Aubrey

Hi, The condenser fan next to my cooling fan on my 91 Legacy Turbo does not turn on when I turn on the AC. In fact, I have never seen it running at all. My AC was converted to R134a about three years ago and works okay, as long as it doesn't get too hot out (30+ degrees C). If I'm in city traffic in the summer heat the compressor starts cycling off and the AC can't stay cool until I get moving again. So I'd like to get the fan working before summer comes again. Any ideas of what could be wrong? The fuse is okay, I haven't been able to trace the rest of the wiring. Thanks, Ian

Hi again, Well turns out that I don't have a real seal leak as I orginally thought but I have a tranny fluid leak coming from the front of my transmission. The dealer service guy said it's probably the tranny front seal, or maybe the bushings, and that they'd have to open it up before they knew for sure. So even if it's just the front seal, that's almost $500 (CAN). This transmission is a rebuilt one with only 3 years and 35000kms on it! The previous owner had it done but the warrenty is over and the garage that did it doesn't even seem to be in business anymore! (phone number was out of service). Apparently they didn't do a very good job! The funny part was the service guy said: "Strange, we don't usually have problems with the auto trans." Then he looked at the invoice and said "Oh, its a turbo. Yeah... Surbaru doesn't even rebuild these anymore. They have an entirely new transmission and it costs $5200!" It's certainly no secret that this tranny wasn't designed properly to handle the output of the turbo engine, but is this thing about Subaru only offering a new transmission true? I'm not sure if I even want them to pull it. I'd rather burn a bit of tranny fluid then have to get it rebuilt again, or even worse, get a whole new transmission! I wish my car was a standard

The AC compression on my 91 Legacy also sometimes cycles on and off when I'm idling or even driving in very hot weather (35 degrees C) around town. I'm not sure if this is normal, but it sure doesn't help cool down the car! I assume it's doing it to protect the AC system becuase maybe it can't handle the heat. I don't know.

Thanks, very observant with the spelling I'm Canadian. It's an auto tranny, so I won't be waiting for a clutch replacement. I have a feeling this is going to cost me I'm almost due for a tranny fluid change though so at least I can get both done at once, if that's any savings at all...

Hi, My 91 Legacy Turbo has sprung a nasty little oil leak of late. Somewhere oil is leaking from the engine, either underneath or near the firewall as far as I can tell, and hits something hot and burns up. This produces a horrible petrolum smell when I'm idling at a stop since the smoke gets sucked right into the HVAC intake. I haven't had a chance to crawl around down there and get a better look yet. At my last oil change the report mentioned a "possible rear seal leak". Could this be my problem? Where is the rear seal? And how much am I looking at in parts and especially labour to get it changed? Thanks for you help!

On my 91 Legacy Turbo the boost starts coming on at 2500 rpm when I'm accelerating and is usually going strong by 3000rpm. How much boost I get depends on close my petal is the floor When I'm driving at steady speed on the highway the boost generally doesn't occur no matter what my rpm is but as soon as I start to accelerate to say pass or climb a hill it immediently comes on strong, and the tranny will allow the turbo to increase the boost before it decides if it needs to downshift for more power.

I always wondered about the fans myself. In my 91 Legacy Turbo I've only even seen one fan run when it's idling, AC on or not. When does the second one run? I was told by someone that it only kicks in when the engine starts getting really hot and temp gauge starts creeping up past the normal halfway point. Anyone else know about this?

So it's probably the lug nuts being overtorqued and not the pads huh? Well they've never been hand torqued, at least I've never done it or seen it done by hand when it was in the shop. I guess I'll try that, but I don't understand why it makes a difference. Can anyone enlighten the not-so-mechanically inclined?

Hello again, I've had a lot of trouble with the rotors on the my 91 Legacy Turbo warping. Last summer I bit the bullet and got four new OEM rotors. Now it seems that I'm starting to get that telltale shaking again when I brake moderately to hard in the 80 to 100 kph range. Now, I don't drive like a manic and/or ride the brakes. I drive over a lot of mountain passes on the highway but I always gear down and try to minimize braking. I've never seen another car destroy rotors like this! I think my pads might be the problem, since I discovered that they're aftermarket (installed by previous owner) and pretty hard (I haven't had to replace them yet). Do you think they might be overheating my rotors? Should I go get the pads changed back to OEM and hope that stops my rotors from warping again? Thanks, Ian 91 Legacy Turbo (too fast for its brakes!)

Yeah, I had the same idle problem with my 91 turbo. If I was sitting at a stoplight for too long the revs would start bouncing up and down and after a month or two it would go so low it would stall sometimes. My IAC was plugged up with carbon and after my mechanic took it apart and cleaned it (a new one cost too much) it has been fine ever since. As for the tranny, good luck. It seems that all of those auto 1st gen legacies need a rebuild at some point. Mine went at 180,000 kms.

I'd buy the Bosch. It's just a few dollars more. Why mess around? -91 Legacy Turbo

Thanks, turns out that even though I wasn't able to get the arm back under the nut when it was open, after I got the sunroof closed and opened it again the arm had set back into place under the nut. It works fine again and since I won't be touching the deflector that's good enough for me!

Hi, I have a 91 Legacy Turbo, a beautiful car, but just the other day a piece of my sunroof broke. It is a little metal arm that is attached to the wind deflector and fastened to the inside ledge of the sunroof on the passenger side (same thing on the driver's side too). The arm lets the deflector spring up when you open the sunroof and retracts it when you close it. The arm just broke off completely at the bolt on the inside ledge so now it sticks up and prevents the sunroof from closing (unless I get out and hold the deflector down with one hand). How/where can I find a replacement part to get this fixed? I'm afraid the dealer with won't have it or will say I have to buy a whole new sunroof! Maybe I could just get the deflector changed? Any thoughts? Thanks!