Dogbone

Thanks, he certainly is. And he loves his new Subie and was excited to take it out in the late Spring snow yesterday.

My middle son's high school graduation present. Just got it this weekend. He loves it, and it seems to be quite an attention getter.

Thanks and appreciate the links and advice.

New to me 2001 Impreza 2.5RS, bought it for my middle son's high school graduation gift. Beautiful car, but only had one key from previous owner, and key is only sub-master or perhaps just valet key. Local Subaru dealership says they can cut new master keys, and program remote key fob if I find used one from ebay, etc. Can someone tell me what I'm looking for, as ebay shows a few different looking items? Also car has factory Subaru alarm system, does this require something different, special, or extra? Much thanks!

My oldest son drives a '91 Legacy, and yeah it is more roomy and comfortable than my Loyale, and quite a bit quicker off the line. But I still get better MPG than he does!

Well, we had a beautiful morning here in Virginia. Went out with Mrs. Dogbone to run some errands early, and came home and I decided to tackle a quick project I've been putting off for some time-- replacing the tired, worn out crackling and buzzing OEM stereo speakers in the front doors of my Loyale. Although I have several sets of generic speakers laying around from old vehicles and past projects, I didn't have the exact odd-ball size (5.25"?) originally equipped in the Sube. Since I'm a cheapskate I simply made some adapters out of some scrap industrial gasket material I had laying around. That gasket material is very stiff but lightweight and easy to work with and trim, much like a very thin sheet of wood, except it's waterproof. Anyway, a little persuasion here and a little soldering there, and now I'm able to play my tunes without them sounding like they're coming from a bowl of rice crispies. Good little upgrade, actually looking forward to my morning commute tomorrow. :cool:

Good pictures on this thread that may help: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=98281

I did the seafoam IAC clean "in place" initially. It did help, but it did not cure it. I pulled the line feeding the base of the IAC and filled it with seafoam. It took about 20 minutes of driving before it stopped the James Bond white smokescreen impersonation. Talk about attention grabbing. Again, I ended up just pulling the lines, taking out the screws, and cleaning the IAC by hand. Yes, it would be appropriate to have a new gasket. No, I did not have a new gasket, I was just gentle when I pulled it off and reused the old one. A word of warning. I do not recommend taking apart the spring loaded mechanism on the side. Nothing in there to clean, and talk about a PITA to get lined back up, hook up the spring, and reinstall the cover. Imagine reattaching a pocket watch mainspring while wearing a blindfold, and you'll get the idea. Just clean out the plunger and diaphragm assembly enough to get it freely moving, and call it good. :cool: Good luck.

Had the exact same problem with my son's '91 Legacy when we first bought it. After initial warm up, idle oscillated from around 1300 down to almost (and occasionally) stalling. We pulled the Idle Air Control Valve (IACV), cleaned it up, and reinstalled. The spring loaded plunger was gummy from old gas/varnish/crud. Wagon idles perfectly now. Check out your IACV.

Rotated the tires on my Loyale this afternoon.

Well said! I simply can't understand the bad rap that EA82s get on this board. Keep on top of the timing belts, replace oil pump mickey mouse gaskets every 200k miles or so, and enjoy the engine for 3-400k miles or more. What's with all the hate? I currently own two Subes, my '91 Loyale, and a '91 Legacy that my son has claimed. So, yeah, I can compare an EA and an EJ. The Legacy will win a drag race against the Loyale, so what? I am happy with my little EA powered Loyale, 90 horsepower and all. Guys at my work, most of them drive newer 4wd trucks (and they have their share of issues/recalls believe me), yet they see me get to work in the same snow they do, but do it with a vehicle I payed $200 for and that gets around 28 mpg. Long live the EA82. :-p

I did the same repair to my Loyale a few months ago. The kit indeed worked well, but I must have missed a few breaks because I still have two lines not working. I'm not too worried about it, since originally only the top six lines were functional. It would just be nice to get them all working eventually I guess. Oh, when I did mine I gave it a week to fully cure, then CAREFULLY went back with a razor to clean up any splotches or runs visible from the outside. Not a problem.

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New wires and plugs on my Loyale today. Also pulled the A/C compressor fuse for the winter, and gave the wagon a quick wash.

Hey, I like those HID lights. Can you share any links to a "how to" thread? Personally I wouldn't know where to begin. Also, can a Loyale's stock alternator and charging system handle them or did you have to do some upgrades? In the meantime, I put on my new-used front mud flaps on my '91 Loyale (thanks bheinen74).

What center caps and trim rings are available to make this wheel... ...to look more like the wheels on this: Will those older model steel wheel caps and trim rings fit wheels on a '91 Loyale? Any other ideas? Thanks!

Don't mean to hijack, but do you have a seperate thread going into more detail about your engine? Pics? I'd love to read and learn more about successful EA builds, I really have very little interest in the whole "just EJ it" thing. No offense to anyone, but I don't offroad or race my Subie, and I like my spare tire and ice cold A/C right where they are.

I would love to have found 185/80s, but they just aren't readily available at the local tire shops I do business with. I'm currently running 185/70 R13 Kumho Solus. I'm happy with them. Not the best pic, but here's a shot with the those tires.

Welcome to the forum. Yep, I got my '91 Loyale for the same reasons, it was cheap and good on gas and good in snow. Now I'm hooked on Subes.

Repaired several broken traces on my rear window defroster with one of those generic "paint on" repair kits. Seems to work well enough now, but won't be able to give it a real test for several more months. Yes, all these 100 degree days lately are making me sort of look forward to some ice and snow.

Congrats on the Loyale, looks really good and rust free! I'm jealous. Love those fuel injected EA82 cars. Stay on top of the timing belts (every 60 thousand miles), and if and when you replace them, I recommend leaving the covers off. Then a job that takes several hours turns into a 30 minute fix. But if you do happen to snap a t-belt, it's not too big a deal, the EA82's are non-interference so no permanent damage. Other than that, the eventual oil leaks coming from old, dry seals and gaskets are the worst offenders. Regarding a maintenance manual, here's the cover of the Haynes Manual for your Loyale. It's decent and helpful. You can find them all day long on ebay for $10 or so: Good luck, and enjoy your Loyale.

On my car, when the A/C compressor is not running (static system), my system is around 75 psi. Again, on a static system the pressure will be the same on both the "high" and "low" side. Only when the compressor is on is there a pressure difference. Then it is "sucking" the low side, so the pressure on that side drops, and it is "pushing" refrigerant into the high side, so the pressure on that side increases. For example, on a static system, if you are only measuring, say 15 to 20 psi (or less), you should assume low refrigerant and charge it. On a properly operating system, once you hook up the can of refrigerant, and then the pressure builds enough to activate the pressure sensor, the A/C relay will close, allowing the compressor will kick on, and you would simply continue filling until your low pressure side reads between 18 and 28 psi. My recommendation: Get a psi gauge, see what pressure you have on a static (off) system. If psi is low or nothing, then assume merely a low refrigerant and charge it. If refrigerant is present and at proper psi, "hotwire" the compressor, turn on the blower fan, and verify you have cold air at vents. If no cold air, either an obstruction in system (unlikely) or bad compressor (most likely). If there is cold air, find and fix electrical problem preventing compressor clutch from engaging (a/c fuse, a/c on off switch, bad a/c relay, bad trinary/pressure switch, bad "compressor locked" detection switch, bad evaporator temperature switch). Hope this helps.

I don't know how much help this will be, but I just went through the A/C system on my '91 Loyale. On my Loyale, both the trinary switch (low AND high pressure switch) and the "belt protection system" will interupt the A/C relay if there is a problem. The temperature sensor at the evaporator does not affect this relay, it only interupts the compressor's "ground". Based on what you are saying, if you have COLD air when you jump out the A/C relay engaging the compressor, it's either a problem with the locked compressor circuit, or the high/low pressure switch (or indeed, you have lost just enough refrigerant to not activate pressure switch, but still enough to blow cold). Put a gauge on your A/C system, even a cheap one. When the system is not running, it's going to be the same pressure on both high and low side, so don't fret it, nothing is going to blow up (but wear gloves b/c escaping refrigerant can cause frostbite). A static system, you'll want to see (I'm guessing for your year/model) at least 60 or 70 pounds. When the compressor is running, you'll want to see something in the neighborhood of 30 to 40 pounds on the low side. Don't worry about the high side, but FYI it typically runs 2 to 3 times whatever is the low side pressure. And just to add, I had the same issue you are describing on my Loyale. Turned out my "belt protection sensor" was bad. I simply bypassed it by splicing two wires behind my glovebox. Details at the bottom of this thread: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=123814 Good luck.

Are you using stock 13" rims? I recently went with the largest diameter I could find locally and consistently. 185/70 r13 All three of the tire dealers I typically deal with and trust recommended the Kumho Solus for my Loyale (probably because 13" is not very popular), so that's what I purchased. Purely for highway use though. Here is my Loyale wearing those Kumho tires: If you are runing 14" rims you may be able to find a reasonably available tire size that squeezes a little more meat under the fenders.