subaruplatt

Read this. http://www.elektro.com/~audi/audi/toluene.html http://www.europeancarweb.com/tech/0503ec_octane_boosters_tested/index.html

Yea stuck lifter exactly. Had this on a VW and used a bardahl product to loosen it. Looked like a varsol and graphite mixture to me. I would run it for at least 1/2 hour then change the oil hot. Maybe repeat after say another 1000 miles. Short drives + winter = lots of particles floating around in the oil. Needs a few long drives and clean oil.

didn't even look at your post and I posted a rather similar one myself, The Bumps from the winter etc. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=86553

Is there a stock set up that is greatly improved by means of better dampening without lowering. I will go no lower! I can't stand that my right passengers weigh† and or the road grade has so much influence on the direction of the car. I inflate the tires a bit more and this effect go away. I'm inclined to take my tire pressures 3 or 4 pounds past the recommended norm of 30/33. but! I already noticed that there is a loss of damping from the shocks and a resultant tire bounce because of the increased tire pressure. This effect seems magnified during the winter and during the sumer I can get away with it beautifully. Clearly this car didn't come with the shocks and setup which are appropriate for me.

Will try and post at least 1

Hmm.... At 6:55 I left work from downtown. I left early to clean off the car and warm it up a little. I have never seen it so covered in snow. ( garage ) The lot had about a foot of powder in it. Drove out of that with utmost composure, even past the two ft plow piles. Had to follow scrapers all the way to the highway. The highway was neat, graded 1 inch hard pack snow. The sound was a low pitched squeaking combined with a turbine like spraying sound. I finally realized that I could pass really slow cars and drive casually, with both hands on the wheel. The highway was neat like a big single lane! The off ramps were starting to make people stuck and my friend confessed that his jetta would have been stopped there. Had to drive into a subdivision where i had to back into a parking spot 2 ft drift. ( mexican standoff ). Drove home uneventfully. But, the last 100 ft was a huge 3 foot snow drift. Garage door remote in hand I opened it from a distance. Then I drove calmly and steadily into the garage. Truly Bliss and I was home earlier than I am when I take transit:grin:

I know that the auto is a modified front wheel design in that the front wheels are solidly linked to the drive line, but. OK what my tranmission does is maintain, under normal circumstances 60/40 torque. So lets say your driving along and you are putting out 100 hp. You are then putting about about 100 ft lbs, 60 ft pounds out of the front axle and the rear friction coefficient allows the rear to do 2/3 of the torque of the front and your putting out 40 ft lbs from the rear. The car endeavors to do this under most circumstances. You get more to the rear under acceleration and less under hard braking. High speed might also net you less if the design dictated it. Just when does this 90 % front scenario play out?

I agree with niper, don't be afraid to shift it once and a while! Third gear downhill in cruise works just fine:grin: I really like the get your wheels balanced idea, of course you know what it needs. How about a spot free rinse:)

Sounds about right for city. Colder air makes for a richer mixture.

The auto I have is continuous 5 plate limited slip 60/40 not on demand 90/10 and the more sporty autos are even more rear wheel biased with 7 plates. Someone should settle this 90/10 vrs 60/40 thing etc. I know what front wheel drive is and believe me I'm not feeling it with this one! Great in the snow! Would highly recommend it.

Heard about a jumpy/surging cruise control on steep grades but is there anyting else that should be fixed before the warranty kicks to powertrain only? You might be able to get new firm ware out of them for the computer. The big problem was that in forth there wasn't enough engine breaking for the cruise control to hold you back on a hill and you got run away speeds. A simple manual shift to third solves those problems and will not kick out the cruise control. ( auto ) There may be firm ware to make the automatic shift into third? Or different cruise software that could be updated. It is possible.

Yah Know, One of the things most people miss and it is the most simplest. Go for at least a half hour drive before you drain the oil. The hot oil will saturate more and drain much more sediment from the engine.

21,000 miles = 33,796.224 KM my last service was 24-27 KM sounds like the 36kM.

Dont forget the PCV Valve. How often would you change it? Wait...are you saying that you don't change your filter every time you change the oil? and, no you don't need to change the air filter more than once a year in my experience.

I think I have proved to my own satisfaction that a 4KM oil interval with regular oil/extreme city winter service just isn't enough. Filter was dirty on the one side but clean on the other but no where near plugged. Wipers just started not to work perfectly. I use lots of fluid. I used to put new nkgs in my old VR6 every year, used to clean and re-oil the KNN every year. Used Amsol 10/40 and changed it at least 6K. Put a bavarian exhaust and austrian rotors on it etc. I'm a big fan of nitrogen shocks. All this maintenance was to compensate for my extreme driving habits. Ala revving the snot out of it and driving it like I would a funny car. 300KM of abuse and my buddy still drives the crap out of an original and unopened engine. The original VR6 dual timing chain VR6 engines were really tough. But those cars weren't cheap, $35K in 95 and they came only in the corrado and the first year GTI. Some of this realization makes me laugh at the subaru head gasket senario but then I realize that GTI VR6 was 67% front heavy and of course the A3 is the logical successor, But I digress :cool:

Will they call it a Toybaru?

Had the Oil and filter done along with a new air filter and new wipers. Regular Dino With 4300KM of extreme service winter city driving on the Oil. Possibly as much as 26,862KM on what might be the original air filter and wipers. The air filter was oily and dirty. Weird though because at the last Oil change the guy said it looked clean. You could really hear the difference in engine smoothness. I am starting to think I might want to change the oil more often in the winter than at 4K and I definitely believe that 24K is enough for an air filter. Is there any resin or oil soaking pretreatment in a subaru oem paper air filter?

Interesting observation. Probably it's because you can see while your shifting what gear your in. This is the first automatic I have ever shifted at all. 2cnd gear down really steep hill from a stopsign. Third gear in cruise control down mountain roads. 2cnd gear to do the legal highpark crawl on the way to the dogy park. Third gear for really aggressive many lane highway 6-8-12 etc, these people are nuts. You can really pick what gear is appropriate for you. The shifter is gated so you can't hit an unsafe safe shifting point even when shifting blind. I never power shift with it though, just a smooth release of the power. I guess my point is that with an auto you really can shift your probably looking at the stick when you do!

Combination of Subaru and snow tires Priceless.

Diesel! Wicked block! photo 258 lb-ft of torque peaking at just 1,800 rpm I'm still thinking great electrical generator!

What type of flush did they do? Total or just partial drain. I have heard it that you have to do three or more partial drains just to change out the old fluid totally. If you really think it's torque bind flush again! Try to see if you can get by without the additive this time. You can always put it in later. Not sure if driving it for a few weeks like this first wouldn't help? Glad for your partial success.

Measure all the tires yourself while it is on the lift. They're not supposed to be more than a 2-3/32 inch, I think? different in diameter. Seems like you have the ability to engage and disengage the clutch pack still. I'm holding out for flushes. Curious to see how it turns out.

How Cold? I would try a new belt first no mater what I did. I have used belt dressing on generators (commonly). Put it this way if you try a belt dressing spray and the noise is even temporarily better skip all analysis and replace belt and or check tensioner. Then again some situations just make noise. Good thing yours is only temporary! It could be the belt tensioner? Can they be lubricated? Then again as others have suggested it could be the water pump. Or is it just that your engine is ****** cold:)

Is the iac valve downstream from the pcv re-vent? If so my theory is that blow by oil will combine with dust and clog the iac. What is interesting is that the oil and dust mixture mimics electrical malfunction so well, as the "fuzz" seems to cause more problems during extremely damp periods. So a simple breathing issue will masquerade as an electrical fault. Used to have a near yearly event with the 95 Vr6 I used to have. Fill choke and repeat with gas line anti freeze. 2$ fix. Warning! Hot engines may present a fire hazard. Choke, puff of smoke and then no more problem.