Bill90Loyale

My cost to purchase: $1500. How long ago? About seven years ago. Milage at purchase: 98K. Milage Now: 207K. 32 mpg highway. Since then: Routine maintenance. One new axle. The car was paid for the day I bought it. Seems like a good deal to me, but I'm a simple-minded man.

There must be a beginning of every great matter. But it is the continuing unto the end, until it be thoroughly finished, that yields the true glory. Sir Francis Drake To his buddy Walsingham c. 1585 Nice work Flowmastered.

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=39838&highlight=drain+plugs

Stephen- Have you checked to make sure that your fan is cranking it out? A fan jammed with squirrel's nest stuff is much less effective. Cleaning the fan out is easy compared to any heater core work.

Bucky92- Please describe the difference. Thanks...

First, I think its not a bad idea to remove your negative battery cable prior to removing the old filter (kill spark sources). Second, an alternative to "relieve pressure" is to simply perform the procedure in the morning after the car has sat all night. At that point, the pressure is nearly zero and you'll only lose a few drops as you finally work those hose ends off the old filter. To make it a little easier next time, put a little grease on the new filter nipples prior to reattaching the lines.

What Trogdor said. Remove the seats (a chore the first time, but worth it), spray with Simple Green. Take wet seats to DIY car wash. Blast 'em with pressure washer. You'll know they're "done" when the SG quits foaming. Dry in the sun. Enjoy.

Rear Strut mount shot (along with springs and strut)?

Hang in there. Sort of unfortunate that you dumped that cash into the egr and purge solenoids. Those aren't cheap and many, including myself, have been running on dead ones for a long time. This car, believe it or not, will give you years of reliable service once you work the kinks out. Much of the stuff you've done in the tuneup department is great. At this point, if it were mine, I'd blast the throttle body with carb cleaner and give it the full Seafoam treatment (search the term, you'll find some info on it). This is a direct attack on the carbon and varnish buildup which can create some of the sluggishness that you're experiencing. About $6 a can at Napa. As time goes by, the Mass Airflow Sensor might need a little cleaning, the O2 sensor might benefit from a cleaning or replace, and the coolant temp sensor can cause the engine not to fire on cold start and to run rough until warmed.

Start her off in a Loyale. You don't want to spoil her with that Legacy. Best wishes for all three of you.

Pearly just had a stroke. I'll guess timing belt.

I'm in if I'm around. Taking the Loyale out to MN Sept 12-20 timeframe.

I did not note thread size. The plugs seemed pretty substantial, but you may prefer brass. You'll just have to measure them when they come out. As I mentioned in my post, the two plugs are of different sizes (diameter). Best of luck.

To everbody who ever wanted to actually use the nice engine block drain plugs to fully drain the old coolant from your Legacy: Proceed at your own risk, but this was my experience yesterday. This procedure was done on wife's car (I would never risk this with my own Loyale. Just kidding. I've found and used the block drains on the Loyale before). Wife's car is 95 Legacy wagon, 148,000 miles. Drained old coolant from radiator using standard radiator drain plug. Got about a gallon out (capacity is six quarts). Bought a jug of Prestone coolant system cleaner (the kind you put in, add water, and operate the car for about six hours of driving time over a few days). Got tired of looking at those nice two unused engine block drain plugs located on both sides of the oil pan. Went to NAPA. Bought a 14mm hex wrench for $8 (looks like a big Allen wrench). Had car on jackstands. Inserted wrench into engine block drain plug #1. Nice fit. Took a deep breath and pulled. Nothing. No way. Inserted box end wrench at end of hex wrench to gain leverage. No way. Tried using big crescent wrench on hex wrench. Nada. Tried a few hammer blows on the end of the hex wrench. Not a sign. Spotted my three foot long, one inch diameter steel pipe in garage. Inserted end of pipe into short end of hex wrench, inserted other end of hex wrench into plug #1 and pushed on steel pipe. And pushed some more. The hex was bending a bit. Then POP! I looked up, half expecting to see a jagged torn aluminum hole in the bottom of my wife's engine. She would not have been surprised with this result. However, the result was SUCCESS. Same on the second plug (which, by the way, is smaller in diameter than plug one -but still a 14mm wrench size). Drained the Prestone detergent mix which was now Green - proving that there was at least about a half gallon of old coolant left in the system from the earlier radiator drain exercise. Cleaned plugs, one of which looked nice and shiny (the one over cylinders 2 and 4) and the other had that solid old-crap radiator gunk on it. Wrapped the threads on the plugs with teflon tape and torqued them back in using the pipe again (not too much torque now, that tape acts as a lubricant). Flushed system with water, drained it and added new coolant - it took a nice full six quarts. All in all, this was one of the most satisfying experiences in my life. And I'm 51. My wife now has the cleanest coolant in Town. Be brave. Go for it.

Tim- So what was the dealership doing? The bank sounds like there were "discrepancies" in cars-on-hand v. cars reported to bank, and there is mention of large consumer fraud case, but no real details. What was the management doing?

My brakes blew out about a month ago. Turned out that the little hangers for the metal brake lines to the rear brakes allow corrosion to attack the small diameter metal brake line right where the hanger is - which finally springs a slow (or in my case) massive leak. Replaced rear lines. Brakes are fine.

Are those two drain plugs 13mm hex or 14mm hex?

Two more nice oil leak sources to take care of: 1. Oil pan gasket. 2. Valve cover gaskets. A picture tutorial on fixing oil leak sources on an E82 would be a very helpful and popular resource for the permanent Repair and Mod Forum. Thanks for considering it.

I like the excessive carbon theory. If it were my car, I'd do at least two Seafoam treatments of four or five ounces per treatment, fed directly into the intake manifold via the PCV hose. Follow instructions on can. Blast as much of that carbon buildup as you can. This approach, and new oil pump, reduced my pinging/tod issues to practically nil.

I agree with Phaedras and have long believed that it would be excellent to have a knowledgeable electrical person write up a tutorial for publication in the the USRM repair and mod. electrical section. I, for example, have a Sears digital multimeter in my toolbox that I've owned for about two years and barely know how to use. Sure, I've tried sticking the probes into various things and trying to figure out if I accomplished anything. And I even sucked into paying another $10 for the Craftsman How to Use a Multimeter booklet - which was written for someone other than me. In my book, the ideal would be a multimeter users guide for old subarus that would be written at about a sixth grade level to explain: The best way to test: 1. A possibly dead purge or egr solenoid. 2. A possibly dead throttle position sensor and idle air control valve. 3. A possibly dead battery, coil, or ignitor. 4. A possibly dead ignition switch. 5. A possibly dead fuel pump. 6. And any other neat and particularly helpful things a person can do with a multimeter. Anyone out there interested in writing the book on this subject?

When mine did this, it was the diodes in the rectifier (all of which are in the alternator) that were shot. I had my oem alternator rebuilt at an alternator shop. After they renewed the brushes, bushings etc, it was the diodes that turned bad. New diodes and no problems since.

The FSM calls for only 3.3 to 4 foot pounds torque for the oil pan bolts on the 90 loyale. So be careful. When I did mine, I put the car on my stands. Unbolted the two engine mount bolts. Put some wood blocks on my floor jack. Jacked engine up about two or three inches. Put shims in to hold engine up in that position. Removed floor jack. Took time removing the eighteen bolts. Jimmy pan off of oil pickup tube. It'll come off at the right angles. Don't force anything. Clean the mating surface on the engine very very well. Clean out your oil pan very very well. Take oil pan to your mechanic or friend with wire wheel. Remove all traces of old gasket from pan mating surface. Place new cork gasket on pan. Have fun figuring out which side up, sideways etc. Keep the faith, it'll fit. I used no gasket maker, sealant. Just cork. Use star pattern when tightening bolts. I just used sort of a firm solid stopping point approach. Tight with phillips head screwdriver. No leaks in two years so far. Go for it.

And you're sure it's motor oil and not grease from a torn cv boot?

As you look at the engine with the hood up, the cover on the right side (cylinders 2 and 4) has five bolts. The cover on the left has four and is the easy one to remove. The fifth bolt on the cover on the right is difficult to remove because of its location (down and in back). I did mine from underneath and it took some time. Buy new rubber grommets for the bolts. The new gaskets are rubber, not cork. I used no RTV or other sealer. Gasket only. The bolts are designed to torque down until they stop. No torque wrench needed. It's been two years or so with mine. No leaks.