Soobadooba Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 Background: I bought my '91 Loyale Wagon two years ago on Ebay. It was in Maine and it didn't run. The owner said a timing belt broke. He took it to a mechanic who replaced the timing belts and the water pump, but it still wouldn't start. It had been sitting in his parking lot for about a year. I took a gamble and won it...for $200. It was a little farther drive (250 miles) than I thought. But, I drove up with some tools and reset the passenger side timing belt in the owner's parking lot. It started and I drove it around the lot to see that everything worked. I would have to leave it there for another week because my wife was going to have to bring me up and drive my other car home. The next weekend my wife and I drove up and picked up the car. I drove it the 250 miles home without incident. I did notice that it was making a racket from the driver's side rear wheel. Turns out the castle nut was loose and the brake dum splines were worn to nothing. A friend gave me a used drum and I put it on and that was that. Got a CEL code that turned out to be the EGR solenoid. I repaired the wires and it was fine. The 4wd didn't work at first, but I found a vacuum line off at a fitting at the firewall. I also replaced the thermostat and the spark plugs. Later in the year it wouldn't start one morning. I replaced the fuel pump and never had another problem. Up until this point, I had spent a grand total of about $25 for repair parts. Fast forward to about a month ago. A friends brother was coming our way from Alaska. He wanted to know if we had a car he could use while he visited family and friends. I volunteered the Loyale. When he arrived, I turned it over to him and watched him drive it away. At that time, it had about 179,000 miles on it. Next thing I knew, he was wanting to buy it. I told him I'd take what I paid for it...$200. This afternoon I got a call from him. He had arrived back home in Alaska after driving up and down the east coast visiting family and friends. The mileage he drove was approximately 7500 miles totally trouble-free. Who says you can't buy a good car for $200 anymore! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waimaks Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syonyk Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 Always good to get new people excited about Subarus! These things just love to run (mostly). I pulled my GL out of a junkyard (hadn't been processed yet, they still had the title & it still had it's fluids), put a new fuel pump in, adjusted the rear brakes, and took it on a 1600+ mile road trip the next weekend. -=Russ=- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bucky92 Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 Just one more good story about these EA82s. Sorry its gone but happy it got him back to Alaska! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northguy Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 It must have come home to rust away to nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soobadooba Posted November 3, 2005 Author Share Posted November 3, 2005 It must have come home to rust away to nothing. Regardless, I'm pretty sure he got his money's worth...as did I, and then some. Despite having apparently spent most of it's life in New England, it didn't have very much rust, so I figure he can get a few more years out of it at least. Seems like the EA82s take a lot of flack here and the Loyales in particular. My motor didn't smoke, tick, leak, overheat and started every time I turned the key (with the exception of the original fuel pump failing). They don't have a lot of power, but will keep up with traffic and drag racing wasn't why I bought it to begin with. He got 32mpg consistanly on this trip, BTW. Towards the end, I didn't "need" this car anymore, but I kept it because I liked it and it was handy (and reliable). It was great to haul the dogs around in and take garbage to the dump. It was great to have when I knew I was going to get dirty helping a friend or whatever. It was the "mule" so to speak. It was also my daily driver in winter because (as everyone knows), it was awesome in the snow. I probably won't replace it...at least not right away. Gotta admit I've been scanning the papers and ebay as well as the classifieds here. But, I've really got to many projects going to bring in another old Subie. I just have to keep telling myself that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyman03 Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 those are the best cars. i bought a '90 loyale wagon. mostly everything worked. i replaced: cv-axle. alternator, hub. among other wear items like breaks and rotors. .. i bought it for 300 bucks. and got it sits now at 211,000 miles. i'm at the point where i got to replace the clutch. but i'm going to hold off on that untill i can get the monies to do that, as well as put a lift on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now