What failed on your Second Generation Subaru today?

Let's see.. I'm starting this thread so those of us with a Subie that falls apart a little bit more each day, can come vent about their frustrations and discuss it with everyone else.

Part of my exhaust broke today. So now it is obnoxiously loud. This on top of finding out that I may need to replace the head gaskets.

Nothing failed (it's dead, so there's not much room for more failure since I can't drive it) but this seems vaguely relevant since I partook in the complaining on the "what did you do today" thread.

Somebody (who, when identified, will find themselves having to extract a 4-door sedan from their colon) left beer cans on my rear bumper and cigarette butts scattered around the trunk cover.

How disrespectful of other people's property can you get?? My car is parked right outside my window, which is always open. I heard people laughing and talking after midnight, from down by the parking, but I live in off-campus student housing so drunk people are commonplace, so I didn't bother to look outside.

They must've been literally leaning on my car, drinking and smoking and putting out their cigarettes on my car. People I don't know. I'm pissed off.

*crickets chirping*

Seriously. We're talking about a late 90s Subaru. Just put "does not include head gaskets, or cupholders" and we can go ahead and close this thread.

Right, because everything else is bulletproof. Nobody has ever had any problems with sensors, sun roofs, timing belts, oil seals leaking like a sieve, crank pulleys falling the **** off, transmissions eating themselves, center diffs crapping out, axles, filler necks falling apart, rear wipers burning out or seizing... Yep, nothing but head gaskets and sticky cupholders.



As of last night my water pump is toast. I miss driving it already... borrowed my mother in law's Taurus to get around while I swap in my freshened up motor. This thing is unresponsive, floaty, and feels cheap compared to the scoob.

Originally Posted by Stang70Fastback

*crickets chirping*

Seriously. We're talking about a late 90s Subaru. Just put "does not include head gaskets, or cupholders" and we can go ahead and close this thread.

Good sir, would you like the entire list of things that have failed on both of my Subaru's??

Well, don't bother asking. I'm going to tell you anyways, lol.

I had my 96 GT 4EAT for about 6 months before anything went wrong. By that time it had seen many redline shifts, off road driving at least 2 to 3 times a week, a few trips to the mountains ( I think this is what did my gaskets in. The car overheated on my 15th trip up the mountain to the slope-side house. I had to bring everyones stuff up because no one else's car could make it up. It was impossible to get up by foot either. SUBARU FTW!), and only about 7k miles total.

I drove around on blown head gaskets for about 4 or 5 months before I could afford to repair them.

I've had to replace the:

head gaskets ($350)
steering rack ($100)
both front axles ($150)
coolant ($200 or so worth over time)
radiator ($140)

Total put into it to keep it going mechanically - $940

And that doesn't count my windshield, anything else I had to just replace, or the failing center diff...

A few thousand miles after replacing the gaskets, my motor developed a rod knock. Spun a bearing due to the amount of times I overheated it.

Well, at about that time I had just about enough with the car. So, I put it in a corner of my friends yard. And there it has sat for several months now.



That brings us to my 98 GT wagon 5MT. The car that is out to destroy me....

I bought it on May 24th for $2,000 and since then (minus about a month and a half of being non-drivable it has seen about 11k miles. Most of which have been rather hard, with me rushing here and there all the time....

I knew it needed a few random things, but nothing seemed mechanically wrong with it. The timing belt, water pump, all the tensioners, clutch (shitiest thing ever), and the head gaskets had been replaced. It had a slight misfire, an exhaust leak, a bit of front end damage (I will NEVER purchase another car that has seen any structural damage even in the slightest), a fog light out, a broken rear view mirror, a sloppy shifter, a small exhaust leak, and the absolute tiniest bit of bearing noise.

Some of the things that have broken since then:

Clutch ($200)
rad fans (replaced with sedans rad and fans)
Axles ($150)
exhaust coupler (haven't fixed)
a shredded tire ($35 used)
A/C condenser ($30)
trans mount ($8) Thanks Swagon!
bent tie rod (replacing rack with one from sedan and getting car aligned)
my damn motor seized out of nowhere due to failed oil circulation ($300 plus for a new one)
head gasket ($50)
I now need struts and an alignment ($500)
I now need to replace another effing head gasket ($70 gasket kit / 50 for gasket)
throttle body failed (replaced with spare)

total of those things - $1,393

All that in just a few months of owning it when nothing should have gone wrong.

I've had a bunch of other things break or fail on me that I haven't even listed. Every time I turn around something goes wrong or breaks out of nowhere. I also have to get tires for it and replace a few other things. So that's another $600 or so into it. That's double what I paid for it. $,4000 freaking dollars. A car that's worth only $3,500 at the most with all the work that I've put into it.....

Yes, I purchased an eBay seal kit, which now has me replacing every seal I can possibly find. Already did 4 seals & replaced them w/Subaru browns. Now another leak has sprung from the cam cover on the passnger side. Yes, I TQ'd everything to spec according to the FSM. I did NOT cheap out on the rear main, thank god.

I bought my wagon with a bad alternator back in March. $800.
Had the shop selling it replace the alternator for me (Didn't realize it was a ten minute job back then). $150.
Two CV axles installed, four tires mounted and balanced, 4 wheel alignment, inspection, a battery, a replacement alternator for the replacement that blew up, power steering pump, serpentine belt, 10 wheel lugs and nuts, and one of those awesome headlight restoration kits in the silver package, I'm out about $600. Ya, I work at a parts store and know some dealerships techs

$1550 spent so far. Everything except ABS works, but I'm due for a timing job, the clutch is ready to go, and I'm leaking oil from Every. Single. Seal. So it's time for a relatively cheap swap.

I ground the transmission only twice today, because either my clutch cable is bad, needs more lube or a synchro is going out. Some days are better than others...

Other than that, we had a pretty decent day together. We held hands, and listened to the weatherband and made fun of VW owners.

Lol VW. Those germans have Ray Charles figuring out how to wire them

How has this thread not been created before?

I have no idea John. Don't question it. Just go with it.

1300 to fix all of that shit is a pretty good spend, triple that to even do half of that here...

Timing belt tensioner bolt started wobbling when I started the car so I killed it by pulling the MAF sensor plug & found that the bolt sheared out of the back plate. This is just not my weekend at all. RAGE. D:<

What style tensioner? I have a spare "old" style backing plate that I could possibly spare to part with lol

Originally Posted by DOHCEJ22E1

Timing belt tensioner bolt started wobbling when I started the car so I killed it by pulling the MAF sensor plug & found that the bolt sheared out of the back plate. This is just not my weekend at all. RAGE. D:<

Dude same thing happens to my white LGT two weekends ago. I cannot complain because the bolt surely had to be over tightened from the previous owner, because all of the other idler bolts were over tightened.