DeSubiefan

I am looking at a 99 Legacy L wagon with 107K at a local Subie dealer. He was on the fence as to selling it or wholesaleing it out. It is literally the little old lady car. I test drove it and it drove and handled as expected. It is extremely clean. The paint is in good shape and the interior is immaculate. My mechanic ( a factory trained Subie guy) looked at it and it is in good shape. No signs of seepage from the HGs, no signs of leakage from the water pump, in fact, this car has far less oil seepage than about 95% of the Subies I have seen. Here is the catch: Someone has rigged up a small bottle on the firewall that catches ATF coming out of the tranny vent tubes. The tech who safety checked it at the dealer thought it was because the internal differential seals were bad. He said they will need to be replaced at some point, but there is no reason the car cannot run as is for some time. The tranny shifts normally, in fact, its very smooth. For $3850, is this worth the risk? Any help would be appreciated.

Questions: If I am looking at an ad for a used Subie that does not indicate which engine, is there an embedded code in the VIN that tells if it is a 2.2 or 2.5? Also, what is the latest model that had 2.2's? And, are all the years of the EJ25 subject to the dreaded HG issue, even the Phase IIs? Thanks, much

How many miles were on the 01?

Sadly, I totaled my beloved 95 Legacy L wagon last week. I'm pretty sure I want to move to an OBW this time. Since the dealers are desperate to sell, there are several 01-03 OBWs for sale in the area with 60-70K on them in the $10K range. Are there any caveats to watch for in those 2nd Gen OBs? Or, would I be better off looking for a late 1st gen (98-99) with faily low mileage Any thoughts or advice will be appreciated. Thanks.

The ABS pump on my 95 Legacy L wagon is leaking brake fluid from the weap hole. I don't really care about the ABS not working since I unplugged it months ago because the relay kept running. I just wanted to see if anyone has suggestion less costly than buying a new unit @ $1100. I have posted for the part over on the Market Place board and I have gotten one promising response. But wanted to throw it out for comments here to see if anyone has an idea. Can you just bypass the whole unit?

First of all, Delaware DMV inspection is a joke. All they do is, check horn, wipers, lights, turn signals, pass a mirror under the car to make sure the cat hasn't been removed. Then they have you accelerate to about 15-20mph in the lane and stop on a skid pad. You can have pads down to the metal and paper thin rotors, but as long as the car stops on the pad, you pass. They put a probe in the exhaust of older cars, or plug into the newer cars w/ OBD connectors to test emissions. Then they open the hood, pinch off a hose by the charcoal cannister and replace the gas cap with theirs thats attached the pressure testing gear to test the tank pressure. Thats what I failed. Thats about it.

It can't be that since they use another cap that attached to the test equipment for the inspection.

Never had this happen before. Took my 95 Legacy L wagon though inspection and it failed the gas tank pressure test. I have a friend, a factory trained Subie guy that does all my work. We took the 2 access panels behind the back seat off, looked at all the hoses and connectors and then looked at all the hoses and connectors around the tank. found nothing. Went back to DMV and it failed again. It could be the charcoal cannister, but the guy at the Subie parts counter said they rarely fail. Any ideas?

No, aftermarket

The main crank pulley does have a slight wobble. Would this have an effect on the pump?

I bougght a 95 Legacy 2.2 wagon one year ago from a private used car lot. The dealer claimed he had changed to water pump and TC prior to the sale. When the water pump failed in April, my mechanic (I use a friend who is a factory trained Subie guy ) said it did not look new. The water pump again failed in November. The parts store gave me a new one under warranty, but I was still out the labor. Two months later, this thing is once again dripping coolant, apparently from the from front housing cover, so its likely its the pump again. My question is this: is there anything that could be wrong that could cause the water pumps to be chewed up? Obviously, I won't know its the pump for sure until he gets in there, but I thought I'd throw the question out there. Any help is appreciated

Im very interested in this since I also have a 95 Legacy LS wagon What exactly is this cold weather package?

Did you have to deflate the tires?

Looks good. BTW - whose sunroof air deflector do you have and did you install it yourself?

My Dad's 2000 OBW did that - He just removed the cross bars

Do you 'stretch' the oil change interval since the syth oil theoretically can go longer? My feeling is that, while it may go longer without viscosity breakdown, its still getting dirty. What do the experts do?

My 96 Legacy LS wagon is making a strange noise. When you first start out on a trip, the first few times you touch the brakes, a buzzing (not like scraping brakes ) noise is heard from the rear. Most times it will continue after you release the brake pedal, but stops when you come to a complete stop. Again, it sounds like a motor , similar to the buzzing noise some fuel pumps make, but it starts only when you touch the brakes and it doesn't make the noise at all after you have gone about 1 mile. I know the owners manual mentions warning strips in the brake pads, but would they sound like that? And also, this car has 104k on it. I would think the 'warning sound' pad would only be there if the previous owner had done the brakes with OEM pads

I only had one of my cars on sand once - surf fishing @ Cape Henlopen State Park - I had my 88 GL wagon and my brother had his 85 Brat.(both stock) We had no problems, but I saw a few large 4X4's (old style Grand Cherokee, F Series, Tahoe) getting stuck - may have been because the Soobs were so much lighter, they weren't sinking in.

THIS is a cool woodie: http://www.dodgepowerwagon.com/woody/woody.htm

Mercedes used to send you badges to put on your grill when the car reached 100k, 250k, etc. Wonder if Sub has ever done anything like that .

JPX, Can you tell me the approx towing weight of the single jet ski setup w/trailer? I just bought a 95 Legacy 2.2 wagon that has a hitch. I think I will buy a small fishing boat, but am pretty sure I will stick to something < 1K lbs

Ok, I am a nubie here, but I went through the car search recently, with all the associated research and reading. I really wanted an OBW, but when I saw all the postings around the net about BHGs, I settled on a 95 Legacy 2.2 wagon. One thing that prompted a lot of searching on my part was the fact that there seemed to be a lot of 96-99 OBWs with unusually LOW mileage. This suggested to me that they had spent a lot of time sitting in driveways because people could not afford to repair HGs and they owed more than the trade-in value. Do the more seasoned Subie experts here see this the same way?

I have a similar situation, my 95 Legacy wagon has a factory changer and I would like to replace the whole thing or just the changer with one that will play MP3s - I looked in Crutchfields catalog and most of the add-in changers broadcast to the radio rather than being hard-wired - I always found the sound sucks on these types of arrangements - any suggestions?

That front end treatment is now on the new Imprezas - I understand it will make its way to the the Legacy line too - I don't like it at all

Anyone have any experience with the aftermarker High performance airfilters, like K&N? Just looking to tweak out a few more mpg from my 95 2.2 Legacy wagon.