syphon

I have a '98 Legacy GT wagon with a factory alarm. The key fob locks/unlocks the doors just fine, however the LED on the dash always blinks 3 times rapidly followed by a short pause. This happens whether i have the doors locked or not... or what. I suspect the alarm isnt arming (although I havent tried opening the door yet to test it). The manual says that when the alarm is armed, it blinks really slowly. It also says that the LED will behave exactly like mine is if all the doors/hood/trunk isnt closed properly. I'm positive these are all closing properly. Any ideas? Is this a common problem?

I'd like to catch you guys if you go out to dinner or offroading or whatever. Depends on when though, as I have a bit of a hectic work schedule this week.

Tex linked to it in his post.

I was amazed the Alarm was so cheap. I thought it would be a POS but it turned out really well. It has all the features I need and I haven't had any problems with it to date (except me continually pressing the damn button while its in my pocket!). The hardest part was getting the actuator in place on the door (although it's WAY easier on a GL than it is on a Legacy) and then getting the relays all set up (Make sure you get the correct relays. Apparently there double throw and single throw relays are marked exactly the same and look exactly the same, you need to look at the wiring diagram on the relay itself to make sure they're correct).

If by "northern california" you mean Washington, I'm in! I really want something like thats but don't have the time for that long of a drive.

I love WA state. You have to pass a sniffer test, which is pretty forgiving. That's it. I suppose they have laws about engine swaps, but every time I go in for emissions (been like, 6 times now between all my cars) They've never popped the hood. Also, if you live in certain counties, emissions is not required. Even the counties that DO require emissions are pretty lax. If I recall, Tex's parents accidently sent his wagon through emissions (they brought the Wagon's title in with another car, the guys didnt check the VINs closely).

My Thunderbird is my baby. When I bought my '85 GL wagon, it was a daily driver/beater car. I only took the T-Bird out on special occasions. My girlfriend had just bought me an amp for my b-day. 4 days later, I decided to drive it up to her place instead of the Subaru (special occasion). While parked up there, it got broken into, stereo, amp (4 days old), and subs all stolen. Drivers side window busted out and dash all torn up. I've never been in a fight in my life, and would like to think I'm a very peaceful person. But how I felt later that night... I'm glad I didn't run into the thieves because I don't doubt I'd be in jail right now for attempted manslaughter if I had. I was seething... and it took me days for me to relax enough to not want a punching bag every 20 minutes.

I think that I was confused as to why the car would shake AFTER rotating the tires when it wasnt so bad before. It didn't make sense that the tires were out of balance since they rode semi-ok before the rotation. In Retrospect, they MIGHT have been directional tires (but I doubt it) and I swapped them on backwards. Oh well, like I said, the car has long since been fixed, sold, then wrecked

Holy Cow people! This thread is ancient! Check the dates of the first few posts... Rotated tires... car shook like mad. Bought new tires, car still shook, but was acceptable (hey, it was an old car). Sold car, bought newer car, have been driving that car for about a year now. In fact, the car this thread was written over has been wrecked for almost a year now (by the people I sold it to).

Most likely your speedo cable is broken. (almost positive it's cable, at least, my '93 turbo is a cable speedo). It's a common problem that when it's cold, a speedo cable on a legacy will be overly noise and the speedo will jump for a while. I guess they didnt engineer the speedo cables very well.

Just FYI, WRX sedan springs are almost identicle in ride height to Legacy Sedan springs. I put WRX springs on my turbo legacy and MAY be < 1" lower, but I think it's roughly the same height.

Yeah I think you're underestimating how far apart they are. It's literally a 5-10 minute drive up the same ride (depending on traffic lights).

Good thing we've got Zap here willing to take one for the team and give us the scoop

Hey all. I recently retro-fitted some '02 WRX Sedan struts and Springs on to my '93 Turbo Legacy (with SubaruTex's help). I'm fairly certain that the springs/struts from any WRX (or STI?) would fit any Legacy, but not positive. I wanted to post this writeup here in hopes that it would help someone. This is cut&pasted from my writeup on LegacyCentral. First off, the result. My car handles a bit better with stock WRX suspension. Nothing tremendous, but it's a bit stiffer ride than before and seems to feel a bit more responsive. As for ride height, it looks almost exactly the same. I suppose there could have been a minute lowering, but nothing noticable to the naked eye (especially since it was dark when I looked). The bonus to this, is that I can put any WRX lowering springs in. With the exception of maybe a Civic or Eclipse, nothing can beat the aftermarket availability for the WRX. I understand that many people simply want to put WRX springs into their existing struts. I can't help you there. I know for a fact that the fronts wont fit, but rears might. I dont know. What you need: 1. Struts and Springs from a WRX (or STI I imagine). Make sure to get the corresponding model, Wagon or Sedan (depending on if your Legacy is a wagon or sedan). I bought used Struts/Springs from an '02 WRX I believe. Since tons of WRX guys upgrade their suspension, they have a lot of stock stuff lying around. I paid $120 for all 4 struts+springs. I imagine that any imprezza suspension (Imprezza, WRX, or STI) will fit any Legacy suspension, but I certainly could be wrong. 2. Upper Spring Perchs from a WRX for the front. The front springs on a WRX are tapered, so your old upper spring perch will not fit. I happened to use some from an old GC Imprezza, so I suspect that any imprezza spring perchs will work. 3. A pair of washers for the rear. The WRX strut has a bit more thread at the top of the piston on the strut. If you don't add an extra washer on top of the Top Hat, the Top Hat and Upper Spring Perch will clunk together on bumps. 4. A couple zip ties. The Legacy Strut has a little slot to hold the front brake lines to the strut. The WRX has a corresponding spot, but my brake line didnt fit in there. We zip tied it to the slot instead. Everything else you need, you can re-use from your existing suspension. All the bolts match up, the Top Hats all match up, and the spring perchs match up in the rear (remember you have to buy new upper spring perchs for the front). What to do: 1. Jack up car, put on jackstands. Remove tires. Just in case you didn't know, you can jack up the rear at the Rear Differential, and the front can be jacked up at the piece of the CrossMember right behind the oilpan (make sure to place jackstands too). 2.Remove entire Rear Seat. First, pull two bolts front the rear footwell and then remove the seat bottom. Then, remove the 3 bolts holding the seatback down (on the bottom). Then, lift the seatback upwards so it pops free of the hooks, then pull it out. You can now access the top of the rear struts through little holes where the seatback was. This if for a legacy SEDAN, and i'm not sure where the rear struts are on a wagon. Probably easier to get to. Note: I suppose you should do this before jacking up the car, if you feel safer working inside the car when it's on it's wheels. 3. Starting in the rear, remove the two bolts holding the strut to the hub. You have a choice here. The rear struts have a little tab that holds the brake line in place. You can either sever the brake line and then remove it (doing this means you have to bleed your brakes when you're done) or you can do what I did, and take a hacksaw and cut the tab so the brake line is free. I wasn't planning on re-using my struts, so I didn't worry about cutting this tab in half. 4. After cutting the brake line free and removing the two lower bolts... remove the three top nuts from inside the car (this is what we had to remove the seat for). The entire strut assembly is now free. 5. Going to the front, do the same. Remove the two lower bolts, hacksaw the brake line free, then remove the three upper nuts from under the hood (these ones are much easier to get to than the rear). 6. With all 4 strut assemblies out, go ahead and put the tops onto the WRX struts. Simply compress the spring with a spring compression tool, remove the top nut (you'll have to vice grip the strut piston so it doesn't spin with the nut). Once it's taken apart, move the upper spring perchs and top hats over to the WRX struts... with the following differences. Front: The WRX spring is tapered, so your existing Legacy Upper Spring perch is too big. I used Perchs from a GC Imprezza, or you can buy stock WRX upper perchs. I cut the rubber ring that sits on top of the spring down to size, then was able to bolt the entire strut assembly back together. Rear: The spring perchs all fit up. However, when you put the top nut back onto the strut, you'll have to add a second washer. If you don't, the upper spring perch will clunk against the bottom of the Top Hat. 7. Now that all four strut assemblies are back, go ahead and put them back on the car just like you took the old ones off. The rear will bolt in just fine, and the brake line will attach to the WRX strut tab just fine. The front, however, is too big for the Legacy brake line. I zip tied mine to the tab. The front also has another item of note, and that's the Camber Adjusting bolts. Note: You'll notice the of the two lower bolts on the FRONT struts, the upper one is oddly tapered near the head. This is because it is used to adjust the front wheel camber. Once both of those bolts are on (but not all the way tightened), spin the upper bolt. Notice how it adjusts the camber of the hub. I don't know of a decent way to make sure your camber is ok, but you'll want to make sure that both sides have the same amount of camber. It's recommended that you get an alignment after doing this, unless you're confident you can get your camber correct. 8. Put your backseat back in, tires back on, and drive away. If you guys have anything to add or any questions of me, feel free to PM me or something. I'm no expert on suspension, but I'd be happy to help in any way I can. Hope this writeup helps.

That sounds exactly like a thermostat problem (If you brought it to a mechanic, i wonder why he didnt guess this?). i have a thunderbird, and one winter I noticed it was running extremely cool. The temp gauge would never get above the C. Turns out the thermostat was broken and was always open.

Don't you just need to disconnect the battery for a few minutes to reset the computer? Just pull the negative terminal off the battery and let it sit for about 10 minutes, then re-connect it. Not much to worry about there.

I told him I was interested in coming along, so I didn't know if he was referring to myself or the Secret Guest

Who are you referring to?

Wait wait, I just looked at it. Is that a push button 4wd? Wouldnt an Full Time-AWD tranny be better?

Kinda looks like my old wagon. When you doing the tranny swap man? Your wagon will scream with a 5spd in it

I'll see if i can hitch a ride. I'm tryin to set up this date with this chick, but if that falls through, I'd definitely love to ride along! Heh, as if anyone cares if I go or not. Apparently I have a nasty habit of blocking some good photos

Hey Corky... I think that's why he called it a "teaser" ;-)

The clicking sound COULD be a CV axle... but it's hard to tell without hearing it. Is it rhythmic? or kinda random? Dependent on Engine speed or car speed? Also, the brake light thing happened with my car (I drive a '93 turbo legacy). Top off the brake fluid and it should go away. It's misleading because the fluid didnt look low at all, but it was still enough to have the brake light come on.

Good call, I hadn't even thought of that. I'll check it ASAP. Especially since it appears the point of contact was his license plate to my license plate.

So on my way up to SubaruTex's house tonight, I was on 405 near Kirkland at 6:30 (this is in WA, by Seattle). 405 is probably one of the most congested stretches of road in the northwest. Due to the time, traffic was kinda picking up, but there were still occasionally slow spots. I'm cruising down the road at about 45 when the cars in front of me stop suddenly. I brake pretty heavily, but get stopped in plenty of time. I even had time to glance in the mirror and see the guy bearing down on me from behind... he was looking at his radio. He rear ended me pretty hard. He slammed on his brakes in time to slow him down, but I'd guess he still hit me at about 15-20mph. Enough to slam my car forward a few inches. I thought for sure my car was toast. I pull over to the side of the freeway, and get out. Well, the rear of my car looks perfectly normal. There's a 1" scratch on the bumper (it may even have been there before). No damage at all besides that. The rear end of my car is a lot tougher than I expected! ('93 Turbo Legacy). Well I drove home (a bit rattled) and everything's all good now! Score one for Subaru!