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No, don't have any pics. They're just old rigs. They're not too 'pretty', just 'plain Jane's' with a few dings an wows. But I do have an aversion to rust. I'm a utilitarian kind of guy mostly. My main concern is how they run. The mechanics and reliability are what is important to me. If I can't fix it I can't own it. That's why they're all carbureted and no computers. I used to ride BMW Motorcycles so the boxer Subaru engine was a major draw plus the 4wd that you don't need a ladder to get into your friggin' rig was appealing. I'm not real happy with the Weber carbs I have on 2 of them. They are hard starting SOB's whereas the '87' with the Hitachi starts fine every time in all weather. Thinking now I should have left them stock but got sucked in by the Weber hype. I have gotten lots of help from these forums and I really appreciate that members are willing to offer advise to us less experienced.

I've been slowly combing through various subsystems on my RX and the most recent system to get some love was the PCV system. I found that every hose is still available, except the one that attaches directly to the PCV valve on the intake manifold. I ran down to my local auto parts store with the original hose in hand to pick through their selection of hoses. WELL! It turns out that the small heater hose from a 2002-2009 Ford Explorer (Dayco P/N 87730) is almost a perfect fit. Hose was about $7 and needed to have a small portion trimmed off. NOTE: EPDM is NOT oil safe, so until I find a better solution, I'll need to keep an eye on this hose to make sure it isn't perishing too quickly.

Hey all. Thought I would share a new to me discovery about Subaru Ignition lock cylinder replacement. I had a customer who's 04 Forester Ignition lock failed. Seized up, wouldn't return to "off" position so was draining battery in ACC. So, I call dealership, talk to them about ordering a new lock cylinder. Now, I've done this I think 3 times in the past. Always purchased a new cylinder and customers then just used 2 keys, 1 for doors, 1 for Ignition. Not a big deal as all those cars had keyless entry, so they didn't really need the "door" key ever. Now, for this Forester, the customer does not use keyless entry, and wanted all keys the same. So I inquired from dealer this time, is there a kit available to replace all 3 lock cyls (Ig., Drivers door, glovebox) in the car with matching keys? Well sure enough, AFTER I ASKED, they tell me "oh, yes, there is a whole car kit" It's $60 dollars cheaper than just the Ig. cylinder. DOH! Why the HELL don't they volunteer that info! Anyhow here's the kit for a Manual trans, 04 Forester. I imagine kits for other models are available too, but I haven't confirmed how many. Comes with Master key (top), Sub-master (middle w/code tag) and Valet (does not operate glove box) IMG_0101 by Dans Subaru, on Flickr

Taking a rest in Gibraltar after 700km... Cheeky Cheekier

Can you look for what you want mechanically without putting yourself into a sentimental corner about your old car? Do like Imdew said and lift one if you want some extra clearance. 2” is easy bolt on anyone can do, the 4 parts are made by various people and vendors and not expensive or you can often install struts/springs from other Subaru’s for s lift. Air suspension is highly problematic with age. None of them are ever maintained at all, bags leak, there’s 2 dozen orings that can leak, solenoids that can leak, the pumps have multiple failure modes, and the tank sensors get corroded. They’re great in great condition but getting that on 30 year old used suspension is a shot in the dark. Sure, look for one, but being married to them won’t be easy.

Well, I just wanted to thank you. It was indeed the battery terminal. The nut was loose to leads on the positive terminal. I took the time to clean everything up and tightened the nut and no problems since! Thank again for helping out a car-dummy.

Subaru Idle Relearn Procedure: 1) Turn off the lights, aircon, stereo or any system in the car that draws extra current on top of the engine. 2) Disconnect the battery for 30 mins. 3) Reconnect the battery. 4) Before you start the car for the first time, turn the key to the ON position but do NOT turn the engine over. Wait 10-15 seconds so the electronic throttle body or IACV has time to go to the factory programmed home position. 5) After waiting, start the car and let it idle without any load, lights, A/C etc. 6) Every 20 seconds or so the idle will be adjusted up and down as the ECU tries to adjust it towards a stoichiometric fuel / air mix. 7) Leave the engine running for a full 10 mins but DO NOT TOUCH THE ACCELERATOR during this time or turn on anything that will cause extra electrical current draw. 8) Turn off the engine, and leave the key in the OFF position for at least 20 sec. 9) As per step (4) turn the key back to the ON position for 10-15 sec without actually starting the engine. 10) Start the engine and leave to idle for a further 5 minutes without touching the accelerator and without turning on other systems in the car. 11) Turn off the engine again and wait at least 20 sec before restarting. 12) Take the car for a test drive as the ECU should now be fully retrained.

After watching several You Tube vids I removed the windshield and had a guy come out and replace it. I cleaned all the old caulking off and treated and primed all the rusty parts around the edge which I don't think the cheap shops do. Cost $200 On to other problems. And as usual, thanks for responses!

After doing some...never again. My time is too valuable to try and scrape value out of rusty northeast subarus. In Oregon it's probably surface, light, easy. In the northeast, usually a rust spot means poke your finger through it and surrounding paint, rubber trim, internal metal all disintegrate to a hole 4 times bigger than you thought. We don't know how bad it is - if it's just a small hole or the corner section - cut out another section, use a punch flanger, and weld it in. Nibbler is nice for chewing through sheet metal or an angle grinder, dremel, sawzall, which you'll probably need to get the hidden sections cut anyway if needed. Cut it larger than the area you're replacing. A punch flanger creates a step so that the edge of the new piece slides behind the existing metal, giving you two layers of metal overlap which saves time trying to get the metal exactly the right size/shape/orientation, you don't have any gaps to fill with body filler, and provides a little more heat sink for welding. But you can get away without one particularly if it's a small one off job. A welder, not too hot or you'll burn through it. Spot weld, you don't need a continuous seam. But really if it's bad it's a miserable job - it's often much worse than you think - once the outside sheet metal is off the rust behind it can be atrocious - falling apart, rusted all back into the crevices and folds and joints that come together, it's untreatable and you can't get to it all.

When you're dealing with customers driving late model modified STi's you can't take that risk. The clientele that's looking to save $200 on a timing belt job don't usually even bring their car here - I have enough trouble with people that get overly sensitive about watching the DAM on their access port and call me immediately if it drops down to 0.9 I get it. I work on some vehicles like that. Used to work on a lot more but rising overhead and now being a mainstream shop that charges very near industry average hourly rate.... it's not how I want to be percieved by my customers. When we go in there we replace all wear items. And the tensioner is a wear item. They can and do fail. It's the same reason I use a $750 Snap-On digital torque wrench.... perception. People expect a higher level of work from us, just as they expect to see me and my tech's using tools they don't have at home. If the customer is budget limited I have financing available, or sometimes if it's a real basket case or the customer is just down on their luck I will put in some lightly used parts to help them out. We do this type of stuff for people. We highly advise against it and they are warned up front that it's a temporary fix. But for the general public that intends to maintain their car on the Subaru reccomended interval... well the price is (currently) $950 for the typical SOHC timing belt job and they should have known they needed to budget for this long in advance. It's not a repair. It's scheduled maintenance. GD

I have not seen a quick strut in a brand I would use for any model Subaru.

you could idle the car when it's behaving normally, then, use a plant mister bottle to spray the plug wires and coil - monitor for roughness. you could pull the plug wire boots to check for oil. but yeah, waste spark means coil failure will always be 1 & 2, OR 3& 4

I love how I specifically request no recommendations to compress the springs myself or bring it to a mechanic's shop for them to do yet rather for people to recommend quick struts or a shock conversion kit.....yet they repeatedly recommend what I specifically asked them not to. Oh internet!

I bought a new used Subaru. The car might be the deal of the year! Will keep my '96 for now, maybe keep it as a winter car since the new one is nice, 100% rust free. I ended up getting a 2003 Legacy L wagon, 149.9K miles in light green that had some extras - the snowflake wheels, dual sunroof, leather steering wheel/shift knob. I had a saved search on craigslist and was checking it every day, so I jumped on the deal and was persistent in trying to contact the seller, since I was guessing there was a line of people calling about it (there was). It was a good condition looking Legacy, passed CA smog, claimed to run great, for $2100. I was shopping from Alaska for a California car, so I took a calculated bet to buy it sight unseen (influence of having watched too much Hoovie's Garage on Youtube). The seller said he wasn't the original owner and didn't know much about the car, though he claimed it had a bunch of receipts/paperwork. I asked to see the certificate of title before paying, and it turned out to be from the original owner, signed by the original owner a couple weeks earlier. The seller was just flipping it. When I picked it up a few days ago, it had a unsteady idle (jumping in the 750-1000 range), but otherwise seemed like a good car. Interior was super clean. I dug into the receipts, and it looked to covered every single maintenance it ever had up to 149K, with good care as you'd expect from most original owners. The car had been a lifetime San Jose car (less than 5 miles from my folk's place) that sometime went to Tahoe (ice scraper, set of four new cable chains in the spare tire well, a Tahoe receipt). The head gaskets had been replaced/heads machined/valve job at 140K, the car had a lot of spark plug changes, coolant changes, trans/diff oil changed once, etc. Reading the records, I also had notes that indicated problems that I might have to address too. The main two were front CV axles first noted as needed 9K ago, and less than 1K ago, a slipping clutch. I hadn't noticed the clutch slipping on the first drive, so I thorough tested it, and it's definitely good. The CV axles are also good. My guess is that the original owner decided it was time to move on rather than pay for a new clutch and CV axles, and the seller is probably a mechanic that got it cheap from him, replaced the clutch and axles, and then flipped the car. The seller could tell that I really wanted the car, but didn't understand why someone would like an old car like this, LOL California people - this is a desirable car in AK and the Pacific NW. I just fixed the idle. It turned out to be a loose air box to throttle body hose clamp. I did an idle relearn as I'm writing this. Outstanding issues include needing new struts, and there's a dent on the RR corner under the taillight that is a good candidate for paintless dent repair. The car was lifetime sit in the sun car (it's parked in front of the original owner's house in the driveway and street on streetviews), so the paint is gone from the back of the mirrors and front door molding, so I'll probably get those repainted. Plus the headlamps are super cloudy and need some love. The rear bumper cover was replaced (have the receipt for that too!), and the color doesn't quite match the body, but probably not worth trying to get that to match at this point (unless I get a cheap estimate). Overall, I can't imagine a better car for $2100, so I'm really lucky .

2 on the left, 2 on the right. Dead center of the Valve covers, under the Coil packs on each plug. If you can't find them, you probably should have someone else change them.

Giles, Your air pipes are shipped. I included a few solenoids for the front struts. Anyhow, I didn't include my home made tool, but I took these pics of using it. You can easily make one from the body of a "bic" pen. Here's the 2 pieces of it. 1 about 1~2 cm max. Sliced down the edge. Other piece about 6 cm, also sliced down the edge. IMG_0102 by Dans Subaru, on Flickr Small piece fitted over the air line IMG_0103 by Dans Subaru, on Flickr Longer piece now slipped over the first, and pushed up under the locking tabs. Leave the smaller piece puled back a bit still so just the outer tube is under the tabs, all the way. IMG_0104 by Dans Subaru, on Flickr Now use a small tool, (tip of my multitool here) and slide the small piece tight up under the first, pushing the tabs outward. Hold pressure against the outer tube to keep the tool tight against the tabs. IMG_0105 by Dans Subaru, on Flickr Fingernail used to pull the one tab that lines up on the spit in the tool. IMG_0107 by Dans Subaru, on Flickr And then pull the tool, and the line toghether to pop out of the fitting. IMG_0110 by Dans Subaru, on Flickr Giles, hope this helps you and others. anyone that needs an Air Compressor for these cars PM me I've got rebuildable ones for parts.

No on both questions. Hadn't rained in weeks when I drove/felt the issue and I have inspected the oil level the day before and didn't notice any top-end oil leaks at the time.

Front CV axles (it’s the inner joint) routinely vibrate under load/acceleration/uphill. Bearings routinely make noise and those 2005s have no shortage of failed wheel bearings. They usually make noise first then vibrate as they progressively get worse and get really bad. They can be hard to diagnose with no consistent symptoms that always confirm. False negatives are common. I’ve seen some not have any obvious play until the entire assembly is off and axle is out of it. Use a stethoscope. Check temps after driving and compare drivers and passengers side. Rear diff failure is rare and usually a misdiagnosis, that’s a hard one to lean towards without compelling Subaru specific experience.

milty60, The BEST information about car repairs you could ever get is to "never chase a problem with parts"! Unless you know for certain that you need to replace a failed part, you often find that the new part didn't solve the issue and you just wasted your money, because the issue is still there. Get the problem properly diagnosed and then buy only the parts you need. I have a neighbour with an idle problem. He bought new plugs, new air filter, changed his MAF sensor and several other parts only to have the same problem. An independent mechanic eventually fixed the issue (car only has 58 000 km) by shortening a vacuum line that had a crack where it joined its fitting.

Very interesting project, ambitious but certainly doable. I do want to start with a reality check. I know the Z is an aerodynamic car, which will help on the freeway, and I know that going from the Iron-block V6 VG30DE to an all-aluminum 4 will save you some weight (I'd guess 200 lbs or so), but you'll still have a pretty heavy car (quick google search says curb weight of 3300lbs). I don't think you'll get anywhere near 35mpg with a Subaru engine, even in the best conditions. Subaru engines are not terribly fuel efficient, certainly not in stock tune. Assuming we're looking at a budget-friendly engine swap (I assume that since we're talking about fuel mileage, this is the case) that will probably cost $2-3k depending on the details. Anything newer than 2005-2007 (depending on the exact model/trim) will have an immobilizer, which pretty much puts it completely out of this category unless you're extremely knowledgeable and get some seriously valuable parts for free. Subaru didn't offer a non-turbo 2.0 until 2012. The hard part will be the transmission. Conventional automatic transmissions are not efficient, and modern ones that are require some serious computing power to run them (and Subaru doesn't make in a RWD configuration, so you'll be mixing and matching manufacturers. good luck!). Without fabricating your own engine-transmission adapter, your best bet is probably BRZ/FRS/GT86 transmission, or using one of Bill Hincher's adapters to an older Toyota transmission. The next issue is width. Horizontally-opposed engines do not typically fit well in engine bays not designed for them. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it wouldn't fit between the upper control arm mounts. Gauges are one of the easiest parts. Tach signal converter to get that to read right. Might have to put the Nissan temperature sender in the Subaru engine. Speedometer might be a challenge depending on the transmission, but still completely doable. If I were to engine swap a Z32, with 35mpg the goal on a budget. It would be a manual transmission. If it had to be gas, I think it would be a Honda engine. But I would be pushing very hard for a VW TDi. I know there are transmission adapters to Toyota longitudinal transmissions (see them all the time in 4WD trucks, bellhousing would be the same for many RWD Toyota transmissions). Stock tune would likely yield 45mpg+, and with some mods 60+ isn't off the table.

you can pull the starter solenoid apart and look at the contacts - but for $15 you might as well install new ones while it's apart. they'll be pitted and warn, not smooth and shiny copper.

They will fit fine with the right tires. GD

You got pet mice up there too? Cheers Bennie

people are just trying to give you helpful advice. get used strut assemblies from car-part.com

Yeah, I get it. It put's me on the hook for a warranty claim. That's Ok. Worst case I buy one of my nice customers a free valve job and headgasket change ! lol. It just makes the difference between a ~$400 service, and a ~$600 one. In the customer's mind, that's a 50% higher cost for the customer for ONE part that seldom fails. That $200 difference can put someone off of even doing any Timing Service, or at least delay it and that's a worse risk than the tensioner. And with a known new belt if it does start to fail it should make noise but hold until customer brings it back. Only had it happen once, and the car made it back to my shop with the tensioner slapping, and I replaced the tensioner under warranty.