New here, looking at buying a 2005 5MT Legacy GT Wagon

Hi everyone,

 

I've been set on purchasing a manual Legacy GT wagon for a while now, and have been looking for about a month.

 

I'm heading out to see a 2005 Legacy GT wagon tomorrow and have a couple questions about what I should watch out for.

 

It has 99K miles (160K km), and has been running a Cobb Accessport, K&N CAI, and Borla exhaust from day 1. Should I be concerned about reliability at this point? How many more miles would you expect from a subie at this mileage (assuming it's well-maintained)?

 

I'm planning on checking the turbo oil filter issue, getting it professionally inspected (if all goes well).

 

Thanks for your help, I'm looking forward to joining the community!

Welcome to the site.

 

I just bought a 2005 wagon about 2 months ago myself.

 

Drive the car through all the gears and when you are in 1st-3rd make sure you listen for any grinding sounds or metal on metal type sounds as it would indicate a throw out bearing that is possibly bad. Put the car into 3rd and from 2000rpm floor it to about 4000rpm and see if you notice any slippage with the clutch. Check the Brake rotor surfaces to make sure they aren't scared from something scratching along them like a rock between the pads and rotors. Check around the turbo coolant lines and make sure they are clean and not dirty and look around the turbo side of the intercooler to see if there is signs of oil seeping out. check the tabs on the intercooler and make sure they are all securely around the end tanks and not appearing to be popping off. Pull the dipstick on the oil and see if its fairly clean and what level it is at. Ask the owner when he last changed the oil and pull the dipstick and see the level and condition of the oil. Check the air filter as well as its a sign if he does any kind of regular maintenance. The air filter is probably one of the most things I see that people don't take care of like they would an oil change etc.. It requires a cleaning and changing just like anything else though. Get a flashlight and look down at the cv boots also to make sure they are good and not throwing grease out. If you see grease around them on on parts around them then I would worry about things like axels that are dirty and potentially damaged.

 

There seriously is tons of things you could check and I'm sure the place you take it to will check them all. From a visual standpoint though you can check the oil condition, air filter, axels, turbo, intercooler. Also take a look at the auxiliary belts to see if they have any cracks or tears that are visible.

Ask if the rear wheel bearings have been replaced. They're known to go bad and can be replaced under a recall. Make sure the rear wiper, washer and tailgate lights all work. The wiring from chassis to tailgate is prone to failure after years of flexing across the joint. If it's a Limited, check the sunroof operation and edge seals carefully. Any hiccups in operation or tears in the gaskets will be expensive to fix. Driver's side window switch will likely be sticky. It's one of those "they all do that" kind of things, so it's not unusual, but judge it accordingly. The dash may squeak or rattle over bumps. Again, another very common issue and not something to be overly concerned about. You can keyword search the forum for any of these issues for further details. Good luck!

Thanks for the replies! I'll check out what you two mentioned.

Does anyone know of a reputable shop to have a Legacy GT professionally inspected in Richmond/Delta/Surrey in B.C.?

 

I did quite a bit of searching on the forums and other websites and couldn't find any recommendations other than the shops in North Vancouver and Squamish.

For anyone who comes across this in the future, I highly recommend Garage Japan in Surrey (no affiliation). While not a Legacy GT expert, Koichi was familiar with the vehicle and his service and honesty was excellent.

 

Oh, and I'm now a proud owner of a 2005 Legacy GT 2.5 Wagon (Kolb GTX version, but that will be a thing of the past soon enough)!

Congrats! I had an '06LGT Sedan and loved it!