Rooster2

I own two Leggies, both with 4 cylinders, with automatic trannies . They have plenty of power climbing hills. You will find a lot more 4 cylinder Subies for sale verse the 6 cylinder model. Test drive a 4 cylinder, I think you will be surprise with the peppy performance.

I own a 98 OBW limited, and a 99 standard edition OBW. Both much the same. If you are new here, it is worth reading up on potential head gasket problems that affected Subie Leggies from 97 thru 99 models with the 2.5 DOHC phase 1 motors. Revised head gasket design pretty much cured the problem, if the replacement is a Subaru OEM head gasket. My guess is that the head gasket has already been replaced on the car that you are looking at sometime during its lifetime. You may want to ask the owner if the head gasket has been repaired, and if so, a receipt verifying it. I have never had head gasket trouble with either one of my cars for what that is worth. I have had no issues with either of my two cars. They just keep racking up the miles as dependable transportation.

Use any ATF labeled Dextron 3 in my opinion. It is now sort of an industry quality standard, instead of a brand name product originally for GM cars. I don't think that any brand is better then another. I use the store brand product from Walmart with no problems in both my 98 and 99 OBWs for many years now. IMO, it is pretty much generic stuff. The synthetic ATF may better, but I don't know that I have ever read anything as to why.

Here is a link to a thread that discusses the ATF Spin On filter. http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/66-problems-maintenance/23762-subaru-transmission-filter-different.html Good info regarding trany filter vs oil filter. Yea, I can understand the differences, but for so little difference, why is the cost differential so great. Cost is like 10X or 15X greater then oil filter. Guess it has something to do with small production runs, and low volume sales.

Harbor Freight sells an electric half inch impact wrench on the cheap. Cost less then $50, and works great. Better to squirt on PB Blaster and wait 15 minutes then work on it. WD-40 is not the best product to get rusty bolts to release. PB Blaster is much much better. I did the above a week ago using as described above. I had no trouble getting the nut to come off.

Good thought about possibly being a flood vehicle. Title check and carfax could prove valuable.

Both my 98 and 99 are free of body rust, but brackets, screws, etc under the hood have some surface rust. I live in Indiana, so I assume it is salt spray or mist kicked up by the front tires to everything under the hood that starts things to rusting. I also think these under hood metal items are not treated to resist rusting. Since, the under hood rusting is only surface rust, I don't care. I have never had a bolt or screw resist removal, so I don't see this as a problem.

You don't mention, or receipts of past maintenance work. If it were me, I would be concerned about the timing belt. If it is old and breaks, it will cause damage to the valves, and cause a big repair bill. If you don't know how old it is, then replace it, along with the tension-er pulley, water pump, and front crank seal. Others may chime in with other maintenance as well. All the above items were listed as a group, because all are easily accessible when the timing belt is replaced. Have fun with your new Subie. Given some TLC maintenance, your car can easily run for 300K miles.

I remember an English car called the Jensen Interceptor back in the late 60's to early 70's that was four wheel drive with viscous coupling locking center differential. So, it is nothing new. Using the viscous coupling, the wheel that slipped had it's power transferred to another wheel. I heard it worked very well, but I guess not well enough for Jensen. I don't think they are in biz anymore.

+1, I agree with Turbone, your alternator is failing. Subie alternators have a built in voltage regulator. Replace the unit, and you should be good for many many more miles. It is a very ez do it yourself replacement job. Alternator sits high at the front of the motor with little around it. Remove the protective shroud, and unbolt and rebolt. 20 minute job at max.

Thanks to all for posting their knowledge and advise. My question was fully answered. No need to beat this dead horse of a subject any more.

Well, the lug nuts look like they are tightened down the same all around the wheel. Looks strange that the studs aren't longer. What is with that? Did someone replace all studs with shorter ones?

Yea, maybe the o-ring replacement will solve your problem. I am not trying to rain on your parade. New o-ring may be your fix. Hey, we are only talking o-rings in a P/S unit. Not like something important like all your rod bearings. I hope o-rings solve your problem. Let us know.

BTW - you need to find a new shop - if your shop can't do a simple valve adjustment for you..... well that's pretty lame is all I can say. That's a pretty routine affair in the world of machines that I come from. Their price and labor estimate is pretty rediculous also. At that kind of labor rate you might as well just go to the dealer - you aren't saving much paying these jokers $90 an hour. Most dealers are right in the same price range. My independent shop does not charge $90/hour, they charge about $60/hour. They just pass on doing the valve adjustment work. It is not their forte, and they know it. I just know that my Subie dealer charges $90/hour. My independent shop looked up the labor rate in their book to see that it is typically seven hours of work. My guess is that you work in a Subie shop, would you run the labor up to seven hours of work? If not, what is a fair number of hours to do a valve adjustment?

His pump may have more issues then just o-rings. Replacing o-rings may not fix the problem. Still think used unit from a wrecking yard is the way to go.

If it were me, I would buy a used P/S unit from a wrecking yard. The pumps can be bought on the cheap, and installed in very little time.

Yea, I was slowly beginning to think the same thing. At that cost, valve adjustment would not be realistically done until something broke, like requiring a valve job or head gasket replacement. Both of my cars with phase 1 motors were bought used, and now have about 150K miles on both. So, I assume previous owners replace head gaskets that included valve adjustment.

Just called my independent garage, and talked with the owner. According to his labor book, a Subie valve adjustment calls for seven hours of labor at a cost of $90/hours, plus valve cover gaskets, and who knows what ever else in term of parts. That is prolly a labor minimum of $630, and I bet closing in on being an $800 job, when the final tab comes in. He said his shop doesn't do that type of work, so most likely dealer only where I live. Is this something that Subie owners belly up to the bar to have done? Both of my cars are running great, and the motors sound great. Is valve adjustment necessary, or simply a luxury?

Well I guess the above link answers my question. The use of bucket shims requires valve adjustment. This is the first that I have ever heard this. I have never read about the need for this until just a few days ago. Learned something new today.

Well after reading all the previous posts to my thread, it looks like a hung jury. Some say the phase 1 requires valve adjustment, others say the valves are hydraulically actuated, so don't require adjustment. Can anyone tell me with stone cold certainty that my valves in both 98 & 99 Leggie OB wagons need adjusting?

So, the 99 Phase one in an OBW does not have hydraulic lifters, and therefore the lifters need to be adjusted? The motor appears to be the same as what's in my 98 OBW,

Bridging the fuel pump relay is a great idea to pump out old gas. Just don't let the pump run more then 10-20 seconds when the tank is empty. Fuel is used to cool the pump when in operation. You don't want to chance ruining the fuel pump.

I have both a 98 & 99 OB wagons with 2.5 phase 1 motors. On a recent thread here, someone said that these motors need their valves adjusted at 105K miles. This is the first time that I have ever heard of this. Is this true?

Less base compression would also mean slower acceleration for about the first three to five seconds from a dead stop, when adding a turbo as described. Then as boost spools up, the extra power could be felt.

Yea, the mechanism gets bound up with rust and crud, which prevents the return spring from pulling the mechanism back down. I bought a replacement latch unit for about $35 on line about a year ago. I tried using white grease, WD-40, and PB Blaster to lube up the rusty mechanism. All the lubes would work for only about a month or so, then it was back to binding up again. The only sure fire fix is to replace the latch unit.