Subaru Legacy Outback

[98ciHemi]

I do work on friends '96 Legacy Outback and he is getting ready to give it to his son, who is also a close friend. He doesn't really have a lot of faith in the car, but from my experience the car is in excellent shape. It has 180xxx miles, and it runs well and use about a quart of oil between changes. I am just wondering if anyone here knows any common problem spots that Subaru's have, and how many miles a well cared for engine can be expected to give.

-Walt

[SpiderGearsMan]

Re: Subaru Legacy Outback

oil leaks , lots of oil leaks and shooting spark plugs , manual transmissions locking up sometimes

[98ciHemi]

Re: Subaru Legacy Outback

Shooting spark plugs? ???

[squirrel]

Re: Subaru Legacy Outback

probably from the threads getting stripped....

I worked on a suburu about 20 years ago, that one was enough for me.

[dieselgeek]

Re: Subaru Legacy Outback

OK, time for actual ADVICE


Walt what year is the car? certain year boxer engines had real problems with headgaskets and in that car, it's a real PITA to get the heads off because, like an airplane engine, the head bolts are like 2 feet long...

Is it the turbo engine or N/A?

[Barry Donovan]

Re: Subaru Legacy Outback

I kept up on those for awhile.
same durability as anything. Nothing right nothing wrong.
96 is the onset of the completely babbled ricer plague, but still good.

locally, I know of one that got treated like a man built it, it did indeed blow the #2 plug out.
that's a common one for egr'd subaru boxers, and the fix the same for 30 years now.
transmissions, all of the other strange errors...just kill egr...the same subaru fix for 30 years now..
:

[rightpedal]

Re: Subaru Legacy Outback

outer c/v joint will start giving you problems if they haven't already. It is a pretty easy fix even with the MI rust. Please tell me that the timing belt has bin changed. If not I would check/change it immediately. I had a 94 legacy for a couple of years and really liked the car.

Steve

[Martin1]

Re: Subaru Legacy Outback

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[Eagle Kammback]

Re: Subaru Legacy Outback

Still lots on the road here, good first car, though a ripoff of the Eagle

[SpiderGearsMan]

Re: Subaru Legacy Outback

Shooting spark plugs? ???

fords mod motors also offer this feature at no extra cost

[Bamfster]

Re: Subaru Legacy Outback

Shooting spark plugs? ???

fords mod motors also offer this feature at no extra cost

ford had a better idea....

[67prostreet]

Re: Subaru Legacy Outback

I remember working at my now father-in-laws machine shop years ago. I did most of the head work. The Subaru dealer was always bring in heads with burnt valves and sucked in valves, cracks between the valve seats and so on. At one point they just started bring in new heads for assembly and replaced them as part of a major service and tune up.

[DanStokes]

Re: Subaru Legacy Outback

My bro has an old Subie Legacy 2WD with the same basic engine. After about a jillion miles (200K+) he finally put in one of those low mileage Japanese used engines and it's still chugging beautifully. He lives near one of the importers and it didn't cost much, even when they installed it. They seem to be pretty tough.

Dan

[SpiderGearsMan]

Re: Subaru Legacy Outback

you can also fill the rear hatch with bumper stickers of various left wing causes , like most of the subbies around here

[bnjny]

Re: Subaru Legacy Outback

Seems except for Dieselgeek, nobody else has a clue...

The boxer engine of that vintage is ok... If it had been dealer maintained the first part of it's life it should be fine as the head gasket, if a problem, was repaired...

I know of many of the these cars going over 300k when well maintained... The AWD system works well with few if any hicups... I would recommend making sure the trans fluid is freshened as needed and make sure the timing belts are changed as prescribed... Go over it like any other used car... I think as a DD these things are great...

It sounds like the car has been well maintained, so the new owner should be fine, especially as a DD...

BTW, it was AMC who copied Subaru, not the other way around as Subaru offered part time 4wd on a few models dating back to the mid to late 70's...

Hey Spidey, no left wing stickers on my wagon... Just a sticker that said you got beat by one. ;)

Too bad the kid I sold it to totaled it... :-[