adwolf1

thanks for the help, everyone i wonder if i can just use some electrical tape & tape the two halves back together again instead of replacing the part. I still am trying to figure out how the heck the thing cracked open like that! (my car isn't raced/abused/etc.. it's just an 'around town' sort of car.) Perhaps after 8 years the plastic just got brittle.

Can anyone help me identify this part in my '96 legacy (2.2, normally aspirated) -- The one with the yellow dot on it. it apparently is supposed to connect into the fender, but as i discovered today, mine is cracked and just hangs there. It looks easy enough to replace, if indeed i need to. thanks

i actually replaced the -origiginal- battery on my '96 legacy last year! It finally died when i was in a parking lot. The tow truck driver who jumped me was totally horrified -- "WHAT?? HOW CAN THAT BE THE ORIGINAL BATTERY?!" (batteries don't usually last too long here in florida..) i guess they don't make 'em like the used to :-)

thanks again for the help. I guess while i'm in the door I can also adjust the glass so that it fits more tightly against the rubber seals. Is that a hard procedure to get right?

that sucks. the best thing to do is not only open a case with subaru by calling the 800#, but also surf on over to edmunds.com, go into the subaru forums, and tell your story to Patti, the subaru rep who actually hangs out on the bulletin boards over there. if you're nice and polite, she'll be able to look at your file and expedite things for you.

wow, thanks everyone for the great tips! In terms of the speaker coming into contact with the window, since the window will be in the 'down' position when i remove the panel, will it be obvious when i place the speaker in if there's enough room? I have a feeling that these speakers will fit without any issue, because they are "EZ fit", and in talking with crutchfield, it seems like they only carry -- literally -- two speakers that can actually fit in a gen-2 legacy's door. I guess because of the way the door is designed it's not very deep. Since the little sail piece has to come off too, i decided to take the plunge and buy a set of tweeters off ebay. I bought the stock subaru kit, simply b/c i wanted the 'stock' looking grills. It is easy to replace the tweeter that comes with it with something of a higher quality? (I figure if i'm paying $20 for the tweeter kit, the speakers that it comes with can't be great ;-) )

how do you pull apart the front door panels on a '96 L sedan? I'm installing a new set of front speakers into it (i've lived with the horrid stock paper ones for this whole time, and i'm fed up.. crutchfield is having a sale on reasonably priced ones that actually fit without having to cut up the doors -- http://www.crutchfield.com/S-pi9MGcIxbs0/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?i=133CJDD163 ) ) Anyway, i'd like to try to minimize damage to the door panels. I'm pretty sure there are a couple of hidden screws, then just "clips" which i can probably pry off with a screwdriver. any one have real-life experience with these doors?

the real issue is one of a time-horizon. If you're planning on trading in your car every 3 or 4 years (when it still has some value), and you're putting a ton of miles on it during that time, then perhaps this will work. But if you look at people who -really- run cars into the ground, buying and holding for 10 years or more (assuming the car isn't a money pit) is cheaper in the long-run. For example, we've seeing a few people post about 1991 legacies with 200k+ miles on them. when new, they were around $15-16k $16,000/156 ~ $100/month to buy new To get this car up to the $300/month figure, you'd need to put in $32,000 more in repairs over the 10 years it was out of warranty. I'm not sure I see that happening.

This brings up another question that I have for the experts here -- how long can a well-taken care of legacy be reasonably expected to last? As far as I can tell, the body is in perfect shape (no rust), compression in the 2.2 is good at 93k miles, and the EAT doesn't seem to be binding or acting badly. I'm guessing that the water pump and alternator will die sooner rather than later, i hope they don't cost too much to replace.

right, i missed that. so the legacy was $17k when i bought it in the beginning of 1996, so it's a bit more than 8 years old. Paid $17k for it, have put in about $2000 total in additional maintenance (over and above oil changes, etc..) $19k/96 months = $197.00 a month As long as the car can continue going without serious mechanical catastrophes, the savings continue to mount. if it can survive another year with only $500 of maintenance: $19.5k/108 = $180.50 a month over its life Even if I need to throw in $2000 over the next year (say a catastrophic engine or transmission issue) -- $21k/108 = $194.00 (the average lifetime cost of the car still goes down..) I'm not sure what this proves, other than that subaru does make cars that are cost-effective to keep over the long haul, unlike my previous german experience... that car was eating me out of house and home!

$3600 a year (over and above oil/fluid changes which you need to perform on a new or used car regardless) is a -lot- to keep an old subaru on the road. My 1996 legacy with 93k has run me about $500/yr avg. total since the warranty expired (new tires, belts, shocks, a couple of CV joints). It has been surprisingly cheap to run. To get up to $3600 a year, multiple major systems would need to fail and be rebuilt each year, which so far hasn't happened (knock wood.) The same cannot be said for an old german car that I once owned. The transmission died, and I was out $4k in repairs (ouch). I think subaru had the right idea with the gen 1 & 2 legacies -- nice cars, robust and cheap to live with.

this may sound horrifying, but despite my keeping up on all maintenance tasks (going by the book, i thought..) i don't see my PCV valve ever being replaced. (that's with 93k miles.) I don't think i've experienced any ill effects, though how would i know? milage is good ~ 30 on the highway. Unfortunately, since a Bush took charge here several years ago, my state no longer requires emissions testing. So i have no idea about how badly i may have been polluting :-(

do all '96 2.2L's have a PCV valve? (you can tell i don't do my own maintenance,i just need to give the list to my mechanic, and i don't think mine's ever been changed with nearly 100k miles) thanks

south florida, ft. lauderdale area. (not exactly prime subaru country). I guess i'm wondering if this engine has any other 'gotchas' that I should replace now -- O2 sensor, PCV valves, etc... I'd rather just replace these things in one fell swoop than have one fail when driving. I plan to keep the car forever, so I view a little bit of preventative maintenance as cheap insurance. ad

hi, my 96 legacy with the 2.2l & 93k miles is going in for regular maintenance, and i just want to make sure i'm covering all the bases. According to the service guide, it's time to: * replace the fuel filter * replace the spark plugs * replace the air cleaner * replace the brake fluid Is there anything else that should be replaced at this point? I'd rather be safe than sorry. thanks

thanks for the suggestions, the rubber gasket looks in-tact, and the air is indeed cold when we start out (ie, no engine heat) but progressively gets warmer as the engine heats. This has been easy to notice here in florida over the past few days, as the weather has been in the 50's (usually its so hot that I leave the A/C on full blast, so i never noticed this issue.) how does the temperature control slider work? is there a valve or something that opens and closes depending on the position of the lever?

on my '96 legacy sedan, i'm having a curious issue with the climate control. Even when i put the slider all the way in the "cool" position, the air is still somewhat hot. (That is, it's hotter than the air outside.) Clearly some of the engine heat is being transferred to this air. has anyone had this issue before, and is there anything that can be done? thanks

thanks for the clarification, alias! so when the inevitable binding starts happening, i should look at the tailshaft and not ditching the whole tranny? is this something that a subaru specialist would look at, or can any reasonably competent mechanic handle it?

i'm curious -- i've never seen my light come on (i'm a nervous person, i guess ) Does the light test itself when you turn the engine on, or do you only see it when running out of gas? i've literally never seen the llight come on..

great post, just another data point, i've got a 96L with 100k miles on it (all put on by me..) and it has been pretty bulletproof. It has endured terrible abuse. (an outdoor car, up north, followed by several years in hot-as-hell florida) The EJ22 engine isn't very powerful but it goes and goes and goes... I guess according to alias my 5EAT is ready to die, but i'll keep my fingers crossed. I'm always astounded when i see these things going for so little on Ebay...

my '96L is fairly inaccurate, too. When the needle reads "E", it's still got about 5 gallons left (it's got a 15 gallon tank, iirc..) Also, i've never seen the empty light come on -- does this car even have one?

the paint on my 96 legacy L sedan is peeling off, almost in sheets. the bumper is undamaged, it just looks funny with big spots of paint missing. i've heard people say that it is very difficult to match the paint color on the plastic bumper to the rest of the car. Something about reformulated paint not sticking to plastic well.. Is this true? Is there a special type of paint that needs to be used? How much does a simple respray normally cost? thanks

same here, 96 legacy with ABS & the 2.2l. 100k miles since new. Very reliable, never left me stranded (except for the OEM battery, whch died after 7 years !) not very fast or sexy, but it just works, day in and day out. repairs have been minor, a camshaft angle sensor, new shocks/tires, and now the driver's side window switch is starting to stick. But that's been it.

the camshaft angle sensor may be bad. at 112k, i wouldn't doubt it. mine was doing the same thing -- it seemed like a random problem. it would crank and crank, but wouldn't turn over. let it sit for a few minutes, come back and then it's fine. the camshaft angle sensor is a cheap repair (like $100), and is known to go out in these cars. hope it helps.