[dikidera]

The car is at 250k KM and has a few big dents on the rear side from what I think is a minor fender bender, I read that at 250k-300k km is about the the time the engine needs to be rebuilt e.g valves and rings, I may take a gamble with that one, but how can I verify it needs to be opened up? Any particular symptoms? Any info I can glean may get me a price cut. If god is willing, I do plan to take it to an official repair shop to check out before buying, but if the seller doesn't want to, I'd be 50/50 on whether to buy from whatever I can glean.

Also, how can I test the transmission is working correctly? What do i need to look out for when I am driving the 5eat? I've never driven an automatic so...it will be my first auto. E.g upshifting, downshifting or just pedal to floor symptoms to look out for.

Rust. We all know Mazdas used to rust like hell, is it the same for the Subaru?

I do have plans for the car as 245-250hp is pretty weak for this heavy car(0-100km/h is around 10s) and do plan to maybe mod it, e.g valve mods for the 5eat or some performance enhancements on the engine, though I heard the 07 5eat tcu is encrypted or something so maybe no tranny tuning?. Or maybe I won't mod it, depends on the cost.

 

[Flat6er]

1) "official repair shop"..... seriously? they won't do compression test, they won't do leak test, they won't do video of internals of cylinders... (actually - nobody will do that, because that would cost like 4-5hours of labor). but that is only way to get at least some REAL information about engines state.
what they CAN do - check for leaks (maaaan... you can start it right there - if it has leaks, you need to open engine). try to check for exhaust gases in coolant.
you can scan for errors and use some kind of diagnostic stuff to look for bad sensors, how is engine working in sync (both heads... avcs, avl).
2) 0-100 is 9sec from factory. that is one of the ways to test overall state of car, of course.
3) shifting - it shouldn't like "hang" while shifting, it shouldn't change gears with impact.
4) there are people who do something with TCM, but there is no much need - valve mod from [email protected], some ecu tune(from somebody who can alter ecu calibration to work better with valve mod) and you are good to go... to order raptor stuff - https://raptorsc.com.au/subaru/
p.s. where are you from? I don't recognize the flag.

 

[dikidera]

Some bad news - i spoke with a guy who actually went to check out this exact car and took her to a service shop but for Kia lol, as it was closest to drive to. He said the moment he started the car the engine was vibrating and after driving it just a few feet or 100ft, it detonated...loudly although he said it may be spark plugs, coils....or the usual suspect a cracked head. the underside of the car has been repainted, probably to hide rust. Squeaky rear likely due to torn bushings. And much worn out interior than visible in the pictures. However this car is around 30-35% cheaper than other tribecas, and I can drop it at least 5-10% more, but not sure if worth the hassle, I am almost positive the engine needs to be rebuilt.

 

[Flat6er]

cracked head is NOT usual suspect (unless you have some specific, local to you, things happening).
spark plugs, coils and ecu needs some soldering - those are.

about what is wrong - do you have tactrix cable or kkl cable accessible? Tribecas ECU has specific error codes per cylinder about misfires...

bushings - I am assembling list of bushings for all around. fronts can easily be had original, rears are tricky. when I finish - that might become useful.

p.s. Bulgaria?

 

[dikidera]

Haha yes, well there are some specific things, more often not, they say that the right cylinder head cracks, I think maybe because of LPG installation. I have not inspected the car myself, this guy i spoke with kind of put me off, but I may yet look for a different 7 seater tribeca. And yeah, Bulgaria.

 

[Flat6er]

oh... car dealerships... I recently looked at one car for my friend - that sucker was beyong my wildest dreams:

• can I drive the car for a little bit to check transmission?
• no
• can I turn it on to hear engine?
• here are the keys (but battery is DEAD)... come by other day......

I did come up with lowball offer, but that guy was like "aaaand what is my comission on that?"DD

 

[dikidera]

I found another 7 seater with beige color interior, which I like, but I would've preferred if it had the black paint cuz it's grey-ish, with some nice rims it would almost look like a Porsche Cayenne. It's significantly more expensive than the one I showed here, but price does not always equal good cars.

 

[dikidera]

So I went to see the aforementioned car, the interior was almost as if brand new. Well taken care of, now I've never driven an automatic, but I noticed that the car does not have a lot of oomph, that is to say the speed increase is slow. I slam the pedal and the odometer's speed increases too slowly, I am guessing because it's just a heavy car. The gearbox seems to keep the RPMs high before changing to the next gear. And also it's not as soundproof as I thought, around the 80km/h or 50mph mark you can already hear the wind, the engine's RPM is also noticeable even at 2k RPM.

It doesn't ride as soft as I would've liked it, small bumps on the road are easily felt, just like in my current car.

 

[Flat6er]

there is quite of ooomph (at least - should be) for Tribeca(of course, if your current ride is sub5sec car - then it is an old cow
but still - you have to remember that this car was 9sec 0-100kmh from factory.
if not - maf, lambda sensors, fuel delivery... a lot of things can be off.

as of small bumps - most probably - suspension is dead.

 

[dikidera]

Just went and saw another tribeca 3.0 2007, this time the interior was more worn, while the engine was supposedly only at 164,000km. Now I am not sure if it was because they had power washed the entire engine and bay, but every metal part was rusty while the aluminum parts had these white spots. Could this have been caused by detergents or water or does it need to have been acidic or saltwater? I feel like it didn't justify the price the dealer wanted. The engine was also very noisy till it heat up slightly then it calmed down, just like my current car which to me signifies it has a problem.
Btw there is a 3.6 facelift version priced slightly lower than the pre-face 3.0, however i was told it's even rarer and thus more difficult to find parts, I also wonder if it has potential to be sped up via mods like it's 3.0 counterpart(e.g valvebody for the 5eat and turbo for the engine).

My only choice is to buy the previous 3.0 I saw, but it's issues were that the front bumper wasn't well fit to the left fender, not sure if it was from some kind of accident, but having driven a car looking worse than that, it sucks to pay premium(for me) money and get that kind of look and another issue was something was eating away at the paint on said left fender.
My previous choice of an SUV was an Audi Q7 2006 4.2fsi, but I felt like it would eat up my budget and it would still break often or the fuel consumption would bankrupt my wallet. But it also is larger and has more features such as air suspension(pricey to service when it breaks), but it would definitely ride better in my opinion.

 

[Flat6er]

1) make pictures. what you consider "rusty" might be just worn/aged/normal. there are no pictures, videos, not even links to seller webpages - NOTHING real and without your personal opinion(read - nothing objective)
2) "rarer"... yeah, right... 3.0 ended manufacturing at about 2007. 3.6 were used up until ~2019...
remember - sellers goal is to SELL (get your money), not to HELP you.
2.1) from what you describe - there might be issue with chain tensioners, there might be valves needing adjustment, there might be oil pump worn out... there are a lot of possibilities what can be wrong.
2.2) "issue" is misplaced bumper?!!????????????????????????

looking at your choice of cars - makes me thing you either have deep pockets or you are not 18 and don't know where mommy/daddy get their money from...
you are looking at rare (read - higherish end) cars. either, as I said, you have enough money to throw at them (2022-2006 = 16years... ) or you KNOW how it works and can REPAIR it yourself.

and I can bet my whole allowence money - you haven't got yourself 20bucks elm327 and you haven't even read error codes or looked at live sensor data to even see ballpark condition of those engines... am I right?


so - what do you want from us?
may be you wanted to ask us - "I am new to cars, don't know much, have XYZ money, I like Tribeca, I am lokated Bulgaria - how do I proceed? "

 

[dikidera]

Haha. actually I am nearing my 30s, and have in fact got a cheap elm327 clone and have monitored sensors quite a lot on my 20 year old volvo, but it hadn't occurred to me to use it on the cars I looked at.

As for self-repair, it's 50/50 on that, if given the tools to do a job and verify somehow I have done a good job, then sure, but engines that need to be pulled to work on them is definitely not for me, but I digress.

And yes I do like higher-end cars, I love them dearly. Big and sporty e.g A8, A7, Q7, the A7 was my dream car and one day I am sure I can afford it.
A
The thread started out as seeking opinions on said vehicles, but I must have slipped into blogging my encounters rather than seeking advice, because as you said everything I say is subjective and not objective. Next time I will post pics.

As for the bumper, it sort of looked like this https://www.samarins.com/check/img/loose-bumper-large.jpg

 

[Flat6er]

ok, good that you have sense of humour ))

try JDMSCAN (it didn't work for me, but people highly recommend it for Subarus). or Car Scanner Pro (very good software).
for bumper - it does not look anything serious, but it "asks" for checking geometry of car (FSM has a section about control points and distances, but it's a bit tricky to do - especially if on your own).

About higher end cars - I have nothing against it (I personally like them too - maserati's look tempting... charger's... ), it's just a bit unclear what is your approach )

on more serious note - may be it would be best to try to write down checklist for YOUR inspection? and also list of your criteria for choosing car