Looking at a 2003 Legacy - Couple Questions

[lustreking]

It's been a long time since I've been here, but my 99 Legacy is dying, and I'm looking for my 4th Subaru.

 

I'm currently looking at a 2003 Legacy Wagon.  It's a little high in mileage (155k) but the head gaskets, timing belt, and water pump were replaced at 120k.  It looks like it's in great condition, but there were 3 problems that I saw.

 

1) It has very new tires (less than 2000 miles), but they must have hit a pot hole and there's a bubble in the side wall of one of the tires.  Would 2000 miles be enough wear on the tires to cause problems for the AWD system if I just replaced the bad one?

 

2)  The check engine light wasn't on butI used my obd2 scanner, and there was a pending p0128 code.  It seems like this is a problem with the thermostat or a bad coolant temperature sensor.  Is this something to worry about, could the owner be hiding something?

 

3)  Finally, and this is the least of my concerns, there was an issue with the lift gate.  I saw the car after a rainy week, and when I opened the lift gate water poured out of the openings that you use to replace the tail lights.  I'm guessing that there's some kind of seal between the tail lights and lift gate that's leaking.  Am I on the right track with this?

 

Thanks,

Steve

[Rooster2]

1.) Replacing a 2000 miles tire with a new one won't affect the AWD. There wouldn't be much tread depth difference. Tire should be under warranty, so current owner, or dealer,  should replace the tire at no cost to you.

 

2.) Turn the ignition key on, but don't start the motor. Are all dash warning lights lit? If not, then there is concern that someone has messed with the warning light system.

 

3.) Yea, prolly a bad seal where light lens seals against the lift gate. Replacing the seal, or use clear sealant to fix the problem.

[idosubaru]

coolant temp sensors do fail from time to time so that could easily be causing the 0128 code, in general that's a fairly simple code to resolve.

 

tires aren't a big deal - ever, no matter what.  most of the information you see/read is well intended and that will certainly protect you but is nowhere near practical reality in terms of what you can do.  but yeah, replace that one tire and put the new tire up front.  if you're super anal rotate the other 3 for awhile until the tread depth of the new one matches the other three...but that is insane overkill.

 

If they used an ebay headgasket kit or some other lesser unknown brand I'd pass.

 

Did they resurface the heads and what brand headgasket?

 

all that stuff you mentioned is benign.  i'd be more concerned about the headgasket job and timing belt components....tensioner wasn't replaced, none of the pulleys either?  oil pump and no other seals were replaced?  much of that stuff is routinely replaced by many of us on here.  not huge failure items but if you're wanting this thing to go another 100k - that's a quarter milllion miles and a bit much ont he original pulleys/tensioner.  they're usually devoid by grease, msot of them, but the 120k interval/age of that car.

 

still not a reason to walk, but i'd want to know ahead of time and would consider replacing the timing belt and those components at like 200,000 miles instead of 250,000.

Edited July 5, 2013 by grossgary