Hank Roberts

Belated followup, but my experience with several(!) used transmissions is you risk getting one that's already worn out -- grinds going into 2nd, or pops out of 1st and 3rd. If you can afford the time and the seller will reimburse shipping if it's bad, that might make sense. Make sure you get the actual serial number off the metal tag on the transmission housing (be careful cleaning the mud off so you don't clean the painted number off the thin metal strip!). Without that you can get any of several wrong ones. Look for my postings for details. Currently, my original 5-speed dual range is off at Colorado Component Repair -- CCRinc to be rebuilt. If the local mechanic had believed me about going to them first, back in April, it'd be done. At the time I was brand new to a Subaru, didn't know what I've learned reading here since. My criterion for OK is not popping out of first gear when pointed downhill on a steep slope using engine braking. That's not something everyone is likely to have done -- especially those using the cars in snow and ice instead of on dirt roads. The mechanic who tried several used Japanese transmissions in my 1988 GL agreed, the people sending them can't bench test them, so you get to do the testing for them.

I have a couple of decent tires remaining -- once I see what I can find new I can see what their actual diameter is, measured after mounting, and compare them and see. The risk I discovered with a mismatched transmission and rear differential during that episode was that the rear tires would break loose when they did that little extra spin/scuff catching up, and this was during a heavy rare June storm on forest roads (with my wife driving and 3 kids in the car). I suppose just mismatched tire diameter wouldn't be as bad a mismatch -- but what I learned is that a mismatch that makes the rear tires have to slip/spin means the rear end of the car can break loose at the worst possible time and go sideways. I want to make sure I have tires close enough to do a six-tire rotation, basically. This was a worst-case situation (rare spring 'winter storm' on worst roads and lives at risk from unexpected behavior of the vehicle -- 4wd was a lot less safe than 2wd!). It happens. Life's too short to economize, at least when it's other people's kids' lives I'm balancing against expense. The whole point of getting a Subaru was to be safer in exactly this kind of situation. So thank you, good advice, more welcome -- it'll be a while yet before I have the car back on the road.

What model years did Subaru make the SPFI or MPFI available? I gather the carb and fuel injection were both available during some if not all years, but which ones? As I continue looking for a reliable used Subaru ....

Do you have an ECU in that model? I think so, not sure, but I know they take a while to get 'adjusted' to your driving before they do their best with the engine. Don't trust me on this, I don't know what I"m talking about.

When a reporter asked him "Dr. Einstein, what is the most powerful force in the universe?" Einstein did not hesitate. "Compound interest" he replied. You'll be more exhausted in 18 years than you are now (grin), so consider starting that youngster's college savings. http://www.collegeboard.com/article/0,3868,6-29-0-395,00.html

Have you gone through the series of brake tests recommended in the manuals? I don't have time to retype them right now, but you ought to make sure you have the right detail for your year and model anyhow. You need to test each step and note what happens in the troubleshooting detail info. Yes, bad brake lines can balloon -- it took the local mechanic four months to find one doing that on my 1988 GL, and replacing that one didn't solve my brake problems so they're still looking. Wish I could help you, that'd mean I could help me! with similar issues.

If you can get hold of any of the manuals, they have pictures and troubleshooting for adjustment. There is a Subaru-specific shim that changes the angle at which it operates-- could it be a bit loose? I don't know. Clutch adjustment has to be right before adjusting the hill holder, I read. But for erratic, I'd guess replace the valve. The valve, according to all I've found, is not serviceable but simple to replace.

> as I cranked the starter my foot on the brake pedal sank to the floor. WHOAH! That's exactly what's been happening to me -- just never had the engine NOT start promptly, so I don't know if engine ignition is required for this. You just had the starter turn the engine over but no ignition? Or the starter run but not turn the engine over? I assume turning the engine over does the same thing for the vacuum system (momentarily) -- sucking air into the cylinders. If that is related to the problem. Hill holder somehow? perhaps coincidence but: The mechanic here just told me Friday that my hill holder cable was stretched so far that it could not be adjusted -- I'd noticed hillhold working to hold the car on one of our reallly steep streets in Berkeley, one that goes straight up the East Bay hills -- but that as soon as I started to touch the gas pedal the hillholder would go off and the car would roll back six or ten feet if I didn't catch the brake fast, before the clutch could get it moving forward. So -- not sure if there's any connection here. Maybe we have identified a new age-related Subaru failure mode with the brakes that is just starting to happen, mine has going on 240k on the odometer.

Berkeley here

This is a later time period than your 1982; do you know you have the original transmission? I've had four failed used-Japanese-transmission replacement attempts; one disqualified because of grinding into 2nd, after I found the TSB at Alldata and showed the mechanic: M/T - 2nd Gear Grinds NUMBER:03-43-89 DATE: 02-10-89 APPLICABILITY 1985 THROUGH 1988 MODEL YEAR SUBARU VEHICLES WITH MANUAL TRANSMISSION SUBJECT:2ND GEAR GRIND ... Improvements have taken place in production starting with transmission number 072334 which is approximately the beginning of 89 MY production.

OK, good news all around -- my original transmission is now on the truck to CCR to be rebuilt. My Berkeley mechanic says he is very happy having had conversations with CCR about what they do, what they offer and what they charge. It took me a handful of conversations on the Berkeley end and a couple of phone calls to CCR, taking a no-fault-fix approach. Summary -- nobody took enough notes, or kept them, or got phone conversations relayed reliably second hand, when things got confused the first time we tried getting a transmission from CCR to my mechanic. Lesson (I hope) learned -- that I have been repeating each time to my Berkeley mechanic: -- always write down what you think you said, -- and what you think you were told, -- and what you think was agreed -- and FAX IT to the other person -- and get back a confirmation, or correction. -- Lather, rinse, repeat. I've decided this is my responsibility. Even going in I can't rely on someone listening to me describe the problem and writing it down accurately, so I'm now doing my own writeup. And made sure they clip that to whatever they typed into their computer. Mechanics don't think like Amazon.com, was what I had to realize and now am determined to change, for myself at least. If I want an exact detailed statement of what's been said and is to be done (and actually got done) I've got to insist on it line by line myself. Given that-- after practicing that, under my duress, and being very happy once he'd gotten good solid info -- my mechanic's expecting to be ordering from CCR now, and said he wished he'd known about them sooner. I smiled and said, well, if you'd taken a little more time listening to what I told you in April when I first came in .... and he said, yeah.

Nope, checked, good thought though. This happened only twice, each time for only a few miles -- during more than a 200-mile trip. The first time this happened today I was sure I had a tire coming apart, but the behavior went away before I had even moved out of the traffic lanes. I was on a long downhill, 4-lane freeway, just starting down from the crest when it started to shake the wheel as I tapped the brake. I was thinking I had a low tire, a loose wheel, threw a balance weight off -- all sorts of things, except that hitting the brakes good seemed to make the problem go away, and it didn't repeat the whole trip north. That first time it happened, I had a pull to the left when braking. The second time -- at the other end of the trip -- no pull to the left on braking. And for hours in between, no wheel shake at all in all sorts of conditions from freeway to steep paved country road up and down. This kind of intermittent problem is what has had the mechanic at the local garage muttering that the car must have a curse on it.

Picked up the car this morning from the repair shop, but the brakes aren't any better. They replaced the one hose that was ballooning. There are seven more hoses, two per wheel, the garage owner says -- he confirmed he feels the pedal sinking as I do, and is very puzzled. He's going to get a different _brand_ master cylinder to try. And I'm going to have him replace the rest of the hoses. I suspect it's a bad batch of hoses delaminating internally, just my hunch knowing how things can fail. To check oil consumption (and pick up gear left with a friend after the last big breakdown, I drove it 260 miles today, all freeway. New intermittent problem. ARGH! Once at elapsed 30 miles, going downhill, first long hill on the freeway, just as I came over the crest and let up on the accelerator, decelerating -- wheel started shaking. Putting on the brakes the car pulled slightly to the left each time. Accelerating, the problem went away. I got to the bottom of the long hill, and after a few more freeway miles the problem disappeared completely. Again at about 230 miles, suddenly, the wheel started shaking. This was on the flat. Accelerating made it a little worse; putting on the brakes didn't change it. I waited til I had a lot of room around me (this at 65 mph) and did one fast hard brake pedal. Problem went away within a few minutes. I've read a few places since last week on the web about brake problems with hoses that -- rather than ballooning under pressure -- collapse when pressure is removed, and prevent the associated brake from releasing completely for a little while. That would, I think, also happen if brake fluid leaks from the open center of the hose into one of the laminations, an internal bubble rather than an external bulge -- this is logic, knowing how other kinds of tubes with multiple layers can fail (including arteries, for example!). But does this happen on auto brake lines? This is getting damned scary. Could I now have a loose brake caliper dragging rather than releasing? It pulled to the left that first time, the one they just replaced the hose on yesterday was the left front wheel. Same pedal sink problem remains. The car has great high pedal after driving a while, surprisingly high; when it's stopped for a while in traffic or signal, the pedal will begin to sink under firm pressure. And if I pump the brake fast, it comes up fast, and then goes down faster than ever. Same symptom complained of since April.

I looked this all up while I had a wrong transmission in briefly and got a mess of codes. According to everything I've found, the sensors are build into the distributor, and aren't separately fixable. NOTE, though, those were false codes in my case; once we got the right model tranny, didn't have an unconnected wire any longer, all those codes went away immediately. So -- it could be a code from any kind of failure of an electrical connection, including on something you wouldn't expect to be related at all. Might want to check ground connections, plug connections, and for broken wires inside the insulation. The sensors seem to work like the little slotted wheels and LEDs that you find inside a computer mouse or trackball, reporting back something the car computer turns into a position or rate.

Beware using pesticide (as opposed to repellent) types of bug spray -- you'd make the car toxic --- for children particularly, for a long time to come, and for yourself. And you don't need to do that. www.safe2use.com/government/ny-inert.htm Easy fix -- Broom, vacuum cleaner, fresh air -- the flies will leave because of the disturbance, -- the spiders, who have been helping you all along keep the flies somewhat controlled, will leave because you've chased out the flies. Easy persistent fix -- mint, catnip, tea tree oil, citronella, all will discourage flies from coming back. And the spiders, remember, have been there trying to remove the files. ---- A USMB Bay Area get together would be a great idea

Mine http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=39459&goto=newpost now finally (after 4 months of looking) has one problem identified -- one hose was, once everything got heated up in hot weather, swelling up like a balloon. And it's intermittent. Must be a delamination inside the hose actimg like a valve.

I can't do mechanical work, don't have a tow vehicle and am an hour north -- My experience with California is that Subaru help is mighty thin -- if there are no friends or neighbors local to Fremont, she might try Craigslist with a simple plea for help close by. Like to push the car to a parking spot! Or ask is there a way a way to buy off the landlord. Or pay a tow truck driver to move the car somewhere herself (often they know where it's possible to leave a vehicle for a little while, if there's no alternative). Anything but let a tow-away company take it. They eat you up in a week with fees. Looking (without an immediate crisis) myself near where I live, the last few weeks, I've flagged down people driving GLs myself and asked if they know a reliable Subaru mechanic hereabouts -- all said no! Scary.

Ding. The mechanic called to say they found at least one cause of the pesky brake problem. They've chased this since April, including replacing the master cylinder twice and bleeding over and over. This time they found something new: One of the front brake hoses going to the caliper was blowing up like a little balloon, once the car had warmed up (from the cool fog in Berkeley) He says the other hoses are all good. I worry about that. He says the brakes will still be kind of soft, that he compared another 1980s GL in the shop, but shouldn't slowly go down to the floor now. I worry about that too. Old cars are old cars. Old hoses are old hoses. But dagnabbit the previous owner replaced all the hoses. Or did he ... Hmmm. The mechanic called to say he thinks now that it's safe for me to take it for the weekend, after he did a 20 minute test drive. I'll pick it up tomorrow morning and go do a longer, hotter test drive. (Next -- find out if the 20-50 oil in the engine solves the oil loss problem, before the rebuilt tranny comes back from CCR next week or two, in case I need a rebuilt engine from CCR put in along with the rebuilt tranny.) The mechanic (in Berkeley) says he is very, very happy to have learned about CCR -- from me, after I persisted in pushing them to talk. Crossing fingers, before starting engine. Pray for me.

For the 1988 GL 4wd wagon -- Well, the transmission's supposedly on its way from the mechanic to CCR in Colorad for a rebuild. One of the wrong trannies we suffered -- wrong gear ratio -- while in 4wd, ate the rear tires --tire slipping scuffed and gouged the heck out of them. So I need new ones. (forest service (sharp rock/hard dirt) roads, steep, first gear in low range much of the time at 7-10 miles an hour, for some hundred or so miles. Botany can be tough on a car ...) Recommendations NOT particularly for Off Road tires, please -- I"ve read through all those excellent threads, but people repeatedly ask about street/stock tires and are warned those aren't about this subject. Our standard trip is some 120 miles of California freeway (at about 75), 20 miles of asphalt at about 45, and 40 miles of 8 to 10 percent steep rocky-gravel forest road in low 4wd, at 7 to 10 mph, maybe 15-20 on some stretches til my wife tells me to slow down and quit scaring her. On the forest roads, it's a LONG way down to the Eel River, no guard rails, and we see 4wd trucks flipped on the slope down to the river every year along that stretch. So -- good tires. That's one way, doing that twice on a long weekend several times a month. So -- radials for sure; best sidewall toughness possible is ideal. Biggest diameter that will fit the stock GL 1988 body. Don't need mud tread. Don't have the car lifted and its fenders are and will remain stock. Good shocks, replaced recently. What's out there that's good? I won't be putting a lot of total mileage on these, I'll be doing alignment and balancing fairly often. But I might break one, if I miss avoiding a really big rock somewhere. I keep two spare wheels -- so I'll be buying six tires. Advice, current experience, welcome.

Alternative to heating the block, is cooling the bolt. Can you get an ice pack onto the protruding part of it, for a few hours? Or dry ice? You don't want to get it so cold it fractures -- no liquid nitrogen! Maybe hose it with a few cans of the compressed-dust-off stuff, not just canned air but a volatile of some kind of stuff? I'd put penetrating oil all around it first, for sure, and ... patience. The helicoil though is the most likely thing to work, in the end.

Not one for me, but maybe someone ... sounds like a sad tale of someone who's paid a lot for the wrong repairs and giving up a GL wagon South SF Bay area http://www.craigslist.com/sby/car/86349729.html

Well, this might be a clue: Last week, I talked to Rick Johnston at Colorado Component Repair, in dealing with my own 5-speed dual range tranny popping out of first. The VERY FIRST question he asked me, when I mentioned popping out of gear, was "is your Subaru lifted?" (Mine is not lifted -- and was worn and needed a rebuild, apparently.) So -- if you don't find an easy answer -- that may be a hint that this is a known problem. Known to him, anyhow (grin).

I appreciate this kind of detailed info very much. I hope you'll go ahead and post the advanced design using a relay -- and set out the details and cautions. I've wondered if having power available to the window switches while the engine is off would drain the battery at all (is there any loss just keeping that system 'hot'?).

Ticking? Boy, I don't know even more about this. In electronics, a ticking or buzz or whistle (a really fast 'ticking') is often a capacitor that is just starting to break down. The voltage builds up, and before it reaches its rated capacity, the electrons escape through a low-resistance flaw. Each time it makes an audible pop. Once you get 440 of those per second you've got a concert "A" musical note (grin). Any coil can do that, if there's a little flaw in the wire insulation so instead of going end to end the electricity short-circuits. So can any place that is supposed to be properly insulated. Aside -- if you were talking about digging into the guts of a monitor or TV, I'd be warning you how to avoid killing yourself by discharging the high voltage capacitor (you take a long wooden stick and a piece of chain, attach one end of the chain to a good grounded pipe or wire, then let the other end of the chain drape over all the exposed wires on the (unplugged) monitor til it goes snap-crackle-pop convincingly) -- high-voltage capacitors can hold a killer charge for literally weeks after the thing's been unplugged. It's different with car computers, less than five volts (much less than you can see or feel) of misplaced electrical discharge can screw them up. I guess with new cars that have computers in them you ought to ask good advice (not mine) about protecting the chips, as well as yourself, before messing with the electrical system.

Update. Bushings have been checked, again. No sign of any problem. And -- in the last few hours, I've talked with both CCRinc and the mechanic by phone. Both agree a rebuild is possible and after the experience trying to get a good used transmission, worth the effort to do. By now, I hope, they've talked on the phone with each other directly, and set up for sending my original transmission back for a rebuild by CCR. I told the mechanic to check on a rebuilt engine from CCR, while he's got them on the phone. Updates as they happen.