zyewdall

Why not take a 5 speed dual range out of one of the rusted ones, and replace the automatic?

Sounds like the relay for the low beams went bad. This happened on my '82 GL wagon, and the low beams wouldn't work till it warmed up... then their relay would finally kick on.

The thermostat in the legacy is on the bottom hose instead of the top hose going to the radiator. Does the entire coolant system flow the opposite way on it, or does the EJ22 have the thermostat on the cold side perhaps? Sure would be helpful if the hoses had flow direction arrows on them like most HVAC systems do.

I do like my 4wd, but honestly, it is in FWD even alot of the times in the snow. Tires are key:grin: I sold my old one to someone in Michigan tired of his ford mustang automatic. He said it handled ten times better in snow than the mustang did. Duh. And that was before he even bothered to put it in 4wd.

Actually, the old small block V-8's from the 70's fords were lucky to get 150k on them before they needed a complete rebuild from worn bores. I consider it darn good when I take apart a subaru that's blown a HG at 200k, and can still see the original cross hatching on the cylinder walls. I'm used to always taking the EA82 engines apart for oil leaks, so what's the big deal about pulling the heads for a HG every 100k too.....

Done all that. I never said the old subaru's were less prone to breaking. The difference is that it's all cheap to fix and I can do it myself for a few hundred bucks. When most new cars break, it's expensive to fix, and that is the problem, IMO. New subaru's are still alot easier to work on yourself than many new cars, just not quite as easy as the old ones.

Just avoid driving any other cars that actually do have power, and you'll get used to it. I thought my old EA82 was fine till I drove a friends diesel jetta for a few days. Got back in the subaru and wondered what was wrong with it....nothing -- it just doesn't go 85mph up hills (more like 45.....) With the bigger tires it really sounds like you need the 5 speed to get back into a better rpm range on the highway. Or a turbo or more powerful engine. Only other suggestion is to just make sure the engine is tuned up as good as possible. Sorry....

Because an old brat costs about 3 times as much as a wagon. Of course when you count your time.... Welding is fun though, and I would go for it. It's hard to get good welds on the thin guage sheet metal though -- practice on scrap for a while first to see if you're really up to welding a whole back of a car back together.... What kind of welder? I've got a little 115volt wire feed welder that I've made all kinds of stuff out of. Weld outdoors if possible -- welding used metal (like old cars with paint and such on em) tends to make bad fumes if you're indoors. You can buy hardware hinges and weld them on to make tailgate, etc... I've done this on old pickups. These are usually plated, so really avoid breathing the fumes from welding them. I don't think you really need to reinforce the bed -- I've hauled about 1,000 lbs in my wagon. Couldn't hurt though. I would weld together a roll-bar type thing and I think that'll stiffen it back up as good as the wagon top. Good luck on the biodiesel experiment too BTW. I just got an old Mitsubishi diesel truck that I'm running on biodiesel now, and am working on getting a diesel rabbit running too (or will be when I finally get all the subaru's in my driveway running.....). Zeke

What model/year car is it?

Old Subarus are. The new ones seem to be going towards the luxury market too much for my tastes, instead of being the poorman's 4wd like they used to be in the '80's and even early 90's. May be why I still own an '89 subaru.... The MKIV Jettas really are terrible on dirt roads, and fairly expensive to maintain after they start getting up in miles. My friend took his oil pan out once driving around Mexico on dirt roads. Other than that, it was a much nicer car than any subaru or honda I've driven -- definitely much faster too. We could cruise at 90mph on road trips, and still get over 40mpg

I like the engineering of most the car modles sold in Europe alot better than here (more useable room in small station wagons instead of just going to enourmous SUV size things, plus they're all available with a diesel), just not the styling so much.

The legacy came with the EA82 engine down south????

Ouch. My dad averages 27 in his '96 Outback, with the manual and the 2.2 and can get almost 31 on road trips. I though the automatic was similar for highway, but less in city. I know driving style affects it alot -- one of my friends could measure his stress level by the mileage in his '01 outback. It would drop a good 3 or 4 mpg when midterms or finals approached. Try driving like a grandma for one tank, and see if it improves.

On the older subaru's, the click seems to be when the solenoid is engaging, but the starter motor has a dead spot. They're one unit, so you replace them together. I've replaced it on every one I've owned at about 200k miles (don't know if it was original or not). $25 for a used starter, and half an hour to replace, so why not just replace it.

Huh? I've always used power steering fluid in mine, and it hasn't been a problem, except for one old one that you had to refill every week, so I just let it all out and ran it without power steering. Shouldn't the PS pump cap say something to this effect on it if you're supposed to use ATF?

If the passenger side timing belt broke, it would just run like crap on the two drivers side cylinders. If the drivers side breaks, the distributor stops too, and it won't run at all. In my experience, the drivers side one always goes first. The screw is on the side of the rotor holding it to the shaft -- some of them don't have them, but I think all the later EA82's do.

Unfortuneatly true. I got mine for $500 in great shape with only a toasted rear wheel bearing. They guy just wanted it out of his driveway and had no idea what it was worth.

Good list. How do you burp an engine block? Someone told me last night that there could be an air bubble in the engine block that is keeping the coolant from circulating. He said you have to fill the block separately from the radiator? It could explain the heat not working in the cabin as well.

That's what I thought too.... And the update on the '90 Legacy is that it still overheats. We thought maybe it was fixed, but no dice..... I'm going to take a look at it again tonight.

That is the reason to switch to synthetic IMO. I've noticed that mine starts easier in subzero weather with synthetic 5W40, and getting the oil to the engine sooner is probably good for it.

One more thing on the thermostat -- we just had a '90 legacy that kept overheating, and some guy at the parts store said you have to exercise the new thermostats -- push them open and closed for about a minute to loosen the spring or something -- before installing them. Sounded wacky to me, but we tried it, and the car doesn't over heat now.... But we also did a full cooling system flush, so who knows.

Could be. A friend of mine had an old MG miget that always overheated, and after replacing radiator, thermostat, flushing block, etc, it turned out the water pump impeller was corroded away.

Nope. It's got some sort of capilary tube with alcohol in it that goes between the sensor and the dial guage. I think you have to find that adaptor to go from whatever screw threads the sensor has, to the screw threads in the thermostat housing where the electric temp guage sensor is. Problem is it's probably metric on one side and english on the other... PITA. I haven't read the whole thread here, but have you tried running it without the thermostat? If the radiators not hot at all and the engine is, that's the first thing I would suspect.

Yeah... To bad I don't own a plasma cutter yet. I'm thinking that I could take some sheet steel and small angle iron and weld one up though. Maybe not pretty, but should protect the oil pan and stuff when bashing through snowdrifts.

Alpha romeo huh? I was thinking that the 2005 legacy looks decidely european now. I liked the old look (around '96, or even better '82) much better, the wagon isn't too bad now, but the new sedan is downright ugly). Might as well buy a passat 4 motion if I want an expensive all wheel drive station wagon with bad styling. At least it comes with a diesel engine option. Of course, I'm convinced that the last really good looking pickup was made in the 70's, so maybe I'm just out of touch with the modern american consumer.......:-p