1992 Legacy Station Wagon

[BoB (archive)]

I'm looking at a 1992 Legacy SW at a auto shop - it's for sale with no warranty, but at a price of $1500. What should I look for before deciding to buy? Any warnings?

Many thanks.

Bob

 

[Carl 1 Lucky Texan]

what model is it? how many miles?
torque bind would be unique to many AWD vehicles like Subaru. Other than that - normal car stuff. I suppose there may be a slight reputation for the following to be a concern; oil leaks, timing belt tensioner knocking, piston slap, rear wheel bearings, burned out dash lights.

anybody else?

carl

 

[hippo]

Carl 1 Lucky Texan wrote:

Air suspension? Nice but fronts last about 60K miles and rears about 90. Check for evidence of hard towing or a corrugated floor - will shorten trans life regardless auto or manual. Radiator tanks can leak. Misaligned windows causing excessive windnoise. CV boots (especially outers) seem more prone to splitting than most fwd systems - esp when you lend the car to someone else "just to drive around." Yeah right! I believe that rear of driver's seat cushion is prone to collapse after high mileage esp with a heavy driver.

Whatever model check that cambelt has been changed on schedule. If you can't verify, then try and beat them down on price to cover the job and do it now*. Cam belt idler bearings often start to seize upwards of 90K miles & maybe water pump too. ECU failure (2nd hand isn't expensive). Stereo displays can lose characters. Oil buring or heavy oil use is atypical and indicates a problem. Avoid!

That's my experience over the latter 220K Km of our traded at 332K Km 91 mnl wagon. Other than some ofthe above, it had routine services, the odd set of brake pads and several sets of tyres. Bascally, if it looks good and drives well, then that's a good start. Cheers