We just purchased an 83 GL sedan for our college age daughter. Never owned a Subaru before and am wondering if anyone can tell us a little about the car. I know it has 83,000 mile on it, is really clean, and is a front wheel drive. Think we got a pretty good deal on it, but really know nothing about the cars. Anyone have advice or things to watch out for? Hubby's a pretty decent backyard mechanic!

thats awesome, welcome aboard. my first car was a 81 coupe fwd. if im correct your car is a 5 speed. does it have the 1.8 or the 1.6 motor? either is good but one is bigger. basically keep coolant in it (read: DO NOT OVERHEAT) change the oil regularly, this car will last a long time if you do rudimentary maintenance on it. look out for rust. at 83000 miles you got a sweet car.

 

 

 

RV

Thanks for the info. This one is a 1.8 & is an automatic transmission-much to my daughter's dismay. She loves driving a 5 speed. I'm just a little concerned about a car that is almost 30 years old, but after reading alot of the posts here, it seems these things have a pretty long life. Let's hope this one does! Should we be worried about the timing chain? Don't have a clue if it's ever been replaced, but I've read some of the posts here about that needing to be done.

The 83 doesn't have a timing chain or belt! The motor you have should be the EA81 witch if you don't over heat it and keep clean oil in it will last pretty much forever I have owned several of these old subarus and I keep coming back to them! I don't think you will be disappointed with your purchase, welcome aboard!

Wow, thanks! So I'm a car idiot! Happy to hear that, tho, as it sounds like a pain to do. We're picking the car up today so I'll get a chance to look it over for the 1st time. Daughter says it looks "so vintage". Guess that makes me vintage too!

We love pics....especially of a '83 sedan with 83k miles on it.

I'll take some pics this afternoon & post em up for you all to see. I was a little sceptical about the 83k miles, but after doing some checking, it seemed right in line. Just hoping this will be a good car for the kid!

much to my daughter's dismay. She loves driving a 5 speed.

 

I have owned both the 5 speed version of this car and the auto tranny version. Both of my cars ran well and both of the trannys worked fine.

 

I can tell you this.The auto tranny takes away alot of the limited horsepower of a already small engine. Hopefully she's not going to be spending alot of time on the freeway with this car. For around town and country driving they are alot of fun....even the auto. If she gets out on the hiway,she's going to feel like a small fish in a big pond.

 

You can search "3at" and find out alot of info on the tranny.

Thanks again for the info. I know what a transmission is, but that's about as far as I go. I'll have my husband search the info about it-since he'll be the mechanic. Fortunately, there isn't alot of highway driving involved. Mainly backroads. When my hubby drove the car, he said it didn't have alot of "get up" to it, which made us kind of happy-considering we pay the insurance & the girl has had 2 speeding tickets in my Amigo!

Have the transmission flushed by a reputable shop first thing - cheap insurance with the 3AT's. The biggest potential for failure on that car is that auto tranny. Flushing it every 30k is a very good idea.

 

Otherwise - about the only thing you have to worry about on the EA81's is the carbs and oil leaks. Wouldn't be a bad idea to replace the pan and valve cover gaskets (only buy them from the dealer), and do the water pump, radiator and heater core hoses. Age is the real factor here not the mileage. 27 years will take it's toll on the rubber stuff and the water pump seals.

 

When (not if) you have carb issues - replace the carb with a Weber 32/36 DGEV. You can get the kits to retro-fit these from Redline (the US distributor of Weber products) for about $300. It will help the performance a *little* and will solve all the stock carb issues that these have.

 

GD

Edited September 29, 201015 yr by GeneralDisorder

Ok, I took some pics of the new wheels, but you have to be far smarter than me to post them...hmmm. So the car is very nice. Some rust on the front fenders on each side, but that's about it. If I can figure out how to post them, I'll put the pics up. Thanks to everyone for their advice & Help. We really aprreciate it!

Maybe I have the picture posting figured out. I'll give it a try anyway...

I dont see a picture personally, but if you upload it to photobucket (free) and then copy the image code into a bulletin message here, it will add it, you can preview to make sure it works too.

 

Welcome aboard!