Alexx

It just so happens that a year has gone by since the last response, any new news about fuel injection change over. I don't see my car passing smog and I don't want to keep getting my carburetor rebuilt every year or two.

the farther the radio sticks out, the more annoying it must be for leg room. If the GL is a stick shift, it can even get in the way of that. It took me several months to replace my clarion radio in my subaru. Subarus need a "center-shaft" design, (is that the right description) and those are hard to find. The shop I found gave up on trying to fix the clarion and found me a pioneer radio instead. Due to some miscommunication (the cassette player was broken and they mistakenly thought that was what I wanted fixed!), it took a while before they realized the radio was not fixable. Before the replacement radio was installed I had considered having a more modern radio mounted vertically instead of horizontally, looks like there is more room top to bottom than when mounted horizontally. If one redesigns the install area for a vertical install at a slant, the choice of radios goes way up and it should be easier to find a radio. In my car, the console assembly contains a whole lot of plastic and empty space, if one wanted to design a new console with a vertically installed radio (probably slanted at an angle towards the driver), looks doable. Although I have a DL, maybe the GL's have more "stuff" on their consoles whereas I just have space.

Are we talking the axle nuts that are under the hubcap?

Why did you replace the front axles a couple of months ago? What was the symptom that led you to change the front axle, and how close was this new symptom to when you replaced the front axle. Maybe you also needed to replace one of the tie rod ends.

I vaguely remember what the common complaint was. I think it had to do with getting the old pad out and the new one in, that there the area was very cramped or something else was in the way and had to be removed first??? It could have been a tactic for charging more, but nobody ever did charge me more because of it.

For me it would not be good business sense to not be able to answer a potential customers call because I am under my subaru with greased up hands trying to fix something and cursing beause I don't have a lift or the right tool. The Wagon I think helped raise my awareness about cars in general. I know the smell when a boot rips and sprays grease onto the cat, I know what a clicking sounds means when I make a turn, Now I know how good the car can sound when the front end is refurbished. It's all good. Now if I had a neighbor that knew and loved to fix Subaru's, I might be their best customer. but I'm most grateful that frong end parts are still available for my car.

Over the years any mechanic who has ever worked on my 81 subaru front wheel brakes has stated that the front wheel drive brakes are harder to work on than most other cars. I'm curious what subaru owners think. If you are a subaru repair expert, was it that way the very first time you replaced your front wheel brake pads on an early 80's subaru? Those of you who have mechanics replace your brake pads, have they ever commented on the difficulty of doing a brake job on an 81 subaru or early 80's subaru front wheel drive?

I did my playing around time on an old ford wagon. It was a great experience but nowadays I still rely on my 81 car so top notch maintainance is a must. I believe the experience of having worked on the old ford wagon has helped me notice car problems better than if I had never worked on one.

Every mechanic who has ever worked on my car (Probably 4 or 5 different ones) have ALL said the front wheel brakes are hard to work on, that they are different from most other braking systems. Anyway, I had the car repaired for $150.00 dollars labor which included replacing both front axles, the right side tie rod end, balance all four tires, and an alignment. It was well worth it have a real tire / alignment shop do the work. I'm sure there was a mark-up on the parts as well, but still, I'm self employed so to not have to deal with having to do any of the work or get the parts and instead just drop off and pick-up the car was well worth it. My first car was a big old ford wagon, it was my learner car and over time I took off and put back on several components on the car. So I'm not against the do it yourself method, but doing it yourself cuts into time needed to get other things done that relate to my business. Most importantly for me is as soon as the car started vibrating I knew something was wrong and I didn't continue to drive and possible damage the car further. Taking care of a subaru is not solely about being able to personally repair the car, but knowing when something has gone wrong the instant it goes wrong. The guy at the repair shop took the car for a test drive after the repairs were done and was quite impressed with how well the 24 year old car drove, so was I.

None of the contents are under pressure? I hear the front brakes are hard to work on, no?

What Scoobywagon said. I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW MUCH BETTER THE CAR RIDES! Whooohoooooo! I actually think my gas mileage will go up. If only I could afford to fill the tank all the way up so I could find out. Check this out. The mechanic insisted on riding with me afterwards to make sure I liked the ride. First he told me he drove it 5 miles to make sure it was ok, then he said he was surprised at how good the ride was. hehehehehe, not bad for an 81 subie. I think he actually enjoyed riding the car. I would like to see the pictures you talked about posting because they replaced the front axle (both sides) and the right side inner socket. I don't know if they left the actual bearings as is. However, they also do my brakes, could those be the wheel bearings you are talking about? The bearings inside the axle boots are part of the rebuilt axle, as it was explained to me. The car seems a bunch quieter, seems to have more force going forward as well, it's really quite amazing. I asked to look at one of the used axles and it looked quite worn to my eyes.

um.... did you have a police escort to closely monitor the traffic when you ran out of gas? Funny coincidence, I once got somewhere between 456-465 miles on my 81 subaru DL wagon on a tank of gas, this was back in the late 80's. Ever since my original clutch was replaced back in late 80's early/90's the mileage on my car dipped from around 33 mpg to 30 mpg. Around that same time, I think California changed the formulation of their gas and I've always wondered if that had something to do with the drop in my miles per gallon, since it seemed to happen ovenight. but which was it, changing the original clutch, or the change in gas formulation? My car, now 24 years old, averages around 25-28 mpg. um, don't try this at home, MilesFox is a trained professional in the art of driving until a car is out of gas. I would never trust a car for more than one gallon of gas once the low light comes on, and I would find that to be risky as well, but it is interesting you got that much more from your car.

The front wheel bearings that go along with the axle or the front wheel bearings that are independent of the axle?

I should point out that the fan kicks in when the temp guage is at its highest point, even though for me that is well below the middle spot.

I don't have the estimate in front of me. The parts are going to be replaced include..... The two axles for sure, an inner tie rod, (it has play in it), and there is an internal ball bearing that is sealed that may need to be replaced.

Just thought I'd bump this.

This gear eventually wears out? The mechanic is about to replace the two front axles, a tie rod component, and an internal ball bearing, but I'm starting to wonder if it could be the gear attached to the engine. My subie did not feel right. It felt like the power of the engine was not hooked up properly to the front wheel drive, and I've never felt the car feel that way before.

Do temperature sensors get lazy as time goes on? I've watched mine, over the years, slowly not go as high as it used to. Now it barely clears the bottom line.

Yes, I've experienced that in the past. But this time, I was going up a hill, and the car started vibrating, it felt like it was the front driverside wheel, but somehow it felt connected to the powertrain as well. I happened to be near my mechanics so I immediately drove the car there. I coasted the car as much as possible because whatever was wrong felt really wrong, like the connection between the engine and the axle was coming apart. Since I've never gotten past the axle clicking in the past, I am concerned, what if it's not the axle, is this the end of the line for my subie? They will do a further inspection Monday morning. If it's not the axle, can driving the car in it's present state do even further damage? I've owned this car for well over 10 years and it's never felt like this before.

Fortunately it still has the original engine. The car has 260,000 miles, at around 190,000 miles the transmission was rebuilt, is the gear driven cam another phrase for the transmission?

I have an 81 subaru DL, and whenever the front axle boots rip open, (it happens every couple of years), my repair shop gives me a pretty good deal on rebuilt axles, so I get the front axle replaced rather than have them charge me almost an equal amount to just replace the boots. However, the last time they replaced the front axles, perhaps it was back in 98, the boots never ripped. So my question is, if the boots never rip, and the front axle eventually wears out, what are the symptoms and how can one tell that the axle is about to go or has already gone? Thanks in advance. This has not been a problem in the past because the boots usually would go and I would get rebuilt front axles, but this time it's been so long I think the axles may be going but I have no prior experience with actually wearing out the front axle.

I have't had mine changed in the very long long time, I've owned the car, so I assume they don't?

The most I ever got from my 81 DL wagon was around 465 miles(that was back in the late 80's). Of course the gas tank was completely full when I started and must have been bone dry when I drove into the gas station 465 miles later. The miles were practically all freeway miles. The gas tank is either 12.5 or 13.5 gallons, I forget. Nowadays, I think I max out around 350 miles. What a difference!

I have an 81 5 speed DL wagon. It is a very light car, weighing in at around 2000 pounds! When I bought this car in the 80's as a used car, it was still getting 31-33 miles per gallon. Now this five speed wagon front wheel drive only gets around 25-27 mpg. I would LOVE to convert to fuel injection, anyone offering the service?

My Subaru seemed to be running rougher lately (81DL wagon) so I opened the hood and noticed that if I put downward pressure on the air filter housing the car suddenly seemed to run better. I also discovered there was a minor amount of side to side play with the air filter housing (because I am missing a sidemount bolt) and I was able to find a sweet spot. Anyone have an idea what is going on? I'm pretty certain the rebuilt carburetor is securely bolted down.