flash

I have a 2008 Outback with integrated key/fob. The 2009 integrated key/fob is smaller. I hate big key/fob's. I am missing a key/fob so was thinking of buying a new one. The rumor is that a 2009 key/fob can be used on 2008 vehicle. Can anyone confirm?

I bought it and installed it. It's plastic painted silver. The plastic appears to be grey so when the paint gets chipped, it won't look too terrible. I'd prefer if the paint was a lighter shade of silver to make it more flashy. I'm not sure I'd buy again for $160-$200. For $100, it'd be worth it.

Does anyone out there have the ~2008 front bumper underguard accesory on their Outback? What do you think of it? What's it made out of? I've been trying to see one in person, but I can't find one anywhere on the road/parked. Most pictures I see of it are crappy...

My '97 outback has leaky tires too. I have no punctures or leaky valve stems. I dismounted one of them and and sanded the bead and sealed it with professional grade products. It still leaks. I don't know what the story is. If air is leaking through the rim, Subaru is dissapointing me because I've had several GM vehicles with alloy wheels which were much older and more corroded and never leaked through the aluminum. The second theory is it leaking through the tire itself. They are Sears Michelin WeatherHandlers. Age unknown because they came with the car. I've owned it for 3 years/50k. They are probably getting old and crusty and there is light dry rot cracking. I'm too cheap to get new ones since they are still legal, but when I do, I will be curious if it fixes the problem.

Has anyone figured out a way to stop the heat shields wrapped around all the forward exhaust pipes from rattling? My car is sounding like a real turd! All the factory tack welds seem to have failed. I tried to put some new tack welds on but the fix wasn't satisfactory, probably because I didn't have access to clean the metal well.

I just did my head gaskets on my 97 2.5 and I did it all in less than 5 days (so I remembered everything pretty good) and I am confident nothing went in those threaded holes near the spark plug boots. It looks to me they were there so you could screw down the plug boots, but my boots don't have provisions for that. Maybe Subaru used them in the past and later figured it wasn't needed.

I'm in the mist of replacing my head gaskets. The heads are down the shop being inspected as we speak. Does anyone have an opinion if the head bolts should be replaced? The machine shop said it was recommended, but the dealer said they never do it and don't stock them. I think it is common on certain vehicles due to bolt stretch and the steel just getting cooked next to exhaust ports and such.

Vehicle: 97 Legacy Outback 2.5L, 148k Fact: I have a blown head gasket. Fact: I will be repairing it myself. Question: What parts shall I put on my shopping list? I can think of the following: 1) gasket(s) - head 2) gasket(s) - head to exhaust 3) gasket(s) - head to intake 4) gasket(s) - valve cover 5) belt(s) - timing 6) pump - water 7) oil separator plate thing (on the back of the block) and gasket Thanks

I thing I am going to make it. I have arrived at a friends house in Eastern PA and am now only 200 miles from CT...which is a lot better than being in Montanna or Wyoming! During the cold nights, I could get about 300 miles without any special attention. Today during the last leg of the trip, it got tough however. It was hot and I only made it 50 miles at a time near the end. If anyone is interested to know, when I was at the dealer in Billings, I bought a bottle of the special Subaru head gasket sealant that they put in the newer cars for their external head gasket leaking problems. I don't know if it helped me any, but it was worth a shot for $4. It was nasty and brown in color. Yuk. Flash FWIW in 2001 I rented a Ryder truck and car trailler, one way from Wichita KS to Rochester NY was about $900. Ryder was cheaper at that time than any other company. I once nursed an F600 truck from Albany to Rochester with a badly blown head gasket on the thruway in the middle of the night. Took about 8 hours and countless stops to get water. Your experience shouldn't be nearly as bad if you choose to try it. I recommend removing the thermostat and stopping for water very frequently.

So how many hours to do myself? 8 hours to pull the engine, 8 hours to do the gaskets, 8 hours to reinstall engine? That's my best estimate. I could fix my rear breather plate oil leak thing too!

I don't know if the gaskets were done. I bought the car a year ago with no history with 125k.

Sure, dealer wants to do it, but I don't want to pay...I am a do it yourselfer. Last night I went 100 miles with no spikes in temp so I think I can limp it home. Thanks fellas.

Vehicle: 97 Legacy Outback 2.5L 143k I just drove from the east coast to the Rockies and the car has pushed all the water out of the radiator into the bottle and there are bubbles in the water bottle. The car still runs good...I keep blowing the water out of the bottle back into the radiator so I am doing alright and am still able to drive. After a while, the radiator empties out and high temp conditions occur. I am currently at Rim Rock Subaru in Montanna. The thermosat is 6 months old (OEM) and we put a new radiator cap on. Is the head gasket shot? cell# 860-573-9218. Thanks Flash

Yeah, I agree Subaru cruise control isn't the greatest. My '97 Legacy speed varies more than I'd like. In the cold (below say 25 deg F) the speed creaps up. Pretty much all the time though, if I accelerate with the gas pedal (say from 70 to 75 MPH) and then lay off, the curise won't pick up again till 65 MPH. That really annoys the people you pass. I compare this to my summer car, a late model Camaro. It will run +/- 1 MPH all day long even up steap grades...but 300+hp/ftlb helps.

Sounds expensive. I wasn't even willing to pay for the OEM's ($10 each or whatever they were). The cheapo Autolite double platinums OEM equivalents work great in my '97 deuce-and-a-half Outback. If you were running boost, that would be another story.

In the past I replaced the pump on two different cars, both EA82's (1.8L) at approx. 150-175k miles. The reason I did it was beacuase the valves were noisy. The increased oil pressure fixed the problem on the first car but not the second. I think the part cost me about $100 and it was not difficult once the timing belts are out of your way. Maybe it's cheap insurance or a waste of $100. Depends on your outlook on life and the condition of the car. That's my 2 cents.

Liberty Subaru in NJ does mail order. 1stsubaruparts is west coast so the the NJ location should be quicker and cheaper to your location. I've used both and they both had similar prices and both treated me well.

I don't blame Subaru for classifing the Outback as a truck. It's the smart thing to do as long as the government allows it. It allows the manufacturer more flexability in design and less regulation/certification problems, giving us, the consumers what we want for less money. Is it morally right? If your competitors are doing it, then you must follow. Only government can make the playing field level by not allowing this to happen across the board. The rules are retarded, but welcome to the realm of government regulation! Why can't my Outback legally have dark tint in the back, yet a Chevy Trail Blazer can? What the hell is the difference between the two vehicles concerning tint? I asked my local state inspector that exact question as he was failing me for tint a prior owner installed, after I just watched him finish his lunch break and get out of his Trail Blazer with legal black tint. He didn't bother to answer. As far as Subaru setting a precident... NO WAY. Extremists on both sides of these types of debates tend to make untrue statements. I invite anyone to look on the government's own fuel economy web page and see how vehicles are classified. SUV's are classified as trucks. Forester (car), PT Cruiser (car), Chrysler Pacifica (car), Pontiac Aztec (minivan), Audi Allroad (Audi's answer to Volvo's Cross Country which is Volvo's answer to our beloved Outback), and Nissan Morano (grey area) are all classified as SUV's! This is the same catagory hosting vehicles such as Chevy Avalanche (pick up truck), Dodge Durango (truck based SUV), Jeep Wrangler, and Cadillac Escalade! I believe the PT Cruiser set the precident in recent times of being the most ridiculous vehicle to be classified as a truck.

Aren't guys constantly selling them on EBAY?

Well.....since I am on vacation and there was no adult supervision in my house today, I tried it. First, 200 deg F for 5 minutes (preheated and everything) is a joke. Considering the physics of heat transfer, in only 5 minutes of heat soak, the light might get up to 150 deg F (my guess) which is probably at or close to operating temperature of the light with the halogen bulb. I wouldn't doubt the light hits 200 deg F in 100 deg F ambient dessert conditions. I digress... In short, crank your oven all the way (400-450 deg F) and let soak until the smoke alarm goes off. Then take it out of the oven and notice how the plastic housing is deformable. Once at that stage, you can work the lens off. Even then it wasn't that easy. I used a flat head screw driver and a putty knife. I tried intermdiate temperatures also without much success. The putty knife wasn't doing it and the screw driver was chipping the glass on the edge of the lens a bit. Obviously, what I did isn't going to work if you need to save the housing (mine was broken). I'd assume you could physically break out a broken lens and install my good lens. Anyone have a good housing with a bad lens they want to give me so I can continue the experiment? This may sound like a lot of work, but remember this part cost $120 list. I can post pictures of the separated parts if anyone could explain how to do it.

I am not positive if the parts are the same but there is a good chance. I can get the part number of mine and you can figure out the part number you need. I'm thinking $10 including shipping which will gobble up at least half of that, if you don't mind USPS.

Does anyone have any experience repairing a fog light from a '97 type Legacy Outback? That is, taking the lens off the housing (it seems to be glued together) and replacing what's broken. I would bet that most people break the lens. I however, broke the housing (4 wheeling), but my lens is good. I already bought a new light so is anyone interested in obtaining my lens?

Hey Shane, On one of my '89 GL's 3AT, fluid started pouring out the front. Many a tranny shop quoted me big money to fix it. I ripped it apart and it was definately the front seal. No tranny shop was giving me this diagnosis...telling me stuff like I needed a new pump??? Basically I fixed it for $10. The seal had hairline cracks all over it. It was totally cooked. I could see light through the cracks. The job was easy not counting removing and installing the tranny. The car lasted another 10-20k miles after the repair and it died from an unrelated wheeling incident involving jumping. Flash

Wasteland, are you actively working this project? I need to add some lift assist to my Legacy Outback hood since I added some big as$ driving lights that make it all akward to lift. My web search yielded some people selling kits for Miata's and PT Cruisers, but that's it. I may embark on this project over the holiday since I have time off from work. Should be simple enough.

Bob, I am in the process of putting on Hella Black Magics on my '97 Legacy Outback. I don't know if you are into big lights but I like them. These are 7 inchers. I had Hella 500's on my last Subaru (6 inchers) and wanted more. I fabricated a bar to bolt the lights on to, that bolts up at the top of the lower opening in the bumper. I would have liked to put the 9 inch Hellas on but I think they would be to heavy for my mounting situation...it's a catelever beam deal. The only thing I am trying to sort out is the electrical work (I am anal so I work slow). I bought the factory fog light switch ($37 list) p/n 83001AC020. The only thing I forgot about is I need the plug to plug into the switch! Does anyone have one or a parts car you can cut one out of for reasonable cost??? Flash