1998 Subaru Legacy

Sedan

4 Cylinder 2.5 Liter

Automatic

4s3bd6752w7202999

All Wheel Drive

Gasoline

Power Windows

1998 Subaru Legacy GT with 165 horsepower 2.5 liter engine, automatic transmission, and all wheel drive. Well-equipped w/ sunroof, leather, power windows/locks/mirrors, alloy wheels, and 6-speaker AM/FM/weather band/cassette/CD player. COLD air conditioning! The body is WAY above average for the age and miles. Doors close with a nice "thunk". This is my son's first car; he attended an in-residence high school about 3 hours away and drove home every weekend - and put 21,000 miles on it in 3 semesters. It was comfortable, reliable, and very easy to drive. Now it seems to have a head gasket leak. As it warms up it pushes about a quart of antifreeze into the coolant recovery tank and the overflow hose bubbles as long as the engine is running. It doesn't actually LOSE any coolant; once it cools down I suck it out of the recovery tank with a turkey baster and put it back in the radiator. I drive it to work sometimes (22 miles one way) but don't trust it for long trips. What I've learned from scouring the bulletin boards: this engine (2.5 DOHC) is infamous for this particular problem. At the time, Subaru used a head gasket consisting of a single layer of metal with a graphite coating on both sides. The graphite slowly erodes away, and eventually you get a very small (the thickness of the missing graphite - probably only a few thousandths of an inch), one-way, internal leak (see internet photo of a bad gasket). The leak is usually too small to show up on a compression test; the symptoms are bubbling from the overflow hose and random overheats. Subaru's replacement gaskets (and several aftermarket ones) are multi-layer steel (MLS) and seem to be a permanent fix. There's an excellent article (with photos) at http://allwheeldriveauto.com/a-better-subaru-25l-head-gasket-in-seattle. It's still a good-looking, nice driving car and definitely worth fixing, but I just don't have the time right now and am hoping to sell it "as is". Repair options: Replace just the head gaskets (about $80.00). I'd also replace the cam seals while the heads are off. Advantage: cheap! Disadvantage: still a 168,000 mile engine.Put a JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) engine in it. They're widely available for about $800 (google "jdm subaru ej25") and supposedly very low miles. Advantage: pretty cheap. Disadvantage: still have the crummy single-layer head gaskets.Do an "as required" overhaul: disassemble the engine and have a machine shop redo the heads and measure the crankshaft and cylinders for wear. If everything's within limits put it back together with new rings, bearings, gaskets, seals, etc. Looking at the rebuilt engines for sale on the internet, most have reground cranks but very few had to have the cylinders bored. Get a new or rebuilt shortblock and have the heads redone. john.subieguy has a remanufactured shortblock for $999.99 (eBay item #290395537972). Subaru sells "hybrid" shortblocks (including oil pump, oil filter, oil pan, water pump, thermostat & housing) for about $1800 -- the bulletin boards say they're rebuilt by Cummins. Subaru also sells brand-new, made-in-Japan shortblocks for about $2000.Buy a rebuilt engine. EngineUS.com sells longblocks with improved MLS head gaskets for $1595, and subaruguys have them for $1650 (eBay item #320542569923).What else is wrong with it? There's a scuff on the front bumper, driver's side. It has an oil leak on the front of the engine, passenger side - probably a cam seal, which would be easy and cheap to replace when the heads are off. The CD player doesn't work. There are 4 small holes in the leather (cigarette burns?) -- 2 on the driver's door, 1 on the passenger door, and 1 on the passenger seat. Big enough to notice in person; too small to show up in the photos. It has some newer parts: the left front half-shaft, timing belt, water pump, serpentine belts, etc were replaced @ 145,283, the right front half-shaft @ 147,746, and the catalytic converter @ 160,054. On Jun-05-10 at 12:46:43 PDT, seller added the following information: Autocheck shows an odometer issue. I can't prove it, but I think the report for 02/14/07 is a typo. All the other reports show a reasonable trend: 06/14/05: 89,005 03/13/06: 97,562 03/23/06: 97,653 02/14/07: 12,251 10/04/07: 145,283 (milage on the receipt for the timing belt, water pump, etc.) 06/04/08: 146,626 (when we bought it) 06/05/10: 168,846 (milage today) We have a complete logbook from 146,626 to the present: every tank of gas, oil change, or significant maintenance. Autocheck also shows a title problem. Kind of a long story, but here's the short version: When the owner before last sold it to the last owner he couldn't find the title (apparently lost it during a move) and requested a duplicate from the state (NC). The last owner sold it to us before the duplicate came through. A few weeks later the duplicate arrived, was signed over to us, and we have a clear MS title with no issues. Call me at (662) 429-8866 for the long version...