Commuter

Engine shake - check your mounts, particularly the transmission mount. Frag - I believe he's talking of the entire headlight assembly, not just the bulb. There was a recent post here of someone who did this. It's not difficult, but I think you have to pull the center "grill" to get at one of the fasteners. Sorry, I don't have the details. Commuter

You should be able to find a lot of this data on the www.cars101.com site. It won't be in a nice chart form (last I knew), but the info should be there. I'm not sure how far back it goes. Commuter

I recall some time ago of a guy posting that Whiteline (I believe) had made stiffer, higher load capacity springs for the Outback. You could try them. You can also get a stiffer sway bar from Whiteline. I put on Hairpin Racing Aluminum endlinks as well. If you are going to be hauling stuff, I'd recomment synthetic ATF and a tranny cooler. These cars aren't really up to this sort of duty in my opinion, but they can do it with some reasonable steps and driving. Commuter (97 OB)

Only designed for flat roads... what a crock. Wake up Subaru. :-\ Do all the 05 engines have the electronic (fly by wire, eg no cable) throttle now? Or just some models? Commuter

There were a couple of years (96 and 97 I think) with a bad batch of alternators on the Legacies. That's all. Commuter

97 OB auto. 270k miles now. Head gaskets and a connecting rod bearing went at 160k miles 3 years ago. Virtually a new engine as a result of that. Replaced rear struts last year and the center clutch pack. Other than that, mostly routine maintenance. I've had a couple of rear wheel bearings go. One little sensor that was a lot of $. Alternator seems to be going right now (bearing). It was replaced about 5 years ago (recall). Body is in good shape (Rust Check), transmission seems fine (knock wood), suspension seems reasonably tight still. Few complaints really. Wish it had 20 more hp. Commuter

My 97OB has a Draw Tite hitch. The original owner put it on. I've never used myself except for a bike carrier a couple of times. Seems pretty sturdy, just from looking at it. Commuter

You might want to check that the EGR circuit is in good working order. Long shot, but the EGR feeds to the Cyl #4 intake runner. It seems to me that I've heard of others having misfire codes happen when the EGR is acting up. As I understand its workings, it only opens up on the highway, and it would be closing off as your wife slows from highway speed. Your car is also at that age where this circuit starts giving problems. I dealt with a faulty EGR for about a year. I had to clear the code every 1 or 2 days. Once (but only once) I got a cyl #4 misfire. It has not happened again since I got the EGR problem resolved. Commuter (97 OB)

Love to tell this one... I retired my 85 Civic after 14.5 years and 712,000 km (~440,000 miles) with the original clutch... Commuter

I don't have personal experience, but my understanding is that their are 2 units due to the "hump" that the driveshaft puts in the fuel tank. There is one on each side. How they are configured to the light and the gauge, I have no idea. I can't explain why the gauge acts up, but the low level warning light still works ok. Commuter

As the sending units start to go on these cars, the gauges seem to read lower and lower. When I got my 97 OB, the light would come on with the needle a touch above E. Now, the needle is well below E when the light comes on. However, It usually takes right around the same 52 L (of 60 L total tank capacity) to fill up. Somehow, the light remains fairly constant, but the needle drifts. This summer, if I find the time, I'll probably clean up the sending units. Commuter

I can't comment on the price, but seems a bit much. The front seals (crank, cam) are known to leak. The cost to fix is a fair bit, unless you have it done as part of a timing belt change. Then the extra cost is minimal. It's a lot of labor to get in there. The o-ring on the oil pump is known to leak. Again, small cost if part of the timing belt service. Valve covers do leak from time to time. Again, the cost is a lot of labour. They are not the easiest to access. The rear plate is the big one, because you have to separate the transmission from the engine in order to get to it. They use to use plastic, then they switched to metal. I think the 98 has a metal one, so I'm surprised that it is leaking. If you have a clutch, it could eventually get oil on the clutch. Other than being messy, I'm not sure that this leak can really damage anything on an auto. You don't have to fix all the leaks at once. You can take them in stages. I have a 97 OB. So far, no leaks (knock wood). I've always had the crank and cam seals replaced when the timing belt was done, which is about every 2 years for me. The engine was replaced 3 years ago, so valve cover and that rear plate were addressed then. So, not ALL late 90s 2.5L leak. Commuter

Getting into the suspension can get expensive. What about tires? Perhaps something with a softer sidewall would be better suited to your conditions. Commuter

Platinum is the recommended OEM plug. If you don't mind changing them more often, you can go with the lower priced copper plugs. Stick to NGK. Commuter

Some do this and I've seen claims of increased milage. There is debate about whether it harms anything. The consensus seems to be that it is not a good thing in the long term (to run an AWD Subaru in FWD mode). Personally, I have had a couple of times where I've run with the fuse in for a week. For me, a week is 2 tanks of gas. Both times, I did not notice any difference in my gas milage. YMMV. Commuter

I just recently put the extra springs (wiper snuggies) on my front wiper arms. They do help a lot. 2 replacement arms were going to cost over $100 Cdn. The 2 springs cost $10. I haven't put one on the back yet, but it could use it. I have tried various blades over the past few years. Good luck with Canadian Tire "Teflon" brand. 1 year plus life. Thumbs up. I tried some Silblade silicone wipers (about 3x's the price of a low end blade). Always "squeaked" which was annoying. Worked well though. However, not a 5 year life that they claim. The frame (just a standard frame) was getting a bit sloppy and the wiper edge did seem to be getting a little streaky after 1.5 years, so I changed them out. Thumbs neutral to thumbs down. (Oh... I have the same blades on my ex's minivan. No noise there. Seem to be working quite well. Over 2 years now, but not nearly the driving that I do.) Next, I tried the Bosch Microedge blades. Worked well, but a little soft (at first). One blade edge was damaged immediately by a bit of dried bird p00p on my window. After 1 year, the rubber seemed to harden up. The blades got jittery. I thought it might just be my weak springs, but still the same after putting the helper springs on. So a thumbs neutral on these. I bought one (to try) Lexor Silicone blade at Walmart. I might have been better to stick to their rubber blade. It seems 'hard'. The blade won't "flip" most of the time as it reverses direction! I've never seen that before. At least it doesn't squeak like the Silblades. Cleans ok. Thumbs neutral to thumbs down. I tried one interesting blade from Canadian Tire. It's a regular rubber edge glued to a strip of spring steel. There is a small plastic holder to attach the arm. No "frame" in the normal sense. Interesting bit of engineering. It worked ok, but I was getting a little bit of jitter on one end of the blade, so I returned it (22"). At 3 times the price of a low end blade (and the working edge is no different I'm sure) and with what should be lower manufacturing costs, I was not about to put up with any deficiency in the blade. It may be fine in shorter lengths. Thumbs neutral to thumbs down. So... I plan on buying some Canadian Tire Teflon blades next time. I've gone full circle. Commuter

I'm not sure of which car he was referring, but I know none of the late 90's Legacys had LSDs. I don't think the Imprezas did either. They've come back on various models since 2000. Rear LSDs anyway. Front LSD is quite rare to my knowledge. Keep in mind that most (?) 2wd cars only have open differentials. It's not as bad as it sounds. People erroneously think that AWD means that if only ONE wheel has grip, they should move. Not the case. Commuter

Because your car has open differentials in the front and back. If one wheel on each axle spins, you go nowhere. Open diffs cannot transfer the torque to the wheel with grip. One trick is to try applying the parking brake a bit. This will slow the spinning rear wheel, and "may" transfer enough torque to the other rear wheel to get you moving. Commuter

The sad part is, I "have" that gasket! Commuter

If the 2000 is a Phase II engine... Essentially no. It "can" be done. And has been done. I have info from a guy (who use to post on this board) who did it. He ran into several problems though. I think you could change out just the block though, if the rest of your engine is good. Commuter

The 96 (maybe even 95) Outbacks and Legacies in North America up to 99 did not have rear LSD, even as an option. I don't believe there was any model Legacy during this time that had it. They started bringing it back with the 2000 to 2004 models. As stated, only some of them had it. And I think some models only got it in the later years. The cars101 site would probably spell it out. Commuter

Are you talking of a viscous coupling in the rear differential? That model of Outback did not get anything but an open diff in the rear in North America. Some of the late 90's Legacys had problems with the center clutch pack. Have you put the FWD fuse in to rule that out? It was a bigger issue with the 96's and 97's to my knowledge. Commuter

My tale of woe is still on this board (from almost 3 yrs ago). I had the head gaskets done, then 200 km later, a conrod bearing went. And no, I do not believe there was any connection in the events, other than them happening so close to one another, timewise. Head gaskets we all know about. Conrod bearings... pretty darn rare from what I've heard. Commuter (97 OB)

KYB makes the OEM struts for these cars. I can't say for sure for your model, but KYB confirmed to me in an email that their aftermarket struts for my 97 OB are about 10 to 15% stiffer than the OEM units. Personally, I didn't want that, so I bought OEM. Commuter

Classic 2.5L Phase I engine head gasket symptoms. Compression test might be fine, because the engine is not under any load to speak of and the 'leak' doesn't exist. Driving around town for weeks can be fine too. Get it on the hiway, or tow, the engine is put under more load, the leak opens up, exhaust gases push into the coolant and force the coolant out into the overflow bottle. Spews it over the engine if bad enough. Temp gauge rises. Been there, done that. 97 OB. Commuter