1998 Subaru Outback from North America - Comments

I too have a Subaru Outback 2001 that has head problems... leaking oil and water... I have been driving it in spite of the burnt oil smell. I have to say too though that I have been driving a 1993 Legacy for years now. It has 290,000 miles on it. It has some oil leaks but not until recently. I think it has served me well and plan to buy another Subaru. It will be a later model though.

I had a 98 Wagon with the 2.5. It had 229,000 miles on it when I sold it, and it still ran perfect and got 30mpg.

Any car will be damaged from overheating. If you notice your temperature getting too far above normal, you should stop right away and not drive it until it's fixed.

My wife insisted on purchasing an AWD after sliding into the ditch with our Chevy wagon three times in one winter, so we bought a used '98 Subaru Legacy Outback from a Subaru dealer. It had about 65k miles on it. We are now up to about 125k. We have the oil and filters changed every 3-5k miles and keep the car in good shape. Last year, the protective tin around the exhaust started rattling, so a mechanic "tightened it up" (I think he just hammered on it some), then when the problem came back, an other mechanic took some of it off, which "cured" the problem ("Just don't park on dry grass", he said.) This spring, the belt came off the alternator, and wouldn't stay on when it was replaced. Our trusty mechanic said we needed a new vibration dampener/pulley as ours was wobbling. After replacing that, we noticed a lot of oil leaking from the lower front of the engine. Gaskets were replaced, including valve covers, then when that didn't stop the leaking, they tried putting the car up on the lift and running the engine at a high speed because they thought the oil was only leaking at highway speeds (it would get low, but no dripping was noticeable on the driveway). They eventually found that the old wobbling pulley had cut a groove in the water pump housing (right behind the pulley) and it was leaking oil there, but only at high speeds. Replaced the water pump and gasket (second time for the gasket), and that fixed the problem. Last week, my wife drove the car for about 25 minutes and it overheated and stalled. After a $100 tow job to our favorite garage, they charged us $46.00 to tell us it was low on coolant due to a loose hose clamp and had overheated as a result. Two days later, I drove it for about 1/2 hour, parked for a few minutes, then started home, only to have it overheat within 5 minutes. I slowly limped to a friend's house, cooled it down and refilled the radiator, even starting the engine and warming it up to circulate the coolant and fill the system, including the heater. I wondered when I started the engine because there was a mini-geyser from the open fill spout on the radiator, but I attributed that to air in the radiator venting out. I started the 15 mile trip home, watching the temp, and, sure enough, the engine started overheating within minutes. I could tell the coolant was going somewhere, because the heater stopped putting out any heat, despite the elevated engine temp. Another tow job and now our mechanic tells us that he thinks we have a blown head gasket, which is leaking pressure into the cooling system and forcing the coolant out the overflow. This apparently doesn't happen at idle speed, only at road speed. I'm wondering about this problem, because we also had a blown radiator core about a year ago. A new radiator was installed and no problems occurred until recently. On the day it blew, I had only driven about 5 miles on a winding, mostly downhill road, so the engine was not working that hard. Could the blown radiator have been caused by the "intermittent" head gasket problem? Now our mechanic wants $1200 to replace the head gasket. Is this reasonable, or is he just snowing us to make a big wad of bucks? Is there any quick-fix (sealant, whatever) that really works, or are we stuck with a $1200 repair six weeks before Christmas?

I'm sure the Subaru dealer will charge a lot more, from past experience with them, but is this really a $1200 job? The car is still in excellent physical shape (engine problem notwithstanding), and my wife loves it. What is our best course of action here?

Where have you been getting the work done? Please, please use a reputable Subaru dealer for any repairs. They stand behind their work and won't continue to add onto the repair bill time after time.

Continued from thread of Feb. '08. Head work at 157k miles.

I ran the car until 179k miles without a lick of problems. I have since traded in the '96 Subaru OB wagon for a vehicle that suits my job as a Bike Rep... I need more interior cargo capacity.

During the 24k miles of hard highway driving from Philly to the beltways in DC, the car stayed solid and had no problems with overheating since the Head Work.

While my new car suits my job perfectly, I still miss the Subie... especially when my son (6 years old) cried the night we traded it in. Guess I wasn't the only fan of the car!

Given the history of the vehicle, I wouldn't change a thing and would definitely buy another Subaru given the chance. Heck, at least Subaru doesn't need a government bailout at this point!

7 months ago I bought a 1998 2.5L Outback. Last week I had to replace the entire exhaust and then this past weekend our head gasket blew. I thought I had checked the history of these vehicles but for some reason I did not see reports about the engine problems. Now I need to find $2000 to repair an 11 year old car that was supposed to "run forever'.

So here's another one... I bought a used 99 Legacy Outback at tax time as my rattling old dust bucket Chevy seemed to be getting to the point where it wasn't worth putting money into anymore.

The car I bought was from an impound auction and had sat a long time, which is hard on stuff anyways, and probably sped up the corrosion of my head gasket (Only had 8500, yes hundred miles on it). Ran like a new one at first, and really grew on me fast for the months I made the 60 mile commute.

After a month of watching the temp gauge jumping up, then back to normal again, and replacing hoses and thermostat, it finally went up and didn't go back down. I pulled the car over and waited for it to cool, and then topped it off. I made it home without rising out of the normal zone. I found the small leak on the drivers side above the thermostat housing right behind the front plastic belt cover. Then I got online and did a little digging. Did not take long to reinforce what I suspected. With only 17000 miles my head gasket was blown. So much for reliable Subaru.

So now I rattle and clank and eat dust every day on my way to work in my Chevy, but I make it there. Meanwhile my Outback sits in the driveway awaiting me to procure the funds for the parts and to find a reputable shop to send my heads to for machining, and THEN finding the time to drop the entire engine out of the car to do it, which is the ONLY option for a blue collar guy like me.

That's my story... what bothers me most is Subaru not owning up to the problem. I feel mixed about owing another, but their good outweighs the bad. Stay away from the 96-99 2.5 DOHC is my advice. I'm thinking closed deck STI... keep dreaming poor folks.

Bought 2003 Forester X used with 62K on it, and at 72K IT'S starting the infamous 'valve/piston' slap. Got a good deal on it due to its upcoming problems, but want to remedy the problem before the repairs climb too extensively. I will probably take it to the local Subie dealer and drop the usual $2000 and get it over with. This will be my Guinna pig car: If it goes 200000 K after the repair, I'll buy (2) of their flagship vehicles at MSRP!!

We bought a 98 Outback a year ago, very cheap, but the previous owner had all the paperwork showing all the same problems with the head gasket that seems to be a problem. So far so good on the engine and tranny at 133K... I will keep an eye on it.

I just replaced the battery today, and noticed there is some kind of electrical issue. There is a distinct tick tick tick noise, and the dash lights, the tail lights, and both front tun signal lights all flash on and off, every now and then there is a short pause, then back to the tick tick tick again... probably the reason the battery died.

Curious if anyone has had this problem, and what was done to fix it? Thanks.

It's amazing reading all the comments on the Outback. Complaints are all over. I don't know what to expect out of my newly acquired '97, 176k, auto. The check engine light is on, the heater lights don't work, it needed an alternator & battery to get going at purchase. It is, however running good enough at the moment. No cooling issues. Slight miss when cold, clears up when warm. Tranny OK. Rides good. I'm up for the challenge. We'll see.