CROSSTBOLT

Yeah, 1LuckyTexan is right! Also: a satisfied customer tells 10 people; a DISSATISFIED customer tells (yells) 20! Karl

Anybody know what the FACTORY does to fill the cooling system? Surely they do not use all the elaborate techniques we have to use to FILL the system! What is the word on this? Karl

Very Nice, very nice! Karl

What *it* is, is flashing or ridges in the die-cast part caused by cracks in the dies used in the casting process. All die-casting dies get this was somewhere sooner or later because of the heat and pressure of the die-casting process. No problem in the parts generally. Sand 'em down & polish or bead blast 'em! You could even paint them with that black crackle paint to put the BMW's to shame! Karl

The one we had on our '01 Forester was pretty good and locked in quickly. Its only drawback was the transmission computer logic would have it down-shift at the drop of a hat. At 70mph, that can be really dramatic! Hills found us either "helping" it to avoid the down-shift of cancelling cruise all together. Then we got the '03 Baja with the 5MT. Cruise on that thing required some real getting used to! Found that speed had to be consistently stabilized at the desired value for 10-15 seconds before setting the cruise. Then you could feel it kick in. Too quick and it would drop 3-5mph before getting back to what ya set. The Baja likes 5th gear and hardly ever droops except on really steep hills and those seem to be mostly in western mountains. The actuator on the Baja seems to be electric instead of vacuum. Karl

Sounds like he left the hand brake on....

MMO is nothing more than an expensive equivalent to ATF or Mil 5606 (Aircraft hydraulic oil). MMO has been around a long time. It has many followers that say it solves all kinds of problems. I do not doubt that it has some effect on hydraulic lifters that are a bit sticky.

What's to clean? I have been made to understand the valve train is all mechanical. Check the thread on "Baja valves" and pull up the cobb tuning enclosure for pictures of what is under the valve covers. No hydraulic lash adjusters and that is what you have outlined for the EJ22. I think all that tranny fluid in the engine will do more harm than good. Replace the instrument panel voltage regulator and your gas gage will settle down. Maybe the local Subaru dealer service writer or the parts guy can tell you exactly where it is located. It should be a plug-in on the forward side (away from the driver toward the front of the car) of the instrument cluster. Have fun trying to get to it!

Check the last thread after searching with, "AWD, noises." This may be informative. Trasmission flush on any automatic is well worth the money at any time because it changes ALL the fluid. Noises can be the most aggravating and expensive things to eliminate. The biggest problem, to preach to the choir, is to find the source of the noise which usually makes the cause obvious. Mechanics and shops can make lotsa bucks on noises because it will ALWAYS take a lot of time to find the source. One does NOT have to be a mechanic to find noise sources, only reasonably intelligent but absolutely persistent and dedicated. YOU find the source and let the reputable and competent mechanic find the CAUSE and eliminate it. I have always threatened to use a microphone-amplifier-headphone setup to isolate pesky, hard to find noises but always found them using other methods: other people, either to drive or listen; other people to either drive or to listen or watch as I drive by. You get the idea. Sorry if I told you how to build a clock after you asked the time! Let us know what you find.

Myles, I have finally slowed down enough to check out your link in your message. The picture of the head with the valve cover removed clearly shows adjuster screws and lock nuts. This means periodic check/adjust with feeler gages to keep from burning exhaust valves! Thanks for the information.

Get a second opinion from someone who is better Qualified. Someone here will have really good, sound tech advice. Check some of the older threads thru the search. I will bet this has been discussed before.

HLA I figured out. AFAIK does not compute. WTF, over.

I got to thinking, prompted by another thread about valves: What kind of valve lash adjusters are present in the '03 Baja. I may have missed it in the owner's manual but I was assured by the dealer that both our previous '01 Forester and our present '03 Baja have hydraulic lash adjusters (lifters). Both were definitely SOHC engines. So which is it? Was the dealer right?

DO NOT WAIT UNTIL SATURDAY!! DO THIS RIGHT NOWW!! You now know why we drive our Subaru instead of fly commercial. Another reason why the oil is so high is the tech did not wait for the real slow drain-down so typical of Subaru. Put in 4.2 quarts and check it 20 minutes later. It can be WAY overfilled if this is not done.

Resistance readings seem off for series-parallel arrangement: If in series you get 8 ohms you can reasonably assume the elements are about 4 ohms each, bottom and back. This would be confirmed by a parallel reading of 2 ohms. This would be the MAXIMUM parallel reading with any ohmic combination of back and seat.