Somebody posted here about which Subaru's to avoid due to engine problems. Was it 99-2001 or something like that? SilverFox wasn't it you? There's a 99 in town for sale that looks like new and has 115,000 on it.
Yes, it was me. I love Subaru's but I like the old ones with the EA81 engine & 4WD train. They had problems with many of the 2.5 engines and I, personally, would stay away from a 99. The problem was overheating and head gaskets. BUT, when they over heated they warped or cracked the heads easily. Sometimes the blocks even cracked. The car you are looking at may or may not have had the problem, may still be in line to HAVE the problem or may never have the problem. Again, I, personally stay away from 99's up. I was really upset that Subaru did not stand behind this problem. They did come out with a new head gasket (your dime) and a coolant "conditioner" that you HAD to use or your warranty was no good. The "conditioner", of course, is nothing more than a stop leak product. http://users.sisna.com/ignatius/subaru/headgasket.html There are many other articles about this problem as well as the one above.
That's good to know as of this point I don't know which engine is in it. Way back in the spring of 1972, I was 19 years old, in the Navy and wanting to buy my first car. I looked at a Datsun 520 pickup truck with slotted mags and a camper shell. $2,400 was a lot of money. I looked at a Vega with the 2 bbl carb but not a GT. $2,200. At the Chevy dealer was a brand new 72 Subaru 4 door sedan for $1,659. I chose the Vega. Boy was I dumb. But those old Subies were UGLY. No self respecting 19 year old would be seen in one. Only front wheel drive back then with a 1300 cc flat four with the spare tire on top. They even beat VW prices. I'm told that for recreation you could park the Subie and watch it rust. Thanks to Malcoln Bricklin Subaru came to America. But I'd bet they'd last drivetrain wise. Also they didn't have a wagon on the lot. I'm not sure if Subaru had them in 72. If I remember right they only had three lug nuts per wheel.
89 - 94 were good cars. They had the good EJ22 (2.2) engine. Hard to find good one's of those now days, though. They sell high if you do find one because of the problems with the newer ones. However, if you are looking for a 2WD only you may find one around in good shape. The old EA81 doggie engines would do 300K miles with any kind of maintenance. The EJ22 should get quite aways up into the 200's or even 300K if well maintained.
I THINK the 2.5 came in around 95 or 96. Not sure about that...doing this from a lousy memory. I don't know what they have done to improve that engine other than what I have mentioned, but, it was and is my contention that Subaru needed to catch up in the horsepower and engine performance arena and simply over bored that little boxer aluminum engine. When it was 1.8 liters it was bullet proof and the 2.2 liter had a little more performance and was still a tough engine. It was when they jumped it up to the 2.5 that everything went to the dogs. They struggled with it for a number of years and I was VERY disappointed that they just sort of flipped everybody off that were having problems with that engine. And there were a LOT of them. Somewhere along the line have they engineered the problem out of that engine? I don't know. I lost interest after reviewing them up to around 2004.
Subaru guy here, I can help, but you all pretty much got it covered. When it comes to Subaru's motors, unfortunately, smaller tends to be better. The old 1.6 (EA71) and 1.8 (EA81) pushrod boxers in the '70s and early '80s were tough as nails. In '85 Subaru put belt driven overhead cams on the 1.8s. This motor, the EA82 was used in vehicles until '94 (GLs, Brats, Loyales, etc.). The timing belts on these motors are typically good only until 60,000 miles, and typically break at 60,001 miles. These motors are also determed to leak oil at most every seal, and due to a particularly leak prone o-ring right behind the oil pump causing aeration in the oil, can also have very noisy (sewing machine) valve train. Despite all this, these @90 horsepower engines are still typically 300K motors. In 1989-90, Subaru introduced to the US market the Legacy, and with it a new 2.2 liter engine, the EJ22. This is often regarded as the high water mark of Subaru motors, longer timing belt life, four valves per cylinder, NON-INTERFERANCE design (as all Subaru motors prior to this), 135 horsepower, not oil leak prone, 300K plus motors. This is the motor Subaru guys are looking out for to put into their modified offroad machines, and even their late model Outbacks, Forresters and other models that came with those infamous 2.5 liter motors. Yes, the 2.5 (EJ25), came out in 1996, essentially a bored out 2.2, INTERFERANCE (yes interferance :banghead3 over head cam design with a notorious habit of headgasket failure, leading to overheating, leading to warped heads and cracked blocks. These engines typically experience headgasket and/or timing belt failure before 150K miles, and these are the multitude of '96 to present Subarus you can find all day long on craigslist with excellent bodies, perfect interiors, and blown engines. Anyway, from memory I believe that's a good general summary of Sube 4 cylinders. I didn't touch on the other models (JDM 2.0s, 6 cyinders, turbo versions, etc.) because I don't mess with them personally. Hope this helps.
i wonder why then, that the forester is such a tank. i have a buddy who is a mechanic, he said the foresters rarely have problems and are one hell of a car. i know a few people whom are on their 2nd or 3rd forester because they liked them so much.
ALL Foresters are not tanks. Hey, I'm a Suby guy but all that has been said here is well documented, Ian. They may have a tank body, etc, but, if they have the wrong engine they will go down just as quickly as a Legacy.
Don't get me wrong, there is no lack of love for the later model 2.5 Subaru's, as long as their limitations and "quirks" are understood. :2_thumbs_up_-_anima Replacing head gaskets every 150K on a 2.5 is not the end of the world by any means, as long as the all aluminum motor doesn't get overheated to the point of causing other problems. And being religious on timing belt changes, or even doing a "relatively" simple (or at least well documented and laid out) 2.5 to 2.2 swap is not a deal breaker for many either. Others, simply sell their 2.5 cars before they get too much over the 100k mile mark and get another newer model. The benefits of the rest of the car, excellent traction and handling in the snow, low center of gravity, robust drivetrain, decent miles per gallon, etc. make it worth dealing with a few issues. Where I live, newer Subaru's are VERY popular and have a loyal following. The liberal and enviromental types in town like their Subie's "green" practices and their socially progressive marketing. In the surrounding rural mountainous counties, the conservative crowd likes them because they go so darn well in snow and don't break the bank doing it. The gentleman I bought my Loyale from, was selling it because he bought a newer Subaru. I personally have an aversion to interferance motors, but that's just me. So this fall when my son will be commuting to a college, I will buy him a older Legacy (found a one owner '91 Legacy wagon that I'm going to look at this week actually ).
oh mike im not saying any of you were wrong, i just thought maybe there was some exception when it came to foresters. perhaps i'll just stay away from subies. if anyone here is on the gm longroof forums, you know that crovo just blew the motor in his 05 legacy gt turbo while dyno tuning it!
http://charlottesville.craigslist.org/cto/2515284946.html $900 Here's yet another unfortunate sad example.
I have a 96 and it has over 200k and runs great. Only reason I don't use it is that it had a front end wobble I never got to.
