MR_Loyale

Have you replaced the battery? They can go bad sitting without a charge. I believe it is called sulfation. It happens to my boat battery if I leave it sitting without a charge. Try substituting a known good and charged battery.

Excellent writeup. Where did you get those instrument cluster pics? They are so clear. I have never seen official Subaru documentation with so much clarity.

Oh crap. You are waaaay better than me. When mine snapped I wasn't too patient. Knowing the grill rested on two pegs, I lifted it up and bent back and forth and it came off. I got at the latch alright. Luckily it "kinda " fits back in and the crack is along the top - hardly noticeable. :-p

My hood release cable snapped on me two months ago. Got a new one at the dealer. Sometimes you have to find the dealer in town who has one in stock. I went to several in Seattle before I got to the one that had it.

I had that happen to mine soon after I had done a timing belt. It is kind of dramatic because you lose electrical and the power steering when it stops turning and the CE comes on. The previous posters had the best suggestions. If it continues to be a problem you might try some loctite.The best thing is to ensure you have the correct torque on the bolt. I discovered during my timing belt replacement that third party books like Haynes do not always have the correct torque. Replacing a water pump, I broke off a bolt because the Haynes book listed it way to high. If you don't have the factory manual, you could probably call any Subaru part department and they can give it to you.

I took my Loyale on a road trip last Sunday to the Wash coast (101 loop). Out in the boonies, I notice the temp gauge jumped to about 75%. I pulled over and noticed the coolant reserve tank was bone dry. I filled it up and the temp gauge went down to about 30%. Stopped at Ruby Beach on the coast for about 3 hours and when I got ready to leave checked the reserve tank. Bone dry again. I filled it up and started the engine and saw a slow drip underneath. I had no choice but to drive as far as I could get and fill if I could as it was after 10PM on a Sunday. Here's the mystery. I drove over 120 miles with an empty reserve tank and little to no coolant in the engine. It took over a gallon to fill it when I got home so I know it was practically bone dry. The heater didn't work on the drive home. So why did the temp gauge only go up to 30%? Don't get me wrong, I am glad the engine didn't overheat, but I am mystified as to why it did not. Is there some sort of superior design in the EA82 that allows it to limp home on 3 tea spoons of coolant? Maybe once the coolant level got so low, it couldn't circulate through the heater circuit and get lost? This week I discovered the leak was in a heater hose that goes from the engine to the heater. I repaired it and now it runs fine and temp gauge stays near the C.

Ah yes. Mine occasionally act as if they are possessed, pausing for a bit then starting back up.

It is missing the original hubcaps too. Those aren't the rims that came with it new.

That was how mine looked when I bought it new in 1994! Those were the days. Still, even though it has low miles, every rubber bit is almost 20 years old. Hoses, seals and such don't last forever.

I replaced the coolant bypass hose and turns out that wasn't it. So THAT hose will last another 20 years:D. I DID figure it out though. I have no idea what the hose is called, but is ia a 1/4 inch coolant hos that runs from the thermostat housing into either the block or the intake manifold - I cannot tell for sure. I am sure that is it because after I started it up, let it get warm and goosed the engine from under the hood, I saw little faithful erupting with each engine surge. If anyone knows what is the purpose of this hose, please let me know. I have no idea what it does or why it is there. It connects between points A and B in the image. The part guy at the Subaru dealership had a hard time even finding it in his catalog. There is no name given there either.

Well I got the alternator off and the AC compressor out of the way. The hose doesn't look bad, but I will replace it anyway. Since there isn't an obvious leak, I am wondering if I will put this all together and have my coolant geyser again. Can I assemble this temproarily without the AC compressor and run it for a while to observe it?

Thanks for all the replies. Thought I would update on the situation. I got the thermostat housing all nicely sealed and no more leaks. Idled the car for about 20 minutes and the needle came up to the middle almost and went down. This was in the evening. I took it for a test drive that very evening and the temps seemed fine and everything seemed OK. Drove it the 1.5 miles to the park and ride I normally go to daily and no problem at all. Great, I thought to myself, I got this problem fixed. Next morning, I hop in and drive it to the park and ride, carefully watching the temp gauge on the dash. The temp gauge goes about 1/8th up and stays there, not out of the ordinary as far as I can tell. So I pull up into the park and ride, to wait for the bus and a big rump roast cloud of something rolls out from under the hood. Now in the past I have had oil leak onto the exhaust, so I figure this must be what is happening. But this continues and the cloud is really shooting out of the hood. Holy crap, I thought to myself. I thought it was all fixed up. I open the hood and see that there is coolant all over . I keep distilled water and anti-freeze in the back seat, just in case, so I go get them and hurredly put it in the reserve tank to fill it to the brim and just then the bus arrives - got to go to work. I wonder all during the day if I will be stranded on the evening ride home. After work I get back to the park and ride and make sure to fill up the radiator as well so there is no chance for overheating. The engine starts and I watch with the hood open to see if anything happens. Nothing out of the ordinary so I get in and drive the 1.5 miles hoping it doesn't overheat and wreck the engine. It stays cool as before getting only to the 1/8 mark on the gauge. So in my driveway at home, I leave the engine on and open the hood. I notice that the grease stain under the hood is wet. How could this happen? I don't see anything shooting out, yet again the overfill reservoir is almost empty and steam is all over the engine but no specific leaks I can see. So I reach over to the throttle cable and goose the engine a couple of times and a little geyser of coolant shoots up under the wires somewhere in the vicinity of the water pump. I cannot specifically say what it is because too much is blocking it. This is Monday and because of my schedule, I leave for work in the dark and arrive home almost at dark. Extending wrenching requires the weekend. My suspicion is either the little 90 degree coolant bypass hose or the pipe that goes into the water pump. I haven't yet removed the alternator and AC compressor to check this out. I will do that tomorrow. It is the original hose (from 1993 :-p) and rubber things wear out. I will happily fork out the 11 buck the dealer wants for the replacement. I just hope this is really the issue this time.

Is the FB engine in the 2012 model Impreza direct injection? Also, is this an interference or non-interference engine?

This has two wires. It mounts into the bottom of where the thermostat housing is at.

I noticed coolant leaking from the thermostat housing so I opened it up and resealed it. In the process I had to disconnect the coolant temp sensor. I reconnected it and now it doesn't move at all. Do I have to disconnect the battery to clear a code or something? Normally the temp sensor goes from the very bottom of travel up a smidge when you turn the key. I get nothing now and fear I have wrecked the connections on it. Even after running for a bit the needle doesn't move at all. It is like it is dead. Anyone ever see this happen before? A replacement costs over $80 at autozone.

You are lucky. In my 93 Loyale the stock plastic radiator did that at about 42K and the warranty ended at 40K. I was so angry at the time. But I went to a radiator shop and they found a real metal replacement that was meant for a legacy I think but fit my Loyale and that one has worked for me ever since (135K now).

As for checking the alternator, you can remove it and take it into Autozne where they can test it for you on a machine for free.

For about the past 6 months now, the screw that holds the rotor on the distributor shaft has been spinning off. It would go a while, then fall off and the engine immediately dies or sputters a bit then dies. This morning it did it on the way to work and when I tried to tighten it, it wouldn't tighten down. It went snug but if I went any further it would come loose again. I am thinking of using blue loctite to keep it in place but I am not sure if even that will work as I understand it, the threads must be intact for loctite to work well. I don't think the threads here are in very good condition. Why Subaru didn't key the rotor is beyond me. Since the shaft is hollow, I am considering simply drilling two opposing holes in the rotor and shaft and using a cotter pin to hold the thing in place. Does anyone see any obvious problems with doing this? I want a permanent (well semi permanent in that I want to be able to replace the rotor) fix as this is getting old with it failing at the most inopportune moments.

I have noticed that my temperature gauge goes to about half way up when the car is warming up after a cold night and then I can see a point where it clicks down almost to the bottom of the range. Presumably this is the thermostat kicking in. When I start the car from cold overnight and I turn on the heater and as the temperature needle is rising before the thermostat kicks in, I am getting warm air. Shouldn't this air be cold until the thermostat kicks in? I am just curious as to how I am getting heat when supposedly the thermostat is blocking the flow of coolant through the system.

Wel I definitely won't put any of that stuff in there. Thanks for the comments everyone. I replaced all the grommets and seals for the cam tower when I did the timing belt two years ago. That doesn't mean it can;t be the source of the leak though. Has anyone here ever used the UV leak detection kits?

Cracked front windshield, passenger side mirror only goes horizontal and not vertical, driver side seat coming apart, tailpipe fell off, brakes make squeeling when stopping, clunking on right front cv when making sharp turns and of course an oil leak. But other than that, it drives wonderfully!

Well actually two years ago I did the timing belt, idlers, rear main, brand new oil pump with the mickey mouse gasket, new water pump, cam seals and all the cam cover gaskets. The oil doesn't appear to be coming from there. The one thing I did not do was a head gasket. Could that be the source of the leak?

I have an oil leak that gets oil on my muffler and it smokes. I am not sure where the oil is coming from and was considering a can of leak fix for the oil system. Is this a bad idea? Has anyone else tried any of the products on the market for this? My concern is that is might clog the HLAs or other tiny passage. Oh, I am talking about a 93 Loyale EA82 engine just in case anyone wondered.

This thing I don't get is why it was the passenger one that failed. It is used very little as I am single. I would expect the driver side to fail first. I wonder if the construction of the driver side is different. There is an F/R sticker on the side of this so I am presuming that means FRONT RIGHT which leads me to think they are all not interchangeable.

The problem is definitely the actuator. I took it out and bench tested it, no dice. Dealer wants $123 and it will come from New Jersey. I figured it was already broken, so what is the worst I could do by opening it up? It seems to me that this thing was designed to fail. I took the cover off and there are three brushes that ride their contact on a motor driven wheel. Two of the three are nice solid stamped meta. The third, the one that brok off was made of thin wire. On top of it is a stub of what would be another nice sturdy stamped brush but it is cut off and serves only to hold down the chinsy wire. Oh and I tested the motor by powering it directly. It works fine. Update: I soldered the wire onto the base plate of the connector. It now works, so I just need to reinstall it. Photos attached. The connector that broke is the second from the bottom with the red wire attached. As you can see, it is a spring wire. 17 years of sprining back and forth snapped it.