deltasierra

That's probably what my husband and his brother call the "puckety-puckety" noise that is distinctive of Subarus. The fuel-injector will make a ticking noise, but -- if I remember correctly -- it might be an artifact of the horizontally-opposed engine. Our Toyota has a really loud fuel-injector that I fretted over, until my brother-in-law told me there was nothing that could be done about it -- it was just loud.

My brother directed me to this site, which I have determined to be completely awesome. I've owned a few Subarus in the past: A 1982 hatchback (originally our family snowhound turned project car for my brothers, and then I bought it from my parents and immediately sold to a Japanese guy so he could trick it out and go offroading in his backyard rally course), 1985 hatchback (my husband's college car, which he got for free from his grandparents when it was already 12 years old, and we finally donated in 2004 due to the body falling apart), and a 1990 Legacy wagon (bought in 2002 with 175K miles and sold in 2006 with almost 245K miles, still running like a top). Since our only car was a 1988 Toyota MR2 (two seats) and my husband is back from Afghanistan and commuting almost 100 miles a day now, we have no choice but to buy another car. I'm looking at a dealer's '99 Outback, slightly over 86K miles, and trying to come up with a price that will let me get out of the door at $9K or below. I know about headgasket issues, but from all accounts, the car has been very gently used by a single owner in my local area. My brother-in-law (my certified master auto technician guru person) has given it his general seal of approval and some tips on how to bring the price down. I went to look at it this morning, and my husband and I will be going back tonight. I MIGHT buy it tomorrow if I a) get the loan check from the bank in time and can work out a decent price. As a result, I've been obsessing over Subarus for the past couple days. I'm going to have dreams about them tonight, I know it . . . I'm SO looking forward to owning a Subaru again! I LOVE these cars! And even though the headgasket thing is a little more than a minor concern, the routine timing belt replacement can be just as expensive (we had issues with that in the '90 when we moved to CA for a year -- the water pump broke and leaked coolant and water all over the place. We were looking at a >$1200 timing assembly replacement. I told them to replace the water pump for $400, and we made it home a month or so later for my brother-in-law to replace the assembly at cost. Alas, he no longer works in the shop). I probably have some time to save up the extra money. Anyway, hi! Thanks for putting up with my rambling. I'm kind of venting off extra energy before going to the dealer again tonight, so forgive me for going on and on . . .

Back in 2002, my husband and I bought a 1990 Legacy wagon with 172K miles on it, and I finally sold it (it was a sad goodbye) for $800 last June with almost 245K miles on it. My husband was in Afghanistan, and I just didn't need the car that badly anymore. It's still running for the guy who owns it now, and I'm pretty sure he's happy with his purchase, especially after this winter. I'm pretty sure it was sold in better condition than we bought it, though, aside from mileage. The second owner did a lot of his own installation, and he was far from expert about it. My brother-in-law, who was a master certified auto technician, did a lot of rewiring and replacing, and I know the engine was sound when I sold it. I got to do the last tune up (the 240K service) in my brother-in-law's garage, and with his supervision, I replaced a cracked radiator. Suffice it to say, the early 90s Subaru wagons are totally worth it.