2005 Outback 3.0R

The wife's L.L. Bean Edition stealth wagon. This thing MOVES!

EZ30 flat six with 250 silky smooth horsepower

5EAT auto with 5 well spaced ratios

So far I've:

Changed the oil from unknown to Pennzoil Synthetic blend 5w30 (7 friggin' quarts!) and the filter from a brand I've never heard of to a purolator.

New windshield wipers

New O2 sensor to replace the one the stealership had replaced since they stripped the threads in the bung then welded a nut onto the bung using the downstream sensor as a means of holding said nut (I assume) while it was welded and putting it in an upstream location. (pics to follow)

Nice berkeleying "weld", jackasses!:

The reason I assume they welded the nut while the sensor was in it is because when i tried to remove the sensor it backed out 3/4 of a turn then tightened up and the nut broke off. I assume had the sensor been screwed into the nut after welding I would have been able to remove it since it had only been in there for a few weeks.

I cleaned up the threads the best I could then installed a new upstream sensor but the check engine light came back. P0420 code; running rich.

Took it to another Subaru stealership today to have them dig into the ecu and see what the deal was. they wanted to flush the fuel system for $170 and replace the cats for $840 each even though they themselves said the cats are fine. Somehow this turned into a stealership rant...

I may as well have set my money on fire.

I just finished cleaning the PCV valve and if that doesn't help I'll keep ticking things off the list until the CEL goes away for good.

I've been shopping around for tuning shops and ECU re-flashes and it looks like either Xtreme Racing or RomRaider are the way to go.

Anyone have any thoughts, experience or opinions?

Build-threading my car, I see...

I must say, even with the issues we've had, I LOVE my car. And yeah, that service bonehead can berkeley off. The moment he told me my car had an EJ25-varient and that I was 'completely wrong' that it has an EZ30, I was done. Him pretending I didn't exist was just the icing on the cake. /rant

More blurry pictures of the E36 M3ty welds. I guess I'm as good with a camera as they are with a welder.

The threads that look like they've been ground on a bit:

Storage space!!!

The all-important all-weather floor mats:

Once you get some miles on it, I would be interested to know the mpgs.

I also changed the brake fluid from O.E. grungy black sludge to Valvoline DOT3 Synthetic. It's really cheap and has a decent dry boiling point; 484 degrees. Wet is 311 degrees.

In reply to singleslammer:

With the P0420 code on (running rich) around town has been about 19 and our trip to Springfield netted 22.6 overall at 75+ mph, IIRC.

That's hypermiler around town mileage coming from the Burban!

Nice car.

With the superfluous engine cover:

The look I prefer:

In reply to Woody:

Thanks.

The Scoob photobombing the Outback's thread:

I'd say it's due for a new one.

Wife washing Outback:

Shiny Outback:

Nice!

Woody wrote: Nice car.

Thanks! I like it an awful lot

I thought we grilled all of the hot dogs... oh, that's my neck.

The Scoob is all done!:

Get your Subaru out of MY Subaru's thread, dangit!

The '97 is the first and third, the '05 is the sixth.