nocarsgo

dang it! turns out there was a crack in the head gasket. I took it back and talked him into giving my money back. I need something that can already run as I have to move to a different area. new alternator or something I could deal with but not something like that right now. If anyone is interested in it, I had got it for 650 so now you should be able to get it lower. it's in the portland area and pm me I can give you the guy's info. oh also there was a hole in the exhaust just behind the curve where it levels out from coming down from the engine, just to finish the list of what i could tell was wrong with it. the interior still looks great. and now the search for a new car continues!

ok cool, seafoam i'll look for that otherwise I'll go with the trusty lucas. right before we found the leak, we were thinking it was either the thermostat or a clogged radiator. definately will flush it out. would it be a good idead to take the thermostat out for the summer and just get a new one once winter rolls along?

ok phew nothing to worry about now. After investigating this earlier today, it turns out the guy was given the wrong title by his wife, she was just looking for the sube that had her name on it and gave it to him, neither of us(i see now stupidly) paid attention to the vin OR the plate numbers on the title. they have a handful of subarus, and thought there was only one in her name. so i'm going over tomorrow to get the right one from them. Also an update if you had read from the other thread, it starts up right, it was just when overheating obviously then it wasn't starting but when its cool, there's not even a hesitation. We found the problem, my dad caught it. each time i revved the engine my dad could see something fluid splurting out of a hose in coordination with each rev. So its maybe about a 3/4 in to an inch wide hose that coolant flows through. That explains why we'd be fine goin it would overheat again, because we lost coolant. I have no idea how we didn't catch that before, the hole was under a crowd of stuff, but still a simple of a problem as that we should have caught it. So we're gonna replace that hose, do a tune up, replace oil/filter, pcv valve, new radiator cap, air filter, use fuel injector cleaner and see where we are from there. The engines been missing so hopefully the tune up will take caer of that. oh also its clicking moderately so we'll take care of the lifters. The push button air suspension: The guy replaced the front suspension for regular struts and I'm assuming the rear still has the air bags, I haven't checked for myself. will do all this stuff tomorrow, it wasn't at my house today otherwise it'd all be done. does have the famously durable foam lip/spoiler thing though, practically all intact, so that's cool. the car doesn't say what model it is, just 4wd turbo and subaru,

so I just bought an 85 turbo sedan, 5 speed, dual range 4wd, height adjustment, power windows/locks, digidash, checkered seats/seatbelts, no sunroof and at first I was thinking it was an rx because of the chekered seats but then I searched into this more and found out that gl-10s can have them too + the digidash is a gl-10 thing. So now I think its a gl-10 sedan. I looked through the general specifications on this site and at the vin exaples for the different trims and mine doesn't match with any... there is a pesky N that doesn't match with what i have. So I happen to stumble upon the vin decoder http://subaru.sonik.us/cgi-bin/vin.cgi and it says i have a wagon without the air suspension. could this just be a problem with the decoder (I know there's a link to contact about that) or do cars ever get tagged with incorrect coding? The title for the model just says, "G4D" Anyway here's what the decoder says: FHI, Multipurpose Passenger Vehicle Fuji Subaru Loyale and XT Line Station Wagon 1800 (1.8L) 4WD (W/O Air Susp.) Turbo '86 or GL-10 Turbo '87-'89 or GL F4WD 3D '87 3001-4000 lbs. GVWR W/ passive restraint Check digit is a random number 1985 Automatic/4wd Trans. Station Wagon

thank you for your replies, its a great community when you get this many replies so fast. as for the symptoms, I was just saying that because there was white smoke coming out of the tail pipe once we goto onto the hwy. The smelling anti freeze was from when the radiator leaked out and was smoking off the engine, but I know that part isn't from the main problem. No, I don't have much mechanic skill, but my friend that I brought along with me has done a ton of stuff with vw's and rebuilt 2 or 3 of them and now a bunch to his ford. I brought him along to be safer having someone way more knowledgeable than me and also had him drive it from the guys house as I followed him. the speculations I provided earlier are his. when it first happened he feared also that maybe we blew a head. but after looking at it from underneath and since the guy just had them rebuilt about a year ago, he concluded that it wasn't that. So you guys don't think it could be something smaller, a combination of problems creating a big one like not having enough oil pressure from a bad oil pump and having the bearings way worn, causing it to overheat, and the old wiring and spark plugs not being able to keep it going? what are the possibilities? I'd really like to keep this car but if but if you guys think the problem is too big/not worth it then I'm gonna listen to you guys and take it back.

hey I seem to have some similar symptoms. I just bought an 85 turbo sedan (title says g4d but it seems like an rx) and it started up great and ran fine until we got about 6 miles out on the highway, the exhaust had started smoking and the side draincock on the radiator came off quickly leaking coolant. right then the car died and we (my friend and I) pulled to the side right away. The engine was way overheated and steaming off the leaked fluid. We found the cap inside and the threads were looked completely torn. anyway so we went back and he gave us a new plug from his parts wagon. put that right in and filled it with water and we were on our way. till the car died again. we waited for it to cool down and added as much water as we could and continued to try and make it back to my house but this time we only made it for less than 5 minutes. each time the engine is way overheated. so we ended up just getting it towed when a cop stopped and asked what up. when the tow guy got there he said he had to take it to the garage cus it was a police call, and could tow it the rest of the way afterwards. But when we got to his garage they had to look at the cars information to make sure it wasn't stolen. It turns out that the way the guy wrote up the bill of sale wasn't right (title was in wife's name but she wasn't inlcuded in the bill of sale) wasn't gonna do so they wouldn't be able to release the car, untill i have him rewright the bill. the oil light keeps coming on and when rev it up a bit the light goes away but come right back on when the rpm isn't high. Also we can tell that the engine is misfiring(probably needs new ignition), but we don't think thats really the problem. we're guessing its either the fuel pump or rod and bearings(or both) that are shot. it's definitely not the radiator. and the engine has plenty of oil. the heads were rebuilt about a year ago. what do you guys think would fix this thing? this guy told me the car was in great running condition, and I didn't even make it 6 miles before the first thing goes wrong, not to mention I couldn't even make it halfway home in it (hour long drive). The towing is gonna end up costing 200 something all together and my friend says that doing the oil pump and bearings + tuneup might be $200 as well, making my total cost like 1000 dollars. everyone's saying i need to get my money back since I definitely did not get what he told me I was getting. All I wanted was a cheap first car and this one seemed like it would turn out awesome. What do you guys think, get the money back and start the search again for a car, one I can at least drive home!!! or keep this one and see if we can get it running so that i can rely on it, maybe see if he will pay for the towing =)? I don't know is it worth it? earlier today i was convinced im gonna ask for the money back but its a tough decision since it's such a cool little car. p.s. also the speedometer always displays 0mph and the fuel level and temperature gauge aren't functioning either.