1997reduxe

my question is if you obviously have had a lot of car experience etc why on earth are you even taking it to a dealership all this time? i mean couldnt you have found someone in canada who's like a specialty shop or hobbyist who loves working on subes? you would have saved already at least half the money and hassle youve incurred. i jst bought a 95 and the original owner kept all the maintenance records. i was looking through them because the second owner said the timing belt was changed, which it was, when at some point the water pump and thermostat or some combo of went. so im looking at this repair record from a dealer, and it boild down to they (in 2008) charged this woman 1400 bucks for diagnosing the situation and replacing water pump, t-stat, belt and one(!) pulley. oh a number of other small things too, but im looking at it and im thinking one pulley? i mean come on...but at least its a 95 and i can get kit done and by now the motor and any possible cooling dilemma are long gone. that was idaho and this is texas. my point is i know one guy he works on nothing but subes he'll do a timing belt kit for 160 labor. you can get an aisin kit on rockauto for 220. theres another guy down the street from me wholl do the kit for 250 labor. whats to worry? any big corporation has lots of problems and it really depends on the quality of the mechanic you happen to get. just like small shops. you have to cultivate the proper relationship.

it didnt have a code for one particular cylinder? did you get it read at like auto zone? i had one bad injector on mine once, just one, and i was driving on a long drive and suddenly it got so rough i had to immiedately exit off the highway. then when i turned it off and back on it was fine. it was intermittent. but i had it checked and they said #3 injector and replaced and ran fine.

i messaged you.

there is an alternative i have done on two legacys one of them for a year or two. carry a hammer with you, hold it wood end up, you can actually open the hood and window, reach in the wondow while standing outside the car, turning the key while tapping on starter with said. hammer. god am i cheap. just in case he's stuck. well, thinking about that i dont see how you can do that while you are supposed to have your foot on brake to start? i dont remember exactly how i did it but i did.

i considered just putting a down payment on even a higher priced nice used sube but then i heard one of my coworkers talking about his brand new f150 he bought and his 500 a month payment for like 6 years and 200 a month insurance payment, and a few weeks after he bought it he was laid off. im sure most of you arent in that kind of situation but i was like ahhh, no. then i worked like 30 hours OT in one week, and took that big (for me) fat check and looked on CL and found the wonderment of deals, a 95 with 144k on it that had two owners and lots and lots of maintenance records. i paid off over half of it with that one check. then paid the rest off last weekend. wonderful im back in a sube. will be posting pic in a little bit. its what they made the sube/love mantra about. total cost=2500, plus maybe new tires needed and timing belt/kit etc. this is my first post here in a while. it's a happy one.

is the battery relatively new? im sure there are many more experts here but in my experience these cars run on almost no power till they dont. i mean youre getting headlights? there was a recall for alternators a long time ago on these. or how about the fuel filter?

on second thought i'll look for the non-turbo. this is as bad as the head gaskets.

ah ok. thanks a lot.

yeah no doubt replace everything. i used to use the contitech kit that came with the best belt and original waterpump, it also came with best pulleys other than sube cause i think they were all made by original. but the seals you can look around on here i may have even made an old list of all i replaced, the best seals come from sube do cam and crank seals i mean yeah you can get away with it if its not leaking but whats the sense if the belts gonna last 75000 miles minimum? also all pulleys etc. i forget what all else. even the proper thermostat bowl and gaklet and tstat is a matter of debate, but yeah sube. HAHAHA NOW I REMEMBER HOW DEPRESSING IT WAS WHEN MY SEALS WELL ONE I THINK THE CAM ONE WAS GIVING ME THE SIEVE ACTION, AND MY LOSER "AUTO EXPERT" NEIGHBORS TOLD ME WHAT I NEEDED TO DO WAS TIGHTEN THE BELT COVER. OH MY GOD AM I GLAD I MOVED OUTTA THAT PLACE.

Hey all. Been a while. I was wondering, I was looking at an 05 Legacy GT 2.5 It appears the turbo is going on the car. I wondered is it feasible to run this car this way till I could get it fixed? Is that an expensive fix? I would have to basically replace the turbo? Just wondering. Thanks for any possible help. Dan Good weekend all.

well can i ask this? (right on topic for me today). i have an outback built in 98, 2.5 MT. are there two bearings on the rear spindle, meaning on the outside of the axle, or one? or are there two one inside of axle and one outside at hub? thanks. i had my mechanic replace the bearings once and now theyve fallen apart but when they took the spindle off it seemed an awful lot like there were two.

oh hey i never expected a response! glad you can still work Emily, and are recovering. my friend had a spine surgery and it was hell for him, of course in his case he got a staph infection in his spine (!) from the operation, so...but believe it or not hes better now. ive had my own share of problems over the past few years too i kind of meant i hadnt been around. glad youre ok. keep on trucking E. dan (97)

and god do i wish we could have talked to you before the first job. there would have of course been a gigantic discussion about gates vs contitech and impregnated belts, where exactly to buy seals and which kits to use, etc, but man would you have saved a lot of money and obvious grief. just fyi. they also built a new sube dealership here in clear lake so this will be something to look out for i suppose new dealerships with new techs. interview your mechanic before the job, i soppose.

because my car i bought it from a guy who had run it over a curb and its been a journey figuring out all the damage it needed bearings and brakes my first mechanic told me which was ok it probably needed them anyways but the right rear wheel was still at such an angle it couldnt be aligned, so i took it to another guy a body/frame shop and he said right off it was the spindle. now the rear diff has gone, and my regular mechanic doesnt want to replace the parts hed rather just replace the whole thing. ive found one for not too much 125 or so. and thanks everybody and esp you john i havent been on here for a while and i see youre still the font of knowledge and help you always were. gotta love usmb! '97

i was gonna recommend the ccr place in colorado. the woman that used to write here really knew her stuff

you should be. email me at opened (dot) to (at) gmail. i live in houston theres a guy here actually hes in new caney so its not that far from you where he regularly puts in jasper engines they cost oh about 1000 or less and he puts them in for about 350. let me know if youre interested. '97

id look for something like this and put their body on your car if youve kept it in good shape. i just saw this the other week. i have one exactly like yours (99) and it was run over a curb. the body and interior were fine it has the nicer black red and blue (?) interior but its been a problem getting it straightened out. needed a new spindle bearing and now rear differential but it runs great. http://www.ebay.com/itm/171674084667?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2648&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT '97

can anyone tell me what years for sure would be compatible with my 99 2.5 MT outback rear differential? thanks a lot. '97

bringing up an old thread, but can i ask if anybody has a preference as to the valve cover gaskets, i mean it seems the more expensive fel pro ones have a more rubber grommet, where the cheaper (fel pro)ones have a partially metallic? and yet the more expensive ones than fel pro the grommets are also metallic, at lest from the pictures i see,

look on rockauto for rotos and pad kits, and maybe even rebuilt calipers loaded? i've gotten whole sets of 4 rotors and pads for like 125, they are really cheap now, and rebuilt calipers loaded for like 25 if they were on clearance. make sure to scroll the whle list that comes up for your car.

look on rockauto for rotos and pad kits, and maybe even rebuilt calipers loaded? i've gotten whole sets of 4 rotors and pads for like 125, they are really cheap now, and rebuilt calipers loaded for like 25 if they were on clearance. make sure to scroll the whle list that comes up for your car.

I have a question regarding 2.5 head gaskets. Would there be any evidence to suggest that the historical problems encountered by so many regarding the 2.5s could have had to do with not only the design issues but also that the engines in question were in regions of highly fluctuating temperatures, such as places where it gets really cold and the engines were submitted to freezing overnight and then the sudden heating upon starting? I was just wondering. I recently bought a 2.5 99 Outback, and it has almost 140k and absolutely is stable as a rock, but again it is and has always been a TX car, so not subject to cold temps of up north. And also, whether having the engine warming device installed ever was good in dealing with same gasket issues? Just wondering? Thanks a lot. '97

you didnt seem to menion the level in the radiator. i'd check that if you havent but im sure you have. in my experience you can have a leak (225k is pretty high) in the coolant system and it leaks out of the radiator and is very low even though you have some in the bottle. just becasue you fill via bottle doesnt mean it gets into the engine and they do have to be burped etc once they are of enough lowness of level.

i am assuming you mean the car was a 2.5 and now has the 2.2, but fyi i just recently bought the best imo timing belt kit from ebay for 132 bucks. of course my 99 outback has the 2.5 and they are probably less valued. but it comes with the oem water pump, aisin. if you want to find the one i got, search ebay for TB277LK2

can i jump into this discussion to ask a few questions? i just bought a 99 outback legacy with less than 135k on it. well a few months ago but finally got around to transferring title etc. can i say it was the best deal i've gotten on a sube yet, i didnt believe the guy that much because he didnt have a title and i went through that transfer etc and here when i later looked in the glove there was the carfax etc that he had gotten from the dealer when he bought it at like 115k! Anywho, he had bounced it off a curb, and because he couldnt figure out the alignment or tire destroying issues, he just wanted to get rid of it so he sold it to me for 1200. and it is pristine inside! it has that nice multi-colored interior seats that i guess came on the better subes. but i digress. i finally figured out the alignment problem, my mechanic said it was the fact taht he had too big of and mismatched tires, and after he replaced all hubs and bearings and brakes all around, actually my suggestion after he said the bad curb-wheel needed them, anyway it was still out and i finally took it to a place where they said it was the spindle. now it's straight and sweet! my question is, this is a manual trans vehicle. it is my fourth legacy, but my first MT. My mechanic said it needs the whole timing belt kit etc service, which i concur, but as he said i should get the clutch looked at also as it whines like an old truck sometimes esp when cold or when turning, i mean other than having the clutch and throwout bearing replaced are there any supportive systems or hydraulics etc i should have replaced or serviced? I seem to remember reading about such things a long time ago. Thanks so much. Sorry for the story. Enjoying being back in a sube. '97