legacycentral bbs

So just bought my first Subaru. I'm a technician at a private garage right now, but I went to school for Toyota/Lexus/Scion and was a Honda tech for years. My great aunt stopped driving about 5 or 6 years ago because of age and she gave her car to her grandaughter (my cousin). She just got her license recently and bought a Hyundai. So this cars been sitting there in her driveway for 5 or 6 years. Her mom calls me and wants some help taking it to Pick N Pull. I show up and look at it. It's a 1991 Legacy L sedan with only 57,000 miles on it. VERY VERY little rust (welcome to NY) So I say "no way, I'm taking it." It just so happens that I spent 12 hours the day before putting a front mount intercooler, bigger compensator valve, bigger turbo and customizing the front bumper on her sons Audi A4. So she said "give me $50" Yes ... $50. So I got it home and got it started after a couple hours and she leaked aaaaallll over my garage. I had to replace the steering rack, all the lines, the oil pan, and the tranny cooler lines. Everything was rotten from sitting there. But after that and a tune up she runs like a champ. Luckily my local Pick N Pull has a dozen or so Legacys so I can get about any part I need. Now I'm thinking turbo swap ... I'd just hate to get rid of such a low milage engine. Does anyone make a turbo kit for it?

I have to say that I am in love with Subarus now .... so easy to work on ... the engine is designed so well. I can't say enough good things about it. I will probably never buy another Honda again. Infact my mom has been talking about getting a new car and I kept trying to get her to buy an Acura or a Lexus ... now I'm trying to get to her buy a Subaru HaHa ...

Welcome to the board.

These cars won an award in 1991 for being one of the easiest cars to work on in America. I basically learned how to work on cars on mine, and as a result, I almost can't work on anything else... just because most everything else seems unnecessarily complicated to me.

Personally, I'd make this car a daily and leave it alone. These came new off the showroom floor with more than 57k miles. It sounds like you've already fixed the only thing that would ail a car that old with that few miles... fluid leaks.

Enjoy!

Seriously, these cars are tanks and better than nearly anything you could buy new. I'd keep it reliable and get another one if you want a turbo. Change the steering wheel and you'll get much better road feel. Cars that are already turbo aren't too expensive to find. Mine's got almost 270k miles and I'm restoring it so I can sell my Mazda 3 as the Subaru is still a better car, hell, I included it in a 4-book series.

You'll find nothing but commiseration on the superiority of older Subarus on this forum... with the exception of a few *ahemwankersharumph*

Welcome! I used to live near Moravia, beautiful up there.

DerFahrer wrote:most everything else seems unnecessarily complicated

word. the subarus are just packaged so nicely. you can get power tools on almost all the bolts that you would want to. not a ton of knuckle banging. the way they are put together just makes sense most of the time. you can have problems with rusted bolts on a lot of the chassis especially up in your neck of the woods xander, sometimes those leaky cars are the easier ones eh.