Rooster2

Thanks for the advise. I think I will drain some trany fluid, and add some Lucas ATF additive. I have used this product in the past in an Audi that leaked ATF. It helped stem the leak, and the trany did seem to shift more smoothly. The Lucas product looks like ATF colored STP. It is really viscous. Maybe the added viscousity will help with the shifting to drive from reverse.

My 99 OBW with auto trany hesitates to engage in "Drive" to go forward after reversing to a stop. Gently hit the gas, the engine revs, then the trany kinda slams into the forward gear to move the car forward. This doesn't happen all the time, but enough that it is annoying. I have read posts here that the 99 and 00 models are known for doing this. I changed the ATF twice thinking this may cure the problem. It has helped some, but not cured it. What causes this? Will adding a trany additive from Lucas, or another manufacturer help? Other then this problem, the auto trany works fine. I checked old posts in the "search" area, but could not find any help.

Pretty cool, must be what Subie engineers first saw when they converted a Subie sedan to Outback status way back when. Keep this good work up, and you could get hired by those monster truck builders. Who knows, you could be the guy designing the next version of the "Grave Digger."

In buying a motor with a blown head gasket, you just won't ever know if the car was driven for an extended period of time, and experienced over heating. If so, that badly over heated motor can be more trouble then solution when you work at over hauling it. Just my 2 cents worth of thought. When I had a 92 motor installed in my 91 Legacy some years back, my mechanic had an easy time installing the replacement motor. What caused some difficulty, was that wiring connectors were different between the years. It took him some extra time redoing wiring to get the job done. Once done, the 92 engine ran flawlessly for a number of years.

I guess I would like to know what advantages a K & N filter offers....better milage, better performance? They seemed expensive when I have seen them for sale at auto parts stores. Have you written K & N to ask for their data on letting dirt thru?

Pulling on the tape real hard may have bent some of the internals of the tape player. The gibberish that you are now hearing is prolly because the tape is not being pulled through the machine at a constant speed. I think it is prolly more trouble then it is worth to try and fix it. Lots easier and prolly not much money to simply replace the unit with one from a wrecking yard. I hope you find a good unit.

I don't think adding some hi temp silicon sealant is going to help. The extreme heat plus the pressure of the exhaust gas will blow the sealant. Suggest that you install a new gasket, and make sure that all remnants of the old gasket are removed, that may have made for a poor seal when you installed the first seal. Attempt to torque the bolts down as evenly tight as possible, so one side is not pulled down tighter then the other side. Use a torque wrench if possible to do this. As far as the oil leak goes, go to an auto parts store and buy an oil additive that helps to swell up existing seals. Once added, it will take some time to work, but it should help slow down your oil leakage, but prolly won't stop the leak entirely. Since your car is a '93, it doesn't make sense to do a major expensive motor tear down just to replace a leaky seal. Also on high milage cars (over 100,000) miles my mechanic recommended using 20w50 weight oil in the summer time, then using 10w40 weight in the winter to improve oil pressure. Using a heavier weight oil also slows down an oil leak. I have been doing that with my two Subies for years with good results.

Since it is still under factory warranty, I would suggest taking it back to the Subie dealer. See what they have to say.

agree, it is a bad head gasket, not really bad gasket leak at this point to cause over heating, but the bubbles in the overflow tank are surely caused by a bad hg. I had one go bad on a 2.2, where it put so much extra heat in the cooling system that it forced a leak in the radiator. Not knowing any better, I though a new radiator would fix the problem. That only worked for about a week. Then after driving about 3 miles, the coolant temperature would sky rocket to "hot." It seems that when the hg goes bad, it is always exhaust gas going to the cooling system. I think I read that the hg goes bad between the cylinders, usually on the driver's side. Never heard of the hg going bad to allow coolant to enter the oil. Good news is that I have heard that hg problems only affect about 10% or so on Subies.

Check your instrument panel water temperature guage to see if your engine is over heating, the next time you hear the noise. I would guess that it isn't. After my own two experiences with loose vibrating shrouds making a shrill "zzzzzzzzz" type sound, I vote for the same problem on your car, if indeed that is what you are hearing. Now if you are hearing just a bunch of clicks and ticking sounds upon turning off the motor after driving the car for a while, then that is normal with Subies. That noise is not caused by over heating, but just normal noise produced by the hot exhaust system as it cools off.

Yep, had same problem on both my 98 and 99 Outbacks. I fixed both by driving my car up on plastic ramps, then crawling under the car while the engine was idling. I turned on the A/C to add some extra load to the engine, resulting in a little more engine vibration. Wearing some thick gloves, I wiggled and tapped on the exhaust system protective shrouds, until I found the loose shroud that was vibrating to produce the noise. I fixed the problem by finding a good size bolt, that I hammered into place as a wedge between the shroud and the exhaust pipe. The insertion of the bolt tightened up the shroud, so it doesn't vibrate. It is a very low tech solution for a low tech noisy problem, but it works. It is a cheap and easy fix.

How is the suspension set up differently on the OB version that results in higher ground clearance for the OB compared to a regular Legacy? Is a lift kit added, or are the tires larger in diameter, or just what? The car top is higher on the OB, and I think maybe the second seat is raised an inch or so. Are there any other differences between a regular Legacy and Legacy OB? I have also heard that the 08 models are separated. Sedans are all regular Legacy only, wagons are available OB version only.

I still think you have a HG issue, just not a real bad one. Bubbles in the over flow tank is the dead give away of a bad HG. The Barr's prolly can't hurt that motor, maybe help, but may plug up the heater core, so you don't get much heat out of the heater. If you do add the product, suggest that you clamp off the imput and output hoses to the heater to keep the product out of the heater core for a while as it seals the block. Auto parts stores sell a product called a block sealer. I can't remember the brand name. Maybe the Barr product you are looking at is a block sealer. Regardless, it sounds like you are only going to buy some minimal time for that oil burning motor. It is prolly on its last legs. Suggest looking around for a replacement motor out of a wrecking yard. I did that a few years back. I found a good one that still runs strong.

The picture is definitely not that of a 1994 model. I went to Edmunds.com web site for new and used car pricing. I logged in looking for a 94 Subie Legacy. What appears is a picture of that year's car, along with pricing information. Edmunds pix looks like a 94. With wrong picture and wrong vin number, something is definitely wrong at that car dealership. Maybe a bait and switch sales approach.

I had a similiar problem on my 91 Subie wagon. I did some minor disassembly to get at the blower motor. I found it littered with old tree leaves and crud. I cleaned out the crud, and the motor worked good as new. Solved my problem. It was really easy getting to the blower motor. You might want to check it out.

I had this same work done last February by a private mechanic on my 99 OBW. The only thing that I did not have replaced was the tensioner and gear idler. Cost came to 4 hours labor @$50/hour, which totaled $200. Parts came to almost another $200. Total out the door came to $394.00. Is a gear idler, and tension pully replacement really needed for this job? I don't know if I got a good deal, or got cheated out of really needing to replace those missing items mentioned above.

agree with earlier reply, your cig ligher is fused, so if you over load the circuit, it will simply blow the fuse. There is no concern of starting a fire. The cig style outlet on my 99 Oubback wagon is in the back cargo area on the driver's side wall. It is circular, covered with a plastic cap. Pulling off the cap exposes the outlet. That outlet is great place to plug in my 12V small air compressor that pumps up the tires. I use it for that every few months. You must have the ignition turned on to get power to the outlet.

Yes, that looks like an R-134 connector that has been screwed onto an existing R-12 fitting. Looks like previous owner already converted to R-134 refrigerant. My guess is that connector in your picture is actually screwed onto the low pressure side, not the high side. The fitting should have a blue color dust cap cover on the end of it. Blue cover cap denotes low pressure, red denotes high presure. Yes, if the system is low on 134 refrigerant, the A/C compressor will not turn on. If you are handy, add a can or two of 134 to the system. However, be sure that you are adding to the low pressure side, not the high pressure side. Suggest taking the car to a Autozone or Advance Auto parts store. One of their counter guys will verify which port is the low side, and then sell you a 134 kit, or hose and 134 cans to recharge the system yourself. That is a whole lot cheaper then taking the car to a repair shop. If you have a small leak, one can of 134/year may be all that you need to keep your A/C system pumping out cold air. Good luck

not sure that a wheel bearing is your problem. When a wheel bearing goes bad, it starts making an rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr sound, that is louder and more pronounced when making a sweeping turn in one direction. Usually driving in a straight direction, it is not very loud at all. Suspect that your problem may be more related to a CV joint giving you trouble, even though you just installed a new one. Does the noise go away for a while once the car has been turned off for several hours, and everything has had a chance to cool down? If so, another reason to suspect a bad CV joint. If a bad wheel bearing, I never replace both at the same time. One going bad is not a good reason to suspect the other is going bad. Prolly a good idea to jack up the corner that the noise is coming from. Once the road wheel is off the ground, pull on the road wheel to see if you can feel any "looseness" that a bad wheel bearing or suspension part would allow. Good luck on finding a problem with a cheap fix.

My lower back bothers me on that type of work. Now, I use a chair foot rest. I kneal on the foot rest, doing that saves my back.

Thanks everyone for all the info. Already, we have talked with another couple about making the tour a nice "day trip." I bet it will be interesting.

I don't live that far from their manufacturing plant near Lafayette, Indiana. Anybody know if they offer tours of the plant? I bet it is very interesting watching Subarus being assembled.

I recently had the same problem, trying to remove really tight sparkplugs. Like others, I used a lot of PB Blaster, would wait for it to soak in, then try to remove. All came out with a lot of effort. I bought my OBW with 148K miles on the odo, so I have to think that I was replacing the original plugs. Contrary to what others have written about replacing with NGK plugs, I went with Bosch Platinums with the single electrode. They seem to work just fine. Like others, I used antisieze on the new plug threads.

If it were me, I would do some extra maintenace, if it has been some time since these items were worked on: Change transmisson fluid if you have an automatic. It is an easy job of just pulling the drain plug, then adding new ATF. Flush the cooling system, then add new coolant. Check brake pads, replace if getting close to needing new ones. Change sparkplugs Change oil and filter Change radiator hoses if they feel squishy soft, or look worn. Good luck, I bet your Subie will get you there and back.

My daughter has a Jeep Wrangler, which I do the maintenace on. Whenever I need advise, I go to http://www.wranglerforum.com/tj-chat/. That is a good group to post with. Maybe this is a different Jeep forum then where you have gone for advise.