Stevo F

I'm thinking of buying an older Legacy/ Outback to give myself another automatic transmission car and then pass it down to my son (now 15) for something reliable and good in bad weather to take him through college. We did pass on our '98 Legacy wagon to my son now in college and it's doing well for him. Given the issues the different generations are known to have (varying types of EJ25 head gasket failure, depending on year/ engine type), does the 2nd gen have any advantages over later cars in terms of long term reliability/ durability- i.e. going over 20 years old/ 200K miles? For example, thinking of looking at a '96 Outback, but will the car still be reliable at 25 years old since it's already 20? I think I would take anything with an EJ22 over any of them, but again dealing with a car already at or near 20 years old.

I did rev it at the throttle body actually. It got a little noiser as it revved up and the noise faded at higher RPM's. I'm thinking a rod knock would get louder proportionally with increase in RPM's- is that correct? Actually the guy selling the car said a mechanic told it him was valve train noise or a noisy rocker. He sent me a message saying another perosn who came to look at the car also had a '897 Outback with the same noise (but louder) and said it was a valvetrain/ rocker noise. If it's nothing serious, tempted to see if the guy can remove the FWD fuse and put it back to AWD to see if it drives smoothly or not.

The most reliable engine Subaru made was the 2.2 liter EJ22 (used up through 1999 in the Legacy and 2001 in the Impreza). The various incarnations of the EJ25 engine are the ones with head gasket issues. All 1996- '99 EJ25 headgaskets fail by 150K miles or so, where head gasket failures are more sporadic from 2000-. For size, the earlier Imprezas were compact. The newer ones built today are the same size as the 90's Legacy's were.

On this car, the tap was most noticeable at idle and was harder to hear when revved up. Got a little quieter when warm, but not that much.

I was thinking it was piston slap when the guy first said it gets better when warm, but the video was taken when it was warm. Sounds pretty deep in the engine- am thinking rod knock also.. This is a lot different sounding then the lighter tick that our '98 EJ22 Legacy makes (only under load and only when it's cold, then it pretty much disappears) I have always considered this to be piston slap.

I looked at a '97 Outback today that I think has some issues. The owners brother did mention the engine makes a tapping sound. It did get a little quieter when it warmed up, but the sound is still most noticeable at idle. I attached a video of the engine at idle for anyone that would like to weigh in the sound. The owner said a mechanic had aid valve noise? maybe piston slap? maybe a rod knock? The other odd thing was that the car was set in front wheel drive (the brother knew about the fuse under he hood but seemed to think that it meant 4WD and said he had driven around in the snow this winter that way. I gave up trying convince him it is front wheel drive). My question here is if the car has torque bind (one tire was brand new and the other 3 fairly new- I wonder how long that type of thing has gone on) would putting the fuse in to make it run in FWD mask thew symptoms of torque bind? I test drove it and it drove fairly well. I did notice a little pulsating in the steering wheel (maybe noticeable because it was in FWD). Other than the noise, the engine ran smoothly. The headgaskets were recently replaced and there were no bubbles in the overflow tank. The car otherwise drove pretty well, is rust free and except for a couple of dents is physically in pretty nice shape for $1,500. Video of engine idling is at this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8N4p9BHK2dTcm1RNnBPUFl1RDQ/view?usp=sharing

I saw a CG ad for a '98 Outback. Looks in great shape from the pics. It has 309K miles. New rear CV axles (I'm guessing the front were done previously, new ball joints, new tires, new brakes. Small exhaust leak at one of the flanges. Seems to have been well maintained, but how many more miles should I reasonably expect to get from the engine and transmission? What other issues should I be looking for on a 300K + mile survivor? I'm thnking any EJ25D with those kinds of miles must have had new headgaskets long ago.

Yes, I love those old 90's Subaru's too- love the look of them as well as the simplicity. I guess one factor on reliability is whether you have an EJ22 (we've had 2 so far, including one in my son's '98 Legacy wagon) or and EJ25D. The car I'm looking at has the EJ25D, but it looks like it'd the needed headgasket/ timing belt service done on it. Would like ot go look at the car, but will need to offload one of our other cars (which likely be our 2005 OBS (with stick that few of us can drive)

I saw a Craigslist ad for a '96 Outback. I've really wanted one of these, and miss the whole 2nd gen Legacy thing since we gave our '98 wagon to my son. I personally prefer the Outback over the Legacy because of its look and higher stance, but of course dislike the issues with the EJ25D over the bulletproof EJ22 (which is in my son's car of course). The issue is we've got a full stable of cars already (5 cars- 3 being Subaru and 4 drivers). We do have a son who will be driving the next couple of years so it could be a nice ride for him at some point (although I question whether having him drive a 25 year old car, maybe on longer trips, makes sense. Anyway, here is a link to the ad and below is what the owner told me about the car: http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/cto/5458620219.html Owners comments: "I was told by the previous owner the head gaskets had been done at 110k. He sold it to me because the water pump bolts had become loose and was leaking fluid. I then did the water pump, thermostat, pulleys, and timing belt. Their is a valve cover leak. Wanna get around to it but always dreading it. I did the timing/waterpump at 180k. So other the one valve cover its fine. All internal functions work A/C heating radio The Subaru was my girlfriends daily driver until recently so I had to stay on top of the maintenance. She got a new Corolla and she gifted it to me. I also just had the front left axel and cv joint done because it clunking. The alternator gave out and I also did that around October. After I did the water pump and timing job the temp has never gone past half way even in the summer, so I'm guessing also that the head gasket was done right. Underneath the rust is I'd say average. The car was from Roanoke area so through their winters too. The aftermarket trailer hitch has plenty of surface that's the only thing the looks really bad. The only spot on the paint I've noticed is on right rear fender. No surface rust just a spot of paint raised up. Can't tell if rust bubble or the part of the two tone wrap coming up. That's the only spot on the paint. The front subframe looks to be okay little bit of oil has kept most rust away. The interior is really nice. Worn but held together nicely. No major faults. I'll get you some more pictures later if you want. The previous owner kept a log of the maintenance he did, and I didn't but I still kept up with it, the inside was too nice to just let it go to waste you know. Yeah it's still nice and I was gonna keep it for winters but just seeing if anybody wanted it. Take ski trips in it all the time. Let me know if you need any more info." From this it sounds like the owner is on top of things and knowledgeable about these cars. One concern I have is, given there should be approx 75K miles on the replacement headgaskets, I assume they would have failed long ago if the heads were warped or the replacement gaskets were inferior. My question is should I expect them to go again, or would the one time replacement be the fix? I'd be open to putting an EJ22 in it, but I'm not that handy to do the job myself. Any thoughts?

We put General Altimax all season tires on our 2005 OBS last year. Much quieter than the previous tires and well rated (for all-seasons) for driving in snow. About 10K on them so far.

Anytime I get anything from Advance Auto parts, I just google Advance Auto coupon codes. Usually can find $40 of of order of $100 or more and discounts like that. I just order online, then go down to the store and pick it up.

My '05 Impreza is the same way. Always used the key to unlock previous cars but can't get around using the Fob on this one. I ended up getting used to using the Fob all the time anyway, although it's a pain when I occasionally forget and use the key..

I love my 2014 Impreza (I have the sedan- wishing I bought the hatch for better hauling). Only caveat for the newer Impreza is that many of the 2012's and early 2013's had some issues with excessive oil consumption.

Ran them On my Corolla but it never saw snow and they were ok otherwise

Seems like people have lots of different opinions on oil (hard to find a consensus). I've been using Pennzoil Platinum 0W-20 in my 2014 Impreza. It seemed to have decent reviews, and I didn't find a lot of negative feedback about it (and reasonable priced). Seems to run well with it and hasn't burned a drop. I change my oil at shorter intervals (4,500 miles) and it seems to do well so far (17,000 miles and counting)

I don't think a blown headgasket would be spraying antifreeze all over like that. Also, your EJ22 is not particularly prone to headgasket failures as the larger EJ25D engines of that vintage were. My money would be on a heater hose (most likely never replaced)

I changed out the front rotors on our 2005 Impreza Outback Sport, but the vibration in he pedal persists, so I plan to change out the rear rotors as well. I've removed front rotors from several different kids of cars with no issues, but is there anything different from the front, that I need to look out for when removing rear rotors on a Subaru (especially with the emergency brake)?

My 2014 Impreza ususally displays MPG's higher than I really get when calculating it between fill-ups (currently measuring approx 37 MPG and I'm really getting 33 MPG). Never have seen 52 MPG however...

This is actually in reference to my wife's 2006 Sienna AWD van, but it's the same situation that would apply to our Subaru's. My wife ran over some sort of metal landscaping barrier at someone's house today and it caused a puncture to the sidewall on the front passenger's tire. The current tires have under 10K miles left on them-(this van really eats tires- the crummy run flats that came on it new lasted 13K miles and the regular tires since haven't gone more than 25K miles per set- (I bought an extra rim for a full size spare after the run flats were replaced). Since sidewalls generally aren't safe to repair, and I could probably get one more year out of the tires on the van now, I'm wondering what it costs to buy one new tire and have it shaved to the same diameter as the existing tires. Do most tire places shave tires, or is that process not commonly done?

As for the engine cranking a while before it started, that likely was due to the ECU reset they did to shut off the check engine light. Our 2005 Impreza was getting a Check Engine light for an evaporaitve hose leak and when i reeset it the car would crank 10- 15 seconds before it started, but that never reoccurred.

These engines like NGK plugs (Platinum or regular) and NGK wires

Correct, the new FB series engines use a timing chain. The FB20 in my 2014 Impreza has one.

Put an EJ22 in it.

As for the FB engines, the only issue I'm aware of so far is excessive oil consumption on some of the 2012- 2013 models (at least on the FB20). I've put 15K miles so far on the FB20 in my 2014 Impreza with no issues whatsoever.

When filling up our 2005 Impreza Outback Sport (2.5 liter N/A engine, 5 speed manual) a couple of weeks ago I noticed the car has to crank a long before it started. I recall having a propblems on our '98 Legacy like that and it was the evap purge valve (mounted on the intake manifold). I thought this might be the same issue here, but after the next fill-up, the car started right up. My wife drove it about 80 miles today and told me she got another CEL (we just had to replace the upstream O2 sensor a few weeks ago). This time it was a P0457 (EVAP System Leak Detected Fuel Cap Loose/Off). I tightened the fuel cap and reset the ECU. Code gone for now, but when I started it it was hard to start again. Restarted again a few minutes later, and it it started fine. I also noticed when I let off the gas (in or out of gear) the idle sometimes drops to 500 RPM or so, then goes back up to around 750 where it normally is (idle is smooth). With the hard starting and this code, where would be a good place to start looking?