revbill

I'm planning to pick up a disabled Loyale, and I need it to be towed about 15 miles to my house. I'm thinking about renting a tow dolly, but so far Uhaul is the only place I can find that rents them. After finding out the hard way about how their "reservations" don't reserve anything, I was hoping to avoid ever even talking to them on the phone again. Does anyone know of another place locally were I could rent a dolly without renting a truck? Should I just suck it up and pay a tow truck? I live on the Eastside, if that helps. I've used a tow strap before, but I'll leave that to the more adventurous from now on. I'm too old for that now (and I'm not even that old!) Thanks, Bill

Great, thanks everyone. I'll check the distributor and the timing belts when I go there. I thought it sounded strange that an ECU would go out. I'll be sure to ask if it was hit by lightning, or some sort of secret government death ray. And zyewdall, I'll let you know if I need that ECU, thanks.

Hi, all. I'm a frequent lurker (and information user) but I don't post much, thanks to the hefty archives on this site, which are better than any repair book I've ever seen. I'm a contractor at Microsoft, and there's a '91 Loyale someone's looking to get rid of cheap in the Microsoft classifieds. In the ad it says it needs an "electronic brain." I e-mailed the person with the car, and they said their neighbor, who is a mechanic, came up with this diagnosis when the car died and wouldn't start. I'm not sure if it turns over or not, but it sounds like it might. My question for you all is, first of all, has anyone looked at this car? It's been in there a while, and I wouldn't be surprised if there was another subaru maniac working at MS. My other question is: what should I look for if I go look at this car? I was going to bring a battery and see if it turns over, then go from there. What would the symptoms of needing an "electronic brain" (I love the way this sounds--great band name) be? It sounds like if this is really the problem it would be pretty easy and cheap to fix, but would there be a risk of blowing a new ECU? One theory I have is that the timing belt broke, and the well-meaning neighbor was explaining that with these modern cars, everything's controlled by a computer, so they're hard to work on. It doesn't make sense to me that an ECU would blow on a perfectly good car, but who knows. Does anyone have some advice for me on this? I appreciate all the collective help, past and future.

Yep, this is your old Loyale, and it couldn't be better. This is the only problem I've run into. It's made the transition to being a family car quite well. My 2 year old daughter demands we take the "red car" when we all go somewhere. Thanks for the responses, guys. I'll try a new switch when I get a chance (and when I'm motivated by warm weather.) I wanted to make sure there wasn't something posessing my driver's door.

I've been lurking here for a long time, and I've gotten a ton of information from here, but I haven't posted much. I finally have a problem that I couldn't find the answer to with a search. I have a '92 Loyale, and the driver's switch for the driver's window works, but only if you either push or pull on the switch panel. Not just the switch, but the whole plastic housing. When it works, it works just fine, but it won't work unless I press it into the door or pull it away from the door. I took the switches out of the door and cleaned the contacts (after collecting all the metal pieces that fell out) and it didn't seem to make a difference. Does anyone have an idea what this is? Should I try cleaning it again, or get a new master switch? All of the other switches work perfectly. Thanks, Bill

With the help of a lot of information from this board (thanks for all the help!) and some books/FSM info, I was able to get the engine out and replace the head gaskets on an '85 4WD GL wagon. When I put the engine in, it started, but I can't get it in gear. The clutch moves like it did before, but it doesn't feel like it is disengaging. Does anyone have a suggestion for what to do now? The cable doesn't seem loose--did I damage the clutch putting the engine back in? It just grinds when I put the clutch in and try to put it in gear.