July 28, 20196 yr Good day to all i am purchasing a 1996 Subaru Legacy Outback for my son's 1st car. it has 176K took it to the dealer for a pre-purchase inspection, they listed a few things that are relatively simple fixes except one thing that i can not find mentioned any where "possible leak from rear access plug" estimated cost to fix $1090.00! What is a rear access plug? the dealer stated the transmission would have to be removed to do the job. Is it a rear main seal? i'm asking if anyone has knowledge of this?
July 28, 20196 yr it's a plate next to the rear main seal that is sealed with RTV. Often the cause of bad leaks. Mistaken for rear main leaks but ussually it's the plate. $1000 is steep, but yes the engine and trans have to be seperated to fix. Personally I pull the engine, rather than drop the trans, but either way it has to be seprated. My minimum charge for this job would be about $550
July 28, 20196 yr Also each head has an oil seal. The one on the passenger-side there to accommodate a distributor. Some markets used a distributor. The other side, don't know why there. From my experience, the passenger-side will be leaking. The oil separator plate mentioned above always leaks over time but if you spring for this job, Definitely have those other 2 seals replaced.
July 29, 20196 yr How familiar is this area, or shop, with Subaru’s? It’s fairly easy to get a misdiagnosis, valve cover leaks always blow/flow/drip/gravitate back and center where it looks like it’s the rear main seal. if the shop isn’t really familiar with Subaru’s and sees them all the time they might see that central leak and just assume the cause is also centered, which often isn’t accurate for Subaru’s Unless they’re really familiar with Subaru’s I would assume we really don’t know if this is a $50 valve cover or $1,000 rear separator plate issue.
July 29, 20196 yr Take and post pictures underneath the car - all of it, not just the area that’s most wet and we may be able to help
July 29, 20196 yr It's got the 2.5 DOHC engine which has head gasket issues. If the HG have not been done, expect to do them. Better to find a Subaru with a 2.2 engine in the 95-99 year range. Here's a nice one: https://cosprings.craigslist.org/cto/d/colorado-springs-2000-subaru-impreza/6939205493.html Edited July 29, 20196 yr by lmdew
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