creed

Hey all, I am wondering about my 2006 XT OB. I have been reading a bit about HG issues (actually a good friend of mine experienced a blown HG in his '97 2.5 L OB 2.5@ 120k) and I am worrying a bit if this will be the fate of mine It is a little confusing reading many of the HG threads. Seems like there are two camps, and I apologize if this issue has been discussed ad nauseum: 1) All 2.5's will be prone to HG failures.(but perhaps not the turbo version due to its' "semi open deck design") 2) The problem was fixed circa 2003 Any thoughts/consensus on this, especially as pertaining to important maintenance issues on the XT to avoid this potential problem would be appreciated. Thanks!!

This is a great car. We traded in our 98 328 si Beamer last month (sucks in the snow) and 2002 Mitsu MS (redundant with the wife's 4runner) on a 2006 XT OBW Limited. We chose the turbo because we live at 6600' and often drive over 10000' passes..it feels great to be in the "fast lane" Eastbound Vail Pass (10330')"..this car will pass everything in site. doesn't handle as well as the Beamer (few do) and is a little soft suspension wise, but other than that a great vehicle..7000 happy miles so far (it had 5k when we bought it) I think we might have the ultimate Colorado "quiver"..A 4 Runner for offroading and the XT for highway cruising at altitude and getting to the ski hill in winter (averaging 25 mpg so far) Have not run premium gas exclusively (91 Octane here)..but after reading some of the threads I think this is a wise choice and will start. just wanted to convey my enthusiasm for Subarus and for all of the great info on this forum..thanks ps I have a 96 OBW 2.2 "company car"bought with 124K and now up to 152K in less than a year with no real probs except for a new altenator and heat prob that fixed itself

Hi all, I just found this great forum and I hope to get some help/advice. I have a '96 Outback Auto 2.2L. This is a "work" car which is used for environmental sampling/consulting throughout Colorado. It was bought in July 05 with 124K on it. The shop we bought it from claimed it was just rebuilt. I have put 27k on it in 9 months or so...lots of miles through all kinds of CO weather..I am very impressed to say the least..great in the snow etc. I change the oil every 3k miles and rotate the tires every 7K. Well things were going great until a couple of months ago when the altenator went bad..I replaced it but soon afterwards (like the next day) the heat controls stopped working. The controls seem to be stuck on the hottest setting. It runs great but the heat is getting unbearable at times I am wondering if the altenator repair may have shorted something out?? Any help out there would be greatly appreciated!!!! thanks Chris