allwheeldad

After closer examination i found the culprit. After the car cooled off completely i pulled the rad cap and didnt see a drop of coolant. I poured water in to see where it went and within a minute it began to fountain out at the bottom of the engine. It is the steel pipe that goes between the thermostat housing and the oil cooler inlet. I guess our salty winters finally got the best of that one. I have never been so happy to see fluid leaking out of my car. The pipe and associated rubber hoses were $35 at the dealership and will take me five minutes to replace in the driveway. I can only assume that the oil got really hot and thin which began to trigger a low pressure warning. I am doing an oil change at the same time and will cross my fingers i didnt cook anything else.

Before i get started this is not an uneducated head gasket issue. I have owned several subies and done heads on all of them. This one is a bit of a head scratcher. I came off the highway and entered stop and go traffic with all gauges reading normal. After five minutes or so the temp gauge started to climb, the oil pressure light began flickering, the motor itself started idling rough, and there was a clinking sort of noise coming from the front end. I pulled over as soon as safe to do so and killed the motor. I did the usual fluid level checks, found the coolant was a little low but not alarmingly so. The oil was right at the full mark and did not show any signs of coolant in the mix. After twenty minutes i started the car and let it idle. The temp was high but started to come back down as i let it idle. The oil light stopped flickering once the temp returned to normal so i put it in drive and started to limp my way home but didnt make it too far before repeating this procedure. I should also note there was no heat coming from the vents when i tried to use the heater core to siphon heat out of the motor. With the noise and related rough idle and oil light i suspected a failing water pump that might be interfering with the timing but i took the one timing cover off today and watched the pump pulley without remarking any obvious trouble. I have to have this thing towed a fair distance to my inlaws shop and dont have alot of time to fix it so i was hoping to nail down probable causes before i tear everything down. This is also a $500 car so im not interested in sinking alot of money into it either. Any advice?

Finalized the deal on my new vehicle last night. I've had my eye on one of these since I was first a passenger in one on a morning of partridge hunting in northern Ontario. It's a surprise to me, but I now own a 1991 Toyota SR5 4x4 V6. It only has 100,000 miles, a new clutch and tires, and only slight rusting on the body. I grabbed it for $1500. I still have to Forester for my wife so I haven't left the subaru camp, I just came across this little gem and couldn't ignore it. I was having no luck finding a subie around here in my price range anyhow. The Forester I was planning on getting turned out to have Felpro headgaskets so I walked from that one. I've never owned a truck before and figured it would be handy as hell. I'll post pictures as soon as I get it home.

I had to fight them hard to get the settlement that I did. In our region the salt usually destroys a car by the time it gets the age and mileage mine had. This devalues cars hugely and the insurance company goes only by what their software tells them is the fair market value. I too have seen cars listed for sale with high miles in other areas that I can see the value in terms of a rust free body and frame, but around here it is a hard sell to ask as much. One of the tricks they like to pull is to pull up ads on Autotrader.ca and and see what other people are selling their cars for. In my case there was only two other Legacy GT listings and both were less miles than mine, both selling for less than what the insurance company offered me. I was kind of over a barrel on this one. As far as transplanting all the good stuff to another shell, I have neither the time nor facilities to do the work. I used to have a garage in my old house, but now only have a driveway. I need a functional daily driver. Believe me, I hate to see it go this way, but I just don't have any other choice in the matter. I am going to close this Subie chapter and start another. I have sourced out a Forester the same year as my wife's, but with no rust and less miles. Water pump, HG's, timing belt, and tensioner just done. She is going to take the new car and I am going to start having fun with the old one. My neighbour has a full steel working shop and metal supply business and has offered me full access to it. I plan to pull the front and rear bumper covers off and fab up some tube steel push bar bumpers. I think maybe some diff covers too. I have always wanted to see what Subies will do off road and have never owned and off road vehicle before. Time to try something new! Anybody know a cheap and easy way to gain some height on a 99 forester?

Finally settled with the insurance company today. Dammit I would like to get my hands on that arsehole. I managed to get $2500 for the car. Because of the mileage they started me at $1900. I told them to get fooked. I said to take a look at the photos and dared them to find any rust. I listed the new parts. I pushed them as far as I could and came out with a settlement lower than my pride wants to accept. I'm not delusional in my thinking about the retail value of the car, it is simply a matter of economics that after paying for a car, the safety inspection, emmissions testing, taxes, and registration, there is no way in hell that I am going to end up with a car of "like kind and quality" (insurance terminology). To buy it back they would knock the payout back down to $1900 and then subtract the salvage amount of $300.00 which would leave me in even worse shape to buy a daily driver worth transplanting good parts into. To top it all off it took them three weeks to determine what I told them when I filed my claim (write-off)and I now have all this paperwork (bs) to fill out while I am working on the road in areas without cell phone service and they are taking back the rental car before they even cut the check. So now I have no car to get to work (10 mile bike ride to the shop), no money to buy a car (check is literally in the mail once I send paperwork in, which they emailed today), and will have to lose an entire day of wages to do all the running around once I do finally find a car. Don't get your insurance through Primmum, they are crooks. I seriously hope that karma is real because I have a heaping handful to dish out to that knob gobbling circus freak sidehow.

Hey, maybe I'm thinking about the caved in roof on my Legacy in entirely the wrong way..............I've always threatened to come home in an el camino, now's my chance!

The gun laws in Canada are far more restrictive than they are in the states. By the time I got my gun out of the locked cabinet and loaded it the target would have walked in, made some tea, watched a little hockey, and crapped on my doorstep on the way out. I know what you're saying about a little more firepower though. Believe me, I would like nothing more than to have been able to blast him right off the roof of the car. I think I will invest in some kind of video setup instead. If I had a picture of the guy in action that resulted in some jail time I might be as satisfied. As long as he walked funny when he got out. I have already sourced out a 99 forester with 100,000 miles, recent head gasket and timing job, no rust, new tires, and roof racks for $1600.00. They are selling it for that price because it has piston slap, but it quiets down after a few minutes and it quieter than my Legacy was. The way I see it, if I can get this car and a 14 foot aluminum boat, motor, and trailer (already sourced for $800), then I will call it square and move on without arguing:)

Everything else mechanically is in great shape. The engine runs smooth and the transmission shifts like butter. My problem is that I just don't have the time to dedicate to this kind of repair. I also don't want to put a bunch of work into trying to bend the flanges back out only to have the rear window leak every time it rains. I remember cars coming in under similar circumstances and unless the mating surface is free of wrinkles or folds of any kind you are asking for trouble. I work 50+ hours a week and have two young kids, so the time to rehab my daily driver just isn't there. My wife was quick to pick up the phone and call the cops when she saw me running downstairs with a bat. The cops showed up in two minutes and flew around the neighborhood looking for a raging lunatic but this guy must be an olympic runner, four cruisers couldn't find him. I discovered another poor schmuck a couple blocks down from me covering up the rear glass on his minivan the next day on my way to the collision center. I have decided that with any money left over from my payout I am going out and buying a high powered fully automatic paintball gun. Primarily, it will be satisfying to just pepper any reject that tries this kind of crap again, but also it will make it easy for the cops to identify somebody when they are covered in paint!

After 413,000 kms, pounds of skin off my knuckles, and a whole new vocabulary I am sad to announce the ridiculous death of my 99 Legacy GT. It was parked outside my house on the street Monday night when it was attacked by some drug crazed viking warrior. I was dead asleep when I woke up to screaming and smashing. I pulled back the curtains to see the roof of my car crushed and the rear window shattered. I ran outside with a bat ready to return the favour but the ********************* was already two blocks away, still raging and screaming about something I will never understand. I turned to the car and knew instantly that it was going to be written off. He managed to climb on top of the car and jump up and down until he collapsed the roof where it meets the rear glass. This is not some "bang it out" kind of repair. It would require a new roof to be cut in and welded in order for the glass to fit without constantly leaking. Given the mileage and age of the car there is no way in hell the insurance company is going to pay for that kind of major surgery. I worked in a collision center as an estimator a few years back and can say this with certainty. I maintained that car myself from day one and it was a real pisser to see it go because some retard felt like taking out his delusional aggression on it. There wasn't a speck of rust anywhere, the suspension and brakes were all new, there was a bunch of wrx parts stuffed into it, and I didn't even get the satisfaction of drifting it into a tree myself. Now I have to argue the value of the car with the insurance adjuster and hunt for a replacement car. I doubt I will find one of equal condition for what they are going to try to pay me. Sigh. I'll update as things develope. If anybody has a line on any clean subies around Kingston, Belleville, Ottawa let me know, I'll have to find one soon.

I don't have the cash to spend right now otherwise I would buy it. Found it yesterday, don't think the mechanic really knows Subaru quarks. He said he can't sell it because the motor has a knock. Turns out it is piston slap and goes away after 5 mins. Head gaskets done and brand new tires. No rust that I can see, minor dings on the rear bumper. Car has 160,000 kms, guy wants $1600.00 for it. For the shape it is in seems like a reasonable price. Just though I would post it up here in case anybody was looking.

Yeah, mine is only heard under load. When I am at speed and sitting anywhere over 2500 rpm the sound is a whine, but one I apply the brakes and drop the engine down below 2500 it sounds like the trans is trying to eat itself. Lots of grinding, chewing, and rattling going on. I have been looking around for a used trans just in case, and it seems I can get one for around $300.00 CDN in Toronto. It's from a jdm importer which is fine for now, but in a few months I wouldn't touch any parts without seeing a video of the car they were taken out of. I have a feeling there are going to be some dirtbags that will try to make money off of Japans' woes right now.

The grinding/whining sound that FairTax4Me describes sounds just like what is happening in my 99 forester. Would the culprits be any different between the 5sp and 4eat transmissions? Mine is auto, and I know the problem is in the trans (throw it in neutral and rev it while driving and there is no noise).

I live in Kingston and happen to be in the market for a 99 forester transmission. How much do you want?

Crap. Not having collision is going to really complicate things for you. Unless the other driver is found to be at fault there is not going to be any payment for repairs or a total loss situation. With the age and mileage of the car it is certain to be written off. The airbag matrix that has to be run on the car alone would probably write it off. They are horribly expensive and require not just the modules be replaced, but also the sensors, computer, and often the seat belt tensioners (if so equipped). I am really sorry to see this happen to you, but most importantly the car did what it was designed to do. But I am afraid to tell you that unless you have access to cheap replacement parts and facilities to do all the body work this is going to be a very cost prohibitive repair. I used to do estimates at a collision center and I can tell you there is almost certainly more damage that will be found once you get the hood and bumper off.

You will be fine without it. The service manager at my local dealership once even told me to remove mine altogther when it broke. You will not damage anything without it in place, it is there to reduce body roll in corners. In order to replace it you will have to remove the two bushing brackets from the frame. When I did mine I ended up snapping one of the bolts leaving the bulk of it in the frame. Try to soak them in wd40 or some other penetrating fluid a day or so in advance of removal. I ended up resorting to a combination of bottle jacks and my welder to re-install mine, but that is not exactly a Subaru approved repair procedure.

I had the alignment done 1.5 years ago after I did the suspension. It has not seen any hard driving since then and tracks straight as any arrow on smooth surfaces. I too was starting to think the AWD might be having issues, but wouldn't that also mean that it wouldn't transfer power properly when the rear steps out? I get sideways often when there is a good amount of snow and I have yet to experience anything out of the ordinary. I can still easily control my drift angle with the throttle and there is no pull in the steering at all in those conditions. I'll check the tie rods out again and see if I can get an eye on the steering rack bushings while I'm there. Thanks for the advice.

99 Forester, 230,000 kms, 4EAT. There is the damnedest whining sound coming from under the hood when driving. When accelerating or maintaining a constant speed it is present, increasing in volume and pitch when under throttle. Once I take my foot off the gas and the motor is in a vacuum state the whining stops. Any ideas?

99 Legacy GT, 420,000 kms, 2.5, 4EAT. While maintaining a constant speed on a decent road surface there is no physical problem, just a droning sound. Before wheel bearing gets thrown around I have jacked up the car a checked for play and listened with a stethoscope, no evidence of failure there. When under throttle the car will try to pull itself one way or the other, depending on the slope and surface condition of the road. I have also noticed that when pulling away from a complete stop on mixed snow / slush conditions the car will grab and pull to the passenger side. I have checked the ball joint, no play there. I rebuilt the suspension at all four corners 1.5 years ago with new tophats, so I ruled out struts as a culprit. Not losing any steering fluid and steering response is normal. Tires are all equal treadware, identical pressures all around. I don't have a lift so shaking stuff around to look for play is kinda hard to do, just thought I would ask here to a point in the right direction before I make the drive to occupy my father in laws shop.

I have been religous on service intervals and know my way around doing timing belts and headgaskets and such, but with my Legacy being a 99 with 420,000 + kms driven daily on the salt covered roads of Ontario rust is unavoidable. It's the laying under the car fighting with seized bolts or repairing exhaust holes that don't really do it for me. Great Youtube videos by the way, I've only ever worked on the EJ25's so seeing some of the older stuff was fun.

I too have been seeing alot more subies on the road lately. When the economy took a dump and the auto industry fell into a tailspin the only manufacturer to post any profits was Subaru. Maybe people took notice of that and started looking into what we already know are excellent cars. That, and maybe there's just a growing number of people like me out there that simply can't afford to take thier car in to be fixed and have to do it themselve. I love to tinker with my cars, but if it was a matter of choice I would be handing the rusty, breaker-bar snapping, skin shredding dirty work off to somebody else. Just a thought.

My 99 Legacy GT has had a high pitched whine at wide open throttle since I've owned it. It is exhaust related, but since I have never thrown a CEL code over it, I just never bothered with doing anything about it.

Nice score! When I first saw the price I thought I was going to see some back feild mud mongrel with a very short life expectancy, but that looks decent. I plan to do the same thing to my 99 GT when the motor eventually cooks itself. Enjoy it, looks like you have the right kind of weather conditions like I do!

Just did exactly the same thing over Christmas. Swaps over just fine. Make sure the donor hub has the wheel speed sensor intact or it's going to cost and cause headaches. Instead of fighting with the lateral link bolt just buy a replacement bolt at the dealership and cut the head off and drift the rest of the bolt out. Might help to have a spring kit handy for the parking brake as well. One of my retainer springs snapped when I went to remove it.

99 Legacy GT Limited, bought it 4.5 years ago with 220,000 kms (130,000 miles). Had one headgasket failure episode and one timing belt tensioner bearing seizure (jumped timing, but not enough on any cam to cause valve damage). These were the only failures I experienced. Currently has 430,000 kms (270,000ish miles) with original ej25 and 4eat trans. Parts replaced as follows: struts, coils, bushings, sway bar links wheel bearings x3 fuel filler neck tie rods ball joints starter solenoid rebuild alternator rotors CV x2 I'm sure there are other things I am missing, but these are the stand out items. I am still totally satisfied with the car. I am not meek and mild with it (especially when there is a pile of fresh snow on the ground) and it still makes me smile. I have seen cars half as old and with half the mileage that look and drive like crap. For all the work and parts I have thrown at this car it has proven to be a very reliable car that has kept me out of trouble when those less than stellar drivers around me start to mess with my mojo.

98's are the phase I, 99 and on are phase II. Also be mindful of wheel bearings, especially the rears.