firstwagon

Here's somemore good reading on the SVX....' http://smallcar.com/svx/index.htm and on 5 speed swaps from a company that does them http://smallcar.com/svx/5speed.htm

1991 Legacy LS wagon 203,000 km (about 125,000 miles) Bought it as a one owner car 2 years ago with 160,000 km (documented). No major repairs except changing the front air struts and the alternator.

It should be under warrantee still. Take it to the dealer and explain the problem. I'll bet you have broken component or missing bushing.

Last month we got a dump of 45 cm (18 inches) of snow here in British Columbia. A couple days later we picked up another 10 cm (4 inches). It hung around for a couple weeks and since they don't plow side streets in my neighbourhood, I had lots of time to play in the snow. Despite trying I could not get my 91 Legacy wagon stuck. I drove through every pile of snow I saw, parked in the most clogged up parking spots and it didn't matter. Step on the gas and it plowed right though. Amazing!! Nothing beats a old Subaru on a set of skinny all season tires for cheap, unstopable, bulletproof winter transportation. Note: Our 95 Grand Cherokee went through everything too but with much more effort and tire spinning. Larger All Terrain tires don't seem to work as well in the snow.

Can't a clunk also mean CV joint?

If you have a mutimetre you can check. If the alternator is good then the voltage across the battery should be around 14 volts (with the car running). Turning on things like the lights and the heater should only have a minimal effect on the voltage. If the alternator is bad then you will get close to 12 volts across the battery. Turning on the lights and heater can drop it to 9 to 10 volts depending on the strength of you battery. Anything in between usually means it going but not gone yet. Change it before it leaves you standed.

Impala wagon? When did they build that? The actual definition of a wagon over a 4 door hatchback is the third window. Look at a Golf 4 door and the rear most side window is the back door window. It's a 4 door hatchback. The Imprezza wagon has a extra side window in the cargo area thus it's a wagon.

Are you it wasn't km? That would be doing an average of 528 miles per day/ every day for the 14 years since that truck was built. If you only do hwy and average 60 mph then that would driving 8.8 hours/ day ....never missing a day.

Not if you live somewhere where they salt the roads.

Cool, you really can find anthing on e-bay. Please e-mail me a copy too when you get it. :)

I remember doing that on West Lake (near Sandbanks) in Ontario in my Dad's Cordova. Took forever to get up to speed but what a blast!!!! Love to try in it my Legacy but don't really trust the lakes around BC to freeze like they do out east.

Here's a link to alot of 1990 Legacy specs and other info... http://legacycentral.org/images/90_press/90_leg_press.PDF

http://www.surrealmirage.com/subaru/swap/swap.html or http://www.legacycentral.org/library/transmission/convert.htm

I like the comment " what you have is a busted car". There's no such thing. The car has a specific problem and the dealership is not competent enough to find it. I'm amazed they are not trying harder considering they have had to eat the cost for 5 transmissions. I would tell them if it fails again they will have to buy the car from the owner at fair market value. The owner has been more then patient enough.

Wow, that's complicated. The auto trans I'm most familular with is the one on my old SkyHawk. Basically a non computer controlled 3 speed with lock up torque converter. The TC lock up on that one had a habit of failing causing it to stay locked and stall the car when you tried to stop at a light. I disconnected the electrical connection on the TC so it would never lock. It really did make the car faster around town. The TC normally locked up very early (max mpg) and was slow to unlock. That meant the low torque 2.0 litre was forced to pull from low rpms. A lot of an automatics performance comes from torque multiplication caused by winding up the torque converter. You don't get that with the TC locked. My opinion would be the idea is sound on older cars but I can't really recommend it on a computer controlled car. You're dealing with an intergrated system instead of an add on part.

In 2wd and 4wd high range, the transfer case is the basically the same. Power just passes through it. The centre diff in the Jeep is what you would compare to clutch system in the Subaru. What I don't understand is why a slipping clutch system would be more efficient then a differential.

As I understand it, Legacys with automatics run 50/50 in the lower gears and switch to 90/10 in 4th. Manual trans cars run in 50/50 all then time.

I found no difference in mileage when I ran my Legacy in 2wd for a week but am still curious as to why. Look how many manufactors set up their all wheel drive systems to run in front wheel drive until wheel slip is detected (.e. Honda). They claim this is to help fuel mileage. If it made no difference then why not just run it in 50/50 all the time? My Grand Cherokee gets significantly better mileage in 2wd then full time 4wd. However since it has fixed hubs, all the parts are spining all the time there too. Just wondering.... :confused: :confused:

I still think it's an interesting test and potentially far more useful then the typical "road" test most magazines do. I'd like to see a third party do the tests (and pick the tests to do) and have an unbiased commentator instead of that idiot. A lot of people don't realize all four wheel drive systems are not the same and it would be nice to see a test that pushes them to their limit.

All SUV's? I didn't see any SUV's in the test ! Seriously it would have been nice if they included some real suvs like the Grand Cherokee or the 4Runner. The expectation would be the cars to do better on road and the trucks off but I wonder how much difference there would be. I'd like to see an independant test like that ( not with tests carefully choosen so the Subaru always wins) and without the annoying voice over.

They used to. My 91 Legacy LS has a line in jack (aux in) on the front of the stock deck. Great for plugging mp3 plays.

I seem to remember a long term test in Car and Driver where their's said it had a 15.9. It wasn't until they ran out of gas that they realized it was an error. I wonder if I can find that magazine still.

I rather have my doors fly open than jam shut. Seems much less trouble to take your seatbelt off and get out of the car yourself then wait for the jaws of life to arrive and cut you out. As for the Murano, I asked a co-worker what he thought of his. He liked the truck but not the CVT. He had replaced once already and it's acting up again now. Nissan was really good about replacing it the 1st time and he's worried there's something they are not telling him.

What about the Ford Escape? the Edge? The Freestar? the Freestyle? :)

If a car is in for the same problem over and over, then perhaps you have a bad dealership, not a bad car. Have you tried a different dealer? Of course VW was nice to you when the car fell apart, it happens so often that they have it down to a routine.