My return to the Subaru World. 05 LGT 5MT WAGON

Morning LGT Forums!

I've returned to the Subaru world, out of necessity for a family orientated vehicle instead of my single cab Nissan beater truck that I can't pick up my two kids with.

I did have a brief 2 years with an 08 WRX, stage 2. Didn't work out well, lost the clutch and slipped timing almost exactly a year apart. Wife was not happy so I traded for a new Corolla.... yuck.

I recently picked up a 05 LGT Wagon, which fits my want/needs perfectly. I gig over the weekends and need to be able to haul some gear, which this works for and if shes in the shop, I can use my truck.

The wagon has 146K miles on it, in decent shape on the exterior (needs some small dents/rust spots repaired and doesnt show any signs of leaks on the engine ( as for as i can tell from my inspection ). I'm the 3rd owner, the first two seemed to really take care of it as it shows on the carfax being serviced at the dealer. The 2nd owner did a timing belt, water pump & clutch about 30k miles ago.

I don't have any performance modification plans, besides a catback for the subi sound. Maybe lower it a bit and do the JDM DIN swap for a better headunit, goal is to stay reliable with it!

Let me know if there is anything I should be looking for!

Interior is clean minus some small blemishes.

Welcome to the Forum.

My set up has kind of become a model for reliable DD. I have a catted dp, vf52 with a great tune, stock fueling, GS tmic, use Amsoil European 5w-40 and their filter. I sent a oil sample off to Blackstone Labs, I now do 7000 mile oil change intervals.

I check my oil at least once a week, if not twice and always top it off. Never let it get low. I have also found these cars like to driven. Note my mileage. Saying that my other car only has 87,000 miles but when its driven it is for at least 10 miles highway.

IMO these cars don't do well for short drives where they never really warm up. Speaking of warm ups. I start my cars and drive them, I don't let them idle for any time.

Having said that, I also well coast down most hills around my area if I know there's going to be a stop sign coming up. We have long hills, I sometimes coast about a mile.

I'm also not afraid to give the car full boost and high rpm's a few times a week.

Welcome to the Forum.

 

My set up has kind of become a model for reliable DD. I have a catted dp, vf52 with a great tune, stock fueling, GS tmic, use Amsoil European 5w-40 and their filter. I sent a oil sample off to Blackstone Labs, I now do 7000 mile oil change intervals.

 

I check my oil at least once a week, if not twice and always top it off. Never let it get low. I have also found these cars like to driven. Note my mileage. Saying that my other car only has 87,000 miles but when its driven it is for at least 10 miles highway.

 

IMO these cars don't do well for short drives where they never really warm up. Speaking of warm ups. I start my cars and drive them, I don't let them idle for any time.

 

Having said that, I also well coast down most hills around my area if I know there's going to be a stop sign coming up. We have long hills, I sometimes coast about a mile.

 

I'm also not afraid to give the car full boost and high rpm's a few times a week.

Thanks for the input, I will be looking into moving into a 5W-40, not sure if Rotella or Amsoil EU (if I can even get that reliable & cheap around where I live).

I did forget to mention the previous owner did remove one of the Banjo Bolt filters so I do feel a little better about the current state of the turbo, but I want to get in and take a look at it if possible in the coming month.

Pick up some Permatex Anti-seize compound, put it on all the threads on nuts and bolts when you go back together. I even do the lug nuts.

This is the best stuff I have found for helping to remove nuts and bolts.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=kroil+penetrating+oil&form=IENTHT&mkt=en-us&httpsmsn=1&refig=0fd4057b458441039d0406f3367b53a3&sp=1&qs=EP&pq=kroil&sc=8-5&cvid=0fd4057b458441039d0406f3367b53a3

Sprayed the small bolts holding the starter solenoid on my 1986 F150 the other day. Last night I put the 8mm socket and 1/4" drive ratchet on them and they backed right out. They looked pretty bad for having been in there 30 + years.

The car drives and handles fine, steering pump is a little loud under load (not moving forward, but turning causes a audible wine) going to replace the o-ring first, then maybe a complete pump replacement.

I feel like road noise/suspension noise is louder than it should be, like I can literally hear every rock in the road! I had a tire shop check the shocks and the fronts are just barely starting to leak. I am not confident its that alone that is causing it.

Question is - Before I can get under my car, I need this rainy weather to stop, but when I do, should I be looking for bushings/suspension linkage that is worn out? What is you past experience with this?

At this age, the most sensible thing to do is to not look under the car

Hahaha, its hard to resist, but I don't want to fall into the money pit.

Hey guys, sorry for the long hiatus. Work life and 2nd work life and 2 kids have kept me from being active here.

Steering pump has been mended by being fully replaced with a OEM. More expensive, but I have confidence in it.

I now return with a new problem, which I believe only occurred yesterday and today since I have had it from purchase in May.

I know its started to get cold out here and have had several condensation starts, but yesterday it presented itself with about 3-4 seconds of white/possible blue smoke. Got a wiff of it today and it smelled sweet....... if I remember correctly that is coolant. I am going to park it after this weekend and try to get it into a shop/buddies garage (depending on who can/will help as I dont have a garage of my own) and probably go straight to replacing the head gasket unfortunately.

Hoping I might be able to get some pointers on what to watch out for when starting the tear down and anything else I should check while I am in there. Also, do I just go with the OEM gasket? Haven't dug around too much yet on parts for this.

Thanks!

Hey guys, sorry for the long hiatus. Work life and 2nd work life and 2 kids have kept me from being active here.

 

Steering pump has been mended by being fully replaced with a OEM. More expensive, but I have confidence in it.

 

I know return with a new problem, which I believe only occurred yesterday and today since I have had it from purchase in May.

 

I know its started to get cold out here and have had several condensation starts, but yesterday it presented itself with about 3-4 seconds of white/possible blue smoke. Got a wiff of it today and it smelled sweet....... if I remember correctly that is coolant. I am going to park it after this weekend and try to get it into a shop/buddies garage (depending on who can/will help as I dont have a garage of my own) and probably go straight to replacing the head gasket unfortunately.

 

Hoping I might be able to get some pointers on what to watch out for when starting the tear down and anything else I should check while I am in there. Also, do I just go with the OEM gasket? Haven't dug around too much yet on parts for this.

 

Thanks!

Before you go tearing the car apart, check the engine bay over real well. top to bottom. I drove my 08 legacy for about a year with small head gasket leak. I did end up pulling the motor and doing the gasket, which I will never do again. All went great but I will pay a true subie shop lol.

Also GET A CATLESS UP PIPE if you have not already since your an 05. You don't want no problems for sure. If you do want to do gaskets, go OEM or get the whole engine gasket kit from Subaru. If your going to do the gaskets the right way PLEASE PULL THE MOTOR. replace everything you can.

Before you go tearing the car apart, check the engine bay over real well. top to bottom. I drove my 08 legacy for about a year with small head gasket leak. I did end up pulling the motor and doing the gasket, which I will never do again. All went great but I will pay a true subie shop lol.

 

Also GET A CATLESS UP PIPE if you have not already since your an 05. You don't want no problems for sure. If you do want to do gaskets, go OEM or get the whole engine gasket kit from Subaru. If your going to do the gaskets the right way PLEASE PULL THE MOTOR. replace everything you can.

Absolutely will pull the motor if I am replacing the HG, but I do have plans to take it to a good friends house and get a good look at it. OEM Gasket as well.

I hadnt thought about doing the uppipe but if its apart, I will put one on. Any recommendations there?

Thanks,

ihatethewalkingdead, I just started in too. I think we will have some of the same journies.

It may be a bank breaking journey!

LGT forum!!!

Car threw a P0171 Code driving out to buddies, everything ran fine on the way there and came back to Vatozone to have them run the code.

Replaced the air filter and cleaned the MAF sensor and cleared the code at home (unhooked the battery), took it for a short drive. Nothing felt out of the ordinary then either.

I got called into work about 45 minutes ago, I started it and it jumped around RPMs a little, I attributed it to the ECU learning in the cold weather. Driving out, it looked like it would going to stall out a couple times but it kept going. On the way back, I was going through gears and once in 4th it felt like it went flat around 4k RPMs. I backed off and didn't notice anything else.

Took it out for a little harder run once of the Highway and everything seemed to be back to normal, not falling flat.

Sorry for the wall of text, but should all of the oddities be attributed to the ECU relearning?

Sounds like you might have an air leak somewhere.

After resetting my ECU I always see a funky idle and stalling for a few miles, but nothing at higher RPMs.

When resetting the ECU, I’ll turn everything off and start it and let it idle for 8-10 min to relearn idle. When I do that I have no weirdness driving around related to relearning.

If I just drive after a relearn, then it stalls at stops and does other weird stuff.