A question for Suby owners??

[love911]

I am going to look at one this afternoon.Its a 2007 outback 2.5L turbo ,128K miles Wagon,owner stated that he had done the heads not long time ago,by the dealer and judging buy the photos exterior and interior looks decent.I need a daily driver very soon and my budget is around 6-7K and always liked these cars.
I know these cars are notoriously known for head gasket issues,and assuming the gaskets are done recently(he said he has the paperwork),what else do I need to check.I plan to take my OBD scanner to check for any history codes in the PCM.
I work in automotive industry but never worked on ,or owned any Suby's ,so I appreciate any advice .By the way he is asking $8500 obo, for it.

[craigster59]

Seems like a good price for an '07. The head gasket issues were mostly in the earlier models, most 2005's and up are pretty solid cars. The turbos had problems in '05 but not many problems afterward.

You can look for an H6 (6 cyl) which didn't have the HG issues and has decent acceleration like the turbo. You also get the added bonus of timing chain vs. belt.

[vash]

Yea. The hg prob was before 05. Our 05 is kicking butt. Just changed the acc belt as the first real maintenance so far. Just keeping the oil and filters clean up to this point. I bet my wife has less than 70k miles on the thing. Oh mpg is embarrassing. Usually 23 mpg ave with our turbo motor. The occasional 19 mpg will come up. Needs super unleaded which sucks.

[vash]

Tough belts too!

[kaisen]

Originally Posted by love911

I am going to look at one this afternoon.Its a 2007 outback 2.5L turbo ,128K miles Wagon,owner stated that he had done the heads not long time ago,by the dealer and judging buy the photos exterior and interior looks decent.I need a daily driver very soon and my budget is around 6-7K and always liked these cars.
I know these cars are notoriously known for head gasket issues,and assuming the gaskets are done recently(he said he has the paperwork),what else do I need to check.I plan to take my OBD scanner to check for any history codes in the PCM.
I work in automotive industry but never worked on ,or owned any Suby's ,so I appreciate any advice .By the way he is asking $8500 obo, for it.

Why are you looking at a $8500 car if your budget is $6-7K?

[love911]

Originally Posted by kaisen

Why are you looking at a $8500 car if your budget is $6-7K?

If the car is as good as it say's it is,and as motivated seller as he sounded on the phone ,maybe I can stretch it to 8K and work out a deal.plus it's only 3.5 miles away from where I live and no Mather what, I am going to look at the car,just to have an experience.I am by no means a tire kicker or time waster.

And thanks for all the responses,very reassuring.

[love911]

Originally Posted by vash

Yea. The hg prob was before 05. Our 05 is kicking butt. Just changed the acc belt as the first real maintenance so far. Just keeping the oil and filters clean up to this point. I bet my wife has less than 70k miles on the thing. Oh mpg is embarrassing. Usually 23 mpg ave with our turbo motor. The occasional 19 mpg will come up. Needs super unleaded which sucks.

Oh men,seriously?Do they need the good stuff(91 octane)?I thought these cars require 87.I got to do some checking.

[vash]

Yea. Super U. My owners manual states I can run regular in an emergency only. ( I'm paraphrasing her)

[craigster59]

The H6 says premium but I usually run 89.

[love911]

I just got an Email from the owner:
" I bought it from a dealer in Idaho 4 years ago. The carfax shows that they got it at auction from enterprise. It had 9,000 miles when I bought it.
No accidents or damage aside from the usual wear you would find on a 5 year old car.
There was a mystery oil leak about a year ago and the dealer replaced the entire top of the engine while it was under warranty. The front axles have also recently been replaced.
The tires are 80,000 mile tires with about 30,000 miles that we have driven on them.
Right now the car needs the windshield replaced and the brake rotors turned. There is plenty of rotor left and so they won't need to be replaced for quite sometime. I can have the items fixed or take $500 off the price of the car".
So as of right now it's 8k car,if I could shave a little more of that,I will be good.
Brake rotors I can take care of and the windshields are I think around max $200 installed.

[vash]

My forester has a windshield with extra heating elements. There are heat pads at the resting position for the wipers. I dunno but the dealer said replacement is big bucks.