color-blind

Is your vehicle an automatic or 5-spd? What year is it? How many miles are on it?

You are correct, they don't need to recall ALL of the vehicles. Yet it would have been nice if they would have stepped up to the plate on the rear bearings. Since they are the most often to fail; especially in the Forester's. Then again if Subaru recalled too many I'd be out of a job LOL. Heaven forbid they ever recall the 2.5 head gaskets, air mass meters, air fuel ratio sensors, front crank seal/oil pump o-ring, seperator plates, knock sensors, cam/crank sensors, etc, etc. Gotta love them Subaru's.

This is what the average customer does not understand. The automotive business as a whole needs a complete overhaul. First off one must understand the difference between warranty time and cusomer pay time. Lets use your wheel bearings as an example. Assume warranty time is 1.5 hours for both bearings the tech gets paid 1.5 hours, no matter if it takes him 1.0 hour or 5 hours, he only gets paid the 1.5. Now lets assume it is customer pay time. The tech is paid 5 hours, even if he does it in 1.0 hour, he is paid 5 hours at his hourly rate. This is called flat rate. Like it or not this is how the automotive business is set up. Thus techs do not like warranty work, they prefer customer pay work. As a sub note here. Vehicles are getting much more complex, yet many consumers demand "cheap" repairs and maintenance. This is why many technicians are getting out of this field. They simply can't make it anymore, it is much easier to make more money in a different career. Soon though their will be less technicians and fewer shops. Then you will really see sky high pricing. Shops are expected to have highly skilled technicians and the latest and greatest equipment. Yet for some reason they are not allowed to bill for it. As far as the wheel bearing issue goes, you are correct. Subaru changed the design of the bearings-basically it is a Legacy bearing. Subaru should have recalled all of them and taken care of it for their customers.

It is difficult to find information because no one fixes them. The cost of repairing it can not be justified. Simply call a local wrecking yard and convert it to standard/spring suspension. If you don't you will slowly be replacing every part in the air suspension. Those shocks get expensive, it really was a bad idea. After you install the new suspension you will have to have an alignment done on the vehicle. Hope this helps.

First check for exhaust leaks. If you have no exhaust leaks then the converter/s have failed. It is very rare for an oxygen sensor to create a po420 code. It would be a good idea though to check your fuel trims. If you have access to a scan tool then post your short term and long term fuel trims from the freeze frame date. It is common on the new outbacks to have problems with their air fuel ratio sensors=front oxygen sensor. Yet the converter code is usually pretty specific to a failed converter. It should be covered under the federal emissions warranty of 8 years or 80,000 miles. So if you have less than that you get a free converter. The othe code p1507 I believe their may be a flash update. I can't check though untill Monday. Hope this helps.

Here we go again. Most likely you did not have a stuck thermostat. 99.9% of the time their is an air bubble at the thermostat. This air bubble is caused from exhaust gases entering into the cooling system. The exhaust gases entered thru the failing head gaskets. Take your car to a shop that specializes in Subaru vehicles. From your post I doubt you took it to a Subaru shop, for they would know about the chronic head gasket problems. Please bear in mind that I could be wrong. Their is always a small chance that you have a plugged radiator or a bad radiator cap. Yet if I had to make an educated guess I'd stick with head gaskets. Be sure that when they pull the engine to also do the following. Replace the rear seperator plate, o-ring, and rear crankshaft oil seal. Have the heads surfaced by a machine shop. You could have the heads pressure tested yet in all honesty they rarely, if ever crack. Then install a new timing belt, water pump, cam seals x4, crank seal, and oil pump 0-ring. It would also be a good idea to have the radiator cleaned out or replaced. Hope this helps.

You won't feel anything if you don't have a bad bearing though, LOL. Normally how it works is the customer complains of a rumbling noise, that gets worse the faster they go. We test drive the car to confirm it is a bearing noise. We then rack up the car and spin the wheels. Is is very easy to pinpoint the bad bearing. If you have a bad bearing be sure to check your cv boots as well. Look for deep cracks in the boots. If you have deep cracks then replace the boots. This way you don't need to pull the front suspension apart twice. In theory one should allmost never have to purchase new cv joints. Just keep an eye on the boots and replace them before they split open and spit out all the grease. Oh and one more thing. If you do have a failed cv joint, try not to purchase a rebuilt cv axle. The quality is very poor, it is better to get a new axle. The only exception is Subaru rebuilt axle shafts.

Just thought i'd post a tip here. Since we all know that Subarus have a lot of wheel bearing failures, here is how you test them. First you need to lift up the vehicle and place it on jack stands. Then spin the tire by hand, while doing this place your hand on the spring. If you feel a vibration thru the spring you have found your dead wheel bearing. Many people believe that if they shake the wheel and it doesn't move then the bearing is ok, they are wrong. Most of the time the bearing will still be tight, yet make noise. If the wheel is loose-do not attempt to tighten the axle nut, replace the bearing. If you do re-tighten the axle nut you will simply kill off the wheel bearing. Hope this helps.

For brake rotors I suggest either Brembo or oe rotors. For brake pads go Oe, Sumitomo, or Akebono. If you purchase "good" quality brake rotors you will not have vibration problems. If you buy "cheap" brake rotors they will shake out of the box. If you want to turn/machine the brake rotors it is best to have them machined on the car. Hope this helps.

Replace the knock sensor, Subarus eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Then if your problem happens again immediately pull the code, you may have an air mass meter failing. Good luck.

You have an air bubble in the cooling system. You need to get the air out, hopefully you installed a new thermostat while you had the water pump out. Lets just hope you didn't nuke your head gaskets too. Good luck.

Many just replace the starter contacts. Yet it is better if you replace both contacts and the plunjer at the same time. If you can find a local electrical rebuilder they will have the contacts and plunjer in stock. If you can't locate the plunjer be sure to clean it up good. Good luck.

So now you want me to give up all me secrets, LOL. So when do I get paid for this, LOL. Just kidding, glad I can help. I just don't have much time to post. And yes I work on a LOT of Subaru vehicles. Take care.

You are correct heat is worse. A friends shop in Arizona informs me that average battery life is 3 years. Have a good weekend.

Here's a little bit of information for ya. Load testers are now going away and being replaced with conductance technology. With tools from Midtronics one can easily test the battery, alternator and starter-with extreme accuracy. Depending on where you live battery life will vary. In Seattle the average life of a battery is 4-5 years. Here is a link to a good machine. http://www.midtronics.com/main.php?Category=Transportation%20Applications&SubCategory=Battery%20Testers&MarketSegments=Auto/Light%20Truck&recordID=84

It's basically a design flaw, they we're cast incorrectly. I've only seen it on the 1990 2.2 engines. And no I did not post before as Richie Rich. I don't post as often as I should. It's the slow time of year now so I have some time. Take care.

Have your battery and alternator tested, sounds like a failing battery. The most common problems are batteries, alternators and starter contacts. Just because the alternator produces voltage does not mean it is good. The alternator needs to be tested with a machine that can also test the diodes. A good Subaru shop will have such a machine. Hope this helps.

You should be able to pick up a good used 2.2 between $600-700. Good luck.

Are you still fighting with the 2.2? The 1990 2.2 engine is the most common to have block issues, usually on the passenger side. The block will crack. Our shop policy is no head gasket replacement on 1990. 2.2 engines. Normally we will install a 1992 or newer 2.2 engine. Hope this helps.

In theory you should never need to replace the sensor until the check engine light is on. Yet that is not allways the case. Many Subaru vehicles will have their air fuel ratio sensor fail and not store a code. To catch this you need to monitor fuel trims and see if they are out of spec. The only way you would know is by a drop in gas mileage, hesitiation, lack of power or intermittent stalling. Unless you have a driveability issue I would leave it alone untill the check engine light comes on. I had one here today with 150,000 miles on the original unit. Hope this helps.

Head gaskets

Head gaskets, common failure. Many assume it is the thermostat at first-they are wrong. An air pocket -from the head gasket-gets caught behind the thermostat and won't allow it to open up. The head gaskets fail slowly-so you can't allways prove they have failed. You can sometimes catch them with a gas analyzer placed in the over flow bottle-basically you are checking for hydrocarbons. Find a Subaru shop and have the head gaskets replaced. Good luck.

Replace the clutch slave and the clutch hose. This is a common problem. I would also suggest the replacement of the clutch master cylinder while you have it apart. Good luck.

Leave the guard off. It can actually do more harm than good. If it is not set up correctly the belt will rub against the gaurd. Then you will really have a nightmare on your hands. Take care.

I would suggest Pacific Rim over on Stone way, they even have loaner cars. Here is a link www.pacrimauto.com Basically Smart Service and Pacific Rim are the two best Subaru shops in Seattle. You won't go wrong with either.