lsr3177

It has been a while since I have visited the forum. I had gotten rid of my '98 Outback after the Head gasket problems. Now my wife is ready to give up her '97 Legacy wagon for a new car. She is interested in a new '07 basic Outback. But I still am worried about the Head gaskets. What is the consensus regarding the possibility that Subaru has solved the head gasket problem over the long term? thanks Dean

a year ago January my dealer charged me $2500.00, which included a loaner car for a month. Included sending out to a machine shop to check for warped heads. This was on a '98 outback.

108,000 miles on the brakes on my '98 outback and still doing great. But then again I am an old f**rt. Although head gaskets at 94,000. In fact today just for fun, I test drove a Hyundai Santa Fe with the 3.5 liter. Then I went over to Toyota and drove a new RAV4. Interesting, the RAV4 did handle very sporty and nimble. Drove on some real twisties and up and down the aisles in a park parking lot. Then some gravel on the level and on very steep hills and in a grassy constuction site etc. Great traction with their anti skid with traction control. Very inpressive and the young sales person was along. But like I told him, with all that traction it takes the fun out of trying to power slide. Maybe, I should go back to a rear wheel drive as I enter my second childhood for the second time. But my outback drove very well in comparison though.

They were a dealer add on for my '98. Service dept said they no longer install them. I was told that it was common for people to grab hold of them when exiting the vehicle and ripping them loose or breaking them. Then expected warranty replacement. Mine have been on since '98 without problems. dean

WAGONSONLY: My maintenance schedule states that my '98 2.5L's timing belt needs to be changed at 105k miles!

I just looked up Consumer Reports test of the mid line all season tires. The BF Goodrich Control T/A M65 tested as a better traction tire for snow, ice and wet roads. I think I would like to try that tire next if it is still in production.

I have run Toyo tires on my vehicles off and on for the last 14 yrs. Their top of the line has always been a high mileage tire. Their "open country" truck tire only lasted about 45 to 50k miles but was a better traction tire. I currently have a set of Toyo 800 ultra's on my '98 outback and have 6ok miles on them. Yesterday I had the tire dealer check tread depth and was told they still have 75 percent left. When they were new a few yrs ago I was caught in a Blizzard in Montana and North Dakota. The roads were closed and unplowed and they handled the snow well. Consumer Reports rate them as a good all around tire. There are better handling tires in the various categories such as; snow, ice, rain, cornering dry and wet etc. I put a set of 800 ultra's on my 4x4 pickup 6 or 7yrs ago when they first came out and they did just fine. Of course for serious winter driving, nothing beats the new dedicated ice and snow tires for traction.

My wife has a '97 legacy L wagon with the 2.2 liter. She purchased it used a few years ago and is happy with it. No problems with it at 88,000 miles currently. I enjoy driving it as well. It handles differently than my '98 Outback. She does enjoy the little bit of extra power of the Outback when the need arises. She does have automatic in her legacy also. She got tired of the weak performance of our old Nissan 4x4 pickup. So at 248,000 miles she gave it up. That old truck never did burn oil and probably will run for a long time yet.

I hope you are right in that hd gaskets are not a wide spread problem and just a few of us making noise. Subaru of America agrees with you. Although, when I picked up my new headgasketed '98 Outback at the dealer. the Service Manager said there were now 3 more sitting in the lot waiting for new headgaskets. He also said it wasn't a big deal. He had worked at the Toyota and Honda dealerships and they also had head gaskets go bad. He said at least I didn't need a new tranny or engine.

At 90k miles I had the dealer change timing belt and perform the maintenance schedule. Then at 94,000 miles the head gasket failed. I always have wondered if there was a connection. Other than the head gasket my '98 Outback is great. But the timing belt and other service was $1100 and the head gasket was $2500. I always had regularly scheduled maintenance performed by the dealer also. So it probably cost over $4000 to get past the 100k mile mark. Right now I have 103k miles and it drives like a champ. In august I test drove a legacy LE and a Forester. They were both '03's with automatic and the legacy seemed a lot slower 0-30 and still seemed slower than my '98 throughout the range to 70mph. The Forester was better, probably because it is lighter?

I agree with Ranger83. the saab 96's were quite unique. Four speed on the column, free wheeling drive and interesting handling. They were a lot of fun. I purchased a 1967 used in '98 and a slightly used 1971 in '72. Both had the german ford V-4 engines. The '71 ran until the middle '80's without engine work and at 165,000 miles wasn't burning oil. It just rusted away and was sold to a college student for $300. It always started in the cold MN winters and handled the snow quite well.

I paid $2500.00 at a dealer in Jan '03 just for head gaskets and sending the heads out to check for warpage. No valves ect. This was in western Wa.

I can't imagine a 3rd party that would open themselves to a lawsuit by a large corporation like Subaru, by publicly proving a design flaw. Unless it was a government agency, and they are only concerned with safety issues. There are numerous auto companies that have many reliability issues. People still keep purchasing the product for various reasons. Yet those companies still keep producing problem vehicles. A few years ago Consumer Reports labeled a vehicle a roll-over hazard under certain circumstances and was the object of expensive lawsuits. That was just for a potential safety problem.

Flo4Legacy: What type of solid facts do you feel are needed?