mbrickell

That is absolutely hilarious...

Are some kind of new gaskets needed between the head and exhaust? When you drop the front of the exhaust, did you disconnect anything else or is there enough play to lower it without damaging anything else? Thanks, will probably do it tomorrow then. Matt

Ok, I went to parts store, got Bosch o2 sensor, and offset 3/8" tool to change. The longer o2 tool looked like it would be hard to fit in there. Well, the stinking offset tool does not seem to work either. What a stupid place to put the 02 sensor, the one place with little clearance. Anyway, can anyone tell me what shape of tool exactly you use to get the sucker off? Surely, you don't have to drop the exhaust? 90 Loyale manual 2wd

Haven't had time to dig into it much yet, but thank you, I see what you are talking about.

It was so funny that I had to do it. I went on eBay and submitted a Best Offer of $1000 with conditions: --$1000 includes shipping to zip 64086, in condition as pictured, within 24 hours of offer acceptance. Thank you for your consideration.-- Needless to say I was declined. I almost felt bad for yanking someone's chain, but I figure if you set yourself up with something this ridiculous, you deserve it, and it is my duty to mess with them. Heh heh... Everyone should go and offer like $5.00 or something, with the condition that this includes shipping to your door. No worries on your end, but fun and likely to drive the person nuts...ha!

Good info, I thank you.

Excellent story. Maybe it is, and after a certain amount of exposure my head will explode. Well, my wife will sure get a surprise if it happens when I am under the hood and she revs the engine and the whistle gets loud enough and I am close enough to where it finally zaps me...

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Excellent, and thanks, GD, DT, and sm85. All valid points, and the stethoscope ideas are outstanding...if I don't go insane and drive into a wall from the noise on the way to the store, I will implement the ideas. If it was a rumble, or clicking, or something, but it is the one pitch of whistle that is the most annoying to little parts inside the human brain. I don't think you could engineer a more annoying tone.

Wonder if you could get some goo to lube the idler slightly & temporarily which may change the noise or make it go away to isolate it...

Does have A/C, interesting idea, I will eyeball and give a listen when I can enlist the wife as a throttle operator. Good idea, I would not have thought of that.

Thanks, I will check those things. I doubt if it is clutch-related, since when you push the clutch pedal while driving the noise subsides and changes pitch as rpms fall, and the noise is there at steady highway speeds with clutch engaged, and in the driveway with clutch disengaged sitting still when you rev the engine. I think when it warms up outside I can get the wife to help ( yeah, she loves crap like being a helper on a stupid car project heh heh ) and have her run the rpms up and down while I poke around under the hood and see if I can pinpoint where exactly the noise is emanating from. I do appreciate all the replies with good things to consider. I was hoping for the magic bullet, like, oh, yeah, newbie, all the Loyales do that and everyone knows it, here is what it is... umm, yeah, right, like it is that easy

PROBABLY not your issue, but I have a surprisingly similar story. Had an Audi 4000 quattro, non-interference engine. One day, I stopped at a convenience store to get some windshield washer fluid since it was crappy out and my window was getting white. I come out, car cranks fine, will not start, not even try. Tried everything. Turns out, the timing belt was old, hard and brittle, and slipped a bunch of teeth. Luckily, no damage, but was deadlined until a new timing belt was put on. Like I said, probably not what happened to you unless your timing belt ( s ) is ancient.

Hmm...yeah, wonder if this is a Loyale trait. Anyone else? Fix? Wouldn't a bearing make more of a squeal or screech than a whistle?

This does not seem to be coming from the radio speakers at all. Happens when the radio is on or off. If you roll the window down, and kind of stick your head out, you can hear it a lot louder than when you are inside with all the windows up, but you can hear it either way, fairly loud, louder than any car I've ever had and I've had a fair number. Thanks for the reply, though...I was thinking vac leak myself. It is a real clear, apparent whistle, more so than a whine if there is a difference. Really, the more I think about it just like a semi running beside you on the highway and you hear that turbo spool up. This follows engine rpm linearly, though, unlike a turbo, which is running independent of engine rpm and on exhaust volume instead.

Awesome, I sent them a message via eBay, basically saying that if someone is dumb enough out there to bid 5 times what the car is worth if it was the last car on Earth, then they ( seller ) sure deserve to get the money from the idiot. Never hurts to ask! Ha! And I thought I saw it all on eBay...phew...

Anything with dual carbs has to have the carbs synched pretty well or will run like poo They make special tools to synch carbs, i.e. the old mercury kind, etc. Cool idea.

Thank you for reply. No CEL or abnormal lights of any kind. Vehicle starts fine, idles at 700 or so, normal idle with no fluctuation. When starting cold in the AM ( 20 F outside ) rpms will run 2200 or 2300 for a while. If you blip the throttle they will drop to 1800 or 1900, and shortly go to low teens or so ( by then I am usually driving and not paying attention to idle speed anymore ). The wierd flat spot issue seems almost like something is in a range where it is getting a degraded signal, the engine is momentarily running lean or rich, and there is just a 10-20% weakness or loss of power at a few rpm ranges. On the highway steady state speed totally non-issue. Cruising in town at 35mph non issue. Light acceleration from a stop sign or from 25-35 mph is when I notice it most. If you put your foot in it, it will pick up and go and I don't notice flat-ness.

1990 Loyale 5 spd FWD FYI Anyone experienced a whistle noise, like a tea kettle, but 1/2 that loud, that increases in pitch with RPM? At idle, nothing, start maybe 2k rpm you hear it a little, 2500-3000 more, 3500 higher pitch same volume. Coast with the clutch in, nothing. Sit still, rev engine, whistle occurs. Something on the engine. Pretty annoying at 70 mph you hear this "weeeeee" in the background. Not a radio or speaker issue either, radio on or off no effect, independent. Almost like a big diesel truck turbo whistle, spools up and down with rpm, but since my Loyale has no turbo...umm...

Ok, cool, and thank you. I must not be too bright. I looked under the hood and did not see an apparent throttle cable. I'll look harder tomorrow. Thank you Matt

Ok, I want to understand how the throttle works. ( 1990 Loyale FWD ) Is it correct that there is no actual link between my gas pedal and the engine? If not, am I correct that there is some kind of potentiometer like a throttle sensor on the throttle body or AFM somewhere? So, there would have to be a sensor at the gas pedal somewhere to take input from your foot, send a signal to the other potentiometer on the FI system somewhere, which would in turn send a signal to the injector how much fuel to use? I'm just trying to understand exactly how what you input with your right foot gets to the engine and makes the engine respond. The reason I ask is that my car runs real well, but there seem to be little flat spots at various points in light acceleration where the engine slightly hesitates before reaching a slightly different RPM range where things are 100% again. This is not a huge thing, like the car wanting to stall or bucking, not that blatant. This is like at a few small places along the RPM range when accelerating from a stop, or from 30-40 mph light acceleration, the car seems to struggle just a bid to have a smooth seamless acceleration curve. I am trying to understand the system to figure what might be old or worn out causing this minor stumble, if I can call it that. That is not the best way to put it. Rather, say every hundred or 200 rpm you hit a point where the car is putting out 80% effort, then back to 100% effort, like little subtle flat spots. You break through them, and you are fine. If you give heavy throttle this seems to be a lot less apparent than light throttle. Steady state cruise this is not apparent, nor at highway velocity. This reminds me of a similar situation on VW Vanagons, but I don't think the Subaru system is the same physically, but I will mention it here because it feels just like the common Vanagon syndrome. The Vanagon FI system has an air flow meter of some sort with like a grid, such as a screen door or window, in it. Across this grid there is a wiper arm with a contact against the grid at one tip. This is a lot like the "roof" when you ride bumper cars at the fair, if you have ever looked up there. There is an energized grid and a contact from the pole on the bumper car. Anyway, on the Vanagon, when you press the gas pedal, the wiper arm moves across the grid in a fixed arc, telling the computer somehow to increase throttle. As you accelerate and decelerate this arm wipes across the grid back and forth like a kind of potentiometer somehow. Since you are using the lower end of the grid more than higher ends ( you always have to start at a slow speed regardless of how fast you eventually go ), after tons of miles the lower end of the grid wears more and makes spotty contact with the wiper arm and you get crappy flat spots in acceleration as a result of poor contact at the worn areas. This happens at high miles and results to the driver as a wierd nondescript feeling of flat spots, or the engine not wanting to cooperate until you break through the dead zone on the grid. When you push the gas pedal abruptly through its range, frequently you momentarily get the grid functioning and all is well for a few moments. Anyway, sorry for the novel. The point is, the Soob feels a lot like the Vanagon syndrome, and the first thing that popped in my head was I wonder what the symptoms of a worn air flow meter or worn throttle position sensor or some other component I am not familiar with is in this setup ( worn injector? ) If someone is familiar with how this whole ball of wax works, and has time to explain it to me, awesome. If someone can give me common symptoms of faults or wear in the components, even better. Thank you! Trying to learn the Subaru idiosyncracies.

Update for all interested: I emailed Rostra who supplies a lot of aftermarket cruise systems. Got the first good sign so far: Thank you for your interest in the Rostra Precision Controls aftermarket cruise control systems. My name is Joe Brandenburg from Brandon Distributing Inc, and Rostra has asked me to get in contact with you about your cruise control needs. To insure that I send the proper information I need to know what type of vehicle that this is going on. Please email me at joe@brandondist.com or phone me at 877-402-3944 so I can assist you Thank you Joe Brandenburg And then, upon emailing him that I have a 1990 Loyale, he replied: Matt: You can install a cruise control on your car use the following parts 250-1223 157.75 250-3421 22.75 250-4165 20.87 If you would like to order these parts please call me at 877-402-3944 Joe Anyway, sounds like I can get a compatible unit. I'll keep everyone posted. Thought I'd post the info in case it helped someone else down the line. Matt

Should be easy to troubleshoot. Get the car's front end lifted up and get something sturdy under it so you don't kill yourself. Get a pry bar and a flashlight if you need it. You might want to have a helper on hand to turn the steering wheel. First, visually look at the stuff under there, ball joints, control arms, CV joint boots, bushings, etc, and see if there is an obvious visual problem. If not, take and pry between things like ball joints somewhat and see if you can induce any play that is abnormal between things. Have someone turn the steering back and forth with the wheels off the ground and on the ground with resistance and observe all the suspension and steering components on both sides, look for abnormalities. I have had VWs with similar issues before and a CV joint would be my first guess. Drive at low speed in a parking lot and accelerate and decelerate while turning. If the clicking is worse then, a giveaway. However, if you have an INNER CV joint that is bad, less likely, but the turn and click thing only works for an OUTER. I had a Rabbit where it had shake in the wheel and clunking at highway speeds, nothing at low speeds, was a bad inner joint. A torn CV boot is a giveaway that crap got in and is eating stuff up inside the joint, too. Good news is, CVs for Subarus seem reasonable on eBay. Matt

I thought about that. My car is FWD, so not an option. But, if it was 4wd, interesting idea. I would guess that there would be two disadvantages. One, you would need a hell of a long cable. Two, if the rear was not engaged and the front spun out somehow, there would be no overspeed safety, say the front wheels hit ice or water ( hydroplane ), sped up, the cruise would not catch this and disengage since not hooked up to sense front wheel speed. Admittedly rare examples, but from a safety perspective, probably makes sense to have the primary drive wheels hooked up to the cruise sensors...?

Thank you, very, very interested in how you hooked up cruise on your 88. Should be real similar to my 90. Can you tell me what unit exactly that you used and if you get time any tips to hooking it up. I might just try to find the same setup you have. Thank you!