99obw

I agree with gbhrps. Let's estimate that the dealer gets half of the warranty price, and the underwriter gets the other half. I don't know much about insurance, but even if their average claim was half of what they were paid for the policy (I think it's much less than that), that would only make the average claim 25% of what was paid by the car buyer. Not a good investment in my opinion. My numbers are just guesses, but I feel confident when I tell the salesman no. They don't like when you refuse the warranty. Those warranty prices are insane. Most Subarus have much much less than $3k of repairs done in the first 100k miles. If I added up all repairs in the first 150k miles of our outback, and I had paid someone to perform the repairs instead of doing them myself, including head gaskets and excluding wear and maintanence items, I am certain it would be below $3000. It always reminds me of my friend telling me his $795 extended warranty was a good idea because the alternator went and it was replaced. It's a $100 rebuilt alternator and it takes 15 minutes to install. I must have missed that math class. I am truly sorry that you had this experience with a car dealer. Most car dealers spend 40 hours a week polishing their ability to separate people from their money. It's boards like the USMB that help us to fight the dealer's dishonesty.

I had the same EGR malfunction, and the code reader helped me to fix it myself. Replaced the backpressure transducer and no MIL in months. Not to say that is your problem, but it illustrates the value of an OBDII code reader. There are several threads on code readers, so a search should yield some interesting reading. Not at least finding out what code is being set is a very bad idea IMHO. EDIT: Didn't I jinx myself. MIL on the way to work this morning.

They are evil!!! Run away!!! No, just kidding. Other than head gaskets at 120k it has been a great car. Pushing 160k right now.

Good advice on the 5w-40. I am going to be switching my jeep over to Amsoil 5w-40 AFL soon, probably the subaru at 200k miles or so. Walmart has Rotella-T "Synthetic" 5w-40, ~$13.00 a gallon FWIW. Not as good as Delvac 1 but pretty good none-the-less.

At the risk of being flamed by all of the loyal Mobil 1 fans out there, Mobil 1 5w-30 is a good oil, but it's WAY too thin. It's almost a 20 weight before any shearing. My experience has been that the EJ25 prefers an oil closer to 12 cSt, like Amsoil ASL 5w-30 or Pennzoil HM 5w-30. The German made Castrol Syntec 0w-30 is supposed to be close to 12 cSt. If it were my XT I would be running the Amsoil ATM 10w-30, for summer at least, or maybe the GC 0w-30 year round at 5k intervals. I personally wouldn't run a conventional oil in a turbocharged engine, but I am an oil nut, so take that FWIW. Apples and oranges, but our NA EJ25 at ~160k miles is using about 1 quart every 7500 miles of Amsoil ASL, even less with the ATM.

The worst head gasket problems are probably behind Subaru at this point. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Water pumps are a common point of failure on all makes once beyond 100k miles. I believe in preemptive water pump replacement. I actually believe the subaru water pumps are pretty good. The Subaru transmissions seem to me to be about average in reliability and longevity, above average once you consider the AWD. Most subaru transmission failures can be attributed to user error; improper tire circumference, lack of periodic maintanence, improper towing. With that said, cooling systems and transmissions/drivetrain are probably the most neglected periodic maintanence areas by most people, so many failures can be attributed to user error. Most subarus are 300k mile vehicles when properly cared for, provided rust doesn't kill them first.

We need to know what codes are being set. Autozone should pull them for you for free.

If that is the case gbhrps is correct. They must have changed that between '97 and '99.

I don't know anything about removing the seat, sorry. We have a 20 cubic foot sears car top box. It isn't as fancy as the thule boxes, but I figured since I use it about once a year and it cost about a third as much it would suffice. Getting it on and off is pretty easy, even by yourself. I always try to put the heavy stuff in the car, and the light stuff in the box. When I first bought the box we took a trip to Vermont, two adults, two kids, rear of car loaded with full coolers etc., car top box fully loaded, we averaged 27.7 MPG at about 70 MPH with the A/C on. I don't think it has a negative effect on fuel economy. We took a trip to Tennesee using the box, the car was more heavily loaded, the terrain was much more up and down, the O2 sensor was tired, driving 75 MPH we averaged about 24 MPG. We saw some winds and windy roads on that trip, and while it does affect handling, I don't think it's so bad I would worry about it.

On the 2.2 the plugs don't go through the valve cover, so the leak is probably your valve cover gasket.

Skip, it's been a pleasure sharing the USMB with you. Sorry to see you go, but I know where you are coming from, my recent purchase was a Jeep. Enjoy your TDI, hopefully your luck will be better with that car. Take care!

We use goof-off at work, and the fumes are wicked! That stuff makes my head spin! I prefer goo-gone, which I use at home, it's much milder and works nearly as well.

I must say that Frag's advice to use a socket to drive in the seals is better than my advice to just use a hammer. Either way will work, but it's easier if you have a socket the correct size.

I really need to get a digital camera, it would make my posts so much more interesting. My wife insisted on the EOS rebel 2000, which takes nice pictures, but doesn't make for easy picture posting.

The original had a ball and socket on both ends. The replacements had a ball and socket on one end and the other end was different. I don't think I can describe it very well right now, I'm pretty tired. I will take a look tomorrow. It came apart by itself due to rust. I don't know how to get them apart when they are in good shape. Prying perhaps? I would replace the ball with the strut.

Might as well do the thermostat when you do the hoses. Another tell-tale sign of a bad hose is the end near the clamp starts to bulge a little.

What manual are you using? Whether it be Haynes or the FSM it should all be there. Make sure the cam marks line up and the crank sprocket lines up with the mark on the oil pump. If you use an OEM belt the marks on the belt should line up with the cam and crank sprocket marks.

I just did this and it was so easy I had some time leftover to post about it. The struts were still working fine, but the balls and sockets on the lower ends were so badly corroded that they were coming loose. The results of it being used in this condition are some scratched paint above the taillight housing, broke a corner off of the left taillight housing, and broke the right rear piece of trim behind the rear side window. I need to buy a couple of clips to fix the external trim piece but other than that it's all good. To my surprise even though the studs and bolts were very rusty they came out easily. The parts needed for this job, for a '99 legacy outback wagon, are: Left Strut 60311AC030 Right Strut 60311AC020 Stud Bolt 62351AA010 x 2 HTH

I hear this type of argument all of the time about all sorts of things, and it drives me crazy. It's all about sample size. The fact that one person had great luck with a VW, or ten people had head gaskets fail, is irrelevent. The CR ratings are based on a large sampling of owner experiences. I will glady admit subarus aren't as reliable as they used to be. If subaru is in the middle of the pack and VW is at the bottom, just imagine how bad VW's average reliability must be. VW didn't make the bottom of the list by making reliable cars.

As far as warming the exhaust up, I recommend driving it around the block a couple of times, then leave it running and get your 22mm wrench ready. Rev it to 2500 RPMs or so for a minute or two, then immediately loosen the sensor. It needs to be just about as hot as you can get it. Be careful.

(3) Yes. It's called a bung.

I didn't mean to start a flame war. Just my $0.02, which most people ignore anyway. Carry on, pretent I didn't say anything.

Regarding the splashing, I use ramps for oil changes, and I put the catch pan on a cardboard box to get it right up tight to the oil pan. That virtually eliminates any splashing. Gloves for an oil change! Jeesh! Draining the filter! What a waste of time IMO. Now filling the new filter is time well spent.

AFAIK the '99 was the last year of the 2.2 in the legacy. If I was going to buy a subaru right now it would be one of those. Unfortunately I couldn't find one within 100 miles so I bought a Cherokee, which are a dime a dozen. My only reservation with the legacy is the ground clearance. I suspect it might high-center itself on my dirt road. In the winter during heavy snowfall the plow only goes by once or twice a day, and the snow can build to 12-18". The end of my driveway can easily have 3' of densely packed snow when I get home from work. The outback handles it fine.

It was the speedometer head that was bad. I replaced it and it works perfectly now. Problem is it says the car has like 10k miles on it. I don't want to car to be flagged at some point for odometer fraud (I don't know how possible that is), so I would like to correct it before NY goes to an inspection system that taps into the OBDII, which is happening in June. Can I just turn the dials on the speedo head to correct the mileage?