Hello everyone,
I'm still new to this forum and the whole Subaru thing. About two years ago my dad and I did a headgasket on a 95 2.2 Outback and I was intrigued by the motor design. That car was pretty beat up and I did not like the looks of it. Then about 6 months later we did another head gasket on an impreza awd. It was mid winter and they wanted us to drive the car some and make sure it checked out. That car was a fun little car to drive. I enjoyed driving it even though it was an automatic. Since then I was interested in getting one.
Then about 8 months ago my brothers boss parked his 98 Subaru legacy outback limited because he thought the transmission was bad. Car was the black pearl color with the gold accents and the gray on the bottom. Fully loaded leather, winter package awd 2.5 DOHC 5 speed. He mentioned selling it. My brother told me about the car and I went and talked to his boss and test drove it. The shifts were very sloppy And it would not go into second gear 9/10 times. He told me his mechanic said it needed a trans and that it overheated often. He sold me the car for $400 and I drove her home.
Once I got it home it ended up that the bushings on the stationary rod for the shifter had fallen out. I replaced those and the trans was back to life. After some more searching we found that the radiator hose and the radiator cap were bad. This fixed the over heating. Since then I have done new control arms in the front with wheel bearings and ball joints.I also did front breaks at the same time and upgraded to drilled And slotted rotors.
Now the problems I still have.
I live in northern Indiana and when its cold And the car isn't fully warmed up the car does not like to shift. I believe this is due to the fluid. I am planning on replacing it with synthetic to see if that helps. Any others thoughts would be good.
The car is starting to need a clutch. Car has 146k miles and has never had one or any major maintaince done. I am planning on doing the clutch this summer. I figure it would be easiest to pull the motor and do the head gasket while its out. But I still am not sure what clutch to go with. The car looses a little bit of oil so I figure pulling the motor for the clutch will give me a chance to do all the gaskets. What clutch would you guys recommend? I am looking at the stage 3 eBay clutch as I used one in my 97 Probe GT and liked it.
When sitting at idle the heat will get cold. I have checked the company and its fine. I was told that the thermostat was removed because with one in it would over heat quickly. I have not looked to see any further on that. I am thinking the car may have a plugged radiator causing the restriction of flow when the thermostat is in. Any other thoughts would be appreciated.
Other than that I love the car. Runs great and drives great. I love the brake system and everything. I've put close to 4k on her and never once let me down. It has a slight exhaust rattle and the common shifter rattle due to the bad bushings at the transmission u joint. And I am having a hard time finding an online owners manual that I can download as a PDF and I need the cupgolder that slides out from above the stereo.
This car has been great to me and I expect to keep it for awhile. Any maintenance that you think I should do as a precaution would be great!!
Sorry for the boom but I like to give as much info as possible.
I'm still new to this forum and the whole Subaru thing. About two years ago my dad and I did a headgasket on a 95 2.2 Outback and I was intrigued by the motor design. That car was pretty beat up and I did not like the looks of it. Then about 6 months later we did another head gasket on an impreza awd. It was mid winter and they wanted us to drive the car some and make sure it checked out. That car was a fun little car to drive. I enjoyed driving it even though it was an automatic. Since then I was interested in getting one.
Then about 8 months ago my brothers boss parked his 98 Subaru legacy outback limited because he thought the transmission was bad. Car was the black pearl color with the gold accents and the gray on the bottom. Fully loaded leather, winter package awd 2.5 DOHC 5 speed. He mentioned selling it. My brother told me about the car and I went and talked to his boss and test drove it. The shifts were very sloppy And it would not go into second gear 9/10 times. He told me his mechanic said it needed a trans and that it overheated often. He sold me the car for $400 and I drove her home.
Once I got it home it ended up that the bushings on the stationary rod for the shifter had fallen out. I replaced those and the trans was back to life. After some more searching we found that the radiator hose and the radiator cap were bad. This fixed the over heating. Since then I have done new control arms in the front with wheel bearings and ball joints.I also did front breaks at the same time and upgraded to drilled And slotted rotors.
Now the problems I still have.
I live in northern Indiana and when its cold And the car isn't fully warmed up the car does not like to shift. I believe this is due to the fluid. I am planning on replacing it with synthetic to see if that helps. Any others thoughts would be good.
The car is starting to need a clutch. Car has 146k miles and has never had one or any major maintaince done. I am planning on doing the clutch this summer. I figure it would be easiest to pull the motor and do the head gasket while its out. But I still am not sure what clutch to go with. The car looses a little bit of oil so I figure pulling the motor for the clutch will give me a chance to do all the gaskets. What clutch would you guys recommend? I am looking at the stage 3 eBay clutch as I used one in my 97 Probe GT and liked it.
When sitting at idle the heat will get cold. I have checked the company and its fine. I was told that the thermostat was removed because with one in it would over heat quickly. I have not looked to see any further on that. I am thinking the car may have a plugged radiator causing the restriction of flow when the thermostat is in. Any other thoughts would be appreciated.
Other than that I love the car. Runs great and drives great. I love the brake system and everything. I've put close to 4k on her and never once let me down. It has a slight exhaust rattle and the common shifter rattle due to the bad bushings at the transmission u joint. And I am having a hard time finding an online owners manual that I can download as a PDF and I need the cupgolder that slides out from above the stereo.
This car has been great to me and I expect to keep it for awhile. Any maintenance that you think I should do as a precaution would be great!!
Sorry for the boom but I like to give as much info as possible.
