heartless

I would also suggest going to your local auto parts house to get a load test done on the entire electrical system. The testing equipment they use will check the battery at rest, the battery & starter when starting, the alternator output, and the entire charging system under load - ie: lights and blower motor on. This can usually offer a much more detailed look at your car's electrical system than you can do on your own - even with a good multimeter. the battery cable trick was used, and is fine, on older cars that do not have sensitive electronics, and while many do still do this successfully on newer cars, there is a big risk of frying those electronics when it is done. If you are poor, like me, I do not suggest doing it, because Murphy's law will kick in, and you will more than likely cause more damage than you can afford to fix. :-p Now, all of that said - there are times when the parts house check will not reveal the problem, such as intermittent alternator failure under heat - which i dealt with earlier this year. Even if I was experiencing the problem when I arrived at the parts house to get it checked, opening the hood would allow the excess heat to escape, and the alt would test fine. It was exceedingly frustrating.

ROFL - that poor car! Mine has a fair amount of rust happening, but nothing like that! Holy Cats! Even the old GL wasnt that bad, altho the front subframe had rotted out making it unsafe to run on the road anymore. but the rear shocks were still where they were supposed to be. and Texan - that would be a log in that clip, not a stump - still funny tho! LOL (altho it was on it's way to becoming a stump! LOL)

First and foremost - Tires must be matching all the way around, and within 1/4 inch in circumference (around the tread) of each other to prevent damage to the transmission. This means when you need tires, you MUST buy all four at one time. There is also a specific procedure for when/if you get a flat tire & need to use the donut spare - if you have the owners manual, it will be detailed in that. Other than that, keep track of your fluids - oil, coolant, trans fluid, gear oil, etc, & make a note of when the timing was done last. Take care of it, and it will take care of you. I love my AWD wagon. It has gone thru some amazingly deep snow over the last few years - stuff that even I had my doubts about (hard packed, wind driven drifts more than 18" deep in places) - but it made it thru, got me home safe and sound. And my avatar - hehe, that is my car's engine bay PACKED full of wind blown snow - and it would start & run like that, until it started to warm up & got things wet that shouldnt be wet. Took me nearly 3 days to get it all out, and everything dried out, but have not had any major problems from it because of that incident. Had to put it in FWD mode the other day to get a flat fixed - it was weird driving it that way! LOL

+1 - this is normal cold start behavior. the colder it is outside, the longer it will stay at high idle.

being a 93 - is there a fuse holder under the hood to put the car into FWD mode? (dont know about this on a manual car, since all I have here are autos) should be somewhere near the passenger side strut tower (90 it is at the back of the tower, closest to the firewall) Should have the letters "FWD" on the top (if the top is still attached) If there is, put the odd tire on the rear of the car, and use a fuse (any size will work) to force FWD only. Not the ideal solution, but works in a pinch. Just had to do this with my car a couple of days ago - picked up a screw in a tire, tire went flat. Put on a full size spare (used from a parts car), popped a fuse in, go get the tire fixed without worry of doing serious damage to trans. I will say it 'felt' odd being in FWD mode after being used to the AWD...

dd = daily driver

yes Olnick, I did do those - took about maybe 30 minutes each - quickies. I got quite into the photo-chopping thing a while back - never got "really" good at it, but not bad. then kind of fell out of it again...was fun to dust off & stretch those skills a little again. the thing with photochopping is, one: you want the largest resolution picture you can get for the details - the bigger the better (you can always reduce the size when you are done), and two: you have to take the time to add shading, highlights, reflections, etc to make it look realistic. a car does not have perfectly flat surfaces, they are rounded and curved, so a solid color fill just doesnt look right. (sorry brus brother, but that is why yours was not appealing at all) El Mongoose - you are welcome for the visuals.

All things being equal, and a lack of rust on the vehicle, yeah, that would be a "fair" price. average resale value will range from 1600 to 2300 for that year & model, depending on condition, of course. If it were showroom perfect, it would be slightly higher, if it is a rustbucket from h-e-double toothpicks...you get the idea... As Miles has suggested, knock a couple hundred off the initial offer, and see what happens. sometimes with hard, cold cash in hand, a slightly lower offer is acceptable to the seller. But it needs to be cash - no checks, no money orders, not even a cashiers check - hard, cold, CASH.

alrighty, here are a couple that had a lttle bit of time taken with them in PS - not the best resolution pictures, but, that is the way it goes. I once had a similar idea with my old GL wagon...never did follow thru on it.

bought my 90 LS wagon with 152,000 on it - it is now up to 226,000 plus and still going strong. Would not hesitate on that 93 if the price is right - especially considering it has full maintenance records!

only problem with pulling the fuse (aside from no ABS) is that the light stays on all the time - have done this with my 90 Lego that had ABS that was acting very strangely. I prefer to go without, than have something really screw up in an emergency - not to mention that I live in the salt belt - would not be a cheap, or easy, fix.

it is by far much easier to replace the entire rear hatch than to try to remove those pieces intact - it just isnt going to happen. four bolts, 2 lift supports, and some wires that come from inside, under the headliner. not a big deal. Entire rear hatch removed. as you have already found, trying to remove the trim pieces without damaging them is almost impossible due to the amount of adhesive that was used in the manufacturing process.

Kara - dont worry so much about the backing plates (aka: dust shield) - they are going to slowly disintigrate here in Wisconsin - nothing that one can do about it. Mine are about 3/4 gone - not a huge deal. I rarely ever get a pebble stuck in the brakes somewhere and I live on a gravel road! just make sure that the calipers continue to move freely on the slide pins, and everything should be fine.

the guys in the little red trucks came and pulled 2 windshields out - 1 broken one, 1 good one from a parts car, and reinstalled one, at my home - cost: $150 + applicable taxes. I had the parts car here, in my yard, however, and this was about 6 years ago. As for transporting - yes, standing it on edge is the best way to go. If you have ever seen the inside of an auto glass truck, they have a rack that holds all glass in a verticle position. Basically 2 boards that run the width of the interior, with evenly spaced dowels to stand the glass between. a couple of good sized boxes with a little weight in them would work just as well, one on either side of the glass, with the glass being padded for extra protection.

You didnt mention anything about fuses earlier, all you said was that the buttons were not getting power. Please clarify the problem(s) and describe completely. Nothing like trying to diagnose something when one doesnt have ALL the relevant information. And again - if the memory is not working on the radio, then something is NOT hooked up right. Go back and check your work again. Radio memory requires power all the time, key or no key. one question I do have for you is this: Did the car have a stock radio when you got it? OR did it have an aftermarket unit and you changed it?

If there is no power going to the memory at all, then NO, it is NOT hooked up right.

it happened because there are an uneven number of teeth between the top side of the sprockets, and the bottom side of the sprockets - as long as everything was lined up correctly at the start, and after installing the tensioner, dont worry about it.

yup, if the memory is not working then something is not hooked up right. memory needs power all the time, even with the key off. as for the climate control buttons - this is a fairly common problem, a search should reveal how to handle it. Seems to me, the solder joints like to crack - a quick reheat with a good soldering iron should be all that is required to make the connections whole again. I vaguely remember doing this with my 90 LS's climate control.

just an added note about searching for yourself... one may not like it when someone suggests "look it up" or "use the search", but in all honesty, one can learn a LOT from doing so. And, because some things are fairly common occurrences, such as air strut failure on a 20 plus year old vehicle, it does get discussed frequently, and some folks that have been around a while get tired of repeating themselves over and over again. (put yourself in their shoes for a moment. do YOU like having to repeat the same information over and over again?) I have been involved with this board, in its various incarnations, for more than 10 years now, and I see this happen all the time. Also, using the search can often reveal the solution to a given problem much faster than waiting around for someone to reply to your post with useful information - which can sometimes take days - especially in the summer months when many are out enjoying the weather, doing things with family, etc, etc. just food for thought, with all due respect.

because this is a very common occurance, there are many threads that discuss the issue and what to do about it - hence the suggestion to use the search feature. that said, sometimes the search here can be frustrating for a new person that isnt sure what to search for. all that aside, you basically want standard coilover struts to convert it, 1990 thru I believe 1994 should fit with no issues at all*. You want the struts, the coil springs and the "top hats" - the air strut tophats will not work. Used is fine to start out with, so junkyard hunting is great place to start. You want the complete strut assembly from hub, to top - 2 bolts at the bottom, 3 small bolts on top, out it comes. I have done this on my car, which is a 1990 LS wagon that had the adjustable air struts. removing the air struts is also very straight forward, only thing different is the air line that feeds them. you will need to disable the air compressor, I believe that the control module is under the drivers seat (it has been 4 years since I did mine). Just make sure you dont unplug the transmission control module, as it is also under there. If you find that the struts are weak, simply order a new set and swap them out. expect to pay about $80-100 per strut for new. just my personal choice, but i would order the new struts, then go get the complete used assemblies - all 4 - from a junkyard, so that when the new struts arrive, you can swap over the coil springs & tophats, and install once and be done with it for a while. Like I said, it has been 4 years since i did mine last. =) they are about due for replacing again, getting a little bouncy... *if you are feeling adventurous, there are several threads about using taller struts and springs on these cars for just a little extra ground clearance. But you will have to search for that info if you want to go there. For a newbie, i suggest going stock to start with.

kewl pic, Tom. =) I do have one question for you tho - how do you manage to get away with running that Japanese plate on the front? The cops dont hassle you about that? Dont get me wrong, I think it is cool - just wondering how you get away with it? LOL we dont have any Subaru specific shows up here, just regular car shows loaded with classic muscle cars and older stuff. I dare say that if you were to bring that car to one of the shows up here, they would scratch their heads trying to figure out what class to put it in! LOL Used to take the old Ford F250 to shows when I first got it - got first place 2 years running in the "Truck/Van" class at one show. Still have the trophies, but sadly, no longer have the truck.

car needs 3 things to run - fuel, air & spark. since you can get it to fire with a shot of starting fluid, my guess is it isnt getting fuel, and that is what you should be checking first. make sure there is power to the fuel puimp then see if it is actually pumping. and as far as the truck hitting it, how much physical damage was done? regardless, doubtful it would actually damage the fuel pump - purely coincidence IMHO.

if it was slipping, then I vote for the resurfacing. slipping clutch will cause glazing - you need to remove the glazing for the new clutch to operate properly. Biggest thing I can think of is spec thickness - if it is the original flywheel it may not have enough left to resurface, and they will tell you that when they check it out. be prepared to track down another flywheel if need be.

I agree with going back to the decals on white. If it were a regular ea81 car, sure, TW it, but this one isnt, it is special & has a history and needs to be returned to that. Pretty much any "sign" shop that does vinyl graphics can cut you new decals, and you have plenty of reference photos to get the layout from, but, it wont exactly be cheap. My suggestion is to print out a couple of your pics, and take them (or email them) to various sign/graphic shops and get a few estimates. sittin here thinking about it - didnt somebody say they "might" have a set of these decals a few pages back?

OOooooo - me want one! $250 worth of high quality tool! but dang, I bet it is ridiculously easy to use!