We're looking to add an AWD car to the fleet, and a 2014 Outback 3.6R Limited (last year of the traditional 5 speed automatic) popped up locally. High miles (225k), but seems to have been well-maintained and is priced well. I'm planning to run a CarFax before we invest the time to look at. I've done some research on here (I didn't find much about them) and other places, and I've found the following issues:
- Typical Subaru oil leaks
- Serpentine Belt Tensioner
- Timing Chain Tensioner
- Wheel Bearings
- Steering shaft
Based on what I've read, the 3.6L sounds more reliable than the 2.5L. Other than the not so impressive fuel economy (18 city / 24 highway / 20 combined), which I'm OK with, what else should I know? Thanks!
I have not seen many of these. The valve covers leak oil and you have to be good at not using your thumbs to access some of the bolts.
Steering shafts is an every car problem, would not worry. At least they are only a hundred bucks or so. The steering shaft for an all wheel drive E46 is $1200 and when the U joint starts binding it can damage the rack. So in the grand scheme of things, it is pretty good.
The only really weird common thing I can think of is that the upstream oxygen sensors can fail intermittently, and when they do the computer sees "OMG LEAN" and adds all the fuel to one bank, which then has misfires. The internal diag strategy does not consider that the oxygen sensor may be faulty, so you get misfire codes for all three cylinders on one bank and the only "tell" is that in the freeze frame data, the fuel trims will be pegged rich on that bank and normal for the other one.
The only critical thing I can think of is that if it needs a converter, your only options are to buy it from the dealer, or to get an aftermarket converter, find that it still sets a 420/430 with the new converter, and then buy the dealer converter that you should have bought to begin with. At over 200k this may be in your relatively near future. Subarus in this timeframe are very sensitive to converter quality and Bob's Mystery Discount Cat won't cut it. Neither will more reputable brands. iATN and Identifix are full of help requests that end with "installed dealer converter, car is now repaired"
Thanks, Pete - appreciate the detail!
