unverviking

Your instructions were very thorough... The only difference was that there are no "light bulb flaps" on this one. I looked at my 01 today, it too has the flaps that you mention. Thanks for the help...

That would be great... It's got a lot of guts for a small 1600. But with a 5 Speed it would be a lot better. I found when the carb got rebuilt that it's the hi performance ends of the stock PICT 30 and PICT 32. Not sure which is which (top or bottom) The intakes are polished and it has an electric fuel pump with an adjustable pressure regulator. I haven't had it dyno'd but it feels like a lot more than the 48 HP that was stock. Maybe the next one in 5 years of so...

I asked the dealer when I bought my 93 in 03, and they said that as long as the Air Bag light still came on while starting on the dash, all is still ok with the system. That's all they're looking for... Not sure if that's correct or not, but, that what the "Service Writer" told me...

Consider this job done... Very simple to do. Wonder why the previous owner didn't do it... Took about an hour... 30 Minutes to gab (coffee too) with Mom & Dad (Tore down my garage in the fall to make way for the new house and 4 car garage), 10 Minutes to shovel the side walk for Dad, 20 minutes to replace the latch. Oh Yeah and $15.26 for the handle at the local dealer. $14.09 + Uncle Sam and Gov. Pataki... Thanks to all BTW... Selling my 73 VW Super Beetle $4k obro. Pics @ http://www.bruisebug.com More to follow later this week (weather supposed to warm up)

on the 93, I have a set of Cooper Trendsetters... Good traction, got about 6k on them now. Been through Snow, Ice, Rain, Mud and more just today alone. They didn't miss a beat... on the 01, I have a set of Lee All Weather (made by Goodyear) drove it today as well, not a problem with them either. Based on my own personal experience, avoid Dunlop SP SportA2 and Uniroyal American Gold. Had bad times with both of these brands. This is just my 2 pennies... (ching, ching)

I have same thing on my 93 AWD Wagon. I replaced the rotors and pads in 10/03, but it wasn't till this summer that I noticed the noise. I pulled everything this fall and resprayed the back of the pads with more stop squeek stuff, and no change. The rotors looked great... I think that it's just the composition of the pads, etc. I used some semi-metallic's from Auto Zone. Nothing else I can think of...

My 01 OBW needs it's Valve Cover Gaskets replaced. I am pondering doing it myself, which would be the better gasket, the OEM, which only lasted 4 years and 72k or a set of Fel Pro gaskets ?? Thanks in advance to all who reply...

Thanks everyone. I found Commuter's original replacement instructions. Here they are copied and pasted from that thread. Commuter... Thanks to you too. Even though you haven't yet posted here...

4 thumbs up from a 2 Subaru family... Today is the 4 year anniversary of us taking delivery of our 01 OBW. Love it. Aside from the 3 recalls, 1 actually fixed a problem we reported (the ECM reflash, had hesitation on take off with A/C on) The only repair needed was the replacement of the alternator @ 60K. I screamed at the service mgr, he got SOA to cover 1/2. Which was cheaper than what I could get a reman alternator for, and do it myself. We've been religious about routine maintenance, and it seems to have paid off so far. We too were GM (family all retired from GM) and had way too many issues on all of them. I like the look of the Baja, wife doesn't... I wouldn't mind getting 1... maybe in 10 years... when I can afford a 2005... Keep me in mind when/if you buy and later on sell it...

Which JY would that be ??

Yup, got it done with a 60k service. Has almost 72k on it now. The 100k warranty was worth the effort of getting it done. Kinda seals (pun inteneded) the market for the Sube dealers and coolant flushes...

I've been using Napa "brand" oil for quite awhile... I was told long ago, from a very honest "old timer" behind the counter at my local (not corporate owned) Napa that Napa's oil was the best non-synthetic Valvoline oil. I too need to do oil changes in both my 01 & 93, I checked the oil the other day and both are still honey brown in color. Can't say that about Havoline... I used to run that before Napa, I always remember pitch black oil, even shortly after changing.

Howdy all, Happy New Year... On my 93 Leg Wagon, the liftgate release handle is all rusted out. I was shown by the previous owner that it needed to be pushed back down, so that it could be shut and then reopened later. I've been doing that since I got it (10/03) I noticed the other day that the hinge that the release bar from the inside has rusted through and it is wearing the other side. Can the handle be replaced without doing the entire liftgate. It looks like the lights for the license plate is a part of the handle as well. Anyone have any experience with doing this ?? Thanks in advance.

Took my 93 into the stealer for 1 of those freebee look overs... They found LOTS of things leaking, came back with $1100.00 to fix it all. Labor alone was over $900 and change. Here's the best part, I'm not losing any oil between changes. I check the oil at every gas up... Now I am starting to smell a little oil burn when I let it idle to warm up, but still no loss noted... If you're losing that much and only have 70K, I'd have it looked at... Still alot of life left in it...

They are quite insistant that they are the cheapest in the US. Won several supplier awards, etc... Guess that you can't always believe what they advertise... Enjoy your new Honda, Good friends of ours just got an Accord and an Acura TL 3.2, they love them both... My sister had her 96 Accord for 140k, with little issue...

My 93 Legacy Wagon has a seperate reservior in the rear also. It's on the driver's side, the filler is under the lift gate. The actual reservior takes up most of the cubby hole in the driver's side cargo area. My 01 has it in the front, so there is another cubby hole in the rear. The front reservoir has 2 stages, the rear has it's own pump and is set higher than the front's pump. That is so the front get's the last of the fluid... Also serves as a reminder that you are getting low... If the rear has no fluid, the front is soon to follow. The 01's reservoir was the first one I've ever had that took a full gallon when it was empty !!! Not sure about the 93...

Didn't think about Tire Pressure causing those kind of issues... I've now learned something as well.

Never noticed that at all. I've had the 01 loaded with 4 people, towing my pop up camper and loaded with all our gear. Not anything that I remember. I have had the 93 loaded with my father-in-law and I and a 500+ lbs set of cast iron table legs. Drove about 300 mile with all of that and no problems. BTW, my father-in-law is bigger than I am, and I'm 6'1", 250lbs... I would recommend going to a GOOD shop that does all wheel alignments. You may be out a little and not know it. By GOOD Shop, I would avoid the national chains... I've had good luck with a local independant HD Truck shop. They are always busy, and they fixed my uncle's 35ft class A motor home that he couldn't keep straight on the road... He was an over the road truck driver for several years, so he knew it was the "bus", not his driving...

I've heard from a couple of local independant shops that the current Kumho tires are very bad. The early and higher end Kumhos were ok. They reported several blow outs and poor workmanship. I bought some private labeled Uniroyal 70k tires, and was not impressed. Only got 39k out of them. 2 of the 4 had high spots on the outside. The shop got 2 for me, but were only able to get those, since they were discontinued. I took the 2 and gave them to my sister (ironically has the same size tires, different car) and bought 4, 40k tires. These Lee All Weather radials are not bad at all. Just got about 6 in of snow here... no complaints... Ride is quiet on dry roads too. We'll see how the longevity of these are compared to the 70k tires, paid about half as much. Lost the OEM Wilderness's to a knife to the sidewall @ 30k. They were pretty well gone too...

Nothing wrong with Rubber Timing Belts... I'd rather them over a chain. If the chain goes, it's (in my opinion) harder to replace than the belt. Most belts can run 100k miles without issue. I think that design of the motor has something to do with the difference between chain and belt... If I remember correctly, OHC (over head cam) has the belt driven timing and the OHV (over head valve) has the chain. The OHV has pushrods to actuate the valves. Much shorter distance on the chain (at least on the one's I've seen) than the belt's I've replaced. GM is not exempt from belts, I changed one on my wife's old Chevette. I wouldn't let these little thing stop you from buying Subaru. We were hardcore GM before our first (01 OBW) and the ride is far superior, not to mention the AWD. We've only had 2 issues in 72k and 4 years that needed dealer attention. 1 was a known problem that resulted in a reflash of the ECM, and the alternator bearing went after 60k. I complained about the alternator bearings and SOA covered 1/2 the cost. It was cheaper for me to have them do it than for me to do it alone. The reman alternator was close to $200. We paid $160 as our 1/2. We had to trade our 95 Corsica & 97 Cavalier because they were in the shop constantly, everything that could go wrong, did. We bought GM because my wife's entire family is all retired from there. Not any more. I won't even mention my Dodge experience... You think that Sube's have head gasket problems, you haven't owned a Chrysler product with their 2.2 4 banger in it...

Check www.vanbortelsubaru.com. I've heard of several folks flying into Rochester NY from Maine, etc and still saved $$$ from their local dealer. They've got pricing on their website. May also want to call the other 2 Rochester (Doyle & Piehler) area dealers, since they compete with Van Bortel all the time, they may be cheaper. The other 2 dealers sell other products as well, so Subaru's are not their only means of money making. It should only be a long weekend trip to get back from Rochester... You can stop into Nick Tahous and get a famous "Garbage Plate" for lunch, and stop by the Dinosaur BBQ for dinner... MMMMM, I'm hungry now...

I am surprised to hear that some folks got over 50k on their brake pads... Maybe they're driving a 5 Speed... In any event I got 23k out of my factory pads on my 01 OBW, with an Automatic. I replaced with NAPA's top of the line OE pads (at the time), not too bad, but after 17k, my buddy who works there had me turn them in for a trial of their new Ceramix pads. These are a harder pad than the OE and OEM pads. I have 72k on it now, so if my math is correct, that's 32k on these pads, and I have well over 50% left on them. If you're into doing it yourself, I would at the very least price them out as an option. I haven't had any growling, squeeking like I get from time to time on my 93. I used some cheap Auto Zone Semi-Metallics on it. As far as tools, If I remember correctly, it should be 14mm bolts on the caliper. There are 2 bolts on it, not like my 93, only 1 and the other is a built in pin, you have to turn up and pull back to get the caliper out. I've been using a synthetic lubricant on the pins, etc. Can't remember the exact name, but it is made specifically for brake hardware. I was told some Never Seize lubricants can swell the rubber gaskets, and cause trouble down the road. This synthetic stuff won't, haven't had any problems with it yet...

I would spend the $$ to get them rotated correctly and balanced. It really makes a difference. I know from my experience that these AWD cars are rough on tires, and they need to be rotated frequently in order to not get chopped. I try to rotate (criss-cross) every 4500 to 5000 miles. I bought a set of 80k tires, thinking I would get at least 60k out of them and only got 40k before they needed replacement. I talked to a Sube Mechanic and he recommended not to spend the extra $$ on the "high" mileage tires because they rarely last 40k with AWD. Either they wear funny, due to mfr defect, get sliced, or damaged by a road hazzard that make it beyond repair. Since the AWD requires 4 equal, or as close as possible, tires, if one needs replacement, you should (need to) replace all 4. The noise you describe sounds like something mechanical, not the tires. If it were the tires, it would be all the time. Just turn up the radio until the noise goes away... (hahaha ...) Just my 2 pennies worth, Merry X-Mas all.

Where are the fuel filter(s) located? Thanks everyone. Jim Jim, The Fuel Filter is located on the inside of the driver's side strut tower, under the hood. It has a couple of rubber hoses attached to it from the top. 1 of which goes to the intake area. On my 93, it is black (fairly large) cylinder shaped. It is held to the tower with a spring style clamp. Looks fairly easy to swap out, providing that the hoses slip off easily. Seeing that you are in Maine, I would get it in from the cold for a little while, so that the hoses can at least warm up to be somewhat pliable. Wouldn't want to snap a hose due to the cold. Good Luck, Happy Holidays Mark U

I have the same car. 93 Legacy Wagon, AWD, 5 Speed, with now 200k on it. My last tank I got 22 MPG, about 240 Miles to the tank (City, plus first real cold and a lot of idling). During the summer, I took a 500 + mile trip in 9 hours. I averaged 30 MPG, that with a 500 LBs of cargo plus my father-in-law, and myself. I weigh 250, and I know my father-in-law is bigger than I am. I went about 285-300 miles on fillups, but only filled about 3/4th's a tank when I filled up (started with only a 1/2 tank). This was in August, with the A/C blowing ICE cold on MAX. I can't complain about that... I changed the Spark Plugs in June, I put in standard old NGK's. No wires. I bought the car with 190k on it from a family friend, he claimed 27 MPG, he drove it mostly highway to work. He sold it cuz ne wanted BETTER mileage than that. He bought a Jetta TDI, claims 49 MPG with it. I would look at your plugs, wires, air filter, possibly fuel filter. If you're not already using it, try 5w30 oil. That's all I've ever done to get back some gas mileage. Always seemed to work for me... Happy Holidays, hope that this helps...