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Hello everyone, long time no post. Mom and depression takes all my time, and basically I feel no one gives a damn so I hide. Anyway My trusty 2005 Outback has 208,000 miles on it. For the first time in my life I have the cash for a fairly new off lease outback. Im looking 2017 +/- 2 years Limited or touring. What Im going back and forth with is a 3.6 6cyl or 2.5 4cyl. Keeping in mind my 2005 get excellent highway mileage but poor local mileage (17 mpg) as there is a stop sign on every corner. Im leaning towards the 6. I plan on keeping it untill the doors fall off or 200K which ever happens first. Thanks Wear a mask nipper

it is highly recommended to NOT touch the rear main seal.. unless it is very obviously damaged if it were me, i would not mess with it.. like I said before, there is a 99.99% chance it is fine and the source of the leak is the separator plate. One Legacy I had, the plate was leaking so badly that I had to put a quart of oil in about once a week... fixed the leaking plate and it was golden.

You should see the "gas gauge" i keep for my '70 GMC--a 5' piece of marked 1"x1". Just stick it in then look for the wet mark lol.

I'm looking for off lease, still with some warranty, 2017 or 2018. I just put $$$ into my 05 (timing belt etc) so we are talking spring. The new ones havnt changed much from 2017 so ill let someone else take the depreciation hit

It’s super easy. Have a good flashlight handy. To the drivers side of the throttle body, straight down, the only thing with a 12mm bolt facing straight up. there are zillions of FSMs for free that show it and people have posted the image countless times.

05-09s kind of suck relative to other years. They’re struts, power steering are garbage compared to 00-04s. Any 05-09 I get I can assume those trash items will need replaced, and it’s not like they’re any better in some way that makes it a trade off. 00-04 (or baja) struts are commonly installed as upgrades (direct swap) over 05-09s struts. and plan on $300 OEM steering pump or replacing aftermarket a few times to get a good new one. Wheel bearings are also more likely to fail. Those aren’t big deals and easily remedied in a way but they have no advantage to 00-04s....except they are newer. If it were for my family/friends I’d get a nice low mileage 00-04 southern/western rust free 03-04 Outback all day long over a lower grade 05-09. Fly or have it shipped - do whatever you need. I shipped a Forester like 400 miles this summer for like $350. Dirt cheap and expands my range for a better deal in the end. Or spring for a 2017+. In between is no mans land. Limited advantages for a little lower maintenance and reliability.

somewhat of a scramble to get Medicare going to avoid lapse in med coverage. Still working thru a few issues with that but mostly trying to determine how to satisfy different agencies' requirements.....wife takes a very expensive drug (she has CIDP ,psoriasis, etc.) that was mostly comped by a manufacturer's program, but now she has to switch to a different program or - it's like $800/month!!! my wife (wisely in retrospect) got her mom out of her snr apt about a week before the first shutdown and she's been here since. Our house is less handi-capable than where she was, but, we have been able to limit her exposure to potential infection quite a bit. Plus, several folks at her (and other similar facilities around here) have gotten Covid, and one died (that we know of - we get second and 3rd hand info from her acquaintances still there). She has cong. heart failure, COPD, is overweight,etc. If she got covid it would kill her. Being unemployed now actually reduces everyone's risk at our house. But she misses her cat, she has different rules/schedules living here, space is a little tight-ish, plans my wife and I had are on hold ..... but there's going to be a 'far side' to all this - we're going to make it in some form or other.

gummy PCV valve might increase pressure and exacerbate any leaks. but, yeah, read many times of hemorrhaging separator plates, can't recall reading about any rear mains leaking.