2005 Outback 2.5XT Limited 155K Owner Review

[tdelker]

Every fill up if it's me driving. Every weekend when my wife is doing all the driving.

Good time to look over the coolant levels as well. And empty all the junk out that the kids have dragged in to the back...

Tom

[Seabass]

Glad you're so happy with your car.

HD, if you're smelling coolant, there's a leak. The intercooler doesn't touch any coolant. The turbo does share coolant though. The "hot" smell is usually a small oil leak or remnants of an axle boot spraying grease everywhere. The oil cooler gasket does tend to leak at high mileage as do the valve cover gaskets. Those are the most typical causes for oil smells and for oil "consumption".

I generally lose 1qt of oil every 1500 miles, so I check my oil every 500 miles or so. I've also confirmed that I'm not consuming any oil, it is just a couple of small leaks that I need to fix.

Checking your oil could easily save you thousands in repairs...our engines are known for leaking and consuming oil.

[HDSkullfire2]

Seabass, my error.. I know one of them shared the coolant..

In reality, I actually don't have that smell much.. I've always attributed it to the overflow container.. the rubber gasket on the lid cover is getting old and hard and tends to radiate the smell.. The rubber smell is very light and infrequent.. Right now the engine is tight on all counts.. nothing showing and the engine broke in nicely.. Like others, I've been keeping tabs on the oil levels.. That's how we discovered the first issue.. It starts slowly and with only 3,000 miles you might only see a little drop on the stick..

Steve..

[Michael Aos]

I paid about $9600 (cash plus trade) for this 2005 Outback XT 5MT w/~102K back in November.

Then I've put ~$3500 (easy) into it already.

I'd like to think I'm done pouring money into it. At least for a while.

I'd be pretty bummed if it required another $2k-$5k all of a sudden.

[Seabass]

Crazy! I haven't come close to dumping that much into my car. I don't think I'd get to $3500 if I added up the oil changes, trans and diff fluid changes, catless up pipe etc. Although I've probably spent over $500 on f&^%ing headlights over the last 3 years. I guess I've just been lucky and OCD on maintenance. I know I've listed the parts I've had to replace somewhere on here, but for non-routine maintenance items, I've had to replace 2 radiators and some hoses (one was a defective replacement), two front axles and an axle boot, a front wheel bearing, rear struts...that's it.

Although I have literally spent as much on gas in the last 50k miles as I spent purchasing the car.

[AWDBoost]

I've had my car for 2 weeks now, almost 700 miles and 3 tanks of gas. No burning oil, no leaking fluids, got it for 10k even with 96,400ish miles on it. Going to take it in for the 105 month service at agile automotive in the next few weeks and see what they find on top of the maintenance and hopefully not spend more than $700-$800. I doubt anyone buying an XT would read this but I got them to drop the price by $1000 just by telling them I was going to drive the car over 20k miles a year and need to spend $1500 on the 105k mile tune up. I will be putting the bilstein suspension kit on it too. This car adds up quick but I don't mind as long as everything doesn't break at once.

[tdelker]

Originally Posted by Seabass

Crazy! I haven't come close to dumping that much into my car. I don't think I'd get to $3500 if I added up the oil changes, trans and diff fluid changes, catless up pipe etc. Although I've probably spent over $500 on f&^%ing headlights over the last 3 years. I guess I've just been lucky and OCD on maintenance. I know I've listed the parts I've had to replace somewhere on here, but for non-routine maintenance items, I've had to replace 2 radiators and some hoses (one was a defective replacement), two front axles and an axle boot, a front wheel bearing, rear struts...that's it.

Although I have literally spent as much on gas in the last 50k miles as I spent purchasing the car.

Headlights - I bought bulbs from this site many years ago, and they are still going strong (OSRAM H7 Rallye 65W for 2005 XT) : Candlepower Shopping Homepage

And a lot brighter! I did pull the DRL fuse.

I think everything Michael has spent money on is normal maintenance items. It's easy to spend $3500 if you have a lot all at once at 105kish and shops do all the work.

Timing belt, water pump, idlers, tensioner etc = $1000+
Tires = $600ish or mroe
Brakes = $800ish for pads and rotors
Shocks = $800-$1000
Banjo Bolt replacement = $??? 200
Transmission flush = $150
Front and Read Diff = $150ish
Ripped LCA bushings? = $400ish ea side
Ripped Axle boots = $300/side = $600


Car's aren't cheap these days. Any car would need most of these.

[aftCG]

Great thread.

I don't know if I'd have been jazzed with a short block at 122k after exemplary routine maintenance.

I don't drive my car much at this point since I use my motorcycle to get to work. But when I do I'm reminded of how much fun all that boost is.

[AWDBoost]

Originally Posted by aftCG

Great thread.

I don't know if I'd have been jazzed with a short block at 122k after exemplary routine maintenance.

I don't drive my car much at this point since I use my motorcycle to get to work. But when I do I'm reminded of how much fun all that boost is.

How do you like those rallitek springs?

[aftCG]

They rock. It doesn't change the way the car rides really, it just allows me to fill up the back of the car with dead bod-, er, camping gear.