pulloff

A blinking CEL can indicate a misfire. It may be something simple like new plugs and wires. It could be a coil pack. Hopefully that’s all it is. Not to scare anyone but my CEL came on (99 Outback) and I put on new plugs, wires, coil pack and it would still come on once in a while randomly. It turned out to be a blown head gasket. The combo of no compression and coolant getting through the gasket was putting the fire out. It can be a huge range of issues hopefully it’s a quick cheap fix, good luck.

Thanks unverviking, my father lives in Naples and has taken his 00 Outback to Pats on numerous occasions. He has had great luck with them so far (No major problems or repair though just minor stuff). I called them and talked with them about my problem a week and a half ago. They very politely said that if it was a problem with the head/valve train they don’t want to do that kind of work on a 2.5 Phase 1 (I can’t blame them from a reliability standpoint). They referred me to Langner Enterprises in Bristol NY. I gave him a call and talked with him but I am still shopping around for any other good mechanics. 99obw I’m going to PM you in a minute my Saturday plans just got canceled.

Things only seem to go wrong when the weather is bad! My 99 OBW (Phase 1 DOHC) is having some serious engine issues. It has a constant misfire in cylinder 4. Here’s a quick background, HG done at 140K, Passenger side head was milled close to maximum allowable amount. Car has been fine since then, the only issue it has had has been increased oil consumption. The car never used a drop of oil before the HG issue and now uses about half a quart to a quart ever 5000 miles. Back to my current issue. A few weeks ago (189k) I got the dreaded CEL with the blinking misfire code. When I pulled over and got out I left the car running and noticed a slight squeaking sound on occasion. I shut the car off and check the oil and it was fine. Started the car up and headed home and it misfired one more time in about 20 miles of driving home. CEL stayed on but not blinking. Pulled the battery cable to clear the code and drove to work the next day waiting for the misfire, after a mile or so it misfired, after a few more miles it became constant. I went to a parts store on my lunch to get the code read and it showed a constant misfire on cylinder 4. The slight squeaking has turned into a noticeable tapping. I fear the worst, a valve train issue. I don’t think it’s electrical, I forgot to mention that the coil, plugs, and wires were also replaced just before the HG job. I pulled each wire from the coil with the car running and it is getting plenty of spark. If it was a plug I doubt it would squeak then tap but I’m no expert. If anybody has any ideas I would love to hear them. Part two, any body have recommendations for a good shop in Western New York. I live in the center of WNY and it’s the same if I drive to Buffalo or Rochester, or even Corning, I’m just looking for a good honest mechanic. There are 7 inches of wind driven snow in my yard and I don’t have a garage so I won’t be freezing my hands off to do much work myself. My wife bought the car new from Van Bortel Subaru and we have had terrible luck with their service dept. We have had to go back multiple times for every issue we’ve had with the car. They have never gotten it right the first time and we have been more than disappointed with them so we are looking for a good honest Subie mechanic in WNY.

I’ve got a set (all 4 tire) of cable chains that I’ve run on my 99 Outback. I bought them when I lived in Boulder CO, and never got a chance to use them out there. I have used them a few times here in NY. Once I used them to pull someone out of a snow bank. They worked great. I pulled out a Chevy Lumina that was hung up on a huge snow drift and the front of the car was buried in a snow bank. I tried pulling the Lumina out with just snow tires but nothing, just spinning. It only takes a few minutes to put on the chains (but somehow seems much longer when you’re crawling around in the snow). I strapped on the tire chains and pulled the car out with ease and never spun a tire (I sure wish I had a hi-lo range though). There isn’t a ton of clearance in the wheel-wells so make sure your chains are tight. Cable chains have a low profile and work great but I don’t have any experience with any other types of chains. If they are loose you can do some serious damage so make sure you get them tight. If you put them on as tight as you can and drive a few feet you can usually re-tighten them a notch as they straighten themselves out on the tires. They are loud and I wouldn’t go over 30. Have fun in the mountains.

First few times I changed mine (99 Obw) the hose slid off with ease. This time it was a different story, I put a new one on last week and the hoses were on as tight as could be. I pulled, pried, pushed and nothing. They were set up tight. After a few rain drops hit my neck under my shirt collar it came to me: I went to my tool box and got my dull “awl” I gently pressed the awl into the end of the hose to loosen it from the filter. 2 drops of “all purpose oil” into the crack and I repeated this process a few more times around the fuel line - fuel filter junction. A quick twist and everything broke loose, another twist to work the oil in and everything slide off with ease. No broken fuel lines. I repeated the same process for the outlet side of the filter and it only took about a minute and a half to get it unstuck. Just be careful to use a thin dull awl so you don’t rupture the line, Help this helps out, Good luck.

Definitely sounds like the dreaded head gaskets are gone. Sorry to hear that the Subaru shops are giving you the run around. I’m sure this isn’t the first time they’ve seen this problem. I’d take the thermostat out completely (keeps the coolant flowing so the air can’t stop and collect in one spot) if you have to keep driving it for a few days. If you keep using the car for a few days or weeks I’d check the coolant level every day and top it off with water (no need to waste antifreeze). Don’t wait too long trying to avoid the inevitable. When you pull the heads it would be a good time to put in new: timing belts, rad hoses, spark plugs at the minimum. Have a machince shop make sure the heads and/or block isn’t warped before reassembly. Good luck, and sorry to hear about the failure, it seems like it is going to happen to all Phase I 2.5’s at some point. It amazes me the SOA isn’t “aware” of any HG issues with these motors! SOA lack of accountability is making me rethink my future auto choices.

Unfortunately the 15” rims aren’t an option on the 03 OBW. Rotor size was increased on the front and the calipers are too tall and too thick to fit a 15” rim. Under ideal circumstances I would like to go to a 15” and minus size with the tires but it isn’t possible on the 03 OBW (Unless someone has a solution out there?)

I thought I was the only weirdo thinking about snow tires but I guess I was wrong. Glad to see there are other sickos out there like me. Now I don’t have to hang my head in shame (at least not about snow tires). I haven’t really thought much about the rubber side of the equation yet, I.E. studded vs. stud-less, or Blizzaks vs. Michilens vs…, my primary concern was the tires size and especially the corresponding rim size. I’m willing to take the tradeoff in dry road cornering and handling for a narrow tire in the snow, usually if there are snow tires on the car I’m in winter driving mode already which means I am taking every corner fairly conservative wet or dry. Gary (“All talk”) is exactly right, I want a tire that cuts through all the slush and fluff and gets a solid grip on some firm hardpack or pavement, the wider tires just seem to float on top and ski across the surface (For an extreme example: you can steer an old school runner sled, you can't steer a saucer style sled). There’s probably data out there that will support either argument but I am just going on personal experience with some other cars. The rims are the tricky part of the equation that I need to work out first. I haven’t been able to find a narrow 16” rim with the 4-100 bolt pattern and the correct offset to run a narrower tire. Everything at tirerack.com etc... is stock width. I’m not sure on how much narrower I would be willing to go on a stock width rim. Anybody got any suggestions? The stock tire is a 225/60r16, I think the stock rim is a 6.5” width. The other reason I’d like to go to narrow steel instead of nice alloy is wheel balance. I fought with large chunks of ice freezing to the stock alloy rims on our 03 numerous times last winter. Not sure why because it never once happened on our 99 stock rims (3 NY winters and 2 CO winters), may have something to do with the more open design of the 03 rims (one NY winter). Nothing more fun than getting out of the car a few miles down the road early in the morning in 5 degree weather to unsuccessfully try and chip out some huge chunks of ice that are vibrating the teeth out of your head. I’m still not sure about using 4 temporary full size spare rims with snow tires on them. I haven’t pulled out my stock spare tire to look at the rim yet but it seems like a viable solution. I’d just throw the emergency doughnut spare tire in the trash and mount up a good snow tire on the rim, then look for 3 more emergency spares from some wrecked 00-04 Subarus. I might pullout the doughnut spare tonight and look at it. Thanks to everyone that has responded so far.

I’m a sick person, I’m already starting to plan for winter with our cars and it not even July yet! I drive a 2003 OBW and want to pick up a set of steel wheels for snow tires. I put steelies with snow tires on our 99 OBW last fall and it was like night and day. So the budget this year should allow me another set. I know that Tire Rack and a ton of other places sell 16 inch steelies with the 4 on 100 bolt pattern but I’m looking for something narrow. All the steel 16’s I’ve seen are the stock width and I don’t want to ski across the snow I want to cut through it so the narrower the better. If anyone knows where I can buy narrow 16 inch rims I would appreciate it. Here’s one last dumb idea, would a standard tire fit on the full size spare rim? Would the full size spare rim hold up? Is the full size spare rim too narrow? I know its months away until snow flies but if I start looking now I won’t have to screw around with this in the fall. Thanks in advance for any help or ideas.

Actually I wouldn't chase, race or pull anything with either of our OBWs. With the minor exception of putting on four tire chains and pulling someone/myself out of the driveway that has drifted in with snow! If truth be known I'm a very conservative driver. I get smoked off the line by 95 Yr old women with walkers on the sidewalk. I just tell myself it's because women have a slightly faster average reaction time. I accelerate both + and - as gradual as possible to save on gas and conserve brakes, yeh I'm cheap like that, parts and gas go farther and wallet stays umm,,, less empty… The Honda Odyssey is very nice, but so is the Sienna. I know minivans aren't "cool" anymore but they sure are quite a bite more refined these days. When my wife and I get around to having kids I won't hesitate one second to buy a minivan. Maybe a Town and Country or Grand Caravan if they still come in AWD. Although, it will take more than one progeny to outgrow the OBW. Both our OBWs are manual and when cruising down the expressway I wouldn't mind a six speed with an expressway gear for +65 mph. I don't know if it would improve mileage but I just hate looking down and seeing the tach so high.

75 mph? I thought the speed limit here in NY was 65 mph? I used to live in CO and most of the roads I took were 65 mph and the expressways were 75 mph, I miss that, I still drive the same but I miss it being legal.

Our 99 obw always got decent mileage. It has been like clock work since new at 29 mpg of mixed city and hwy. The mileage has been in the mid to low 20’s through the winter with the snow tires and after the head gasket replacement (also, much idling in the morning). I have yet to take the snow tires off, possibly next weekend and I am looking forward to seeing what the mileage is since the HG replacement. 31 is great mileage for an obw especially at +150k. Auto or manual? I’d still trade some HP and pep for better mileage. In my opinion society is too hung-up on HP numbers. The high HP is nice when I am chasing someone down in a fit of road rage, or when I am street racing against a Honda, or possibly when I take the car out to the fields to pull a wagon full of hay. Don’t get me wrong I like power but I’d trade it for 40-50 mpg in a reliable awd car. For now I’ll take upper 20’s but when someone comes out with a decent awd car that is reliable I’ll buy it. If not Subaru, hopefully it’s a Toyota or a Honda.

I am by no means an expert in o-ringing a head but I work on pulling tractors (don’t laugh they actually have some pretty interesting engineering in them) with some friends of mine in my spare time. The tractors are inline-6 multi-turbocharged engines on methanol. The head gaskets are 0.060 copper, the heads are o-ringed, and the blocks are also o-ringed with receiver grooves. The wire used is stainless, the blocks are cast iron, the heads are aluminum. The tractors run 3 turbos in 2 pressure stages and run 7000 rpm and approximately 80-130 lbs of boost. The tractors only run at full throttle for about 10 secs so it goes from cold to red hot in a few secs so it is a pretty extreme test of a head gasket over a very short duration. Head gasket failures are extremely uncommon. I’m not an electrolysis or corrosion expert but there have been no problems with the copper/aluminum or copper/iron interface although the head is only on the tractor for a year and then it gets freshened up for the next year. I know it’s comparing apples to oranges but that is the extreme situation that I’ve seen copper head gaskets and o-rings work in. I think the copper head gasket with o-rings would be an interesting experiment on a Subaru that is driven every day. I know the system can take some serious abuse but I am curious how it would stand up to the long term abuse of everyday driving. How would it seal in freezing conditions? What kind of life expectancy would it have? If it is a truly superior head gasket system why don’t auto manufactures use it, cost?

My pistons on my cars usually reset by hand when they don’t I use large channel locks to reset the piston, it’s easy and quick. Just make sure you use a rag in the jaws of the channel locks so you don’t mare the piston or the caliper. Works the same as the c-clamp idea, and no need to open a bleed valve. I though it was interesting the RR made a scraping sound. My right rear (99obw) disappeared first and never produced a warning sound. My friends 97obw did the same thing on the RR, no warning, and scored the rotor pretty good. My fathers 00 obw was the third in a few weeks to do the same thing. RR was the first to go with no warning. I did the brakes on all three cars and the other 3 sets of pads had some life left in them and the RR was completely gone. I chalked it up to coincidence. Anybody else had similar or was it just coincidence?

Travel bans happen around here on a regular basis in the winter. We have travel advisories here too but we have bans during powerful storms. I’m not sure of the exact laws but I think it’s actually illegal to drive on the roads during the ban unless it’s a medical emergency and you can be ticketed, although I’ve never heard of anyone ticketed. I think it’s also legal for snowmobiles to use the roads if there is a travel ban and a snow emergency. There have been a few storms in the past where the thruway and the other expressways were closed and the counties had travel bans so you had to find a hotel and just wait it out. Luckily winter is almost over!

my wife stayed home from work today so I drove the 99. The driveway (paved) at work had 2 feet of snow in it when I got there. The car drove up it just fine. My path through the snow looked like a boat making a wake through water. My boss pulled in a few minutes later with his 4wd truck (Chevy Silverado) and spun the tires and struggled to get near the loading dock I parked at.

You guy’s got the travel ban in your county and only 3 miles away in Wyoming Co we were free to cruise the roads all night. We had about 6 inches to a foot of snow in my road when I got home and in a few spots we had drifts that were as high as the hood of the car. My county doesn’t ban travel, they just do their best to try and inhibit travel! My wife left the 99obw half way up the driveway because of a 4 foot drift of snow near the barn. I got home 10 min after her and her tracks were already covered over with fresh snow. I parked 10 ft behind her then hoped in her car to tackle the 4 foot drift. The snow was nice a fluffy and the drift was only 10 feet across. I backed up 5 feet and gunned it through the snow drift and never even spun a tire (4 snow tires) and drove right through it, literally. After the quick whiteout and a foot of snow on the hood I parked her car next to the house and hoped in the 03obw. Luckily the 03 had a fresh trail to follow but the Potenza still struggled to get some bite. I backed up and got a good run at it and spun my way up the drive, how could you not love AWD even with bad tires.

99obw, I probably won't put anything in my 03 until Subaru recommends it (which the way things seem to be going at SOA maybe 6 months or so and they will be pushing it for everything just as a precaution). I would consider putting it in my 99 though. It’s got new gaskets, but it still has a ton of miles. It’s a phase 1 and suffered from internal leakage so it is a different issue altogether but if it doesn’t hurt anything and provides a little extra protection then it may be worth a shot. I won’t be pouring anything in either one very soon, I don’t have any desire to be SOA’s guinea pig with my motor, maybe in six month or a year after people have used it but not yet. Enjoy the muddy roads on your side of the gorge this weekend, it looks like it's going to be a real slop fest around here!

I thought they were the automotive division of Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. not a huge automotive giant but a reputable company with an aerospace division. To me this is like a band aid on a bullet wound. I hope they have a little better R&D on the aerospace end of the company! On a side note: I hope they are Steel-cut Oats - chewier than rolled oats, preferred for hot cereals, lots of protein, fiber, and they are cholesterol lowering. All the things I look for in a stop leak, it will keep my car strong, regular, and healthy, it’s like a dream come true, Thanks Subaru! All that said, I’ll probably try the stuff in a few months after some people come on here with reviews of the stuff.

If you take the thermostat out completely you will probably be able to drive the car until you get the money together to get the head gasket fixed right (I’ve heard various opinions but I would get the heads planed), and you won’t overheat on your way to the mechanic! It’s only about a 5 min project to get the thermostat out. If your handy and you work fast you don’t even have to drain the coolant. Pull the hose off quick, pull out the thermostat, hold the hose back in place while you get the gasket of the thermostat, pull the hose off and put the gasket back in without the thermostat and tighten everything up. It’s messy and you loose a few pints of coolant but it’s pretty easy. The cons to no thermostat: -Engine runs cold -Car runs rich -Mileage drops -No or little heat -You may get a misfire reading and the Check Engine Light (anti freeze putting out your spark and/or plugs fouling because it is running rich and not up to optimum temperature) -False sense that the car is ok If you have to run with no thermostat make sure you check the coolant level on a very regular basis: the longer you wait the thirstier the car will get, and keep a couple of gallons of 50/50 premix with you all the time. Good luck.

Thanks, I’ll try the tape as soon as the snow and salty roads let up for a few days and I can get the car clean enough for the tape to stick.

My 99 is as quiet as can be, it’s the 2.5 DOHC (I have heard that later 99 came with 2.5 SOHC). No ticking, and no wind noise which are both minor annoyance on our 03. We have driven our 99 hard, and it has the miles to prove it. It has been an extremely reliable car with a few exceptions: • We put a new transmission in at 140,000 miles (My fault, A towing mishap from Florida, the front up on a dolly and the rear on the ground, and no I didn’t disconnect the rear driveshaft. I’d like to say I was young and dumb but I was just dumb:>). • When we got the new tranny we also put in a new clutch which we probably didn’t need but I fell for the service manager’s sales pitch on how our clutch didn’t have much life left. The dealer botched the clutch install and the new clutch was gone after only 8,000 miles (They replaced it). • The head gasket blew last year at 140,000 miles. I took the thermostat out and continued driving the car for another 6,000 miles before we could find a reputable mechanic (didn’t want to go to the dealer) to fix it. The car never overheated without the thermostat, it just used a cup or so of antifreeze every week. I probably would have gone longer but winter in WNY and not much heat wasn’t fun. Heads were planed with new gaskets and the car has been good since. Other than that just: new tires at 80k, new brake pads, new wiper blades and the usual maintenance, we haven’t even needed to put a new muffler on yet. We have gone 4 wheeling all over with the 99 in the Southwest and here in NY. My wife and I loved taking logging roads and four-wheel-drive-only trails when we lived in Colorado. We have some great memories taking the car places that most people wouldn’t even take their trucks. We made some really, really dumb decisions on some muddy and snowy roads and luckily the car always got us through it. I hindsight I wish we had a digital camera to document all the amazing stuff that car went through (thank God for the underguards). If I had to choose between a new 99 and a new 03, I would take the 99 ten times out of ten. The car just seems to have a little more getup and go and a little more torque. If I let the clutch out on the 99 on flat ground without my foot on the gas the car lugs down and moves forward without stalling. If I do the same thing on the 03 is stalls. Both cars idle at 500 rpm, the new one just doesn’t seem to have the torque. Incase you haven’t notice I love the 99, my wife drives it now and I miss it… she won’t trade back. Sorry to make a short story long.

What is the best way to test if it is the mirrors? If it is the mirrors making the noise is there any permanent cure?

The link at U of O just needed the period removed from the end try this one: http://resnet.uoregon.edu/~dwhite/pages/subnoises.html I'm still worried about engine longevity. My wife and I put on a ton of miles every year so every mile counts. Our 99 Outback has 164,000 and our 03 Outback has 42,000. I want every mile I can get out of the motors.

I’ve got a 03 OBW and it makes a similar noise, and only when the car is cold. The colder it is outside the worse the noise is. I've got 42,000 on the car already and now I am curious if the piston slap is doing any damage? Except for the slap and some wind noise from the windows the car is great (I still prefer our 99 OWB though). I never really gave the noise a second thought until today. I’m wondering if I should get the problem solved or if it’s just one of the cars quirks. I hate to have it torn down if I don't have too but I would rather do it while it's still under the extended warranty than foot the bill myself.