i've decided that buying a huge 8 year old diesel 4x4 truck right now is not smart and i should just keep my older, lower miles gas engine huge truck for heavy towing.
so you may have to put up with me asking a bunch of questions about crap i don't know about. my only subaru experience is with my 02 wrx, and that has a v8 so i basically have no subaru experience.
i found an 80k mile 04 XT turbo in virginia, it looks spotless in the pics, at a dealer, for 11k.
is the 2.5T a headgasket timebomb? from what i can tell it's stupid fast in a straight line for a little suv wagon type thing that otherwise people would expect not to blow their doors off.
others being considered are tahoe, acadia/traverse, and who knows. the acadia and others scare me because you can't see the engine when you open the hood, like gm wants me to not be able to fix things myself. and they get full size v8 mileage with a dohc v6 in a not fullsize body.
The Forester XT block is more or less identical to the same year of STI - it'll have multi-layer steel head gaskets which aren't prone to the same failures as the non-turbo laminated gaskets.
They're stupid fun cars with that 4.44 final drive, especially once you change out the boost pill.
Obviously, get a compression test done if you have any doubts about engine maintenance.
The timing belt comes up at 105k mi. Do the idlers and tensioners at that point, don't skimp out.
I'd like to think as long as you took care of the head gasket in due time, you should be okay..
Oh, it is worth noting that they can be made to handle, too, but that will destroy the ability to take it off-road.
I used King Springs at stock ride height to stiffen it up a bit, an STI swaybar in the rear, 17 inch rims and I also got rid of the steering rack. I used an STI rack but a WRX rack will also fix that problem for less cost.
Head to the Subaru Forester Owner's forum.
http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/
Here is mine:
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/2004-forester-xt/55111/page1/
My wife has one as a DD for the past 5 years or so. Bought it with just under 70k and its now got 111k. I've had to do pads, clutch, both front axles and the rear wheel bearings. Also did the timing belt recently and should probably do shocks soon. They are a bit maintenance intensive but are decent for diy and info is out there for everything.
I'd gladly sell it for less than $11k if she would let me since I want something that can tow.
To be honest its great fun in a straight line or rallycross (I've trophied a couple. See my garage for pics) but its rolly polly in the turns on pavement.
They run high rpms on the highway and have lost of wind and drivetrain noise. They get high teens - low 20's average running premium.
Her's is stock aside from a catless up pipe, 3" downpipe, sti muffler, and sti rear sway. A light tune at stock boost levels just turn off the cel after removing the cats.
No head gasket issues, but be aware of the ring land issues. Lots of cracked ring lands in these engines, and the stock tune is part of the problem.
https://www.google.com/search?q=subaru+ringland+failure&biw=1366&bih=624&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=YH_dVJ_EIoGdgwSM04PwCw&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ
In reply to DirtyBird222:
Even more telling is that you can do a Google search for "ringland failure" without the "Subaru," and you still get mostly Subaru pictures.
By this point it probably has had the TSB taken care of for the banjo bolt filters. If not, take care of that.
Headgasket should be a non issue.
Compression on cylinder four and rust are your things to watch for. Look if the heat shield is still on the turbo. If not that is a warning sign that it has been modified and put back to stock.
the ring land stuff and everything i read about the banjo bolt in the turbo oil feed would scare away most people. if it were for me, i would go look, but being for my wife and her tendency to not listen when i say things like "let it idle when you get to work to cool the turbo" maybe the subie is not the proper choice.
You don't need to idle it to cool the turbo.
You only need to idle it if you are on heavy boost for a long time. My 07 never had an idled shutdown in the 4 years I owned it.
The early ones are faster than the later ones because of the gearing. The automatic is horrible either way. That and just the overall noise is why I sold mine. I also wasn't too convinced in the build quality of the car long term.
The automatic is fine if you're not planning to race it and actually a little better if you want to take off-road or on the beach. Just remember that "2" and "1" exist under the "D"
