Loyale 2.7 Turbo

Welcome! / ¡Bienvenido! Nice Subarus! / ¡Bonitos Subarus! Greetings from the Caribbean / Saludos desde el Caribe.

I must confess that I am not an expert on A/C systems, so due to the lack of the Daphne oil, prior to purchase the Ester oil, I asked to the salesman at the store, regarding the differences between the Daphne and the Ester oils; and basically talking, I understood that there are two types of Ester lubricating oils, the old type which is simple; and the new type, which is composite with an special additive, known as: "Ice 32" which is alleged to work better in old, higher mileage compressors than the Daphne oil... Here are the Specs from the Ester Lubricating oil, also found online: Here is some information regarding the "Ice 32" Additive:

Regarding the Lubricant used on the A/C Compressor, the answer to your Question is No. The A/C Compressor found on this "KiaStein" states that it should be filled with a Mixture of r134a refrigerant Gas and Daphne lubricating oil, as you can see in the following photo from said compressor's sticker: This is an example of a Daphne oil can: And these are the Daphne Oil Specs, found online: The problem was the availability, I couldn't find it in this small town where I live, so I had to travel to another, bigger city (but still small), to search among their stores, and the only A/C compressor's Lubricant that I found on all of them, was the Ester oil:

That setup continues working flawlessly, But the way the Glovebox closes, lets too much space for free play; and besides of occasional rattle noises while driving on unpaved roads, sometimes a little glare from the LED illumination, escapes from the Opening, and the Glovebox didn't have a way to adjust how far or how near it closes from the dashboard's body. So, I removed the Metal hook for the Glovebox latch, and noticed that the only way to let the Glovebox to be closer to the Dashboard, was to weld shut the two tiny holes for the screws on said metal hook, and then re-open them in a little different position, in order to let the glove box, to seal closer to the Dashboard. Let me show ya: Another problem, Solved Now the glovebox Closes as it should, an no more rattling noises, nor glare escapes from the glove box at all. Kind Regards.

Long ago, I retrofitted LED illumination on the Glove Box of the "KiaStein" ... I took the Power wirings from the A/C Panel's Background illumination, and placed a 6 Led Lights' flat Panel up on the Glovebox, held in place by a small zip tie... That setup has been working flawlessly since years ago. You can do similar setup on your car, it is couple of hours job...

I forgot to mention that I cleansed everything and sprayed anti-rust paint on everything before assembly; then I took the "KiaStein" to an alignment shop, so the front wheels got perfectly Straight as they should be. To prevent premature wear on the tyres and ensure safety by keeping driveability at the best possible. Kind Regards.

Final issue: the power steering's Rack: I found that the leakage wasn't coming from the rack's seals themselves; the leakage came from the O-Ring at the base where the universal joint meets the rack; so it is Fixable. What I plan to do, is to fix the leakage on the old steering rack and save it as a spare part for a probable future use. I installed the new Steering Rack that came from the Spectra 2004, and something pretty interesting happened, besides of solving the leakage problem completely: The Steering wheel became super Soft to steer, as never before. Now it feels as soft as the one on my Subaru. I bet that the newer part has a different inner design, because the change is way more dramatic than fixing a simple pressure loss from a leakage; the new Spectra parts are improved over the old Sephia parts. My Wife is happy with the new, Solid sensation and soft control of her "KiaStein" and I assure you that this thing, really feels and drives like a brand new Car, despite that is about to reach its twenty anniversary, soon. Kind Regards. Edit: I alredy fixed the old Steerin' Rack, just in case...

So, what I did, was to install the immaculate control arms from the Spectra, onto the engine's crossmember of the Sephia; also I had to cut the small metal plates from the old Sephia's control arms, and weld 'em to the new Spectra's control arms; in order to use the Sephia's Stabilizer bar. That resolved the issue of the worn bushings from the control arms.

But it was not easy as I thought... I found three Differences, between the second gen Kia Sephia and the first gen Kia Spectra models, which despite of being almost the same car, they: Firstly, the base for the rear Support of the transmission, that came on the Spectra's engine crossmember, is 50% wider than the one on the Sephia's engine crossmember. So the Spectra uses a bigger transmission's support. Second: each side of the Stabilizer Bar on the Sephia, goes to a metal plate welded on each control arm; while in the Spectra, said bar has a completely different design and each side goes directly attached to the mere Strut; specifically to a metal plate welded on the shock absorbers' body. And finally, the Spectra's crossmember, uses longer bolts with thicker clamps to hold the power steering's Rack, against the engine's Crossmember, than the ones on the Sephia.

Well, as the problems on the exhaust and on the air conditioner systems, were resolved; I only needed to install the complete set of control arms (plus the engine's crossmember), and the power steering's rack, from the Spectra 2004... ...on our "KiaStein" which is a 2000 (built in 1999) Kia Sephia... ...in which I already had removed the whole set, to do the Swap.

Finally, I Had to purchase three cans of r134a gas and one can of the appropriated lubricant oil for the air conditioner system on the "KiaStein" and... ...Voilá! another problem, Solved.

Interesting is that they placed a sticker with the Engine model of the car, T8D, on the Compressor. In the following photo, you can see both seals together: The Photo below, shows the Seal Kit, along the old worn seal: Seal Kit Nº SS-0731 Found on a professional air conditioners & supplies' store

The next step was to remove the Compressor from the "KiaStein" and completely disassemble it, in order to check it from inside out, and fix it, if possible. What he found, was that everything was alright inside the Compressor, especially for one that is almost two decades old and has over 250,000 miles; the only worn out part, was the round seal, that is often known as the "O-Ring" which in fact, is a metal ring with Rubber on the inner side, that rubs against the spinning axle of the Compressor, preventing the r134a gas, from escaping; it was completely worn out, with the rubber stretched; due to age and usage. So, in order to obtain a brand new seal Kit for that compressor, I had to travel to Capital City on my Beloved Subaru "BumbleBeast" and search for a suitable seal kit, according to the sample I carried with me.

Next, to address the leakage on the air conditioner system... it was way more difficult; in fact, as I failed, I had to ask the help from a local expert, who using the special tools and equipment, firstly inflated the system with air and then searched for the leakage in every inch of the pipes, hoses, joints, etc... and finally he found it. The leakage was inside the Compressor, you can hear the hiss of air escaping from it when he manually turned it, on the following video: Leaky A/C Compressor - YouTube

Meanwhile, it was way much easier to address the leakages, on the Exhaust piping and on the Air Conditioner system. Firstly, I started with the simplest thing, the Exhaust Leakage. I found two leakages in fact; the mean leakage was on a fissure at the pre catalytic converter's assembly, which was gutted by me, several years ago (More information ~► here) The other was a minor leakage, found on the flat metallic seal at the other end of said assembly: The main leakage was resolved with a thick and strong weld bead around the piece; the minor leakage was resolved by simply smearing a layer of "Mega Grey" Silicone on both sides of said flat metal seal, and also on both metallic surfaces (the exhaust manifold and the gutted pre-catalytic assembly) and Voilá first problem, Solved.

I borrowed a couple of movable car ramps, made by a local mechanic friend; and raised on them the "KiaStein" in order to extract the whole set, of crossmember, power steering's rack, control arms and stabilizer bar, etc... ...with the idea of installing there, the complete set from the Spectra 2004, instead.

So, I purchased this other parts: ► the Engine's Crossmember. ► both Control Arms along their Bushings. ► the Ball Joints. ► the Power Steering's Rack. ► along the Tie Rods. By the way, in Honduras, the engine's Crossmember is called "Puente" which means Bridge. I obtained everything as a Complete Assembly from factory, it came with everything underlined in yellow on the Photo, plus the power steering's rack, pointed by the yellow arrow; and they included the anti-roll bar (Stabilizer bar) to sell me the whole assembly.

In one on the many, many "Yónkers" here, short time ago; I found in a front clip of an early 2004 Kia Spectra with only 31,000 miles; this things: ► the Complete Hubs. ► the Rotors. ► the Calipers. ► the Disc Pads. ► along the Axles. ...and I did a complete retrofitting of those parts onto the "KiaStein" in order to upgrade the front brakes, from 9" to 10.1" and also upgrade Axles to the beefier ones; you can see photos and read info regarding that subject, in previous posts of this mere thread. So, after all these problems appeared, I went back to that "Yónker" and found the same front clip still there, which had almost all the parts I needed to solve the problems.

In the past, I mentioned that Honduran Junk Yards (called here "Yónker" in singular, and "Yónkers" in plural) brings cars cut in halves from the USA; mainly their front clips, are sent inside containers on merchant cargo vessels... ...You can find many separated parts from cars... ...and many front clips from various cars... ...Stacked on metallic buildings...

Four Problems Sometimes, circumstances collide to make you face problems in group, not one by one as usual... this time, the Bushings for the control arms, decided to give up, and the "KiaStein" started to develop annoying ´Clack´ noises, when first departed from parking, or when first moved to reverse. Also, the Air Conditioner system developed a Leak after all this years of flawless performance blowing icy cold air... which my Wife really enjoys ...I don't really need air conditioner, until it starts to rain and the front windshield gets foggy... so, somehow that feature is a must have here, in the Tropical area of the world. Also, the exhaust system developed a couple of leaks that make the T8D engine on the "KiaStein" to sound loud and rough, and both leaks were just next to the exhaust manifold. Finally, the old leakage on the Power Steering Rack, became even worse, and needed attention... Despite that, this noble car still worked great, on and off road every day; but now was time to get my hands on it, and solve all those problems, in the very best way I could.

Hello! https://www.amazon.com/Gates-TCK299-Timing-Belt-Component/dp/B000C2UL5U

Somethin' like this one: ~► https://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/50983-strange-and-weird-subaru-stuff/?page=97&tab=comments#comment-1402070

No Center caps anymore! Since we moved from the Big city, to a small mountain town, on the Rural Honduras; our cars became hard working animals and tend to be dustier, dirtier than before... but they're doing great; thanks to God. However, someone tried to steal the center caps from the 15" wheels on the "KiaStein" and damaged a little the lid on the side; so, I decided to remove all the four center caps and... Somehow I Love the Look of those ICW wheels without their center caps, I've only purchased sixteen brand new chromed nuts to make 'em look uniform, and Voilá, they look better without their center caps because with them, they looked more like hubcaps than wheels, and I dislike hubcaps. Sorry for the low quality of my cheapo cellphone's camera photos. Despite that these ICW wheels are made in USA, their center caps are made in Taiwan. I repaired and stored them, the wheels / car looks much better without them. Kind Regards.

Thank you so much for your kind reply in this almost monologue I have here Yes, you are absolutely Right; the added length to the brake pedal, not only makes more comfortable and safe to reach it; but also gives a more favourable leverage effect, as you accurately described above; in fact, as the pedal got the extra length, also it came out to the front a little, which allows me to move my seat one notch farther, reaching the Brake pedal safely; which makes the overall feeling of driving the car, way better. I hope that the information and ideas I share here, could be helpful for more people. Kind Regards.

Gates original, or Subaru Original are your best bet... Always change both timin' belts at the same time, if one fails, the other probably soon will do the same. Tensioners and pulleys also must be changed altogether. Gates TCK-299 is the ideal timing Kit for the EA82... Kind Regards.