bratman

I got it at Beaverton Auto Parts. I don't have the receipt anymore, but the two most likely entries in my Quicken show it was either $9 or $13. I remember being surprised at how inexpensive it was... thought I would be out at least $50. bratman

I betcha that is what happened to my Subie. It makes more sense than my original theory. I never expected all four cylinders to hydrolock like that. When I pulled all the plugs and cranked her up, it looked like my EJ22 had been replaced with the Salmon Springs Fountain from downtown Portland... gas was shooting everywhere! Quite a show it was..... Just for the record, the inexpensive injector I bought from NAPA is still going strong. Not a bad solution if there is no junk yard nearby.

Just to follow up here... and maybe help solve the mystery... When I quit working on the car that night, I left the car with everything intact... fuel rails, (leaking) injector, etc. I had just shut the engine off, so the fuel line and rails were pressurized. Also, very important, the car was parked at an incline in my driveway (front of car about a foot lower than the rear), so there most certainly could have been a siphoning thing going on there. Given the size of the gap between the injector and the rail (stupid o-ring...should have known better), and the incline of the car, I think it is quite possible that gasoline was siphoned from the tank, filled the intake manifold, and leaked into all four cylinders. NONE of the cylinders would fire the next morning (no compression), so all four pistons got a good soak! Very unnerving sound when cranked as well. There was also plenty of gas in the crankcase. Changed the oil twice to flush it out. The engine runs like a champ now... not bad considering it has 225,000 miles on it! Hope this info helps someone else down the line, even if it's nothing more than a "it happened to me!" moment.

I replaced an injector in my 90 Legacy with an EJ22 about a year ago. I didn't know it at the time, but the o-ring supplied with the new injector (NAPA) was just a wee bit too big. Of course, the car didn't run quite right, but I didn't know why at the time. I let it sit overnight in that condition. The end result? I filled the crankcase with gas and hydrolocked all FOUR cylinders! I pulled all four spark plugs and cranked the engine... gasoline shot out of each plug hole. It was quite a sight. A new o-ring and a few oil changes later, and the engine ran like a champ. I did have to do the old "put a tablespoon of oil in each cylinder and let it sit overnight" trick to get her to start back up after the hydrolock, though. Apparently the, um, "gas treatment" cleared the oil between the piston rings. Smoked a like a fire breathing dragon for about half an hour but ran fine after that. And as an added bonus, I'm pretty sure I killed all of the mosquitoss in my neighborhood. Good luck with the injectors. As I recall, NAPA had them in stock for a decent price at the time. I only needed one to get my commuter-roo back up and running, so it wasn't that expensive in the long run. --------- 1982 Brat 1991 Legacy

Kyle, I have a 1991 Legacy and just fixed the same problem myself this weekend. I have the "big" radio with the built in cassette deck. I lost the driver's side speakers a few weeks ago. I also use the input jack on the front of the radio for my MP3 player and would lose one or both channels when driving over a bump. Wiggling the connector would get things working again (for a while). Obviously a cold or cracked solder joint! I removed and dismantled the radio... it's very easy to take apart. All three connectors on the input jack had cracked solder joints. A little bit of handy work with my soldering iron fixed that issue. Regarding the speakers, I noticed that if I pushed the balance/fader knob firmly in and held it, the speakers would work. Suspecting bad solder joints, I re-soldered the connectors of the balance/fade knob to the circuit board and all is well. I would imagine that your display issue is related to bad solder joints or a corroded connector. My display is OK, but I lost the ability to use the EQ a long time ago. After completely disassembling and reassembling the radio, the EQ works now. I am planning on eventually replacing the radio with something with an HD tuner, but wanted to see if I could fix the factory radio just for fun. That said, it may not be worth your time to remove and repair your radio (took me about 3 hours). After all, a broken radio is an excellent excuse to upgrade! Gavin '91 Legacy '82 Brat

The forums are offline while they move them to a new hosting provider. I hear they should be back up soon. Bratman 82 Brat 91 Legacy

Thanks for the advice. I did find instructions on removing the glass, but I guess I'll go ahead and take care of the rails while I'm at it. Gavin

The sunroof glass gasket on my 91 legacy has a nice tear near the passenger side front corner. The tear appears to be allowing plenty of water to sneak by (the tear is about 3 inches long). Water is finding its way into the cabin. I checked the drains, and they are clear and open. My question is this... how big of a job is it to replace the gasket? It appears it might be possible to do this without removing the sunroof glass, but this might be wishful thinking. If I do need to remove the sunroof glass, how big of a job is it? Thanks! Gavin 91 Legacy LS AWD 82 Brat GL

Makes sense... I'll check that out first, although I believe the filter is less than a year old. Thanks! Gavin

Looks like I'll be pulling the IAC this week! Thanks for the advice. Any thoughts on the tranny additives? Will they help, or could they possibly aggrevate the situation? Gavin

Thanks! I'll focus on the IAC first.

I have two questions. My 91 Legacy has the "looping" idle problem. The engine will almost stall, then catch itself, then almost stall again, then catch itself again... you get the idea. It doesn't seem to matter if the car is in park, neutral or drive (it's an auto), or if the A/C is on or not. Oh yeah... it doesn't do this all the time, but it has been happening more frequently lately. I ran some injector cleaner through the tank a while back, but that didn't seem to help. I also checked the vacuum hoses, but couldn't detect a leak. The spark plug wires aren't new, but they seem OK and I can't detect any arching under the hood. Any ideas? I have a feeling this is a common problem, and a sensor is to blame. Regarding the auto tranny (4EAT), it's having trouble engaging 1st gear (feels like it's low on fluid, but it isn't). I have a feeling the famous internal seals I've read so much about are going bad and will need to be replaced soon. I'm wondering if anyone has tried using an auto tranny additive in the 4EAT... will it buy me a little more time? The car is still quite driveable, so I certainly don't want to do anything that might make it worse! Thanks! Gavin 91 Legacy LS 82 Brat GL

Richard, When does this happen... when idling, driving, or both? Gavin 91 Legacy AWD Sedan 82 GL Brat

I thought about that, as I had a similar problem with an 88 Loyale auto. I did try manually putting it in first after the tranny warmed up, but it still did the same thing. It also does the same little trick in reverse. I'm beginning to think it might be that check valve... sure feels like the torque converter is losing fluid or something like that. Now if I could only find more info about it before I spend $$$!

Help! I purchased a 1991 Legacy 4WD sedan with an auto tranny last year to replace my Brat as a daily driver. The car was well maintained by the previous owner, and has driven fine until a few weeks ago. I drove the car up a steep hill under somewhat hard acceleration. Everything was fine until I pulled off the freeway and stopped at the bottom of the exit ramp. When it was my turn to go, I pressed the accelerator, but it felt like the tranny hesitated a bit before fully engaging first gear. It's been doing this ever since, but ONLY when taking off in first gear, and ONLY after the engine has warmed up. The tranny takes about 5-10 seconds or so to engage when going from Park to Drive or Reverse as well (again, only when warm... It engages quickly when cold). It feels as if the tranny is low on fluid, but I have checked the level, and it is fine. The fluid does not have a burnt smell, and there are no metal flakes in it either. The fluid was replaced about a year ago by the previous owner. The initial hesitation is the only problem the tranny has at this point... it drives just fine in all other gears, and has no problems up or downshifting. After searching the web for others who have had this problem, I found a site which states the following: "Automatic transmission: If the transmission is slow to engage after being parked, the torque converter is draining down and a new cooler line with a check valve must be installed. (1990-91)" This sounds a lot like the problem I'm having. I'm wondering if anyone else has run into this problem... am I onto something with the cooler line and check valve, or am I barking up the wrong tree? Thanks! _________________ 1982 Brat 1991 Legacy Sedan