Yeah that was my plan. Although it was wet right back to rear seats so unsure if heater leak would make it that far? Over time it would i suppose.

a constant small leak will gradually soak it's way through the underlay.

But check the seals for the windows then also. If the windows are out of alignment, even slightly, they may not be touching the seals all the way around.

Found a good used drive shaft to replace the bad one in the PandaWagon. No more floor board rattling shake at 15mph!

^Maybe that's why my Loyale shakes at almost exactly 20 MPH? And I get rattling too, but more so at freeway speeds. I should check my driveshaft.

 

Tonight was fun. It was 10 pm, I was driving on a forest service road that I regularly go down (I like offroading at night). I was going about 30 MPH coming out of a turn, when all of a sudden my wheel went from stiff to nothing at all. At this point, I had no steering. I instinctively slammed on the brakes, and slid into the bushes on the left side of the road. Put it in reverse and backed out a bit, still with no steering. The steering wheel was spinning freely.

 

I shut the car down, now stranded in the middle of the forest at night. Popped the hood, and found that the u-joint popped off the steering rack. Not a difficult fix, at all. I had my tools with me, and got it fixed within 30 minutes and was on my home. My steering wheel sitting 90 degrees to the right, I drove the rest of the trail at about 10 MPH, slowing down for potholes. Eventually got back on paved road with no issues, but still had a 30 minute drive home.

 

The entire drive was done at about 30-35 MPH with my hazards on, pulling over for cars behind me. Was driving on a state highway (speed limit was 55, I was doing 35), when I passed by a cop. Sure enough, he followed me for a bit and eventually turned on his lights. I pulled over, and he asked me why I was driving slow with my hazards on. I gave him my license/insurance/registration and told him what happened. He looked at my info, wished me good luck, and let me go the rest of the way home.

 

Now it's midnight, just got home, and I'm gonna fix the car tomorrow. What a night.

Edited September 5, 201411 yr by jj421

^ jonas,

Simply beautiful!!

^Maybe that's why my Loyale shakes at almost exactly 20 MPH? And I get rattling too, but more so at freeway speeds. I should check my driveshaft.

 

Certainly is possible. On the PandaWagon, it was the u-joint at the transmission end. One of the axis of u-joint was almost completely seized!   When I put her up on jack stands and let her run (4th at idle was about 15 mph with the turbo FT4WD tranny), the center part was shaking quite violently. I thought it was that u-joint, but it turned out to be the one at the tranny end.

Grant...you forgot the most important item to keep in your subie! A sleeping bag, and survival kit, some bottled water, matches etc. Especially if you're out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night bro. You be crazy haha

I suppose I'll have to put my wagon up on jack stands and see what my driveshaft and u-joints look like. Visually, everything looks fine, but I'm sure once it gets spinning I'll notice something.

 

And I always keep stuff in my Subie. I never leave home without a lighter, tow strap, ratchet straps, hunting knife, water, road triangle, spare timing belt, spare light bulbs, and some other things that I forget. I always have pretty much everything required to spend the night in the woods. Only thing I don't have is a jack in case I get a flat.

Changed out the transmission fluid, put the Royal Purple in, should have done that when I first picked the car up oh well better late than never, I figured that was why I was unable to get it into first easily for the past week or so.

 

Then dropped the 5W-30 out and put in the high mileage 10W-40, hopefully that will slow some of the leaks down.

 

Thank you all who gave input for the best weight of oil for these cars, I was running 5W-30 in everything we had, made it nice, same oil for all the engines, this is more better for my Brat though

cleaned the 'mud weights' out of the inside of my front rims, had the tires re-balanced and a stem leak fixed on the RS, also seems the oil leaks are finally gone after massaging the oil pan bolt holes

 

pulled the weakening engine out of the legacy and have cleaned up used one on the engine stand to go back in

 

moving the single port Y pipe over to the formerlly dual port car

^Maybe that's why my Loyale shakes at almost exactly 20 MPH? And I get rattling too, but more so at freeway speeds. I should check my driveshaft.

 

Tonight was fun. It was 10 pm, I was driving on a forest service road that I regularly go down (I like offroading at night). I was going about 30 MPH coming out of a turn, when all of a sudden my wheel went from stiff to nothing at all. At this point, I had no steering. I instinctively slammed on the brakes, and slid into the bushes on the left side of the road. Put it in reverse and backed out a bit, still with no steering. The steering wheel was spinning freely.

 

I shut the car down, now stranded in the middle of the forest at night. Popped the hood, and found that the u-joint popped off the steering rack. Not a difficult fix, at all. I had my tools with me, and got it fixed within 30 minutes and was on my home. My steering wheel sitting 90 degrees to the right, I drove the rest of the trail at about 10 MPH, slowing down for potholes. Eventually got back on paved road with no issues, but still had a 30 minute drive home.

 

The entire drive was done at about 30-35 MPH with my hazards on, pulling over for cars behind me. Was driving on a state highway (speed limit was 55, I was doing 35), when I passed by a cop. Sure enough, he followed me for a bit and eventually turned on his lights. I pulled over, and he asked me why I was driving slow with my hazards on. I gave him my license/insurance/registration and told him what happened. He looked at my info, wished me good luck, and let me go the rest of the way home.

 

Now it's midnight, just got home, and I'm gonna fix the car tomorrow. What a night.

Awesome! I love those random adventures old cars put us through!

I had an incident (though not nearly as dramatic) right after i got my 5spd put in. I was roaring down a curvy dirt road testing it out, and i went to slow down and the throttle was stuck! Hit the brakes with a corner coming up, but it wasnt enough to slow me down so i killed the ignition....and locked the steering wheel up! My ignition switch is really freakin picky about how far the key is inserted, and i couldnt get it unlocked. Locked up the brakes, slid sideways-ish into a ditch. No damage.

It was the vacuum idle compensator for when the AC or defrost vents are on. Id modified it to work with my weber, and it did work, but this time went way way too far. (I blame the brand new vac hose i installed)

So instead of fixing it, i went ahead and just disconnected it. We dont need them fancy doodads.

I was thinking fixing the ignition switch, but nah. Its a good theft deterrent!

jj421, that reminded me of the time 20 years ago when I was driving down the main street of the coutnry town I lived in, when the lower ball joint came away from the steering knuckle. So with the right front wheel (driver's side for me) jammed into the back of the wheel arch, I just smashed the brake pedal to lock up the front wheels and skidded to a stop.

Doesn't sound like a big deal, except the road was due to be closed about 5 mins later for the annual street parade & people were already starting to gather.

 

Not enough tools to fix (the ball joint had sheared), the local tow company was going to take 30 mins (still can't figure that one out, the town was only 5 mins drive across...), but basically a whole heap of onlookers either picked up the front corner of the car or sat on/in the boot and we rolled it down the street & around the corner 

Just figured I'd give a quick update to my steering failure adventure, since you guys responded. What caused me to lose steering was half of my engine subframe bolts sheered off. My Loyale is lifted, and I have a subframe drop. When I originally put the drop in, I didn't have any big drill bits and I was too cheap to buy some. So I decided it would be fine to just run skinny 1/4" bolts to hold my subframe on.

 

Fast forward a couple months, and after ~500-750 offroad miles and jumping my car 4-5 times, they finally gave way. That night, the two driver's side subframe bolts snapped, which caused the entire engine to hang low on the driver's side. This, of course, pulled on the steering column to a point where the u-joint got pulled off.

 

Good thing I did not drive fast that night, because I didn't notice the subframe bolts until the day after. Since I have the proper tools now, I currently have much bigger bolts holding the engine up. Not sure what the diameter is, but they're the same size bolts as the factory ones except longer. I also have both lock nuts and lock washers. My new bolts are also a stronger metal than the OEM ones. If these fail in any way, I will probably quit life.

 

You're guys' stories are very interesting. I love reading these stories. And don't even get me started on ball joints. I would write about the night I lifted my car, but I think I already wrote a post in this thread back in February of this year. Yeah, yeah, I did. It's on page 226 of this thread. Go check it out. That was a fun night too.

Just figured I'd give a quick update to my steering failure adventure, since you guys responded. What caused me to lose steering was half of my engine subframe bolts sheered off. My Loyale is lifted, and I have a subframe drop. When I originally put the drop in, I didn't have any big drill bits and I was too cheap to buy some. So I decided it would be fine to just run skinny 1/4" bolts to hold my subframe on.

 

Fast forward a couple months, and after ~500-750 offroad miles and jumping my car 4-5 times, they finally gave way. That night, the two driver's side subframe bolts snapped, which caused the entire engine to hang low on the driver's side. This, of course, pulled on the steering column to a point where the u-joint got pulled off.

 

Good thing I did not drive fast that night, because I didn't notice the subframe bolts until the day after. Since I have the proper tools now, I currently have much bigger bolts holding the engine up. Not sure what the diameter is, but they're the same size bolts as the factory ones except longer. I also have both lock nuts and lock washers. My new bolts are also a stronger metal than the OEM ones. If these fail in any way, I will probably quit life.

 

You're guys' stories are very interesting. I love reading these stories. And don't even get me started on ball joints. I would write about the night I lifted my car, but I think I already wrote a post in this thread back in February of this year. Yeah, yeah, I did. It's on page 226 of this thread. Go check it out. That was a fun night too.

hah this whole story is great. There should be a thread of "what happened to my subaru lately"

I don't get why you'd need drill bits, apart from needing to drill big sized holes through the lift blocks?

Because don't need to enlarge the holes in the car.

I don't get why you'd need drill bits, apart from needing to drill big sized holes through the lift blocks?

Because don't need to enlarge the holes in the car.

 

Exactly. I didn't have big drill bits to drill the holes through the lift blocks originally. But now I bought the step drill bit set from Harbor Freight, and it works amazingly well.

$0 strut tower brace because RallyX car

Built a strut tower brace out of some scrap metal.  

Never sold your rig huh Carl? I really like what you did with it. I'm really surprised you didn't sell it.

No didn't sell.  I got at least 30 tire kickers though.  Making a skid plate and a rear strut brace out of scrap also.  I'll post pics when installed.

Ugh tire kickers the worst of the worst from craigslist. "Would you take payments...mostly in potatoes?" I'm sorry bud. I am excited however to see more pics of your car!

Cool brace!

How has that changed the response of the chassis, Carl B.?

New wiper blades, fuel filter and o-rings under the power steering pump reservoir.

I am swapping suspensions and lift between a 98 forester and 96 impreza. lifted impreza and lowered forester.

I am swapping suspensions and lift between a 98 forester and 96 impreza. lifted impreza and lowered forester.

 

Don't Forget to Share Photos, I'll Love to see how the impreza looks...

 

and the gained tallness, maybe like an Outback impreza?

 

The Lowered Forester could be interesting to see, also.

 

Kind Regards.

@subynut,

 

I can't really tell the brace is there unless I'm looking at it, but I haven't had a chance to push the car hard since its been installed.