Now deciding on buying a 1998 Subaru Impreza L with 160,000 miles on it.Anybody tell me how long its gonna run strong?I am pretty much just looking for the Impreza L as a good reliable daily driver and sort of turn it into a RS over time for fun, just by looks and a few mods maybe.But l just wanna know if its worth buying this at this type of mileage, any tips/info would be great! Thanks!


Also any ideas on mods or goodies for this car would be great too, thanks!

I've dealt with Subaru is a lot. They will last forever with general maintnance.

ask the dealer if you can take it to a subaru dealer and have it looked over it. if you cant afford this, make sure it doesnt blow a big puff of smoke out when you crank it. remember blue smoke is oil burning, black smoke is fuel not burning off efficiently. white smoke is water.expect a little, by little l mean you shouldnt see it in your rearview mirror when its warm outside.

This is the workhorse of the Subaru world. You have nothing to worry about with this engine as long as it was well maintained (of course, that goes for any engine).

You would not be crazy to expect 300k out of this engine before any internals would need work as long as the oil is in good supply. The engine is non-interference so u have no fears of bending connecting rods & valves if the timing belt breaks. The EJ18 & the EJ22 were both very reliable engines. l have an EJ22T with 205k on it that l would not hesitate to drive cross country tomorrow.

For mods, there unfortunately not a whole lot u can do for horsepower. Your best bet is to get the engine running in tip-top shape. That engine should already have the Diamond coilpack on it. So other than making the sure the PCV system is working properly, deleting intake resonators, & possibly a free flowing muffler. not much power to be gained.

But suspension can make the car a blast to drive. Make sure the car has fresh struts & replace the stock plastic endlinks with metal ones & get some bigger sway bars on it & feel how much better the chassis feels! :)

It is worth the buy, trust me. Just change out the OHC timing belts BEFORE they break and you will never have to re-time the darned thing. Regular oil changes and belt and hose checks will greatly increase engine life. If it starts leaking oil, you will need to get that taken care of proto! A leeky engine is a sick engine.