TheBigJ

Now I'm corn-fused. I have an 88 dl which is the same as the Loyale AFAIK. I had my check engine light flashing and it was because the test connectors were plugged together. So what? well, the car is fuel injected and the connectors are definitely GREEN. They were in the engine compartment on the drivers side near the hood.

I'm pretty sure it's stamped on the firewall as well. get out the dremel?

This is my first post in USMB :-) Right now I have 3 subarus - 82 GL 2WD, 88 DL 4WD and 90 Legacy AWD. Today I'm asking about my 88. It has 200K+ on the clock and a few weeks ago started making a really loud growling noise. It does this at idle, when I rev in nuetral, and in any gear. Louder with engine speed. Background info: I start the car some morning to go to work. I notice a tapping noise that I haven't noticed before, but head to work anyway. A block down the road my oil light comes on. Knowing this light only comes on when the oil is really low, I head home and put two quarts in. I start driving again, takes a while for the oil light to go out, but I think the tapping is still there. I get on the highway and travel a few minutes at speed. Suddenly, something changes. The car starts making a very loud GROWL. I pull over and check oil, gear oil, etc. Everything is ok. I limp to work at low speeds and at low RPM to keep the noise down. I limp home the same way. So, first I think the timing belt(s) have slipped or broken and I am getting no compression. I take the front of the engine apart and everything looks ok, but I replace them anyway. I check the ignition timing with a timing light, it looks fine too. I check compression and get 150/150/150/100 which is basically what I got the day I bought the car. I pull the distributor cap off and check it's position with the 0 degree mark, which also looks fine. Any idea what this could be? I can't tell if there is a loss of power or not because the noise is so loud and scary I don't want to drive it hard (no tach either). I did a search and someone had stated that a growling noise can be tranny gears - I am guessing this means the transfer gear because I don't even have to be IN gear to hear it. Any help is appreciated! PS anyone want to buy it? It starts and runs!