New to me 03 obw with a “few” issues lol

2622 Views 71 Replies 7 Participants Last post by ChattownOBW, 3 mo ago

ChattownOBW

Hello everyone. Picked up a 2003 outback wagon today. I test drove it last week in a rural middle Tennessee town and it seemed to do great. However, it was 30° out, spitting sleet and I drove about 10 minutes at 45 mph.

Bringing her home today 120 miles was a different story. It was empty so stoped at the first reputable station I could find only to see that the gas cap was MIA. No big deal. Put some fuel in but not too much cause I didn’t know if it would slosh out. So got 20 bucks. A little over half tank.

I opened the door after pumping gas and set the alarm off. Which was strange causeI didn’t even lock the doors with the door or fob.

Continue on to a state highway where the speed limit is 65 and as soon as the road opens up the check engine light comes on. I figure maybe from the missing cap so keep trucking.

Hit 60 mph and thought the steering wheel was going to make an exit out of the car. It would shake from about 55-70 (the fastest I got) so badly that it made me super uncomfortable And I have had a lot of janky cars in the past.

Drove about an hour and stopped to grab a bite to eat. Noticed a smell of antifreeze. And saw an active drip standing in front of the car. Popped the hood and the overflow tank seemed to be the origin. The PO supposedly had all new cooling system parts installed including radiator and all hoses. Overflow tank was pretty full so I figured maybe they just overfilled when they put all the parts on.

Got her home and up on jack stands to crawl under and every bit of rubber in the rear suspension is gone. Both rear shocks are blown and leaking. Driver side boot is torn on the rack and pinion. It the front suspension doesn’t look too bad. And the axles look fairly new.

My ultimate plan for this is to do all new suspension with around 2” of lift total. Haven’t decided on the Rallitek kit or cobbling something together yet but will be doing something. And a little larger, more aggressive tires. That should be about it. This thing will be our little dog hauling, canoe carrying adventure wagon.

Any tips on what to do or how to fix common issues are welcome lol. This is my 4th Subaru with the others being 04 wrx, 01 forester and 05 forester and I am excited to be back in a Subaru!

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seagrass

· #61 · 3 mo ago

Just a heads up about your NGK coil.

There have been a few recent reports from other forum members that they installed an NGK coil and then started having idling problems when the engine was hot.

If you get this symptom you might want to see if the NGK coil is the cause.

Seagrass

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ChattownOBW

Discussion Starter · #62 · 3 mo ago

I did check the axle boots out pretty good when I first got her a little over a month ago. I will take another look today just to be sure but it was pretty light fluid. Had a good size puddle this morning so don’t think it’s axle grease but will still double check just to make sure.

Figures about the coil haha. If I have any ignition issues I will go there first! Thank you all for the help!

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Wreckster

· #63 · 3 mo ago

Few miles on the scoob. Clutch is heavy as heck, but I've heard Subarus will teach you how to drive a little better. No slip or any such. Syncro in 1st is worn a bit, but not terribly so for the mileage, she just doesn't like 1st when cold. There's some sorta sound coming from I don't know what yet. Transmission mount is soft so it wouldn't hurt.

Now what I've been putting off.. finding what the heck is leaking under the car. It's not the heads, those look pretty darn good, except what is either cam cover gasket or power steering on passenger side. I'm not worried about that yet, power steering appears to be working find. The leak seems to be the transmission. Not sure from where or anything yet, I'll have to hose it down good with degreaser and such to see if it's easier to pinpoint. Would hate for it to end up being the input seal, wouldn't be too mad at it being the drive shaft seal (still don't want to) and hopefully nothing more serious than that. I might be on the lookout for a replacement 5speed in the future, there are worse things to be on about.

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ChattownOBW

Discussion Starter · #64 · 3 mo ago

I drove a 5 speed 2001 outback the day I bought mine and I thought the clutch was pretty light. Only other manual subie I’ve had in the past was an 04 wrx but jeez that was in 2009 so I don’t remember how the clutch was haha.
I have discover multiple leaks on mine so far and none are easy to locate. Good to hear that the heads look clean so hopefully not that. Fingers crossed it will be something easy to fix! I’m driving mine to run errands around town today.

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Wreckster

· #65 · 3 mo ago

I'm a little suspicious that an aftermarket clutch might have been thrown in. Nothing wrong with that, but far different than the feathers that were used for two of my previous VAG cars, or even my sr20 swapped 240, that was even light compared to this one. I might get a first hand look depending what ends up being the leak.

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ChattownOBW

Discussion Starter · #66 · 3 mo ago

In that case I bet it is aftermarket.
Had a little free time this evening so figured I would replace the torque mount on the trans bellhousing cause the factory one was shot. That went pretty quick so figured I’d do the trans fluid and filters and diff fluids. Well I pulled the dip stick for the front diff and that thing is right on the full line and looks like and smells like new fluid. So of course it made no sense to me to check the trans fluid. Pulled the plug and it was like a flood of new fluid coming out. So I’m gonna just replace what I just dumped out. Replace the spin on filter cause it’s some aftermarket brand I’ve never heard of and leave her be. The pan has been off in the past too cause there is rtv on the gasket surface. Seems as if this thing was better taken care of than I thought.

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Wreckster

· #67 · 3 mo ago

Rather amazing when it comes down to it, these cars are like tractors. Simple, reliable and easy to work on. Change out the fluids regularly and replace seals when they go. Done.

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ChattownOBW

Discussion Starter · #68 · 3 mo ago

For sure. I’ve had over 50 vehicles in my life and this is my fourth Subaru but they are super reliable. Given, the head gaskets can be problematic but not much of an issue if well taken care of. But otherwise they are extremely well built. I will scrounge up a pic or two of my old forester. I hydroplaned and ran off the freeway while doing well over the speed limit and took out a guardrail and sailed off a hill and through a field. When I woke up the car was still running and I drove it up the hill to the emergency lane and waited on the medics and police to come. I walked away with a tiny cut on my ear and a bruise on my love handle lol. Sold the car the next week running and driving with no repairs other than tires. I’ll find the pics and post in a bit.

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ChattownOBW

Discussion Starter · #69 · 3 mo ago

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This was my 2001 Forster. I was going through a lot in my life at the time. Getting divorced, having a new kid, drinking and in general being irresponsible. So I was drunk and wrecked this thing after taking a loan for it and only having it 3 weeks with only liability insurance. Lemme tell ya that will never happen again haha. But I was blown away by how this thing handles my wreck. When I went to look at the car at the tow place I noticed there are support beams and braces everywhere on that thing. Really designed to protect the occupants.

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Wreckster

· #70 · 3 mo ago

I know that stage of life, just got through it and awaiting the final papers. Hopefully you got out of it all ok, I was lucky. Haaaard work, but lucky. Rated some of the safest cars for a reason, im more impressed you just drove it back up, incredible.

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ChattownOBW

Discussion Starter · #71 · 3 mo ago

Aside from having to pay a ton of money, which I think is pretty normal, all is good. It’s been almost 12 years and we now get along really well and are both remarried. We split custody with the kid 50/50 and I still pay her a ton haha.
I hope yours all goes smoothly and quickly.

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ChattownOBW

Discussion Starter · #72 · 3 mo ago

Well for whatever reason I felt the need to buy a header the other day. It was delivered so slapped it on only to realize that the skid plate won’t clear it. I could maybe space the skid plate down or notch it. But for now I just put the stock head pipe back on there. Also yesterday I noticed that when I pulled in to my parking spot at home, which is a pretty steep grade, I had to stop because fed ex had delivered some stuff in the way. When I pulled on up to park there were a bunch of streaks of fluid on the concrete. I assume which had been sitting on the skid plate and when I stopped it all rolled out. Couldn’t figure out what it was by look or smell but popped the hood and noticed the overflow tank was full. I noticed this the day that I drove the car home but it hadn’t leaked anymore so I figured dude had just over filled it as he just had all the hoses and radiator replaced. So I sucked about 1/2 a gallon out of the overflow tank to get it down to the full level. I removed the cap and there was no fluid at the top of the radiator. So I put pretty much all the fluid I sucked out of the overflow in to fill the radiator. What the heck is going on here?

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