Lightning Racer

The 1993 Legacy wagon is more to my taste. I would have considered bidding if it were manual. It needs RS Type RA wheels and the no-chrome grille though. No Reserve: 1993 Subaru Legacy L 25th Anniversary Wagon for sale on BaT Auctions - ending November 6 (Lot #126,529) | Bring a Trailer

2-3 times as much would have been worth it for me, especially seeing that video later and realizing that it's a common thing with Moog parts. Spent more than that messing around, getting it aligned twice with a weaker camber modifying camber bolt (wouldn't have needed an alignment at all with a good part). I should have just taken it off and thrown it in the bin and gotten the Subaru part. In fact, I might still do that at some point next time I visit my folks, just to do it right.

It's bad from my limited experience of one Moog part (one for one bad is 100% bad for me). I put a Moog front lower control arm into my dad's 2005 Outback, and immediately noticed that the camber was way off with the camber bolt in the same position. It couldn't be corrected to even close with the stock camber bolt. The lateral dimension of the part must have been way off. Here's a mechanic's long term experience with Moog parts:

Can anyone tell me what the likely problem is with the sound system? I've had the car for 21 years, and it's been bad like this for years. It's the Brighton, so just two speakers, one in in each front door. Sound cuts in and out, especially when changing the volume. Sometimes no sound on one side at lower volumes, tends to be better at higher volumes. I know it's not the speakers. I replaced them last year, and it didn't help. The speakers I got sound worse than the OEM, so I'll put the originals back in at some point, and maybe move the newer ones to the rear doors if the rear doors turn out to be wired (not sure). If it's likely the head unit, is this a common problem? I'd like to stick with a Subaru branded unit that will plug right in, but I want to avoid the same problem. I listen to the radio on it, and use a bluetooth FM thingy to listen to music from my phone.

Yes. I bought close to the same car, a 2003 Legacy 5MT wagon with 150K miles, a couple years ago before things went crazy, for $2100. But to get that price, I had to check ads all over the country for over a month, and then jump immediately and buy it sight unseen off internet. If I saw the same car now, if it were completely rust free and mechanically sound, I'd certainly consider paying $6K. Now that I have the car, I personally wouldn't part with it for less than $10K (not that anyone would pay close to that... but it's not for sale). I admit that Subaru wagons are cars that I would say are my favorite cars (also have a 1996, and used to have a Loyale), so I'm more willing to pay more. But it's also objectively a better car than my previous Prius that took me $10K to sort out (after buying for around $7K). I like it's driving characteristics, appearance/style, size, and utility (everything better than my Prius except gas mileage), and I have it basically close to perfect at this point (not a spot of rust, completely dry/tight underneath, refreshed suspension, sticky tires, new clutch). I expect it will outlast me (only 52, but I don't put in a lot of driving miles). I also avoid anything newer than 2005 (GD's influence on this forum a big part of that). For example TPMSs do no good for anyone that pays attention to things. It only annoys you with lights and then costs you a lot of extra money when you know the pressures are good and the sensors have gone bad. I'd pay to not have TPMSs on my car.

I'm guessing that the problem is similar to what Toyota had with the 2010-2011 Prius headlights: voltage too high at the bulb due to larger than ideal wire in the headlight harness. (Maybe the same supplier for the Prius/Legacy headlight harness?) The fix for the Prius, which had an extended warranty, was to add about 1 meter wire length to the original headlight harness to cause the voltage to drop closer to the 12V nominal at the bulb: My Toyota Prius 2010 caught fire | Page 5 | PriusChat Looks like Subaru is replacing bulbs for free for 10 years, and you can apply for reimbursement: MC-10182590-9999.pdf (nhtsa.gov) Microsoft Word - snet_announcement_template.doc (nhtsa.gov)

No head gaskets in this one:

Squeezed tight the seals on the door/window gussets of my 2003 Legacy using my fingers, a 3 minute fix. Driver's side's gaps were much larger than the passenger side's. Gaps and excessive wind noise are now gone. I heard this fix doesn't last vs. replacing with the updated version, but I don't close the door using the window, and it's probably the first time it's been adjusted, so probably not that much metal fatigue of the supporting structure behind the seals yet. Trying to fix now: My right fog light is aimed too low, bright part topping out just out of view below bumper level from driver's perspective. I popped the surround off, and saw an adjustment screw. Turned it both CCW and CW many turns, and the screw went in noticeably deeper, a clue that someone tried messing with it before without success. It doesn't seem like it's moving the light at all. I'll need to access the back of the fog light to see what's going on. Have been away from home for a long time, so I don't have tools or a jack/stands with me, so might give up for now. Or maybe I can get that small under panel off and have a look-see.

No personal experience yet with these, but I've been shopping tires and reading reviews and just ordered some BF Goodrich G-Force Comp 2 A/S+. It was between that and the Michelin CrossClimate 2 for me. I liked that the BFG was a lot cheaper and had a lot better dry and wet performance (Tirerack testing), while still having good snow performance (couldn't wait for the upcoming Tirerack winter tests on these). I didn't care about the treadwear difference (45K miles BFG vs. 60K miles Michelin) because I drive relatively low mileage, and the tires will probably age out, even if mostly garaged. The main pluses for the Michelin are the 3peak mountain snowflake rating if I need to drive through places that require that rating in winter (parts of Canada), and ice performance in Alaska. New England roads, at least where I am part of the year, are plowed and salted quickly enough that my GF has no problem with her cheap all-seasons on her Sienna. I keep my (rust-free) 2003 Legacy off the New England roads then anyway.

Here was the damage . The inside of the throttle body was corroded, with the throttle plate turning green too.

David M, thanks! I think I have the same problem. I just started up my 2003 Legacy L SE wagon for the first time since December today (had left it on the opposite coast). I did a 3.5 mile test drive around the hilly, rural block. At two points in the drive, the car floored itself. When I pushed in the clutch, the engine would go up into the red at 6500+ rpm, so I let the clutch back in and used the brakes to slow me down to prevent overrevving. It was then normal for a few minutes, before it floored itself the last mile to the end of my loop. There is evidence of animals living under the hood, nut shells and stuff - it had been completely clean under the hood when I had left it in December. I'll clean all the debris out when I get a chance tomorrow, especially the air box and throttle body where you found stuck wood chips. I think I might find more debris left by animals.

For the entertainment value of watching a massive undertaking, watch the Mighty Car Mods "Gramps" (Gen 2 Liberty/Legacy wagon EZ36 turbo) and "Supergramps" (same engine moved to a Gen 4 wagon) series on Youtube. After 5 years work:

Did you check the power steering fluid level?

For a few weeks of online research, I looked into youtube videos of people soldering stuff (bluetooth units, AUX) onto the back of stock radios as well as that iSimple thing that you recommend (based on your earlier recommendation). My goal was just to get sound from my phone to my 2003 Legacy's stock radio while keeping the stock head and having good quality. After reading/watching more reviews, my solution turned out to be an FM bluetooth adapter. Some of those units must have improved a lot in quality since you tried them, because the quality is essentially perfect (as good the FM radio coming through the speakers, haven't tried a CD yet in the stock deck) on my car with this $13-$17 unit. I'm now glad I didn't waste my time trying to solder stuff on the back of the radio head unit. It is as clean looking as what I had before (I had a USB charger plugged into the cigarette lighter already, this was just a simple swap). I selected FM107.9 for the frequency because that's always far from any station that I listen to (typically public radio on the lower end of the dial), even on road trips, and the higher frequency might (?) keep quality marginally higher than in the lower frequencies. In 6 weeks thus far, I haven't noticed any interference with FM. It's a 100% perfect solution for me. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GJ7DHMP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1