2001 Subaru Outback
 

I've been thinking a lot lately on how I can improve the efficiency of my wife's Outback. Right now it averages around 27 mpg. The only mods I have done to it are removing the crossbars on the roof racks and removing the mudflaps. I also have synthetic motor oil in it. I plan to switch to synthetic ATF and gear oil, because I know that the AWD system is a weakness when it comes to efficiency.

One question I have in particular is that could I see a measurable difference from a mild air dam? I'm thinking about making it drop down about 2", which would cover a lot (but not all) of the parts underneath of the vehicle. I haven't come across any examples in my search of people testing a smaller air dam. In theory, a 2" air dam could in no way increase drag, correct? I plan on installing it towards the rear of the front bumper.

zerohour had a popular post and tried a lot of things on his Subie. Here's the thread:

https://ecomodder.com/forum/showthre...-5l-14034.html

Those older Subarus are tough to coax more fuel economy out of, especially the automatics. I sold a 2007 1 month after ownership partly because it got terrible fuel economy, and partly because it handled worse than my 1996 Legacy.

I'm actually already familiar with that thread. He did some things which I'm interested in trying, such as straight-piping the intake, which is a little controversial in the car community.

Surprisingly subaru has gotten worse instead of better. I've seen threads on a subaru forum where people are getting high teens to low 20s in their 2019 outback.

I'm hoping that the mods I've listed will help push the car to over 30 mpg consistently.

The thing is that after all of his efforts, he traded in for a Mini. I tried some things with my Forester and just bought my Civic.

I ended up replacing the head gasket on both, but it was way easier on the Civic.

I don’t see what’s so bad about straight piping the intake? It just adds some noise, maybe freeing up a couple HP in the process... they say you lose mileage with a dirty air filter and I went the other way, de-restricting the entire intake and exhaust system with no losses so far that I can tell...

And look at how much bigger Subarus have gotten in the past decade or two... an Outback used to be a Legacy with a 2” lift, and now it’s much much taller...

I looked at the new Subaru’s because my sister in law was looking for a new car and all the new models that I saw had a cvt automatic.

I think you can still spec an Impreza, WRX, or Crosstrek with a manual, but most new Subarus come with the Lineartronic CVT. No idea who makes the unit however... it may be good and it may be crap

I've read that air resonators help keep air intake at optimal levels or whatever. I think you've convinced me to go ahead with it. Lots of vehicles don't have them anyway.

I really hope I don't have to fix the head gasket. I'm suspecting that it is bad because of cloudy coolant and for some reason the radiator keeps pushing coolant into the overflow tank...

Getting a different vehicle doesn't really make sense at this point, because I had to spend a lot of money on repairs when the oil pump went out...

The biggest restriction to the air intake is the throttle, so what "they say" about a dirty air filter is not true unless you're talking about a carbureted car. A dirty air filter essentially lowers the power at wide-open throttle.

I have no experience with CVTs, but I suspect they hold up pretty well when used by a steady foot, and not so well for those that treat the accelerator like an on/off switch, constantly accelerating and letting off, with no care to make slight adjustments.

:eek: You need to find out before more damage occurs!

This sounds like the sunken-cost fallacy. When I looked at my Forester, the salesman showed all of the parts that were "refreshed." With so many new parts, it was sure to be reliable!

It had a history of breaking down.

I spent more in repairs than gas before I replaced the head gasket.

Selling the car and getting another old one is quite the gamble, and I certainly do not feel like selling it after spending almost the value of the car in getting the engine fixed by a shop.

It would just be nice if it was like my jeep; (almost problem free).

About the head gasket: I think the only way I can diagnose it is to drain the coolant again to see if my new coolant got cloudy. There are no leakage spots underneath the engine where the headgasket is. I'm not sure how else to diagnose the problem.

Have you used an exhaust gas tester?

Or a radiator leak pressure tester?

So an update on the Outback:
I took it to the shop yesterday. They confirmed for me that there is some leakage from the head gasket. Since the gasket is pretty much new, they put some stuff in my coolant that will hopefully plug the leak over the next few days.
If the Subaru gets fixed then hopefully I will get some work done on it! It has averaged 27 mpg most of the summer. I will be aiming for 30!

Stop leak is extremely controversial. Some people insist that it always works unless you do something wrong. Did you carefully follow directions and it failed? Obviously you did something wrong! Some people insist that one product is the miracle cure and everything else is snake oil, but that probably supplies to every product. Shouty Kilmer has several videos promoting different stop leak products and I remember he poured one product into a cup and showed that it was clear and green, without anything to clog up coolant systems. For a while Subaru ordered all of their dealerships to use a stop-leak product, but I do not know how that worked out.

This is what Eric the Car Guy says about it:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=76GpMD4LIwY

After checking the car today, it appears to have done the job! It definitely is not worth paying somebody like $1600 to do the job and I do not have the means to do it myself right now. I'm confident that it will last the life of the head gasket. The car runs perfectly right now which is a good sign.

That video was very informative, and I think I should keep an eye on things to make sure my cooling system stays in working order.

"Appears"

My experience with those stop leak products is that they fail quickly, if they seem to work at all, leaving you ultimately with a bigger bill to do not only the repair that they were intended to help you avoid, but also whatever they clotted up in the meantime while you were putting that off.

I wanted to like my Forester more than I did but when the EJ head gaskets failed, the replacement is usually an engine-out job. I think you should save up and get the job done right at the soonest opportunity.

Even if a stop-leak product works perfectly, which is a big if, what is to keep it from clogging everything else?

Flushing the coolant?

I don't really see the controversy in this. Sure, it is a quick fix, but if it works it works. And time will tell how well it works. And that will be determined if the fix lasts 100k miles, which is probably when I will go in and actually change the head gasket myself (I think I will still want to keep the car by then).

I used a well-known stop-leak product when the radiator on a Ford 500 sedan I owned began leaking while towing a travel trailer on a camping trip. I stopped at an auto supply store and pored it in. The leak stopped and did not reappear as long as I owned the car.