only leak.

After i wrote this i noticed rear.... but probably similar sutuation. All of my front ones have crumbled. Got new ones for the front from Jeggs. Haven't gotten to install yet.

They may or may not have survived. It depends on how crazy you got with forcing them.

Put the tubing in a box with a glass front, insulated back will get better gains. Tracking - you have to analyze the cost complexity & energy use added vs just adding another panel / more area. Often, it is cheaper and more reliable to just increase the size of the array. PV or thermal. This likely varies with where on the earth you are also. Radiators have very low back pressure - the small tubes are all in parallel, so equal a large pipe. But for gathering low density heat, that's not what you need. That's what you need to get rid of LOTS of heat with a large temperature differential in a small area.

Any and all of the electronic things like the ECU could be damaged. I would be surprised if it hurt a starter. But a starter not working won't prevent it from running, just won't crank. Alternator likely damaged, but that won't prevent running on its own. Fusible link should be fried, saving the car from a fire with the backwards current going into the alternator.