Another Newbie seeking buying advice on Outback 3.0

[MrD]

Hello Subaru experts!  I've never owned a Subaru so hopefully someone here can help me with a potential purchase:- 

I'm looking for an estate, fun-to-drive, weekend/occasonal use, big enough to lug the family around (2nd car).  I've heard great things about the Legacy/Outback 3.0 H6 being 'bulletproof' and have seen a couple advertised for sale locally.  I test drove a Legacy last weekend and was instantly smitten.  I know a little bit about DIY car maintenance and I'm not afraid to get stuck in.  It looked sound mechanically and drove great but it had a very sparse service history, so I walked away.

The other car I've seen is a 2006/56 Outback Rn with 99k on the clock.  I haven't viewed the car yet (I've arranged to this weekend) but the photos look good and the seller has been helpful enough to send me pics of the service history.  It looks to have been generally well serviced (every 9k/year) but there is one instance of it going 18 months / 16k miles between services between November 2012 (56k) and May 2014 (72k) .  Is the H6 engine 'bulletproof' enough to soak that up?

I've seen warnings about the Y pipe, rear arches and potential HG leaks, which seem to be common themes?  I've read something about tensioners?  No evidence of any of these items being done.  What are these likely to cost and am I likely to have any other big bills as it turns 100k miles?

All told, assuming the car drives and presents well, what should I expect to pay for it (ballpark)?

Thanks in advance for any help

[HawkSTI]

Welcome 👍

Legacys are great cars, and like you say are renound for there reliability. 

Id say for the criteria you've mentioned though, before you settle on a legacy outback it might be worth trying an impreza wrx estate. It might deliver better in the fun/weekend aspect. 

Legacy will be more comfortable, and have more toys so it really depends on which of those 2 things you want the most. 

I cant help you with the mechanical side as I'm not really clued up on the 3.0 engines, but definitely check for rust, including under the car. 

[Greenmamba]

@MrD

You need to know the Legacy and the Outback are different cars. The OB has greater ground clearance and additional plastic body plastic panels underneath as well as the visible bits along door panels etc. while the Leggy is better suited for normal road work. Similar platform overall though.

The v belt pulleys should be changed at 100k. Tensioner on this and the timing chain when a) the former is losing tension, and b) when the chain starts getting noisy (actually there are two timing chains) would need changing if symptoms emerge.

Wheel bearings sometimes give problems around 100k and above. Otherwise, the motors generally don't give problems, the gap in service you mention wouldn't worry me unduly.

[MrD]

Thank you HawkSTI and Greenmamba for your feedback/advice and pointers on what to look for.

I spoke to my local independent Subaru specialist earlier today to get an idea of prices involved for those items - thankfully nothing too shocking when the time comes.

I'd never even considered the impreza estate, although having looked at a few on the net, I prefer the look of the Outback.

Fingers crossed that the Outback lives up to expectations when I see it this weekend.

[TiminYorkshire]

How was the Newcastle Outback?

[majik_thighs]

Yes, we`re waiting for the news!

I`ve had my 3.0 RN for 4 glorious years, after owning three 2.5 ltr Outbacks I kind of know these inside and out.

 

[MrD]

Okay all, sorry for the delayed response and thanks for being patient.

Saw the car last weekend.  It has a few age related marks and looks to have been used off road a few times, which is probably to be expected!

It had a CEL on as well as the TC light and flashing cruise.  Have been looking at this with the seller this week.  P0026 & P0028 came up - I'm not too concerned about these as a good service, oil & filter change (which is now 2 months overdue) might hopefully sort this.

More concerning, the auto transmission was reluctant to shift from 3rd to 4th on a couple of occasions during my test drive under hard acceleration. I'm no boy racer but I'm looking at the 3.0 H6 for a reason and I want it to work when I do put my foot down!  There are no transmission related diagnostics codes (which I thought might be present if there's a faulty shift solenoid) so I wondered whether the P0026/0028 would be causing this(?) but I can't find anything to suggest the two are related in any way.

As yet, I'm still not deterred since I haven't seen too many of these cars come up in my area.  If it's a minor or relatively inexpensive fix I'm wiling to take a chance...

That said, if anyone here has had any similar issues, bad experiences with the auto boxes or is able to offer an explanation as to the possible cause I'd love to know....

Many thanks.

[majik_thighs]

It would need to be cheap with those problems!

The only negative is you don't get much warning of wheel baring wear. As soon as you hear any noise it needs changing asap or it will sieze in the hub.

 

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

 

[Greenmamba]

Shift changes issue might be influenced by either low/or overfilled tranny fluid or the condition of it. Good fresh fluid might sort it. It also may be affected by the fault codes - the engine ecu talks to the tcu.