pwbset

Hi. Long time Subaru owner, first time poster (more or less). I'm the proud new owner of 'Ruby' a 1994 Legacy L Wagon with the Alpine Sport trim. Cranberry red. I'm posting here because there are already a couple things about Ruby that I could use help with. Quick acquisition story first: I live in Montana & my '97 Legacy died recently (transplanted East coast rust bucket). It's getting really, really hard to find an old Suby in Montana. After much searching I found Ruby in Denver. Flew down there with my fiance and drove back to Montana (in blizzards.. fun). Ruby did great. Ruby has been owned by the same lady since mile 12 in 1994. One owner. Extremely well taken care of. Zero rust. Perfect interior. They put a 2.5l from an '04 donor (EJ251 I think, it's definitely a SOHC) a few years ago. Odo says almost 250,000, but I think the 2.5 has <100k on it. Timing belts/water pump, front CVs, head gaskets, rear brakes all recently done (head gaskets just done last week). Ruby is a runner and tackled the mountain passes on the way home with aplomb. Cruises at 80mph @ 3,250rpm no sweat. Easy peasy. I was really leery when I heard it had a 2.5 in it, but I'm enjoying it so far. Of course the day after I got home (and with liability only) I slid on pure sheet ice in our post office parking lot and gave Ruby her first taste of some Montana 'character'. Doh! :-\ Now to the meat of the matter... I know Ruby and I are going to have a long, fruitful relationship, but she's got a couple quirks I've never felt in a Suby before. Tips appreciated. 1) I work at a ski resort. On a mountain natch. In all other Subys I've owned I routinely stick it in 3rd or 4th and use a little engine braking on the long decent. With Ruby when I do this she'll 'surge' for lack of a better term. Like try to engine brake a bit, but then just rev up with no resistance, then brake again. What could that be? 2) This may be related to 1. At idle Ruby will 'pulse' slowly between about 1,400 rpm and basically stall. Never does stall, but the pulsing is slow and consistent. Bad Idle Control Valve? Those are $$$ aren't they? Anything else it could be? 3) Ruby is eating coolant. I just this morning noted 'smoke' coming out from under the hood after my climb to work and saw some coolant pooled on top of the engine block toward the back causing steam/smoke (glad the oil is tight). Visually I can't see any cracked hose or anything back there. Where else could coolant be coming from back there at the top? Gonna dig around with a head lamp more later. Hoping it's just a hose. I've ordered the Haynes manual for Legacy models. Despite having owned Subarus for the last 20 years Ruby is the first one I've owned that I've felt is worth keeping up tip top and working on. Having been restoring a '72 VW bus for the last 3yrs I enjoy learning how to fix things up. Thanks! Glad to be here and learn!!

Amazingly a co-worker's daughter recently wrecked her '98 Legacy (thankfully she's okay) so gave me 4 summer style 185 70 R14s with about half tread... WAY better than what I'm rolling. $40 for him, $50 to de-rim/re-rim/mount/balance etc. and I'm back in the game through summer *knock wood*. $90 is doable... more or less. Man I hate pinching pennies.

Like... these should fit yes? http://kalispell.craigslist.org/pts/2920903981.html

Of course everything wasn't even hot on the uphill this morning. I'm having a devil of a time finding tires for this car... no one will sell me just two no matter how much I plead. Looking for 4 used, cheapos at this point on Craigslist etc, but not sure my size limitations. Currently I'm at stock 185 70 R14... what's the minimum and maximum I can be looking for my rims? I found 4 185 65 R14s for $100... though they're studded... but that would work yes... except they're studded Thanks for any additional tips. I appreciate all the help and am learning a LOT.

Good stuff.. haha.. I typically keep it in 3rd and let the motor do most of the braking as I coast down around 35-40mph. Today I just used all brakes as I wanted to see how they fared. About 40mph... doesn't take long. I think max grade is about 10%. It's a nice, new paved road. I'm sure "new" brakes get just as hot, but I've never been one to notice. I do notice in the summer most SUVs and trucks I follow down smell like burning brakes by the time they get to the bottom. Typical.

Got to work and back today without issue, but when I got home I checked the temps of the lugs/rotors.. the rears were hot, but the same side to side. The front lugs were very, very hot and I singed my fingertip trying to touch the rotor. Ambient 55 degrees today... 3.5 miles down 1,600ft elevation... correct me if I'm wrong, but that would cause searing hot rotors/lugs yes? I have no base reference since I've never done a temp check, but I'm just a little curious if that's normal. I did smell some "burning brake" a tiny bit, but thought maybe the pads need to seat or something. Hmm.

I appreciate the concern and it's certainly not without merit. I'm not trying to be unsafe. I simply have no money unfortunately so am trying to make the best of my situation. If it makes you feel any better I only use this car to commute 7 miles back and forth to the ski resort I work at in Montana so I'm not exactly endangering a lot of people except myself and the local elk and turkeys. I would not be driving this daily in LA for example. Thankfully my more fiscally responsible better half has a 2011 Outback in case we need to go anywhere else. Don't even get me started about how jealous I am of her car. It even has a back up camera.

I deal with VW bus/camber issues all the time so this makes sense. Thx for the left/right tire tip!

It's a stick... should have mentioned that. Grew up in da 'burgh by the way. Go PENS!

Thanks for the reply. This is definitely an aged tranny so I'll do some searching on torque bind and start saving up for 4 tires instead of 2.

Forgive my noobness, but is that an option to disable AWD? Does having exact same tires matter so much for the transfer case that I couldn't make it even a few months? Thanks for the reply... learning as I go here clearly...

Did the left side rear without any fanfare. Equally ugly as the right. Then did the fronts since I was sold the front pads initially by mistake. Why not. The front rotors are in WAY better shape than the rears, but the pads were bare/destroyed. New pads went in very easily and a 3" c-clamp got the piston/caliper back on easy peasy. Only problem now is I need two new front tires... ouch... these are only 3 yrs old, but without shocks/struts/alignment it's hardly surprising they're worn to the bone. Rears have most of their tread still. Les Schwab won't sell me just two fronts so I'm going to go with a local tire shop... damn the transfer case... I just need to get through the summer until the work bus runs again next fall.

I will be doing the other side on Saturday yes and no more driving until then... front pads as well. As soon as money allows I'll probably replace the rotors. I did wire wheel it as best I could with my measly 18v cordless drill. *rolls eyes* Haha. Will try that temp check also this weekend and make sure things are "normal".

Well... after some sweat and swearing I managed to get the right rear back into some semblance of working. Went for a test drive and there is some softness and unevenness to the braking, but I think when I do the other rear side (and front pads while I'm at it) and bleed the system with fresh fluid it should, knock wood, be alright for awhile. Once I got the caliper free you can see the inner pad that shot forward and lodged in the caliper seizing up the wheel. Cleaned up the area best I could with limited tools and got the new pads in. Note the outer pad's lower left sticky out thinghy? I didn't know which was outer vs inner, but it seemed to clear both sides so I just stuck them on the outside. If this is a no-no please tell me so I can swap them. I googled the snot out of the interwebs trying to find the answer, but to no avail. Caliper back on... compressed the piston with a large screwdriver since I had no c-clamp.. worked well with some muscle thrown at it. Feeling a nice sense of accomplishment. I'm a web developer by trade... not a mechanic so it was nice to see this worked at least enough to get me to work and back.

It's a tough call for me really.. the '97 is a total eastern rust bucket. The '87 I went and looked at yesterday for $750 was completely rust free (Montana car) and needs minimal work to be a nice daily driver. I swear Montana is where old Subarus go in the after life. There are some gems here. I've had '89, '87 and '86 GLs before and loved them. Then again I had an '89 Westfalia years ago and currently am restoring a '72 VW bay window camper and would take the older bay over the vanagon style any day of the week. Legacys just lack a certain character to me despite that they have things like airbags and fuel injection and... horsepower... haha... etc. Going to pick up my '97 brake pads now... we'll see what happens. I certainly appreciate all the advice.