Which one of you in Rhode Island is this?

GUYS I DID IT!!! This is how to make your Subaru air conditioning stay just as cold as it gets hotter this summer:

Go to your local Home Depot, grab some pipe insulation and aluminum tape. Slide the insulation around your LOW pressure A/C line, and wrap it with aluminum tape.

How it works:

Subarus are notorious for not having great A/C, and that’s mostly due to the low pressure line (cold line) running over the exhaust. The line is bare metal, which heat soaks from the engine. Directly above the exhaust. By isolating that line from that heat, it can keep much much colder! And not be prone to heat soaks nearly as much!

Last year I purchased a high mileage 96 GT Turbo. It had about 362 000 km on the clock and 25 previous owners, so I am proud owner number 26. First picture is the moment after purchase. I drove it 1000km home without any issues, although the car had many issues. Brakes were terrible, lots of weird noises, wheels rubbing up the rear arches, almost no travel in suspension in the front so it was a rough ride. After a week the blow off valve flew out and knocked off inner axle boot and its contents greased up the exhaust. Blow off valve was just shoved in the hose and not clamped in. So that was the first fix. I changed engine oil, filter, air filter and coolant next.

I drove it for 3 months, barely used any oil. I checked coolant 2 times in the month after changing it and it was good, didn't check it later. One day the coolant temp went up and I pulled over asap. I let it cool down, checked the coolant and it was low. No visible leaks, nothing on ground. First thought was headgaskets. Took it to a mechanic and they told me it was leaking from the water pump. So new water pump and timing belt. When I picked it up again, I couldn't even get home before the temp went up and when I took it back the second time they told me it was headgaskets, both of them. They changed the headgaskets, heads were in good condition and was put back in after machine shop. They told engine was in good condition and after I got it back engine's been great.

The car is originally pre face lift, so I also put in pre face lift grill and headlights, hood isn't easy to get cheap so haven't gotten around to it. The brakes were terrible and front springs were too, one of them were snapped. All wheel studs were cut to fit spacers. With good help from one of my friends I got to fix it by myself. Front brakes were STI Brembos and I wanted to fit 15" rims so they had to go anyway. Rear were stock brakes, very rusty and easier to just replace. Got a new set of stock brakes all around, painted them, new discs and pads. Braking is a joy compared to before. New springs in front made the car much more comfortable as well and I got more ground clearance, no wheels are rubbing anywhere.

It has clearly been through a lot and it shows. Headgaskets, water pump and timing belt kit has been costly, but the engine runs great. I was expecting it to be worse when I bought it. Really enjoying this car and now it's it for up a classic car event. As it is 30 years old now, it's a classic. The event is a long roadtrip with a big group of classic cars. Never done anything like it before and it will be fun with this car. Hopefully it won't let me down.

The plan when I bought it was to build and register it as a rally car. It is still my goal and I hope I can make it happen!

Hi all. Spotted this legend at one of my customer's today. Is this a real 1998 22B? To me the rims look off, but I'm no expert. I would have loved to ask the owner, but the pilot I originally suspected as that person walked right by it and got in a Hyundai Elantra.

***edit I notice this is left hand drive. Thinking it's not real.

Sedan Swag

Should I or should I not. I’m an avid car guy but have not owned a manual in 20 years. Learned to drive on my dads Toyota T500 at 17 years old. Drove it for 2 years then had a hodgepodge of cars over all of my years. Currently own a 2016 WRX CVT as a daily. Want to go back to manual and are willing to trade in current car. Should I or should I not?

Just moved to a snowier area and picked up a 2022 Onyx XT. When I shopped coverage, the quotes I pulled for identical limits were hundreds of dollars apart per 6 months. Same car, same driver, same address. I knew i am supposed to compare but i didnt expect the spread to be that wide on a car with some of the best safety ratings in its class.

What are you paying ballpark and was the spread that big when you shopped too. Starting to think the car matters less than whichever zip code formula each company runs.

Hey folks, I may be in a bit of a pickle and am trying to get ahead of it.

Long story short, my current vehicle (2008 Ford Explorer, 160k miles) has some repairs that need to be done that are more expensive than the car is worth, and me/my family have already dumped so much money into the car just to keep it limping along.

So I will probably be getting a new car soon, and I’ve been looking at getting a Subaru for years. Many of my friends have had them and rave about them, and they do fit a lot of my requirements. Of course, now that the time is (potentially) upon me, I’m starting to get anxious.

I’ve mainly been looking at a crosstrek. I’ve only driven large cars (prior to my current one I drove a minivan, and I learned to drive in a Chevy Traverse), and I absolutely don’t need a true full sized SUV (and I can not continue to do the gas budget). However, I live in the middle of nowhere that receives a LOT of snow, so having AWD is sort of a must have, and I don’t love the idea of a true sedan.

Budget is a bit of a concern, so I would be looking at used. Right now I’m looking mostly at 2018 Crosstreks with 100-120k miles as those are mostly in my price range (trying to stay below $20k, preference would be under $15k but I also know the used car market is atrocious right now so I’m trying to be realistic).

My daily commute is minimal, but I am making ~1000mi round trip drives a few (3-4) times a year. I’m also planning to move into a bigger city in the next ~5 years, and I’m hoping I can make whatever car I get now to last beyond that.

Any advice/expertise would be appreciated. Thanks, and I hope to be joining the Subaru family at some point in the future!

Hello everyone,

I was pursuing reddit for car buying advice and am fairly new to Subaru. I’m looking to buy a newer car soon (used, not brand new) and hear nothing but good things about Subaru. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

I’m not a “car guy” per se, but am willing to learn. I did not learn how to drive stick (yet), and am looking for a reliable daily driver with a road trip sprinkled here and there. My preference is automatic but am not opposed to manual. I’d want to have the car for a while (5+ years min)

I was looking at the WRX and really like the design, but the consensus I get is that you really should buy a manual one. Some were suggesting the GT trim for automatic.

Any suggestions?

I need some advice on my Subaru. Recently my check engine light came on. I took it in to Subaru and they told me I need a new transmission. I was quoted $9k…
My 2021 Subaru crosstrek sport has 90k miles and I’ve always kept up with its maintenance. Right now my car still drives fine. There’s no strange noise or slip or anything of that sort. I was able to drive it home. But now I’m considering buying a new car. I’m bummed because I really love the cool grey khaki color of my subie and I put a lot of work in it.

Edit: I’m also not under warranty anymore.

Any decor ideas are welcomed I'd love to add some whimsy

I finally got this 2018 Subaru Impreza hatchback 50th year anniversary edition. I'm so happy for two reasons because this is AWD and it's a 2 liter 4 cylinder boxer. I've only had inline 4 cylinders before that were front wheel drive, so it's good to feel something new.

Due to this being a very special and limited car, with only 550 being made in America(that's just the hatchback's not the sedans included). Some people might say, oh, you should keep that thing low mileage and then sell it for big money. My response to that is hahaha ha no. The only person who own this car was my therapist and she is a travel therapist so you're gonna rack up some miles. In fact she has racked up 125,000 miles and I'm going to continue driving it till the day it dies.

One last thing is, I have thought about modding this car out to be a rally car, but due to their limited production numbers of it, I have decided not to modify it.

I have a 2009 Outback 2.5i with the H4, non-turbo with 160K miles on it. The head gaskets have probably been blown since I bought the thing at 117k miles. There has always been oil on the bottom of the oil filter when I go to replace.

I check the oil level regularly and really don't have to top it off that much between my regular 5K mile change intervals.

I was replacing my catalytic converter this weekend and was able to confirm drop of oil forming on the bottom side of the engine where the head meets the block.

The engine oil is always clean, no forbidden milk shake, no overheating. SO my question is: How risky is it to keep operating like this. It is my daily driver, we take it on road trips, etc. Is there a high risk of this external head gasket leak turning into an internal one? Looking for a gut check from those with anecdotal evidence. I've love this car and have put quite a bit of money and sweat equity this year with a timing belt kit, rear wheel bearings and now OEM cat. Would love to give myself a little more time to save up for a cherry picker (or potentially professional) to replace the head gaskets.

Bought the car brand new near the end of 2024 from dealership.

Took it into the dealership after front driver side brake caliper seems to have been sticking / and having grinding / vibrations when releasing brake.

They checked the front and back calipers stating they're fine but both front and rear left brake pads are essentially metal on metal and right side brakes close to the same point. 80% driven on the highway which is pretty ridiculous for them to be gone like this unless they used the cheapest brake pads I've ever seen.

On top of that they wanted $1800 before tax to change the brakes and rotors which would be $600/hr for labour. Going to pay a ridiculous diag fee of $170 before tax and going to take it to my mechanic now to check.

Also tried to contact their support and [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) is no longer in service and 1-800-894-4212 was a dead line which I tried calling 5 times with dial tone response.

Pretty disappointed in general with this brand now and probably won't buy another one of their vehicles in the future.

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Edit; So I got into contact with the corporate customer care with the new number and shortly afterwards got an email saying;

Regrettably, the replacement of components under normal maintenance, such as brakes, pads, rotors and any other element subject to normal wear and tear, is not covered by warranty. These are the responsibility of owner, along with maintaining the vehicle as per the maintenance schedule.

Ironically their own maintenance schedule is 24,000km and that's only overall inspection.

Anyway, went to the dealership and the service manager couldn't really believe it so had them test drive and check all brake calipers and besides them running low on grease they're perfectly fine and since I live in Ontario even said there's still almost no rust still after the two winters.

So far he delayed the diagnostic fee and is going to talk the regional manager next week as he really wanted to push for it to be fully covered or me just paying the labour fee and taking it back after 10,000km to see if it happens again. ( Would've done it without any issues within first 18 months but needs to argue there's no clear signs of the car sitting and even then at worst they should still last at minimum 35,000km )

After many, many set backs and issues, I’ve finally put together my hybrid EJ251/22 build. It’s been an adventure, first time ever doing an engine build actually. I don’t recommend it as a first experience though, this was hard. You don’t have official specs to rely on so without experience you just have to trust the mad scientists who came up with these builds years ago. Otherwise, it’s been a fun experience, and I definitely learned a lot about cars that I didn’t know prior to this.

Will I do it again? Probably not, if this one fails on me I’m buying a proper EJ22 and putting a turbo on it.

I am looking into buying a nice and safe SUV, with AWD so it’s good to drive in snow and rain. I am between the Kia Seltos and Subaru Crosstrek.

I love how the Crosstrek looks, the only issue is the screen. I feel it is a bit janky, and I’d be using Apple Car Play, but I’ve seen some videos where it looks really slow and has a slow response time.
Is this true?

Just curious as to when the Subaru factories stop production on the 2026 models and dealerships will no longer have in transit inventory on the way?

It seems my local dealerships haven’t posted in new in transit stock in a bit.

It was actually fixed a while ago, but I figured I'd update the people who remember.

Original: https://www.reddit.com/r/subaru/s/soQCEDsNqz

In a crazy string of events I had my 2023 Subaru Outback stolen yesterday in Cleveland. I was able to call Subaru and activate the MySubaru service to track my car for the police. They definitely crashed it at least once, stole the contents and the rear view mirror. The one thing that made me laugh was that all of the seatbelts were buckled in. That dinging noise must have drove them crazy!

2019 Crosstrek with 116K.

AT temp light flashing and this code.

I assume I need a new valve body (would go ahead and replace the whole thing instead of just one solenoid - the other solenoids may be near end of life too).

But wanted to check if anyone has any other thoughts on this issue. Thanks!

My radio stopped working. It won't play, won't show stations, won't do anything. My Subaru dealer says there is a 'TBI' relating to this issue and there is a 'radio update' that fixes these issues. "This is a lengthy, 2 part update that does involve a bit more time than the newer radio updates."

Anyone know what they are talking about? What kind of updates have to be done by a dealer and cost $311?

My CarPlay in my 22 Crosstrek premium has stopped working and charging. I’ve reset the infotainment system a couple times to no avail. Any advice?