v8volvo

Got a '97 Outback wagon with the Stage I EJ25 and a 5-speed. Got it with 33k miles, since about 40k has had a bad chirp from the clutch release bearing when my foot is off the clutch pedal (PO must have been a pedal rider). Hasn't gotten much worse, so I've just figured I'd wait until the clutch burned out and replace everything at once. Well...2 years and 26k miles later, still driving, still waiting, and that clutch is still mostly solid. I have tried to beat it up a little bit, but I am so used to driving clutch-friendly that I usually forget and go real easy on it like usual. It has started to chatter some on cold mornings, and if I bang off hard, super-fast shifts like I'm driving the Formula 1, it doesn't engage as fiercely as it used to (kind of like a smooth automatic upshift, slurs a little bit), but once it is in gear, no slippage at all. No idea how it was treated by the PO. How long do your clutches usually last? My boss has a '93 Turbo sedan that he has used for autoX and rallying, and beat up quite a bit, and it has 125k on the original clutch with no problems at all. What is the norm for clutch life around here? Thanks, George

I'm working on a Subie that is not my own (actually, quite a pleasant and rare beast, a '95 Legacy LSi wagon). It has the EJ22 and 4EAT automatic tranny and AWD. One time it threw an ECT (engine coolant temp) sensor code. We cleared it and it has not recurred but we have a new sensor to install just to be sure there is no trouble. Problem is, it looks like an impossible job! As far as I can tell, this sensor resides in a coolant pipe that runs from the front of the engine (where the upper radiator hose attaches) to the back, via a route right under the intake manifold. This sensor seems to be situated in the side of the aluminum pipe, approximately under the idle air control valve (to the left of and below the throttle body). As far as I can tell, the only way to do the job cleanly and properly would be to remove the intake manifold. Anyone have any ideas, a better way to do it, cautions, advice? I'd appreciate any help! If it is more than a few hours of work I think we'll forget about it and leave well enough alone, but if it is not too hard we'd just as soon throw it in, since we do already have it. Thanks in advance!

You don't want to hear this...but if it was overheated badly enough, it could also be terminally damaged head gaskets and or cracked/warped heads and block, which would cause chronic overheating and many other problems. Try the other stuff first though.

242k?!? Are you still on your original 2.5L headgaskets? Or did you swap to 2.2L?

Yeah hitting the accelerator works when going uphill, but cruising down it really gets pretty hairy...accelerating hard down snow-covered hills with big trees nearby at about 25mph makes me uncomfortable. Much nicer and safer to take it slow and sideways. All the brake needs is a quick jerk with a steering twitch to get things sliding, then you just steer and let the brake go. OK, sounds like I should be fine really. It doesn't bind up around town and my traction remains good in the snow so I'll just be sure to not do it in the future, and stop worrying about it. Thanks!

We all know how much fun our Subies are in the snow. I had ours on some fun snow-covered dirt tracks up in the North Cascades last month and enjoyed getting a little sideways. My tool of choice was the accelerator going up, and, even more effective, the handbrake going down. It was not until I got back to town and was for some reason thinking about the Subaru AWD system that it hit me that locking the rear wheels with the handbrake while the fronts were still turning might have been very, very bad for the drivetrain. I have the 5-speed version, which means a viscous coupling. How much damage, if any, might I have done to the coupling by putting so much frictional stress on it in this way? What will happen if it goes out? Will I just have front-drive? I'm worried! Thanks in advance for any replies.

I'm coming up on the 60k mile service with our 1997 Subaru Legacy Outback wagon (5-speed). The maintenance schedule says it's time for air and fuel filters, coolant change (done with water pump and timing belt at 51k), brake fluid change, and spark plugs. I'm gonna wait on the brake fluid until I do brake pads in a couple years, since it is nice and clean and golden now. I'll do the filters, obviously. Regarding the spark plugs, what is the consensus on the best type for the Stage I 2.5L twincam motor? I believe it has the stock NGK plugs in it now. No complaints, though it is certainly time for new ones. The NGK plugs are extremely expensive, more than $10 each. Are there less-expensive alternatives that will do the job? Maybe Bosch platinum plugs, or Platinum +4s? I wouldn't put Champions or Autolites in this fine foreign machine, but $50 for a set of 4 spark plugs is ridiculous. Anything else you guys suggest I look at or perform at this maintenance milestone? I'm planning to check the ECU for codes (don't like the high cold idle, it's too high, over 2000 rpm), and just in case, I will check for HC at the coolant overflow tank because I want to know when those headgaskets are gonna blow. Any other suggestions, let me know. Thanks in advance!

The engine idles very smoothly at about 750 rpm when warm, so I guess I won't worry about it as long as it still starts quickly, which it does. It sounds like I can wait on the bearing, but are you saying that it will wear into the release fork too? I am expecting to replace the pressure plate, as I'm sure the diaphragm fingers will be heavily worn by that bad bearing. It does shudder a bit when cold at times too, so a machined flywheel and a new pressure plate are likely anyway. It seems there's about a 20% failure rate on those gaskets, which is ludicrous, and to me it looks like recurrence is more common than not. When the time comes I will do the job myself with the highest-quality components, but I see a whole lot of discussion of this problem here on this board, and it looks like people have not had the best luck just replacing gaskets. They blow again and the engine is never the same afterwards. This is in contrast to VW diesels, on which head gasket failure is a fact of life, but replacing the gasket takes only a couple hours and few special tools and the engine is not terminally harmed. I read Subaru has designed 6 editions of that headgasket; maybe if the latest one really does work I'll go that road. It seems the only thing we can do is make sure we don't cook it too hard when the gaskets go so that the heads don't get cracked or warped. It doesn't look like it makes a difference if you drive easy or beat the crap out of it like we do, as they seem to blow even on cars with only easy highway miles driven conservatively. Man, I am not happy about this. If the engine does not look nice when I tear it down I'm gonna install a 2.2, especially if they can go 480,000 km. :cool:

OK, I'm a new member here. Looks like there's a huge amount of knowledge and experience available, which is great. Hopefully I'll be able to give back at some point. We have had our 1997 Subaru Legacy Outback wagon for a little over two years. It has the EJ25 motor and a 5-speed trans; we bought it with only 33k on it, and now it has 58k. It has been a terrific car so far, extremely fast and fun to drive, not too good on gas but OK, very reliable except for eating two alternators and a battery, and incredible in snow. We use it for 6-hour winter trips to the North Cascades, fully loaded with 5 people, two dogs, skis, and tons of food and luggage. Works great, though you need to rev the balls off it when climbing passes if you want to even maintain speed. It's good I found this board now, because we're just starting to have some concerns about the car. First, for the past year or so there has been some noise from the throw-out bearing (or clutch release bearing). It sort of chirps with the clutch engaged. I guess the PO must have ridden the clutch when driving. It hasn't gotten audibly worse in the past year, and since this is the original clutch we've planned to just replace it when the clutch goes. But the clutch is lasting a long time (even at 58k it never slips and can hook up powerfully even at a full-throttle, heavily loaded 3-4 shift climbing Blewitt pass), and I'm worried about that bearing. We don't want it to fail on the road. Should I tear it apart and do the clutch now? Is there a way to tell it's really dying? I figured if it got a whole lot of friction in it it would bog the engine down or make a scraping noise when I depressed the clutch, which it does not do yet. Second, I'm not sure the idle controller is so good. It has always idled at about 1500 rpm when cold, but lately it has acted strangely. When first started it idles at 1500, but when you drive away, dragging the engine down with the clutch, it changes. It's like it's trying to compensate, and kicks up the idle a bunch. I drive to a stoplight about 5 residential blocks from the house on the way to work, and when I put it in neutral at the light it is idling at about 2200 rpm, which I think is excessive. This is even more pronounced when I drive away without using the accelerator, which I sometimes do when it is unusually cold and I don't want to rev the engine much (the 1500 rpm idle is more than enough to accelerate to 20 mph if you're good with the clutch and shifter). Third, I've just become aware of this horrendous head gasket issue with the 2.5L motors. Our engine has been teriffic, only just starting to burn some oil, perfect emissions, OK mileage, and still doesn't mind going over 6200 rpm. Sounds pretty too. However, ours still is at low miles, and I'd like to do whatever I can to prolong that inevitable 2.2 swap, which will lose us a lot of badly-needed power. I will check for HC at the coolant tank, but is there anything else that can be done other than not overheating it? We replaced the water pump recently with the timing belt as preventative maintenance, and it has fresh coolant in it. I know the intelligent thing to do would be to sell it now with low miles and no problems, but we have relatives with a '98 OBW they've taken cross-country three times, and have over 120k on it with no problems. Plus we like the car too much to get rid of it now. What can be done about this problem? Thanks for reading all that and answering questions. I'll hopefully be able to eventually offer help with Subies, though if anyone wants help with old VW diesels or with installing Mustang V8s into Volvos I can do that now.