Welcome to the family! 1996 Subaru Sambar Dias Classic (KV3-5RC) ECVT van!

On February 14th, 2022, we got our first Subaru kei vehicle, a 1996 Sambar Dias Classic KV3-5RC with the ECVT transmission and a factory-installed hydraulic wheelchair ramp. Yes, I heard the groans about the transmission. We'll discuss the ECVT stuff on a later post.This is what the van looked like the very first time we saw it!

Another few shots, next to my Volkswagen GTI (6MT, of course). I've had several of those, too!

We were really excited for this vehicle, but literally from the first moment my wife put it in gear, it has been a headache. We were really excited about the van because of not only the wheelchair lift for a family member we were caring for, but also because of the Classic front end. We hadn't seen that before, and instantly fell in love with it!

When my wife tried to drive it around the lot to head home, she stopped quickly and said, "Something doesn't feel right." I knew the vehicle was a CVT, but it definitely wasn't behaving right. The van would accelerate, but only to about 25 mph (40 kph) and the engine was at screaming high rpm. We ended up having to tow it home. Despite the website claims of the seller / exporter, the vehicle most certainly wasn't "reconditioned" and had issues.

Over the next two years, we changed the transmission "brushes" (which was a new one to me, special to the ECVT), the electromagnetic powder clutch itself (another "new one") - the brushes were around $100, and the powder clutch was around $550 before shipping. With the massive help from a friend who's a life-long pro mechanic, got the powder clutch changed and thought we were good. Then, when I was ready to drive it to the Honolulu side (Kapahulu) to get the VIN inspected to start the registration process finally - the engine was surging in the van any time I was on anything other than flat ground. The engine would finally go into gear and do ECVT things... and then the damn surging problem. Some diagnosis and checking with online groups led me to believe that there was a problem with the gas / gas tank. The only real way to fix that was going to be to drop, drain, and clean the gas tank, get a new fuel filter, and then as the books say, "assembly is the reversal of disassembly."

I'm sure for some, dropping a gas tank is easy-peasey, but it was a struggle for us. From hoses we didn't originally see while it was in place (the ones coming off the right side of the tank in that picture) to lines and stuff along the center of the vehicle that had to be removed, it was quite a chore. Not only that, everyone online kept saying to take the tank to a radiator shop and they could clean it with some special sauce that would clean out the crud. (it was nasty, orange-ish, and filled with rust flakes) I will make a separate maintenance entry regarding that whole tank experience, but I found out no radiator shop on O'ahu will touch a gas tank anymore.

The van finally got registered in August, 2024 and now officially has plates and a Hawai'i safety inspection. Now if I could just get the dang thing running reliably, I could put it up for sale. Fingers crossed we can find someone who will be able to use the wheelchair lift. (March 2025 update) - we've got the gas tank sorted, cleaned out the (NLA) transmission filter in the metal housing it sits in, and replaced some other bits. More on that in later posts.