stinky Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 Just test drove a '96 Outback ( auto, 2.5L ). It's got 130,000 miles on it. Super clean in the engine bay and had what looked like new leads going to the coil packs. CVs/boots looked good all round. interior was pretty clean. Heaps of power, I test drove a '02 legacy just before and it was a wet rag compared to the outback. BUT there was a pulsating noise at anything over 40mph, but sounded clean revving right through in neutral. Also with all accessories turned on while at idle it would occasionally have a relay click and the following would happen: ABS light on, tacho to 0, radio cut out, every time revving up would bring it all back. Price was $2950 which is a bit cheaper, but not much than average. I'm leaning towards walking away from it and waiting for a better one to come up, but if anyone has any thoughts on the problems above I might reconsider if they seem easy to fix and/or harmless. Suggestions I've had so far on these issues are :- - Pulsating noise could be the tyres too. ( flat spot from sitting ) - tailshaft out of balance or dud uni joint or a wheel has thrown a weight. -earth and battery connections, when the alternator isn't making enough power at idle to drive everything the battery should make up the difference, but if it's a bad connection you'll see what you're seeing now, usually worse if the headlights are on too. Originally I was thinking of walking from it... but I've test driven a few newer cars at a much higher price, and every one of them had some issues, at least if I buy it cheap I can spend some money fixing it ( probably at mechanics as I don't have tools or space right now ) and still be better off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzam Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 My money is on a bad wheel bearing and a bad ground or alternator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostinthe202 Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 The alt could be suspect too. They were prone to having bad regulators that cause all kinds of strange electrical behavior. The 2.5L engine available between '96-'99 had a more then average chance of having head gasket failure. Drive the car for at least 30 min to let it fully warm up and make sure that it isn't over-heating. Check for torque bind in the AWD system. First make sure that the owner doesn't have the FWD fuse in. This is (I believe, I drive a manual which doesn't have this feature) in the engine compartment by the passenger's strut tower (someone will correct me if I'm wrong). it's a little black cover that says FWD on it. Open it up, there should be no fuse in the connector. If there is, then ask why it's there. If there isn't, the put the car in Drive on a flat surface, turn the wheel all the way to one side and let the idle pull the car in a tight circle. If you feel a popping or resistance then the car has torque bind and will need service. If there is a fuse in the holder which puts the car in front wheel drive, they could be trying to hide the torque bind. At 130k, the timing belt should've been done at 105k. Ask to see records that this was performed. Did they do the idler pulleys, water pump, oil pump seals, or any of the cam/crank seals? This is an interference engine which means that if it wasn't done at 130k, there is a good chance the belt will break or an idler will loose it, or the water pump will fail before the next scheduled belt service at 210k. Those are the Subaru specific things, all the rest is the same as any other potential purchase. Good Luck! Will- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stinky Posted August 14, 2009 Author Share Posted August 14, 2009 The alt could be suspect too. They were prone to having bad regulators that cause all kinds of strange electrical behavior. The 2.5L engine available between '96-'99 had a more then average chance of having head gasket failure. Drive the car for at least 30 min to let it fully warm up and make sure that it isn't over-heating. thanks Will. Some excellent info. I drove it for about 15-20 minutes and had it idling for about 10 beforehand while I was checking it out. I might take a meter with me and try do some voltage measurements to get a good guage of the alternator/battery. I think battery had a bit of fur built up around the connections as well, so that wouldn't help. Will definately check the FWD fuse, I remember seeing it in the engine bay and I thought it was a button, had no idea it was actually a fuse holder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostinthe202 Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 (edited) I might take a meter with me and try do some voltage measurements to get a good guage of the alternator/battery. I think battery had a bit of fur built up around the connections as well, so that wouldn't help. I don't think you'll be able to tell anything from that. When my alt. went bad in my '96 Outback, the brake light and battery light would flicker and sometimes the speedo would quite. It was charging fine (14.4 V) while doing all of this. There are plenty of electrical types on this board who could tell you what's going on, but I'm not one of them. another thing to check is for proper tire inflation and for matching brands/sizes and or badly mismatched tread wear. Torque bind can be caused by these things, so even if the car doesn't show any signs of torque bind, it may not be far away if one of these is present. Will- Edited August 14, 2009 by lostinthe202 add info.... again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnceggleston Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 (edited) my money is on a bad wheel bearing and a bad ground or alternator. +1 ask about the head gaskets, they may have been done , but mine haven't been @ 130k. even when the head gaskets are bad theses engines will drive all day around town with no overheat, but could overheat in 15 minutes on the hiway. test drive it, warm it up and then run it on the hiway. did the seller mention anything about the t-stat or radiator? . Edited August 14, 2009 by johnceggleston Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster2 Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 My thoughts are with the others in thinking the alternator is bad. When mine went bad it was doing weird electrical things like you described. Changing the alternator is an easy cheap job. However, use this problem as a reason to lower the price on the car, or what you would offer to buy the car. Ditto on what others say about driving it on the highway at speed for a while to see if it will start over heating because of bad head gaskets. It will idle for days with bad HGs, and not over heat. It is at speed that over heating occurs. You can be almost sure that the 96 needs a new timing belt and tensioner pully. It is very important to change these parts, because if the timing belt or tensioner break, the valves will collide with the pistons to cause major engine damage. Good luck on your Subie search. Hope you buy one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stinky Posted August 16, 2009 Author Share Posted August 16, 2009 ended up getting something newer ... now have a showroom condition 03 WRX wagon, 60k in my driveway ... just over $8k Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnW Posted August 16, 2009 Share Posted August 16, 2009 Sweet! Congrats on the wrx! The alternator for these older outbacks are cheap at the dealer too due to the recalled one they run around 75 dollars for a reman unit across a dealer parts counter. Thats probably cheaper than an auto parts store for the same part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkvail Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 You can be almost sure that the 96 needs a new timing belt and tensioner pully. It is very important to change these parts, because if the timing belt or tensioner break, the valves will collide with the pistons to cause major engine damage. Good luck on your Subie search. Hope you buy one! I thought Subaru engines were non-interferance engines and that would not happen? I have a '96 outback now that the timing belt was for sure done at 90K (have receipt), and the couple we bought it from SAID it was done at 112K also when they had an oil leak fixed (no receipt for that though). It has 130K now, and I surely don't want the belt to break and should think about replacing it if it really didn't get replaced at 112K (since I don't have proof it did, but do have the proof it got done 40K miles ago). I had two Subaru's that had timing belts break before (one '85 turbo sedan, one a '87 wagon - both broke the driver's side belt) and neither of them had engine damage from it. I replaced the one's on the '87 wagon myself while hubby and his friend drank beer and watched, LOL. Karin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostinthe202 Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 It depends on which engine your outback has. If it's a 5 speed, then it should have the 2.2 liter engine which is non-interference. However if it's an automatic, then it has the 2.5 liter engine which IS an interference engine. The belt interval for the 2.2 is 60k and the interval for a 2.5 is 100k I'd check your receipt for the 90k belt change and see what else was done, like the waterpump, idlers, etc. If none of those were done, then I'd definately consider doing it. If all those were done, then you should be fine till the next belt interval. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkvail Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 It depends on which engine your outback has. If it's a 5 speed, then it should have the 2.2 liter engine which is non-interference. However if it's an automatic, then it has the 2.5 liter engine which IS an interference engine. The belt interval for the 2.2 is 60k and the interval for a 2.5 is 100k I'd check your receipt for the 90k belt change and see what else was done, like the waterpump, idlers, etc. If none of those were done, then I'd definately consider doing it. If all those were done, then you should be fine till the next belt interval. yes, the water pump and idlers were done at same time. It is a 5-speed. Relief! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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