SunnyHouTX

Since the last post, nothing much exciting has happened with the Loyale other than that she's my daily driver now. To that end, I replaced brake pads (shoes this weekend) and also the rear struts. Well, with the warmer weather coming in, it's time to tackle the A/C now. It was working when I got the car, but late last summer, it was operating rather erratically until one day the A/C didn't work at all. The blower was fine, but the compressor never kicked on. Early this month, I evacuated the system and pulled a vacuum and converted to R134. At that point, the compressor kicked in and worked fine UNTIL I turned off the engine after the job. When I started her back up to run an errand, no A/C. So I started reading more about the problem on this forum and learned about the need to upgrade the relays to newer Bosch type relays. Well, I got 4 of them and I got down to start the project... and hit a brick wall. I started with the A/C relay behind the fuse box. I put my multimeter to it and found two +12V feeds no matter if the A/C switch was in the ON or OFF position. My question is, should I first replace the two relays by the passenger side front strut tower? Will the failure of one of the other two relays cause the interior relay to have two +12V feeds? Anyway, the A/C works now with the interior A/C relay dangling down without any work done to it. It even cuts in and out when pressing the On/OFF switch. What's gong? Don't know enough to figure it out. Thanks for your help.

ya, welcome! Wish we had snow down here in Texas.

Got a little bold about the Loyale and took her on a 460 mile round trip to San Antonio, Texas to participate in a RC drag race. Oh, in case I failed to mention, my other hobby is RC drag racing. Not just a hobby anymore since I am co-owner of a chassis manufacturing outfit called Urban Assault Racing (more about that later). So we loaded up all the gear we need for me and my buddy Greg (other co-owner of UAR) into the Loyale and off we went. I think we had about 300 lbs of gear and about 450 lbs of human in it. Wow, both of us were impressed by how she did. Averaged 29.3 mpg doing about 70 mph. Also found that the rear passenger side strut was failing so that will be replaced tomorrow. Well, back to RC drag racing. Here are some photos of my cars:

No doubt a good buy and yes, it passed that test handily. Yes, Autozone/O'Reilly/NAPA/Advance should have most of what you need like your filters, plugs, struts, etc. The only part I've had to special order from a dealership so far is an accelerator cable. And mind you, I'm in Houston, TX which is not known for older Subarus.

Hi! New guy myself.

Good find there, congrats to you on that. I would have paid less for that, but the "rareness" factor comes into play here and the car is in good condition so I don't know... Cap and rotor he's talking about is for the ignition. Shouldn't be that expensive, and neither is the fuel filter. The fuel filter is in the engine bay close to the driver side firewall held in place by a bracket and it's very easy to change. MAF = mass air flow sensor. It's the aluminum piece on the intake tube just after the air cleaner. Use some carb cleaner to clean the insides of it. Subies came with the proper harnesses and switches for most options from the factory but may not have had all options. The AC might not have been installed at the time of purchase on you car at the dealer. Not sure how hard it is to install it now.

Hello Jed

Got tired of not having any heat in the car. Got some Peak cooling system flush and did the reverse heater core flush and also cleaned out the radiator and block. Wow, what a difference that made. On max heat, the air coming out of the center vent got to 183*F! Obviously, I am very happy about spending the time today to get it done. Edit: I also fixed the resistor pack for the blower motor and I now have all speeds working. Only speeds 3 and 4 were working. I ended up removing the two bad coils as well as the good coil in order to put in all new resistors. Works like a charm now.

Hi and welcome!

Ben, I plan on sticking to 195/75/14 (max 205) tires with the 4" lift in the hope of not having to do any sheet metal trimming/bashing. I did read the off road section quite well and that led me to the above conclusion, since I won't be doing the kind of off-roading those guys were doing. Especially not here in Houston. For now, it'll be trips to the beach, and some hill country trails. I think the above should suffice, no?

Thanks McSooby! Fortunately, I don't care for hubcaps, doesn't do me anything when I want to go off-road Ben, that seems to be my line of action. I too think that the 5spd single range will do for me for now. I plan on getting a 4" lift and will go with 26" to 27" wheels. Still waiting to hear back from SJR or BOSS about getting stuff from them, but I've not got a reply to my PMs to them yet What lift are you getting? On a 2" lift, I always thought that one must do some fender trimming to make 27"s fit? Am I wrong or what? Thanks. Update: went to play with my RC 4x4 at the local track and the driveway to the place is gravelly, so I got to test the 4wd system. I am happy to report that it works as it should in that there is no bind and it disengages smoothly when I switch it of and back up about 5' - 6' or so.

Welcome McSooby! One of my classmates in college was from Dominica and his dad had a water taxi/ferry/transport between all those islands, Guadeloupe included. Would love to visit one day.

Hey there Justin, yeah the D/R 5spd is definitely a "must get" item and I am looking for one close to where I live. I guess my concern is if I should get that first before getting the lift and 25" OD tires. Can the stock EA82 handle 25" tires if I primarily stay on pavement and the beach? Heavy off-roading will be out till I get the D/R 5spd for sure. So if what you say is true, then I will go ahead and start with the lift/25s for now while looking for the D/R 5spd.

The more I read, the more I think I'm gong about this the wrong way. I think I may have to get a dual range 5sp in here before I do the lift. I will be using 14" rims for sure and might only go for 25" to 26" OD tires. What are your opinions on this? Searched on the forum and the trend is to go for the dual range 5sp but the tires they put on were huge. So it's a little harder for me to decide which way to go.

Agreed! Makes me that much more motivated to have one of few, if not the only, lifted Suby around these parts Update: the wheels did not pan out. The guy had a set of 4 wheels alright but they were not a matched set Drove 45 miles one way for almost nothing. I say almost because I located a salvage yard close by and scored two fenders off a sedan to replace the damaged ones in the car. The lower valance panel will be beaten as straight as possible and painted with black bedliner. The two fenders will get just a matching base coat. Looks like I will be replacing the rear struts next within the next couple of weeks.

Welcome Chris, from one newbie to another. USMB has taught and saved me hundreds already just weeks after discovering it!

This:

Right??? Speaking of snow, it snowed for 8hrs on December 4th, '09 and it is 82*F today! Oh well, that's Texas for ya. Got the rack on today: Trimmed off about 9" off the cross bars and it looks good to me. Also will be picking these up in the morning for $100 for the set with plenty of tread left: Edit: Thanks to all the contributers in this thread for all the tips on the 6 lug conversion. It also has a link to this "how to" (credit to Thomas Paine).

Thanks rainman. Hey I have a buddy from Cali who goes by that moniker minus the numbers. Would have been cool if he was on here as well. But he weighs around 375lbs, so I doubt he has a Suby I won't push the 4WD button on pavement again. I am glad that it's one less item on the to-do list

I think I just figured out the deal with the "dragging" rear end: I was confusing AWD with 4WD. Looks like everything might be OK, I just need to quit testing it out on pavement. DOH! I'm learning, trust me

I agree. Great find and the cleanest sub-90's Subaru I've seen.

Hello from another Texas Suby owner. Hope you get here running soon!

Thanks for the welcome eppoh. I'm very glad I found this joint, because it has turned my Suby from just a car to a hobby! Yes, I did get a deal on it And for having 160K+ miles on the odo, it runs very well. The inspection guys were commenting on how well it ran. It was satisfying, knowing that I had tinkered with it to get there. Speaking of handling, my right rear strut is shot and needs to be replaced. I'm holding off on that till I get the lift kit and do it all in one go. Columbus huh? I go to San Antonio for RC drag races so if something comes up and need a hand, I will keep you in mind. I will do the same for you if you are in Houston. Anytime. Being laid off has it perks BTW, just got the roof rack and paid $80 for it. Seller didn't have the nerf bars so I asked for the $5 off for that even though I don't need them. Come to think of it, should have asked for more off. Still a great deal for $80. I need to shorten the cross bars a little bit (they are 50") to fit on the car right. Will do that tomorrow and put it on the car.

Update: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showpost.php?p=893101&postcount=3

Just got back from getting the car smogged. Got a scare. Before I left I thought I had the EGR solenoid vacuum lines routed wrong and I routed them like this: http://home.comcast.net/~davidtief/solenoid.html I installed the Corolla solenoid as-is without reconfiguring it when I put it on. So this morning I corrected it. Here's the first smog test result: The smog computer froze in the middle of the test and failed me But I noticed that the HC levels were a little high and rerouted the EGR solenoid vacuum lines like I found them on the Corolla, put about 10 gallons of premium and some Lucas injector cleaner and drove a few miles and came back to the inspector. Here's the second test: Success!!!