DaveT

Other possible cause of massive white smoke is broken intake manifold gasket or throttle body seal. Remove radiator cap, if not full of coolant, add water, start engine. Are there bubbles? Also, typical of the blown headgaskets I have experienced, coolant gets pushed out of the recovery bottle. One of the worst ones, coolant leaked into the crank case, mixing with the oil.

I'm in CT. Wow, we paid something like 12k for our 2001 forester about 10 years ago. The real reason I need to do something is it rusted around the rear wheels. Kind of too far to fix easily, I think. Which sucks. Body work is far from my favorite thing to do.

Trying to find something rust free. $10 to $15,000.00. Timing belts I can do, no problem. I'd rather avoid headgaskets, mostly due to time. I've heard some variations of the engines are more reliable than others with the head gaskets. Don't need any more power than the equivalent power to weight ratio of a 3 speed auto loyale.

Cast impeller version. Try NAPAs better / best brand. Im not sure if they havd them for your engine though . I've bought them for EA82s there.

Sounds more like axle or brakes than transmission.

Good grief. Sooo many variations. We just want a reliable basic car. Don't want frilly expensive stuff that just adds cost, like leather seats, alloy wheels, crazy tire sizes, fancy stereos, etcetera. Is Forester the models we should be looking at? If not, what? Has Subaru completely abandoned the reliable and affordable market and gone all luxury?

I mostly deal with old gen, 87-93 Loyales / GLs. Have begun searching for a newer Forester for my wife. I have heard about an ll bean Forester. Can anyone help explain what the difference is between one of those and a "regular" one, assuming the same year, etc.?

Ah, I'll have to look. Collision is what I dropped that made the big difference.

I'm not young, and have very few insurance claims, no tickets. I dropped comprehensive / collision and got a second car. Costs about the same for registration and insurance, etc. , and I usually have instant backup if a car dies, or I need to work on one.

I had the idle air control valve fail on one of my EA82s. I just drove by feathering the gas to keep it running. Assuming EA82 SPFI engine, I have interchanged pretty much any part from 88 to 93. 4wd 3AT wagons.

air control valve could be an idle killer. Connecting the connectors is not enough. You have to do the whole sequence from the FSM.

that code only indicates that the ECU is detecting the winding of the solenoid is open. It could also be a broken wire or connector between the ECU and the solenoid. That code would have little to no effect on idle. 34 is the EGR solenoid code, same things apply. Nearly every OEM EGR & purge solenoid I have ever had has failed. My recollection is that when the solenoid / bad connection is fixed, the CEL goes out. May take a trip or 2. There is a way to clear the memory, and a diagnostic mode, using a pair of white connectors and green connectors under the hood, an the area above the brake booster. It's likely written up here somewhere. It's kind of odd sequence of things to do with the key, gas pedal, driving, etc. The normal state of the 2 pairs of connectors is that they are not connected. My fix for the solenoids at the link below: http://home.comcast.net/~davidtief/solenoid.html

94 vs 90 I'm pretty sure, is identical. What code number/s is it showing? I've not had a problem with a PCV valve since I've been running EA82 powered cars - 1988. I don't think it could cause idle to fail. 2 things I have seen screw up idle - the CTS [coolant temperature sensor] and the Idle air control valve. The CTS is the 2 wire sensor that the ECU uses to deal with the engine temperature. Not the 1 wire sensor for the thermometer on the dash.

I think I paid around $200 each time. But they were a while ago. One I had replaced due to the crack, the other, was just sandblasted from so many miles on the highway.

I have attempted 2 so far. The official windshield removal tool I bought breaks them, the blade is too thick. What worked was a guitar string, one of the lower frequency ones with the 2nd wire spiraled around the steel string. Not a big fat bass guitar string, one for a regular guitar. Add some steel wire to a couple blocks of wood for handles. Have to carefully poke it through the sealer to get started, then a lot of "sawing" to work your way around.

If they got that cooked, might as well replace them. Not expensive. Get inner and outer seals.

I think they are 8mm. Best to bring one with you to match up.

I've had 2 replaced by the services that come out and do it. Never had any problem with the replacements, have no way of knowing if they were better or worse than OEM. I didn't shop by price, just ok you can do this car? Moderate amount of money, good. I have removed one windshield intact successfully.

SPFI or carb? I had the idle air control valve fail on one of my SPFI cars once. Ran hreat, except at zero throttle, it just shut down.

wow, you are a rock magnet? I've only had one windshield crack since 1988, and it was my own stupid move that did it. Not counting the accident that totaled my 86.

Hello, and welcome. This sub group of the forum is for the older models, before legacies. Loyales and gls are quite different.

When I was running the old white Subaru wagon wheels, I had to get them balanced at a dealer. I have had more than one tire suffer a failure of the tread to belts bonding. This makes a slight bulge in the tread. Oddly, it makes a shimmy in the steering that comes and goes at different speeds. The cause of the failure was alignment too far off.

My first check: remove disty cap. Put a wrench on the crank pulley bolt, and see if the rotor turns. If no, timing belt, if yes, shoot some carb cleaner in the intake boot through one of the smaller lines. If it fires momentarily, you have spark, need fuel.

It is for warming the intake air when cold, and avoiding carburetor icing.

A long term leak will get oil everywhere. Around here, it also tends to preserve the underside of the car.