Bill90Loyale

Either a bad coolant temp sensor, a loose vacuum hose (at the airbox), or a dirty Mass Airflow Sensor (if your 88 has one). Those would be my areas of interest for the symptoms. If all above fail to fix, the punt is the Idle Air Control valve on the throttle body (remove and clean).

That would be Northwet. See his post above. I can attest to Northwet's honesty and fine work. He fixed my Loyale clock resistor about six years ago (for free) and I haven't had a problem since. And that was a cross-country mail transaction!

Check out this thread: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=47070&highlight=shifter+boot

Coolant temp sensor. Check the search function. Plenty of info. If the CTS quits sending the signal, the ECU can function as though the engine is already warm, thereby failing to enrichen the fuel for cold start.

What's the problem? Provide a bit more detail please.

Good advice. Especially any black vacuum hose connected to the engine side of your air filter airbox. A bad vacuum leak can cause the problem you describe.

Yup. Make sure the plug wires are not only routed correctly, but that you have positively snapped each one onto the plugs, and fully seated in the distributor. When I replaced my wires with Magnecor wires, I had to trim a bit of the rubber boot on the plug ends in order to fully seat the wire to the plug.

That reminds me of the time when I was living in the north end of Boston and we got hit with a big Nor'easter. A neighbor spent the better part of the next morning digging her car out (onstreet parking) only to find that her key didn't work in the door. Turned out that overnite someone with the same make, model and color had parked right behind her!

Thank you Qman. I thought I mighta had a stroke and didn't know it.

Bserk- You've found the right place for help. Start with helping yourself to the search function for New Gen (where you are now). Find "Search this Forum", then "Advanced Search" then type in "Head Gasket Failure" or any other three-word or two-word combo of words related to blown head gasket. Step by painful step, you'll find enough advice to write a book about it. Here's an example to help you get started. You might find the pictures cited in this thread helpful. Best wishes and good luck: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=69717

I've got a 90 version of Bucky92's car. How can you not love a car that has given you 125,000 trouble-free miles for $1500? It's like finding a gorgeous wife who adores you, and just wants to be with you. No fancy dinners needed.

Could be your tins on the back side of the wheel hub. They reduce the introduction of mud etc to rear drums. To test this theory, it's best to put the rear on jackstands and rotate the wheels (neutral). If you hear any scraping sounds, you've isolated the problem. Solution: bend the tin back away from the drum. Worked for me. Correction: My apologies Fnlyfnd- I was thinking old gen....

Did you or your mechanic change the air filter anytime recently? Check for a disconnected or loose vacuum hose on the engine side of the air filter box.

In the automotive application, Fram has often come up short. Here's a sample: http://minimopar.knizefamily.net/oilfilters.html#avoid

NGK. .045" gap. Castrol 10-30 high milage. Baldwin Oil Filter For pinging, I recommend: Treat with Seafoam, through the PCV valve. Twice. This will remove carbon from your combustion chambers, valves and piston crowns. For tick of death: new oil pump seals/o rings. The search function is your friend.

What leads you to believe that the pressure sending switch (on the pump) is good?

Clean Mass Airflow Sensor (MAF). Brake cleaner works fine.

Check the black air hose attached to the air filter box (on the lower-rear-engine side of the box). Can become disconnected or loose at air filter change. Will cause this problem.

I agree with Grossgary above, but I did mine without fiddling with the tranny. What I did is put the front of the car on jackstands, undo the engine mount nuts (2), then use the floor jack to raise the engine about 3 inches. The back pan bolts can then be removed and the pan wrestled out. The biggest hassle for me was when the engine mount studs wouldn't drop back down through the two holes in the crossmembers. Had to call a buddy to use my prybar to pry the engine back over the holes. Drop in. You're set. A second suggestion: clean the mating surface on the engine block (the mating surface for the pan gasket) to shiny clean. Not a speck of residue. Take the pan itself to your buddy with a wire wheel (or your friend at the auto repair shop) and wire wheel the mating surface on the pan to bright and shiny - not a speck of residue. Use NO SEALANT on the new gasket. Remember the low torque on those pan bolts (7-10 ft lbs is hand tight basically - do not over torque). I did mine about 5 years ago. Not a drop since.

1. Remove the negative connector from the battery. Clean the inside of the connector to shiny clean with sandpaper or wire brush or file. Now rough up (clean) the neg. terminal itself. 2. Do the same with the positive connector and terminal. 3. Connect positive to terminal. 4. Connect negative. Start the car. No start, but click? Remove battery from the car. Have a friend take you and the battery to an auto parts store. Have 'em perform a free test on the battery. Battery dead? If yes, how old is it? More than four years? If yes, buy a new battery. This is a "start" for you. If you're fortunate, it's corroded connections. If you're less fortunate, it's dead battery. If particularly unfortunate, it's solenoid shot on the starter. Others will chime in with other good things to do. Best of luck, and good wishes for the beginning of your Subaru troubleshooting career.

Two Suggestions if you haven't been down these roads yet: 1. Check the condition of your fusible links. Pull each, particularly the black one and clean the contacts; and 2. If your primary wire, from coil to distributor, is original, consider replacing it. Hang in there. Electrical problems almost always have one solution, and only one. You just have to find it. Have a Merry...... Edit: Bad grounds can cause these intermittant problems. From Skip, one of our gurus in the archives: Clean these grounds to shiny, and replace using a dab of dielectric grease: the dash ground under the intake manifold bolt just behind the upper rad hose connection, another important ground point is the screw by the battery in the rad. core support.

Just an idea: Show your friend the carfax report and say $1500 take it or leave it (in as friendly a way as possible ). If it's a hidden lemon, you should be able to get $1000 back out of it. If it's not, you've got a $1000 cushion to get you going on the routine maintenance that most used cars need. With re: to the rusted thing under and behind the engine - my guess is you're looking at a rusted heat shield (no big deal, when it starts rattling, have it strapped up with a hose clamp or cut off if you don't live in the brushfire zone).

Just a suggestion: Get that baby out on the freeway if you have access to one and run it up to 75-80 mph and 4500-5000 rpm and keep it there for twenty miles or so, then do the same on the return trip. You might be pleasantly surprised. If you're not pleasantly surprised, feed the Seafoam into the intake header, via the PCV valve. My guess is lots of carbon fouling (when did you last clean up and regap your plugs?). For vacuum leaks, make sure any black hoses connected to the airbox are indeed connected and on fully. Check for leaks as Nipper and others have suggested.

It is your insurance co.'s job to defend you. If they balk in any way, consider this approach: If you have some family $, consult with an experienced atty - one who DOES NOT defend insurance companies from claimants. If you do not have $, contact that same expensive experienced lawyer - initial consultations are ordinarily free. You will find this helpful. Explain the fee problem and take it from there. If every insurance co. was able to skate out of their obligations because an 18 year old guy modified a bumper, then you might as well not have insurance coverage at all. Good luck. Do NOT stress out. This is the way the system is designed to operate.