johnette93

My 99 Legacy Outback (113k miles) is having sporadic starting issues that it will not replicate for my mechanic. Sometimes it will start right up, and other times it makes a delightful variety of noises but eventually starts. Here’s a sampling: The rrr rrr rrr, followed by silence Total silence A single click Sounding like it’s going to start and then cutting out before it does During any/all of these,the radio works. Sometimes I just get one of these, sometimes I will get all of them. Today I got all of them in the 7 tries it took me to get it started, which is the most it's ever taken. It used to only happen at the first start, if it was going to happen at all, but now it’s been happening on subsequent attempts later in the day. Temperature doesn’t seem to play a factor. It doesn't matter whether it's in gear or neutral. Thoughts?

I always thought that people should be embarrassed for having an outback sedan.

As an update: The car was not totaled. I ended up going to a different shop. The first one was a "preferred" shop that would've required direct payment to them, and it was actually $4500 and not $5500 as I originally thought. I picked my own shop who came in with a lower estimate and I just got a check from the insurance company for $3900. The alignment is fine on the car, now I just need to fix the door. How does one even go about getting a new door skin? I would just fix the handle but I've got a kid riding on the other side of the dented door.

I'm not sure about the alignment. I was planning on having that checked out.

Thank you everyone for your input! It actually had the head gasket replaced already so I have that going for it.

So a dump truck recently tried to make a right turn into the solid matter that is my 99 outback. It ended better than one would think, as my car put up a good fight and bent the truck's front fender to a 90 degree angle. There is damage to the rear driver's side door, quarter panel and bumper, as you can see in the pictures. The door doesn't open because the handle is cracked. It can be opened from the inside. Insurance is actually offering to fix the whole deal, at a cost of almost $5500. They somehow valued the car at $8000. No idea how that happened. It does have fairly low miles (97k). My questions are these: Do I just take it to the shop and have it repaired? Do I take the money and have just the bare minimum repaired out of that money? I have the means to replace the door with salvage yard stuff (hopefully different colored to class it up) since my car is everywhere here in the northwest. There are several doors available and I have someone who could do it for me. It wouldn't entirely match up to the quarter panel. I don't know if that is just cosmetic or if that is something that could be an issue. If it's just cosmetic, I'm fine with it. It just seems kind of silly to put $5500 into a 15 year old car when I'd be happy with just what I needed to make it usable. The thing that makes me hesitate is that there could be some damage that isn't visible from the estimate that would crop up later. Also my husband just wants to get it fixed so there's the "I told you so" factor I'm trying to avoid. Thoughts? I'd be eternally grateful.

My CEL came on and it was cleared out and determined to be my knock sensor. It stayed off for about 2 months and then in the last couple of weeks it's come back on for a couple of days and then gone back off. It's still currently off. How imperative is it to get this fixed soon? I have a 400 mile road trip coming up in a couple of weeks. Do I need it fixed before then?

I'm an idiot who deserves to pay $2500 for a head gasket- why didn't I just reply on this thread? Ok, I realize I forgot to mention that it is a 99 Legacy Outback with 81k miles on it. It's the DOHC. It is not currently overheating (knock on wood) so driving to PDX may be possible. I am having it hooked up to a little tester doodad to see if it is leaking anything that would indicate head gasket failure is imminent. My timing belt needs replacement soon so I am considering replacing the head gaskets while they're in there already to somewhat save money. Not sure if this is a good idea either. The $2500 included the timing belt, machining and replacing head gaskets, front and rear seals, valve intake and exhaust seals, valve adjustment, thermostat and a coolant flush. It comes with a 12k warantee. This would be at Smart Service Subaru here in Seattle. I got another quote at All Wheel Drive Auto in Kirkland of $1600, not including timing belt. They only offer a 1k warantee. My concern here is trying to balance saving money with quality work. I would prefer to deal with someone who knows Subs well. Frankly we cannot afford to have this done twice so we want to make sure it is done well. I am a female who is not very car savvy so I just don't want to get screwed.

In a separate thread I posted an update to this with more info.

Ok, I realize I forgot to mention that it is a 99 Legacy Outback with 81k miles on it. It's the DOHC. It is not currently overheating (knock on wood) so driving to PDX may be possible. I am having it hooked up to a little tester doodad to see if it is leaking anything that would indicate head gasket failure is imminent. My timing belt needs replacement soon so I am considering replacing the head gaskets while they're in there already to somewhat save money. Not sure if this is a good idea either. The $2500 included the timing belt, machining and replacing head gaskets, front and rear seals, valve intake and exhaust seals, valve adjustment, thermostat and a coolant flush. It comes with a 12k warantee. This would be at Smart Service Subaru here in Seattle. I got another quote at All Wheel Drive Auto in Kirkland of $1600, not including timing belt. They only offer a 1k warantee. My concern here is trying to balance saving money with quality work. I would prefer to deal with someone who knows Subs well. Frankly we cannot afford to have this done twice so we want to make sure it is done well. I am a female who is not very car savvy so I just don't want to get screwed.

So the shop that a few of you recommended here in Seattle is saying that they would charge that price to replace the head gasket. They said that they would check and repair all other issues related to seals/gaskets while they were in there. The guy said that people who charge $1700 aren't doing a thorough enough job and you run the risk of blowing the head gaskets again. Is this ridiculous? BTW, it's not an option for me to do this myself or anything of the sort. I also don't want to do a half-a$$ed job of it.

Now that you have told me to get my timing belt fixed, I need to know where to go... I went to Suburb Service and ScanWest and was not happy with either.

I should clarify- I have these HUGE warnings all over both of my visors that my airbags need to be inspected ten years after manufacture.

My 1999 Legacy Outback was purchased in Feb of 1999 and only has 81k miles on it- not a ton of driving obviously. Does the fact that I have now had it for 10 years outweigh the miles or do I wait until 90k to get the maintenance done? Also, does the airbag inspection have to be done by a dealer? TIA