Commuter

When I first started getting mine... it was a few weeks between the CEL's showing up. After a few months, it was coming on almost daily. I had the car in recently. They said there was a tear in the diaphragm. Unfortunately, it would appear that is not all that is wrong. 24 hours later, the CEL was back and it keeps coming back almost daily. It's been too cold for me to mess with it. I'll just keep clearing it until I get to it, or get back to the dealer. PITA... I'm glad Subaru got rid of this system on the Phase II engine. Commuter

There are many threads on these Phase I 2.5L engines. I'm fairly new to Subaru myself (5 years) and I have a 97 OB. I don't think it is a stretch to say that these engines are probably the weakest (read - poor reliability) that Subaru has made in recent history. The Achilles heel is the head gaskets. But add to that piston slap and leaky front seals and some other lesser ills, and it really leaves one to wonder about Subaru's "bulletproof" reputation. For the record, I still like my car, but my engine 'bit the dust' at 160k miles. First head gaskets, then a conrod bearing went. Regarding the T-belt: SOA calls for it to be changed out every 105k miles for this car. In Canada (where I am), they call for it to be changed every 96k km, or about 60k miles. *shrug* I changed the first one at 98k km. I let the second and third one go 125k km with no issue. I'm debating letting the third one go longer as the belts have always looked in great shape. Bear in mind that 125k km is only 2 years of driving for me. Let us know what is going on with your engine. Hopefully it is something minor. You've already put a lot into it. It would be a shame to have to swap out to used or rebuilt now. I know how you feel though. I fixed my head gaskets and then one day (200 km) later, the bottom end failed. I was not a happy camper. CCR Engines Inc would be the one to consider if you go the route of a rebuilt engine. Not inexpensive, but they appear to know more about these engines than anyone and you get a warranty. Commuter

I don't know the difference between Northern and Southern batteries. I know that I've seen the recommendation several times that one should not use maintenance free batteries in hotter climates, since there is no way to replenish the water. I wonder if that is the difference. The batteries you add water to are good for either climate... as long as you don't forget them and run them low on water. One has to wonder... They could probably make batteries last twice as long for 20% more dollars. But that wouldn't be good for business. Just musing... Commuter

The best I ever got was 9 years in my first car. It was my parent's car... a 15 yo 1969 Pontiac Laurention. A boat of a car, but power "nothing". And I mean that. Other than the engine compartment, lights, radio and fan on the interior heater, I don't think there was a single electrical item on the car! I got about 4 to 5 years with my Civics. Right now, I'm just past the 7 year mark on the OEM battery in my 97 OB. I'm surprised it has lasted this long. I think the 'dope' I put in it about 1.5 years ago to combat sulphation actually did something (Battery Equaliser). Didn't seem to hurt at all. (I decided to try it since it was inexpensive and I considered the battery to be on borrowed time anyway.) I've only got 3 years out of the battery on my wife's 99 Odyssey. That things alarm system seems to suck the life out of the battery. That, and stupid interior lights that do not go out if they are manually turned on. Heat kills the batteries more than the cold. Studies have borne that out. Commuter

When I test drove an Outback VDC a couple years ago, I noticed that the revs were a bit lower. About 2500 rpm IIRC at 75 mph. My wife's 99 Honda Odyssey with 3.5L V6 turns over at 2000 rpm at 75 mph. Gets about the same gas milage too as my 97 OB Phase I 2.5L engine. Hmmm... Commuter

Right on the mark... I think I hover just under 3k, eg 2900 at that speed. 97 OB auto. The gearing is kept a bit short on these cars since they really are a bit underpowered if you ask me. The higher revs give one a bit better pick up, but they still rate near the bottom of the pack for acceleration in their class. Decent torque though from the H4. Commuter

Just a quick comment on the t-stat. Go with an OEM one. People have had trouble with aftermarket ones. And be sure it goes in properly. The unit is NOT symmetrical. The 'valve' is off center. There is a little notch that has to line up in the housing IIRC. Unless outrageously expensive, I'd go with OEM hoses. You should get the best fit this way. Clamps should not be a big deal. Whatever you like. I like the worm gear style myself, but some of them will cut a bit into the hose surface. Commuter

You can also add a spring to the wiper arm for more downforce. It looks like an oversized clothespin spring (sort of). Just something else to try. I've had regular blades (ok), teflon coated blades (better), silicone blades (good, but made noise from day one and expensive), now trying the Bosch microedge blades (strike me as similar to the Teflon blades)... I'm beginning to think the expensive ones are not really worth it. The silicone blades I had were suppose to be good for up to 5 years. I got 1.5 out of them. In my experience, the blade joints start to get loose from wear and cause chatter anyway. So what good is the blade lasting longer than the holder? Buying a decent inexpensive wiper and changing it 1 / 2 / 4 times a year is probably the best bet. Just my opinion. Commuter

frag, I do believe that the Outback struts are more money than the Legacy wagon. Longer suspension travel, meant for mild offroading, etc. How much more, I don't know. The prices fall right in line with what Chip was quoted from the dealer. I don't doubt you are right though that they would still be less expensive brought in from the States. Commuter

Mine are getting weak on my 97 OB (but 370k km too). My dealer told me approximately $230 front, $280 rear each (Cdn) list price. I know I can do a little better than that, even from them. Definitely shop around though. A while back, someone posted that the KYB aftermarket shocks are about 15% stiffer than OEM. I find that odd since they make the OEM shocks. If that is true, I'm not sure what I will do since I don't want stiffer shocks for my purposes. Commuter

I'm no chemist, but the additive packages are radically different between the "regular" green stuff and the red or orange long life stuff. I know that I've seen several posts where people "slam" the long life stuff because they find sludge in their rad later on. It really is crucial to get ALL the old coolant out if you are making this switch. One needs to flush the block 2 or 3 times. It's even harder with the Sube's flat engine. I believe for my car about 1/3 of the coolant stays in the engine (as opposed to the rad). I've been running the long life stuff for roughly 3 years in my 97 OB and I've had no issues. I'm told that they are NOT all created equal. The Dex-Cool hardly meets GM's own specs. Personally, I would not run it for 5 years. They use the least additive that gets them by since it is expensive. Other brands have apparently been found to not even meet GM's specs! Texaco's Havoline is what was recommended to me. Even if you still change it every couple of years, I think it is worth it since it is not as abrasive to the water pump, seals etc. If you want to start discussing materials compatibility etc, you are over my head. You say that you just used regular coolant. I don't know why you'd be getting some sludge. It just might be a bit of the old stuff, I don't know. Perhaps the fresh coolant has loosened up some grunge. If you want peace of mind, give your system a good flushing and new coolant. If you do it yourself, run distilled water thru the system 2 or 3 or 4 times or whatever it takes until it comes out clean. Then add the 50% of your systems volume of full strength coolant. You will probably find that you won't have to add much more water to top up, since there will be considerable water left in the engine from the flushing. Good luck. Commuter

I bought one of these from Canadian Tire when they went on sale from $250 to $150 Cdn last spring. It sounds like you want something that does more. I haven't really put it thru its paces to be honest. Commuter

Did you install the block heater yourself? What type of Prestone coolant did you use? Did you flush the system at all? I mean, even run water thru it a few times. By any chance did you put in some long life stuff? I don't believe Subaru uses the long life coolant. If you switch, you can get a 'sludge' from mixing between the two types. All it takes is 10% of the old stuff left to contaminate the new. Commuter

I have replaced mine on my 97 OB. I would think yours are similar. First, disconnect the hose (see below). They usually just snap in. From under the hood, you will see that there are 2 small leaf style tabs that are holding the sprayer in. Just squeeze them together into the body of the sprayer and the unit should slip out the top side of the hood. The bigger challenge will probably be getting the hose off the sprayer. I had short pieces of hose and a connector available, so I ended up just cutting the old hose. If you pull at the hose really hard, you could deform the hood metal around the sprayer, or tear the hose and damage it anyway, etc. I don't know how much success you will have trying to clear debris out of the unit. It might just be easier to get a new or used one. My original ones were the 2 jet style. I've replaced them with the fan spray style, but from Honda, not Subaru. Subaru cheaped out and made the the fan nozzle non-adjustable. Actually, I bought some generic adjustable fan style units from Canadian Tire Corp first. These have a threaded stem, so you can just tighten them down with a nut. They worked, but they flow considerably more volume than the 2 jet style. The pump just wasn't putting out enough to get a decently strong spray. The Honda ones are much better, but even they appear to flow more than the 2 jet ones. The strength of the spray on the highway is marginal. But that is usually the case regardless. Commuter

I have a 97 OB with the 2.5L engine as well. When I hit this mileage (a few years ago!), I asked the same thing. It was right on their service schedule. They kind of frowned and said that they'd never done it unless head work was being done or the engine was out of the car for some other reason. They called a couple of other dealers. One told them that they had done it a few times, it can be done in the car (no need to remove the engine), but it's not easy and it takes like a full day of labour to do it. Their recommendation was not to bother unless one was getting obvious tappet noise. I took their advice. I was at 160k miles when my engine went out on me. It had not developed any tappet noise or such yet at that point. I guess there really is very minimal wear in this area. Interestingly, I bought my car at 2 yo. I recall seeing a service order by the original owner where he was complaining of tappet noise and the dealer apparently did adjust the shims under warranty. (This was out in Western Canada.) I extremely doubt that they removed the engine! Didn't Subaru change to some sort of hydraulic tappet in 1998? I thought I'd heard that along the way. Commuter Edit - Good point 99obw. Depending on the rate of wear of the cam / shim verses the valve head / seat, the clearance might increase, decrease, or stay relatively constant. The 97 definitely has bucket tappets with shims. I've seen my engine apart.

Subaru has done H6's before (SVX, XT), but the 3.0L H6 in the Outbacks is a new design that came out in 2001. It doesn't have a lot of history yet. And I don't think there are too many out there, since they have only been available on the highest priced cars. Having said that, I haven't heard of any problems to date myself. You might call CCR Engines to see if they know anything. I do recall Emily making a comment (quite some time ago) that there was speculation that this engine might be a "leaker" over the long term since Subaru dispensed with gaskets in several areas and went with sealants instead. Bear in mind, that's simply speculation. The car and the engine would be fine I feel for application. You might want to add a transmission cooler. I just can't really comment on long term reliability. (Then again, who really can? ) Commuter

Make sure you look carefully at your seats before you start tearing them apart. I was going to swap bottom cushions (due to wear) on a Civic years ago. However, they were mirror imaged. The seat was not symmetrical about its centerline. (Eg, recliner handle on outside, seat belt buckle on inside, different shape outside to inside.) This might apply to attachment points, etc as well. Study it carefully. I'd be surprised if you could just swap them. Commuter

... out of my 97 OB. I put in the Double DIN Subaru 6CD unit, so it consumed that space. Unfortunately, it's probably not worth the expense of me shipping it to you, but I thought I'd mention it. I'm not really looking for anything for the unit itself. Commuter

About 10 years ago, my boss sent 6 of us to "skid school". They had 2 instructors, a couple of VW Passats, and a short track with some slippery stuff on it. There was about an hour and half of classroom stuff, then the rest of the day was in the car. It was really good. One drill was performing an emergency lane change. You had to create a skid, then hold it in a 4 wheel drift, then come out of it. All but one of us totally lost it the first time and had the car doing a 360 (or more). Myself included. They taught where to direct your eyes (had a couple of targets), etc. Another drill was braking techniques. ABS was not too common yet, so we went thru that. They also had the car's rigged so they could apply brakes front or back selectively. You'd drive straight and they'd try to mess you up as you steered to stay pointed ahead. (I was good at that... the guy had noted my 'tiny' steering corrections in prior drills.) Another part of the day was simply driving out on the local roads and highway and they gave each of us a score sheet. I was very pleased, and have always wanted to take more, but haven't so far. I have a daughter that is about to get her license. When appropriate, I want to put her in some class like this. Heck, I'll probably even join her. Commuter

I don't know about your 99, but I looked into it a few years ago on my 97 Outback. It was not a simple upgrade for the 97 model year. The dealer said it could be done, but they would have to replace the stalk, the control model, probably rig up some wiring as well. It was going to be a few hundred $ before I was done!! Many years ago (late 80's), I had added variable speed wipers to my 85 and 88 Civic. Canadian Tire Corp in Canada has a unit that can do this for $27 Cdn. I was going to go that route, but just couldn't seem to find a suitable mounting place that would not have it at some reach, or would not be sticking out real ugly somewhere. The box is not big, (3" x 2" x 1" sort of thing), but not real tiny either. (I was contemplating whether one could bury the box and rig up a flex cable to the knob to operate it... hmmm) With some internet searching, I came across the RainTracker. It was even more money at the time, but I bought one and installed it. It's an optical rain sensing wiper system. And it works beautifully! It took a bit to install, but it was not that difficult. It appears that it is a different model now (but similar or same function). You will need the little XC-1 sensitivity control. Cars that have variable speed turn that control into a sensitivity control. The company was great to deal with. (I had a little shipping snafu, but they more than made good on it.) I have even ordered another for my wife's car, but have yet to install it. It does virtually "disappear" as they say. You set the sensitivity that you like, and forget about it. You still have full manual control as well, so you can do the single swipe, or turn fully on, etc as you want/need. The algorithm is not going to be perfect for everyone or every car, but it comes really really close. Like 98%, and I'm a perfectionist sort of guy! Check it out... Highly recommended! Commuter

Thanks lesbaru for the compliment on my write up. My 97 OB is now over 7 years old (and 370k km). I bought it at 2 yo and have been having it sprayed with Rust Check (rust inhibitant oil spray) annually ever since. While this product's primary purpose is to save the body, it keeps moisture out of 'stuff' and acts as a lubricant to a degree. I've been using it on my cars since 1986. As time goes by, I'm becoming more and more convinced that it helps in preventing the problems described in this thread. I have not had any sticking latch issues. (Note that I did not change my latch. Just the exterior steel bracket plate was changed.) Another thread spoke of common failures of rear wiper motors. Again, mine is original. And I live in Southern Ontario Canada where they dump tons of salt on the road in the winter. As another quick comment, I had all 4 strut / shocks changed on 85 Civic when it was around 8 yo. The mechanic booked me for the day and no one else. He was done by noon. Everything just "broke free" he said. None of the usual rusted, frozen, sheared off fasteners that he usually would encounter. I don't mean to hi-jack the thread, but I thought it worth mentioning. It reminded me to spray the bracket plate again. I've done it from time to time. Even though it is exterior, I can see that the oil does stay on it for quite some time, since it is slightly under the overhang of the taillight strip. Last I looked, there are a few Rust Check centers in MI / upper NY I think. Do stores carry the spray can product at all in the States? (Largely red in color.) Do you have Krown in the States or not? Similar product / application. Now... If I could just figure out what is making the squauking rubbing noise in my hatch area. That's a new noise that I haven't tracked down yet. And probably won't while it is this cold! Commuter

Crank seal is a common leak. Cam seals and oil pump O-ring are suspect too. Are you due for a timing belt? Best to have all this work done at once. Perhaps water pump too depending on age / mileage. Commuter

I'm partial to Michelin tires myself. I wore out a set of X-Ones on my 97 OB. Put 160k km on them and still had some tread left. I'm seeing good reports on the new HydroEdge tires. I'm currently running Toyo 800 Ultras. Pretty good tire, a lot like the X-Ones, but I don't know if I'd buy them again. I've been constantly battling a very slight vibration issue with them. The ones I mention here are all long life tires (eg wear rating of 700). I go for these since I put on over 60k km a year. Commuter

Try this site. Look in the archives. It might have the info that you want. Commuter

1996 Outback? (Legacy I'm assuming.) That's the first year of the "new" look, right? So I don' t think anything older will fit. This model ran from 96 to 99. Headlights changed in 98 I think. I don't know if newer ones would fit, but they went from H4 bulbs to 9007 (?). Hoods should be fine. Even a Legacy wagon hood (sans scoop) would fit I suspect. Grill and bumper. Again, I don't know if a 98 or 99 is the same. I'm not aware of differences between 96 and 97, but, I'm no expert on these models either. Commuter