ThosL

I would only go to dealerships for recalls or other service covered, because their prices are very high retail, they're greedy and take advantage of customers as others have said. Subarus are not that complicated, there are many mechanic shops around here and probably most geographic zones, even in the South.

Book value, which is what the tax assessors value them tends to be kind of high. Maybe $1000-$1500. You could try Lucas if the tranny has some manageable problems, would buy you some time.

What are the going costs of a valve cover gasket job, or projected labor time? Also for Cam seal leak?

I took some pictures after using the degreaser: https://i.imgur.com/2aKD2it.jpg https://i.imgur.com/J9zs0HE.jpg

Good video by a professional on this:

I checked the leak, below the oil fill spout, probably the valve cover gasket on that side? Other possibilities, cam cover a mechanic said, or damaged thread on oil filter? My best guess is the valve cover gasket.

My brother said I needed to watch the consequences on oil leaks as some customers will freak out on oil on their driveway, it didn't occur to me, adding a quart a week is a lot cheaper than mechanical work but something I need to get done.

It is getting a lot harder to find compatible 15 inch tires; the trend is away from those.

The dip stick may be off; when I have checked it, it barely registers. Adding a quart and it soars up. There is a limit what do it yourselfers can do. The clearances are so small with the 2.5 units, I don't see how I could change out the gaskets. Does mixing oil cause problems? 10-30 with 20-50 with HD30, etc.. At a lot of the oil supply places there is not a good range of supply of motor oil.

I'll check the oil again this am; I had switched to 20w50, not sure if that caused the problem. Car is running like a top.

I checked with Town Fair periodically and they have a 30 day trial on new tires. I got a set of 4 Toyo tires which were almost new, they had a Maine warehouse ship them down; $50 each and I had a local tire place mount and balance them for $15 each. My guess is that other tire places have trials like this then they need to sell the tires. No guarantee though.

I have a 97 2.5 Outback that has had a slow leak in the valve cover gasket. However I just checked it and the stick was barely showing much oil after adding 3 quarts. Lhe oil warning light had gone on the dash. Aside from the involved job of changing the gaskets is there any stop gap measure? Lucas oil leak product?

I called Subaru dealer, with vin number they said throttle body and springs had been serviced in a recall. So no dice on that, the other side I already did with spring/strut, on the side with the broken spring the strut is still goo.d

I have a front spring on my 1997 Outback, limited and have been delaying it due to yet another cost. Is this covered by the dealer even though I have not done business with them? https://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/111-gen-1-1995-1999/169665-1998-coil-spring-recall-question.html

You will pay a premium through the part finding service at the local junkyard like LeBlancs, I think they said $150; I would go online where the going rate is around $60.

I was blindsided by a wheel bearing failure last Thursday night, I did not get the usual tell tale warning of a grinding bearing but something else. Simultaneously the rear brakes were entering the pad failure stage at least on one. A friend from the eastern part of CT who visited and helped me when my car broke down was critical of my not paying attention to potential car failure issues. But his economic situation is a lot better, and I live with a 100% disabled sister and work in a big box outdoor store with part time hours. So the way this played out was I was driving to see my friend in the Lyme area; I turned back as the noise and driving got worse around Milford. In Bridgeport the car broke down, with the front right knuckle literally breaking with the wheel bearing failure. The last thing I remember was a screeching noise as I pulled over to the right side. My insurance covered the tow, but the guy tried to get more $$ out of me due to the broken axle. The car was put in front of a garage in Norwalk; they got to it yesterday, with the front rt. knuckle I provided. They also replaced the front exhaust gaskets that had failed, charging me $200. Any "post mortem" thoughts on this situation?

On my '97 2.5 I don't worry about an oil leak, as the valve cover gasket replacements involve a lot of hours and oil is relatively cheap and if I put in a quart every couple weeks the level stays safe. That looks like an ambitious plan, I wonder how many hours you are estimating the work at and expense.

I would call around for how much parts are and then get the shop estimate hours. I know a couple local shops that charge around $75 an hour, maybe a little better on cash and let you bring the parts. Rock Auto and Advance may not have OE quality but it is worth checking what their near OE parts would cost.

Yes, that's how I did it; I checked out one guy's vids. on it and it looks like it is on the inside.

I had a hard to remove rotor earlier and saw this video after trying to hammer it from behind, this did the trick: Quick question, is the low pad sensor on the inside or outside of the disc brake?

The emergency brake will sometimes fall apart like that; had it happen once creating a god-awful racket!

I called around; LeBlancs and LaJoies have shrunk their yards and crushed older cars, so no dice there; I called a lot of places, LeBlancs said there was a unit in Hartford, not sure where they were going to get it from there. In retrospect, I should have waited for shipping to get it as the going rate looked like around $60 online.

Good points, but I wonder if there is any scientific correlation between external rust on a car and the wheel bearings where you have ample grease protecting the unit. I would think variables would be how old the knuckle is? Whether there has been abnormal wear before the vehicle broke down, ended up in a junkyard and whether it sitting there has anything to do with the viability of the bearing? Does grease inside these units degrade? Does salt, which is less used these days, get into the units? I'm curious whether shoving a bunch of lithium grease into the area would do any good long term? Too bad they don't have grease fitting any more.

That was the problem, M and J had the part only it is rusted. I guess I will find out if the bearing is ok. The problem with putting in bearings in hubs where the bearings have failed is they can go bad a lot faster if the hubs were damaged. It happened to me within a couple years with a shop that installed bearings and they offered no remedy at that point.

The point of my topic was how do you make sure when you check around for used parts, the quality is acceptable? I contacted 6-8 parts places none of them had it; this one up in Colchester said they had several. The others were apparently crap, so they sold me this one at full price with a lot of rust and a cut ball joint boot. What options did I have in an hour and a half drive?