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So, I've got the same issue in three of our family's Subies, all wagons. At the rear wheel well, reach up under the fender and into the strut tower on the outside of the coil, under the window and you can stick your fingers thru a nice, long rust hole... guessing along a seam in the metal from the way it feels. You can push and feel weakness in the metal around the hole. Reaching around to the areas in front, behind and to the inside of the strut / coil feels solid. A mechanic has said maybe he could get us a year on the worst one, a 97 Wagon GT. Others speak similar doom and gloom. But then I discovered the same issue on our 1995 L Wagon, which is in excellent condition otherwise. Our 1999 L Ann. Edition is a rust bucket anyway, and it's similar in the towers. Both the 99 and 95 have been good, regular daily drivers, and the 95 in particular should have a lot of life left in it otherwise. So.... from the experts here, I seek prognosis..... Doctors? Tell it to me straight..... 1) How long have we got? 1 year, 3 years? 2) How can we tell how bad it actually is? Is the fact that it seems only outboard and not all the way around the tower a good sign? 3) Is this something that can be fixed, or is it normally too expensive to be worth while Thanks for your input.... as always! Mike -
This is my second Brat, my first one was a 78 but we went from having one 12 year old to having four 13 year olds, kids that is, so I had to move to a car that safely carried at least five. Those kids are now 40 years old and I am retired so I was able to get another Brat. I only had to drive 762 miles round trip to get it. As soon as I patch a slow leak in the gas tank, this will be my primary vehicle. I will keep my Yaris for when I have to haul two to four passengers. After fixing the gas tank and patching a few rust holes I will replace the seats. We have an older camper, trailer not self driving, that is painted white and yellow, I will paint the brat to match the camper. While the Brat can't pull the camper we will take the Brat when we go camping just to show off. The tires are old, made in 02, and I would like to replace them with some that are a little larger. I want to keep the original wheels. If anyone knows how big a tire I can run on them I would appreciate knowing that also. I guess that will do for an introduction. jim -
I'm not sure if this is the appropriate forum for this post but I haven't seen many people post opinions on this stuff so I'd thought I'd share. It seems to be more popular with the 4WD truck community than Subaru boards. I've been meaning to post this for a while but things keep getting away from me. I live in a spot that gets a good amount of snow, is fairly humid and uses road brine like no one's business. Even with religious washing you might get 7 or so years out of a car before it's structurally compromised. Enter Fluid Film. I'd heard of this stuff a while back and some folks swear by it as an undercoating. I generally shy away from such things but this seems to stay liquid and doesn't really dry/trap water like a rubberized compound. I've been using the small aerosol cans on nuts and bolts and it seemed to stand up to water intrusion quite well. So last fall I picked up a gallon bucket of the stuff off Amazon and decided to give it a shot. I did both my 2005 FXT and 1999 OBS (I only took photos of the FXT) and still had a little over half the can left. The subject. The tools needed. Highly recommend some sort of breathing protection as this stuff forms a haze pretty easily. I did it outside as it will form a film on a concrete floor that's rather slick and hard to get up. It's about the consistency of latex paint. Maybe a little thicker. Went though an airless paint sprayer without thinning without too many issues. You might want to spring for an air powered sprayer or an airless sprayer with more oomph than I did. Post cleaning of the underside but before I treated the rust spots with some Rust Reformer. I'm the third owner and the last guy didn't believe in washing it. My 99 had less subframe rot than this did. After wire wheeling, treating and painting. After spraying down the components (careful of the brakes): I did this is late November of 2015. It's been a warm rainy winter so far. It smells sort of like a barnyard for a day or two (it's made from wool wax). Once it's settled it has a high flash point so I wasn't too careful around the exhaust. It just smokes off for a little bit. After the first few days of driving the smell is gone. I didn't notice any dripping once it was applied too. First the bad: it doesn't stay very long in spots that see a lot of heavy spray. You can forget about this stuff staying on wheel wells or the leading edge of your front control arms through a heavy rain. But it's simple to reapply I've just been touching up places that see a lot of wash with one of the aerosol cans. Now the good: they claim it doesn't cause rubber to swell so and so far I can confirm that. No damage to any bushings or boots I can see. It does creep and move around so you don't really need to get too crazy with the coating. It's pretty easy to coat up in the rocker panel drains with it. On the parts of the car that don't get constant 55mph+ rock/sand bombardment it's hung on like a champ. The rear sub frame, differential, transmission support and front sub frame parts are all still covered. It also seems to withstand being washed with a household hose and warm water (how I get the salt off). Not sure it'd take the high PSI of a car wash under spray but the ones around here use recycled water anyway so I tend to avoid them and opt for a DIY approach. I love having a garage with a drain. Dirt does stick to it so I plan on washing it off in the spring. Other rubbery undercoating stuff gets everywhere and makes the car a PITA to work on the underside of your car. Fluild Film does make everything greasier but it doesn't seem to be too big of a mess if you have to pull some parts off. I replaced my parking breaks last month without much trouble. I've got about 1100 miles on the stuff now I think and it's still hanging in there. From what I've read it does need to be reapplied yearly. At any rate I'll try to get some updated photos and the season progresses. So far I'd say it's worth the effort. I know some folks like chain bar lube but I imagine this is probably a bit more environmentally friendly. Excluding water from your undercarriage parts should slow down the rust. The best test would be to do it on a brand new car and see if it remains clean. It's pretty easy to get up inside of parts and panels too. Disclaimer: FF didn't pay me, I bought their stuff with my hard earned money. Posting this here for informational purposes only.
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A few months ago I bought my first Subaru in 20 years. It's a 1997 Impreza Outback Sport, manual, royal blue. I love this little car! But it has serious issues, and I'm starting to think I'd be better off walking away from it. I replaced the front brake calipers, some fuel return lines, got new front tires, charged the AC, did a full detail and some serious body work, put on a hitch and wired it for my little trailer. After digging into the car it's now apparent it was flooded at one point. There is dirt everywhere, and rust also. I think it was in freshwater. So, having just learned this after weeks of work, I also found out that the fuel lines are rusted, causing it to drip gas. The drip seems to be inaccessible without pulling the fuel tank, which might be impossible with the undercarriage rust. It doesn't seem to affect mpg much, if at all, but the fumes are intolerable with the windows open. Do I have any options here? It only has 134,000, and runs like a top. The motor and transmission are great. The timing belt was done recently. I've gone through it and everything else looks good. Are there ways to repair rusted fuel lines without dropping the tank? I looked in the fuel line access hatch (which is how we discovered the flood factor), and you can't see the leak through that. Thank you for your help, wise Subie gurus! -
Hello everyone! thank you for helping me with my 1986 brat. My father has driven my 2003 baja from Pennsylvania to calfiornia. the brake system is in terrible shape. The brake fluid reservoir is brown. my question is, how to bleed new fluid into this system? Should I run the car while all the bleeders are open and monitor the level of the reservoir, then close them in a criss cross manner starting from the driver side front? I know the rule of thumb is to start furthest from the master but when i consulted the manual for the brat it stated the criss cross method. I was wondering if it is the same for this generation of subaru. Any advice is greatly appreciated! -
Hey everyone I am currently in the process of fixing up a rusted death trap called a Subaru RX Turbo. I am welding in a bunch of metal and while I was taking everything off the car I got a bit lost on what to do with the brake and fuel lines. They are all in bad shape and I would like to fix them properly with no compression fittings. Below I am going to post a bunch of pictures of the lines that were originally tucked up right next to the gas tank in the rear. In the photo above they are sitll in there stock location. As you can see I have a lot work ahead of me. The photo above shows some sort of proportioning valve. It has one line coming from the inside that the previous owner patched with a compression fitting. Below is a picture of this line. First of I would like to fix this line. Here is the other end of the line in the engine bay. Does anyone know If there is a way to buy this line brand new. I know going aftermarket should be as simple as buying the line that screws in and bending it myself. However I am not very familiar with bending lines and I need to get the proper tools to do it. The next part is the actual back section that is a complete mess. One of the lines split under its own weight shown below. Another view below My goal is to make everything safe and back to factory. If i can upgrade without spending too much I will. But I need some advice on which direction I should take to fix this brake system. The front is holding up and seems simple enough that I can deal with it. Another issue which is even worse is that my fuel lines are leaky. The pic above shows the problem area. Another closer view. Also underneath towards the back is not looking so good either. A lot of rusted out lines and cracked rubber that is not going to even supply enough fuel pressure to make the car run properly. Also I plan on EJ25 swapping the car, does anyone have any suggestions on a good external fuel pump for a an NA ej25? Any advice would be greatly appreciated thanks. -
98 OBW w/ 2.2 240K miles The back story. Three years and 5K miles ago I performed significant exhaust repair. I replaced the rear catalytic converter, O2 sensor, center pipe and muffler all due to rust. I purchased the parts off the internet. All of them were aftermarket. I could not get things bolted together tightly so I did end up at a local exhaust shop that tightened things up for me including extended the center pipe for a $100. I am writing this up to provide some encouragement when things go bad and to provide all of the parts that will fit perfect without any trips to the shop. If I had to take this to the shop I probably would have sold the car as-is due to the cost of the repair Present day Nov 2015. I thought this would be a 5 minute $5 fix. I had a leak where the Y-pipe meets the head. I proceeded to unbolt the y-pipe with the impact wrench and snapped an exhaust stud. I was able to remove the other three with nut and stud as one piece. They were fused together due to rust. Now I needed the exhaust out of the way. Unbolting the y-pip from the front cat is not worth the pain of working on your back so I pulled down the entire exhaust for a good inspection. Things just got worse from here. One broken exhaust stud in the block. Rear stud driver side. (worst one to snap) The y-pipe head flanges where rusted out. I could see black exhaust trails flowing down the head. The three year old non-oem replacement catalytic converter (Walker 16090) had advanced rust issues on the flanges and the hanger was half rusted out. (I purchased this off Amazon and it had a 5 year warranty). They replaced it without any issue. Unable to remove generic O2 Sensor (BOSCH 15726) from the catalytic converter The three year old non-oem center pipe had a huge hole on the top of the resonator. Could not find any receipts for this one. Removing the exhaust stud There are many tricks to get this done. I had no access to welding equipment. I did not even bother with the EZ out tools because there was no way I was getting more torque then what was available before the bolt head snapped off. 1) Get a new hack saw blade and wrap one side with a towel so you can hold it comfortable. Use oil and cut the stud flush with the head if it is not already thatway. 2) Center punch the stud 3) Drill a pilot hole using a ¼ Colbalt drill bill. Drill to the depth that the other empty stud holes are at. You can measure this by dropping in the drill bit in an empty hole and wrapping tap around the bit as a marker. DO NOT DRILL TOO DEEP. 4) Now drill the hole for a second time using a 5/16 Cobalt drill bit. I used a DeWalt DWA1220 and it cut like butter. 5) Now it is time to tap the hole. I used an IRWIN 10mm – 1.25 that picked up off eBay. THIS IS A CRITICAL TIME. You need to do this by hand. Since I broke the stud located in the worst spot I had to put the tap into ¼ 12 inch extension and then insert the extension into the hand tool. I will include a picture of this. At most I was able to turn the tap 1/16 of an inch before I had to pull it out and blow the metal shavings off with compressed air and re-oil the tap. This entire process from step 1 took me 6 hours over the course of a week to complete. Do not lose faith here. This is very slow going. If you break the drill bit or the tap in the stud hole you will need a new head. Careful work here is worth it. Do the math. I also chased the other three holes. I was very surprised to see all of the shavings that came out. Cover everything in anti-seize I went with new OEM studs and nuts instead of the old fused stud/bolt that I pulled off. For $20 I thought it was worth going new. The exhaust will go on exactly as it was taken off. When it comes to exhaust parts I am generally ok with aftermarket except the gaskets used between the y-pipe and the head. Use OEM. This is just my experience. This parts list worked perfectly for my 98 Subaru Outback with 2.2 engine. The 2.2 engine is a single port exhaust. If you have the 2.5 you have dual port exhaust on the head and will need a different Y-pipe and head exhaust gaskets. Parts List (1) Y-pipe Part# 2100-58201-2. Manufacture: AUTOPART International - eBay (2) Gasket between Y-Pipe and Engine. Part# 44011AC020. Manufacture Subaru - eBay (1) Gasket between Y-Pipe and front catalytic converter. Part# 2107-00288. Manufacture: AUTOPART International – Came with the y-pipe (2) Gasket between front and rear catalytic converter. Between center pipe and muffler Part# 31388. Manufacture: Walker - Amazon (1) Flex joint donut gasket between rear catalytic converter and center pipe. Part# 31697. Manufacture: Walker - Amazon (1) Spring Bolt Kit used to connect center pipe to rear catalytic converter. Part# 35412. Manufacture: Walker - Amazon (1) O2 Sensor for rear catalytic converter. Part# 15726. Manufacture BOSCH - Amazon (1) Rear catalytic converter. Part# 16090. Manufacture Walker. (Warranty replacement for me) - Amazon (4) Exhaust Studs. Part# 800910550. Manufacture Subaru - eBay (4) Exhaust Stud Bolts. Part# 902370029. Manufacture Subaru - eBay The parts total was $255. I have 10 hours labor in this job. If I had a shop complete this work I am guessing the total would have been $1,000 to $1,400. -
I plan to use the 1983 DR 4wd wagonthat i just bought--gem of a body--came from PNW--- as a winter car here in NW PA. Lots of road salt used around here. I have ordered a spray unit from Eastwood to oil/spray the inside of the doors and rockerpanel insides. Any favorite/proven recipes that seem successful as a rust inhibitor? I've read about chainsaw bar oil, linseed oil and other home brews.
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We found a super-clean, one-owner 2005 Baja turbo with 70k miles that we're considering as our first Baja. One-owner car, well-maintained, drives great, super clean, but underneath, there's rust / corrosion on the subframe, exhaust, diff bolts etc. Connecticut car, so no doubt from salted winter roads. I've attached pics and was wondering if this undercarriage surface corrosion is normal for Subes of this generation. There's no rust in the wheel wells or doors and no rot, just the corrosion as you can see in pics. We'd like to buy this car, but want to get some feedback from fellow Subaru owners before going ahead. Thanks for your replies! A
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Hi Subaru Owners, Coming on here to ask questions about a 7 year old Forester with 100k that just had its gas tank rust out. Seems a little early for a Subaru to be kicking the bucket? Any help appreciated.
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I work at a plant nursery (high subaru traffic), and I keep seeing these 00 legacies with absolutely perfect bodies. Were those years exceptionally rust proofed or are these all just extra nice? -
The question comes up occasionally about used cars from the northern U.S., and how rust is a problem. I came across a map that shows the amount of road salt used in the U.S. The map tells most of the story, but there is more to the problem. Where I live in Wisconsin, the road salt season is anytime temperatures drop below freezing. Our road salt season is about 6 months long, as early as October, to April. The severity of the cold prevents washing cars unless you have access to a heated structure for thawing the glaciers in the wheel wells, and flushing the undercarriage. Last winter we had 60 days with a low temperature of 0ºF or colder. Even if it warms up enough to wash the car, in two blocks driving away from the car wash, the car is bathed in salt water/slush/spray again. The undercarriage flush at the automatic car wash doesn't even begin to wash out the wheel wells. Finally, the amount of snow throughout the season means there is always new snow, sand, and salt being packed into the wheel wells forming a gritty block of dirty salty ice. The map below shows the depth of snow cover on March 10, 2014. The photos of my car show how much ice packs in the wheel wells. During a couple of days in early February that were sunny and around 20º, the wheel wells started to thaw, and I estimated about 30# of snow/ice/sand/salt came out of each wheel well. The photo with the snow shovel shows what came out of one wheel well. They packed full again anyway. I'm sure those of you who live right on the coasts with salt in the air have your own rust issues, but this is why we like to find "southern cars" when shopping for used!
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Howdy gents, this is a classic example of: how to pour money and time into car and find out later that it so rusted its not economical to have it fixed by professional but you cant back off anymore. I had my Loyale pre-inspected to find out if it would pass/fail tests, I thought it might need carb adjustment and maybe new valve cover gasket and thats it. Mechanic poked around with hammer and results were that both rear wheelwells are crumbling. Rear crossmember is a mess and he said thats not allowed to be welded and needs to be replaced. Also strut tower is compromised. Problems are on both sides off course. Planning to replace rocker panels as well. Would be a good idea to drill spot welds in strut tower to remove it and do the welding at bench? I'd imagine it would lead to better results than doing via wheelwell & trunk even thou its seems more troublesome. Any dos or donts in this matter? http://imgur.com/a/VASst
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Ok so im going to do a little rust removal and repainting on my GL wagon. The rust isnt so bad that I will need to take it to a body shop so I would like to do it myself and save a bundle. My plan so far is to remove all rust with rust removers and fine-grit sand paper, then to use Bondo to replace the lost metal, and then repaint. The last part seems to be the greatest challenge so far... I CANT FIND THE RIGHT *BLEEPING* PAINT!!! The only color info I have on my car is a tab under the hood that says "color number 243". So far, not a single online automotive paint store has what im looking for when I enter that number. Its the standard 84 wagon light blue, which i thought was pretty common on the wagons and would therefor be at least somewhat common on the paint market. Can someone please give me some wisdom on this?? Or at least the right info (like what the actual name of the paint is) so I can enter it in the websites and get the right paint. -
Hi all, My trusty 1992 UK spec 1.8 L-series 4x4 Estate failed it's MOT last week due to a leaking petrol tank. I've removed the tank today and have found very small leaks in the rear seam and, in addition, two of the outlet pipes sheared off when I disconected their rubber pipes - they were really rusty. Here's my question I hope you can help me wirth: At the front of the tank it's the outlet that has sheared off while the return is OK. At the side near the filler it is the small breather (?) that has sheared while the other pipe connection (what is it?) is OK What I need to know is, are there one-way valves built into these tubes within the tank. There was a little bit of fuel still left in the tank when I removed it and both the unbroken pipes would not drain fuel when the tank was tipped while the broken pipes pissed it out. I intend to weld on some new pipes to replace the old ones and would normally clear the others with some compressed air but, if there are valves inside, I don't want to damage them. Further, would a SLOSH tank sealant mess them up? My Haynes is no use at all on this subject and was completely incorrect concerning tank removal and does not tell me what the small tubes at the side actually do. Best wishes all, Nick
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1985 subaru gl and 1986 subaru brat gl
zmarrott posted a topic in Old Gen.: 80's GL/DL/XT/Loyales...
So, i have a 1986 Brat GL that i recieved as a gift from in the family that is in depressingly sad condition. the engine runs, but has a phenominal time starting up, havent seen any problems with the tranny and 4 wheel. recently my mom was driving it and one wheel seized from a bad bearing(all 4 are since replaced), there is the all too common wheel well rust in the bed, both fenders and the hood are beyond repair and need to be replaced. drivers fender has a dent that interferes with the door and has rusted into its bent form, the passenger fender was attacked by a bear (not joking. both on my brat and my brothers outback legacy, the passenger fender got bit and bent out). and the hood has an odd bit of rust in the under frame of it. irrepairable, and i have no idea how it got there . interior is also in sad condition, but i dont need to type out annother paragraph on that. Now, in a random stroke of luck, i found a 1985 GL hatchback (2 wheel drive) that is the same generation body styling . and the even better thing about it; NO RUST . it lived in arizona all its life so it has the standard arizona car accessories such as; the awesome faded paint look, that is now a matte finish also. the oh, so, popular cracked dash and just overall rubber parts dry rotting. so my question is, just how much of the GL am i able to transplant into the brat? considdering the brat has been a New England car for most, if not all, of its life, i want to eliminate as much rust as possable. fenders and hood are a must, but do the doors match? windshield? i will upload pictures soon side note: i dont have access to my brat at the moment, due to it being on the opposite side of the country, but im going to get it this summer -
Inhreited the Brat from my step-dad who bought it about 10 years ago. getting ready to turn it into a little rally beast. plenty of rust in all the common brat rust spots (plus a rather odd one on the underside of the hood), but shouldnt be too hard to fix. hard part is gonna be the drive system swap
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Thanks so much for the great responses about my headlight problem! Due to rusting, my 04 Impreza TS needs a new hood. If I buy a hood from a body shop and have them paint it, how close will it be to the current color (22G), which has faded over the years? Thanks for any info you can provide. Laurie Sabol Ayer MA -
Part Three of my Left-hand rear wheel-arch repair is now up at: http://www.nagara.co.uk/leftarch3.htm and there's a new pic on the bump-stop bracket page at: http://www.nagara.co.uk/Making%20a%20Bump.htm and, as usual the whole story menu is at: http://www.nagara.co.uk/carhome.htm This week I'll be doing all sorts of minor jobs to get the car ready for it's annual MOT test and hopefully I'll have the Honda in the workshop before the end of the month. After that, it'll be my 'secret' project - a prototype coupe based on a much-loved classic.
