splap20

This has been happening to me more and more often it seems. When driving highway miles in fairly deep snow my wheel wells get absolutly packed with snow and ice. It gets so bad that there is at most a quarter inch between the tire surface and the snow/ice pack. Every time i go over the slightest bump, accelerate/decerate, or round a corner, one or more tires rub against the packed snow. This packs the snow further and creates a rock solid block of snow/ice in the wheel well. I stop the car and try to clear out the ice as best i can but sometimes it is darn near impossible to get it all out. When the tire contacts the ice it makes a real loud noise and it sounds like I may be damaging the tire at least, and who knows what else. Has anyone else had this problem? Any ideas to prevent the buildup?

Engine is already out of the car getting fixed. The car has about 100k on it with 7k miles since the shortblock and most other engine components were replaced. I'm not sure if the valves were ground.

The car is a 1997 subaru outback wagon w/ 2.5l dohc

**edited again. too long before and too angry. my car got broken into and trashed as it sat on the side of the road till monday morning when i could get it to a mechanic. real bad day.** **update** i spoke to the manager at the dealership that replaced my short block (Gold Rush Subaru Auburn, CA) and they will not consider talking resposibility for the problem. they told me that they did not replace the spark plugs and that they never touched the plugs at all. I asked if they removed the wires attched to the plugs and they said yes- but that when they sent the heads off to a machine shop to check if they were warped/cracked they never tightened or lossen any of the plugs. The dealership i'm talking the car to now tells me that the other 3 spark plugs were loose too. **update** If a Subaru dealership breaks down an engine, sends the heads to a machine shop to check if they are warped, determines that they are not, and installs a new short block with the old heads, would they have taken out the spark plugs at some point? Is it reasonable to expect them to have checked that the plugs were installed correctly? Less than 10 months ago, i had new engine installed at a subaru dealership. While driving 3 days ago a sparkplug blew out of the left front cylinder head- stripping the threading in the head. The replaced engine is still under warranty so I took the car to the nearest Subaru dealership (not the dealer that installed the engine) to fix the problem. The two dealerships have discussed the issue and won't repair the head because the first dealer did not replace the cylinder heads (or the spark plugs?) when they did the work. I was told that the spark plug blew out of the cylinder head because it was not screwed in correctly (too loose/tight?). All feedback is greatly appreciated.