looking at 97 legacy, never seen this?

[Indrid cold]

Hey all,  I normally hang in the older too section but I am looking at a Subaru for my brother.  They need a 3rd family car.   

 

Lifting the hood, top of struts I see something and I can't explain. 

 

It appears someone tried to cut away top seal around joined parts at top of strut.  Looks like they tried to replace struts and thought they had to cut this?  Not sure?  I am working on getting picture attached. 

 

(Found the reason: Previous owner installed a racing support cross bar under the hood and removed before selling.)

 

this is a used car.  Frame is perfect, timing belts were done supposedly 3 years ago along with battery and new radiator from wrecking yard.  I don't see any sign of front impact.  Air bag light up at start and then shuts off so it registers as being there.  Interior is good, exterior near perfect,  $2,900.  

 

One possible scenario is they replaced the engine, front drive as an assembly and stuck it up into the car?  Car was bought used by previous owners mom, ran 10 years and 2 years ago their mechanic did the mentioned work of belts, battery, radiator etc.. 

 

Your thoughts as to why it was cut ?

 

and thoughts about price, car etc.. 

Edited January 12, 2015 by Indrid cold

[Fairtax4me]

The pic isn't showing up.

 

Its common for the rubber in the strut mount to degrade and crack with age. It could just be badly worn and needs to be replaced.

 

It could be the bearing in the mount that allows the strut to rotate (the strut has to turn when the front wheels turn left/right) has locked up and the rubber has just torn due to the twisting of the strut when turning.

 

Most likely scenario: There is a cone shaped washer that sits below the bearing in the mount. If the washer is installed upside down the bearing will not rotate, and can cause the mount to tear.

 

Either way, new upper mounts will be required.

[idosubaru]

i wouldn't worry about the strut - those aren't terribly hard to replace and mostly benign - just replace it.

 

97 can be EJ22 or EJ25.

 

97 is interference so i would be replacing the timing pulleys and tensinoer immediatley - they're ancient and i can gaurantee one or all of them are not in great shape, they're all devoid of grease and likely freewheel loudly.  they don't fail terribly often but if they do it's bent valves on 97+ engines.

 

if it's an EJ25 (OBW, GT, or LSi) then make sure there's no headgasket issues.  i'd wonder why the radiator was replaced?  granted it was 2 years ago - but  was it replaced then sat?  the 1997 EJ25 is the worst engine Subaru ever made, good to proceed cautiously and google "EJ25 headgasket" if you're unfamiliar with that issue.

Edited December 21, 2014 by grossgary

[mikec03]

 

and thoughts about price, car

 

My thoughts.  If it's not a 2.2 engine don't buy it.  If the mileage isn't under substantially under 150K, the cost is out of line. 

[Indrid cold]

Ahhh.  Appreciated the info:  My bro. finally stumbled on why the upper strut seals were cut.  The kid who owned the car before put a cross bar on it!  So, to get it to fit he must have (very nicely) did some miner adjusting to get it to fit and removed it prior to him selling the car to next owner.  Turns out to be a very cosmetic reason to do what he did to allow the sporty cross bar to set solid to the car.  So all good there.  It was driving me crazy... but appears to be the reason. 

 

So far my Bro. has had the car a month and running well up in Spokane in the land of snow and ice.   Also, understand the head gaskets issue.  So far so good and supposedly h.g. were done so all he needs is a couple running years on it.  Yes, 2.5   Local driver only, so see what happens. 

Edited January 12, 2015 by Indrid cold