ndsnewleg

Swapped out drivers side. Purrs like a kitten. Except now I can hear a slight tick on the passenger side. Another day and likely a third of the time to do it.

Thanks. The engine has been resealed along with the oil pump being replaced. It sounds like one side and one HLA, not more than two. It's had plenty of oil treatments which take care of the problem briefly. It's also had considerable maintenance and worth putting a bit more effort into. Emissions still as clean as ever. Thanks for your input.

I've got ticking HLA's on my 90 Legacy, 194k miles. I've got heads from a 93 w/100k which had blown a rod through the crankcase. I've had them for several years now. Thinking of swapping rocker arms & all hla's depending on condition. Would welcome suggestions about things to consider in the process. Thanks in advance.

Hi Josh, you've helped me previously through your web site a couple of times. So, thanks again. I checked it with with one of those tire guage looking a/c slider gauges. It measured about 32 psi on the low side at about 80 degrees outside temp. Don't know if I need to be more high tech than that, ie., professionally checked at a shop. It blows very cold for 5 to 10 mins and then gradually starts to cycle on and off rapidly. I've pulled the glove box to see if I could hear the switch clicking and I do hear it. I suppose I could have pressure checked at a shop to be more certain but wasn't sure the expense was necessary. Let me know if you have info or advice to the contrary. Thanks, Ron

My a/c cycles on and off too frequently after a few minutes of running (cold). The freon seems to be up to pressure. Checked myself w/ guage. I can hear the evap/thermo switch clicking so I found a couple u-pick salvage ones. I found the right part but it came off a car w/230K. I also got one from a 94 (140K). Looks exactly the same. Only difference I can see besides second half of part # is the one for my car (90 legacy) is rated at 0C degrees whereas the 94 is rated at 1.5C degrees. Anyone think there would be a problem if I spliced in the newer one. The 4wd evap's only interchange from 90 to 93. The 2wd's interchange from 90 to 94. Thanks

If the sound is recent you may not have enough play in the bearing yet to feel any looseness. Have someone drive and you get in the back seat and stick your head back in the cargo area. You will likely be able to hear it better than from the drivers seat and you will also be able to tell which side it is coming from. If it's not really obvious in the back, it could be the front but you need to confirm it. You can put it up on a lift and listen with a stethoscope. Even then it may take some more wear to hear it. I've had four rear bearings go out on my 90 legacy. Make sure they repack the new bearings before they install them. Mechanics seem to think they come from the factory already packed but it appears it's just a shipping grease and wears out within about 30 to 50 thousand miles. As far as front end shake goes, check tire balance and go from there.

This car is advertised as an Impreza sport wagon. Not sure if it's an Outback. Has front scoop. Coloring on lower sides same as bumpers and says sport on rear door panel. Gray lower and green upper, like most OB's I've seen. 127k, body looks good (from pics). Seller says mechanic told him tranny would go in 10 to 20k. 5mt. 1.9l engine. Asking 2,950. Can anyone say if this is actually an OB. Comments on 1.9L engine, I've never heard of one. Says he hears slight sounds coming from engine. I'm suspecting maybe lifters, or who knows, but haven't heard it yet. Supposedly runs well. Also price relative to tranny issues. Currently have a 90 Legacy wagon. How do you think performance would compare. Comments appreciated. Thanks

I have a 90 legacy also. I second the radiator burping process as a first step. It's critical to proper functioning of cooling system. The collapsed hose would be an indicator of that problem to me. The haynes manual also has a good description of how to do it.

I run S rated 195/70R 14's on my 90 legacy wagon. Goodyear Wingfoot all season. Very happy with them in snow, rain or dry. Needing an H rating is bull.

My first thought is, did you have this car checked by a professional before you bought it? You need to say whether it is a manual or automatic. If manual, your clutch may be out of adjustment or the pressure plate or disk could be damaged. Check trans fluid level in either case of manual or auto. Open the radiator when the engine is cool and see if the chemical smell is the same. Check air pressure in tires. I like to keep mine at around 34 psi. Seems to me Subarus awd wears the outer edges first. Get a good quality guage, not a 99 cent slider. Gas smell may just be exhaust smell or rich running. You may need a tune up but look under the hood and see if you can see any obvious gas leaks. Check to see if your air filter is dirty. Good luck.

Bit of curiosity on my part. Anyone on this board ever have a Subaru earlier than 1970. Paid $700 for it in 1973 with less than 20,000 miles. Boxy little thing with standard 4 speed, probably 1.2l engine, fwd (I think). It was actually quite a little performer for its time and size. Unfortunatey I was rear ended at a dead stop at about 50 mph. Crushed the back end up to the rear window and broke both seats loose from the floor board. I'm sure the guy hitching a ride wishes I hadn't stopped for him. Currently have a 90 legacy. Ron

Good to know about the holes being standard. For the money, and I played with quite a few, the Panasonic sounded the best to me in the under $150 price range. New Infinity speakers made a huge difference. The ergonomics seem easy although the blue background light is a little too bright at night.

Hey frag, I installed a Panasonic CQ-C1101U. It was $89.00 from Car Toys, $15 for the harness adaptor. They have more expensive models which they will install for free over $100. There's no difference in sound quality. Didn't need Mosfet or MP3. The screw holes on it are perfect in placement and size to fit into the bracket that currently holds your radio. Circut City apparently makes a harness for most cd players and and car models that plug directly with out having to do any hard wiring. 90 legacys, unfortunately are too old. Just wire nut the harness that comes with the cd player to the adaptor harness for your model (if you can't get the direct plug harness) and plug it into the harness under your dash. Presto. I also found a large size storage box to take up the space left from the smaller size cd player. You may have to buy and installation kit for that. Might be worth letting them install it in that case.

There is definitely a trick to it and it will overheat if you don't do it right. The Haynes manual tells you how to do it step by step. If you do a search you might find the instructions on this site. I've done it several times but I don't remember the procedure from one time to the next. If you bought an oem stat it is likely good.

You can try a head cleaning tape and see if that works. You might need to take it apart and clean the mechanisms. Or you can do what I did and install a new Panasonic CD Player. They fit perfectly in the brackets. You can have it installed or do it yourself. Pretty easy to do.

Once you do replace the front quarter panel the best way to keep if from rusting in the future, and that goes for all 1st gen. legacy owners, is to regularly wash the dirt that collects inside the panel and on the frame rail. You can only get at it with the door open. I just stick the washer wand in there and gently blow it out trying not to blow it into the interior of the car. Washing out the front of the rear wheel well will also keep that area from rusting. The body on my 90 wagon is still perfect in that regard.

Thanks for the reply. Do you think I would expect to see much of a rise in HC or CO if O2 sensor wasn't grounding. Last emissions test was march 04 and HC went down slightly and CO was up about 1.4 gpm from previous test to 7.7932 gpm which is well within Pass range. Cat and O2 sensor also read Pass. I've considered a failing injector but when I have done an Ohm test they are all slightly above normal parameters. Are the 3 wire O2 sensors from later models and if so do you know which ones. Thanks again.

Thanks to all who offer their expertise and experience on this site. I've been reading it for awhile now trying to narrow down a problem I have been having for some time. I have a 90 EJ22 MT, 170K. I have improved engine performance but not to satisfaction. It seems to run pretty normally from start to near operating temp. Then starts to lose smooth power after about 15 min and at 30 min runs rough as if engine was out of balance w/loss of power. I can cruise on the flat at 80 mph all day long but exceleration is flat and hills are worse. On occasion I have a lifter stick on start up but can hear a slight lifter noise continuously when listening closely under hood. I've also had it sound like it had no muffler once on start up. That was weird. My question is can this lifter noise be cause of problem. Codes I have had. MAF (replaced w/rebuilt unit). IAC (cleaned but have no idle problem except when 10 degrees or colder). Vapor purge solenoid (tested and swapped). Replaced new: O2 sensor, temp sensor, knock sensor, plugs, wires, air/fuel filters. Swapped: sensors - crank, cam, ignitor, tps, purge solenoid, ecu, coil. Cleaned and/or tested: tps, fuel pump, injector cleaners, Sea foam into combustion chamber and oil. Cat looked at 3 times, once examining back end, 2 said it was ok 3rd said I needed a new one but I clearly got the impression they needed the work. Cleaning injectors and combustion chambers seems to have made most improvement. Seems like I have left a number of things out but I think that covers most of it. I've done a lot of work on this car and it still seems strong but for this vexing problem. Would like to keep it for another 50K. Appreciate any help. Thanks, Ron

My 2 cents is take one of two courses. Trade cars with the hubby and let him worry about what to do with it. Having as sound a vehicle as possible is imperative with a new baby. If it's not good enough to commute to work, it's not good enough to get stranded in with a baby. That said, have a good mechanic do a thorough evaluation and the cost to bring it up to a reasonably high standard. At this point in the cars life there are a multitude of things that can go wrong that aren't cheap if you are paying someone else to do them. If husband needs the impreza and you afford it I would get a later model of most things Japanese. Good luck. I drive a Subaru because they are infinitely practical in snowy Colorado.

Sea Foam is the all purpose additive, oil, gas and intake manifold and probably various other things. It works great. The can tells you how to use it but do a search on this site also. I'm pretty sure there are already good directions on how to run it into the brake booster vacuum hose or the pcv hose. Good luck.

Hi, I'd start by purchasing a Haynes manual, Chilton's is crap. Checking your timing should tell you if you have slipped a timing belt. My 90 legacy (170K) has had a similar problem with uneven acceleration and idle which injector cleaner helped slightly (BG44K is supposed to be the best). Running copius amouts of Sea Foam into the intake manifold to decarbonize combustion chamber has made significant improvements. I may yet do a motor vac on it. I've also been running half a can of Sea Foam in in crankcase since last oil change. Seems to be making a difference in lifter noise. As for hard starting, change your plugs and get some good quality wires. They are probably the originals and it's time. Air filter, fuel filter etc. Run some brake cleaner through the Idle Air Control valve. Throttle position sensor could be problematic. Test/adjust and/or clean. A search on here should give some good steps on how to do the cleaning. Haynes will tell you the rest. There is also a good description on variety of ways to do sea foam. Checking your coil resistance may help though I believe they are rarely bad. Good luck and start with the easy stuff.

I've driven my 90 Legacy MT 10 miles out to a main road and back in blizzard conditions with snow over the top of the bumper. The snow was light enough (but still a spring storm in the CO Rockies) that every once in awhile a bunch of it would blow up onto the windshield and entirely obscure vision out of the interior of the car until the wipers were able to clear it. The radiator did seem to have restricted air flow so the fans cycled on quite a bit. I had to stop twice at the side of the road and was able to resume with no problem. Tires were good quality Goodyear all season. I had access to an Explorer but was motivated to try and test the limits of my Subaru (also to motivated to put my ex on bus to Santa Fe so I could spend some time with my kid by myself). Pleased by both results. rrm

A personal friend and owner of an auto repair business is as we speak replacing the head gaskets on his 96 OBW (100K). He was told by a dealer that the new gaskets have solved the issue with this generation of engines. Anyone know or have any experience with the longevity of new gaskets.

What's the skinny on OEM knock sensor vs. Bosch or Wells, etc. I can get a Bosch online for $40 plus $5.50 shipping. Dealers' is $70 plus tax. Wells is $38 from Autozone. $30 bucks saved buys a great bottle of Scotch and "tis the season" after all. I have a 90 Legacy, MT wagon, 170K.

Thanks for the tips. No success yet but working on it.