daehttub2000

I don't know if the 2.5 requires it but check if there is a 60,000 mile timing belt change requirement and when they have done it. You should also change the water pump as a precaution at the same time. That could be one of the reasons $. Double check the head gasket issue with the 2.5L. Did they have the Subaru gasket conditioning treatment done? Do you smell the sweet smell of coolant when it's been driven for a while? Does it leak oil/coolant? I think it's worth paying a trusted mechanic about $90 to check the car out before buying. The pictures look nice though.

Awesome outcome. This is a great board. A Dealer Service Shop is really a PARTS REPLACEMENT shop $$$. In the future, a pressure test and possibly a compression test should be used to verify a leaking head gasket if there is any doubt. I'm glad you've found an independent shop. I did replace my 95 Legacy 2.2L headgaskets at +150K miles after one starting leaking coolant to the outside. No oil. No cylinder leak. Just preventative and I couldn't stand the stink and the mess. Independent shop for BOTH head gaskets - $900. I already had the timing belt changed earlier (@#*!). If you track down a WRX racing nut, chances are you'll find a good independent Subie shop.

"Subaru's leak oil" LOL. Yes, I must confess that if you beat on your Subaru (i.e. inappropriate off road use) you will leak diff fluid. A weak point of Subie's is their oil seals. There were also technical service bulletins on ill-fitting oil filter seals, etc. You should browse cars.com and get the recall info. You should also look up the technical service bulletin info that discloses problems not covered under recalls (make you wonder if there is a TSB, why isn't there a recall?) http://www.alldata.com/recall/make/ Sounds like you are very familiar with Land Rovers and their quirks. It's funny you mention Buick. The Range Rover's engine can trace it's heritage to an old 1966 Buick design. "Prince of Darkness" rotflmao. At least they don't use the two six volt battery setup as they did in the old Jaguars (that really got the P.o.D. thing going). The Forrester is built on an Impreza platform. You'll have more room in a Legacy (especially with the rear seats down) for hauling stuff. The fact that all the old Subies you were looking at sold tells you something... Good Luck .

How old is your battery? At 4-5 years, it needs to be replaced in you live in a cold weather climate. Did you check the water levels? There is no such thing as a maintenance free battery. I bet your battery is dry. All you need is some safety glasses (sunglasses will do), distilled water, flat screwdriver to pop off the cell covers. You should check your battery water levels about once a year. Also, a great fix for older subies and batteries is a trickle charger that you can pickup for around $35 bucks. Saves my bacon in the winter. Especially if you have a car that you don't drive that often. All you have to do is top off the battery every once in a while or when it's really cold.

Unless you live in an area with unfinished roads and really rugged terrain, I would try dissuade you from buying a Land Rover. You should look at the Consumer Reports reliability ratings and they are much worse than average for all Land Rovers. You're husband must like working on Rovers... I know people at work who swore off ever buying a Range/Land Rover ever again due to reliability issues. They're pretty cars and the top of the line Range Rovers can be pretty cushy, but you're going to pay for it... Gas mileage is pretty poor too compared to Subaru's. Depending upon the engine and transmission, you will average about 25 mpg overall if you have a mix of city and highway driving with an Subie. I think you'll be lucky to break 15 with some of the Range/Land Rovers. The ride will be very truckish and handling will be very SUVish with the Land Rovers and Range Rovers. Subaru wagons are pretty nimble. The drawbacks against the Subaru wagons: if you buy an automatic, they can be a bit pokey, but then again, you're looking at Land Rovers... Subaru's are also a bit smaller. With the back seats down you can haul a ton of stuff. However, the backseat can really only hold 2 car seats or two adults comfortably. Getting a third person or car seat is a real packing job. You also cannot really off-road a Subie. I have but it beats up the bottom due to low ground clearance. You need to add some serious aftermarket protection underneath but you'll still have low clearance. My 95 Legacy wagon has over 150,000 very hard miles on it and it's done very well. Make sure you get the timing belt change records on those high mileage Legacies. They need to be changed every 60,000 miles. The water pumps should have been changed at the same time (preventative because to get to them you have to take all that stuff off anyway). Also, check the head gaskets. Even if they're 2.2's anything with that mileage could have an issue. In short, Land Rovers are big and rugged but unreliable, truckish, and gas hogs. Subaru's are a bit plain, small, but are pretty bulletproof, nimble, and get good mileage for an AWD. Hope this helps... P.S. Depending upon the Land Rover, you need to be careful about PART-time 4WD. Subaru's have permanent All-Wheel-Drive.

It's only a matter of time before the plastic top of the Victor products cap degrades and pops off. If you have an older tire that needs filling, it's only a matter of time before the torque of replacing the cap will twist the stem out. You have to really screw the cap in because the cap is actually releasing air pressure to work the indicator. Get rid of it or keep a full spare handy...

I keep my 95 Legacy Wagon's tires inflated to 32psi and check them religiously in the winter. In extreme cold your tires will likely leak a bit of air (especially if the tires and rims are older and have had some tire changes) so the concern about max pressure when it's cold is a bunch of huey. Besides, as mentioned above, there are tolerances built in to these max pressures to accomodate normal operating range extremes. Note: Stay away from the Victor Products tire valve cap pressure indicators. 1) They've been recalled 2) They have a nasty habit of unscrewing your entire valve stem cap when the clowns at Jiffy Lube check the air in your tires (flat tires that even fix-a-flat can't fix). It's really too bad because they really worked like a charm. No second guessing tire pressure. You could see if your tires were up to snuff with just a look. I'm waiting for a better product.

95 Legacy: Bridgestone Blizzaks WS50's. Awesome in ice and snow and beach sand. 02 WRX: Dunlop SP Sport 5000 All season. Summer car only. Despite the all-season rating, they are worthless in the snow and ice. Note: If you swap out Winter and Summer tires on the same car, invest in another set of rims (www.tirerack.com). You'll ruin your tires if you don't and end up with leaky tires. I learned the hard way...

I use my old AWD Legacy to launch my boat at the beach during the summer. The lake level is low so the boat ramp ends and I have about 15 yards of really deep soft dry sand before I hit 10 yards of harder pack sand. I've seen a bunch of cars get stuck including a Blazer after they see me go down to the water. Don't spin your wheels (you'll just bury yourself or overheat your diff). Easy on the gas. Use common sense, and the lightweight Legacy will do just fine. A manual helps and I do have snow tires on (it's my winter and beach car).

Despite the savings (pennies) stay away from no-name or ultra-cheap gas stations. You get what you pay for. A friend of mine that owns a limo-taxi service forbids his drivers to use a number of the cheapest gas stations in Chicago. He learned the hard way. Fuel pumps, filters, mileage, etc.

You will get odd mpg results on a single tank. If you're really serious about getting a true mpg: You need to average your mileage over several tankfuls. It helps to stick to the same gas station and pump and let the tank go down all the way before filling it up. The auto cut-off at the pump can really vary depending on the station, temp, etc. There is also a thread about 10% ethanol gas that explains some of the possible mpg variance. You can get a bad highway mpg if you run into headwinds (you said 55mph winds???), go significantly over 65mph, or have a loaded car. I wouldn't worry too much if you just got one bad mpg reading. It happens.

I see that you're overseas. Japan? Australia? Europe? All Subies are AWD in the states so I'm assuming it's the same overseas. The 2.0R (AWD?) will definitely feel a bit sluggish compared to the new Honda VTEC's. I have the 2.0 WRX. Before the turbo kicks in it pulls like an economy car. However, the reliability is bulletproof and if you have bad weather where you live you'll get more useful speed out of an AWD than any other 2WD sportscar. You also have a ton of aftermarket "go fast" mods so when you get more cash, you can make your Subie go faster. The 2.5RS (non-turbo AWD) in the US is reasonably peppy due to the added displacement (more torque). I'm not sure how the 2.0 will do with AWD. Good Luck

Could you add the terrific thread for the Climate Control Lights and control switch light replacement. It's the best I've seen. Here are two of the more relevant links. www.randomsoup.com/how_acpanelbulbs.html (good writeup) http://www.scoobymods.com/forums/sho...hp?threadid=91 (super color pics) Note: Unhook the heater control cable from the BOTTOM of the dash, not from the unit itself. It's just a clip and a post.

Thanks for the tip. My subie is throwing the O2 codes again. There is a technical service bulletin out for O2 sensors freezing up in 95 Legacies. The pirates at the dealership will charge $250 to $300 for a O2 sensor replacement. Let me know if you find the thread. I realize that there are multiple O2 sensors in the Legacy.

EGT would be nice but...just taking an extra minute to idle is easier, and a good habit. An Exhaust Gas Temperature gauge is a bit expensive and tricky to install (you have to somehow stick a temperature probe in the tailpipe!). There aren't a lot of places to put an extra gauge on a Subie unless you install these wart-like aftermarket pods. An EGT would be nice for playing with the engine control and turbo setup though.

Oil only for Turbo cooling. Bad idea. A lot of folks don't like to spend $50-60 for a synthetic oil change and use the regular stuff. Bad news for an oil cooled turbo. Very few people let their turbo cars idle after a drive. It's a receipe for turbo failure.

Oops, Sorry to offend. Not all salespeople are shady. However, I'm sure we've met our fair share of Joe Isuzu's. I meant to say that given the circumstances, you should trust your gut instinct if something doesn't look right. That's just too fishy of a situation to trust the salesperson. Caveat emptor (spelling?).

Wow. You should call the Car Talk guys on NPR about that one! They'd get a good laugh out of it. Stay away from dealer service if you can. I found a good independent shop that saves me a ton. Word of mouth helps. One of the WRX racing gearheads gave me the contact. I don't know about the H6 but I do my own plugs & wires. It's fairly easy. However, I remember one plug on my 2.2L Legacy that was a B____ to get off. The first three were a snap but I didn't have enough room to yank off the spark plug wire. I had to jury rig a rube goldberg pulling device. I would imagine that an H6 makes the space problem worse...

OLD Mitsubishi type turbos only cooled the bearings with OIL and you HAD to run the engine for a bit before turning it off. There was an epidemic of early turbo failures. The oil literally "cooked" into what they called "coke" and it ruined the turbo. NEW Subaru turbos use coolant but I still run the engine for a bit after I have finishing flogging my WRX. I use synthetic oil. If you use regular oil, I'd run the engine just a bit if you've been leadfooting it just to be safe. Some new cars (VOLVO) still use oil only for cooling their turbos and require the use of synthetic oil. That's probably why you see so many Volvo's in the repair shop...

Shady!!! Never trust a car salesperson. Three words. Drop clutch starts. Think +5,000 rpm revs when the clutch is popped to launch the car to obtain the 5.4 second 0-60 launch times. The previous owner either hated turbo lag or was just a stoplight racer. I have never heard of a WRX owner going to a Legacy for an automatic. They make WRX's with automatics (of course, I don't know who would ever buy them...).

Let me guess, you've already gone to Home Depot/Lowes to install illuminated light switches in your house... There are things that Subaru used to do to keep their costs down in their older wagons. As a long time Subie owner, I've just learned to cope with the short cuts on the interior. Having an aftermarket interior light and carrying a small makeup mirror for a wife/girlfriend for starters : ) Of course, you could pay twice as much for an Audi AWD wagon to get all the nice touches but you'll rarely get to enjoy them as your Audi will be in the shop all the time. My local Audi dealer has an airport style minibus for their service customers!

I have a 95 legacy (manual). There are two screws on top of the center console in front of the parking brake. You can remove them and pop off the center console covers. You can then remove your cup holder and remove the 2 screws on either side. You should be able to pop out the lower plastic trim cover that holds the socket. Of course you need to remove the ashtray. The Haynes/Chilton manuals show the detail. You might not have to remove the radio. I was able to access the socket and the wiring assemblies attached to it. I found this out by accident when I was replacing my climate control lights and popped out the lighter socket trim and couldn't get it back in place. Good Luck.

I gave it another shot and realized that the two bulbs that didn't work were not aligned properly. It looks like about 80% of the rotational area provides a contact for the bulb wires. I just managed to hit the unlucky 20% on two of the bulbs. A minor twist on the two bulbs and all my lights are working. No more driving in the dark.

If your Subie is an automatic transmission, they will get terrible (for a 4-cylinder) mileage in the city if you leadfoot it in stop and go traffic. You need to mash the pedal to get them going though. If you have any roof rack or add-ons will kill your mileage as well. Anything I carry on top shaves miles off my mpg. A fairing in front of the rack helps reduce wind noise and helps marginally with mileage. My mpg diminishes depending upon how much over the speed limit I go. Naturally, when I go 55-65 mph, I can get 28-29 miles to the gallon. When I go 70+, I get in the mid to low twenties. If you idle the car during stops and deliveries, that will also kill the mileage. It's shocking how much gas your car uses when it idles (true hybrids really capitalize on this). Replacing old plugs and wires and regapping the plugs worked for me. Synthetic oil also helps.

This is a super site. I replaced the three climate control unit lights using the instructions. Piece of cake. However, two out of the three lights don't work. The fan control and temperature control lights don't work. The various climate control buttons are lit up though. I purchased the bulbs from the dealer so I'm suspecting bad bulbs. HOWEVER, is there a special way to insert the bulbs? I simply tightened them until they felt "snug" with about a half twist. The Chilton/Haynes manuals instruct me to disconnect the battery due to air bag sensor concerns so I had no chance to test the lights until I put everything back together. Bummer. Any tips out there? A little confused.