zyewdall

It's not that the laws that lack common sense per se. It's because so many people lack common sense, yet will not accept responsibility for their own dumb actions, that they feel obligated to make laws to protect us from ourselves.

More choices of LED's than you know what to do with http://www.ledsupply.com/led-catalog-5mm-leds.html I put a super bright green one in the center of each of the stars on the subaru logo on the grill. Till I got pulled over for impersonating an emergency vehicle. Ooops. Should have used white I guess.

Try a junkyard. When I tried to buy one at a parts store, they didn't even know what it was (and I had it sitting on their desk). The guy at the junkyard told me to torque the heck out of the axle nut to keep the splines from stripping (as in, much higher torque than the book says), and of course make sure the little conical washer is facing the right way. Don't know if he knew what he was talking about or not, but I've never had another one strip...

I thought it was already illegal to drive with your high beams on within 500 feet of oncoming traffic? I don't know of anyone who's gotten pulled over for this, but I always thought you could be.

Sure enough. Now, are they including 4wd vehicals, or just all wheel drive vehicals in the exemption for putting them on?

I assumed you were talking about using them for daytime running lights, right?

Colorado's got them too. I've never had to bike farther than about 5 miles to get a "new" GL. Wait, I did take the bus down to Denver for one of them. That was about 30 miles. Washington and Idaho definitely has better selection of old pickups though. Seems that toyotas were the only ones that made it to CO in any numbers.

For those americans who didn't notice, I think he was doing 76 in a 50 zone...

Well, I was going to say that there ARE times when AWD need chains -- but then rethought it. There are times that 4wd trucks need four wheel chains -- like when there's 2' of snow on the ground. But stock subaru's don't have the ground clearance or low range for that sort of snow crawling anyway, so anywhere you are going to be going, the standard AWD system is fine. On the highway, if you have good snow tires, I wouldn't expect you to have any trouble (with snow, or people checking for chains). Just don't drive like a nut.

Oh. Makes sense. I have a loyale, so how would I know if it's leaking anyway.... It does look like the crushable washer type now that that I think about it. I've never replaced it.

I thought the manual transmissions were 50/50 front and rear? Or is that only after it senses front slip? The whole AWD systems confuse me. I like my 4wd better (or at least I understand it better )

Make sure the left one isn't 180 degrees off. You have to rotate the crankshaft a full turn after putting the right one on before lining up the marks for the left one. I neglected this the first time I did it -- ran terrible and stalled after about 20 seconds (what do you expect with basically being turned into a two cylinder engine.... Oooops Zeke

Hmmm. I've towed several older (80's) cars both FWD and old dual range subies, in four flat, or with just rear wheels on the ground, and assumed that because the transmission was in nuetral it wouldn't hurt anything, since there's no viscous coupling to get hurt like the new AWD's. Does the input shaft on the tranny have to be turning to lubricate the tranny? I thought that it was just the gears sitting in the gear oil, with no pumps or anything, so nuetral should be okay, but I've never taken a tranny apart so I honestly don't know. Are auto's and manuals different? Is this lubrication issue also why people say not to coast with the engine in nuetral... I do that all the time unless I need the engine braking. Zeke

Euggh. Those derail trains up there in AK sometimes. If you can't find a junkyard one closer, superrupair in Boulder will probably ship you one for $50 or $100 depending on the year. They have a whole warehouse of used parts. Zeke

Yeah, if you have a donut on one side, and a full size on the other side, the front differential will constantly be turning to compensate. But that's what it's designed to do. I don't see how doing that for 100 miles till you get the spare replaced could be any more wear than driving on curvy mountain roads all the time instead of straight highway. It's an open differential in the front right, and with the FWD fuse in, the back doesn't care any more? Unless, it does something to the traction control system??? I've never owned a car with that. I always throw away the donut first thing when I get a new car and put in a full sized spare anyway.

Uh.. The washer doesn't come with the filter??????

How much diesel mixed with how much gas? How long did it run before dying? I don't know what might happen to a newer engine, but the older ones usually just needed a complete fuel system/carbureator purge if it stopped running quickly. Diesel is designed to autoignite easily, but otherwise is sort of thick gummy stuff compared to gas, while gas is designed to not auto ignite, but is very explosive otherwise. So if you had too much diesel in there, the old ones wouldn't carbureate any more and would just stop. On a fuel injected car it might get into the pistons, but it should start knocking from preignition, and stop running. And probably gum all the injectors and filters and stuff up. If the knock sensors threw a code and shut it off, nothing really bad may have happened. Except for having to degunk everything in the fuel system. It's better than running gas in a diesel engine. That usually causes various explosions in the pistons or in the turbo or the exhaust system, in addition to destroying injector pumps at times, because they assume a well lubricating fuel, that auto ignites under compression easily but doesn't create a fuel vapor air mixture. Diesels always run with excess oxygen too. I hope the gas station is paying for any work? Z

Have you checked it with a shop tach? I have a hard time seeing it actually idling at 275rpm without shuddering and sounding really bad. Even 400 sounds really low to run smoothly. Is is possible that the tach is just reading a little lower than reality? How was the powder???? I haven't been up there yet, but I did get 50mph blowing snow at my house in Ward saturday night... so it looks like it should be getting good up in the high country.

Huh? Sounds confusing to me? I can see that putting chains on increases the effective diameter of the front tires, but if you need chains, you probably have plenty of slip available to avoid torquing the driveline. But if this is a problem why not put chains on the back too to prevent this? The recommendation to not put them on the back wheels is really what confuses me. Zeke

Like what. I've never used anything but fram on any of my vehicles.

The way the subaru is design you should be able to just take the axle out without affecting the tranny fluid at all -- the splined shaft stays with the tranny. (unless the AT is designed alot different that the manual) But without real 4wd, trailering it is probably still a good idea. Axles are cheap, but trannies aren't so much....

Superrupair up on Yarmouth and Broadway is usually good -- they've never tried to replace unneeded stuff for me. They don't like working on my older cars, but a '97 should be fine. If I encounter something I can't do myself, I usually take it to Dr. Fixit in Nederland. Cheaper, and he knows the EA82 and EA81 subaru's well. I have not had good experiences with places like Just brakes, or places that don't handle alot of subarus.

Loyale or Legacy? On the loyale, the shift linkages are on top -- if you remove the housing around the shift lever you can see them from inside the car. If the bushings on the lever are too worn it might hit something else before finding reverse.

Beat me to it. Yup, what Imdew said. It's the reverse indicator switch on the transmission.

If it is a new axle it needs, I've had good luck with rockauto.com. $46.99 plus core for rebuilt axles for my '89 GL. This is about half what subaru wants for a new OEM ones. Axles for the 5 speed manual non turbo were the same from '85 to '94 (loyale) I think, so it shouldn't be that hard to get the right one... Zeke