DerFahrer

That's the only problem there would be with an LSi wagon would be the air suspension. Join us over at the BC-BF Legacy forum and revel in just how great your car really is

I can tell you this from experience, you MUST pull that check engine light code before you go and randomly start replacing sensors. As for purchasing a new sensor, you have several options. You can just go to Discount Auto Parts and buy a new sensor that plugs and plays. Or if you're feeling industrious, you can buy a univeral 4-wire oxygen sensor from www.oxygensensors.com which will allow you to splice the ground wire for the sensor into the ground for the sensor heater, which will give you a better reading and a possibility of slight performance and mileage improvement, plus the universal sensor will be cheaper. But pull the code first. Really the SeaFoam shouldn't damage your O2 sensor, many people have run all kinds of engine cleaners through their cars with no ill side effects.

HAHA Setright! More mere factual information for you all to digest: You all know the world's highest mileage car? The 66 Volvo P1800? Guy (retired school teacher) bought it brand-new in 1966 on a Friday and that very Sunday took it in for its 1500-mile service? Had the engine torn down at 680k and the mechanics declared it barely broken in, and put it back together using every last original part? It hit 2 million miles while driving in Volvo's 75th Anniversary parade in New York??? Car still runs to this day, and the guy beats the world record every time he drives it? That guy has never used synthetic oil at any point in that car's life.

I say yes. 183k miles isn't a lot for these cars, even if they HAVEN'T been taken care of... I know several guys who regularly beat the crap out of their 200K mile poorly-maintained 90-94 Legacies and still can't break them.

I don't know of any cars that came with a "bad" EJ22 motor The EJ22 has always been pretty reliable in its 3 forms: 1) The Phase I, beginning with the 1990 Legacy. SOHC, dual-port, non-interference, hydraulic lifters, 9.5:1 CR, 130hp. 2) The EJ22T, beginning with the 1991 Legacy Turbo and ending with the 1994 Legacy Turbo. SOHC, dual-port, non-interference, hydraulic lifters, 8.5:1 CR, 160hp. 3) The Phase II EJ22, beginning with the 1997 Legacy and Impreza, ending with the 1999 Legacy and 2001 Impreza. SOHC, single-port, interference, solid lifters, 9.7:1 CR, 142hp.

LOL!

I'm assuming the tensioner for your Phase II EJ25 is the same hydraulic tensioner that my Phase I EJ22 uses... These are the specs that the tensioner needs to meet if it's still good: It needs to be able to hold 33 lbs of force without moving, and when 33 lbs is exceeded (up to 110 lbs), it should hold it for no less than 8.5 seconds and then sink. Taken from LegacyCentral. I can tell you personally to not put anymore than 110 lbs of pressure on it or you will ruin it. The hydraulics inside it are quite complicated and doing something like putting your body weight on it immediately will cause things to go haywire inside it. I ruined what was probably a perfectly good tensioner this way and ended up paying $75 for a new one. The optimal way to recompress it is to put it in a vise and compress it VERY slowly, you should do it so slow as to take up to a minute before you can insert the pin in it. You can print this out for your mechanic if you like, and insist he follow these instructions.

There's a bit more info on this at the LegacyCentral site for 1st-gen Legacies... The canister purge valve is part of the EVAP emissions control system which works as follows: There are noxious and very flammable gas fumes in your tank, needless to say. The EVAP system rids the tank of these fumes, slightly reducing emissions from the entire car, and making the best use of all the gas in the tank. There is a box close to the tank that gathers these fumes from a tube at the top of the tank, then sends them over to the charcoal canister in your engine bay (it's the black cylinder with a a few vacuum hoses on it sitting on the passenger side, just next to the radiator). This charcoal canister stores the fumes, and then they are sucked out of the canister by engine vacuum whenever the canister purge valve is open. This valve is extremely notorious for sticking closed, I've actually never talked to anyone with a BC/BF Legacy who has not dealt with it before. When it's stuck closed, the engine is not getting those fumes it's normally accustomed to getting, so it's running about .0000000000001% leaner than it's normally supposed to . That would explain your rough idle. The part is a dealer-only part, and yes expect to pay about $80 for it. It's not exactly easy to replace either, as it sits right underneath the passenger side intake runners. Be happy yours is nonturbo, a Turbo Legacy would require either the removal of the turbo or intake manifold in order to reach this part. If it gives you any peace of mind, it's in no way an emergency. I drove my Legacy around with my Check Engine light on for this exact same thing for over a year with absolutely no problems, and my friend with a 91 turbo has the same thing, and is not even going to bother touching it :-\ Good luck!

Reading the part about hoping spinner hubcaps would increase HP set a red flag in the air that this was all a big joke. Now that's entering with style, sheppie!

Russ, that reminds me, I should have told the rest of the story... I cut the wire off the old sensor, and I happened to notice a few exposed areas where it looks like the inner DOJ had maybe dragged against the wire. More on that in a minute. I crimped the butt connector on the new sensor onto the old wire and then installed it. After all was said and done, I went back inside my garage and noticed the rubber sheathing that was supposed to go over the butt connector before I crimped it together . So then I decided I better wrap some electrical tape around the butt connector and the exposed areas on the old wire that I noticed before, I did a very sloppy job of this by the way. Is it possible that the wire is grounding out on the chassis somewhere and that is causing my CEL to come on momentarily? Maybe I need to bite the bullet and just go get an OEM-style sensor that plugs and plays for $25 more... Thanks guys for the help.

This sounds like the very beginning of a bad CV joint. The joint is still in relatively good shape, but it's running out of grease.

I change my oil at 3k, and here's why: I work at a Toyota dealership, and some of you may remember the problems we were having with the 3.0 V6 sludging up. Everything from Highlanders to Avalons were getting new shortblocks under warranty. Siennas in particular were being towed in with engines completely seized with 13k (one case, 8k!!!) miles on them and the original oil and filter. Upon removal of the valve covers, I could easily have scraped off a quarter-inch thick layer of pure sludge. I do understand that it's been discussed that these engines might be running a bit too hot, but nevertheless, this shows what happens to oil when you don't change it often enough. I have NEVER seen a 3.0 V6 Toyota come in sludged up if the oil was changed at 3-5k.

Okay, I've since replaced my O2 sensor, replaced it with a universal one from Bosch and wired it myself. The problem seems to be alleviated, but not gone. I still had the CEL come on below 1000rpm and the car still sputters and struggles to get going every once in a while. I tried pulling the code on that CEL but the ECU didn't store the code I've swapped MAF's twice and there is absolutely no difference between the two MAFs. Any other ideas?

Used Valvoline DuraBlend partial synthetic oil 10W40 for quite some time in my Legacy. Kept losing oil without leaking it. As much as I didn't want to admit it to myself, I had to see, and had a friend drive the car away from me with a heavy foot. Sure enough, 1-2 shift, puff of blue smoke came out the tailpipe. Switched to Valvoline full dino 10W40. Car does not use one drop of oil, took it on 1600-mile weekend trip and drove the crap out of it without using a drop. Cam seals that were leaking with the DuraBlend now no longer leak. I don't even check my oil anymore. Car has 137k miles. You all say what you want about synth in high-mileage engines, I know where I stand.

No, but since you most likely have power door locks, you could get an aftermarket system and install it. Just don't complain if it screws up, after all, it is aftermarket

Auto, I take it? It seems the auto's are geared better for high speeds. Josh (Legacy777) says he's hit 130 in his Legacy when it was FWD auto. If I mashed the gas harder and was patient enough, I think I could have eked a bit more out of it, but I had already put the car through enough that weekend (went to the Dragon in NC and practically raced it through the mountains, covered 1600 miles in 3 days)

Honestly, I'll bet I could put 100K on a WRX 5MT, driving it fast, without any transmission troubles... I like to drive fast, but I like to do it as nicely as I can in regards to the car...

I'm with Setright. Replace the belt at 60k and inspect everything, just for good measure, replace the belt, tensioner and all that good stuff at 120k...

He's got the Phase II EJ25, 2.5 SOHC. The best thing I can say is to be an anal FREAK about maintenance! I'm not saying the car is crap, but I'm saying really take care of it. If you are religious with your maintenance, the car could easily see 300K. My Legacy is at 137k miles right now, and the engine runs like it has 137 miles on it. I still can hit 112mph, which is the top speed of the car NEW! I'm a freak about maintenance, and really, I dream of seeing it last as long as I can drive!

You can use either XT or XT6 rear struts. But you can't use XT6 front struts, they're a different species. You can't use the rear discs of the XT6 though unless you take the whole hub, because XT6's have a 5 X 100 lug pattern, while your Brat is 4 X 140.

The WRX trannies are not failing because of high-power engines... They're because people don't know how to drive. A lot of people are disrupting the synchros because they rest their hands on the gearshift! A Subaru tech told me that... Plus redline launches and slamming gears around don't help...

No, not an interference motor. Chances are you have an EA82 SPFI. 1.8, overhead cam, 90hp, throttle body injection. If you can replace the timing belts yourself (not hard), assuming nothing else is wrong, you'd have a nice reliable free Subaru!

No. That's why a lot of people have gone through the trouble of swapping a 5MT in them. Search on the SVX board for a 5-speed swap.

Yep, if the ECU is in the trunk, it's of the XT ilk. If you want to pull codes from the ECU, connect the green connectors together, you will be in D-check mode. Drive the car around for a while, and if the Check Engine light isn't on already, it should come on. If it flashes, it has no codes stored. If it stays steady, it has codes. Pop the trunk with the car still running and look at the O2 light on the ECU. It will flash the code at you. This is the experience I've had with my XT anyway, 88 MPFI nonturbo spider intake.

RallyKeith, XT's never came with a D/R tranny, at least not in the US. The 4cyl XT Turbo from 85-87 was the only 4WD XT and it was only selective 4WD, the 4cyl XT from 88-90 was either selective 4WD (manual) or fulltime 4WD (automatic), and the 91 XT 4cyl was FWD only. The XT6 AWD was diff lock only...