critical_max

*groans* well, that makes me feel better on some levels and worse on others. time for some foam rubber seat cushions under the plastic "sheepskin". I'm gonna do a visual inspection of all these suspension bits to see if anything is obviously worn. I'll start a new thread if I find anything interesting. Thanks for your concern

To my knowledge they're gas struts front and rear. No air, and I have to admit I don't know if they're adjustable, though they're doing their job ok as far as I can tell.

Bump for this dumb question that is apparently too simple to have been covered on the board, I've searched with no luck.... :-p Does a rough ride mean I need new springs?

Whew! First off, you have a Loyale, not a "Royale". This is the name for the later GL/DL models - basically the same car with some upgrades to the engine fuel management and such. As for "4WD 3AT 1.8L [H4 MFI/FI": Four wheel drive, three speed automatic, 1800cc displacement, Boxer-four cylinder arrangement (just like an old VW), MPFI is multi-port fuel injection, FI would likely be single-port fuel injection (SPFI). You have the classic "Tick of Death". I'm going to repeat your quoted bit: "hydraulic valve lash adjusters (aka HVLA or HLA) get dirty. You might try sea foam or MMO in the oil for a couple hundred miles then change the oil." This is supposed to work pretty well. You can get Seafoam from AutoZone etc. Basically part of your valvetrain is a bit clogged. Seafoam can clear stuff out. I've never had to fix this, but others on the board can perhaps offer good advice. It's been covered about 30 times in different threads, do a search for "tick of death". Questions to help narrow down your particular problem: 1) How many miles on the car/engine? 2) How's the oil level? Full? Dropping out the bottom of the engine? Rough idle as you describe can be due to something as simple as not enough oil in the engine. Make sure it's reading properly at the dipstick, and that your oil pressure gauge (if you have one) is reading decently. Let us know more about these things and we may be able to help... good luck! P.S. Add your city to your profile if you like... there are lots of us in Eugene and Portland and sometimes we can give location-specific info about shops, parts sources etc... :cool:

The big bolt at the top keeps the spring down! Do not remove this until you have got the spring compressor in place and compressing. For what it's worth, Chilton's Subaru manual does have a decent step by step on doing this.

So, the ball joints were the noisy part?

I finally have my RX running pretty well, after many hijinks with the charging system it's charging at 14+ volts steady. No engine troubles aside from a few drops a day of Mobil 1 hitting the driveway, to be expected (mechanic who installed JDM EA82T recommended Castrol 20W50, I think I know why). So, now it's down to the "driving" part of "runs and drives"... Question: The car's ride on the freeway (to a lesser extent in town, but much worse on the worn-out section of I-5 in mid-Oregon) is absolutely awful. I feel every little vibration. But, the car passes the "bounce test" and doesn't roll side-to-side in corners. Does this mean I need to replace only the springs, not the struts? (Here's a teaser shot of the left rear side panel... proper before-and-after shots of the front end bodywork I did are on the way. It sits nice and high as you can see, though the mudflaps make curb-hopping impossible )

the fusible links, yeah. in the little black box above the driver's-side fender, combustible wires in combustible cloth casings, very easy to see if they've gone.

I got OEM RX wires and disty rotor/cap from the dealer for a very decent price. Worth checking out, anyway.

I had a similar symptom, the coolant temperature sensor (down at the corner of the radiator IIRC) was faulty.

Have you changed the fuel filters? If the tank was sitting it could have gotten rusty. just a thought.

http://www.electricpowergenerator.com/RGD3300N.html is a diesel Subaru of sorts, but probably not what you were thinking of. Apparently these small diesel Robin Subaru engines are very quiet: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FZX/is_5_70/ai_n6050148 Here is some real news, though from this article: http://www.autocarmagazine.co.uk/news_article.asp?na_id=212253 "However, Subaru looks to be taking the European market much more seriously with news that work is underway on a new range of flat-four diesel engines. Subaru has built prototype diesels in the past, but with small European sales it couldn’t justify the significant investment required to produce them. However, its collaboration with Saab has given the project new life and a new urgency. Expect 2.0-litre and 2.2-litre versions of the diesel, which will be fitted to the next-generation of Subaru models as well as Saab’s 9-6X and the second-generation 9-2X, if it’s again based on the Impreza. Early work on Subaru’s new diesel engine was carried out at Porsche’s Weissach engineering centre in Germany. However, the majority of its development has taken place at Subaru in Japan with additional expertise coming from fellow GM subsidiary Isuzu." So, there is some kind of Saab-Subaru cooperation going on, and a spiffy new car called the B9X...

Call around to local car stereo shops, I was able to purchase both a wiring connector for the OEM wiring (had to leave off one pair of speakers cause of the common ground problem and I haven't run new wires yet) and a dash adapter that worked great for fitting a modern (sort of ) head unit. It's a $10 sony from Goodwill, the Metra adapter and dash plate were each $15 so my investment is a little lopsided. UPDATE: just stopped at a pawn shop, where for $20 I got a pair of Kenwood 2-way 6.5" speakers for the rear, gonna run some wires back as I'm using the stock front speaker wires... 'Nother update: ran new wires back to the new Kenwoods, it sounds great but now of course the stock front speakers are drowned out completely. I'd recommend replacing all 4 at once, cause you'll be going back for the 2 you don't do at first.

When you find it, we want pictures.

Bump. Good question I don't have the answer to. I too have mystery slow oil leaks on a EA82T. Good idea about cleaning the bottom of the engine then running it, sometimes the obvious escapes me. EDIT: What's in the jar?

I find that my EA82T (not your engine but not much different apart from turbo) is EXTREMELY cold-blooded - it revs quite sluggishly in second or third until it reaches operating temperature a bit above the bottom tick on the temp gauge. Are you letting it warm up?

that's painful. I'm glad you and your passenger weren't hurt, that's the next best thing to not leaving the road. and as a driver of an old RX it's good to know that the WRX's aren't the only ones that have too much power for their own good, in a way ... it was getting old hearing about kids wrecking WRXs. <hijack>my car came to me with a nice front-right impact, not as bad as your front-left there, but I had quite a time of it replacing bumper, straightening sheet metal kinks etc. not done yet but no hurry, cosmetics are not its strong point.</hijack> Good luck with your wagon, it will have a fan club here I'm sure!

That RS coupe sounds like a fun ride! Do they have the true AWD system like the RX coupes did, or the off-road 4WD system?

On that same thread there is a picture from an EA81 brat - tons of room to see the pitch stopper (I'm jealous, my EA82T engine bay is sorta cramped).

Okay, I checked it out tonight. The pitch stopper is very solid and doesn't wiggle at all. But, there is another bar which connects to the right side of the transaxle about 8 inches below the pitch stopper, same orientation, and its single-sided mounting bushing is shot, apparently. It wiggles quite a bit and even spins about 30 degrees back and forth when I torque on it by hand. The bolt that holds it on is solid with its hanger on the transaxle. I can't see where the other end of this second bar is, looks like way down on top of the back of the transaxle :-\. Can it be removed by only the bolt I can see, then unscrewing it? I'm guessing this is my culprit. Anyone else dealt with this before? This piece looks a lot like the piece in your photo, Raven, but it's not the big solid bar up top that my Chilton's calls the pitch stopper. Matter of fact the Chilton's doesn't even refer to it in the diagrams.

I agree about responsiveness, since it's in fairly good sealed condition my EA82T, stock intake/exhaust, starts spooling the turbo up around 23-2500RPM. Of course it likes to be in 2nd gear when beginning these turbo runs To the best of my knowledge there were no standard turbo 5spd D/R wagons made, although some people have swapped that tranny onto GL-10 turbowagons. Maybe a few special order models floating around in the boondocks.

Thanks Raven but actually as I stated in my first post it's a 5speed 4wd. EA82T to be precise, 86 RX 4-door to be more precise. I went out to torque on the pitch stopper last night but my g/f had just returned home with the car so it was WAY too hot to be wigglin' stuff in there. I will definitely post an update to this when I am able to look at it closely, I'll also check under the car just in case tranny mount bolts are loose.

Somebody just referred me to the "pitch stopper" in my recent thread on a similar questions. I believe the tranny mounting bolts are also easy to get to, look at the sides of the tranny... how are your engine mounts doing? can you push the engine around in the bay?

What kind of turbo engine/car are you running? Sounds like a Soob

Among other useful nuggets from other threads: Dennis says: "The pitching stopper is a rod that mounts at the rear of the engine on one end and just under the spare tire holder on the other end. There's a bushing on either end that could be worn, and it should be easy to check visually. If yours is bad, you should be able to pick one up dirt cheap from a junkyard. ...the pitching stopper isn't really adjustable. There's a little bit of play where it connects to the bracket on the rear of the engine, but that probably won't do you any good." and picture from Dennis with helpful yellow circle: http://www.udink.org/images/usmb/pitching_stopper.jpg Another clue from MaroonDuneDoom: "...while you drive te car, does your 4wd shifter kinda jolt or move down a ways? if so, i suggest also checking a bolt where your tranny links up to it's mounts or whatever, it is on the pass. side of the trany. hell, it might help."