edrach

I understand you have to work with your mechanic, but there's nothing visual that you can see to tell if the DOJ is bad with these symptoms. The symptoms you describe are classic for a bad DOJ. Over the years I've had 4 or 5 of these among my cars. I've owned over 10 Subarus over the last 15 years and most of them were "retired" with 250K miles or more on them and I've never had a bad u joint or failed driveshaft. I'm just going with the statistics here. I still think it's the axle; just don't know which side.

Looks to me, like you've installed the DOJ on the transmission first and are now trying to fit the CVJ through the knuckle. I've never found that to work for me. I've always pulled the CVJ through the knuckle first and then slipped the DOJ on the transmission. Make sure the holes for the roll pin line up first. Here's a write up I did a long time ago on what works for me (from the USRM). http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?p=615158#post615158 Good luck.

Just asking, how do you know it's not the axle or drivetrain?

Looks like someone sold you the wrong axle originally. The 25 spline count on the EA82 cars was for the turbo model; all the others took 23 spline. Put a 25 hub on a 23 stub and it'll shear the roll pin every time. I don't know what your mechanic was thinking. Look for an axle with the inner hub (DOJ) with 23 splines and you should be okay. Astoria; not too far from Portland. Check with Richie at http://www.fixmysuby.com. He should be able to find the correct axle for your car.

Wow, that was quick. I suppose you have electric door locks. If you lean on the door to try and release the pressure on the latch, then have someone hit unlock on the main switch on driver's side front you might be able to get it to open. You might need to repeat the process and push the door out from the inside; it all depends on how the door latch is jammed. Good luck.

Color code is on the VIN plate in the engine compartment. Try http://www.car-part.com for a national search for the doors you're looking for. If you find a set the right year and color call the yard and have them check the color code to see if it matches. Doors in reasonable condition run $100 to $250 (higher prices for electric doors).

Wow, just what I was looking for. Too bad I can't get over to PNP for a while. Check the transmission section of the Repair forum and check the TY# (on the bell housing) to see whether it's 3.900 or 4.111. If it's a 3.9 and you want to sell it for a quick profit, drop me a PM. Good score.

Yours is a little more damage than mine so I didn't suggest taking the money and fixing it yourself. Mine was hit in the rear door and the "approved" repair place estimated $1575 to repair it (no total involved). I opted for a check, found a wrecking yard that had the door with the same color code. Bought it for $125 and 20 minutes later had it installed and working. Color match isn't perfect, but on a 240K car, who cares. Also, salvage title doesn't mean anything if you're planning to keep the car until it dies. If you plan on selling it in the future, the previous poster's suggestion is excellent; document, document, document. If you sell it, the salvage title generally knocks 1/3 to 1/2 off the price of a "clean titled" car of the same model, year, mileage, etc. If you decide to part it out, I'm looking for a transmission (5MT, cable clutch).

You're right about the instrument cluster being the issue since the VSS signal comes from there on the '98s. Also, the whistle is standard on early Imprezas; my '97 has done it for all the time I've owned it; a loose or missing baffle in the muffler.

Check the state insurance commissioners website to see how the insurance company should offer you compensation. It should include the cost of a comparable vehicle, sales tax, and cost of titling a replacement (less your deductible, unless you're collecting from the other guy's insurance). Since I have a '97 Impreza wagon and a 2002 Imp OBS wagon, the amount they're offering sounds reasonable, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't check craigslist, dealers, autotrader and even the USMB to establish a value for your car. Sorry for your loss; good luck finding a replacement. At almost a $1000 for the salvage value, I think I would pass on buying it back. Here's a link to the Autotrader page for cars within 300 miles of Seattle: http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/searchresults.xhtml?zip=98021&endYear=2000&modelCode1=IMPREZ&startYear=1998&makeCode1=SUB&listingType=used&bodyStyles=SUV%2C+WAGON&numRecords=25&searchRadius=300&maxPrice=8000&minPrice=1&showcaseOwnerId=67100527&Log=0 It might be that the insurance company is just slightly low-balling you. $5000 replacement value sounds about right; but after you add taxes and titling costs, that comes to about $5600 which is quite a bit less than they offered you. Check some local dealers to see if they have any used OBS and what they're asking for them.

Turbo LSD rear diffs for the EA82 were 3.700 ratio, not 3.900. Best test is as Bratman18 mentioned; jack up the rear end to get both wheels off the ground. Spin one wheel and watch the other; if the spins in the same direction is could be an LSD rear; if the other wheel spins opposite, it's an open diff. Only 3.900 rear LSD diffs were converted from an open diff and the clutch pack was installed from a turbo wagon. As far as I know SOA never made a 3.900 rear LSD for the EA82 models.

Having done some research years ago on our Brat, I noticed a strange thing with NADA valuations. An '82 Brat in excellent condition topped out around $1800 while a GL wagon of the same year and condition topped out at $3000. I'd show the insurance adjuster the NADA listing and the Shasta CL ad (print it out now so you have a permanent copy for your records). Also print out the other two links; you might even call the two that are close to see if they've sold (and for how much). You might even go look at them to see if the condition reflects yours. Take pics, the more comparables you have the better your postion with the insurance company. If the adjuster hasn't looked at it yet, make sure it's clean; show them a trash wagon and the adjuster will definitely lowball you. Be prepared to fight. Check with the OR laws concerning what the insurance company is required to offer you in compensation; bottom line, is a replacement of equal or better value than you had before the accident. Sorry I didn't mention CL in my suggested place for comparables. You might even print out some comparables from the USMB cars for sale forum.

I have a similar problem with our '97 Impreza. After doing some work toward resolving the P0440, I drove the car until nearly empty (about 150+ miles). Then I filled it to the brim and drove it some more. According to the shop manual the CEL doesn't check/reset until the tank is down to 9/16 empty. I continued to drive it and took it to emissions (WA state) and it passed. Fuel dropped to 1/2 and CEL came back. But I now have another two years to deal with it.

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/2013-subaru-brz-and-2013-scion-fr-s-a-study-in-comparison-and-contrast-feature

It's about time I added my two cents. I responded to TPain's request for an inexpensive, quality shop in his area and Jeff's shop certainly fit the request. I've held off on posting primarily since I wanted to speak with Jeff first. And there is certainly another side to this issue. I won't go into it since that issue is long gone and nothing useful will be gained from digging up old news. However, this is not the first time I suggested Jeff to anyone. First time that I've heard a complaint. He is a one man shop and Subaru trained having worked for Subaru for 20 or more years at University Subaru. My experience with him is that he's a type A personality and is absolutely anal about any job he does. He's not happy until he feels it's perfect. If we disagree on how far he needs to go, I let him know what I want and can pay for at the time. I can always reschedule follow-up work for an issue that can be put off. He is difficult to reach sometimes; as a one man shop you don't get much done by answering the phone. I've never had trouble reaching him since I usually wait until evening when I know he's no longer working. I only know of his strengths with the older Subarus since I haven't owned anything newer than our '99 Forester until recently. He's worked on the Forester, my Impreaza, and both of my Brats. I'm no longer in a position to do all the work needed and Jeff has been able to do repairs that I either can't do or don't want to do myself. He's not afraid to service "outside the box." I had him convert a JDM hydraulic actuated transmission to a cable actuated gearbox for our '97 Impreza. At first he felt it couldn't be done, but we lined up my JDM tranny with one of his cable trannies and we took measurements until he felt that it could be done. The modified JDM gearbox has been running just fine in my DD/Rallycross Impreza for the last 60K miles. I could certainly add more but there'd be no point in expanding on this (it's already too long). To TPain, I'm sorry my suggestion did not work out for you.

Just to throw in one more item: check the belt tension. If it slips, it will slip more under load. Eliminate that and if you still have the problem, I'm with the replace the alternator camp.

Try NADA, kelly blue book, and Edmonds. Also check ebay, craigslist and autotrader to try to find a comparable value for your car. You might even look thru the for sale stuff here on the USMB for the last few months. Dealers are generally very reluctant to get involved in an insurance issue. Stubies Subie also has the right idea; check the insurance commissioner's office and the law determing how to establish a fair value for your loss. We fought with a company for almost three years when they wouldn't budge off their $450 check for our '82 brat. We finally sued the driver who hit us in small claims court and were awarded $3000 plus costs for our trouble.

Having done a few of my own radio installs, I've come to the conclusion to find a reputable shop and buy the radio of my choice and let them install it along with the new speakers. At least if they break it, it's on them and not me.

GL is the fancy version and has 4 sp dual range gearbox, tach, nicer trim and "fun" roof. DL is the spartan version without the tach, has a single range gearbox (4sp) and a solid roof. There are other minor differences but I think they both have the EA81 engine. Re-read your post. If you have 5 speed dual range engine, someone installed it since that was never an option with the Brats. You'll need to have the tach or sunroof to know if it's a GL or DL. Also, '82 to '87 EA81 Hatch models have the same hood. Not sure but the EA81 wagons might have the same hood. Sorry, it's been too long for me to remember all the details. Also someone here can tell you which model it is from the VIN #.

I once paid $30 for a hardcopy. Worth every penny. But I've seen them as low as $5. Then again there's the pdf.....

Essentially yes.

Yes, and it is easier to replace the entire unit rather than just the center diff portion.

CVJ is the outer joint; inner joint is DOJ.

What did he mean by a "little warp" on the front axle? If it's related to the DOJ then the axle is your issue.

Typical symptom for a bad DOJ (inner joint on the axle) is vibration during acceleration which instantly goes away when you let off on the gas. Sometimes the vibration is just barely noticeable and others I've seen it so bad that it feels like the transmission is about to fall out! How many miles on the car and did you recently install a replacement axle? Re-read your original post. 239K on the car! If that's the original axle, that's the problem. My experience has always been with the manual transmission so I don't know if the torque convertor might be an issue. I also have always had this issue on the drivers side; probably since that's right above the catalytic convertor so the boot fails there more often than the passenger side.