Hello everyone!
I recently became the owner of a 2008 L.L. Bean Outback with the 3.0l H6 engine. It's my first Subaru, in great shape inside and out and I absolutely love this car. However, it's had an engine issue since purchase that's ended up being a much greater problem to diagnose than originally expected. Looking for any and all insight.
Short form car history:
I bought the car with the expectation of it needing a timing job (which was factored in the price) so I'm not terribly surprised, but clearly I was naive to think engine issues would be simple to fix. Not sure how many attempts at fixing it are worth it before considering just a full engine replacement. Any thoughts are appreciated, thanks!
I recently became the owner of a 2008 L.L. Bean Outback with the 3.0l H6 engine. It's my first Subaru, in great shape inside and out and I absolutely love this car. However, it's had an engine issue since purchase that's ended up being a much greater problem to diagnose than originally expected. Looking for any and all insight.
Short form car history:
- The previous owner had the car for 2~ years. 6 months ago, the head gaskets blew, and the original engine was swapped by a mechanic. The new engine was allegedly a EZ30D from Japan that was freshly rebuilt w/ upgraded internals, originally meant to be dropped in a race car but got shelved when the project got scrapped.
- Since the engine swap, the Outback has consistently had a set of dash lights on (CEL, VDC, ABS, Tire pressure) along with a flashing "Cruise" light. The car drives very sluggishly, and has little to no power below 3k rpm, though can manage highway speeds once cruising. The previous owner mentioned that occasionally he'd clear the codes and the car would run beautifully (better than with the original engine) until the lights returned. Between him and his mechanic, he figured it was a crank position sensor, VVT solenoid, or slightly jumped timing.
- After purchasing the car and taking it to a local Subaru specialist, they said that all 3 cylinders of the left bank had a slight misfire, and also diagnosed it as a faulty VVT solenoid. The shop recently replaced this solenoid to no avail, and are now thinking it could be a bad cam gear & burned ECM. They said one last possibility to check before doing more serious work would be a bad oil pressure sensor, which I'm replacing this week.
I bought the car with the expectation of it needing a timing job (which was factored in the price) so I'm not terribly surprised, but clearly I was naive to think engine issues would be simple to fix. Not sure how many attempts at fixing it are worth it before considering just a full engine replacement. Any thoughts are appreciated, thanks!