foxgap

This car has a lot of miles on it and I just don't want to throw money at the ABS system. It looks like one of the sensors is going bad, so when the roads are wet the ABS light come on. As soon as it dries out the light won't come on at start up. Thanks all, Mark

I had this motor sealed twice now by a real good Subaru shop near here. I still have a leak that drips on the exhaust and leaves spots under the car. The seals that have been replaced are, cam covers, rear main and all the seals behind the flexplate, oil seal, front crank, oil pan, oil filler tube, and probably some others I can't think of right now. After the last time everything was great for about 12 days and the drip started again. Do these motors have a PCV valve that may be stuck closed and is putting pressure on the inside of the motor? I'm getting real tired of seeing smoke come out of the engine compartment every time I shut the motor off.... Thanks all, Mark

All, I have to do this job also but we will be pulling the motor, I have to do a head gasket job first. My question, When you surface the flywheel do you have to put a shim in the same thickness as the material you took off of the flywheel? Also, should you replace the master and slave cyluinders also at this time? My other car is a Pontiac Fiero, It also has a hydro. clutch system, and these are things we must do to get the thing to shift properly again. It might also be because it is a GM product, and not Japanese......

Nice list! Thanks.

Well the worst fears have been confirmed, It is the head gasket. I was going to get the Fiero out of storage on Monday anyway and put the Soob away for the summer so now is the best time to work on it. I was told by my friend the wrench tunner that I might as well do it right and replace evrything I can while the motor is out. I don't know the condition of the clutch or water pump so I will do those at the same time. Is there anything else I should replace along with the timing belt and the above parts? Thanks again for all your help, Mark

replaceing the rad cap was something I did not think of. The car ran great when I got it at 275,000 miles. I replaced the rad cause it was all chocked up with dirt. The car ran even better all through the winter, now it has just started to give me grief. The first time it got hot I replaced the stat, then the bugger did it again. I'm trying not to get a ton of cash in it, cause here in PA we have inspections and the car is starting to rot in a few places. The 2.2 and 5 speed along with the all wheel makes this car a great thing in the winter. Guess I'll have to take it up to a shop and do a leak down on it. I was hopeing it would be the pump cause I think I could do that here at the house for a project.

Fan works.

I have replaced the radiator and just installed a new thermostat from Subaru. If I let the car idle the temp guage reaches the normal spot and stays there. Both rad hoses are hot and I get good heat. Take it out on the road and drive it the temp guage starts to climb and then will take a jump right to the red and pump antifreeze out of the jug. Let it cool down and the jug is empty but the rad is full. I did a search thinking it was a HG but there are no bubbles coming out of the rad so maybe it is the water pump?? I burped the system twice when I put the rad in and everything ran great until now. The engine has 276,000 on it, but I do not know how it was maintained before I got it. Thanks in advance for any opinions, Mark

Thanks Cougar. This morning Karen had to take the car to work. Right headlight is almost normal, Left headlight is dim, and the high beams work!. Little by little we are getting this problem fixed. When the car gets home tommorow I will start checking the plugs for the headlights for voltage and or corosion.

Some good news. I figured which relays do what. The relay with the black connector and the relay with the green connector are for the headlights. I now have dash lights and parking lights working. The left headlight is dim yet and no high beams. I am getting closer......

All the connectors are in good shape Cougar, no discoloration. I'll start checking the other relays one at a time to see what they do.

The $43.00 relay did not do the trick. With the new relay in place the situation is still the same, dim left headlight, dash out, tailights out. I did a little checking and it turns out that there is current passing over the tailights when the headlights are on, they are very dim. When the high beams are turned on the left headlight goes out completly. So I switched headlight bulbs, it made no difference. I also noticed that the one relay, I am thinking it is the one for the left side, does not get hot like all the other relays. So I am thinking that there is no power to that relay. I did not have time to check it with a tester, but I did switch the relays around hoping I got a bad one. No such luck, that one got hot and the other one cooled off. The plug on the cold relay is blue, the warm relay plug is white. I checked fuses #7 and #8 both are not blown. I have to check to see if there is power at the left headlamp fuse, I think it is #7. There is power at #8 cause when I changed the fuses I saw a spark when I plugged it in. Ok gang now I am back to square one, need more suggestions as to where to look again. I got to get this thing back on the road cause on the way home tonght the Legacy got hot and wanted to boil over. New radiator and thermostat did not help it, so maybe the water pump is starting to go. Oh the joys, Mark

Karen picked up the relay from Ertle Subaru. Drum roll please..... $43.00. I would have liked to go junkyarding and gone that route but there is no time for the next few weeks. That is why I do some of my repairs at 5:00 am before work. I'll left you all know how things turn out tommorow morning. Mark

This morning before work I looked for and found the relays. The best way to get to them is take the 3 screws out of the fuse box and get it out of the way. The relays are behind and above the fuse box. I pulled the two center ones down and out and tapped on each until the tailights came on. That is one I will replace. My girlfriend is going to stop at the Subaru dealership this morning to get a new one. I hope they can find this quicker that they did the thermosat for the Legacy the other week, it took almost 20 min to locate it in the computer..... Thanks again Cougar, the Loyale will stay on the road for a while longer. Mark

Thanks Cougar, Now I know why you are called the Elite Master!!!!!

This morning right from start up the problem came up. Dim left headlight, no dash lights, no parking lights in the rear. Rotate the switch to just parking lghts and the dash comes back on and so do the parking lights in the rear. Looks like I'm going to get a switch .....

I've been reading some threads from earlier cars and there seems to be some agreement on a bad relay also. Can anyone point me in the direction of the relays? It seems possible that the relay is heating up and causing an open circut. But sometimes the problem happens when the car is just started for a few moments. Thanks again

I think the headlight switch on the Loyale is going bad. The problem is every so often the dash lights go out and along with that the tailights. When the switch is moved to just parking lights everything comes back on. Switch back to headlights all goes dark again. This does not happen all the time. We leave the headlights on all the time as daytime running lights. Is replaceing the switch a major job that I can't do in my driveway or do I have to take it back down to Weddes Garage and have Craig do it? Thanks in advance all, Mark

Thanks everyone. Next time I get it in the dry I will jack it up and check the cam boxes. I thought that they were part of the covers but now know better.

anything will help, I am tired of the oil burning off of the exhaust everytime I start or shut the car off. The oil pump seal has been replaced so that area is now dry. I understand the drivers side valve cover is a real treat to work on. Thanks in advance!

These are for a 91 Loyale wagon. I checked with the local NAPA store and the price was $50.00 each. Is there a cheaper place or will the old prop rod win again? Thanks

Big Thanks to all. As has been mentioned in the thread replacing that Micky Mouse seal will get some bubbles in the oil. I had this done about 2 weeks ago. So maybe there might be some air working its way out. 32 degrees here yesterday morning and the little bugger didn't even make a tap on start up. Go figure..... I bought this car about 2 years ago from a guy who was not the original owner. He had it serviced it very infrequently and now I'm just getting the thing back in line again. Bits of dirt and carbon in the oil will just have to work their way out little at a time. Thanks again, Mark

Ok after posting I get the similar threads box and the suggestion was ATF or Seafoam. I can pick up the seafoam this morning and will give it a try.

The loyale is starting to have lifter noise on cold startup. The engine has 110,000 miles on it. I changed the oil and filter thinking that maybe that would help but it still clatters away until the oil warms up. Car has 50 lbs of pressure at startup and as the oil warms it drops to about 20 lbs at idle. At this point the noise goes away. Can someone suggest an additive or am I going to have to dig into the motor and replace the lifters? Is the clattering causing harm to the engine at the moment? Other than the noise it runs like a champ, a slow champ but I can't have everything. Thanks in advance, Mark

Thanks everyone for the excellent suggestions. The car is mostly used at highway speeds of 35 and up. Looks like a set of good lights will work fine, just not go overboard in the wattage dept.