Hey Tim sorry to hear of your sh!t luck. It's hard buying cars away from your home town hey. Well welcome to the forums and enjoy your stay.

Camo.

Thanks dudes.
Unfortunately, it says on the NSW Office of Fair Trading website that:

In NSW all passenger cars under 10 years/160,000km and under the luxury car tax limit, have a minimum warranty of 3 months or 5,000km - whichever comes first.

Timmi wrote:

Greetings dudes!
My name is obviously Tim, and I'm a total noob here. I've just bought my second car and first Subaru, and so far its been a learning experience... with a very steep learning curve.
When the time came to upgrade from my first car, which was a 1989 Ford Laser that pumped out FIFTY THREE raging kilowatts through a robust 3 speed Jatco auto, I made the trek to Sydney to check out some used cars. The Liberty was on my list, as my mate had one that I fancied.
So whilst in Sydney we visited a certain caryard that specialises in Japanese imports, that had a 1994 Gen 2 Liberty sedan, with AWD and a 5 speed. Perfect. 200,000 odd kms, but in clean and straight condition. The price was right, and upon test driving it felt smooth and in good order. No noises, no creaks, whines, or crunches.
Being from out of town, arranging an inspection by our trusted mechanic was not possible. The car seemed good, no noticeable major faults, and the price meant it wouldn't be hanging round waiting for a decision. Subarus are solid cars, right? After bargaining the price down, a deal was made and it was arranged to pick it up a week after.
A week later the papers were signed and we left with the new Liberty.
Driving down the road from the caryard, a whining, grinding noise is heard from the gearbox/engine. I ALMOST SPEWED.
Fast forward a few days, and our mechanic back home tells us its a [color="SeaGreen"]CACTUS[/color] MAIN BEARING. $1500 for a brand new genuine Subaru bearing (there are no third party, cheaper bearings for the gearbox as far as the mechanic knows), a complete gearbox strip down, clean and rebuild. And to put the icing on the cake, the synchro on third has a foot in the grave.
I got stung. And since the car is older than 10 years, theres no warranty with it.
Sorry about the life story, but hopefully it will let others learn from my mistake.
:alcoholic
By the way, wanna know who the dealers were?

Welcome mate.  :bye:   Hope everything gets abit sweeter from here on in. :new_russi


Might catch you around.

Damn.. that is rotten luck

Both head gaskets blew on my gen1 6 days after i picked it up... fortunately in SA the laws are a little different. If less than 15yrs and 200k they have 3 month obligation to repair.... mine is 14yo and had done 191k... lol yes I had been touting subaru reliability right up to that point as well.. blah

But when all is said and done.... the subie won't dissappoint

I reckon your mechanic should have been able to find a bearing a lot cheaper man... The only subaru original bearing! and $1500 Sounds like a crock of sh!t to me!

Billsy, I think you're right, there has to be some sort of warranty. A few phone calls to the authorities should clarify soon.
And I also find it hard to believe that only Subaru make a replacement bearing... :Dntknw:
Anyway it should be back on the road in a week or so. I'll keep you posted.
Also thanks for the kind words! Such friendly folk around here.

Welcome Mate,

Bad luck with the new purchase mate:angry2:

Hopefully it gets better from her on in!:victory:

Yeah thats what I thought. The guy from the gearbox place said that if the car was a Commodore or something common like that, he'd just chuck another gearbox in. But since the Subies are a little more expensive its cheaper to repair this one, and apparently the synchro won't cost much to replace either.
I'm a little sceptical but I think hes right. I can't wait to have the car on the road, so whichever way will be fastest, most reliable and as cheap as possible I'll go with. Its a pretty reputable gearbox place, so I'll trust these guys I guess.
[color="Red"]Beware[/color], used car buyers! :angry:

theres a legacy 4.11 gbox with 100,000k's on it with matching LSD for $1200 at the moment on a few forums. in perfect condition too.

Yeah, $1500 for everything (disassemble, clean, new gaskets, oil, synchro, and bearing), but now my dad's regular mechanic is going to try to do it for less. Hes going to look at it on Monday.
That Legacy box sounds good, but factor in postage (not sure where it is) and the labour (I'm not confident to do it myself), and it won't save me much dough.
Hopefully our regular guy can do it for less, and I'll also get the part number.
The car has a towbar, which seems well worn. I've been told the last owner must have been towing too much or something, though I have heard of near brand new Subaru bearings spontaneously dying.

even the earlier subaru leones had a "subaru only" bearing in them which costs a sh!tload