hklaine

Wow those tires look tall. How much does it affect the speedo? -Heikki

Anyone have suggestions on wires? I am looking to do plugs/wires soon and was curious if there was anything I should stay away from or anything I should track down? Thanks. -Heikki

link to the thread?

You mentioned upgrading to a heavy duty wiring harness. How is this harness wired and what does it include? Is it just new H4 sockets with heavy wire or does it utilize a relay? I know that tracking down the problem and fixing it (then upgrading anyway) would be the ideal solution, but that can be time consuming and darn near impossible so if there isn't a short, and everything is fused for safety then I would recommend wiring the harness with a relay such that it uses the original headlight harness strictly as a signal for a relay and run power to the relay straight off the battery and then from the relay to the headlights. This way a voltage drop in the OEM headlight harness won't affect your light output (as long as the drop doesn't fall below critical voltage of the relay). Wiring the lights this way will decrease voltage drop even in a system w/o problems and possibly increase light output. [source: Hella KG Hueck AG, Germany]: When operating voltage drops to 95 percent (12.825v), headlamp bulbs produce only 83 percent of their rated light output. When voltage drops to 90 percent (12.15v), bulb output is only 67 percent of what it should be. And when voltage drops to 85 percent (11.475v), bulb output is a paltry 53 percent of normal! If your upgraded wiring harness included a relay and you have it wired this way (using OEM wiring for signal only) then I can't explain your symptoms. Short somewhere? Bad relay? Hope this helps. -Heikki

I found the best price for my GR2's (for '96 Legacy) at tirerack.com. -Heikki

Don't know of any improvements but my combined, or average, mileage is also about 22 mpg. '96 Legacy L Wagon 5sp AWD w/ ~102k. -Heikki (who wishes he had a 6sp for the hwy)

I don't know how similar your car is to mine. However, in my '96 Legacy I changed 4 struts recently. The rear two are easier than the fronts. If you have (or can borrow) a spring compressor you should be able to do the job in a few hours having never done it before. I got rear struts (KYB GR2) for ~$60ea. from tirerack.com. Have a small cutoff wheel handy or a line wrench as you need to either cut the bracket which fully encirlcles the brake line or disconnect the line from one end to get it off the strut, at least in my car. This, however, was not a big deal and even the cut bracket holds the line well once the clip is reinserted. My car had a similar clanking sound when hitting a good size pothole or when cruising over a long drop or change in elevation at higher speeds. As mentioned in a previous post, when pushing the car down on the corner in question it had nothing at all. The strut was clearly dead. I would not recommend changing one side and not the other BTW, IMHO. Good Luck with it. -Heikki

For my '96 tirerack lists fronts at $68 each and rears for $58 each. Those prices are for KYB GR-2. Front mounts run $58 each and should probably be done at the same time (at least in my opinion). So the set of 4 w/ mounts would run ~$370 + an allignment (~$60 ? at your local shop). I had a leaky front strut that the dealer discovered when my car was there for the spring guard recall. They quoted me ~$700 + $70 (allignment) for the FRONT STRUTS ONLY. If you are mechanically inclined it pays to pick up, rent, or borrow a spring compressor and do the job yourself. You will still need to have the car alligned, but you get hit for that either way. -Heikki

There may be a recall on the alternator in your car. If you haven't already, you may want to see if the recall is still open. Your dealer or SoA can tell you. -Heikki EDIT: This is recall WXF-63 (Alternator Service) I believe it applies to all 95-96 Legacy/Outback.

You may want to check tirerack.com. For my '96 they had better prices on the GR-2 than did shox.com (and you can buy individually). -Heikki

Unfortunately the time has come for me to part with my '81 GL. I haven't been around the message board much but noticed that the marketplace forum is no longer listed? I hope posting this here is appropriate. It can be seen here. Thanks. -Heikki