turboguzzi

well, the Leg has been slowly losing its refrigerant fill over 5 months or so. asked an ex-alfa romeo mechanic friend where is the place that most likely leaks and he said check the accumulator first... bingo! the top of the accumulator/drier is indeed all oily from losing the gas that has oil mixed into it. OK, but where is it leaking from? is this the accumulator itself that leaks, the glass sight seal, the electrical sending unit (behind left tube in pic) or are those the o-rings for the pipes? Friend was never into a/c fixing so couldn't give me more info accumulators/driers are supposed to be cheap but why change something if its good? will most likely de-pressurize the system and check but any info on the subject could be useful, Grazie mille

my gen2 Legacy's got a 2000cc motor with hydraulic adjusters, so no sweat the gas system is made by "romano gas" http://www.romanoautogas.it/?go=home&lang=English

oil reading can be influenced quite a bit by the slope at which the car is parked...

well, back from the weekend trip and honestly, car goes just as well with the LPG in terms of pull, even if i was definitely not trying too hard with GF and her mother aboard, just doing highway droning at 120kmh/75 mph most of the time well, it took exactly two refills of the LPG tank to get the exact 720 km range of one gasoline tankful, so quite easy to do the math of the savings: one tankful / 60L of petrol is circa 100-105 euro in italy two tankfulls of LPG have cost 60 euro so in terms of km/L or mpg, the LPG gives 40% savings. at 40 euro savings per tank, it will take the equivalent of 40 tanks to get my investment back, that is exactly 28,000 km, that would be less than a year and a half at the rate i pack on my miles with more savings due to reduced road tax here for "clean cars". With much cheaper gas prices of the USA guess it will take quite a bit longer to amortize the investment in the system. But in Europe at least, sounds like a win-win situation to me just sorry i didnt do it sooner!

today i am driving with girlfriend + mother in law : to Venezia, including some touring in the Colli Euganei area near Padova, it will be a a 500 mile round trip from milano, so will be the first chance to do some fill to fill runs. there is an italian forum where people report they milleage with petrol vs. LPG and the figures differ by very little, less than 10% but will now better after this weekend. my car has been very consistent delivering 28-29 mpg since i bought it, kist like my previos Gen 1 for the 7 years i owned it have a good WE TG

as filling stations across countries in europe have different fittings to hook to the car, i was given some adapters, the bayonet one should work in Holland according to what one of our members says. doing a "full" and just paying one third of what i paid with petrol sure feels nice already, will report on the actual figures mpg figures, even if its hard to relate LPG gallons to petrol gallons, so it will be more mpd (miles per dollar) or kpe (kilometers per euro) sort of thing

well, after 10 moths of ownership, i took the plunge and fitted an LPG system to my second gen SW. and quite plunge it was as the system cost was a quite a bit more than the purchase cost of the car, 1600 euro, around 2000 $. Sounds steep, but if i had fitted it when i bought the car 13K miles ago, it would have payed for itself already with the current petrol prices round here. gas bottle takes the place of the spare wheel and the system is digitally controlled with a separate ECU that interfaces the stock ECU. Essentially the car is now bi-fuel, will switch to petrol when the LPG runs out automatically. The filling port was put under the normal fuel door, at the station i need to screw the silver adapter to fill.

my 17 year old gen 2 gets exactly 28.5 average, tank after tank....

...boy, i do miss my 1st gen and this one, with 60K miles would be oh so perfect http://www.subito.it/auto/subaru-legacy-2-0i-4wd-wagon-como-38941024.htm?last=1 just not very cheap not that i should complain, but http://ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=126599

looks like a piece of a suspension coil spring, but it might not be yours.... so check that your car is seating level and also under the fenders to see that your springs are intact

indeed, group N is FIA's stock class, i.e. cars with basic tunning, closer to showroom condition compared to Group A. http://www.rallycars.com/Cars/Cars_Background5.html

welcome to the Grease Club I usually run through 10 pairs of single use gloves per joint....

managed to thread the rod into the female thread of the outer joint just like that so didnt even bother trying separating it, and yep, it kinda sucked that the rod kit didnt come with a wider washer i could bend over the flats more easily... wait, it didnt come with ANY flat washer...

funny, misleading title for euros... round here a Group N Megan(e) means this

it was a Sidem brand tie rod. the company is based in belgium but i guess it doesnt mean much these days , read they have factories in lower cost eastern europe. i am based in italy BTW. guy in the shop said this is re-branded moog, but wouldn't bet on the either making a slot with an angle grinder before fitting would have been a 15 seconds job though, pitty i noticed only after everything was in place.

OK, inner joint done, went really quick, 30 minutes in all steering the rack all the way out gave pretty good access to the joint. problem points were that you need a thin spanner to fit over the inner rack flats to hold it against turning, applying the torque to the rack doesnt sound like a good idea as your essentially mashing it against the pinion teeth . had to use a pipe wrench directly on the joint body. I did had a wrench that fitted over the flats (32mm) but there was no room to turn it. reused the locking washer after straightening it, but the join i bought didnt have the recess to bend the washer into, had to bend the washer over the flats and there was next to no overhanging metal to do so. knowing this, would have ground a slot like in the stock joint before fitting. didnt want to release the outer ball joint taper so the trickiest bit was screwing the tie rod back into it at the tight angle it sits and with all the friction of the new ball joint. doable but not easy.

OK, got today the part, only disappointment is that it doesnt come with a new washer, dam**t... cant see why the kit skimps on a 5 cent part. its 32mm between the flats, got a thin wrench to do it up, if not, then there's always the pipe wrench, even if from memory there's a sub frame member passing under blocking free access. is it accessable form above maybe? havent checked, will try during the weekend for the euro owners out there, tried to get a moog SU-AX-2866 for it but ended up with a sidem 83010 ????? , friendly shop owner told me these are from the same mfg. just sold under different brand names for marketing / distribution reasons.

auto spares shops should stock just bands too, nothing exotic about them. i pull the bands snug with pliers, you should not overdo it anyway as it will make the greasy boot slide off the CV/DOJ

thanks imdew sounds like those joints arent screwed on too snug then? was a bit afraid that it might require high torque to undo it form the rack. tried to search for a tie rod "how to" post with pics in the forum but havent found anything..... any links? TG

thanks john think i manged to locate an aftermarket spare. next question is then: can i manage to unscrew the the tie rod from the steering rack without the special tie rod tool as seen in some DIY videos? it's hard to justify buying it for just one rod, my first in 8 years of subaru ownership and here in italy, there's no tool rental from shops... looks to me like a crow foot with 1/2" is an option, dont know yet what size any other ideas? Grazie mille TG

Lets start with the good stuff After thinking i have to do again the left front CV or worse, a front wheel bearing, I changed today to summer tires and what do you know..... clicking noises stopped completely... stumped. remember reading here about certain tire brands (cheap winter tires in my case) able to cause noises that could sound like bad CV or bearing, well, the legend is true it seems. now for the bad stuff. the inner ball joint of the steering rod, i.e. the one under the rack and pinion rubber boot has developed play. see pic, item in red problem is i cant see this item in the OF diagram http://opposedforces.com/parts/legacy/en_b11/type_23/steering/power_steering_gear_box/ any links to related sources/fixes will be appreciated.... and check your tires before stripping a front end! TG

so nobody ever changes CV's in europe....?

people round here put LPG systems on turbos too, a 1600 euro job / 2000 US$ is that an option in NZ?

anybody knows these guys? http://stores.ebay.co.uk/J-R-CV-JOINTS-DRIVESHAFTS?_trksid=p4340.l2563

where are you looking? I am based in Italy and might have some tips for you as where to search. Take into account that subaru came pretty late into the market in europe, and 94-98 are not going to be easy to come by. In any case check well with the embassy of the country if this is possible in the first place. in some countries, like italy, a non EU citizen can not buy a car unless he has a valid stay permit. I think that holland/belgium are more relaxed TG