jeryst

1998 Legacy Outback Wagon 2.5 Auto My car started to develop a severe miss or stumble whenever I pull out from a stop. It is so bad it feels like it is going to stall. Then it clears up and runs fine. I also notice it when I am cruising along, barely giving it any throttle, and then try to accelerate. Or if the car tries to downshift when I am barely giving it any throttle. At high speed it runs fine and I dont notice it at all. Its only in a very narrow area right above idle. The check engine light came on, and the only code it was showing was a musfire on cylinder 3, so I had the coil pack replaced. The check engine light went out, but the miss is still there. I also tried several bottles of fuel system cleaners when this all started, without any effect. What would cause this behavior? My mechanic wants to replace plugs and wires as the next step, but I'm thinking it is some type of fuel or sensor problem.

Its a 1989 XT6. Here is what he told me: "The previous owner hooked the battery up backwards. The only thing that wasn't working was the fuel pump.(He wired it to a switch) Then the car would only turn on when it felt like it. It would recognize the key in the ignition, but wouldn't turn anything on, including any of the accessories. I tried a new ignition switch, but that didn't change anything."

I feel your pain. I live in a small rural town in PA and my 97 Impreza Outback Sport was stolen a couple years ago from right beside my house. Two weeks later, the State Police found it saddlebagged in a field about 10 miles away. Apparently the crooks were going to take it boonie riding but didnt realize that there were some logs buried in the deep grass and the car got stuck. They took all of my stuff, and ripped out my console to get the aftermarket stereo, but other than that, some minor damage to the exhaust, and a few small dings, everything was fine. I got the car back, replaced the radio, fixed the exhaust, and continued driving it. I would like to have five minutes in a locked room with each of the perp(s). Lets hope you are as lucky and they find it undamaged.

I'm looking for a project and I have the chance to buy an older Subie at a fair price. Of course it needs body work and some other things, but the main problem is that the battery was hooked up backwards and now it wont run. Does anyone have an idea what damage this may have done? Like would it be a fuse or a fusable link, or would it be a lot more serious, like a computer module, wiring, etc. I cant believe that Subaru wouldnt have built something in to prevent damage from something like this since it could easily happen.

I am getting rid of my car and I thought I would list it here to see if anyone is interested. 226k highway miles but always maintained. This was my daily work vehicle, (170 miles a day) however it started making a knocking noise so I bought another car to use for work. It sounds like a rod is knocking. It has new brakes, good tires, and had a complete timing component kit replacement (belts, tensioners, water pump, etc) about 10k miles ago. The car is in pretty decent shape and is inspected until 02/2019. It's perfectly driveable, but the knocking is pretty loud and I dont want to do any more damage so I just parked it and decided to put it up for sale if anyone is interested in buying it for parts or wanted to throw another engine in it. Has European headlights with glow rings, and a front end bra. The other things wrong with it are as follows: Leaks oil, hood release cable just broke, stereo was stolen. I'm in western/central Pa, and I'm asking $500, which is bottom line.

Update: Replaced the PCV and it didn't make any difference.

Seems like it would not be a good idea. I dont mind repairs, but not being able to find parts is not something I want to get into. Thanks for all the feedback, guys.

How does the SVX compare to the XT? I drove one of those for several years as a daily driver.

I travel 150 miles a day round trip for work, so what I usually do is buy cheap lower mileage Subaru for $1k-$2k, drive it for a couple years, then get another one. It has worked out pretty well for me for quite a few years, especially in these snowy Pennsylvania winters. I've notice quite a few SVX's that are now in the $2k price range, and since I always wanted one, I figure now would be the time to start looking. So I was wondering if any of you with SVX experience could share your thoughts on the car, what goes wrong, what isnt worth fixing, what to look for, etc.

Thanks for all the help. I got two beautiful 97 doors at the recycling yard for $100 total. Now I have extra everything. I will be putting them on within the next week or two depending on the weather, and I will leave an update. It sounds like all I have to do is take off the old ones, bolt on the new ones and plug in the harness, and hopefully everything will work.

So if I put the door on and plug in the connector, what will work and what wont?

I hava a 98 Legacy Outback station wagon. I found a 1997 in a salvage yard that I would like to take the doors from. I am assuming they are identical, but I just want to make sure because I dont want to buy them and then find out that some change will stop me from just swapping them out on my car, since they are not returnable.

I'm still confused about the oil pan issue. My new PCV just arrived, so I will be installing it to see if it makes a difference. I'm pretty confident that oil consumption jumped after the new pan was installed. I believe it was made by Spectre, or something like that. Does anyone have pictures that show the difference between a stock Subaru pan and an aftermarket in the area that might cause the problem?

Sorry, I ordered one before I saw your post. Thank you for the offer, though.

So do the aftermarket pans just not have a place for the seal? Sorry, but I'm a little confused about the pan issue.

Is there a good aftermarket replacement PCV other than an actua Subaru part?

Could it be the oil pan itself? I had the oil pan replaced when I got the car because it was "weeping". The replacement was aftermarket, not Subaru. The oil consumption may have increased after that, come to think of it.

I've had cars with worn rings and cracked rings and they always smoked a lot, so I guess it just seems strange to me that there is no smoking with this amount of oil consumption. But I guess it has to be burning if its not leaking.

I am currently using 10w-30. I still dont understand why I cant see smoking or leaking.

1998 Legacy Outback Station Wagon. 2.5 motor. 127k miles. I bought the car back in January, and it runs great. I put new spark plugs and wires on it. It had new timing belts put on right before I bought it. The people that I bought it from only used it as a back up vehicle, so they didnt drive it a lot. When I first got the car, it was using about a quart of oil every 500 miles or so, which I didnt think was too bad for a 20 year old car. Recentlt, however, the oil consumption has increased to a quart every 300 miles. I have parked the car on clean pavement, and let it sit, both running and not running, but have not seen any signs of a leak. No smoke is visible coming from the tail pipe when idling or while driving. There is no oil in the coolant system. You would think that if the car was burning a quart of oil every 300 miles, smoke would literally be billowing from the tail pipe as I drive. I've had cars with cracked rings that looked like I was crop dusting, and they didnt use a quart every 300 miles. So my question is: Where is the oil going? Could it be burning the oil so completely that it is not visible?

The only advantage to the smaller cars was gas mileage as they always seemed to get at least 5 miles per gallon more compared to the full wagons. I also liked the push button 4WD with hi/lo as it was much better in deep snow than the fulltime AWD setup.

My last 3 Subies were ( most recent last): 1990 Loyale Turbo Wagon 1.8 noninterfearance 1997 Impreza Outback Sport 2.2 interfearance 1998 Legacy Outback Wagon 2.5 DOHC interfearance All cars before that were older noninterfearance motors. I commute a long distance back and forth to work every day, so I just buy old junkers for cheap and run them till they die or rust apart. And I have owned a lot of them. The only new Subaru I ever owned was a 1976 wagon. After that I promised Subaru I would never but another new car from them because of the way they treated me (long story), and I never have. I always bought used ones so that Subaru would never again get any of my money. Here are my opinions. 01.There is a certain amount of anxiety with the interfearance engines that is not there with the noninterfearance engines. On a NI engine, if a belt breaks, no big deal. You get towed, get the belts replaced, and you are good to go. But on an I engine, if you let it go too long, or you have a premature belt failure, you can be faced with high repair costs or a worthless vehicle. 02. The 2.5 DOHC motor in my 98 Legacy is so much smoother that the SOHC motors in the other cars I have owned. It is a real pleasure to drive. Unfortunately, everyone tells me that chances are very high that I will have a head gasket failure by the time I get 150k miles on the car. I have 130k on it now, so I will just have to wait and see. 03. All of the cars I owned previously rusted away to the point of being unsafe before the motors developed serious issues. They were all NI engines.

I've been following this issue with a high degree of interest. I dont know anything about turbos, but the whole thing is very interesting. The facts are that two bargain turbos failed almost immediately, while an OE unit is working fine. On one side, you have an experienced builder saying that the bargain turbos are junk. The evidence points to that, and I have no reason at all to doubt his expert opinion. But, if the first shop is consistantly installing junk units that have a high failure rate, wouldnt he have a bad reputation by now? Surely if that were the case, either you would have heard about it before you went to him, or he would be out of bysiness by now. He returned your money, which indicates that he is somewhat of an honest person that could not continue to stay in business by doing this on a regular basis. As usual, I suspect that the real answer lies somewhere in between. Perhaps some small extra thing you did before you installed the OE turbo was the key to the whole thing. I dont know. I'm just making an observation.

You can buy mechanical temp guages on ebay that measure the temperature of the block instead of the coolant. You may want to get one of those to get true readings while you operate the vehicle with and without a thermostat. Since you believe the current sensors and guage may not be correct, this is probably the best way to monitor the temperature under various conditions. Engine blocks and upper radiator hoses get extremely hot under normal conditions, so basing your observations on that or on particular smells may not be accurate.

Thanks for the information. I looked on ebay and there are original Subaru fobs that all seem worn and beat up, and new aftermarket fobs. Anyone ever used the aftermarket fobs? Also, the original fobs only have two buttons while the aftermarket ones have four buttons. I know that the trunk/hatch button probably wont work, but I was wondering if the panic button would work?