Right Hand Drive Legacy's In America

[CAV3MAN227]

-I found a 1993, RHD legacy for sale near my location. Apparently use to be a mail vehicle (says 'rural carrier US MAIL' on the sides). Guy told me its registered, clean title, told me about the car, etc.
-Based on what I know, car must be 25 years or older to be legal in the states. Can anyone elaborate on this? Is this car really legal or not? I'm interested in the car and swapping my stuff from my 92ss into it. I just need to find out more info before I even think about purchasing. Thanks in advance.

-Joe

[Chrisg03]

Its entirely legal the fact that it was a mail car then it means it was officially ordered and imported by SOA therefore entirely legal ... i have one and i live in California one of the strictest states when it comes to everything lol

[PhyrraM]

Seconded.

There were RHD Legacies sold for postal work. They are as legal as any other Subaru originally sold for use in North America.

[mike-tracy]

There's a rhd 92-94 mail carrier in a yard near me... I was expecting it to have an American VIN for somereason but it started with JF like my SS.

[PhyrraM]

From what I have read, all RHD Legacies were imported, just like most (all?) SSs. If you have a postal wagon, you even need to follow the JDM wiring diagrams.

[mike-tracy]

The fonts and graphics on everything inside the cab were familiar but noticeably off from what I'm used to.

[CAV3MAN227]

-Thanks for everyone's input. From here and all other information I have gathered, seems this car is 99.9% legal. One question though, one person told me about the vin, if it wasnt a 17 digit vin there might be a problem. Can anyone verify that for me?

-If by any lucky, I get to this car before anyone else does, I want to swap my 92ss 2.2t into this wagon. What all needs to be swapped to make the 2.2T operational in this RHD n/a? Wire harness, crossmember etc.

-Joe

[Chrisg03]

Yes but if it starts with a Jf then it certainly is legal all the "real" JDM cars ive seen have much fewer numbers in the vin 8 or 9 i think dont quote me on that one but its extremely distiguishable from the USDM VIN

[BoostedSubie]

If you do get it and swap it, I would not waist the time on swapping your harness into it. The NA and turbo harness weren't that different, the cam and cranks sensor wires are swapped, and the 3 turbo sensors is all you would need to change. Also, the RHD harness is quite different so your LHD turbo harness would be a nightmare to make work in a RHD car. I swapped my SS over to RHD with everything from a postal wagon I stripped from work. Just waiting on some funds to buy a new heater assembly and heater core as the one from the postal wagon was cracked and leaking. I also just bought a 98 RHD Legacy a couple weeks ago for a steal and plan on turbo swapping with one of the engines I have stored and had no issues registering it, 100% legal. I have heard one of the main reasons RHD cars in the US that have been imported are sometimes hard to be registered due to the different safety standards in Japan vs the US. The Japanese cars usually don't have as much crash protection as US cars, such as door bars and what not.

[CAV3MAN227]

-Well the vin does start with a JF so thats good news.

-Based on what you're saying, sounds like, not messing with the wiring will save me a lot of time, which is good news. Would I need to use my ecu? Sounds like I would but not sure on that. Not like thats hard to swap!

-Joe

[BoostedSubie]

Yeah, you definitely need the turbo ecu.

[Legacy777]

The turbo ECU won't bolt into the same location on the RHD cars. The chassis housing won't physically fit.

[BoostedSubie]

Couldn't you just change the case like we do when using the EJ20 ecu on LHD cars?

[Legacy777]

The 94 RHD is going to have a JECS ECU, while the turbo legacy is Hitachi. I'm not sure if the guts will swap.

[CAV3MAN227]

-Here are a couple pictures of the car I went to go look at today:




-I had another question, about the pedal assembly, if I wanted to turn it into a manual, would I have to get a jdm or aus pedal assembly to make it all work?

-Joe

[BoostedSubie]

Yeah, you will need the RHD specific pedal set. They are totally different. I bought mine from a member on RS25 for around 80 bucks shipped. I guess the RHD clutch master is different too but I made a LHD one work.

[BoostedSubie]

By the way, looks like a nice clean car unlike most of the high mileage mail cars. Mine has something like 370k miles and you can definitely tell from how trashed the interior is.

[Chrisg03]

I fabricated my own pedal box i cut the 5mt pedal box in half and welded it into the existing rhd auto pedals in order to make it clear the steering collum... obviously i decided to stick with a regular cable clutch tranny off a 96 impreza