darsdoug

I was waiting for this issue to come up. 273,000 miles with no documentation of the HG's ever being replaced seal's it. Are Six Star headgasket's the best?

I must fess up that I haven't checked the radiator since last summer. It took almost an entire gallon of 50/50 just to top off the radiator. I put the front of the wagon up in the air and let it run for about a half hour and watched air bubble up out of the radiator. I took it for a forty mile trip on I-5 and the heater works better now but still blows much cooler air at an idle. ALSO:The plastic coolant tank is bubbling worse than it was before. My best hope is a bad seal on the water pump as the culprit but I have a feeling it's the HG's? I'll put some of that combustion leak detector in the overflow tank and see if it change's color. I can do it that way right? 96 2.2

I have a compressor. Would forcing air backward's through the heater core clear it (if it's partially plugged) or damage it? I don't know if the previous owner had dumped any stop leak additive's into it when he was experiencing his mindboggling coolant loss? That may be a possibilty.

I'll go to Napa and get a tester after I burp it and get that big air bubble out of there. Perhaps that's the main cause of the bubbles coming up in the coolant tank? I know the previous owner said he had to refill the radiator about every four hundred miles or so because it was losing coolant. I'd found the source of the coolant loss he mentioned very quickly after I'd driven the car home from Ballard last summer. It was just a leaking plastic burp screw on the top passenger side of the radiator. I replaced it with a new one and haven't had to add any 50/50 ever since. The old girl has probably had a bunch of air in her all along? Ha Ha. I'll find out here shortly. Thanks for the help people. I appreciate it.

I'm going to burp the old girl and do a compression test and take a look at the spark plug's this week. At least there isn't evidence of water in the oil at the moment and I have not done any work on any of the cooling system component's, thermostat, etc. I did notice today that when the heater isn't working only one heater hose at the firewall is hot and the other one on the other side is cold. Airlock in the heater core possibly? Both hoses do get hot after I run it at high RPM's for a couple minute's though.

Heater/defroster is only blowing cold air until I drop it down into a lower gear and get the RPM's up above 3500 or higher. I get normal hot air coming through the duct's then. I stopped and popped the hood while in park at an idle and looked in the coolant tank and low and behold I see air bubbles coming up at about the same rate as a goldfish aquarium.

My wife's 96 2.2 LS wagon was doing the same thing. I replaced the starter with a used one from the local pick n pull and it's fine now. If you can remove the starter and have it tested at a part's store that's equipped to test them at least then you'll be able to eliminate whether or not it's a bad starter. And do not use cinder block's for jackstand's whatever you do. Good luck.

If I could do it I'd have all of you home by the first of the year.

Can I get some action? vin # 4S3BK455XT7937173 Thanks.

Hey Todd. Do you still have that 74 1600 sub in the back of your work shop? Remember? The one that needed the front suspension component?

There doesn't appear to be any rust issue's with the rocker panel's on this one. Cool......

Gee......why didn't I think of that? It's a good thing we don't work at NASA. Ha Ha.

Hey Toddman: Those 84's are a "Picker's gone Subaru" type of find for sure. I've been driving the wheels off the 88 GL 4WD wagon you sold me. I use it for work and pleasure all the time. It's got 223K on it now and still running good. It's a forty mile daily round trip to work and I'm getting great gas mileage. I am still stuck as to why the check engine light is consistently on? I'll have to put on my thinking cap and figure it out.

Yup. Found evidence of a past rear end impact in the basement while roughing out the right rear panel which was messed up. The previous owner said he had bounced off a guard rail during a Montana blizzard. I bought a RF fender and headlamp assembly at the bone yard and got er done. Total out of pocket expense's were less than a hundred bucks.

I cruised up to Lynnwood today and saw a 97 builder. I didn't inquire about it because I was busy looking for something else and wanted to get out of there before the rain's came. Here's a shot of it. You're on for the duty c. I'll stay in touch. Cool.

Yes I did. It's clearly stamped EJ22. The young couple I bought the 96 Legacy from thought it had a combustion leak as it would go thru substantial amounts of coolant and they would have to top off the system about every four hundred miles or so. I found the problem as soon as I got it home. The black plastic bleeder screw on top of the radiator was missing and needed replacement. Someone had put a stainless steel bolt there with a piece of duct tape over it in an attempt to stop it from leaking. Ha Ha.

We might make a trip down there and have you install a new one for that price. Probably won't be until spring though. Give's us plenty of time to plan and such.

I just bought a used 95 Legacy 2.2 starter last weekend when I didn't really need one. I just had a loose + cable end. Auto Zone tested it and it's strong. Nothing wrong with it. It's yours for $30 if you still need one and you can pick it up. I'm right here in south Seattle. Just waiting to hear what you determine in regard's to your 2.2.

I believe the heated seat's they have in some new cars are 12 volt? You may be able to build something on that theme?

Update; I happened to find a sticker on the door jam that say's new quality Gate's timing belt's were put on about 20K mile's ago. It run's like a new engine. My wife drive's it regularly and love's it.

Do you have video/audio capability you can post?

I imagine I'll just drop a cotter pin in it until I get some free time to make it right. I certainly won't make that little mistake again. I just wish I would have caught it before I got everything buttoned back up. Oh well....

How important is the roll pin? I just replaced a rear wheel bearing and I accidently put the axle back on the diff stub 180 degree's off. Can I drive the car that way? What would happen with no roll pin?

The wife has been driving it regularly this past month with the bad solenoid while I'm at work. A local tranny shop gave me a ballpark bid of $800 to fix it, but I can't really afford to bite the hook. So how long do you think it will keep going before catastrophic failure and a tow truck is required? Your input will be appreciated.

Update: Apparently it was just a bad hub I'd installed on the right front. At the time I put on the new axles I noticed I needed a new cone washer so I grabbed one from pick n pull along with a right front hub. (I had put that particular hub on with the new axle's.) This weekend I changed out the suspect hub with the hub that was previously on it and the shudder has gone away. I should have done that a couple month's ago.