StructEngineer

I've never seen radiators sold in parts, so I will say no unless you can repair it. Mine was leaking at the seal, and just replaced the entire radiator.

Shame, have ordered blanks from importrp for almost 10 yrs without problems. Only money i guess. I think you'll be dissapointed if you're really expecting brembo blanks to stop you faster than OEM.

I've used brembo blanks and they're fine. Dont buy them on tirerack. Check out http://www.importrp.com. That will save you at least $20.

No it's not always a simple bolt on job, especially when the captive nuts on the bumper beam dont perfectly line up with the holes in the frame rail it becomes a huge PITA.

When I find seized or failing brake sliders or caliper pistons I usually just buy a new caliper/bracket set. If you dont have to replace the caliper, then you'll have a spare to replace it next time. This way, it's a lot simpler to bolt off the old and bolt on the new without a lot of down time messing with rebuilding stuff. Then with the extra bracket, you can rebuild it at your leisure. When you look at it from the perspective that you're doing the work yourself instead of taking it somewhere that would charge you $60/hr+ labor, it's worth it to spend the extra just to get new or RMD parts.

Thanks for the financial advice. Getting this economy to turn around would help out as well. My point is that when stating a headgasket job is trivial, you should put a qualifier on the statement so not to mislead people. I'm thinking the majority of people cant or wont do this job on their own.

That $1000+ boondoggle ruined my family's Christmas. Not everyone has access to a garage, tools, experience, and time.

My late 2002 just blew (both sides externally, even with two doses of conditioner) and coincidentally when talking with the dealers tech, before they opened for the day, said they're seeing more and more 2003's come in. For some reason WWP-99 recall and warranty extension doesn't extend to 2003's. They may have redesigned something that year, but it sounds like may not have solved the problem.

Oh I'm sure writing to the higher ups would do nothing for my warranty claim. After all, my headgaskets blew 4 months after my 96 month warranty expired....even though the dealer put a second dose of stop leak,,.ugh conditioner in 2007 to "fix" it long enough for the warranty to expire..... but the rules are the rules. :-\ I'm sure they're planning party at the end of December when probably the last 2002's under the WWP-99 program were sold.

Has anyone ever tried calling 800-SUBARU-3? I am just amazed at how rude and combative they were from the start of the conversation. I mean, the rep nearly cursed at me in the first sentence when I provided my VIN and didn't start at the 10'th digit. When I read him the line off the dealer receipt that said "stop leak added" the rep freaked out and demanded I call it conditioner and went on and on about how wrong I was for calling it stop leak. He went on to tell me I was lucky that they'd cover any of my blown headgasket bill with a tone to go screw myself. I didn't even know how to reply. It was like talking to a girlfriend during a bad breakup. Was this just a random bad rep who had a bad day or is this typical?

Not that I think this product will work, but it does leak in the other direction doesn't it? Isn't coolant sucked in into the chamber during the induction stroke?

Yea, it seems if I want this job fully done, it's going to cost quite a bit more than a proper Tbelt job on my Honda. No wonder why they don't mandate it. I do find it interesting, though, that one dealer says idler pulleys and tensioners go all the time, and the other says they've never seen a waterpump, idler, or tensioner, fail before the 210k interval.

Does anyone know why Subaru doesn't require idlers and tensioners to be replaced at the timing belt interval? It would seem to me that if there's that big of a risk of either failing by 200k, they would require more than just a visual inspection. I'm only asking because I'm getting quotes from two Subaru dealers. One tells me they only need to be inspected (including the waterpump), and another saying you MUST replace all idlers, and tensioner. The price difference between the two dealers is $800....which is a pretty big carrot. I know the consequences of a failed idler or tensioner, but not the failure rates.

Anyone running on these performance winter tires? Like them? If so what region are you in and what did they replace?

Interesting, the tirerack surveys seem to indicate the goodyear F1's turn to junk after 15,000 miles. Cupping, and get loud. Do they get noisy?

Not sure the bolt pattern will work. Most, if not all Camrys have a 5-114 bolt pattern instead of the subaru 5-100 Offset needs to be 50mm Backspacing needs to be 5.70"

Dang, since Subarus aren't as prevalent here, do you know of any other cars that take the 16x6.5 rims with the proper 5.75mm offset? I shouldn't have to be paying $80/steelie shipped.

Yea, it'd be nice if I could get rims with free SHIPPING and no TAXES. I will check out Happy's Junkyard...

Yes, I'm looking to buy a set of snow tires, but dont want to spend $400 on rims that will probably just get beat up in the winter..... 2002 Forester S

I'm kicking around the idea of buying a second set of rims for winter tires...mainly because I drive out east during the winter. Does anyone know where I can get a decent used set of rims without spending a fortune, either steelies with covers or alloys? Its looking like for the entire set I'd have to drop $870 at tirerack, which is a bit hard to swallow. I'm located in Lafayette, IN....a stones throw away from the assembly plant.

I've seen this many times before. Love it when a dealership is so certain about a particular problem....the experts about the car, and then claim after the fact that their guess is as good as anyone's when you find out they got it wrong. They usually guess at the most expensive problem first. Lots of shady dealers out there. Dealers LOVE P0420 codes. My inlaws brought their forester to get the cat replaced (against my recommendation) due to a P0420 code. At least try putting on new O2 sensors first. Then to make matters worse on the 5min drive home, the CV boot directly above the replaced cat spontaneously splits in half throwing grease everywhere. The boot was obviously and visually cut by the dealer, but upon taking it back they had the balls to say it was just coincidence and would not even provide a discount. just amazing

That thing looks like a KIA!

From what I've read on here, if you blow the headgasket you're better off dropping in a new engine due to the labor costs of machining a possibly warped head/block. Is this bunk? Doesn't sound like a trivial gasket to me.

I thought all of Subaru's headgasket issues went away starting in 2002? What's the deal, are newer years showing issues too??

If that's the case then all you need to do is measure how deep the old bolt would have driven into the nut so you get the correct spring compression. Use the new bolt with a nut and jamb nut and it should be good.