MailManX

Welcome to the board! This place is great for Subaru owners. Your son has a great car in that 94 Legacy. Most likely its leaking from the front seals or the oil pump seal. Well worth investing the money to fix it. While in there behind the front cover, might as well replace the timing belt and water pump, too.

I second that opinion about Armorall. I have found it to damage some of my vinyl and rubber items in the past. I found something used heavily in the marine industry called Aerospace 303 Protectant. I've found that most things that can handle the marine environment of sun wind and salt are usually pretty good. In addition to being safely non-petroleum based, Aerospace 303 Protectant also includes a UV protector. It can be hard to find, but most marine supply stores carry it. I've also found it at Pool & Spa supply houses since many of them recommend it for the vinyl on and around spas. And, of course, you can always find it online.

PLUGS I've tried all the various expensive platinum and iridium plugs, but my car runs the best and gets the best mpg with the good ol' copper NGK's. WIRES I've never used the factory wires (bought the car used). But after a set of Bosch aftermarket wires started arcing after only about 20,000 miles, I splurged and bought a set of Magnecor wires at the recommendation of Josh (Legacy777). They are terrific - nice and beefy yet flexible and they fit really tight on the plugs. They are kind of expensive, but they should last the life of the car. Michael

Good info. Thanks! I'll be curious to see how many more thousands of miles this car will run before it gets worse. It sure has been a reliable vehicle!

Bump.

I'm afraid I can't answer that. But if you are just wanting to see if the fans work, I think both of them come on when you turn on the A/C no matter what the temp is. At least that's how my 93 Legacy works.

Best of luck on your bidding! I've purchased two sets of 16" WRX wheels with nearly new tires from eBay in the past 2 years. I was lucky enough both times to find someone near me in Southern CA so I was able to pick them up and save the shipping. I paid under $350 each time. Not too shabby for nice wheels plus new tires!

Here are three different forum members cars I found posted: http://www.geocities.com/ss_aruba/golf_shots/Lil_blue536k.jpg http://home.comcast.net/~brendanmcgowan/pictures/smallwrxoutback.jpg http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1340

Not only YES, but they will look terrific as well. A bunch of us on this forum have remarked on how the WRX wheels seem to look better on other Subaru models than they do on the WRX. Go figure!

Noise is there when clutch is engaged: Pedal up, driving under power. If I push the clutch pedal in and coast, the noise goes away.

Sorry to be late replying, I was gone for a couple days. CSR, the clutch is adjusted properly and is engaging just fine. Jcniest5 and CSR, my t-case/tranny oil is at optimum level (the last change was about 6 months ago). I'm thinking it's the sound of a bearing going out, but I know nothing about transmissions. I always thought that throwout bearings were only on hydraulic clutches. Educate me as to what that is and how much it might be to replace. But if it's a tranny main bearing, I'll probably just live with it until it becomes really bad before I have the tranny rebuilt. Right now the noise isn't very loud at all.

I had a hard time trying to figure out how I would describe the sound 'cuz it's not clicking or buzzing or grinding. It's not the usual gear whine. But "whirring" seems to fit. The car has 202,000 miles and is running great. But just in the last couple weeks the tranny started whirring. It's a cable actuated manual. The noise goes away when I disengage the clutch. The clutch has about 40,000 on it and works well. I have used synthetic gear oil for a couple of years and the tranny shifts well. I'm stumped. Any clues?

I had no idea they did that. My 93 Legacy is in there. I checked out the instructions for water pump replacement since I think my son's 93 Legacy needs that. The directions were clear and concise and included pictures. Very nice!

That's a sad truth.

My theory: With the tremendous horsepower and torque your car develops, these huge bursts of accelerations are causing the fluid to be squeezed out of the washer bottle and shot out from the nozzle with enormous pressure simply from the g-force. Cool!

Heh, heh! Bosses - the people you love to hate.

If you don't mind non-Subaru aftermarket parts, I bought my last alternator at Autozone. It has a lifetime warranty, but that was two years ago and it's still working fine. I forget what I paid for it, but it wasn't much. And like the others said, I changed it myself in the parking lot in 10 minutes with two tools so I could take the core back into the store.

Both fans should come on when the A/C is turned on no matter how warm or cool the engine is. So if the A/C is on, but one fan isn't, it explains your cooling problem. I hope for your sake it's just a fuse 'cuz Subaru charges a freakin' forturne for their fans. I had to order one for my Legacy a few months ago and the retail on it was $216. I ended up ordering by phone from Lithia Subaru in Oregon because they were willing to charge me a lot less, and the lack of tax covered the cost of shipping.

Andrey, that's what makes me think you have the "marginal cooling" problem as opposed to a blown head gasket. However, like rweddy said, be prepared for the worst, just in case. Depending on how the head gasket is failing, it's sometimes still possible to drive a car for a while. If it's just a small leak, the car will run but may overheat regularly, or you may get water in the combustion chamber and be blowing steam out the exhaust pipe (that was a problem I had on a Honda Civic back in 1977).

Andrey, even though 97 OB's are prone to head gasket failure, don't just assume that's the problem. What you experienced can also be the result of "marginal cooling". That is, your radiator may be partially plugged with crud so that normal town and highway driving does not cause the temperature to rise, but a long climb or a really hot day makes the temp rise. I speak from experience on that because my 93 Legacy had that exact issue. I replaced the radiator and my car always runs cool now no matter what the conditions are. The radiator replacement was easy - I did it myself in about half an hour. The part cost about $150. Luckily, you don't have to guess as to what your problem is. Shops have a method of testing your coolant to see if any combustion gasses are present which would indicate head gasket leakage. If that tests clean, then you likely just have a "marginal" radiator. As for damage caused by overheating for 15 minutes, that depends on how hot it actually got. When my car was having it's overheating problems, the temp guage would end up near the red, but not IN the read. Luckily, it has shown no ill effects from that. But overheating really bad can warp the heads, even if they were good to begin with. Just start with having your coolant tested for combustion gasses, then go from there.

I agree with mrtoyou7747. Before I replaced the front seals on my 93 Legacy, the oil would drip down on the exhaust and smell just awful. Since I knew what the problem was and that it wasn't hurting the car (as long as I kept oil in it) I let it go longer than I should and it ended up getting REALLY bad. It got to where smoke would actually seep out from under the hood and around the wheel wells after I stopped. I visited my brother-in-law once when the car was like that and he thought it was on fire! I finally replaced the seals, then I degreased the engine. Now the leaking has stopped and the burning smell is gone. The car continues to run great.

Wow! Pretty car. Congratulations. Just convert it to a manual. I'm sure it's a simple job.

Maybe a dumb question, but are you absolutely sure you are burning the oil as opposed to leaking out of the oil seals? At 195,000, my 93 Legacy was past due for a new timing belt and the oil seals were also leaking like a seive. Like you, I was going through 2 - 3 quarts between changes. The leaking oil would drip down on the exhaust pipes and smoke badly. In fact, I drove up to my brother-in-law's house one day and he thought my car was on fire! Then I had my belt replaced and had the oil seals replaced at the same time. Now, at over 200,000 miles, I don't use any oil between 3,000 mile changes.

Don't get into an accident and you knock off nearly 15%. Actually, 15% sounds pretty decent to me, too. It sure beats the heck out of the nearly 100% rollover potential of a Ford Exploder.

I had my 94 Legacy converted to 134a a couple years ago and it started blowing warm air shortly after I picked it up from the shop. Since you said your compressor is running correctly, my problem may have been different from yours. In my case, I got cold air for a short time (a few blocks), then it began blowing warm air. It turns out that my compressor didn't like anything over 24 PSI on the low side. It would start to turn, then it would kick out. Since the shop had already closed by the time I turned around and went back, I played a hunch... With the engine running and the AC on, I used a small screwdriver to bleed a bit of pressure off the line. With just a couple short burst of pressure relief, the compressor kicked in again and I got cold air. It lasted that way for several miles, then cut out again. I pulled over and let out another couple short bursts and got the compressor working again. That time it held permanently. I later bought a guage and measured the low side pressure at 24 PSI. As a final test, I purchased a can of 134a and put about half of it in which raised the PSI to about 28. My compressor quit running. I then bled in short burst until the compressor would run continuously, then measured again. Sure enough, it was 24 PSI. That's what it likes, so that's what it gets, and nothing more! I wish you luck in finding your AC problem right away! Michael