heartless

if it threw a code for the O2 sensor, go get a new one and replace it - seriously. you can get a direct fit replacement (Denso) for about $65.00 from Advance Auto - or Bosch Premium for about $100 - look it up. (personally, I stay away from the ones that have to have the plug end spliced in - just asking for trouble with those IMHO) I went from an average of 24-25 mpg to hitting 30 mpg by replacing mine. Also, do a basic tune up - plugs, wires, air filter, etc

Congrats on the "new" Legacy - I hope she works out well for you. As already mentioned, the 2.2 is a very good motor and will last a long time with proper care & maintenance. Mine is still going strong at 205K and the other half has one with over 240K, also still going strong, so 131K is nothing for this motor - barely broken in. I wouldnt worry too much about the zip-tied timing cover either, it isnt that big of a deal.

yeah, we love our furry "kids" - even when they get hair all over everything - oh and the only "bull" we have around here is of the stinky kind! Farm country ya know.... and no, there really isnt much one can say to ease the pain, appreciate the thoughts tho. It has been coming for a while, not an unexpected thing, but still doesnt make it easy. But enough of the downers.... getting back on topic...any further plans for TW10?? push bar? or perhaps one of those fancy roof baskets? and Scott - just need to know what flavor!! LOL

ad mentions "damage" - have to wonder what kind, where & how bad... would definitely want to see it in person, hear it run, drive it if possible before i would even begin to consider a fair price... Granted the 2.2 is a good motor and 93 would still be OBD-I - still kind of gunshy on this one - something about it just says, "stay away"....there are much nicer examples out there & probably for a better price, without a possible hacked up motor swap - just need to do a little hunting and very curious about the story behind the picture, too.....

ok guys - even May might be pushing the luck on the weather a little bit around here, but should be ok for the most part...hard to say what will be happening by then tho...will have to keep in touch, see what is happening with everyone closer to then. can always get access to a backup location if needed - warm, dry and lots of room! I am trying to get back into school - waiting on word of whether or not I can get my 30 yr old GED transcripts - bureaucratic BS - bah. If i cant get them, then I will have to take the darn tests all over again - what fun. as for swappin recipes - eh, i have a couple secret weapons, but not too many - you are more likely find me out in the garage gettin greasy! (sorry, not a Suzy Home-maker type, never have been) LOL dont have any babies here, unless you count the 4 legged, furry kind that bark rather than cry - oh, and one of them has a problem holding his licker :-p Seriously tho - will be making a trip to Madison on Friday - Marc's mom is not doing well.

of the ones you listed, this is the one I would go for if it were up to me. 95 means 2.2 non-interference, a definite plus - the 2.2 is a very good motor and when cared for will easily go 250-300K and being non-interference, if you should "forget" to do the timing belt on schedule and it breaks, no big deal, no internal damage. only 95K miles - it is barely broken in, so a clean engine bay would not surprise me in the least - especially if the car was well maintained by it's former owner. new snow tires - in Maine - yeah, definitely! new timing belt, water pump & cam seals - all regular maintenance items that should be done with a timing service. The biggest difference between a Legacy and an Outback Legacy is trim (cosmetics) and suspension/tires/wheels (ground clearance) The Outback will be taller with larger wheels/tires. Also, the Outback will be heavier which means a bit less fuel mileage... personally, i have not had any "ground clearance" issues with my bone stock 1990 Legacy - it goes thru fairly deep snow with no problems at all - two winters ago i drove home after it was storming all day - snow, wind = lots of drifting - had to drive nearly 10 miles down a road that had not been plowed all day, and hadnt seen any traffic in quite a while either (no tracks even partially visible) for most of the drive i was "dragging bottom" on the snow that was over the road, with an occasional need to "plow" thru a drift that was nearly hood high...made it home just fine - a little tense, but you'll have that. LOL not a trip i want to repeat, but it is nice to know that i could if i had to.

Gotta love it, Tom - cant wait to hear how Scott feels about it! and yeah, warmer weather would be a good thing! I need to go out & clear the driveway right now, keep putting it off cause it's cold out there! Much more fun to hang out here & shoot the bull....

just out of curiosity (and to eliminate a possibility) have you tried swapping the plug wires around? (ie: pull 3 or 4 and try on 1 or 2) might be odd, but it is possible the plug wires are bad if there is power going to the coil pack, but not producing spark at the spark plug?

we still have the 88 coupe sitting up here - comes with lots of extra goodies.....including a full RX body kit, 14" alloy pug wheels, a dual range 5spd (you install), misc NEW body parts..... I will say she needs brake lines replaced before she goes very far under her own power tho... and yeah, those skull windows were pretty kewl, werent they? have not seen that particular tint ever again around here...

OMG - sounds like you got her from a real winner there! ROFLMAO anyway, being a 95, shouldnt be too bad to get her up & running again - the 2.2 is a plus... a friend of mine recently had an LL Bean edition outback with the 3.0 that he decided was too small for him (he is 6'5") wanted to know if i wanted it - well, duh, yeah, just couldnt afford the several thousand dollars to get it. oh well, maybe someday.... so when are you & miles going to come up & help me reseal my motor??? got all the gaskets - hmmm, maybe i should pick up a timing set & do it all in one shot, huh? she is almost due for timing again....

eh, never mind then...i wish your buddy luck with her... :cool: and honestly, don't want one with the 2.5 anyway - prefer the 2.2 non interference - fewer "issues"...

Hit the nail squarely on the head with this one, GD - I couldn't agree more! Proper following distance, not waiting until the last second to hit the brakes when approaching a stop sign/light, and just generally paying attention to what is going on in front of/around you (and i mean watching further ahead than just the car directly in front of you) and adjusting your driving speed accordingly will go a long ways toward saving your brakes. If you have the VERY bad habit of riding the brake pedal with the left foot - STOP IT! tie your foot to the seat bracket if you have to, but STOP riding the brake pedal! As already mentioned, making sure the "brake job" is done correctly is another big factor. If the calipers do not slide freely on the pins, they will drag, and wear out the pads faster, and can feasibly cause rotor warping from excessive heat. Doing a "good" brake job isn't all that difficult if you are even remotely mechanically inclined - having a good teacher and/or resources is important so you know what to look for and what to do to correct a problem. And I am with PHATBRAT on this one - I do my own because I also trust no one.

Gimmee!! I want!

that is good to know, but seriously - i think we have used ours maybe two or three times in the 3-4 yrs we have had it... it is mostly a flat surface to put things on top of! LOL

we have the "Earthquake" 1/2 drive impact wrench here - Love It! Works great, has 6 different torque settings, for light, medium & heavy duty jobs - just remember to give it 4-6 drops of oil everytime you grab it and it will last - ours is about 6 yrs old and gets used often. The impact sockets arent too bad - maybe not the highest quality in the world, but they work, and we havent broken any yet - lost a couple, but no broken ones. We actually have a lot of stuff from harbor freight, and like GD said, it can be a crap shoot if you arent careful - if you have a store near you, go check stuff out BEFORE you buy - thats the best advice i can give on them.

hehe, not this particular wife/girlfriend - i would probably be the one doing the scrubbing! LOL i have found that for varnished over stuff, PB Blaster does a pretty good job of breaking up the varnish, and quite quickly, too- but it does leave an oily residue... we do have one of the HF parts washers, but havent really used in the way it was intended to be used...mostly set a part in, squirt it down with cleaner of choice (PB, brake kleen, carb cleaner, etc) give a little scrub at the stubborn stuff, and rinse with the favored cleaner again... The primary reason for this is because we dont use it often enough to warrant keeping it filled with a specific cleaning fluid - it would probably evaporate long before we had need of it again.

that may well have been the reason for the FWD fuse being installed. The AWD tranny's dont particularly like having mismatched tires. a simple check can tellyou if they are close enough in diameters to meet specs however. you will need to measure each tire's diameter - they should all be within 1/4 inch....

that button is for releasing the shifter with the car not running - such as to put it in neutral temporarily (i find this button useful when cleaning the car to get the ashtray out for emptying! LOL)

to start with, pop the hood, and pull the fuse out - holder is located at the back of the passenger side strut tower - usually just a 10amp fuse. once you get the fuse out, take it for a drive to see how it handles, reacts - if there is binding on turns, etc. (finding a large empty lot is a great place to check for torque bind)

I cant help you any with the specific tire you asking about, but I can throw my 2 cents out on a couple of others that I have had/have now... 1st, i prefer to buy locally vs online for some things, tires being one of those things. the first set of tires i put on my 1990 Legacy LS AWD wagon were Cooper's - I forget the specific model, but they were an all season touring type, something in the neighborhood of 70K mile rating. They handled well on dry or wet road , but being a fairly hard tire, not the best on packed snow/ice - not bad, but not great either. Got great fuel mileage with them, as compared to what I am running now. These tires got replaced due to age/weather cracking on the sidewalls - at just over two years old, i figure i did ok, altho they still had quite a bit of tread left on them. approx milage on these was around 50-52K Forget what i paid for them, but it was a deal at the time. The replacements - Kelly Explorer - 45,000mile all season. Only have a few hundred to a 1000 miles on these, so i cant speak to longevity yet, but i like them so far, except my fuel mileage did go down some (softer, "stickier" tire) Not a lot of road noise from them and handling on dry road is great! car will take curves/corners like it's on rails :cool: Winter handling so far has been pretty good - our county is notorius for doing a lousy job of road plowing - most of the time you cant even tell they went thru, unless it is really deep...have not had any issues yet. These i paid $60 per tire - that included mounting, balancing, new valve stems and old tire disposal fee at a local independant tire shop. We also put these on the other halfs car - 1990 Leg L sedan, FWD - and he likes them, feels much more secure on the road than with his old balding tires! LOL And he got an even better deal - $54 per tire, all the same stuff included ( i just bought too soon i guess! )

+2 - you need the non air top hats. Used are usually fine - check them over.

seriously - 115K IS nothing for these cars - even for a 20 yr old one. I have a 1990 Legacy LS wagon AWD 4EAT with just over 205K - runs and drives fine. not the prettiest car on the road, but not the ugliest either. the other half has a 1990 Legacy L sedan, 5 spd, FWD with 250K and still going strong. again, not a real pretty car, but quite reliable. so with decent care & maintenance, these cars will run for darn near ever - the bodies give out before the motor does - at least in the salt belt anyway. oh yeah, for the record - winter time i get about 26mpg average mixed driving, summer is closer to 30 mpg

as the request is for someone to try with a "late 90's" car, i am not able to help out as mine is a 1990...not to mention that my abs is non-functional at this time anyway. that aside, i am curious as well