pisces_0

Whoah, so you were actually able to find a new heater core that fits a GL wagon/Loyale?! I've been looking for one for MONTHS for my '94 and keep getting "N/A" or the wrong part. May have to do a little digging in to the dash and yank out the old, leaky unit finally!

Why do I have the sudden urge to play "Pole Position" on Atari 7800?! Cool vid, nonetheless. I always wondered what those digidashes looked like.

I spoke too soon when I said three 100 ohm, 1/2 watt resistors did the trick. Was under the hood last night with the engine running and noticed a slight burnt smell coming from the engine. Immediately I looked at the resistors in place of the EGR & purge solenoids and sure enough, one was fried to a crisp! I think you're right in saying that three 1/4 or 1/2 watt 100 ohm resistors won't cut it. Looks like I'll be ordering some higher wattage 33-35 ohm resistors from Digikey! For the archives, using the correct resistor(s) in place of the solenoids works just fine, you simply need to use higher wattage resistors than are commonly available at Radio Shack. Just my $.02...

The resistance for the solenoids needs to be between 32.7 and 39.9 ohms. Looks like you hit either end of that spectrum so far! :-p

Just to wrap this thread up. I put off this project for much too long, but have good news. I removed both the EGR and purge control solenoids and clipped off the plugs on them, leaving 1"-2" of wire. Then soldered the 3 parallel 100 ohm resistors between the two wires and shrink-tubed the solder joints. I plugged in the two contraptions, cleared the error codes and started the car up. The check engine light has been nicely unlit for a week now and I couldn't be happier. For those looking to clean up the engine a little bit and/or remedy a nagging CEL, this may be the ticket!

This was my first "fix" on my Subie right after I had bought it! Belt tensioner pulley bearing went south and made a horrible squealing sound whenever the car was running. I ended up having to remove the bearing from the pulley and bring it to a local bearing & seal supplier to match it up for a new one. Just use a large phillips screwdriver to remove the pulley from the bracket and then a large socket to tap out the bearing from the pulley. I think the bearing itself was only $4-$5.

I'm right there with Dave. I ran ATF in the trans for ~1000 miles, and now run a quart of Rislone topped off with standard Valvoline 80W90 and the transmission shifts like absolute butter. Once fairly warm, it'll easily slide into first at 15 mph and slower. Oh, and the car has 201,500 rounds on it. A little preventative maintenence goes a long way...

Coolant Temperature Sensor The coolant temp sensor has a small pigtail harness on it. It'll unplug about 4"-5" away from the sensor. And, I'll go on record as suggesting not to use butt/splice connectors. Solder everything.

I'd highly recommend Goodyear or Dayco. I've used both with great success. The previous belts were Daycos and they went 55K with no squealing and very little cracking. I only changed them out for Goodyears for peace-of-mind and now keep the Daycos in the hatch compartment as spares. The long-and-short of it, spend the extra $2-$4 per belt and buy the good stuff. It'll pay off in the end.

Yep, he gave you the right belts. If they're the "cheap" line of belts that Autozone carries, maybe they stretched already? The A/C & P/S belt is ~38.5" and the A/C, P/S & alternator belt is ~45". In those part numbers the "15" is the width in millimeters and the "385/450" is the length in inches. I just picked up some Goodyear Gatorbacks for the Subie and they were quite snug when I installed 'em and have been tight and squeal-free since day one.

Bingo! Break out the sledge or some steel-toed boots. Every once in a while I have to give mine a swift kick to break 'em loose. Even after a light coating of anti-seize they stick at times. These salt-riddled MN winters kill any exposed metal.

Good timing for this thread, I just got a set of 185/80/13 Firestones put on my wagon. There's no rubbing whatsoever, even at full-lock. I haven't had the suspension fully compressed yet, so there may be a touch of rubbing when that occurs, but as of now they fit spot-on! And, they look a bit better than that smaller 175/70/13s that were on there.

I had never tried 15W40 fleet before my Subie, but now I'm sold on it for higher mileage engines.

See my last post in this thread: tranny additives I did the ATF flush and refilled with Rislone and standard Valvoline 80W90 and the trans shifts like butter now. Your mileage may vary, but I'm sold on it!

The white and green diagnostics connectors are under the hood, just above the brake booster. These have been in use very frequently as of late on my '94.

Gary nailed it. Just be sure to stick with a reputable brand and change it often and on a regular schedule. After resealing the oil pump I switched to Valvoline 15W40 All-Fleet and the engine and HLAs have been uber-happy ever since. I run it year-round in northern MN (well below zero at times in the winter), no need to be constantly switching weights.

UPDATE The icemobile is no more! Dug into the cooling system last night and I now have normal engine temps and toasty, warm heat in the cabin. Low Engine Temperatures The combination of faulty aftermarket thermostats (main problem), low outside temps (20* or lower here), 200K mile original radiator and buildup & scale in the cooling system all contributed to the engine rarely getting up to full operating temp.Fixes to the problem: New OEM Subaru Thermostat Partially Blocked The Grille w/Plastic New Radiator (thanks to a deer hit) Cooling System Flush w/Prestone Super Radiator Flush & Super Radiator Cleaner Low Heat Temperature in Cabin After burping the system multiple times with poor results I figured the heater core must be fairly plugged up. Oh yeah, that was an understatement! Some of the gunk that came out of the cooling system after running the Prestone cleaners through it was unreal. Fixes to the problem: Swapped Heater Core Hoses; Inlet & Outlet Reversed Prestone Super Radiator Flush & Super Radiator Cleaner I temporarily swapped the inlet and outlet on the heater core in an attempt to backflush all the gunk out of it. Worked like a charm! I followed the instructions on the Prestone cleaners to the word and could feel the heat warm up as the car idled. After some driving with the cleaners in the system I swapped the heater core hoses back to their original orientation, installed a flushing tee into the inlet of the heater core hose and flushed the system out with a garden hose attached to the tee. Whoah! I'm embarassed to say that the cooling system was highly in need of some R & R. There were literally clumps of brown goo that were coming out of the radiator during the flushing process. Once the water ran clear I drained it all and refilled with a fresh 50/50 mix. The cooling system is now fully up to snuff, the car gets up to temp quickly and maintains normal engine temp and the heater blows mighty hot air now after the cleaning and flush. Heat rocks!

Well, after a few days of driving with the new OEM thermostat and freshly flushed and burped coolant there were some positive results and some unchanged results. The car heats up much quicker and gets up to a higher temp with the OEM thermostat and upper grilled blocked off. In "normal" outside temperatures (anything above freezing) I've got to imagine that the car would be back to where it was a few years ago for engine temperature. Fresh cooling system components and an OEM thermostat licked this problem I think. The heat coming out of the heater vents is still mediocre. I even went so far as to remove the thermostat, reinstall the water neck, raise the front end quite high off the ground and cycle a good amount of coolant through the system to purge any air pockets that may be in the heater core. While the heat is a tick better now, it's still far from where it was and should be. See below... That's what I'm thinking now too. I'm going to try some radiator flush in the system and swap the heater core hoses to backflush the core. After 200K and 12 years I'm sure the heater core has built up its share of scale and deposits. May work, may not. I can risk the $7 in radiator flush solution if it doesn't work (and possibly having to score another core from the boneyard). The car came with A/C, and still has the compressor mounted and belts running it, but the mechanical fan, lines, condenser, accumulator and some misc. wiring have all been ditched. There was a leak somewhere that depressurized the system and I used it so infrequently here in MN that I figured I'd just get rid of the whole business. Even though the evaporator won't make it fun, I'll try digging under the dash to clean the exterior of the heater core. Can't hurt, I figure. Finally, I had no idea about that fresh air recirc fitting! I may have to plug this line after all the cleaning and backflushing is done to see how it affects the heating. Coming from another northerner, it sounds like this is the voice of experience. Thanks!

Ah, good, so it's not just my car. The plastic blocking the grille helped decently, but I may now try a piece blocking 1/3-1/2 the radiator on the passenger's side. I'm thinking that the combination of cold outside temperatures, a worn-out 200K mile radiator, crappy aftermarket thermostats and air pockets in the heater core (from the heater hose explosion mishap) all contributed to inadequate engine heating/cooling and a lack of heat in the cabin. Man, when I develop issues for a problem, I develop ISSUES! The bugs are slowly getting worked out and I now think I'm down to purging the air from the heater core. Back up on jack stands and burping it is!

So I hit up the 'Shack yesterday and picked up two five packs of 100 ohm, 1/2 watt resistors. Running three in series, as youareabus mentioned above, brings the resistance to 33.3 ohms, right smack in the middle of the factory spec for the purge and EGR solenoids (32.7-39.9 ohms). The wattage is quite low for the power that's being put through the solenoid, and the resistors do get mighty hot, but nothing a few nice 35 ohm, 10 watt resistors from Digikey can't remedy. So, now on to the good stuff... Like I mentioned above, I've battled an intermittent check engine light for the EGR solenoid for quite some time now. After putting it off for much too long I bucked-up and did a little diagnosis. When the engine is cold the resistance across the solenoid is right in spec at 34.5 ohms. Once the engine, and thus the EGR solenoid, heats up the resistance goes all screwy and triggers the check engine light. BINGO! Problem diagnosed. So I cleared the codes as per the manual by the diagnostic-plugs-connected, WOT-gas-pedal, 1/2-throttle-gas-pedal, drive, blinking-check-engine-light method. ECU codes cleared and now on to some experimentation. I removed the plug from the faulty EGR solenoid and inserted the in-series resistors into it. Cranked the car over, let it warm up and no check engine light! After a little of a drive to fully test it, the check engine light never came back even after a decently long drive and hot engine bay. The only downside, the resistors get HOT. The three 1/2 watt resistors just don't seem big enough to handle the power being put through the wires. They may work, but I'm not sure for how long and how safely. Reference the Digikey resistor mentioned above. In the interest of experimentation, I figured I'd try the same thing on the purge control solenoid. It's still in good, working condition and specs out just fine as far as resistance goes, but my curiosity was now piqued and I wanted to see if I could duplicate the results on this solenoid too. With the engine running and the EGR solenoid bypassed with resistors (and no check engine light) I unplugged the purge solenoid. BANG, check engine light! Plug it back in and no check engine light. So I unplugged the solenoid again, the red light of doom pops on, plugged in the resistors and the light went out! Both solenoids were now unplugged, the resistors were in place and no check engine lights for as far as the eye could see! I'm going to pick up some of the 10 watt resistors from Digikey and put some mileage on them to test the longevity, but for initial testing purposes the resistors seem to work perfectly! Cliffs Notes For those of you who have fought check engine light problems due to faulty solenoids and don't feel like scavenging the boneyards or want to clean up the engine bay a bit (my main reason; no emissions in MN), a 35 ohm, 5-10 watt resistor can be used in place of the botched solenoid(s).

Okay, after getting some seat-time in the icemobile things have started to improve a bit. The OEM thermostat heats up quicker and maintains a higher temp than the aftermarket thermostats, which is nice, but it's still a bit low. So, I blocked off the grille between the headlights with a sheet of plastic cut to fit. This brought the temp up a little more and improved the heating situation. I can now drive semi-comfortably with the heat on. Do others in cold climates (at or below zero temps.) experience this overcooling of the engine when it gets cold out? I'm still thinking there's some residual air stuck in the heater core. I flushed the cooling system and burped it with the old, crappy parts store thermostats in place. I can't imagine they helped the situation. I'm going to try lifting the front end, removing the thermostat altogether, burping the system and running the car with the front end lifted sans-thermostat so there are zero coolant restrictions to prevent those pesky air pockets in the heater core from jarring loose.

I believe it was stamped 88* C when I glanced at it before tossing it in the car. That'd come out to ~190* F. The thermostat is a brand new OEM Subaru unit. I already went through three aftermarket parts-store thermostats before finally resorting to an OEM. The first was a Stant Superstat from Checker which would fluctuate and stick periodically. The second was bought at Napa, I can't remember the brand or type, but it had horrible sticking problems before it'd finally pop open and allow coolant to flow. The third was again purchased at Checker and a Superstat unit (you think I'd learn...). I figured I'd try a small block Chev thermostat as some on here have recommended. While this one didn't stick, it would barely build any heat in the engine at all. Just took this one out and replaced it with an OEM Subie. Edit: BTW, this was all with 190*-195* thermostats

Just wanted to bring this one back up as I've fought an intermittent EGR solenoid check-engine light for quite some time now. I've got the EGR valve blocked off and all the associated vacuum lines to it and the solenoid disconnected. The solenoid is still present and plugged in, but sure as shootin' after ~1-2 miles of driving the check engine light pops up with code 34. In my continued efforts to simplify the engine bay I'd rather just remove the solenoid, solenoid connector and replace the whole works with some resistors. youareabus, how have these resistors worked out for you so far? I'd think that the wattage rating on them would be a bit low as it seems there's a good bit of power flowing through the solenoids. :-\ If it works I'm all for it though.

Yep, I've had the front end way up in the air with the engine running and the radiator cap off. The engine took in a little coolant, but nowhere near what I was expecting. I may have heater core issues, see below. Just had an epiphany! I think I'll try running the engine without a thermostat with the front end way up on jackstands. The old thermostat may not have been able to open fully thus not allowing coolant to circulate and get into the heater core where it could dislodge any air pockets. Run it for a bit like this with the radiator cap off, cycle fresh coolant into it and then replace the thermostat with the front end of the car still up in the air. Would this be plausible, or is my thinking way off here? I'm almost positive that the gauge is spot-on. When I let the car idle the gauge will start to rise until it reaches about halfway and then the radiator fan pops on. According to the service manual the radiator fan is supposed to come on at 199*-207* so it would seem that the gauge is fairly accurate. Once I drive the car, though, the gauge will plummet and the heat falls to barely lukewarm. I think I'm going to hit the garage again, loop the heater hoses to bypass the heater core and see what the engine temp does. Not sure if this would make any difference at all, but it'd be a start. Then go the thermostat removal route mentioned above and see what she does. And bgd73, WHAT? To quote a favorite movie of mine, Billy Madison: "Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."

It seems like I run across a lot of threads regarding fighting overheating issues in EA82s. Doing a search for cooling problems & issues brought up a ton of these types of threads, and virtually nothing on overcooling. So, here's my scenario: For the past two winters I've had to endure very weak heat out of the heater and a car that never seems to warm up. The needle on the temp gauge barely moves above the "C," and while the heat is enough to defrost the windshield in the winter, it's far from what it used to be. I know that the stock gauge isn't all too accurate, but the heat out of the heater is directly proportional to the heat registered on the gauge. All these cooling issues started after a heater hose sprung a leak and pumped out a good deal of coolant. The car didn't overheat, but did get mighty hot (up to the red area, by the "H" on the gauge) on the limp back home. I was assuming air in the system and proceeded as follows. After being forced to replace the radiator recently due to a deer hit I decided to tackle these cooling problems. Items that have been replaced and/or serviced: New single core radiator (http://www.radiatorbarn.com) New OE Subaru thermostat (went through 2 sticky, inaccurate parts store thermostats before I ponied up for an OEM) New OE Subaru water pump & timing belts; cam timing is dead-on Completely flushed coolant; 50/50 mix New heater core heater hoses Backflushed and burped heater core & cooling system Now the car doesn't lose a drop of coolant while driving or idling, so I can't imagine I blew a head gasket back when the heater hose let go, but weirder things have happened. If I let the car idle the coolant temp and temp gauge will eventually come up and the radiator fan will kick on (199*-207* according to the manual), but once I take it for a drive the temp will plummet again and stick right above the "C" on the gauge. Could I have some freakishly weird head gasket issues where I don't lose any coolant and the car doesn't overheat, but won't come up to temp at anything but idle? ANY help is appreciated as I'm getting mighty tired of driving around in an icebox!