luv2lean

Thanks for the reply. I'm not disagreeing with the cost of the service but not sure if it is really needed for my car that has no symptoms of head gasket failure. BTW I did replace the water pump with the timing belt at 70K.

I'm looking for some advice on head gasket replacment or not. Here's the scenario------ My 99 obw with 125,000 miles on the 2.5L dohc motor has an oil leak from the valve cover and to my knowledge has not had a valve adjustment. I have not seen any evidence of a head gasket problem, overheating coolant loss, bubbles, etc. I purchased the car at 70,000, at which time I had the front seal and timing belt replaced. I just called 2 subaru mechanics for advice and one said nearly all 2.5L engines have head gasket problems so I should have the $1800 motor removal - head gasket - tranny plate - timing belt service. The other recommended just doing the valve adjustment with cover gaskets for $350. I sure dont want to spend $1500 more if I can get another 50,000 out of this car, but also dont want to waste $350 if the head gasket is likely to fail soon. After doing some searching on this site, it looks like the head gasket failure rate may not be that high and I'm leaning towards just adjusting the valves. Should I look further at replacing the head gaskets? Is there any other diagnosis procedure I should consider? - combustion chamber scope? Thanks, Chris

Corsair - thanks for the reply. No, I didnt use the old circuit board. Speedo shops are few and far between. Just happened to have this one in my area, although they only fix mechanical speedos and not electronic speedos. I also tried to test for sensor output by driving the car with a meter hooked up to difference spots on the back of the speedo to see if I got any reading, but got none. I would probably just buy a sensor and install it, but I recall somebody saying the cruise control wouldnt work and a warning light would appear if the sensor was bad - neither of which is my case. Does anybody know if this is true? Thanks

I still have a intermittent working speedometer on my 99 obw. When the speedo quits, the odo quits, but the cruise still works. The wiper tap does nothing to help A few months ago i ordered a new speedo head and installed it, but it did not fix the problem. I took the new speedo head to a local speedo shop where it was bench tested and determined to be defective. I sent it back to the subsaru dealer and got another new speedo head and installed it but got the same results. Now I'm thinking the speedo shop that tested the first new head didnt know what they were doing - even though speedos is all they do. Perhaps there was nothing wrong with the new speedo head and I have another problem - like the sensor. It just seems too unlikely that I got 2 defective new speedo heads. Anybody see a solution here? If the sensor is bad would my cruise still work? Thanks

I have a 99 legacy with similar miles and starter issues. As has been said, the starter soleniod contacts are the likely problems. After searching the board here, i decided to take the starter out and inspect the contacts. It is really quite easy to replace the contacts once the starter is removed. I was fortunate to have a local auto electric shop (Lehr auto electric in Sacramento) that stocks unusual parts like the copper contacts which cost less that $3 and also carried the solenoid plunger for $22 which is the other part that is likely worn and should also be replaced. After doing some research here and talking to Lehr, I am convinced these are most often the only parts that are replaced when these units are rebuilt and sold for about $100, and the starters otherwise last a very long time. If you are at all mechanically able, i would buy/order the contacts and plunger, then remove the starter and replace the parts.

Thanks for the feedback. After my initial post and further research on this board i came to the conclusion that since i had no other warning lights or symptoms associated with the sending unit and the track record of the 99 OB speedos I would replace the speedo head. Got it today and The bad news - the new speedo from 1stsubaru.com is defective - does not work at all and verified defective by a speedo shop test. I'm sending it back for another, to be continued...

Add me to the list of 99 OBW owners with an intermittent speedo. Can any body tell me the proper procedure to test the circuit to determine if I need to replace the sensor on the tranny or the speedo head? BTW the wiper tap thing doesnt work on mine. Thanks