20th Aug 2007, 10:49

I have a 2000 Outback Wagon with 61k miles. I have owned 6 Subaru's since 1985. Never had any major issues with my previous Subaru's. This 2000 wagon has had many problems with the brakes. I have read all the previous comments, but have not seen too many issues with the brakes. Yesterday I came home from work and parked my car in the garage. About 10 minutes later I went into the garage to fetch something. The garage was filled with a light haze of smoke. The smoke smelled like a rubber scent. I checked under the car and didn't see anything leaking, etc. I opened my garage door to let the garage air out. Today I drove the car without any problems, nor did I see the engine light on. I checked for a smell and didn't smell anything. Has anyone else had this problem?

21st Aug 2007, 21:37

I have a 2000 outback legacy. I am a Dodge person who thought I would try another vechicle. I am very unhappy with the my Subaru, and will not buy another one. The wind noise drives me up a tree. The engine light comes on, and there is a smell of gas.

6th Sep 2007, 21:25

Fix the wind noise.

The wind noise problem can be solved on Subarus by lowering the window, and pushing on the triangular plastic housing that the window slides down into as it is lowered. This plastic piece, with rubber seal, spreads as the door is opened and closed especially if you pull on the window. Lower window and slowly, carefully apply pressure on the plastic piece and you will see the two rubber seals come back close together. When the window is raised the window fits tightly between the two rubber seals, car will run silently without the horrible wind noise. Do this once a month or so to keep the wind noise away. Let all Subaru owners rejoice...

11th Sep 2007, 11:20

I have a 2000 Outback with about 78,000 miles on it. I have done all maintenance at the dealer. Car has been pretty good until this year, when I had to replace the knock sensor and the right CV boot.

Current issue is that it appears the door lock on the driver side door has fallen inside of the door. So yes, I have a hole in my door and a bothersome rattle. Has anybody else experienced this, and did they shame subaru into picking up the cost of the repair?

26th Oct 2007, 11:49

I have a 2001 Outback (Auto) and my wife has a 03 Outback (Stick). Mine was reliable till this year at 135,000. Having 3 previous subarus I fully understand their problems. The ck engine light will always come on after the 80,000 point and changing the cats and sensors only turns off the light 50% of the time. I do all the maintenance on my vehicles and find Subarus extremely easy to work on. My 01 has experienced all the problems listed by others except the tranny problems. (Same with the 03) Head leaks, oil leaks, passenger CV joint boot tears are a given with subarus. The good part is that if you add oil protectants such as prolong, they will run no matter what you do. I ran my 91 with no coolant for 150 miles and it still ran after that even with antifreeze coming out the tailpipe! (It was a beater).

For those of you that have brake problems. Especially for those of you that live in areas that use salt on the roads. Listen up! You have warped rotors right?! Your brake pads must be custom fitted!! This is a must. If you do the brakes yourself (which is easy) you have to grind down the ears on the pads to add extra clearance. As the pads rust the clearance decreases which causes the pads to bind in the calipers. Which in turn warps the rotors and shortens the life of the brakes. An added benefit is that your mileage will go up!! This technique is not known to the Subaru community (Works for other vehicles too). I figured this out after replacing the brakes on my wifes car after the dealer attempted the warranty fix twice.

As stated by others there is no other vehicle in this price range (21,000 to 28,000) that even compares to what you get. The closest vehicle in price is $35,000 and still doesn't get the same MPG. 25.5 mpg (mixed driving), towing, snow and mud. I've pulled 5600 lbs from ND to NY. I hunt and fish and have driven this places where a 4 WD gets stuck. Thru 2 ft of snow with no problems. I beat on my vehicles and expect to pay the consequences. The two trucks I had before this got half the mpg and broke twice as much. On top of that they got stuck in the mud and snow everywhere they went.

Pointers: Change thermostat every 60,000, radiator cap 60,000, belts 60,000. use synthetic motor oil, put black tape over the ck engine light, have your brake pads custom fitted and put on new rotors if they warp - don't bother turning rotors for a Subaru - the warp will come back.

Good luck to all - the Subaru is a great car if you can deal with it's issues.

3rd Jan 2008, 10:07

I have a 2000 Outback that runs like a top at 120K miles. Great car. Have had some maintenance problems, but mechanical things do wear out and need to be fixed!

But I too have the check engine light and gas smell problems. My dealer pinpointed the check engine light to some performance monitoring sensor that would cost about $400 but doesn't really do anything of concern. So I live with the light on.

I hate the gas smell. It seems to be worst in cold weather. I read another post where someone said it was due to fuel injector rings/gaskets. Anyone else heard of that or verified?

12th Jan 2008, 19:43

My wife and I bought two 2000 Outbacks in 2006. Our burgundy car has been nothing but fantastic so far, in no small part due to the previous owner's upkeep of the car.

On the other hand, our blue Outback has been slowly killing me! I had to have the cat converter replaced at 82000k, two thousand miles beyond the warranty ($1063). Then we had trouble with the transmission hesitating as we went from park to drive. It hesitates intermittently. It may do it two days in a row, then not for months. I took it to the dealer and they replaced the transmission fluid ($90) and said if it continued to do it to bring it in again. The service manager said it may need more work to fix this problem. I just let it go, but just today my wife said that she was stopped at an intersection and the car wouldn't go forward! In fact it drifted backwards, causing my wife to slam on the brakes and wait until the transmission engaged again! I don't know what to do with this car! I head might explode if I have to put in a new or rebuilt transmission into this car! My Honda Civic had 169,000 miles without a problem. Any thoughts or ideas for the transmission problem?