Petersubaru

For decades now this continues to be one of subarus consistent weak points..corrosion onset at an alarming rate together with a poor quality of undercoating that easily developes cracks...salt just loves that recycled metal ..the only way to combat this problem, as least from my experience is to oil undercoat before and after winter or at least before winter followed up with a good wash after the snow disappears..my '86 and '01 show no real signs of any rust and the frames are solid...a friend who works at a muffler shop tells me that a hyandai only 4 yrs old had some of the frame rotted out ..not from salt but from the A/C releaseing the water thru a portion of the frame...

..I was leaking enough coolant to turn my plugs black..I don't know if you could tell just by looking at the plugs if the leak was very small...here is an easy way to determine a headgasket leak if you have a compressor,... http://realfixesrealfast.com/realfixesrealfast.com/Diagnostics/Pages/Diagnosing_a_bad_Cylinder_Head.html

Plug wires are new and the spark plugs never used before..

wanted to change out the plugs, only to find that I had 2 Denso and 2 NGK's ..all 4 plugs are correct for the 1990 loyale..installed on each side 1 ngk and 1 denso and then drove 1 hr ...out of curiosity I pulled the plugs and the denso were grayish in color through out while the ngk's were more whiteish with a greenish colored ground strap..switched them around and drove another 1/2 hr..pulled the plugs once more..basically no change to the plugs except that the green color was a little darker ..spark plug charts make no mention of this greenish tint..any ideas..timing, or are the plugs to hot??

maybe your heads are not flat..I feel for you..a real pain to redo..drove my unit 30 mi and then came the white smoke...the heads were milled and pressure checked ( I hope )..long story short, I took the heads to another shop, and out comes the big heavy straight edge and feeler gauges between .002 - .006 were slipping under the bar in various spots..the machinist said he had no answer as to why the heads were so wavy..not unless the previous place used a hand held belt sander...

Once I found the correct position of the lever so that it leaked no more ...then I tied the lever down with mechanics wire...worked well for many years now..

I forgot to mention that maybe 1 or 2(can't remember) rubber "O" rings will be needed on the cam carriers for sealing up the oil passages.."viton" rubber will hold up for a long time..

Nothing additional needed..

subaru atf fluid will turn to a brown color, this normal for that particular brand..stay with a scheduled "dump and replace" every 15K/mi or before each winter..all should be good for the long haul...

..on an '86 you don't have to do that.."loosen or remove" completely the nuts on the sway bar attached to the swing arm.."just loosen" the nut on top of the ball joint..."remove" the bolt completely holding the bottom of the ball joint..useing a long steel bar, 4-6ft long pry up on the swing arm to lift the ball joint out of the socket...pb blaster will help..

in this case, with a 2001 OB, but applies to any ball joint.. http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/7501919888/m/24719753201 or youtube "exploding ball joints"

a bit of a pain at first, especially for my wife...the dip stick bends into the oil pan more then most other vehicles thus making it difficult to read ..this will happen when the oil is over filled, even "slightly" over filled...get the vehicle perfectly level in "all directions" and never add more oil then what it needs to get the oil level to the very top small hole on the dip stick...when cold, pull the dip stick and wipe off , insert again and quickly pull to check.."perfectly full and car level" will show the stick to have oil on one side of the dip stick up to the top hole, while the back side of the stick will be probably be more covered....and of course the "notch" on the dip stick is only used when the vehicle is hot.. if you don't have an eye for "level", look at how the fluid in your brake master cylinder is sitting in relation to the container or instead, place a small level on top of your brake mastercyl cap to determine...and remember, if it is "close" enough, then in this case, it is "good" enough..next, place level in glove box for future use(just kidding here)

some info to help with that question ... http://allwheeldriveauto.com/subaru-2-5l-sohc-head-gasket-kit/ and http://allwheeldriveauto.com/subaru-head-gasket-problems-explained/#comment-40486

... I was told I needed a new cat for my '01 OB...but after reading other peoples experiences of having spent a lot of money only to find out that the PO420 shortly returned again, got me thinking...there seems to be NO magic bullet in dealing with PO420 code at least for the subi...one thing for sure is the unknown result after the repair has been done...for me it was very simple, just change the gas station .. the CEL came on once during the first 2 fill-ups at another station so the problem was not completely fixed (maybe I still had some old gas in the tank..my wife tends not to go under 1/2 a tank before she fills up again)..I immediately canceled the CEL and it has been off now for almost 1 yr....if going to a different station didn't cure the problem, I would exchange the front 02 sensor and put a fouler for the rear 02 along with a new pcv...small fixes along with getting the car properly tuned would be my first line of attack

I would be interested to know what was replaced or recommended to be replaced from the dealer...I can explain later...

I had some pulleys given to me, apparently bought thru ebay, the ones with the green colored seal (GMB brand/ korean made) (the bearings on my car say Japan on them)..would anybody know what the expected safe useful life of these bearings to be ...perhaps the same as subaru at 100K+mi or maybe less...

..and that goes for me too..

I just came back from Colorado and was wondering why they sell regular gas starting with 85 octane (mid-range is 87)..does lower octane help in higher elevations...

..pushing or reaming a hardened material into the intake manifold my not be good for the pistons..or you might just get lucky by taking a small screw driver to scrape the surface of the clogged hole..maybe you will not have to go any deeper..

..my personal experience is of late..had to replace the water pump on my vw diesel since the pump was making a noise and leaking thru the weep hole...I was surprised to find out that the "houseing" attached to the pump was nearly eaten thru and I don't mean a small pin hole..also, interestingly the pump itself was still looking OK

..for your reading.. http://www.alldatadiy.com/techtips/Subaru/20030203d.html and http://www.sancarlosradiator.com/VoltageDrop/education.htm

is there an exact way to test the amount of voltage running thru the coolant to determine if electrolysis is slowly taking place either because of the wrong coolant in the system or just being to old and needs to come out....or does it even matter if there is a high amount of current running thru the coolant, so long as the coolant is changed a regular basis...some web sites say the car needs to be warmed up or at least running, others say rev the car up to 2000rpm before the test can be made...some others would say nothing, but just remove the rad cap and test...

about the stink I have no experience with...my daughters car also had a stumble because the relationship between "rpm and timing", both being too advanced ..the present setting that works in my case are both "idle speed" and the "rpm used for timing" at 8deg, be limited to 750- 800rpm...another way of looking at it .. for example.. if the timing is set at 10deg @ 800rpm and the idle speed then raised to 1000rpm..this would cause a slight stumble apon take-off in my daughters case..(raising the idle speed increases the timing)

Yes, I will report back in a few months and also I am very confident that this problem has been worked out ...it all started with my assumption that this newly aquired car (at the time) still had the original subi guide pins which of course it did not have, and not knowing any better at the time, any comparisons of guide pins were aftermarket to aftermarket...this might explain why the rear brakes gave No problems (they still had the original pins).. the 2nd observation, the subi pin will now move easier in and out..personally I wish they would have stayed with the older style guide pin boots.. Guide pins are only part of the equation which means proper grease or lub is equally important..I just like having my rotors look and wear the same on both sides... If you are interested, this thread about grease/lub ..bare with reading it because it gets more interesting starting on pg 2 when I come in... http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1864378&page=1

..I thought I would revive this thread as a follow- up as to why ( the theory at the moment) I have had for the past 3 yrs the caliper guide pins seizing up on me... received my new caliper guide pins from subaru and at first glance the pins are different from the aftermarket picture above..the subi pins are "beveled" for the "full length" of the pin while the aftermarket have the bevel going up only half way..with the protective rubber boot griping the pin and without that bevel, there is no way for air to travel freely ...so in the long run the pin will hydraulic..in other words the pin will behave like its rusted and without grease...the previous owner had nothing but brake problems and had the car repaired several times at a brake shop and also having installed new aftermarket pins ...I never have any brake noise and decided not to use the pin that takes the rubber end...at least for me, another example of only buying OEM parts...