Help! me buy the right used soobie. Please!

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jdsolomon 20 years ago

For a few weeks I've been furiously looking for a Soobie wagon to replace my dead Jeep. I thought I had finally found the one today. Its an '96 outback wagon with 127k, a new clutch, and a new timing belt. And what I was really excited about was that it had the 2.2L that everyone here raves about instead of the 2.5L that everyone says blows head gaskets. And the price was right. It didn't smoke at all when revved up at the operating speed (the first of the cars I've seen that didn't do this) It even handled well. The transmission sounded a little worn, but I was willing to overlook it until I looked under the vehicle.

I noticed a very good amount of oil on most of the bottom of the engine. When I traced it it seemed to not be coming from the pan, but rather from the driver side cylinder head. Okay, its probably just a valve cover. No big deal.

Then I noticed oil drips on the bottom of the timing belt case, on both the passenger and driver sides! And thus, instead of buying my dream car, I walked away disappointed again....

My question is: Is this as big of a problem on this car as I think? Or, is it a common problem inherent to the design that doesn't effect really effect the timing belt. It is a timing belt and not a timing chain, right? If it is a belt, is there anyway the oil could be dripping from BOTH sides of its case, and yet the belt is dry and not stewing in oil and grit?

Also: Is smoke from burning oil when you tack the car up to 5grand or so something that most all of these engines do over 100K, or is it reasonable for me to believe that I can find another that won't smoke when I stomp on it a little?

Finally: Are there any specific flaws that I should expect to find in all Subarus, but ignore b/c they won't effect longevity, and how about the things that I might miss, but really need to look out for?

BTW, I've got $3500 to spend, and I really want to find a manual trans wagon, in the ny,nj,ct area, and, I need it within a week.

Any help or words of wisdom you guys can give me will be much apprietiated! Thanks!

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Stephen H 20 years ago

The cam seals are leaking. Common problem; if you know how to do timing belts and cam seals it's not a big deal, and a soobie is a great car to learn on.

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jdsolomon 20 years ago

I don't know how to do timing belts or cam seals..... The extent of the work I've done on cars is brakes and oil changes....I do, however, have people who know what they're doing to call on if I mess up, but they geographically far away. I am mechanically inclined, I just have no experience with this stuff. Just how not big of a deal are we talking about here? How long would it take someone with little experience to do it? How much for a shop to do it?

And, correct me if I"m wrong, But, you are saying that I definately would need to do something about it soon?

I talked him down to 3000bucks btw...

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johninKY 20 years ago

Are you sure it has the 2.2 engine? I'm sure someone will correct me if I am wrong but I thought only the Legacy got the 2.2 and all Outbacks got the

2.5. I wonder why the current owner did not have the front seals replaced when the timing belt was done. It would have only added a few more dollars to the total repair bill. Based soley on this I would look for another car.

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lkreh 20 years ago

I think you're right. I'll hedge my bet by saying I'm not certain, but I don't think the 2.2 has never been offered in a U.S. Outback. Either the poster's mistaken or someone put a 2.2 in it.

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jdsolomon 20 years ago

Actually, the 2.2L '96 Outback is offered with the manual transmission, after '96, this was no longer the case, and you can't get it with automatics....

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Body Roll 20 years ago

I think I was the only one raving recently. And as much as I post to this group I'm hardly "everybody".

2.5L probably works better with automatics, but I think FHI could just as well resuscitate 2.2 or 2.0 in the cars with standard transmissions if they can't get the 2.5i engine to be easy to live with under 3k rpm. By "easy to live with" I mean that the power is delivered in a pleasant way as opposed to what happens now in the 2.5 with no turbo: press on gas and get "now what?" response from under the hood. "Okay, so, you wanna go, right? Press okay if that is correct". Two seconds later the engine spools up to 4k rpm and you have some power.

Did anyone drive 2.0 and 2.5 WRX back to back and can nitpick about the difference in the way the engines WITH turbo feel? Was 2.0 much happier spinning up and the dubmed down STI engine is?

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Sheldon 20 years ago

6 years ago I got '90 Subaru Loyale (with the 4WD button on the shift knob) that had 135,000 miles on it. I had a new water pump and timing belt put in, but that was the most I ever spent on it. Bought it for $2500 and sold it for $1500. When I sold it it had 175,000 miles on it and smoked a bit on startup. Also had a persistent oil leak. Otherwise, it ran great and still had plenty of pep.

I paid $5500 for a "97 Outback to replace it with, and the car is fully loaded with only 35k on a new engine. I live at a ski resort, so Outbacks go for a premium here, but I think if you can come up with a little more money you could find yourself a really nice car with few if any problems. Just make sure to get it checked out by a reputable mechanic before taking the title.

I guess if the car drives okay, my question would be when was the timing belt changed? They usually do a bunch of other things when the timing belt is replaced, and it's not a cheap service that does need to be done on schedule.

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Help! me buy the right used soobie. Please!

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