Vehicle
Subaru Legacy
The saloon and estate the Outback is derived from, and the older half of Subaru's community knowledge. Almost anything documented here applies to the Outback of the same years, which is worth knowing when a search on one nameplate returns nothing.
Generations
-
BC 1989–1994
The car the EJ boxer arrived in, sold as the Liberty in Australia. North American Sport Sedans and Touring Wagons run the closed-deck EJ22T, which is not a turbocharged EJ22E and does not share its internals — 8,199 were built, so a parts lookup by displacement alone will be wrong on one.
- Body styles
- Sedan · Estate
- Platform
- Subaru Legacy
- Engines
-
- 1.6 H4 — EJ16 · petrol · 138 Nm (102 lb-ft)
- 1.8 H4 — EJ18 · petrol
- 2.0 flat-four — EJ20 · petrol
- 2.0 turbo flat-four — EJ20T · petrol
- 2.2 flat-four — EJ22 · petrol
- 2.2 turbo flat-four — EJ22T · petrol · North America 1991–1994; Sport Sedan and Touring Wagon
- Transmissions
- 5-speed manual · 4-speed automatic · 5-speed manual with dual range
- Drivetrain
- Front-wheel drive · Symmetrical all-wheel drive
-
BD 1993–1999
Where the EJ25 arrives, and with it the head-gasket history that decides whether one of these survives; the cam-belt interval is the other half. All-wheel drive became standard on North American cars in 1996, while Japan and Europe kept front drive alongside it.
- Body styles
- Sedan · Estate
- Platform
- Subaru Legacy
- Engines
-
- 2.0 flat-four — EJ20 · petrol
- 2.0 turbo flat-four — EJ20T · petrol · sequential twin-turbo, Japan
- 2.2 flat-four — EJ22 · petrol
- 2.5 flat-four — EJ25 · petrol · 190–238 Nm (140–176 lb-ft)
- Transmissions
- 5-speed manual · 4-speed automatic
- Drivetrain
- Front-wheel drive · Symmetrical all-wheel drive
-
BE 1998–2003
Symmetrical all-wheel drive on every car, with no front-drive version anywhere, and the only Legacy of this era offered with a flat-six. The EJ25 head gaskets and the cam-belt interval still decide the outcome on the fours.
- Body styles
- Sedan · Estate
- Platform
- Subaru Legacy
- Engines
-
- 2.0 flat-four — EJ20 · petrol
- 2.0 turbo flat-four — EJ20T · petrol · twin-turbo, Japan
- 2.5 flat-four — EJ25 · petrol · 190–238 Nm (140–176 lb-ft)
- 3.0 flat-six — EZ30 · petrol · 162kW at 6000 rpm and 289 Nm at 4400 rpm
- Transmissions
- 5-speed manual · 4-speed automatic · 6-speed manual
- Drivetrain
- Symmetrical all-wheel drive
-
BL 2003–2009
EJ engines; the head-gasket history of the period belongs here as much as to the Forester.
- Body styles
- Sedan
- Platform
- Subaru Legacy
- Engines
-
- 2.0 — EJ20 · petrol
- 2.0 turbo — EJ20 · petrol
- 2.5 — EJ25 · petrol
- 2.5 turbo — EJ255 · petrol · GT
- 3.0 flat-six — EZ30 · petrol · 297 Nm (219 lb-ft)
- 2.0 turbo H4 — EE20 · diesel · 110 kW (148 hp) · 350 Nm (258 lb-ft)
- Transmissions
- 5-speed manual · 6-speed manual · 4-speed automatic · 5-speed automatic
- Drivetrain
- Symmetrical all-wheel drive
-
BM 2009–2014
The CVT arrives, and a boxer diesel is offered in Europe.
- Body styles
- Sedan
- Platform
- Subaru Legacy
- Engines
-
- 2.5 — EJ25 · petrol · 123–127 kW (165–170 hp)
- 2.5 turbo — EJ255 · petrol · 123–127 kW (165–170 hp) · GT
- 3.6 flat-six — EZ36 · petrol · 191 kW (256 hp)
- 2.0 diesel — EE20 · diesel · 110 kW (148 hp) · 350 Nm (258 lb-ft)
- 2.0 H4 — EJ204 · petrol
- 2.0 turbo H4 — FA20 · petrol · 205–400 Nm (151–295 lb-ft)
- 2.5 H4 — FB25 · petrol · 123–127 kW (165–170 hp) · 209–241 Nm (154–178 lb-ft)
- Transmissions
- Lineartronic CVT · TR690 Lineartronic CVT · 5-speed 5EAT automatic · 6-speed TY756 manual
- Drivetrain
- Symmetrical all-wheel drive
-
BN 2014–2019
FB25 with the CVT throughout; the Outback of the period is the same car raised.
- Body styles
- Sedan
- Platform
- Subaru Legacy
- Engines
-
- 2.5 — FB25 · petrol · 127–129 kW (170–173 hp) · 235 Nm (173 lb-ft)
- 3.6 flat-six — EZ36 · petrol
- 2.5 H4 — EJ25 · petrol · 127–129 kW (170–173 hp) · 229–238 Nm (169–176 lb-ft) · South Africa, Outback
- 2.0 turbo H4 — EE20 · diesel · 110 kW (148 hp) · 350 Nm (258 lb-ft)
- Transmissions
- Lineartronic CVT · 6-speed manual
- Drivetrain
- Symmetrical all-wheel drive
-
BW 2019–present
Global Platform, with a turbocharged 2.4 in several markets.
- Body styles
- Sedan
- Platform
- Subaru Global Platform
- Engines
-
- 2.5 — FB25 · petrol · 239 Nm (176 lb-ft)
- 2.4 turbo — FA24 · petrol · 250–376 Nm (184–277 lb-ft)
- Transmissions
- Lineartronic CVT · Simulated 8-speed Lineartronic CVT
- Drivetrain
- Symmetrical all-wheel drive
Information, not instruction
CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.
Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
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