Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!
Popular New Cars
Popular Used Sedans
Popular Used SUVs
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
B
One guy here on Edmunds said you should ask to see their cost book and offer $100 over their cost. It's worth it for both parties.
We got one, you get roadside assistance too, remember. AAA would have cost us $497 over the 7 years of our term. Plus the peice of mine, plus better resale (we plan to sell with 5k miles or so left on the warranty).
-juice
Anybody know about this? Can I just replace the bushing or do I need the whole arm? And why would the book rate on labor be so high?
TIA
-juice
No kidding..... 4 hours?! That's just plain rubbery! :P
I've found that several of the undercarriage parts are built such that replacement of far more than what seems necessary is "required" when parts like bushings fail. I had a bad bushing on the driveshaft bearing when I purchased my '96 in August 2000. I diagnosed it the day I went to look at and purchase the car, but I decided not to let it factor in on how much I paid for the vehicle or have it fixed ahead of time because it was a "quick fix." Well, I should have researched it a bit.... I had to replace the whole front half of the driveshaft! New, close to $500, from a junk yard, almost $250 (I went with the junker). Still, it was another 3 hours or so of work to remove all the heat shielding, work around the exhaust and get that bugger jimmied out and back in. Ah.... young and dumb.
Oh, it turns out that the only reason that it was necessary to replace the driveshaft along with the bearing and bushing was that the bearing had a flange that was "dinged" to attach it to the driveshaft. A quick tap with a chisel and it was un-dinged and slipped right off. Oy.... the absurdity!
The control arm is an easy repair, but it does require a lot of part removal because the whole wheel assembly mounts to it in some way. But, if it took me four hours to fix, I would find myself a new hobby...... so, for a professional to take that long..... L-A-Z-Y! Of course, you'd think that a "quote" would be just an estimate, but somehow they always manage to charge you that much at a minimum..... :sick:
My head gskt. failed last week. I bought a SoA rebuilt engine $6K Cndn. I suspected something wrong a month ago- poor gas mileage - hard starting - black coolant coming out of exhaust.
i asked Subaru dealer to check it out-he found nothing wrong.
Same reply at local NAPA dealer - he replaced the starter.
I'll replace the car soon, but it won't be a Subaru
This is a very well known problem with Phase I 2.5l engines. Too bad you had inept mechanics. Here's the "Disclaimer" that I posted on several Subaru forums, where head gasket problems are discussed in infinite detail (like 300 threads).
WARNING: If you own a 1996-99 2.5l Subaru with the Phase I engine, the head gaskets are known to fail with little or no warning at 80,000 to 150,000 miles. When they fail, at a minimum you need new head gaskets - $1,200. If you have ignored the warning signs or are unlucky, the engine will require rebuilding at a cost of at least $3,000.
So, you can 1. sell the car right now and buy another economical AWD station wagon (oops - there aren't any others...). 2. replace the head gaskets pre-emptively (that's what I did on one of mine) 3. keep driving it but pay attention to signs of failure or 4. drive it until failure - which may also damage the engine.
Rebuilt engines cost at least $3,000. Used engines are almost impossible to find.
I wonder how many head gasket failures will have to be reported how many times on how many forums before owners of these cars understand they need to treat head gaskets as a maintenance item?
Warning signs include: no warning; intermittent overheating ; coolant smell in exhaust; rough starting and white smoke on start; bubbling in coolant overflow bottle after hard driving; presence of coolant by products in engine oil.
Try an independent shop. They probably only charge $65 per hour so you'll save $75 or so.
Pop your head under the car and take a look at the rear suspension. You'll see why it's not instant. and it will have to be realigned, which is usually about $50-75.
Don't know why they do or do not need to replace the whole arm.
Thanks, Bill
The dealer won't take responsibility because it's been more than 12 months (even though they identified the problem at 16 months) and Subaru USA says it's a dealer issue.
I should add that this is my third standard drive car so I know how to drive a clutch. I will concede that I do mostly city driving.
Any recourse?
transmission engaged, left foot firmly pressing the clutch
or
transmission in neutral, left leg unoccupied?
Krzys
Although I own a 2005 Legacy GT, many of the internals are identical to the OBXT. So far, reliability has been excellent. No major problems with the car -- I'm currently at 25K miles.
The turbo is intoxicating. While not quite the same blast as with the manual tranny, it still pulls very hard and is tons of fun to drive. As for the turbo reliability, I have no concerns since Subaru has quite a bit of experience with forced induction. Also, the engine block used in the OBXT has already been used in the Baja, STi, Forester XT and now the 2006+ WRX.
Ken
Yeah, but since there has been what, maybe 2 Baja's sold, that doesn't make it statistically significant.
You know, I actually went back and added the Baja after posting. ;-)
Ken
There's even a website called Legacy GT devoted to them.
Again nothing major, or will cause you to be stranded, just little things which could/should have been made better.
Also another little annoyance is the placement of things, quite unintutive, or inconvienent. (the multiple defroster buttons is a prime example along with the placement of the cup holder on earlier models)
Maybe others will know for certain. I think it is a common question.
We had similar problem. I ran the OBDII and got similar codes. I found a carbon trail on #3 plug. I scraped the trail on the plug and corrected the problem, for a bit. It returned (and so did the trail) so I replaced the plugs and the wires. So far so good.
...In which case, it would be located in a high pressure area - like the front of the good or base of the windshield.
Now, the hoodscoops on the 96-99 Outbacks were even more silly. Someone at Subaru just loves hood scoops.
The Turbo engine of the 05/06 OB is known to have very little turbo lag, which is the time it takes for the turbo to build up pressure (this is a very good thing), making a as short as possiable run from the turbine into the engine is most certainly a factor. Extending the run to the intercooler should increase this turbo lag and negitavly effect performance.
One of the tires got cut from the side and cannot be repaired. Every tire dealer I speak with tells me that all tires should be changed since it is an AWD. But the 3 remaining tires are all at about 7/32 - 8/32 tread. It seems a big waste to throw all of them and get new ones just to replace one.
My driving is largely on the US west coast.
Could someone guide me with my options?
Is shaving a new tire to match the current tread an option? I hear that tirerack.com does that when you buy new tire from them.
You could have them shaved, but what I would do in your shoes is buy a pair and mount them in the front, where they will wear a little faster anyway.
Ken
I think some Impreza RS owners from at the time actually removed the plastic blocking the hood opening to allow it to cool the engine block!
Ken
Meh, the hood scoops worked for marketing. Outback outsold the Legacy 3 to 1.
-juice
Any suggested replacements?
Thanks!
Bob
I let mine drop too low, and killed the battery prematurely. I think it still lasted 6 years or so.
-juice
The OE battery is not that strong, I think mine had 260 CCAs and my new battery has something like 500+. It's not hard to find a stronger one.
Starting does seem easier since the swap.
-juice
I had a similar situation, where a sidewall failed on one of my tires about 11 months after original purchase - they had about 20K on them. I replaced the one tire with a matching tire and did not have it shaved. All the other tires were at ~9/32. I ran these tires on the car until about a month ago, and the three originals were at 4/32 w/ 73K on them; the newer one was still at just under 7/32. I had no problems other than the fact that I could tell there was very slight "binding" in the spring time when the roads were extremely slick due to melt water on top of the ice pack. When this would happen, I could feel the wheels slipping very slightly to relieve the pressure. As soon as I changed the tires and we had a warm spell, I was happy to note that this slippage was gone.
So, it will cause a slight bit of friction w/ the AWD, but probably not enough to cause a problem. If you can get a new one shaved, do it. I think a full set would be a waste of resources, but 8/32 is greater than my 9/32, so I'd consider it "real world" borderline as far as potential for binding in the AWD without the shave.
We had been on the road for about 4 hours when I decided to pull over to see Little Big Horn. Lucky that I did so, since my engine was "ticking" and smoke began billowing from under the hood! It appears that all of the oil had blown out of the engine and all over the undercarriage. My sons and I put in 3 quarts of oil to get us down to Sheridan, WY, about 30 miles away. We stopped at a tire store and they put in more oil since much of the previous oil had blown out as well. That got us down the street to another of the same service center. The car was not ticking anymore, but oil was being burned off of the engine and smoking.
The mechanics saw that it was overfilled (from the last stop), drained it, cleaned it up and re-filled with oil. You could not see where it was leaking from until I drove it on the freeway (under pressure)for a couple of miles, then could see that it was leaking from the camshaft cover. Apparently the timing belt and everything inside there was fouled, so I had to leave the car and rent one to Colorado. Once they got inside the area they found that the O-ring that connects the oil pump to the engine had blown out. Possibly this is the inception of the problem? Mechanics said they thought it was as a result of being overfilled before I left.
Bottom line here is that once they finished putting the car back together, they have not been able to get it to run properly. Mechanics spent several hours trying to fix the timing, etc. and it's just popping and farting and will not run.
I had to have it towed back home where a Subaru dealer has been looking at it. The have tried everything, including switching out the computer, and it still will not run properly. Now they are saying something about the crankshaft?
Any ideas? I guess everyone is just stumped and I'm up a creek and still have a rental car. All I know is that the care was running perfectly well with no problems at all until I had it serviced. HELP!
It's going to be tough to prove the original place overfilled it.
I never leave the service area, dealer or otherwise, w/o checking the fluid levels except for one time recently...and I'm afraid that's going to get expensive as I let the dealer leave an extra 42oz of auto tranny fluid after a drain and fill in my FXT 2k miles ago. Another story for another day. But the ATF dipstick in that car is a royal pain to check.
There's an excellent article on the endwrench site that explains how a loosening oil pump rear sealing plate can cause an over pressure condition that will blow out the crankshaft oil seal.
I'd wonder about how well they replaced the timing belt (sounds like they had to have it off?) A badly timed car will exhibit the symptoms you're experiencing.
HTH
Larry
Ken