I recently purchased a 1991 Subaru Loyale Manual Stationwagon. At the time of purchase, pressing the 4WD button on the stick turned on the 4WD. When I tried to turn on the four wheel drive again, after driving it back to my house about an hour and a half away, it did not work. I've tried it repeatedly but it will not work. Does anyone have any idea what the problem may be? Thank you.

Check the vacuum lines from the white canister (between the fire wall and strut tower on the passenger side) to the 4wd solenoids ( on the driver side between the firewall and the strut tower) make sure non of the vacuum lines are loose/disconected

Caleb has excellent suggs, and sometimes the car must moved a few feet for it to engage all the way and light the light.

turn on the heater and select the defrost. if all your selections still blow out of the dash vents, then this will confirm the loose vacuum line like caleb said.

is the button clicking and disingaging when you push it

The 4WD button is clicking, but doing nothing. It stays pressed in until I press it again.

 

As for the defrosters, I believe they work fine. When I turn on the defrosters, a little air may come out of the dash vents, but the defrosters work.

 

Thanks.

Not wanting to insult your intelligence, but, being new to the Loyale, are you sure it's in 4wd and the light is not lighting? This happened to me on my 93 Loyale when I bought it. Sometimes you can't hear it engage, or feel it for that matter. Push the button and make a few turns (slowly) and make sure it is/is not really engaging. Maybe it's just the light connection under the stick shift. The others people responding have way more technical knowledge than me, but as my dad always said, when you hear hoofbeats, don't look for a Zebra....

The easiest way to tell whether or not it's in 4WD (short of putting it on a lift) is to turn the wheel to near-full lock position and see if the car is more prone to stalling. Do NOT do this on pavement! The 4WD mechanism will cause your wheels to try to spin at the same speed--this can make the car feel like it's bogging down a little bit on a dirt/grass surface when going through a tight turn. You won't notice this when it's in 2WD. (Attempting to do the above on dry pavement, and discovering that your car IS going into 4WD, may cause your tranny to bind. This is not recommended under any circumstances. You are forewarned.)

Is the car moving when you are pushing the button, or sationary?

As you have been told, they will go into 4 wd but the light will not light sometimes.

What Donald and Caleb were refering to about the heater controls may be also said "Does the air coming from the vents change when you push the control buttons? If so the since these vent positions are controlled by vacuum and the same vacuum line controls the engagement of the 4 wd this portion of the system is funtioning.

Have you checked the fuses for the 4wd system?

Fuse #10 and #12

Hope this helps

Living in PA also, I understand why you need this feature this winter

I had the opposite problem a couple weeks ago with my 92 loyale, the 4wd wouldn't disengage. turned out the vacuum connections on the passenger side came undone. trace the tube from the white cylinder on the passenger side behind the firewall and make sure all the connections are tight. if they are, start the engine and listen for a vacuum leak by running your fingers along the hose and listening for a change in the sound.

I'm posting this message way after the fact, but in case it helps any one else: I had the same problem in my 91 Loyale wagon; Push the button, no engagement or light.

 

The vacuum line was disconnected from that little white cylinder by the firewall on the drivers side. You can see it by opening the hood and looking near the fuel filter (on mine anyway,) just under the windshield (on the firewall.) It has quite a few little hoses going to it. One was just dangling there. I re-attached and that fixed the problem. Needed to drive the car 10 or 20 feet before it engaged, but it did.

 

Thanks for everyone's input.

 

Chris