chiguy

My 13 year old Legacy has an issue with the wiper travel distance. Basically, on the driver's side (haven't paid attention to the other side), it never sweeps the same distance two sweeps in a row. Sometimes it stops several inches from the windshield edge, and sometimes it goes past the windshield edge. They do have play in them when they are off also. From searching, I'm guessing this is a bushing issue? I'd like to fix this myself and it sounds like it shouldn't be too big of a deal, but I couldn't find any posts that "put it all together" for me. Can anyone tell me what needs tightening, replacing, or otherwise? Are there any tricks to this I should know about? Is this easy enough to do myself? Thanks a lot!

Well, it needs new brakes and most likely rotors all the way around. It's due for a timing belt, and it needs trans. service. There really isn't any fluff. Also, I'm not trying to nickel and dime the exact quote. I've got multiple quotes and $1800 is "worst case". My question isn't really about how to shave money here and there, as I don't expect it to cost all of that, and I'd do the brakes myself if that was the issue. The issue that I'm just trying to get some opinions on is.. Is this a lot of miles for an EJ22 based 13 year old Legacy to spend much on maintenance, or is lots of maintenance still a good investment for such a car based on the track record of members here? I do really appreciate your replies and offers to help save on the costs though.

I've got a 95 Legacy with 222k on it. I'm the original owner, it runs great, and has been well maintained. It has needed very little over the years. I decided long ago I was "driving this one into the ground" before replacing it. So, now it needs about $1800 worth of routine maintenance... maintenance that I just don't have the time or inclination to do myself right now, so that's out of the question. We all commonly hear the refrain, "these Subarus will go forever", but I'm just curious what others think of that much maintenance at that many miles. Does this car likely have another 50k+ in it, or is this risky money to spend at this point?

Okay, I've read all the old threads on "low beams don't work, high beams do" but I still seem to have a mystery here. My 12 year old (95) Subaru Legacy wagon has just recently taken to eating headlamps. The original set lasted probably 10 years and now it has gone through 3 sets in a year. Each time, the low beams go and the high beams still work. The bulbs look fine, just a small break in the low beam filament. The fuses and relays seem fine. I run with my lights on all the time for visibility, basically like running lights and they seem fine until a long drive. I routinely make about a four hour drive for work every few weeks and maybe it's coincedence, but they always seem to go on that trip. At first, I thought I had a wiring problem, but decided to try new bulbs just to check and sure enough, they worked. That's when I looked extra close at the old bulbs and realized the filaments were shot on the low beams. So, I'm guessing there is some sort of wiring issue causing this, but wondering if anyone has any ideas where to start looking.

Someone just told me this past week I had a headlight out. That seemed strange as I just put in new Silverstars in a few months ago. I picked up a new replacement bulb and when I went to replace the bulb that was out, I found the other headlight was out also. This seemed suspicious. Both headlights worked on high beam. So, I tried wiggling connectors, and then I took one of the bulbs out and checked it. It looked fine. After putting everything back together, I finally just tried a good whack with my hand on the front of the headlight. It came on. Then I tried the same on the other side, and it came on. I'm sure this means they'll quit again soon and I'll constantly be having to whack them to get them to come on. Anyone know what the culprit is that a good whack is, at least temporarily, fixing? FWIW, car is a 95 Surbaru Legacy with 196k miles.

Okay, I'm sorry to post what I'm sure I could find by searching, but I've tried and I don't have enough specific terms to make a search productive... Anyway, my 95 Legacy AWD wagon just sat for a week while I was on vacation. Yesterday, when I started pulling out of my driveway, I noticed a noise in the rear end. It may have been more on the passenger side or in the center, hard to tell. It wasn't a grinding noise, just a rrr'ing type noise and it wasn't very loud. It varied with each rotation of the wheels, so it was definitely related to when the wheels turned. Not having much of a choice, I drove the car gently and as I suspected, the noise went away after a few miles. I'm guessing there is something that dried out/drained over the course of sitting for a week. I don't know a lot about the rear drive train and wasn't sure if this meant the rear differential needed lubing/fluid, etc. or what. I was hoping maybe some here could give me some ideas of whether I had a maintenance issue here I should be addressing. I'm hoping that the noise appearing after sitting a while and then going away after a few miles gives some clues that people more knowledgeable than me could figure out. Thanks!