robm

Drill for 6 lugs.... I may have to try that some day, the way 13" tires are getting so scarce.

Power = Ground, really. 2 sides of the same thing. If it goes out, it has to come back again. The nice thing about 3 phase power and single phase or DC control wiring is there and back are in the same cable.

I like the old ones because: 1. They are simpler and easier to fix. 2. They are lighter and cheaper to run. (38 MPG imperial, tires < $80 each, not much else ever wears out or gets used up.) 3. They are bigger inside where it counts (Impreza wagon gets the same mileage as my Loyale, with less room) 4. They are more practically designed and equipped. (I don't want AC and electric windows, I need ground clearance and a sump guard.) 5. They are easier to see out of. (Who needs airbags, if you can see the traffic coming?)

Rule #1 of troubleshooting ANYTHING: Always check for power first. Trace the power all the way from the source to the end. 90% of all problems can be found this way. 80% of the problems will be found very close to the source. This what I have learned after 35+ years of keeping old cars running and working as an instrument engineer in heavy industry.

I suspect the VSS tells the ECU when the car is moving. I notice that when coasting in neutral the engine idles at 1500 RPM or so, it doesn't drop to 700 until the car is stopped. Try coasting in neutral, and see what your idle is. Rob.

I think what Ivan means is to pull the wheel and tire and then pull down the plastic fender liner from the inside. Leave the fender itself in place. Good luck. Rob.

Good point about tries to crank then stops. Just to eliminate the contacts, try whacking the starter motor just before/as you crank it. It can't hurt. Use a jumper cable to bypass the battery cable.

If the blower quit entirely, it is not the resistor. The resistor only gives you slower speeds. The highest speed bypasses the resistor entirely. If the fuses are all OK, I suspect the blower relay. If this were a Loyale, it would be above the driver's feet, buried deep in the dashboard. I had one that would fail when it got warm. It would run fine until the car warmed up, then quit. It would take hours to come back. Replacing the relay fixed it. Good luck.

I leave the centre cover on. It isn't too hard to get off (1/2 hour or less) and it covers the belts at the lowest point on the engine, where I suspect it is most likely to pick up sticks and such, if they make it past the sump guard. However, my experience is that the covers do seem to increase belt longevity. With covers, I had no troubles with belts breaking before their service life (55,000 miles). Without them, I find I am lucky to get 45,000 miles out of the belts. So far, the score is two belts changed at 55,000 each with covers, and two belts broken at less than 55,000 miles without covers. Like Ivan says, pack spare belts if you run coverless.

Aftermarket resistors have to be huge to dissipate enough heat. This has been done, but it is a pain. A search should turn up the details. Fixing the existing one is harder than it looks, as the resistor wire is very hard to solder. If the resistor is burnt out in the middle, there is not much you can do to fix it. Maybe squeeze it together, and hope it reconnects? It may work for a while. If it is burnt out close to the connection, it may be possible to resolder it. Scratch the wire to try and get to a clean, solderable surface, heat the existing blob of solder, push the wire into it and add more. Pray lots! I got a couple of years out of a fix like this.

It is not a differential at all. It is straight drive, so front and back wheels try to turn at the same speed. At low speeds in tight corners, the rear wheels follow a shorter path than the front, so it is best to not use it on dry pavement under these circumstances as the tires/steering/drive line complain. Also avoid tight corners on ice in 4WD, it will make you slide out. Mismatched tire wear will affect you in 4WD. Put the better tires on the front and they will soon wear the same as the other 2. New tires are getting very hard to find. 175/70-R13 are still fairly available. They are a bit smaller in diameter than 185/70. The bigger tires are better, if you can get them.

Tires that are different front to back combined with the natural tendency for a 4WD to slide out on ice in tight corners are the likely causes. A centre diff makes all the difference on ice. Rob.

Do the heater controls still work? If so, go to step 2. Step 1. Check the vacuum supply. A vacuum line comes off the engine on the passenger side and goes to a white canister at the firewall, where it goes to the heater controls and 4WD solenoid valves. MAke sure it is connected, no leaks or cracked hoses. Step 2. Check where the vacuum line goes to the solenoid valves on the driver side near the firewall, behind the strut. Check the supply is connected to the solenoids, make sure the output from the valves goes to the transmission, make sure the electrical connectors are connected to the valves. Test the solenoids by hitting the switch, they should click. Step 3. Make sure the vacuum lines to the actuator on the transmission are still connected. Might be electrical, check fuses if the solenoids don't click when you push the button. Good luck. Rob.

The heater relay is one of the 4 under the dash and above the steering column. You don't have a problem with yours if the fan works on 3 &4. You have a bad resistor block. It is just above the passenger foot well. Easy to get to. May be repairable, but probably easier to get another from the wrecker.

I have been looking at the reviews and specs on the XV and the recent Impreza with the new engine and CVT. The CVT version is supposed to get better fuel consumption. Both vehicles with CVT have a 3.7:1 final drive. The Imp with a 5 speed has a 4.111:1, and the XV has 4.44:1! I wonder how good the gas mileage would be if they had the same final drive? Is the higher ratio final drive put into the manuals just to make the CVT more attractive? Or maybe it doesn't get any better fuel consumption at all, it just looks good for the EPA figures, a way to game the system.

Oops. You wrote "ignition" relay, and I thought "starter" relay. I will look into that one, to see if it is the problem. I pulled lots of relays out my old Loyale for spares.

I didn't think there was an ignition relay. After all, GD's cure for old starter contacts in the ignition switch is to install a relay, so there can't be on in the first place.

JJ421: This sounds like a CTS problem. It doesn't know the engine is cold, so it doesn't get the mixture or idle right. Once it is warm, away it goes. Does it also take a long time for the temp. gauge to come up? There may be a thermostat problem as well, it could be stuck open, so it takes forever to warm up. Look at the IAC as well. It might be crudded up. The heater setting affecting the idle is weird. No ideas!

Get a driveshaft shop to build one. They don't cost much. Under $200? Maybe a little more, maybe a little less? They can take a stock one, cut it, shorten it, reweld and balance.

Quote from Gloyale, on another thread, "87 GL-10 No Spark": "The Fuel pump driver circuit actually fails commonly. There was a board member about 3 or 4 years ago who actually documented replacing the power transistor on the board to fix it. " Sounds a lot like what is happening to me.

It is a brand new pump. Still shiny and with original stickers showing. Pounding on it didn't help the first time it failed. I actually removed it the first time, and that didn't help. I am not sure why wiggling wires seemed to work. Just fluke. I am leaning more towards it being an intermittent electrical fault, perhaps in the ECU. Heat seemed to be an issue initially, but it is still doing it now, when the temperature is 20-30 deg. C cooler. Heat may still be an issue. Last time it happened, I had the heat on, directed towards the floor. It goes right past the ECU. Looking more and more like a new ECU is the cure. Too bad I didn't steal it from the last one I scrapped.

The 1992 Loyale I bought in September when my old 1993 died still has a flaky fuel pump. It first showed a few hours after I bought it. No amount of cranking would get the engine to run. I soon noticed that the fuel pump wasn't coming on at start-up. After several hours of troubleshooting, replacing relays, etc., I wiggled the connector on the (brand new, bought by previous owner) fuel pump and it ran again. One guess why they sold it! On the way home, it did it again. I plugged together the green connectors and wiggled the pump connector, away it went again. So I replaced the pump connector. New bullet connectors, properly crimped, all taped up so they won't get wet. It seemed to help for a while, but... it still craps out now and again. Not the pump connector. To fix it, I plug together the green connectors and wait a while. Once I hear it cycling, I let it cycle for a minute or so, then start it up and disconnect the GC's. I have noticed that when it stops working, the relay doesn't click either. When the green connectors are plugged in, it starts to click, then I hear the pressure regs under the hood making noise and the pump at the back runs. Sometimes it starts to click right away, sometimes it takes several minutes, and a few tries with the ignition key. What is going on here? Could it be a flaky ECU that is causing this? Thanks. Rob.

Hmm. lets see. will a 125 PSI air compressor pop a frozen piston, that has seized completely? Force at the pedal, maybe 50 lb from your leg (low estimate). Maybe 5:1 ratio on the brake pedal = 250 lb. Say a 1" master cylinder piston, call it 1 square inch (actually less than 1" dia, so pressure will be higher). So that is 250 PSI already. And these are just rough, conservative guesses, brake pressures can get way higher than this. (I also ignored the brake booster.) So a frozen piston probably isn't going to move if you put air pressure on it.

Where do you get them, Ivan? Last time I needed some, I had a heck of a time finding them in Canada. Finally got them from a place in Prince George. Shipping cost twice as much as the contacts, which I thought were reasonable at $8.00 a set. (Cheaper than a new starter!)

Mechanically, it should run for 300,000 km at least, although it might take a bit more maintenance/repair than you would like. Half price for less than half used up doesn't sound too bad, but starting to rust already is not good. $16K- $18K seems to be the price in Vancouver, where the winters are not as harsh (less snow and salt), and the km's are about half. If the body was good, I would say $12K was OK, but with rust starting, it is much less attractive.