AdventureSubaru

timing belt should have been done at 100-110k. And will be due again at about 180k. Listen for growling trans, feel for torque bind, clutch slippage etc. If well maintained, 160k is still a baby. Lots and lots of mileage left. Thats a good price for a good looking car. if it checks out and doesn't need much, I would not hesitate. in fact, I'd jump all over it before someone else grabs it. Mostly a test drive will tell you what you need to know. Smooth acceleration, shift well, smooth idle, seems well maintained etc.

x3 to start with fresh fluid. If it's dirty, this can only help. 3 drain and fills with some driving in between each gets you almost 100% new fluid. And clarify "launches" - is this under normal acceleration? Or if you're thrashing this car you're just asking for problems to get worse. My wife's old 2000 Outback with 350,000 miles would tend to thud and jump a bit in snowy or slippery roads. Seems they often thud around a bit when they lose traction. See where you're at with new fluids.

wrecking yards will give you about $300. You'll do better here or craigslist. I'd be interested if I still lived on the east coast. But there are always folks like me who enjoy fixing them up and keeping them driving for years more.

As durable a motor as you can get in the 2000+ years. They make great power. From what I gather, they are more reliable than their EJ25 counterparts from 2000-2006 and probably beyond, but maintenance and repair on them is more complex, tight and expensive. So there's some give and take. Personally, I would not hesitate to buy/drive one. We had an 06 LL Bean with the EZ30 for a year before we got my wifes 2011

Read through my prior posts where I detail the differences. Hands down a used EJ22 would last far longer than rebuilding your Ej25. I have replaced 100,000 mile EJ25s with 260,000 mile EJ22s knowing full well that the car would be much longer lasting. Any 1990-1998 EJ22 can be installed but a 1995 that came out of a legacy or impreza with an automatic transmission will be the easiest by far.

last I checked a whole EJ22 motor cost about the same as the gaskets etc. + head resurfacing and all for a EJ25 in my area anyway. End result is so much more reliable. Plus you can usually get $100-$200 for the old EJ25 as a builder or parts for someone else.

Sounds like head gaskets as mentioned. Confirm it with the bubbles in the overflow. If so, best thing you can ever do for this car is find a 1995 EJ22 motor from a legacy or Impreza with an automatic transmission and swap it in. you will lose just a little horsepower but gain the following. Head gasket issues almost non existent on 90s EJ22s unless overheated or badly neglected. Even so, swapping them is cheap and easy. Good used EJ22 motors run as cheap as $100. but ballpark $300-$500 to find a good runner. 95 motor will be non interference. You can also use 96-98 motors if you get the y pipe from the original car. Takes about a day to do the swap your first time. I've done them in as little as 5 hours. Lots of writeups on here but far superior motor for durability and longevity.

Yeah. Start with the basics. Check codes. 02 sensors and knock sensors etc. can cause the car to go buggy. mass air flow as well (Or MAP) in the case of the newer cars. You can pull the exhaust/cats off and drive it (loudly) if you suspect blocked cat or kinked exhaust. If the problem goes away, you found your issue. Cheap fuel pump motors are about $15 on ebay. Don't expect it to last as long as OEM but if it comes to trying the fuel pump it will at least be functional.

Also - don't let the guy who "banged on the engine" and "pulled the spark plugs and put them back in" ever touch the car again. Was he drunk? That's not how to diagnose a no start.

If it's not cranking then it has nothing to do with spark or fuel etc. It doesn't have a carburetor either. It's a fuel injected vehicle. Don't just start throwing things at a problem you don't understand. You'll cause other issues. The issue is battery or starter related or somewhere in between. Confirm that the battery is good and that the terminals are clean and tight. Even so, try moving them and re tighten to see if the connection is bad. try giving the starter a few hard hits and see if that changes anything. If not, pull and have the starter bench tested. 14mm on top and 17mm on bottom usually. Check contacts etc on it as these commonly corrode and can often be cleaned up or replaced. Check your fusible links in the fuse box under the hood. Lastly would be the battery cables themselves. They can be tested by carefully running a jumper cable from the battery terminal to ground for negative or positive terminal to starter for positive. be sure to attach to starter first and be sure nothing grounds it before attaching to positive terminal and see if it cranks then,

Both those transmissions appear to be a 4.11 final drive so swap away. General rule with rare exceptions is Legacy Outback, Legacy GT and Impreza RS - 4.44 Legacy (Non outback or GT) and Impreza (Not RS) - 4.11 Or if it came stock with a 2.5 it's 4.44. If it came stock with a 2.2 or 1.8 it's a 4.11

just pull the speed sensor from the impreza and thread it onto the legacy trans. Should be a 17mm wrench

95 and 96 with 2.2 are the ideal years to own. OBDII, non interference. Compatible with most stuff from 1990-1999. Can be fed junkyard parts at low cost for decades and hundreds of thousands of miles.

Another great season! Hope you all have a great day and get some quality time with family this holiday season. Love on your families and have a great one!

What rights are you referring to? Your own source for texas laws states that AS IS means as is. And what law requires dealers to price their vehicles based on blue book generalizations over what a specific car is or is not? I sold my wifes 2006 LL Bean for $2500 over what KBB quoted the value at. Both because I had done a lot of engine work, it was a rare style and exceptional car, and I'm in bay area california where all prices are over inflated. I also am currently selling a 96 outback for $800 less than blue book says it's worth because the main shaft bearing is allowing play in the trans and it will need some work to correct it to make it a long term runner. KBB is a nice resource for a ballpark estimate. It is not anything that can be kept as a standard. Especially in the legal sense. Buyer has already explained HE was in the rush, and HE assumed the noise was the brakes. No misrepresentation given. No duress.

This would be 100% a waste of time. You're trying to stretch those laws to places they do not apply. None of us are entitled to maintenance free 10 year old cars. AS-IS means what it means and does not mean what it doesn't mean. Contracts signed when buying cars from dealers are legal documents. You don't sign for an as-is sale and change the rules as soon as your car needs maintenance. The phrase "buyer beware" exists for a very good reason. Consumers need to be responsible with their money or deal with the consequences of irresponsibility. It's not up to businesses to coddle us and double and triple check with us that we're making an AS-IS purchase. Or to make AS-IS contracts actually mean that they will fix whatever upsets us.

Well, I'm guessing your signature is on it somewhere. They can sell it for whatever price someone is willing to pay for it. Supply and demand.

Financing is another trap people fall into. I saw people take out 10 year loans on cars already 10 years old. They'll be paying almost double what the car was worth by the time it's either crushed and made into Kias or is still just an older DD or beater at best. But, nothing that says you can only pay the minimum. Principle is the same for mortgages, credit card debt, student loans and car loans. The faster you can pay it down, the more you save. Study finite mathematics and you can write out compounding interest as well as payment plans. It's crazy how much over sticker price folks pay on long term mortgages. SO much better to go cash only and save money in the long run. On this car though, a bearing job will sideline you til you can fix it. But your looking a couple hundred, not thousand dollars. To be expected sometimes on a 10 year old car. And blue book is a good ballpark but not any sort of rule. In rust free areas like texas and california, things tend to go higher. Nicer cars command high prices. You said you were impressed with the motor on this one. Likely the dealership knew it too and knew it would drive the value up over other cars. Fix it. Drive it. love it. Learn a lesson from the surprise so you don't repeat it next time. And pay off the car ASAP. Tax returns are often a great way to pay down principle on debt and save you so much more over time.

And politely, respectfully, ignorance is no excuse. Cars are big investments and we depend on them for a lot. Bearings are not a real big deal in the long run, but it could be a $3000 engine or transmission next time. Take this as a good lesson to learn for next time. Every goof and failure in life is an opportunity to grow and become smarter and more mature. "School of hard knocks" is not easy, but boy it teaches us quick.

"AS IS" -- the vehicle does not have a warranty and the seller is under no obligation for repairs" Quote from that source. It is still worth a phone call. They already said they may install them for you. Reputation is important and they may very well do it to help satisfy a customer and stand behind their cars and reputation. But they are under no obligation to do so. It's just whether they're nice guys and want to go above and beyond to serve their customers. (Plenty of businesses thrive from giving excellent customer service.) And even if they don't, it's not cause they're scumbags. You yourself said that you assumed (Mistake) that it was brakes.

Bad business practice yes. A lot of dealerships as mentioned at least give 30 days and plenty will offer some sort of warranty. But, there is also AS-IS sales. Consumers need to know the difference and realize that without a written agreement or warranty it is truly "buyer beware" At this point buying from a dealer is no better or worse than buying off craigslist or auction. You can save $$$ on the sticker price but there's no guarantees and scumbags exist who will try and pass off bad vehicles. Used to work for a very reputable used car business in Pennsylvania. We had a retail lot with lots of nice cars that came with financing options, warranty etc. These cars were thoroughly inspected by a mechanic and were top notch. We also had a wholesale lot which I managed which contained cars that were "AS-IS" the same mechanic inspected them and gave a report so we sold them with full disclosure, no financing and no warranty. We disclosed everything we know on the car and sold them way below retail but were able to make more off of them than we would have at auction. For 95% of folks this was a great arrangement in which they could make an educated decision and save some $$$. There was still that 5% who never paid attention to the AS-IS / Wholesale part and we'd get phone calls months and sometimes years later about every little issue that may arise. One was furious with a $1800 impreza that would leave a couple dime size oil spots whenever we parked his car. Of course I was polite and professional but I'm thinking "Fantastic? Lots of them leave puddles" Even with full disclosure (In writing. We gave them a copy of the mechanics inspection) we could only please so many people. And if we wanted to be sneaky, we surely could have made more $$$ in the short term. But the reputation of the business was more important. But there is NO buyer protection in these circumstances. Nor should there be. Adults buy cars. They're mature enough to know how to research and inspect a car, or pay someone if they are ignorant to automobiles. But the school of hard knocks is open in auto buying and those who ignore inspection and research often learn this quite well and will keep their eyes wide open next time. As has been mentioned before on this board - if you want a car without issue that wont ever surprise you, buy a new car and pony up the $$$. Saving money requires some risks.

I've wondered about this. Are you saying you've used the composite style gaskets (From 90-98 SOHC EJ22) on the DOHC 2.5 motors? Is there cutting involved? Thought about it a few times since the 2.2 heads can go on the 2.5 block and the MLS gaskets are such trouble in those years. Why not put that more forgiving a squishy gasket in there.

If there is play, you're eating the tires on every drive. Bearings aren't likely to cause you a crash, but will accelerate lots of other issues. if tires wear enough, you'll start getting torque bind in your drivetrain and may be sacrificing your transmission and differential. On the cheap, you can probably get a used pair of rear spindles from a junkyard and swap them in. Takes about an hour per side and wont require much more than a good socket set and a socket for the axle nuts. But I'd at least stop by and tell them what's going on. If there's no warranty they are under no obligation to do anything. (As is sales put the responsibility of knowing the car on the buyers shoulders) But considering it's only been a couple weeks, they may value your business and satisfaction enough to help out - even partially. All they can do is say no, which puts you no worse off. Most of us can talk you through swapping a rear spindle. It's a few steps past a brake job. If you've worked on cars, it's not a big job. You can do it the driveway.

Start with the basics. I'd do the 3 time drain/fill method to make sure you have the correct and fresh fluid in there. See if the problem persists. Some additives/cocktails out there are good for cleaning / smoothing things out if fluid alone doesn't cure it. 104 is still early for these transmissions.

To maximize tire size, the trailing arm brackets are necessary. The rear swaybar will reattach just fine. The front you'll need longer endlinks depending on driving style. I left my swaybar disconnected in the front since I do not go fast or aggressive.