98legacywv

yeah.. sold my nissan maxima with 113k on it with minimal problems.. got a 98 subaru legacy with 60k on it.. OMG the problems.. the pain... the empty wallet... The debt... Getting rid of it no matter what it takes..

from my experience.. your engine is toast!!! i bought a car made it 118 miles and the thing overheated.. a shop replaced the head gasket and the entire cooling system.. the had the hads milled, cleaned, pressure tested.they told me the engine was in perfect shape and that nothing had been damaged.... problem fixed... NO.. the car had nonstop oil leaks. valve covers had to be replaced... all kinds of things have continued to go wrong... a quart of oil just up and disapears every 1000 miles.. no drips no smoke.. just gone.. I now have two different mechanics telling me the car has piston slap issues.. I am getting the warranty to fix this thing and then i am getting rid of it.. Supposedly the 2.2 engine is a lot better..

I have a 98 subaru legacy gt 2.5 5 spd im selling for 7200$ with 64000 miles on it.. in excellent shape.. a mechanic told me it had some piston slap.. for 100$ you can transfer the 2.5 months of guardian warranty left on the car to you too.. then if you decide its a problem you can have a mechanic tell the warranty company that there is a problem and put another engine in it.. I have been told the piston slap is an issue.. and i have been told its not an issue.. i replaced all the head gaskets and basically the entire cooling system.. just 2,000 miles ago.. I thought I would be a bigger fan of subaru than i ended up being with this car.. then again.. immediately going several thousand in debt to fix all the head gasket issues days after buying the car kinda destroyed any hope of that..

Im trying to work a deal with the place that did the original headgasket work for me.. to have the engine and tranny fixed ( it now pops out of first gear) under warranty then trade the car in....

I took the car to other mechanic that I have met and talked to several times about the issues of this car.. neither mechanic that has looked at the car tried to sell me anything.. both told me to look into getting rid of it.. they both told me that they didnt know how bad it was but that the issue was there.. The second mechanic did not hear the problem at first but as the car became heat soaked he could hear it and got out his stethascope and i could hear it too.. I have a personal loan on this car for way more than the trade in value of this car.. I have a 2 1/2 month gaurdian warranty left on this car.. I could get the motor replaced for about 1,000$ with the warranty or the warranty is transferable for 100$ i would have to get atleast 6500 out of the car.. email me at stultus@hotmail.com for questions..

I decided to sell my subaru.. I had a family interested in buying it.. This car has had the head gasket problems (2.5gt) and oil leaks. I have had them all fixed for a lot of $.... Now the only problems i was aware of (which i described to the couple looking at it, because I am an honest person..) were the rear left tailight gasket is letting water into the trunk.. and the clutch slave cylinder is making a ticking sound ( mechanic says its a little worn but fine.).. So the family decides the car looks excellent and runs excellent.. They ask to take it to their personal mechanic... I of course let them drive my car to their mechanic.. they bring the car back a day later.. not good news.. They told me the mechanic says it has some engine seal problems.. and the exhaust will need to be replaced.. yes exhausts need replaced eventually.. So I call up the mechanic and ask him what he found.. He tells me the catalytic converter is bad.. the exhaust is going to need replaced in a year or two.. THEN the good news.. the shop that did my headgasket work did a good job but somehow screwed up the lower section of the timing chain seal or something like that.. he said there is a 1/4 inch gap there and the bolt is cross threaded.. THEN the really good news... (this guy worked as a subaru mechanic for four years..) The "piston slap" that im hearing is worse than it should be.. He says its a wrist pin on the piston.. and that I have about 10-15k before i start having major problems... He is not a big fan of subaru.. his suggestion was to trade it in.. any other suggestions.. I have 3 months of a guardian warranty left on the car.. is it worth it to get this worked on.. it seams that it never ends with this car.. I have never regreted buying a car so much..

yeah i got a brand new pcv valve in the car. im still getting 24-26 mpg..

I don't believe they did anything to the valves.. but would they have to to get to the heads.. I would like to think they atleast checked them.... I just went out and crawled under my car in my dress clothes and looked there is some oil residue at the T section of the frame there.. I can't tell where it coming from.. but it looks like its right under the tranny at the back of the engine.. Im going to get my chiltons out and see what is in that area..

I guess this information may have been helpful... I just went through the whole process with the head gaskets... i had it replaced with the 3rd revisions gasket.. coolant and oil looks fine.. oil looks a little dark for having only been in there 1200 miles but there is not antifreeze in it. this car doesnt smoke on startup either as far as i can tell.. What was said about a place between the engine and the tranny sounds more correct.. the only place that looks like it may even have oil on it sits right below the trans casing.. but nothing drops on the floor of my garage... When i got this car back from the shop that did the work on it there were several small oil leaks that they had to fix.. both valve covers had to be replaced. and some seals.. the last time i got it back oil was buring off the Y in the exhaust pipe.. they said it was probably spilled oil... took several day sto burn off completly then went away.. every now and then.. I think "thats oil burning is that me?"" but never find anything..

there are no signs of leaking.. my clutch doesnt slip but you dont have to push very far on the pedal before it does... i think it worn but not worn out.. i figured it was a problem with the slave cylinder or the fork itself because the rubber or plastic grommet around the fork entrance to the tranny is kinda of old and in bad shape.

I started a thread about this before but I thought I had fixed the problem.. About 3 weeks ago i checked my oil only 4-5 days after changing it. The oil wasnt on the disptick. I had only put 4 quarts in and let it sit for two hours before checking it and the level was perfectly in the middle of the hash marks. Then 4-5 days later it off the dipstick.. I added the 5th quart of oil since the book says it needs 4.8. Still nothing.. I drained the oil and got about 4 1/3 quarts out.. I thought well i just didnt get it all out.. i put new oil back in and have watched the oil slowly drop. over a span of two weeks of about 60 miles a day and two trips of 150 miles the oil dropped down half of the hash marks from the full level to midway. Then i didnt check the oil for three days and its off the dipstick again.. I added almost a quart and checked it later on.. its barely on the dipstick.. I have cleaned this car completely on the undercarriage and it doesnt look like any oil is leaking... Once in a while i get a wiff of burning oil but not very often and not very bad. so it seams the car isnt leaking the oil and its not burning it.???? my question is where the world does over a quart of oil go in less than 1200 miles with no trace???????? If it was buring that much oil I would think I would notice white clouds behind me.... nothing.. No drips of oil on the garage floor.. doesnt appear that there is oil under the car... nothing.. i need some ideas...

from my experience with my accord i use to have they shouldnt make the car wobble at high speeds. it made a wah-wah sound when you were moving faster. do you know which side its coming from? if the bearing is bad enough sometimes you can jack up the car and turn the wheel or pull and push on it and you might get excessive play.. whic i guess could cause the car to wobble but sounds more like you have a unbalanced tire to me..

My car is now making a wierd rattling noise where the clutch cylinder pushes the rod against the tongue (for lack of better word) that comes out of the transmission. Since the car is a hydraulic clutch is it just and adjustment? or am i headed for more problems.. as if i havent had enough with this car already..

it sounds like the humming of a vacumn cleaner. would replacing that plastic intake tubing back to the air box by the throttle body help at all?

I put a MAF adapter on my 98 legacy 2.5 gt and a K&N filter. I started the car and there is this crazy drone coming from it that sounds like a vacumn cleaner. I tried moving things and doing everything short of shortening the intake length. If you remove the filter and the MAF adapter the car still makes the same sound. The car runs noticeably different.. not faster just seams to idle smoother and rev a little easier. but this drone at a stoplight or any other time the car is idling is pretty loud. any ideas or suggestions.. for all those musically inclined the note it produces is a slightly flat B. i checked it with my guitar tuner..

car had major work for the headgasket. during this.. i replaced the fuel filter, they checked the timing belt so it was like new.. i need to replace the plugs... im sure they are the originals.. whoever owned this car before me (curse them for their lack of conscience and selling this car) were not quite as obsessive as i am.. fuel filter was clean ..

my 98 legacy gt is idling a little rough even when warm.. i replaced teh pcv valve like 300 miles ago.. i cleaned the TB.... i havent replaced the eplugs yet.. the car has 60k on it... it just feels like the car is loping... i use shell 93 octane gas.. i seafoamed it through the brake booster once.. any suggestions to check on?

this subaru has been like a soap opera.. i know that it will probably run forever now but im thinking about getting rid of it..

ok this morning i checked the level before i left for work.. it sitting just above the full hash mark.. this is crazy.. the only thing i can think of is that about a half a quart was left in the car and putting the 5 quarts in made it just a touch high.. but that means that the measurement before was way off..

update.. i drained the redline 5w 30 from the car.. not as clean as i would like.. i got over 4 quarts out of the car.. i ran it then drained it.. spilling just under half a quart by my estimate on the ground and ending up with about 4 quarts in the bucket. does this sound right?? i put 5 quarts of mobile 1 10w 30 in and ran it.. now its parked letting it settle so i can see where it sits on the dipstick if at all..

this is the same dipstick that was always with the car.. its parked on a perfectly flat garage pad.. i degreased the eintire underneath so that if something leaked i would see it.. NOTHING!!! if oil leaked out it didnt leave any trace.. if it didnt then either something else is very wrong or subaru cant make a dipstick that works.. I talked to the guys that did the work on my car.. they didnt have any idea..

i suspected him *L*.... if there was an internal leak it would show up.. he said that if a quart of oil had disapeared in a few days that i would definateyl have noticed..

exhaust is normal smelling and looking.. it looks to be a little black.. like its burning a little rich.. but i just replaced the o2 sensor so i thought maybe that had something to do with it...

As far as i can tell there are no oil leaks.. both valve covers are bone dry.. i let the car idle and reved it once it ws warm a few times and it doesnt seem to be burning oil.. i cleaned everything off with a degreaser right before i changed the oil.. nothing on there.. no the dipstick is dry.. there is no oil on it.. last night after i put the other quart in to make it 5 quarts i let the car idle for a while then shut it off .. im going to check it this morning and see what i find.. 5w 30 is the recommended oil weight for this car isnt it..

i had real head gasket problems with my 98 legacy gt.. after a month and a half in the shop they fixed the problems... then i had a small oil leak.. i checked the oil and it showed the oil was high... i drained a little of the oil till it said it was the right amount.. no more leak.. car ran fine.. 3 days later i changed the oil.. i put redline 5w 30 in it.. i read it needs 4.8 quarts.. i put 4 in let it sit for a while and checked it.. right in the hash marks where it should be.. now 3 days later.. there is no oil on the dipstick.. i let the car sit all weekend.. i didnt start it up after i changed the oil so i figured.. it just didnt get into the filter and stuff..so i add another quart... run it about 5 minutes.. and let it sit for 30.. dipstick is still bone dry... my neighbor claims that subarus do this and showed me his 2001 wrx.. it has very little oil on the disptick.. is it possible that all the oil is still in there and not showing up .. i have put 5 quarts in... there are no visible leaks.. no burning oil smell.. not oil on the bottom of the car...nothing visible.. no oil in the antifreeze.. none out of the heads.. nothing..