MR_Loyale

Nice pics. Where is the thread about the 93 Loyale?

Nice to have you here Subaru Scott. Love the houseboat. Hope you can help some of the folks out here as you probably have seen it all with these old Subarus.

Just so you know Glen, I am a complete amateur as well. However I was able to pull the engine, do the timing belts, oil pump, water pump rear main seal, clutch and upper cam seals myself. The key was two months of research reading the procedures over and over until they were second nature. The next key I think was that I gave myself plenty of time, I took a week off work. Now others more experienced will tell you it is a weekend job, for experts perhaps. But there will be parts you forgot to get, parts that are wrong etc. By giving myself a week for the procedure, I ensured plenty of time for getting the flywheel machined, and other planned and unplanned delays. You really want to get on top of things with this so you are replacing stuff in a preventative mode before they go out. The last thing that was key when I did my engine was to meticulously write down everything I took off. If it was step 10 and I disconnected a connector, I put masking tape on each connector end and wrote the number 10 on it as well as checked off step 10 on my sheet of paper. Sounds anal, but we are beginners here. Assembly was the reverse, again marking off each step as I completed it. I was rewarded with it starting on first crank up. Just about everything that has or will go wrong, most everyone else has already experienced. Some did it right the first time, others did it wrong, found the mistake and corrected it. You learn from both types of writeups. I hope you get it all working well and if you ever do a cross country to the Puget Sound area, look me up.

Thanks for the response. Yeah I was shocked to see that myself. It is so opposite to Subaru quality they have come to be known for. More like a lousy trick Chevy might pull to cut corners along with some faulty hinges from China. Did you know that in order to replace the heater blower motor on the new Camaro, it must be cut out of the hvac housing with a knife? I kid you not. $30K+ and you got to cut out your fan motor. No screws, no nuts, no fasteners. http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=265265

That is quite an advanced feature for its time. Marine engines didn't start using resivours until about 15 years ago. Prior to that all marine engines required you to premix the gas and oil.

It looks like in the Crosstrek they don't paint under the hood as revealed in the picture below. Is this true? Is this standard practice on all new Subarus these days?

No. It is an emissions part.

As everyone who owns a Loyale knows by now, the CEL code 34 is EGR Solenoid and it is an emissions part the dealer wants about $120 for. My first CEL 34 code happened to me at about 80K miles and I let it go for about 4 months until I could not stand it anymore. Damned if I was going to pay $120 for a coil of wire and a bar of metal! Eventually I found a third party replacement at Rock auto for $60 at the time (2005 I think it was). This made the code 34 go away and the CEL went black. I thought I'd never see it again. About one year ago, my light came back on code 34. I chose to ignore it. It doesn't affect the car running and even at $60 it is still a coil of wire around a metal bar like a doorbell ringer mechnism. Probably only costs about 50 cents to make and the rest is pure ripoff. Yeah, I am a cheap bastard - deal with it. Anyway, recently the light has gone out for a while, then came back on, then out for a different length and then on. I thought at first the ECU was resetting its codes because it was stored for so long. But sometimes it stays off for days and comes back then other times just for ten minutes or so. The thing has been out for a year and now it starts to work again? Any ideas or theories on this? Edited to add: EGR not ERG, though ERG is the growling sound one makes when the code 34 happens.

Mine has done that on and off throughout the years. Cleaned IAC several times and also I have seen it most pronounced when my alternator was going out. I have replaced the alternator at least three times over the years.

And a beautiful color it is too! Warm, comforting earthy. All natural.

Just a note on the timing belts. Glen, you may think you really spent a lot when it was $650 to get it replaced but you really experienced why these are great cars. Let me explain. In most of the new cars out there, the engines are what is called interference engines. That means that they are engineered such that if the timing belt breaks and the valve is open to its maximum and the piston goes up to it's maximum, the two will collide at high speeds and the engine will be ruined. I mean valves bend, heads wrecked, pistons broken kind of ruined. On your car Glen, your timing belt snapped and no engine damage was done. In fact replacing the timing belt fixed the overheating issue. You got off lucky because this is a Loyale and it has a non-interference engine. No matter how far the valvle is when the belt snaps, the pistons will never hit them. Any other car with an interference engine, and today most are interference, and you would have to get a new engine. Your particular car has a maintenance deficit. This means all those years it sat, no one drove it and so its fluids went bad, things get gunked up and it will take some work to recover. That is what you are facing. The most important fluids to immediately change are coolant (turns acidic after a few years and corrodes engine), auto trans fluid (water infiltrates and it doesn't work anymore) and oil. I suspect the car was due for a timing belt and the previous owner got rid of it to avoid the expense. They probably hadn't changed the fluids for a few years either so those are easy cheap things to do preventative maintenance. Don't assume you can just drive it. Start your time with it off right by refreshing the fluids. You can do all of that yourself.

COOL! I love it! I see you too have the check engine light. Let me guess, 34 EGR Solenoid??

Your car has the greatest feature that probably 90% of the new cars do not have - It is paid for. Why don't you make a bumper sticker of this: You don't need to spend money you don't have to impress people you don't know with new cars you cannot afford. Save the money you would of spent on a new car payment and retire early. Ten year from now who in the heck will care you drove a rusting car?

When going to mechanics, be sure to get someone who has worked on these engines before. Those who have not will look at all the oil spots and declare it a worthless cause. Those that have will undertand what is critical and what is not. Non-subaru or even subaru dealer mechanics will all give you premature eulogies for the car.

When you got it, did you immediately change all the fluids? When cars sit for a long time, the fluids get water and degrade. If you haven't already, you should immediately change the oil, auto fluid, coolant, rear diff and brake fluids. Cars that sit for that long will have issues just as long bedridden people will have issues walking at first. This is true of any car out there from a Chevy Nova to a Bugatti Veyron. Sorry to hear about the big expense with the timing belt. You should given us the specifics of the vehicle you were interested in as well as the time it sat and we prob could have told you all these things before you bought it. Subaru timing belts are due every 60k miles. As you found out, you cannot let this maintenance go. You got off cheap for $650. My first one cost $1200. And probaly your engine will need resealing too as the mechanics said. I did my second t belt at 117K myself pulling the engine to reseal and plan on doing the t belt at 180K. When I had the engine out I replaced the oil pump and water pump as a precautionary measure. You are in used car territory and mainenance is required, or expensive repairs will be the order of the day. This is true on evey single used car out there. Is this a critical daily driver? Do you live somewhere where doing major mechanical work is not practical or allowed (e.g apartment complex with a strict landlord who forbids mechanic work in the parking lot?) If that is the case, you probably should get what you can out of it and get a brand new car. Used cars will always have the maintenance requirement and any car you let sit for 7 or 8 years without running, even a brand spanky new one, will have trouble with the rubber bits getting hard and brittle. The Loyales are great cars that are easy to work on, but be realistic. If you are in an apartment complex and the only way you can do the work is in the parking a lot and the landlord gets mad about it, you probably aren't going to be pulling the engine and doing the reseal there any time soon. I am not trying to discourage you here, just set your expectations realistically. Like everyone has said, they are easy to work on, even major engine resealing. But you do need a place to work on it. having it done at mechanics rates will put you in the poor house and isn't woth it. On the other thand if you have a Subaru club buddy and someplace to work on the car, there are tutorial videos out there on how to pull the engine and do all the reasealing. Miles Fox made a youtube video series called "The Art of Subaru Maintenance". Be sure to read through your shop manual (Haynes book works too) on all that is required BEFORE you remove a single nut. this is a critical point. If you just start tearing things off, especially if you haven't done it before (I presume you haven't), you are ensuring failure. After sitting 8 years, any car is going to have issues. Rubber is rubber and doesn't last forever. Oh and all those hoses on the engine will need to be replaced in the future too. Easy job that can be done in the parking lot. But at over 20 years old any bit of rubber will be brittle.

So do you have to mix two cycle oil with the gas? Is that special oil or the same as marine engines?

Rock Auto had a sale on fuel filters once so I bought 5. Two were the wrong model all together. They were $5.99 ea while everyone locally wanted $30 on up. I just kept em and figured it was still way cheaper than anything local.

If you are the type that doesn't like to learn new things, pull up your sleeves and get grease under your nails - you got royally and painfully screwed. On the other hand if you are willing to work, learn and ask questions, you got a sweet deal. Used cars require you to put in an effort to keep them on the road. It looks like the previous owner was such a person. Yes some things will *GASP* need replacing and repairing. Car maintenance is more patience, perseverance and effort than rocket science. And you have this place to help you along. You have a classic there. The question is, in 10 years will it still be a classic or a beater? The difference will be all in how you treat it. Now stop over-thinking the damn thing and drive somewhere. Maybe to the local tool place to start building your tool set.

It doesn't transform - that you know of. When you are sound asleep at night, do you really know what your car is doing? I saw the movie. I know they don't transform until after you are asleep. Yours is probably out at night beating up a Honda to steal those strut assemblies.

Ugly car. Looks like a cross between a Chrysler 300 and an Impreza with some gull wing doors thrown in. B ut then again, a Prius is an ugy duckling too.

There are no beaters. Just poorly maintained classics.

Just for future reference, we do not call them beaters. The proper term is "classic".

Hey look at the bright side. At least the burning oil smell will mask the mouse urine smell.

So I got to ask what are some of the "bad words" (Spanish of course). I don't know any bad Spanish words. Lots in English, a few in Tamil but not in Spanish. As you can tell, I seek only to become a well rounded scholar.

I cannot think of a more deserving Subaru nut!