mowog01

Hi all, Not actually my car - belongs to my brother-in-law - but I did all the recent work on it. Came to this forum for advice on the car, and now he needs to sell it, so thought I'd post here in case anyone was interested. Ad is on Gumtree, here: https://www.gumtree.com/p/subaru/subaru-legacy-outback-2001-2.5-auto-rust-free-waxoiled-excellent-condition-1-previous-owner-/1448789458 You're welcome to ask me questions, or contact him directly. Cheers!

Hi all, Hoping for some sound advice as I'm pretty stumped. I'm working on a family member's car, a 2002 Outback 2.5 that failed its MOT on emissions (lambda and CO). It was pretty bad to drive, and often wouldn't rev properly. When I unplugged the rear lambda sensor it started to run OK, so I figured that was probably the issue. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I ended up replacing the whole exhaust because the rest of it was rusty as hell, including a new cat and rear lambda sensor. The sensor I used was a Bosch 'universal' one, though it appears identical the the one that came off the car, just without the Subaru connector on the end. On restarting the car it seemed to run worse than ever, alternately revving to 2k and then almost dying completely. Once again I tried disconnecting lambda sensors, only this time I find that unplugging the front sensor makes the issue go away. Has anyone ever heard of a double lambda sensor failure? Is it possible that the act of undoing the front one from the rusty old cat (it was pretty hard to get out) could have made it faulty? Am I just chasing my tail here, and actually the fault could be something else entirely? Can't really justify the expense of paying a garage to fix it as the car is worth considerably less than a grand, so if anyone has any suggestions i'd be very grateful!

OK, in that case I'll be ordering a new boot rather than a whole new driveshaft. Thanks so much!

Thanks so much for the advice - much appreciated! I've seen a video of the front driveshaft removal, and it doesn't look terribly different to conventional front-drive cars I've worked on in the past. How difficult is it to split the inner CV joint in order to get a new boot on? I must confess I was looking at a complete drive shaft as a quick way of replacing a failed inner CV boot. It's on my brother-in-law's car, and despite the CV boot looking just fine before we sent it off for MOT, it was in two pieces when it came back...

Thanks Jay - that's extremely helpful 🙂

Hi everyone, Quick question: will a front driveshaft intended for a 2001 Legacy 2.5 also be a fit for a 2001 Outback 2.5? I only ask because I can see that new driveshafts on eBay marked for that age Legacy are really cheap, but Outback ones are a bit more expensive, but they look the same to me. (Also, apologies if this isn't the right bit of the forum for this question!)

Hi everyone, Hoping for some wisdom regarding the above. I'm helping a friend (who isn't really a car person) to fix his 2001 Subaru Outback 2.5. We've ascertained that it needs a new lambda sensor, but I'm struggling to find a replacement. I can see there are two sensors going into the section of the exhaust that contains two catalytic converters. There is one that goes in end-on, and seems to run pre-cat. And there's one that goes in from the top, after the first cat. It's this one that is the issue - the car hesitates and splutters a lot, and won't rev, unless you unplug that sensor. My confusion relates to the following... The sensor that needs to be replaced is a four-wire sensor, but when I look on eBay for matching parts I only get three-wire sensors come back. What's all that about? Does anyone know what other sensors (i.e. from other cars) are a match, technically? I found one intended for various Fords and Volvos that looks identical apart from the plug. The only Subaru sensor I could find that has the right connector is this one - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/142804741377 - but that is not listed as matching this car, and is also described as a front sensor - presume ours is a rear sensor? I'll try and add some pics here so you can see what we've got. I'm pretty certain it's original as it was a one-owner car from an old couple, and doesn't seem to have been fiddled with. Would be very grateful for any advice you can offer!