Greetings you subaru crazy cats,

Ive been a lifetime subaru driver (less romantically speaking, for my first car i was given a 84' gl wagon free and thats been my car 5 years since) and I find them to have a beautiful mysterious sort of crappy aura about them (i mean that in the most positive sense). I loved the fact that these small compact cars have killer old school 4wd, and I would love to get my hands on an ea81 hatch or brat to make into a little offroad crawler. Consequently, I was puttin' along in my wagon when i passed a nice looking black 84' brat(w/ hardtop) in the dealership 1 block from my house (are they tracing my internet usage?). Anyway, what do you all think is a reasonable price for this car, because im pretty sure his price is rather unreasonable at 2500(the stock engine looks beautiful and clean(100,000 m), new clutch, has miscellanious body damage w/ small hood dents and front right light area mashed pretty good just like mine)?

My other question is about what kind of cancer my wagon has. I get fairly low mpg(20), very low power output (6% grade pretty much kills hope of accelerating at lower than 3000 rpm(i dont go much above this usually)), the idle drifts up as high as 2000 when no pedal applied (eg when warming up, then pedal applied temporarily and it falls back) especially when cold it seems, and it sometimes sputters/runs unevenly when accelerating(feel low freq vibration through the stick). Last problem is a short grinding sound at 2000 rpm, any gear. Ive been learning my mechanics on this nifty little engine, and i would appreciate some insight.

 

Keep on truckin/bratin'

hi..

 

depending on how bad that damage is on the brat, it's probably not worth more than $1500-$1800.

 

your car sounds like it might like a timing adjustment, assuming your regular tune-up stuff is in good shape. you might also look for vacuum leaks (drifting idle) and even consider cleaning/rebuilding your carburetor. as far as the grinding sound, i have no idea. could be a vibration instead of a grinding, too.

good luck

The price for Brats has been going up and up. There's a cherry one on EBay right now that is over $6000. $2500.00 may be a bit high but it also has had some work done to it that has to be considered in the price as well.

 

The high idle doesn't sound too out of whack. Have the fuel filters been changed? Engine bay and under car in front of fuel tank. Does the tach bounce at idle? There are lots of things that can cause poor performance. Even vacuum leaks can inhibit power.

There's a Brat on the marketplace for sale now - around 1200 or so, I believe.

The grinding sound could be a heat shield rattling.