Commuter

What he said. In my 97 OB, the clock was in the radio. The 6 CD changer unit they brought out in the early 2000's does not have the clock, as they put a clock display into the dash. Someone has retrofitted. (I've done exactly the same thing.) It's also the reason you no longer have a pocket under the radio. The original radio/tape unit was single DIN. The 6 CD changer/radio/tape unit is double DIN. (Do you have the Subaru Panasonic P123 unit? Just curious. There was also a later unit, but I don't know the number on it.) I've got a little clock mounted just above the vents. Works for me. Commuter

When the Legacy got the SOHC engine in 2000, the hp stayed the same at 165 and the torque went up a hair from 162 to 166 as I recall (peak values). More importantly, the curves got fatter in the mid range revs by up to 15%, thanks to fewer valve train losses from the SOHC design. They later pushed the hp up a few to 168... then got it over 170 (173?) with the Phase III design with the extra valve lift etc. www.cars101.com would provide the details. The original question was on the 97 to 99 models. As others have posted, the 99 is something of a oddball year. For example, the transmission got a filter. The engine is a bit of a piecmeal deal as they were heading into the switch to the SOHC engine (CCR Inc has mentioned this). All in all, one is usually best off with the last years of a model run, as opposed to the first. Bugs get resolved. Weakness show up and get dealt with. Etc. Subaru made little progressive changes to the Outback from 96 to 99. Commuter

See the links I posted in the following thread. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=69375&highlight=outback Headgasket cost - About $1200 to $1500, depending on what work is all done. (Eg, timing belt, seals, idlers, machine heads, valves, etc.) The phase II is not a direct swap in. I have posted on that as well. It has been done, but there are several issues. I "think" the block could be swapped in, but not totally sure on that. Commuter

97 OB, head gaskets went at 160k miles, nearly 5 years ago. Dealer did the work. Now have about 170k miles on the replacement. The head gaskets are holding, but I don't think the engine will do much more than another 50k maybe 75k miles. (Note - the block ended up being repaced as well due to a conrod bearing failure around the same time as the gaskets.) The engine is getting noisier, using slightly more oil, etc. Same as the first one. These first generation 2.5l engines just don't seem to be up for the "really" long haul. Commuter As an aside, my 85 Civic with 1.3l inline 4 went 440k miles and 14.5 years without the engine ever being touched. I know it is quite a different animal than the H4 engine, but it does show that one doesn't necessary need to expect head gasket replacements to be a maintenance item.

I put some TechnaFit (I think that's the spelling) on mine about 5 years ago. I've never had any problem. Commuter

I was about to put this in the off topic area, but that is suppose to be non-Subaru. Hmmm... So excuse the nature of this thread. A co-worker is shopping for small power generator (~5000 W). He has come across a Subaru - Cole (Coleman?) unit that is less money than the Honda's and Briggs and Stratton units. Anyone know about these? I didn't even know that Subaru supplied engines for this kind of stuff. Commuter

97 Legacy Outback, 2.5l H4 auto. 530,000 km. Second engine at 260,000 km. I've had to do a couple wheel bearings, struts not too long ago, front half shafts recently (boots), clutch pack back around 400,000 km, hatch lift struts, etc. Few other things. Knock wood, but I don't think the second engine (also a Phase I block) is going to last all that much longer than the first (and I just past that point). Unfortunate, since the body and the rest of the drivetrain is in good shape. I still have nearly 200,000 km to go to match my 85 Civic... 14.5 years, 712,000 km, original engine and clutch. Commuter

4.5 years and 270,000 km (166,000 miles) on my engine since the head gaskets were done. (For the record, my block was changed as well due to a conrod bearing failure.) But yes, a properly done head gasket job can, and does last. Commuter

See my comments in the following posts. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/...hlight=outback http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/...hlight=outback http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/...hlight=outback Commuter

See my comments in the following posts. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=69202&highlight=outback http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=30553&highlight=outback http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=16588&highlight=outback Commuter

People have fit the Optima Yellow top in Subarus, but it is slightly larger than the proper "group" size as I recall. The other issue is that the posts are roughly centered on the battery, causing you to have to stretch the positive cable a bit. You may be ok, you may need a longer cable. I don't know for sure with the Forester. It will depend upon the cable routing. Exide also makes the spiral cell sealed batteries like Optima. I think it gets sold under a few names. Just make sure that the battery is also classed as a "starting" battery as well as deep cycle. I put in one (forget the brand now) that they told me was ok, but after 2 years, I had problems. Then they tell me it was not really the right application. The battery wasn't getting cycled enough! nipper brought up the 'priority start' device. I have one on the ex's 99 Honda Odyssey. The interior lights do not shut off if manually turned on! The ex and kids killed the battery several times. Of course, I don't think it has ever been triggered since I installed it a several years ago. These vans are hard on the battery. The alarm and "aways on" stuff creates quite a drain. Good luck. This is a long thread. Personally, I'd hate to leave the vehicle sit without the alarm turned on. I like the idea of finding someone that will simply start it and run it for a while every week or 2. There must be someone who is willing to do a simple, good deed. Commuter

Pick up one of the newer 6 CD changer / Tape / Radio units from someone who has pulled it out to put in aftermarket stuff. That's what I did with my 97 OB. I'm not sure about the latest models, but the P123 from the early 2000's plug right in. (And I think the model that followed it.) You'll lose the cubby hole, but it's worth it. I've still got my stock unit kicking around... Commuter

This is a Phase I 2.5l engine. No warranty extensions. Symptons are classic hg failure. The gaskets can be changed with the engine in the car, but it's a challenge. I'd change both. A couple of members have done full write ups on doing it yourself if interested. Given the mileage, if you like the car and plan to keep it for a while, it would be worth fixing IMO. Commuter

Highly unlikely that the heads themselves would have been replaced. Ask to see the work order. I'm at 528,000 km (~325,000 miles) now on my 97 OB. New block back at roughly half that, but one head is still original. Original tranny (except for the clutch pack), original power steering, A/C, radiator, exhaust... Struts all replaced a few years ago. Check the CV boots as I have had both fronts go in the past year (inside ones as I recall). Heed nipper's advice on checking for torque bind and "piston slap" that doesn't go away, as that could be rod noise. The rest of my car is good. Body (annual Rust Check spray), interior (but I'm sole driver 98% of the time), etc. Some little things you may have to deal with. Climate control backlighting. Rusty plate behind hatch latch. Hatch struts are probably weak by now (I changed mine last year). Yellow / foggy headlight lenses. Starter contacts (although I've never touched mine, knock wood). Check wheel bearings (I've had a couple of rears go). See how the car reacts when you start off "very" slowly, feathering the gas. That is, if there is any hesitation. If you get a dead spot around 3000 rpm, that could be knock sensor. Probably more I could think of, but given the age of the car, one has to expect certain things. Oh, make sure the crank pulley isn't wobbling. I like my car (just past 10 yr old) and hope it keeps running for some time yet. Commuter

It goes by different names. Essentially, a strong cleaner is run thru the engine via the fuel rail to clean out gum and carbon. You are suppose to change your oil a week later. What I was told is that the Motorvac one is a bit different in that they first just circulate the cleaner thru the fuel rail (nothing running) for several minutes to loosen / clean things up there, then the car is run with the stuff going thru the engine. You could google it and find out for sure. I'm just going by memory of what they told me years ago. It DID work! Cost runs around $80 to $100 last I heard. You could also try the water decarbonization that frag was asking about recently, although that won't do anything for the injectors / fuel rail. As I understand it, the issue is typically carbon in the combustion chamber anyway. Commuter

Glass making for automobiles is pretty interesting (if you are into that sort of stuff). I was in the Carlex plant in Tenn last year. They form glass for Nissan and several other companies. I have seen their name on the side glass windows of newer Subarus. They are part of Japan's Central Glass Co., which you may also see on Subarus. (eg. The Imprezza based vehicles that come from Japan.) Windshields are 2 layers, typically 1.6 and 2mm thickness. The 2 sheets are run as a pair for proper matching. They are heated and 'slump' into a form to take their shape. The form, or mold, only holds the glass at the edges. The glass is soft and if it touches anything, marks, contamination and imperfections can occur. They are cooled rapidly to create the 'safety glass'. The sheets are separated and the laminate is placed between them, then bonded. The final inspection involves holding the windshild up to this intensely lit huge (eg, 25' x 50') blackboard with a gridwork of white lines. A worker looks thru the windshield at the lines, looking for distortion effects. There are several tests involving strength, how they shatter, retention of glass pcs to the laminate, etc. Something I learned recently is that the viewing area in front of the driver is treated differently. In general, you want the glass to break up into tiny pieces, but this would impair the vision of the driver, so that area is designed to break up into larger pieces so that they can still see. All in all, high tech stuff. Commuter

Motorvac first time - yes. O2 sensor plus some 'cleaner' stuff second time, yes... after several weeks. Third time going on right now... Haven't resolved it yet. I was hoping that some cleaner would work... it has help, but I may have to resort to a Motorvac cleaning again. Commuter PS - Car is now 10 yrs old with 528,000 km.

See my comments in this thread. Commuter

Another not totally uncommon issue with the 2.5L Phase I engine is carbon. I've had this happen a couple of times with my 97 OB. While my idle itself has never really been an issue, I get exactly what you describe when starting off. As you tip into the throttle (feather it), you get some hesitation. If you hit the gas a bit harder and send the revs right up to 1500 rpm or more, you won't even notice it. A motorvac treatment solved it for me. Over the counter stuff may not be good enough if the problem is too advanced. Another note - The second time this happened to me, the problem was being aggrevated by a weak O2 sensor. I did not have any CEL, but the sensor was "slow". A weak sensor will also cause the engine to run richer. My experience. Commuter

Since you seem to favor the Michelins, you might also look at the Harmony. I debated between the Hydroedge and the Harmony and finally went with the latter. The feedback I got (Tirerack and thru tire dealers) is that the Hydroedge is a little stiffer, may be a bit noisier (several Outback owners on Tirerack complained of this) and its snow traction is up for debate (some say yeh, some say neh). I also perfer a non directional tire personally. I've put 75k km on mine now in southern Ontario. So far, no complaints. Commuter

I went thru some EGR issues on my 97 OB, 2.5L. I would think the circuits are pretty much the same (given the year and engines). First off, one needs to be sure the passageways are clean. With mine, they found that the diaphram was torn (whatever the little device is that sits right on top). They changed, it, but that did not fix the problem. They changed out the bracket with the metalic piece of vacuum hose that runs under the throttle cable in case there were leaks there, but that was not the problem. (It was inexpensive, so I said to go for it.) Then some solenoid was changed and the code finally disappeared. It never affected driving or gas mileage that I could notice (and neither would I really expect it to, given how these circuits work). It was like that for about a year in total before it finally got resolved. A year or so before all this happened, I got the EGR code P0400, but they could not find anything wrong. It ended up being the pressure sensor that mounts on the passenger strut tower. It apparently senses manifold and atmosphere pressure and provides some input to the auto trany shift algorithms. As a secondary function, it looks for a change in the manifold pressure when the EGR is triggered. What had happened was that this sensor was actually failing. On top of this, I had noticed that my shifts were sometimes a bit sluggish, as if something was slipping a bit. After the sensor was changed, the EGR CEL disappeared and my shifts went back to normal. Commuter

I still have some Guardex 720's (I think) running on the ex's van and some newer Ice Guards (?) by Yokohama. I was quite pleased with them. I think you'll like them. Commuter

I know that the older OEM filters were by Purolator, however, I doubt that they had the PurOne "core" in them. My reason for saying this is based on the price and on having cut open both of these filters. They didn't have the same number of pleats and the filter media (between regular and PurOne) looks about the same, so I couldn't tell which the Subaru filter had in it. In Canada, Subaru had (has?) Fram making OEM filters under the Six Star brand name. Again, I don't know what they are doing currently. I have no experience with the newer, smaller filters. Commuter

It's not all about size... One filter may use thinner media, more pleats, etc. I've cut open quite a few over the years and have seen a lot of differences. Unless they provide specs about single pass and multi-pass efficiencies and at what micron level those efficiencies are, there is no way to tell if one is better than the other. Pressure drop comes into it as well. Dirt holding capacity, etc. I've been using a filter with a microglass media for years. Traps much smaller particles, but does not have a high pressure drop (usually the trade off), good level of dirt holding capacity, etc. In case anyone asks, it's an AC Delco product that is no longer made to my knowledge. Commuter

Are you talking of that short approx. 90 deg bend right where the exhaust attaches to the engine? My 97 has/had rattles from those pieces as well. I don't know just how they are attached, as it is under the shields, but I assume it is the same tactic as the other shields. When I got my car at 2 yo, I noticed that someone had ingeniously used the "nail" approach to quiet these shields. A picture would be worth a thousand words here, but I'll try to describe. What they did was to use a screw (about #8 or 10, 1.5 or 2" long) and screw it into this short shield at about a 30 deg angle (from horizontal, pointed up towards the front of the car) at the lowest part of the shield and where this short first shield butts with the next sheild on the pipe. The screw was turned into the little gap where the 2 halfs of the short first shield come together. In other words, the screw is wedged against the exhaust pipe itself and the 2 halves of the shield itself. In order to screw into this spot, the head end of the screw will be pressing against the next piece of heat shield. It serves to 'wedge' and tighten everything up. The original screws rotted away a couple of times and I've had to redo it. Last time, I picked up some stainless steel screws. They should last a long time. Nice and quiet so far. Commuter