99obw

Oil has improved a great deal in the last eight years. That and the fact that it is fairly old would keep me from putting it in anything I cared about. Maybe a junker car or junker lawnmower.

Always run four identicle tires regardless of AWD. The imbalance in traction between studded snows in the front and regular tires in the rear can cause the car to be extremely dangerous in very slippery conditions, especially in corners. Ask me how I know.

The MIL should eventually go out once the fault absent for long enough.

Sounds ignition related. I would probably start by cleaning the connectors to the coil and ignitor really well with contact cleaner and a brush, then apply some dielectric grease. Look for broken/loose wires on these connectors. Check your grounds and battery cables. Could be a bad ignitor. It might be very telling to look at the O2 sensor voltage when the problem occurs. If it goes low (0.1V - lean), you have a fuel delivery problem, if it goes high (0.9V - rich), you have an ignition problem.

I should have been more clear. The 225/75/15's are for the jeep. I am a wimp when it comes to changing tire sizes, I like to stick to the factory size. For the subaru I have a set of steel wheels for the winter and the OEM alloys for the summer tires. I have a set of OEM steel wheels for the jeep that I will use for the winter tires and then in the spring I plan on buying a set of used OEM alloys and a set of new summer tires. Having two sets of wheels is easier on the wallet and the tires, not to mention that is makes mounting very convenient.

I don't have a specific recommendation, but I will throw in my $0.02. I drive 52 miles each way to work, in what can only be described as one of the worst winter environments in the continental US. We have severe ice and frequent heavy lake effect snow. Coming home to find 12"-18" of snow on the dirt road that I live on is not unusual. With that said I consider an all-season tire completely innapropriate for driving in snow. Sure, lots of people use them, but lots of people also drive 20 MPH and lots of people end up in the ditch. I should qualify my dislike for all-seasons with an admission that the newer ones are supposedly much better, and I haven't used all-seasons in years. This year I am going to be running blizzaks on the outback, and either studded snows or greendiamonds on the jeep. Blizzaks are good for this part of the country with the ice we get, but they are easily overwhelmed in heavy snow, so I don't recommend them for you. I would probably recommend a dedicated snow tire with a relatively durable compound, blizzaks are really soft. I have yet to see anything that rivals a good luggy snow tire populated with studs. Blizzaks don't have nearly the ice nor snow performance of a studded snow in my experience. The greendiamonds are supposed to have good snow performance due to tread design, with good ice performance due to embedded pieces of silicon carbide, with lower noise and road damage than a studded tire. If I can find them in a 225/75/15 they are my first choice.

http://endwrench.com/images/pdfs/WheelBearing.pdf

Simple answer, NO!

You get what you pay for.

Hold your foot steady on the pedal until the cruise pulls the pedal away from your foot.

I would start with the fuses and battery cables.

Run away.

I agree that on paper coppers should be better, but I don't think the average driver will ever notice the difference. I think for most folks who have someone else do the work platinums are more economical. I think it depends on the quality of gasoline, the presence of oxygenates, and driving style/pattern. I think you may be right. I had given some thought to a stuck/leaking injector. The plugs look perfect when I pull them and mileage is right on target though. I think the problem is intake valve deposits and I just need to get them cleaned and keep them clean. I will run a compression test when I get a chance. I am going to have the oil analyzed at 7500 miles and look for fuel dillution.

www.1stsubaruparts.com I like to get my parts here. Great prices, great service, cheap shipping. www.car-part.com A good online lookup for junkyard parts.

That's a tough one without riding in the car. IIRC the Phase II's came with champion copper plugs from the factory. Have the plugs been changed? I would pull a plug and take a look. My preferred plug for these engines is NGK laser platinum. Also take a look at the air filter. When I hear hesitation/rough idle/bucking one thing I think of is carbon accumulation in the cylinders. I think a seafoam treatment is worth a try. OTC injector cleaners don't work very well at removing carbon. Seafoam is pulled directly into the intake via a vacuum line and allowed to sit in the cylinders for a little while, so it's very effective. Do a search and you will find plenty of information detailing it's use. Make sure you change the oil immediately after using the seafoam. You may get a MIL due to misfire. A little off topic but relevant: My '01 Jeep had a persistent rough idle when cold. The dealer changed the fuel pump, plugs, and performed a fuel injection cleaning. I then found a TSB on cold start rough idle and had the PCM reflashed. Nothing made it any better. Then I tried seafoam. WOW! Ran like new, but the rough idle came back within a week. I had tried techron and other fuel injection cleaners but they did nothing. Now I use a product called Fuel Power in every tank. It improves MPG enough to pay for itself, the rough idle is gone, and the fuel system and cylinders are presumably spotless. Our suby responds very well to the FP, with mileage in mixed driving consistently above EPA highway. The general aim of my post is that the often forgotten maintenance items should be verified before sinking any money into hard to diagnose symptoms.

Also keep in mind that the tach in the dash probably shouldn't be trusted to determine whether or not repair is necessary.

P = IV for DC systems or AC systems with a power factor of 1. 1 hp = ~746 watts It takes relatively little power to move a car down the road at a constant speed on the highway. Something like 10 hp IIRC.

I assume you mean the right foot on the accelerator. The second biggest killer of economy IMHO is the right foot on the brake. Braking wastes hard earned (usually derived from the combustion of gasoline) kinetic energy. I try and coast whenever braking seems inevitable but not yet absolutely necessary. That way I am using kinetic energy to move my car forward, not to heat up the brake components. This behavior annoys the mathematically impaired people behind me, but I really don't care. FWIW my wife's average in the outback over the past 10 or so tanks is ~26.7 MPG in mixed driving. EPA highway is 26. I have seen as high as 31 MPG highway when I am driving. I have no complaints about the economy of the 2.5.

I set the odometer on the new head to match the one I removed. We lived with the problem for a couple of years at least, so the mileage is probably a bit higher than the 161k miles that is currently shows. I talked to the service manager at the local dealer, and he said there was no way to get the actual mileage out of the computer system, so WYSIWYG. It's very likely that the actual mileage is in the OBDII system somewhere, he just doesn't know how to get it.

I ordered mine from 1stsubaruparts. Less than $100 IIRC. I don't know if a junkyard will sell you a used speedo head, but they would surely have one. The speedo head part number for a 99obw with 2.5 and auto tranny is 85020AC330.

It goes without saying that pushing anything to it's limit will result in reduced longevity.

There is a big difference. Trucks are rated for a recommended towing capacity, not the maximum that they can tow. The 0-60 number is the fastest the car can accelerate, not the recommended acceleration.

Trebuchet

If it is a hot-start problem it may still be the coolant temp sensor. The sensor could be telling the ECU the engine is cold, the ECU gives more fuel. Holding the throttle wide open helps to offset the extra fuel by adding extra air. Here I posted the resistance values for the CTS: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=13783

75w-140 is usually specified for towing. If you are going to be towing it may be an option (depending on owner's manual recommendations), otherwise stick to a 75w-90.