Ranger83

Another update. 35,000 miles, no problems, going in for another dyno run in two weeks.

Ih ad the car dyno'd on regular and there was no evidence in the logs that detonation was occuring. You can reset the ECU as you describe on older Subarus buit not 2005+. I have logged all fuel use since new. Last year's log was posted on subaroutback.org. I switched between grades every 2,000 miles, until I became convinced that there was no discernible difference. Subaru "recommends" 91 octane but the mid grade fuel is 89 and premium 93. I've tried them all. The variation due to driving is much more than any difference in fuel. This also means it would be easy to convince yourself one particular grade of fuel got better mileage.

Update. Car now has 32K miles on it. I've been using regular exclusively for at least six months. No problemo.

I've had a chance to drive on a lot of ice with the Nokian WR's in the last week. Truly impressive. They are the ultimate New England tire!

We've bought several sets of Valeos, which were expensive but buy one, get one free from Tirerack. They replaced the regular and winter blades we'd been using. My other choice is Bosch.

The chain tensioner issues have been pretty limited to early-on H6's - 2001 mostly. You can run regular or mid-grade - Subaru just "Recommends" Premium. I use mid-grade (89) pretty often, or Regular, but never Premium, which is 93 around here. The local dealer said not to run synthetic oil in a VVT engine but SOA says they don't care. I've been using Mobil I since the first oil change.

I log all fuel use and even ran my H6 on a dyno on regular. Most regular runs fine. All mid-grade runs fine. Premium is a waste of money, but it's a religious argument. From what you've described the first thing I'd check is that all the spark plugs boots are tight.

Let me clarify - your Legacy GT model, basically a badge engineered Legacy with +1 wheels at the time, did not sell well. The Outback wagon was the best selling wagon in the USA in the late 90's.

Subaru has two AWD systems. The VTD system used on the 6's and turbos is well proven. A lot of manufacturers are moving away from Haldex for various reasons and they offer no performance advantage over even the basic AWD system in use on 4 cyl Subarus. The SI-Drive equipped turbos are very competitive with other AWD crossovers. Acura, BMW, Mazda, and Mini have all brought new turbocharged models to the market. Subaru sales are at an all time high and you are driving one that is two generations old - and one that did not sell well at that. You are not the target market. A Lexus RX400h - about the size of a Tribeca - has an MSRP of over $42,000. That's beyond what folks are spending for any Subaru. No one knows what will happen to hybrid vehicles when the battery fails - estimated replacement costs are in the range of $10,000 and is likely an environmental nightmare. A used hybrid may prove to be the worst possible automotive purchase - one reason why they are expected to retain their 1% market share. A Subaru station wagon and an eBike make a whole lot more sense for most people.

My sister in law's failed at 245K after being replaced at 145K. The ones we replaced at 140k were still going stong at 187K when sold.

Do you keep a box of timing gears under the front seat, or?

Loctite is your friend. Very cheap at any auto parts store and keeps things together. If it's a critical bolt I usually upgrade it with a US made or higher grade fastener. Some of the low cast Chinese fasteners have very poor strength.

Isthis the only time you have a problem? Some tires "track" on grooves worse than others.

A few problems with the idler on thee 2001 and later that are driven a lot no the highway. Otherwise very reliable. MPG seems to be 10-20% less than the H4. Hard to find and much more expensive than H4's used, however.

A year ago I didn't know anyone with Nokian WR's. Now I have two cars with them, and three friends have mounted them as well - two year-round. I got an email from a co-worker who went from OEM Bridgestones to the WR's. She drove home in an ice storm recently and was puzzled by all the cars off the road. She got home, stepped out of the car, and fell down on the ice! He lives in Alaska..... Your experience with studded tires is very out of date. Modern studded tires have progressed a long way, with fewer, shorter studs and more advanced tire compounds. Two people at work have Hakka II's - one studded and one not - and there is little difference driving them back-to-back. The Norwegians tested both at: http://www.motor.no/pdf/044-50_Mo08_LR1.pdf. "Piggfri" or "dubbfria" are the non-studded tires. Their performance is extraordinary on snow and ice, and many of the studded tires stopped in a shorter distance on wet pavement than the stud-free versions.

Funny thing, I don't know a single Leg Army veteran who has a Subaru. All Airborne! The longer you're married - Ground -> tent with mattress pad -> trailer -> RV -> hotel with many stars:lol:

Robbins is a chain. You can drop it off at a local store if that's more convenient. I think they have a machine shop at the Manchester store but can't swear to it. You go North on South Willow street from the exit on 293. Excellent stores. I used to buy all my Hella lights there when I was performance rallying - they had them on the shelf, at good prices.

My 97 needed the heads resurfaced. They job was done with the engine in the car - it was not pulled. They were done at 140K and was running well when sold at 187K miles.

Collected from other forums or my own observations. I'm sure there are more but here are things other OB wagon owners always say, "I didn't know that," when I show them. USDM models only - I don't own any other country model per below. If you lock the window lock button, the lights on the other three windows go out on the controls and then come back on signifying the windows are 'turned off' When the lights are on and you adjust the dimmer setting the dimmer setting is diplayed on the trip display; iLL1-ILL6 If you press the lock button on the key fob three times in five seconds it beeps the horn and flashes the lights to help locate the car in a parking lot. If you leave any door open or the trunk and you try to lock the car it will beep four times to let you know that something is open. You cannot lock the doors with the key in the ignition and engine off. They unlock again. When you start the car and the outside temp is below 37 degrees, the console will flash the temp as a freeze warning. The divider in the cup holders is removable. Twist it counterclockwise and you can take it out. You can press the control knob for the A & B trip odometers and it will light up even if the ignition is off. There is a second power plug in the center console. If you have the rear wiper on intermittant and you put the car in Reverse, it goes on full speed. The rear wiper on the wagon is speed sensitive. The Slower the speed, the slower the intermitten span, as you speed up, the span gets shorter. The sun visors have plastic panels you can pull out about 6" from each inside end to cover the whole side window or close the gap between them.

There is one All Season passenger tire with the Severe Service Snow rating - the Mountain/Snowflake icon. It is the Nokian WR. Nokians are not sold mail-order so tirerack does not review them. It is usually tested against dedicated snow tires, where it does fairly well. But the big difference is that it has a 50,000 mile treadwear warranty and good performance on wet roads, where most dedicated snows fall down. They are more expensive than the Tripletred, but you get what you pay for in this instance. One review is at: http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/hl/nokian.htm You can find other user reviews at: http://www.snowtire.info/ I have Nokian WR's on my Subaru now. I have a set of RSI's as well but I think I'll wind up using them as my dedicated snows from now on. We use them year-round on our Mazda MPV. It is probably the ideal all-year tire for New England where we only have 5-15 days a year where snow tires are needed. It is much better on snow and ice than the Michelin HydroEdge or Goodyear TripleTred, but has low rolling resistance and performs well on wet roads. In addition to using them as dedicated snows, two other Subaru owners at work are using them year-round, plus a Chrysler Pacifica and our Mazda MPV. Haven't seen any reviews of the WR on gravel roads, but another co-worker emailed me this (he has Nokians on his FJ Cruiser), from fjcruiserforums. The Vatiiva is the light truck version of the WR. Vatiivas are available in 215/70r16 but not 205/70r16. http://www.nokiantires.com.

I think in the owner's manual they explain how to override it.

Pilots are pretty expensive. The Michelin HydroEdge is very good in rain, and extremely durable. The Michelin X is an excellent rain tire and is less expensive than the HydroEdge. It is available at Costco, Sam's Club and other chains.

http://www.cars101.com/subaru/tiresandwheels.html

Where did you research? The CR AS tire test last year rated the P3000 Poor - the lowest score - on both snow and ice. In fact of the 18 tires they tested it was the worst for winter driving! CR is not the best when it comes to testing tires, but unless you live in Portland this wouldn't seem to be a good choice!

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