Loyale 2.7 Turbo

So, the faulty self adjusting regulators for the Rear Brake Shoes, are the Culprit of the premature wear of the Front Rotors & Pads, plus they are culprit in part of the Weak Brake Power, because the deregulated shoes let the rear wheels to spin almost freely, while the front wheels take almost all the braking effort. However, despite that I changed the Faulty self adjusting regulators, those are very Bad designed and are some sort of Lifeless Lump that does Nothing to adjust the rear shoes... The old ones and the new ones Never worked; that must be a major design flaw from Kia ... They're Completely Useless. If you have a second gen Sephia with Rear Drum Brakes and you want to know how the deregulated shoes affects the overall braking behaviour, you must be aware that the deregulated shoes reduces dramatically the overall braking power, while makes the brake pedal to be Spongy and travel free a lot before engaging the brakes. That is why lots of people won Lawsuits against Kia years ago: Those Brakes are Dangerous, especially during Panic Braking. You can do a simple test to see how the brake pedal raises and becomes firmer with the Regulated Shoes, without the need of doing the manual adjustment: you only need to Pull the Parking Brake lever few teeth 'till the rear shoes starts to touch softly the rotating Drum, raise the lever but not very strong; the idea is to let the shoes to be as close to the rotating drum as possible, while still they let the rear wheels to spin; then drive the car and apply the brakes with the parking brake lever standing there: You will notice how the Brake Pedal becomes firmer and needs to travel way less to stop the car, while the car stops easier with less leg effort. That is due to the four wheels stopping the Car, not only the two front wheels. But you can not leave the lever up like that, that was a short test only; you must do the Rear shoes' adjustment or take your Sephia to a qualified mechanic to do such adjustment for you. ► Important Note: The more you use the Parking Brake, the Less that the Rear Shoes' adjustment will last. The use of the parking brake deregulates the rear shoes adjustment faster than regular braking. So, I'm somehow "Condemned" to do a Monthly Rear drum brakes disassembly in order to Adjust the Rear Shoes to compensate their wear. (Unless I swap Rear Disc Brakes there) In that way, the Car's Brakes works Great. ______________________________________ So, the Sephia with Regulated Rear Shoes and the New Proportioning Valves has a great Brake System, the Brake pedal become way more Sensible since the car has the New Proportioning Valves, and the Brake Power is like many of the other brands' Similar cars. After I Solved the Mystery of the Weak Brake Power and Premature Wear on front Brakes' parts; Beside Changin' the Faulty Proportioning Valves and the Rear Shoes' Self adjustment regulators; I decided to Change the Front brake's Disc Rotors & Pads: And I did the Best Brake Job I Could. The Car does perform Flawlessly since then ... ... Except that I need to do a Monthly manual adjustment to the Rear wheels' Brakes. ... ... Kind Regards.

I Never has to Touch the Master Cylinder, nor the Brake Booster or the Brake Lines; everything related with those were alright. For those who has Weak Brakes and believe that by Changing to a Bigger Master Cylinder could help, Remember: A bigger bore master cylinder will Not improve braking power; It will make the pedal engage higher and feel firmer, but the braking force at the wheels is reduced for the same pounds of pressure applied to the pedal. So you'll actually have to Push Harder on the pedal to get it to Stop as quick after "upgrading". Master cylinder bore size is in balance with the Wheel cylinder bore size; Go too Small and the pedal will hit the Floor before the brakes are at maximum Clamping force. Go too Big and you'll run out of leg strength before hitting maximum clamping force. Simple hydraulics: the piston ratio between the master and the wheel cylinders gives you the mechanical advantage. So, to use a Master Cylinder with increased bore, could Help in certain situations, such like those Brakes designed with a Lot of free travel on their Brake Pedal, to reduce the free travel while gets rid of the Spongy Pedal by stiffening it; but in cars where there is very short free travel on the pedal, a Bigger Bore Master Cylinder could make braking even worse, becoming too stiff the pedal, and thus means to push very hard the brakes for the same stopping power. A Change in Master Cylinder diameter should be done with enough analysis and measurements taken, and Tests done with the Trial & Error method on a safe area, before driving the car on the streets. In the Case of the second gen Kia Sephia, Kia Motors chose to change the Regular 7/8" Master Cylinder that is found on the Regular Sephias with Front Discs / Rear Drums brake setup, to an upsized 15/16" for those Premium Sephias with Factory Rear Disc Brakes. So I will seek to Upsize the Master Cylinder on my Wife's Sephia, when I could get the Rear Disc Brakes, which I'm searching actively, with the Kind Help of other Kia-Forums' Members in USA, as you can see details in this same thread's posts and also here: ~► http://www.kia-forums.com/2g-1998-2001-sephia/103954-need-help-rear-disc-brakes-swap.html Kind Regards.

So I Solved the Mistery: Lots of People have experienced that same problem, Brake Pedal Fade and premature wear of the Front disc brakes ... and some never found the Answer to the Mistery; as you can Read few examples on this Links: ► http://community.cartalk.com/discussion/2277486/01-kia-sephia-brakes ► http://www.mombu.com/asian_cars/sephia-forum/t-rear-brake-adjustment-on-2001-sephia-647634.html ► http://www.kia-forums.com/2g-1998-2001-sephia/47183-1999-kia-sephia-rear-brake-adjustment.html And illogically, I found that the Answer was on the Rear Drum Brakes!!! Let me explain: The Rear Drum Brake system found on the Second Gen Sephia uses a Ratcheting Cam (Named "Strut" by Kia) that is suposed to take up play as Brake Shoes wear, but definitively, such thing doesn't work at all due to their bad design, and as the rear brake shoes wear, their surface gets farther from the rotating drum and during braking, the rear wheels spin freely while the fronts are doing the braking effort, because the rear brake pumps can't handle well the extra distance without a useful automatic shoes adjuster, that means that the rear shoes are barely "Touching" the Drums under Braking, while the fronts could be at Maximum clamping force. So, in order to compensate the normal wear on the rear shoes, the car needs Monthly adjustments to the Rear Drum Brakes to Keep said shoes as near to the Rotating drum as possible, and thus means to have a firm & tall brake pedal, and ensure that it has the proper braking power to be Safe. However, I changed the old Faulty self adjusting regulators with the New ones, only to discover that those are Faulty too ... They're are very Bad designed: some sort of Lifeless Lump that does Nothing to adjust the rear shoes... The old ones and the new ones Never worked; that must be a major design flaw from Kia ... ... Just like the tiny Hole behind the Backing Plate for adjusting the said strut adjusters: Both are Completely Useless, there's No Tool capable to slip thru such tiny, misaligned hole to "Adjust the Adjusters" ... ... nor the Adjuster works as intended. The Rear drum Brakes on the Second Gen Kia Sephia has another problem related to those Bad designed self "Strut" adjusters: Both sides Never ever wear the Shoes equally, and thus means that the side with more wear is the side that does more braking effort. In those Rear Drum Brakes of the Second Gen Kia Sephia, I noticed that the Driver's Side, trend to retain the Adjustment for more time than the Passenger's side, which loose it faster; it makes me think that Tire Rotation and its Vibrations might has something to do with that phenomenon: The "Strut" adjusters might suffer from that since they're Weak, while the Old-School style "Star" Adjusters were Stronger. In Short words, that tendency of the Second Gen Kia Sephia of Loosing the Rear Drum Brake's Adjustment in one side faster than the Other, makes Emergency Braking more Dangerous, since one of the rear wheels could Lock while the other spins freely... So, the Sephia with Regulated Rear Shoes and the New Proportioning Valves has an Excellent Brake System; the Brake pedal become way more Sensible and the Brake Power is really Good ... but only while the Rear Shoes are Adjusted properly, and said adjustment only last a month ... ... The Self Adjusters are Completely Worthless and Weak. I need to do Monthly adjustments of the Rear shoes (to compensate their normal wear) in order to keep a firm and tall brake pedal and thus means a Safer car to Drive, and that monthly adjustment means to disassembly the Whole Drum setup, because the tiny hole that they have in the Back (on the Backing Plate) is Useless: I never found a Tool that "Magically" slips thru it and could handle the "Strut" Adjuster to the Proper position... That is another Design Flaw! Once properly adjusted, the Whole car's Braking Performance is Great. The only Real Solution for this problem was found by Kia years ago, to install Rear Disc Brakes! ... But only Premium models of the Kia Sephia came with Factory Rear Disc Brakes, and Kia sold very Few of those... I Started to Search for Rear Disc Brakes on Second Gen Kia Sephias at Junk Yards, Wish me Luck! Edit: About the Search of Rear Disc Brakes for my Wife's "KiaStein", please read this Thread on the Subject: ~► http://www.kia-forums.com/2g-1998-2001-sephia/103954-need-help-rear-disc-brakes-swap.html

First, I changed the Rear brake shoes and manually regulated the Brakes to the Top; the Pedal was stiff and Brake power good; while the Parking Brake Lever had enough power to Hold the car in the first two or three tooth. ... ... After three weeks of everyday use, the Brake Pedal got Lower, while the Parking Brake lever needed six or seven tooth to engage. ... ... After two Months of Use since the first regulation, the Rear Wheels' brakes where doing nothing, because the wear on the brake shoes was not compensated by the faulty self adjusting regulators, so the Shoes where too far away to let the rear wheel cylinder brakes do enough pressure to stop the car with the Brake Pedal, also the Parking Brake became a li'l less than Useless ... ... After Trying to Clean everything up in the Rear Brakes, also trying the Self-regulating procedures used in other cars (Such like Applying the Parking Brake while the car is Moving Forward / Backward with and without pressing the Brake Pedal, etc...) without any success, many many times, I ended doing the Manual adjustment every Month. Tired of that Monthly rear drum brakes Disassembly / Cleansing \ Regulation; I went to the Local Kia Dealer to buy a pair of Brand New Rear drum brake self adjusting Regulators, The Rear Drum Brake system found on the Second Gen Sephia does Not have a "Star" Adjuster, it uses a Ratcheting Cam (Named "Strut" by Kia) that is suposed to take up play as Brake Shoes wear: I Really Don't know why Kia named those as "Struts" ... ... Maybe I'm Lost in Translation again.

The Second Cause for Weak Brake Power is the Cause of the Second Problem itself: Warped Rotors and Premature Pad Wear. The Cause for Premature Front pad Wear and Warped Rotors, was Not on the front Brakes themselves, (Calipers, Front Wheel Cylinders, Pads, etc... ) No. I Found the Problem that lead to the Front Brakes to have such Premature Wear, and believe me or not, the Culprit is on the Rear Brakes! ... ... Let me Explain: The Rear Drum Brakes has a Self Regulator that Moves the Rear shoes towards to the rotating Drum as they wear, in order to maintain the same distance between shoes and drum, that keeps the same travel on the Pedal before the Shoe touches the Drum, even if the shoe is worn. But since the Rear shoe Regulators fail to adjust the Shoes towards the Drum, the Rear wheel brake cylinder has to move its piston in a longer travel before the shoe touches the Drum, because the Shoes are "Far Away" deregulated. That means: When anybody pushes the Brake Pedal, the Front Pads will engage pressing the rotating Disc, while the Rear Shoes are doing almost Nothing to brake the Car, due to the "Far Away" deregulated Shoes, they barely touches the rotating Drums. So, the Front Disc Brakes will take the 90% of the Braking effort, while the Rear Drum Brakes will rotate almost freely... You Notice that your car has "Far Away" deregulated Shoes on the Rear drum brakes, if: You Need to Pull up the parking brake lever handle to the Top to hold the Car. The Brake Pedal feels too Low or it goes Deep before really braking the Car You have to push even "Deeper" the Brake Pedal while going in Reverse. So Basically talking, with those Faulty Rear Shoes Regulators, you have a four wheel car, being stopped -almost only- by the two front wheels, that Really leads to an extreme Heat working conditions on the Rotors, for their extra effort; so that explain the Warped Rotors and the Premature Wear on the Pads; isn't it?

You must consider that there are Two Problems with the Sephia's Brakes: Weak Brake Power. Front Rotor Warp and Premature Wear on Pads. The Weak Brake Power has Two Causes After I Disassembled almost everything on my Wife's Sephia, I Noticed that the Proportioning Valves, which are Located in the Firewall, behind the engine, has some sort of Design Flaw: Vertical Grooves. Those Vertical grooves made the Proportioning Valves to Leak Brake Fluid while letting Air to get sucked into the System; you can see the Leaky vertical grooves on the Sephia's Brass proportioning valves, in the Following Photo: Those were the Original (stock) Proportioning Valves, made of Brass... The Local Kia Dealer had the Replacement for those, but made from a different metal, which looks like Polished Stainless Steel with chromed tops, and Does NOT have the faulty Vertical Grooves, as you can see in the Following Photo: This is their Part Number: Think about this: Any Brake system that Loose Brake Fluid and gets air inside the pressurized lines, will have a Weak performance; isn't it? The Leaky Proportioning Valves with Vertical Grooves will make the Brake System Weak, no matter how many times you Bleed the System, they'll let go fluid while suck air; So, I changed the original Proportioning Valves that had Vertical Grooves, with the ones with Newer design without the vertical grooves and new metal alloy instead of brass; the ones you saw in the Photos. So, the faulty Proportioning Valves was the First Cause for Weak Brake Power.

Wow! ... that images Leaked to the Web very fast. Also I'm not clear about the Twin Scroll Turbo thing... Edit: Found an Explanation, ~► Here. Kind Regards.

So, you purchased a New EA82... the Whole Engine? ... or Long Block only? Does you old engine was Carbureted or EFi? ... 1987 is a Year where Subaru Sold (in USA) some EA82 with Carburetor along many EFi, so I believe that it is important to know if your Subie was originally with Carb or EFi, in order to better help you. 2WD EA82 with Carburetor came with the Nippon Denso Disty, while 4WD EA82 with Carburetor came with the Hitachi Disty; as far as I Know, the 2WD distys has faster advance curve than the 4WD ones. Kind Regards.

But after some Brake Jobs, I Disassembled all the parts involved and double checked each part, then carefully inspected everything... also I went three times to Talk with the Local Kia Dealer's Master Mechanic, to gather info related to that issue and how they and / or Kia Motors fixed that. So, after many research, I Found the Culprit and the Solution.

There is a Fact: The Second Gen (1998~2001) Kia Sephia (Like my Wife's Model) has Weak Brakes and Suffers from Premature front Brake Wear. I Noticed the Weak Brakes since the car Came. I investigated further on the Subject on internet and I Found that the Problem was so generalized that it ended in the Court, with Lawsuits against Kia, in some cities of USA. I'm Lawyer, so I spent Hours and Hours Reading Documentation online, Such Like the Following: (Each one is a clickable a Link to a Website) ► "Judge Certifies Class Action Suit for Kia Sephia Owners" ► "KIA SEPHIA BRAKE PROBLEMS AND CLASS ACTION" ► "New Jersey's Court Desicions in the Subject" Could you Believe that there are some Websites entirely dedicated to that issue? ► "Facebook Page for the Sephia's Defective Brakes" ► http://kiasephiadefectivebrakes.com/ Well, some of the Lawsuits says: (Source: http://www.lemonlaw.com/kia.html) So, the Problem is a Fact that I Needed to Solve ASAP, but after Weeks Reading many Documents, No one found the Answer of "Why" that Happens and "How" to fix that, they only talk about the weakness of the Brakes and the Front rotors Warp plus premature wear.

Great action Photos! ... Thank you for Sharing!

Well, I've used Led panels (in different sizes) since years ago, but for Dome Light I use the Smaller one (only six Leds) in order to avoid too much brightness if someone needs to turn the Light "On" while Driving. But it doesn't outshine the Dash at all. Kind Regards.

Holy Cow! I Hope No one got Hurt... I Really Respect that Custom Built Subaru, is Wonderful; so I Hope you'll Straighten it, and maybe is time for a New Paint Job? Kind Regards.

But when I transformed my Subie onto the "BumbleBeast" I made a pair of Custom Mesh Grilles using two "Newer Style" Grilles obtained at local Junk Yards. Here is a Photo of Both Grilles I made together, the version 1 is above and is the one you have seen in all the previous photos of this thread: the "Version 2.0" is Below, now you can see the Differences. The Newer one I made, does match the metallic Hood Scoop Design, I made: the "interFooler"

On the Early EA82 (third gen Leone) Subarus (made from october 1984 to October 1986) like mine, the mounts for the grille comes at the Headlamps' metallic structure, so the Grille directly attaches to said structure on the Headlamps using one screw at each side; and also a center screw that goes to the Frame's vertical Support. But the Newer style Headlamps (found on the 1987+ Models), had redesigned their metallic structure, so those Newer Subarus has two metal plates behind the radiator's supporting frame, above, facing to the front, intended for holding their newer style grilles with plastic screws; those newer style grilles has nothing that goes to the Headlamps' metallic structure anymore. When I changed the Original "GL" Headlamps on my "BumbleBeast" circa 1996 with newer "Loyale" Headlamps, (the older design got rusty easier), I Tried to reinstall the Older style Grille and it was completely impossible, because the older style grille hits the new metallic structure for the new Headlamps. So I had to retrofit the newer style Grille mounts on the above mentioned frame, and install a Newer Style grille there... I stored the older Grille on a wooden shelf, at my parents' Home, in my hometown since then. Here is the Original "BumbleBeast" Grille: Closer View:

The Lifted "BumbleBeast" is used 60% on city and Highways during Week Days, as it is my Daily Driver; and 40% offroading on Weekends; I usually Travel with my Family to Mountain adventure Trips; sometimes we go with the guys of the Local 4X4 teams. So, I Found that for my mixed kind of driving, the taller Tires I could use are 25", so I installed a 205/60 R15" tires' set on my "BumbleBeast" That makes it to be enough tall for the light-to-medium duty Mountain Adventures that we do on weekends, while keeps my average Gas Mileage Low, and the car is Driveable with Traffic at Highway speeds and also on our citie's many steep hill climbs... Sometimes I need to Downshift, even to second gear while climbing Steep Hills with 5 People + Luggage inside in highway, and even to first gear on slow speed steep hill climbings during offroad, but The Weberized EA82 does move Fine, usually even at 4K RPM's or above and it feels Fast. Beside those Hill climbs, I don't need to use Higher RPM's nor lower gears for normal driving. Kind Regards.

This Thread continues Here: ~► http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/122276-the-bumble-beast/ Because since I took parts from my Wrecked 2.7 wagon to Transform this, My former white Weberized Wagon has been Renamed as: "The BumbleBeast" Please feel free to review and Post in That Thread. Kind Regards. ► Edited to Update the Links. Thread Closed.

Yes, I Agree. Good Idea. The Geo Tracker / Suzuki Sidekick is Frequently used for off-road here, with great results.

You'll see many "Kei Cars" in my Country (Honduras) Such like that Daihatsu, which was sold here as Daihatsu "Mira", also came in Pick up Shape: Daihatsu also sold here the more Luxury Daihatsu "Cuore", and the Bigger Daihatsu "Sirion" / Subaru Justy (there are much more kei cars from other many Brands) but no one came 4WD in that size... except certain Subarus, like the Subaru Rex / Sherpa or the Micro buses / pickups Subaru Sambar / Domingo. So, if you want to go offroad with that small bodied car, you must Lift it, in order to let bigger tires get in. Also you will use more the First and Second Gear. I've seen Lifted for Off-Road other three Cyl. cars, such like the Subaru Justy... ...or the Suzuki Might Boy: Good Luck with the Project! Kind Regards.

Holy Cow! ... I've never seen a "Recent" car in such rusted out conditions... well, I've never seen such amount of Rust on Any car Before... Good Idea to buy the Whole car, so you can take out the Fuel Pump, Wiring harness, etc... along the engine & Trans, but could I ask you How you gonna send the Rusted out Body to the Crusher... in a Tow Truck? ... or you plan to weld something to lift the rear tires enough to tow it with another vehicle? Kind Regards.

I Like that 4WD Truck! ... is Huge!

I Kindly suggest you to remove the Main Jets first, usually those has a Number emblazoned in the circumference, let us Know the numbers of Both. Well, sometimes Dieseling gets worse if there are Much carbon deposits which gets too hot to keep the engine runnin' without a spark, so usually a seafoam cleansing helps to reduce Dieseling in such situations, by cleaning some of those deposits. Kind Regards.

Thank you for your Kind Answer, sometimes I'm Lost on Translation... Sorry for Hijack the Thread. Kind Regards.

Well, in my own experience and since I drive 60% on City (During Week Days) and 40% off-road (on Weekends) I choosed 25" Tires on my Lifted Subaru "BumbleBeast" and the Subie runs Great with the Weberized EA82 engine. I Noticed that the Steep uphills where I Cruised up in Third Gear (with 5 People + Luggage) with the Stock 13" Tires, now I Need to Downshift to second gear with the 15" tires, but the car holds up great with traffic, doin' 4K RPM's in Second gear uphill. Beside those Uphills, the car does drive nice almost everywhere, but as GD said: "Mountain passes will be scary" that is True, So I don't try to pass anyone going uphill. Something interesting is that on Highways my Mileage has increased a Little, specially if I don't try to pass anyone So, in my Own Humble Opinion, 25" is the Best Choice for Mixed Driving, 27" is for more off-road use. Kind Regards.