At one point in time, someone swapped in a 1996 EJ25 DOHC in my 1998 Outback. It runs great. However, they used the 1996 harness, sensors, ignition coil, intake...etc. Made it a bit confusing the first time ordering parts.

It has the older style ignition coil on it, I found a nice newer style coil and wires at the local yard, which I grabbed. I made a conversion harness to adapt the newer style coil to the older harness. Well, turns out the coil mounts on the intake are completely different, so shelf'ed that idea.

My question, is the later ignition system any better then the older style? It will take a lot more effort to convert my car to the newer style then I want to put in. I'm not having any real issues with my current system-I do need to replace the cheap Chinese wires that I currently have.

1996 and 1997 should actually be the same. It was 1998 when they put the igniter I the coil.

 

You have more parts with the older setup but if the igniter fails you aren't looking at having to replace the whole coil.

Only difference was the coil changed from female to male posts, and they change the mounting bolt spacing for some reason.

 

Just order wires for the correct year to match the coil and you'll be fine.

 

 

 

Not sure what you mean by igniter in the coil? Coil changed from a 3 wire to a 4 wire on later years because they moved the ignition control circuit into the ECU rather than have an igniter on the firewall. 3 & 4 wire Coils work the same, they just added a ground, which is the 4 wire.

Only difference was the coil changed from female to male posts, and they change the mounting bolt spacing for some reason.

 

Just order wires for the correct year to match the coil and you'll be fine.

 

 

 

Not sure what you mean by igniter in the coil? Coil changed from a 3 wire to a 4 wire on later years because they moved the ignition control circuit into the ECU rather than have an igniter on the firewall. 3 & 4 wire Coils work the same, they just added a ground, which is the 4 wire.

 

Hmm, the fsm describes the "ignitor and ignition coil" as one unit for my 2000 OBS (4 wire) vrs the older ones ('97 and older) as being the 3 wire w/ the igniter on the firewall.

I kinda figured it wasn't anything important. Obviously these coils rarely go bad seeing how I've seen many on cars that yards with 200K+ on them. I'll just have a later style coil and wires to add to my parts collection, knowing me I'll probably end up with another Subaru that these will work on.

 

I went ahead and ordered a set of NGK wires for the Outback. Seems like NGK or OEM are the only way to go.

Edited July 5, 201510 yr by matt86

correct. Ditto to the spark plugs.

 

Stick with the 96 setup. Works just fine. As they say - "If it aint broke, don't fix it.'

Hmm, the fsm describes the "ignitor and ignition coil" as one unit for my 2000 OBS (4 wire)

I'll have to look into that some. As far as I know the driver circuit for the coil is in the ECU on the 4 wire units, gs on the 3 wire type that was in the igniter. Maybe they have a couple diodes or capacitors built in the coil assembly.