craigmcd

My daughter has a 2013 Outback with a 2017 four-cyl engine, which runs good and is reliable. Her mechanic, who is newish to her, has recommended a "fuel line flush". I can understand a brake line flush, or a radiator flush - but I have never heard of a fuel line flush. It seems to me that is happening every time you drive. It sounds bogus to me, and fairly expensive. She did not say anything about a fuel filter, which should be changed periodically or as indicated by poor engine performance. Is this guy trying to make a boat payment or what? He is also recommending a oxygen sensor replacement in order to solve an engine code problem - which kind of points to the catalytic converter, but he thought he would start with the sensor. He quoted $600 for both services. What does the hive mind think ? Thanks, Craig

We are looking at using a U-Haul U-Box, which is a large container which we would load, and U-Haul would transport across the country. I am also looking at a 6x10 trailer, which is a bit smaller than most. I agree with you all, and have communicated to my daughter that any problems are magnified by having the trailer along. To be fair to my daughter, she has already gotten rid of a lot of her belongings, and is only bringing what is really important to her. She has sold several large family heirlooms already, including a whole dining room set. Thanks for the ideas and help.

A true comment: The UHaul trailer is 900-1000 lbs heavier than a similar Wells Cargo trailer. The trailer purchase would be about $4200 for a 5x8, or $5800 for a 6x10. The bigger one is 1220 lbs.

Thanks Ido, good considerations. I hadn’t really considered buying a trailer mostly due to logistical considerations, but it is possible. I will go look at some locally tomorrow and get an idea. My son, who is a Navel officer gets moved a lot, and he purchased an enclosed utility trailer to pull behind his Subaru Ascent Touring. Works great for him. (We are an all Subaru family). Lots to think about. I am not wild about the combination. Anyone have any thoughts on calculating the weight? Do I need to figure the people and cats in the cabin? Or just the load behind the car? Thanks much. C

Yikes - that sounds bad. Out of curiosity, when you replace an old CVT, what do you replace it with ? Are there newer models that bolt right in and work ?

Thanks - good point that the trailer weight is five times the payload weight. Hadn’t thought of that. Any other opinions out there ?

Hi everyone. My daughter will be moving from Colorado to Virginia at the end of August, and needs to pull a trailer with her home goods with a 2013 Outback, 4 cylinders. At the end of July the car will be fitted with a new engine block, but all the original external components (oil consumption problem in a different thread). It is three days of driving for sure. The transmission, etc have about 114,000 miles. Tires are good. The car towing capacity is 2,700 lbs, and the tongue weight is 200 lb. The class ll hitch well exceeds those requirements. The UHaul trailer is 6 x 12, and has dual axles. The trailer empty is 1920 lb. That gives her a trailer cargo weight of 780. (2700 - 1920 = 780). She is not moving that much stuff, the problem is a queen size bed is large and doesn’t fit in the smaller trailers. She has other large bulky things as well. She figures the load at around 600-650lbs. Her estimate is pretty good because much of her stuff was bought online and she can go back and look at the shipping weight. Let’s assume the trailer and cargo are right at 2700 lbs. The trailer has onboard hydraulic brakes. Question 1) Is this long trip advisable ? Question 2) In calculating the weight, do we also have to include the two people, travel bags, cooler and two cats? All of that would be about 370 to 430 lbs ? If so, then the trailer cargo weight goes way down to about 380 lb. My big concern, besides safety, is overtaxing the Subaru, particularly this new engine block and old transmission. Overheating could be an issue as well. What do you think ? PS: renting a UHaul truck with a trailer to pull the Subaru behind is crazy expensive. Thanks much, Craig

Thanks for the reply. Quick follow up. I believe this engine calls for 5W-30. When you say thicker oil, what would you suggest? Second: Can you expand on the "engine is being damaged" light? I have always understood that when the oil light comes on it means low oil pressure or that the oil pump has failed. I believe in our manual it says to pull over immediately and tow it to the nearest dealer (which almost no one does). Audrey tops off the oil and the light goes out. I appreciate the response. C

Hi All, My daughter’s 2013 Outback 4 cyl is using oil, and I would like to explain the symptoms and ask for advice. First, this is her third Subaru, so she is very familiar with the car. The mileage is 108,000. She bought it used 7 months ago, and it has a 12 month warranty. There is no smoke, no overheating, no hot warning light, no low water, no obvious oil leaking, but she sometimes faintly smells oil when getting out of the car. The oil light comes on, and she checks the oil, which is always low, but not all the way to the low dot. The first few times she did not bother to track it, but after awhile she noticed it happened more frequently. She drove 2000 miles and added about 620ml. The next time the light came on she had driven 1700 miles, and added 470ml. The next time she had driven 637 miles, the level was not to the dot, and she added 470ml. The last time she went 848 miles and had to add 400ml to top it off. Each of these times the low oil light had come on. The last two times, as noted, she added about 1/2 quart or so. She now carries a 5 qt jug and is trying to keep better records. The car has normal decent power. She can pass quickly at 65 on a level road, and with a bit more effort can pass on a steeper mountain road. When she leaves work she immediately enters the local highway, and has to get up to 60 quickly. The car is cold (Colorado winter) and it does take some time to get up to speed, but improves when it warms up. The guys where she bought the car have looked at it twice, and asked her to keep the records. The have done a couple little things, like exchanging the PVC. They offer the warranty, and I think want to avoid addressing bigger problems. Any thoughts or direction I can give her. I have my suspicions, but would really like your input. Thanks, Craig

Ok thanks, I’ll let her know this info. I appreciate it. C

Hi, I did not understand your sentence, “Annoying in her situation but they change the oil, make it tamper proof then you bring it back later and they check level. You get a new Subaru short block.” Is that related to the oil control rings? When you say oil control rings, is that the classic ‘ring job’, replacing the rings on the pistons? Isn’t that a top of engine overhaul? Thanks much, Craig

My daughter, who is on her third Outback, has one that is using oil. The 2013 Outback Limited - 4 cyl - has used 2 qt of oil in 2,400 miles. She purchased the car fairly recently from a mechanic shop / independent dealer who offered a one year warranty on their ‘certified’ car, which has 103,000 total miles. She lives in rural Colorado, where the nearest decent sized town is 60 miles - so lots of highway driving. She has checked for oil leaks and spots on the ground, and does not see anything to account for that much oil (no visible leaks). I have some suspicions, but wanted to ask all you drivers what might be causing this kind of oil lose. Any ideas ?? Thanks, Craig

Thanks again for the replies. I will look into getting an analysis. I got a soil analysis for my yard last year, might as well get one for the car. My main motivation in the original question is simply to have the engine last as long as possible. We tend to keep cars many years (I have owned my Chevy van for 21 years), and want to keep big expensive repairs to a minimum. Have a great week. C

GD, perhaps you can tell me where one would get an oil lab report? Keep in mind too that this is a family car, not a high performance race car. While I appreciate your sincere suggestion, it seems a little extreme, particularly if such an analysis is expensive or not commonly available. Thanks C

Hi All, Our Outback 3.6R Limited, which has 167,800 miles on it, gets Mobile 1 High Mileage full synthetic oil and a Subaru filter - and I do the oil changes myself. I was wondering how many miles to go between oil changes? Thoughts? Thank you, Craig

Hey, I never really had occasion to post in Members Rides, but last week we bought our seventh Subi, and I thought I would line up the fleet for a group photo. These are all Outbacks - 2005, 2012, 2018. The two older ones are H6 engines, which we like. This is Subi 4, 6 and 7. Our daughter took off with 3 (which she rolled in the snow), and 5, which she took to Colorado with 265,000 miles. C

Hi All, My wife is looking at upgrading Outbacks and I need some help. We currently have a 2012 Outback which is very nice, but does not have modern safety features. She found a well priced 2014 Outback Limited 3.6R. The description of this car lists: EyeSight System, follow distance indicator, lead vehicle indicator, lane departure and sway indicator, pre-collision indicator, adaptive cruise control, back-up camera display in center console. It does NOT appear to have warning of cars in blind spot. It was my understanding that most of these features began in 2016. If not this 2014 Outback, we were looking at a 2017 or 2018 with these safety features (and possibly more). Is this 2014 on a reasonable par with the newer cars, or should we really hold out and buy the newer model? The price is very good for the 2014, but we can spend more if necessary. I will add, the 2014 appears to be a special order vehicle and has a special appearance package and EyeSight - and every other bell & whistle - it was a top of the line vehicle. Thoughts ???? Thanks. Craig

Good points Ido. I am not in a big hurry, and can start a little high. People do like the feeling of negotiating on a used car and getting a ‘deal’. I actually hate to sell this car. Afterward we will buy a 2016-2017 Outback for my wife, and I will inherit her current driver, a 2012 Outback H6. I very much prefer driving the 2005 - it feels more sporty and responsive, with better visibility. We anticipate moving to Delaware in the coming months, and don’t want to pay tax on the next car in BOTH states. So I might wait awhile yet, not sure on that. I am trying to find a wheel again, and will get that taken care of. I will say, I never buy and sell for sport. I am not very good at that. We typically keep a car for 6 to 10 years. I have a 1995 Chevy conversion van which I have owned for 20 years. It runs real well, and is road trip ready. Thanks to everyone for the good input and advice on this. I will be in that $2800 to $3500 range - and possibly cut a better deal for a single mom or college student.

I have a feeler out to Paradise Auto in Elkton for a wheel. They are supposed to call me this morning to confirm. It is $86, but also much closer to home. The car-part.com web site was very helpful - good resource to know. I did see that Hartlaubs should have some wheels as well. Thanks. C

Yes, I bought a sunroof assembly from Condon for this car last spring, mostly for the good seals around the glass. That went well (though I still parked it in the garage during Sunday’s drenching storm). Cleaning the sunroof drain tubes was a pretty major project which I never want to do again. I will check out those contacts and try again for the wheel. I am certainly willing to pay the money and fix the problem. I have a printout from the manual showing the four styles which came out that year, and can send a photo of my wheel to them in advance. Mine is variant #4, and I would call it more silver (but not chrome or shiny). My wife and I are from Colorado, and have been to many places in the region, but not Gettysburg yet. I wrote down your restuarant recommendation and will certainly visit there for lunch or dinner. Many thanks. C PS: duhhh - the wheels are shown in the photo above. ha

Gettysburg is doable for us. Do have a name of a particular salvage yard ? I have been as far as Westminster for parts, which is about 3/4 of the way to Gettysburg. Let me know the yard. Thx

I am sure about the wheel issue. I mounted and balanced them myself, and felt the shimmy in the front. That completely went away when the tire was moved to the rear. It messes up the rotation. I have tried to get a rim, but no luck within a reasonable distance. I could see the bent rim when spinning on the balance machine. I will disclose it, but nothing more. The buyer will get a multipage printout of everything done to the car in 9 years, nothing to hide.

Ido - that is about how I feel about things. This is a good first car, something that will last a long time but if it gets hit - not the end of the world. Maybe a good car for a college student, just have a decent little car for a couple of years. I think being on the low end of the comps is in the right place, probably about $3500. We have been paid for this car once (but I do have money into it as well), so I don't need to make a killing. We mostly want a decent down payment on the next Outback. I have fixed three different water leaks into this car, so seeing it go won't kill me. I will say, it is a better more fun driving car then our 2012 Outback. Thanks for the input.

Thanks Imdew - here is the photo you asked for. Are you saying LESS $2000 from what ever sale price I come up with ? Not that much damage for totalling the car. BTW - I was born in C Springs, and grew up there. Seen a lot of changes since the early '60s. Craig

Hi All, I have had this 2005 Outback 3.0 R VDC, for about 9 years and it has all the high-end features of 2005. It is well maintained and runs really well. Gets good consistent gas mileage, and there are no significant leaks. It has a very nice (expensive) set of seat covers in the front, and the tranny valve body is about 8 months old and working great. The tires are in good+ condition and everything works. It has about 205,000 The only known issue is a bent wheel on the rear, which balances, but was noticeable when mounted to the front of the car. I have not been able to find a replacement. In 2018 a tall truck backed into the Subi in a parking lot, damaging a) the left front fender and b) the transmission filter and bracket under that fender. The hood, head light, bumper and wheel well trim are a little scuffed, but undamaged - as shown. I bought a new fender and painted it inside and out with an exact match color. On a nice March day I removed the old fender and put on the new one, while installing new filter parts. Pretty easy repair, no residual problems. Despite the minimal damage, the insurance company totaled the car, and we bought it back from them - so it has a salvage title. We are looking to sell the car and I was wondering about how much I need to reduce the price because of the salvage title. The new buyer can certainly register it, and it will pass all inspections (part of getting the salvage title in the first place) - but they won’t be able to buy collision insurance. Normal pricing in MD for this H6 car is $3700 to $6300. I averaged out the price on eight higher mileage comparables (XT Limited and LL Bean) and that is $5077. My car has higher mileage than all but one. The KBB suggests a mid price from a private sale at $4315, but from a dealer at $5250. Anybody want to suggest a fair price for this great running car ? (Or the amount to reduce for the salvage title). Thanks, Craig