jj421

^Maybe that's why my Loyale shakes at almost exactly 20 MPH? And I get rattling too, but more so at freeway speeds. I should check my driveshaft. Tonight was fun. It was 10 pm, I was driving on a forest service road that I regularly go down (I like offroading at night). I was going about 30 MPH coming out of a turn, when all of a sudden my wheel went from stiff to nothing at all. At this point, I had no steering. I instinctively slammed on the brakes, and slid into the bushes on the left side of the road. Put it in reverse and backed out a bit, still with no steering. The steering wheel was spinning freely. I shut the car down, now stranded in the middle of the forest at night. Popped the hood, and found that the u-joint popped off the steering rack. Not a difficult fix, at all. I had my tools with me, and got it fixed within 30 minutes and was on my home. My steering wheel sitting 90 degrees to the right, I drove the rest of the trail at about 10 MPH, slowing down for potholes. Eventually got back on paved road with no issues, but still had a 30 minute drive home. The entire drive was done at about 30-35 MPH with my hazards on, pulling over for cars behind me. Was driving on a state highway (speed limit was 55, I was doing 35), when I passed by a cop. Sure enough, he followed me for a bit and eventually turned on his lights. I pulled over, and he asked me why I was driving slow with my hazards on. I gave him my license/insurance/registration and told him what happened. He looked at my info, wished me good luck, and let me go the rest of the way home. Now it's midnight, just got home, and I'm gonna fix the car tomorrow. What a night.

Well, new water pump is installed and car is running fine. However, it's still shifting weird unless I go through the gears manually. I'll have to track down the wiring when I get a chance. Kinda starting to annoy me.

I'll let you know if I do anything to fix the problem. Right now the Impreza is sitting, half taken apart, waiting for a water pump to come in the mail. I don't see how splicing wires would change the resistance, unless the splicing job was done poorly or a different gauge wire was used.

Thanks for the amazing pictures of me in the mud pit!!!! I absolutely love them! All those pictures are awesome!

I love that first photo! I can't wait to see more. Would love to see if someone got a good photo of me in the mud pit.

Okay, well I got home from WCSS and I'm a bit annoyed. Now it's working fine. Transmission shifts fine after the car sat for the weekend. I started it up and moved it in my driveway. Power light did not flash (didn't think it would), then I parked it. Waited a while, and took it for a very short drive (about 3 minutes). Shifted normally. Came home and I downloaded your wiring diagram (thanks for that!) and went out to the car. I'm still not sure where exactly the TCU is. I pulled the panel off under the steering wheel, and was presented with this. I'm guessing the "JC" box is the TCU. I could be wrong, but I don't think an ECU would only have two plugs. And from what I've been reading, the ECU is on the passenger. That being said, anybody who's done an EJ swap should correct me on that. But yeah, I took a look at this box, but didn't really see any frayed wires or obvious connection issues. I did see this though on one of the wires: It was hiding under some electrical tape. Does not look factory, but it was well done. The wires were tight, but I crimped them even tighter to be sure. Otherwise, I installed everything again and went for another drive. Shifted perfectly normal. Under light acceleration, it shifted into second gear at 2000 RPM. Medium acceleration, 3000 RPM. Hard acceleration (not full throttle), 4500 RPM. The 1-2 shift was not as rough, and the 2-3 shift was perfectly normal. Didn't hang or go into neutral. I drove it for about 10 minutes, got it up to temperature, but not too long since the water pump gasket is leaking a bit. It drove great! After I got back from that drive, I turned the car off then turned it back on. Power light did not flash. I guess I should be happy that it's back to normal, but I'm not confident it'll stay this way. It feel like a wiring issue, since it seems to be "on or off" (works or doesn't work; no in between). Much like it was with my IACV on my Loyale, that ended up being a connection issue. If that looks like the TCU, let me know and I'll follow the wires back from there. None of the wires seemed problematic visually, but I'll do more thorough testing if that is indeed the TCU.

When I moved the car this morning, the power light did not flash. So yeah, because I did not drive the car, the TCU did not sense a fault. I would love to take a look at the wiring diagram; I'll send you an email now.

Thanks for reminding me to check the wiring. I've been screwed over by wiring before. The immediate wiring connected to the TPS seems to be fine. But if that wiring was damaged, I would think the ECU would see it as faulty too. So it's gotta be TCU wiring. I do not have torque bind of any kind, so yeah. This morning I had to move the Impreza to leave for work, and the power light did not flash. I don't know why not, seeing as the only thing I did since I last started it was measure the TPS voltage. Yeah, to me it sounds like a wiring issue, especially if it's intermittent like this. I'll be at WCSS this weekend, but when I get back, I'll check out the wiring.

Yeah, I was going to go to the junkyard to grab another TPS. I just wanted confirmation because from my testing, the TPS seems to have checked out fine. Besides the resistance values, but I may have done those wrong (or the Chilton manual could be wrong). Yes, I'm checking the transmission dipstick. Dipstick is pretty long, on the driver's side. I know there are two dipsticks, one for the front diff fluid and one for the transmission. Owner's manual says the driver side dipstick is the transmission fluid. So I just went out to the car to read the codes again. I believe you're supposed to warm up the car before testing, but I tested them cold. No active codes, but there were two stored codes. Code 31 and 32 were stored. These are, of course, for TPS and VSS1. The VSS code is new, and this is annoying because all the threads I've found online have had these two codes. But they never posted what they did to fix the problem. I'm thinking, could the TCU be bad? I read that replacing the TCU fixed a different transmission issue on another site. The ECU is reading the TPS and VSS just fine. No stalling issues, no throttle dead spots, no speedometer error, no check engine light. So why would the TCU see those as faulty?

Well, my $300 Impreza has hit the road, and I've noticed some transmission issues. It's a 1993, automatic, 4-speed, AWD. When I got the car, it had a bad radiator. Because of this, I did not drive it much, but I didn't notice any shifting issues. I replaced the radiator, and in turn lost some ATF through the cooler lines. And now it's acting a bit funky. When I start the car, the "POWER" light blinks. Then I start driving, and it doesn't shift into second gear until I reach about 4000 RPM, no matter how gentle I am on the throttle. The shift into second is quite rough, as it sorta lurches forward. Then sometimes when it goes into third, it hangs for a second before it actually catches. Every now and again, it won't go into gear, and the engine just freely revs like it's in neutral. Usually if I coast for about 3-4 seconds, it'll go into gear. Shifting into fourth, as well as downshifting, acts normal. I've done research for the past 24 hours, but haven't found an answer. There have been two or three threads with similar problems like mine, but they were not conclusive. I read the TCU code, and it comes up with code 31 for the throttle position sensor. I have tested the TPS to what I think is correct. The Chilton manual says to measure resistance between pin 2 and 3, which should be 13k ohm - 5k ohm (closed - wide-open). Mine measures 5k ohm - 1k ohm (closed - wide-open). No dead spots or anything. I tried adjusting the TPS, but the only thing it did was set off the check engine light. The resistances didn't change much. I back probed the TPS and measured the voltage. The power pin had a solid 5.15 volts, the ground pin had a solid ground, and the center pin successfully swept from 0.5 to 4.5 volts (from throttle closed to open). From what I've been reading, that's correct. I pulled the fuse for the TCU to reset it. Had the fuse out for about two hours, then put it in and went for a drive. At first start, the power light did not blink. But it still shifted the same way. Now the power light blinks for the same code. I've read that you can unplug the TCU which should lock it in third gear, but I wanted confirmation as to where the TCU is. Under the dash, I suppose. Also, in terms of ATF, it's clear. Like, I mean clear. When I undid the ATF cooler lines, red fluid came out. I topped it off with new ATF, but it's clear on the dipstick (very hard to see the fluid). The dipstick is wet up to the full mark, and when I wipe it on a paper towel, it has a pinkish hue to it. I have receipts for a transmission flush about 15,000 miles ago (last October). Just went for another drive, and found that manually shifting through the gears works better. The 1-2 shift is not as rough and going from 2-3 still hangs a bit, but not as bad. So yeah, any advice as to what is wrong? I would like to get this fixed, as I'll be getting the registration soon. Thanks!

Indeed, avoid Fram for any and all filters. Anything is better. People seem to think otherwise. I always hear at my work, "I want a good filter; give me the Fram." I took this picture the other night of my oil filter. There's a good amount of clearance. So yeah, do the above and check the mounts for everything.

Fram used to make Microguard filters, but now WIX does. I want to try a WIX filter, but I have such good performance with the Bosch that I'm "scared" to change. Maybe next oil change.

If it was Napa's house brand of filter, then that's probably why. Go with a "name brand" filter, and it should fit with no issue. Filters made by Fram, Bosch, WIX, Mobil-1, K&N, and some other brands. Our house brand (Microguard) oil filters are made by WIX, but some Microguard filters are slightly different in size than the WIX counterpart.

I work at O'Reilly Auto Parts, and I change my Loyale's oil every 3000 miles. I can say that I always use a Bosch 3400 filter, and it's always been the same. Fits perfectly fine, and Bosch has not changed the design on it. Doesn't even come close to rubbing anything. I've also tried a K&N filter, part # HP-2008. The filter sucked (in my opinion), but it didn't come close to the fan. I also used to run our brand of filter (Microguard), and it fit fine. I have not heard at work of us discontinuing any filters. What brand of filter did you have? Tomorrow when I go into work, I can get part numbers off every filter available for an EA82 and see which ones are larger than the Bosch.

My first post in the newer generation forum!! Never thought I'd post in here, but a couple days ago I bought a 1993 Impreza L. Drove 600 miles (round trip) to get it. Drove 11 hours for a $300 car. But man, what a deal. She runs and drives, rust-free, clean, and straight. Previous owner lost the title, but I am going to try and get it registered and it'll be my parts-getter car. Was originally going to take the EJ18 from this and put it in my Loyale, but I really like the way this drives. The radiator needs to be replaced, so I'm doing that next week along with the hoses and cap. Pulled the plugs, and they look beautiful. Not burning oil or coolant or gas. Did a compression test, and got about 145, 135, 130, 100. So it could benefit from a rebuild, but I'll do that later. Going to do the timing belt, water pump, plugs, wires, and serpentine belts soon. Oil change too. Came with a handful of receipts from different shops. Tires are less than a year old, radiator was replaced in 2012, front-end crash was fixed in 2011, transmission fluid was flushed 15,000 miles ago. Also has had exhaust work, cooling system work, and some other things within the past 3 years. Oh, and the A/C works amazingly well! From what I can tell, it's still R12, but it blows ice cold. Again, runs good, drives good, shifts good, stops well. I think I got a great deal! Anyways, here are some pictures:

Your neighbors are gonna love you. Get one more sedan and you'll have people knocking on your door telling you: A) You have a problem and/or Here's a good junk car removal company. Call (xxx) xxx-xxxx Gonna get similar license plates as your white car?

Okay, well in terms of my car's misfire, it seems to have been fixed with new wires. Lesson learned: Only use NGK 9350 wires on an EA82. Finally, my engine sits still in the engine bay. No longer is it shaking. As far as the distributor goes, yes, the cap & rotor are the right ones. Currently running the Hitachi distributor, cap, and rotor from the '89 DL. Considering it only had 109K on it, I bet it's all original. The cap isn't as damaged as the photos above, but it's been slightly chipping away at the contacts. Guess that's kinda normal?

I was looking for those screws, but it doesn't appear to have any. I'm pretty sure it's not the crank angle type, but I could be wrong.

Been doing some research and seems like the fuel pump could be an issue too? I changed out the fuel filter a while ago, but I might throw another new on there. Or better yet, I should buy a fuel pressure gauge.

Tested the resistance on both the coil I grabbed from the junkyard, and my old one. New (junkyard) coil: Primary=1.35 ohm Secondary=10,800 ohm Old coil: Primary=1.40 ohm Secondary=9,650 ohm According to this quote (quoting the FSM), it looks as though the primary resistance is a bit high (mine is a Hitachi). Should I just go to the junkyard and find a bunch of EA82s, test the resistances, and find one that works? I remember reading over and over that aftermarket coils are a death sentence, since they don't like the horizontal positioning.

I guess I should've entitled this thread something more according to my misfire issue. As I was driving to the junkyard, she was misfiring way worse than before. I could really feel it while driving, and going up hills was difficult. Grabbed a distributor from an '89 Subaru DL (only 109K!!). Got the cap and rotor too. Installed it, but made no difference. I also grabbed the fuel injector from that car, installed it on mine, and my car was still misfiring. Except now it wouldn't idle too. Reinstalled my old one and I was back to where I was before. Grabbed the ignition coil from the DL, installed that, but didn't make a difference. On the way back, the misfire was still there, but not as bad. I'd only really feel it when going up hills. Engine still shakes like a wet dog at idle. Getting the new plugs and wires on Friday. Hopefully it'll work.

When I replaced the parts last year, they were direct replacements to what I had on there. Rotor and cap looked the same, and I don't recall the old parts having this kind of damage (I didn't look). I'm going to the junkyard today. Gonna grab a distributor and pick up a new cap and rotor.

Maybe I'll try that. I'm thinking of getting a new distributor anyways. I kinda think my misfire issue is a bad fuel injector, so I'll probably be replacing that too.

My EA82 wagon has a slight, random misfire. Recently, I've been pretty determined to find the solution. About 20,000 miles ago, I swapped the long block. Used my old distributor, but got new spark plugs (NGK BPR6ES-11), new spark plug wires (Import Direct 40975), new distributor cap (Import Direct 10-0199), and distributor rotor (Import Direct 12-0186). All parts I got from O'Reilly Auto Parts. Before starting the engine when I installed it, I accidentally hydrolocked it with coolant. I pulled the plugs and cleaned out the coolant. I also accidentally had two of the spark plug wires mixed up. But once I got it all sorted out, I was driving fine. This is when I first noticed the slight misfire. Flash forward to today: I've currently got new plugs (NGK BPR6EY-11) and new wires (NGK 9350) coming in the mail. My current spark plugs don't look abnormal. I think having NGK wires will make a big difference, but I have another issue. My distributor rotor seems to be making serious contact with the cap. There's virtually no up-and-down play in the shaft, nor side-to-side. There's some rotational play, but since it's supposed to be spinning, I don't see how that could cause it to do this. Could it be the wrong parts? What have you guys used for your cap & rotor? I figure what I'll do is grab another distributor from the junkyard. Get a new cap and rotor as well. Besides shaft play, how can I tell how good the distributor is? Is there a way to clean it once I get it home? I have a good feeling that this is what's causing my misfire, since my misfire seems to be very random. It's not necessarily on one cylinder, and it misfires at random times (once every 1-5 seconds).

This is why I love Washington!! MR_Loyale and I went cruising a bit and found this spot. It's gonna be our secret spot. But I can't not share a couple photos.