[I bought this EA82]

I dont think anybody cares about another ea82 wagon but im posting anyway.

 

We're listening. Good luck, and let us know what you find out!

[FINALLY!! found the one I've been looking for.]

Spillmaster Euro Jr. *The* answer to all your cupholder issues. It is fastened with a screw into the little coin holder slots.

 

Awesome, thanks!

 

Any suggestions on what stores carry them?

[milage/power mods?]

If you have a roof rack, you can remove the cross pieces to be more aerodynamic.

 

Adding a bit to my previous post, I found this thread about the mpg gains from removing the roof rack:

http://ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=61744

 

Quite a few reports of 2, 3, even 5+ mpg difference when removing the rack. :cool:

[FINALLY!! found the one I've been looking for.]

As for the amber lights, I prefer the clear with the smaller amber indicator lense that came in the post '87 models over here.

 

Happen to have a picture of those, by chance?

 

PS - I've never seen a front bumper like that one with the indicators recessed into the bumper - or the high rise centre console.

 

My '92 Loyale (US market) has 'em both. I didn't know they were anything special.

[FINALLY!! found the one I've been looking for.]

And after

 

 

 

Hey, where did you get that cup holder, and how is it attached? Does it work well?

 

I've been looking for a good solution for the cup-holder issue. For now, I've always just opened up the lid on the center console and stuck it in there... although it means you can't really keep anything else in it.

[milage/power mods?]

Pumping up your tires a bit more will help lower rolling resistance. I'm not sure if any of the special low-rolling-resistance tires are available in the Subaru sizes, but narrower tires would help as well.

 

Depending on how you use the vehicle, you can also improve performance & economy by shedding weight. Some of these can get a bit extreme for a daily driver, but if you only use it for a commute vehicle, they may be tolerable. Things like removing the air conditioning system, removing the rear seats, removing carpeting, etc. Even just running with the gas tank half empty is good for 50 lbs! Keep it at 1/4 or less, and that's 75 lbs of extra weight you are not hauling around all the time! If you have a roof rack, you can remove the cross pieces to be more aerodynamic. You could probably drop another 15+ lbs by downsizing the battery.

[Price premium for a "no rust" EA82 wagon?]

How old of a Subaru wagon are you looking for? The year being no later than...???

 

Well, I had a RHD JDM '92 Legacy VZ Type-R before this when I lived in NZ, and while I loved that car, I've been quite underwhelmed by the trim levels of the first-gen Legacies here in the US. :-\ I've never really cared for the second generation or beyond...

 

So I've decided to scratch an itch, and get an older Subaru. I'd prefer to stay fuel injected, it must be a manual trans, and I'll give it a mild lift and some off-road wheels/tires when funding permits. A dual-range trans would be nice, but I'm OK with swapping that in later if need be. I already have a '92 Loyale, but rust and other issues are making it questionable if it is worth keeping on the road: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=125450 However, it could be a donor for the interior (seats & carpet), which would go a long way towards "de-ashtray-ing" this other one...

[Price premium for a "no rust" EA82 wagon?]

2 grand seems way High..

Serviously for 2 grand, its not worth it.

2k is a little high.

 

Yep, got it. I hear you guys.

 

I'm not going to spend $2k, I'm going to try talking him down. That's why I'm trying to get a feel for where the price *should* be. If I can talk him down so that the price is within a few hundred of buying one from a distance and having it shipped, then it would be worth it just for the time savings.

 

If a non-local car was in better shape, it would be more worth it to go that route... but I don't have a ton of time right now and can't get the time off of work to fly somewhere. :-\

[Price premium for a "no rust" EA82 wagon?]

I think $2k is way too high for it. Show him $1200 cash, and tell him you will not be back if he doesnt take it. There are better deals out there.

 

It sounds like there definitely are better deals, just that they might not be local... It seems like it takes a lot of patience and a bit of luck to find one of the clean low-mileage examples.

 

 

So we've established pretty universally now that $2000 is too high... so where does that leave us? Once you dip below $1000, the cars can turn into real basket cases around here. Nobody will fix the brakes properly, because it costs half the value of the car. Same with tires, exhaust, rust repairs, and everything else maintenance related. So the "fair" price must be somewhere in the middle?

[Price premium for a "no rust" EA82 wagon?]

i look specifically for no rust cars because i'm tired of corrosion problems, the time saved is worth it to me.

 

Yep, that's why I'm still looking too.

 

i bought an 89 XT6 last year from California, and an XT6 the year before from Texas strictly because of rust.

 

it cost $760 to ship the last XT6. total cost with shipping was about $2,000 with some parts, was running, no issues, new clutch. find the car you want out west/south and have it shipped.

 

$2,000 sounds high for my area, i wouldn't expect to sell one for that in a by the way you describe it, but like he said above - you just never know, it's worth whatever someone will pay for it and that varies a lot for older cars at $2,000 or less. all it takes is someone that needs to get to work and a cheap car.

 

 

So realistically, how do you find a "good" Subaru out west and organize the purchase & shipping without getting scammed? The big-name sites (Auto Trader, eBay, etc) seem to have very few of these old Subarus... and I've had enough experience with Craigslist that I wouldn't ever buy something sight-unseen from there.

 

 

 

i'd move on or wait a month until he comes down in price....chances are higher that he won't sell it than he will sell it.

 

i sell and list a few subarus a year (have a few now for sale). i don't see him selling it soon.

 

Yeah, I could probably wait a little bit... but I doubt it would stick around for a month. Once you get to October, you're at the start of the snow season, and a cheap 4WD is going to sell pretty fast I think. :-\

[Price premium for a "no rust" EA82 wagon?]

If the inside is grunged up & looks like an ashtray then that's what you can expect for the way the whole car was treated. Who wants a car that's been owned by slobs?

This is a good point though. If they beat up the rest of the car, what are the chances that it's been well maintained.

 

Yeah, I had thought about that too... but it had service records for an oil pump seal, timing belt change, struts, and strut mounts all in the last 10k miles. I got the impression that he mostly only fixed things when they "needed" to be fixed, but I think he did the timing belt as preventative maintenance.

 

The car isn't really beat up, just sort of pitted out. I think it could be cleaned up, it is just a bit unfortunate as it could have been much nicer. :-\

[Price premium for a "no rust" EA82 wagon?]

Thanks. Yeah, that's pretty much where I was at, just hoping to get a few opinions on the matter from those of you with a bit more experience.

 

In terms of making it reliable, I think that the engine is the only real concern. Otherwise it drove OK, brakes worked fine, the lines looked good, etc. The clutch pedal was a bit "gummy" feeling, not "weak", just kinda slow to move? He said it had been making the engine noises for at least 3 years (as long as he has had it)... so I don't know if that means that it isn't as serious as it sounds... or if it means that it's already on borrowed time and ready to die any day now. :-\

 

What all is involved with a lifter replacement? Do the heads have to come off, and/or does the engine have to come out of the car?

[Price premium for a "no rust" EA82 wagon?]

So I went to look at another EA82 wagon yesterday, the big selling point being that it was a car from out west with "NO RUST".

 

Granted, that was right... but the seller seemed to think it was made of gold because of it. $2k for a 200k+ mile vehicle with faded paint, an ash tray of an interior, a range of minor electrical issues, and the loudest engine tick/knock I've heard in a long time.

 

The blue book value is less than half of his asking price, but in the rust belt, I have seen cars go for a bit of a premium if the body is in exceptional shape.

 

What do you guys think? Are these old wagons rare enough now that they can command that much of a premium for a rust-free body? If it didn't have the engine tick, I would be more inclined to call it an "investment"... but I'm not sure just how fatal the "Tick Of Death" is, nor how costly it is to have repaired. :-\

[Madison, WI - Subaru shops or clubs nearby?]

These are truly great cars and are worth investing some money into them.

 

Thanks for the encouragement. My uncle had an '86 GL that I always thought was a cool car... I think it was getting close to 300k miles on it when the rust finally killed it. They put it on a chassis lift at a shop, and the lift went up while the car stayed down. Oops! haha.

 

So yeah, I've always had a soft spot for these cars.

[Madison, WI - Subaru shops or clubs nearby?]

that old of Subaru, in WI is going to be like swiss cheese underneath it. scrap it.

I just bought it. Scrapping it will be the last option. Selling it will be the second to last option, but for now I am still figuring out if it is repairable. Like I said, it's a running/driving car that looks decent and almost everything works. Scrapping it seems to be just a *little* extreme at this point.

 

 

Then a Subaru dealer advises it is not safe.

Just to clarify, the dealer did not say it wasn't safe, they said that they didn't want to do the work. The service manager gave me the call figuring that with their labor rates, I wouldn't want them to do the work either.

 

 

If the rot is into where the subframe bolts up to the trailing arms or the front suspension then its kinda a lost cause. Dealerships dont want to be liable and are somewhat babies when it comes to this stuff. They only really like to mess with newer cars.

I think that that was pretty much it. I asked a sales guy what the cheapest used Subaru on their lot was, and it was at $14k. The lot was all nice cars, and the service are was very clean. So that kind of gives you a ballpark idea of what sort of place it was. I'm new to this area, so when the car developed the gas leak (AFTER I bought it ), and I needed to do something about it ASAP, the dealer was my first instinct for where to take it.

 

 

Depending on how bad the brake lines are you might want to replace them all but that can be costly. I would look into others here for maybe a possible entire exhaust replacement or something from the junkyard to save you money.

 

Good idea. I should also add that I didn't buy the car expecting it to be perfect, I bought it knowing that it needed some work. I haven't investigated the exhaust yet to see what it needs, so I'm not sure how much of that will need to be replaced. While brake work does cost a bit, being a safety item, I consider brakes a worthwhile investment if you plan to keep a car for a while.

 

 

 

A lot of people get scared nowadays when they see repair bills for old cars, and don't really think about what the end result will be when their car is repaired. They sell their used cars, and buy other used cars, spending much more in the process than it would have cost to fix their current used car up to perfect shape. If you're just after basic transportation, "exceeding the value of the car" is a bit of a misnomer I think.

 

 

 

Same with the gas tank, a patch is nice but doesnt fix it. Infact the very man bheinen might have a gas tank and exhaust system to sell you.

 

Thanks. Yes, I'm 100% with you on the tank issue, and trust me, should I decide that the rest of the car is worth the investment, the tank will be replaced. The patch is just a way to keep it from leaking for now, so that the car isn't a rolling safety/environmental hazard while I decide what to do.

 

 

Thanks everyone for the help and replies so far. :cool:

[Cleaning a cruddy interior...]

I've always used Foamy Engine Brite on stubborn car interior plastics. It's a bit more aggressive than the products typically sold for interior cleaning, and definitely doesn't have any of the glossy/oily "protectants" in it. I'm not sure that it is necessarily "safe" for plastics though, and since my Subaru ownership experience is only 2 weeks old, I've never tried it on *Subaru* plastics, so you might want to test in a small area first.

 

Another option: When I was much younger, my parents had a minivan that they purchased used with a bit of a ratty interior. We were on a vacation and spilled some "Dr. Bold" (a store-brand Dr. Pepper knockoff, but better tasting!) while pouring it into a cup in the rear cupholder. When we wiped it off with a paper towel a minute or so later, it took all of the grunge right off! We ended up buying another 2-liter and using it to clean the whole interior - the before/after comparison was amazing! :cool:

[Loyale 4WD indicator light]

Is it speed-dependent? I didn't think the 4WD worked in my '92 Loyale until I tried it at lower speeds.

 

For example, pushing the button at moderate speed, the 4WD won't engage and the light won't turn on. Pushing the button while stopped, the light won't turn on and the trans won't engage until right as I start rolling, then it clunks (softly) and the light comes on. Turning it off, it waits until I slow down to below ~10-15mph, then clunks and disengages. Turning it off below 10mph, it usually clicks right off.

 

In all cases, the light on the dash seems to follow the status of the transmission, not the position of the switch on the shifter.

 

*Disclaimer* I've owned my Loyale for about 2 weeks now, so I'm not entirely sure that mine acts as the factory intended.

[Madison, WI - Subaru shops or clubs nearby?]

Hello everyone.

 

I just picked up a 92 Loyale a few weeks ago as a cheap winter car. It's in overall good shape, only 97k miles, and runs/drives great (manual trans with push-button 4WD). Pretty much everything works, but it has a few issues though - the brakes need bleeding, the exhaust needs to be replaced, and before I patched it, the gas tank had a leak from right at the fuel fitting.

 

I had it at the Subaru dealer last week for the gas leak, but once they had it up on the lift, I received a call suggesting that I scrap the car instead of doing the repairs. Apparently they thought the car was too risky to tear into due to the rust underneath. :-\

 

 

So now I'm looking for a second opinion. I'm not totally opposed to sinking some money into it ("exceeding the value of the car" wouldn't set me back too much!), but I'm not familiar enough with these old Subarus to know where the real trouble spots are, or how much rust is "too much".

 

Does anyone have any recommendations for shops in the south/central Wisconsin area, or alternately, any clubs of like-minded enthusiasts who might be able to steer me in the right direction?

 

Thanks.