99obw

I think the interval on that engine is 60k for the timing belt and it is non-interference.

A guy at work has a 2.5 impreza on order. Personally, after dealing first hand with the 2.5 and it's love for being taken apart, I would have bought a slightly older impreza with a 2.2.

I have heard of CEL eliminators for use with said systems. That is all I know.

It's a shame to have it suffer, even if it did trash your car. I have heard that the local authorities around here will put an end to an injured animal's misury if you give them a call. (Hint, hint)

At 200k I would personally hesitate to put an expensive engine in. I have a philosophy that everything on a car should die of exhaustion at the same time. I would replace the gaskets and drive it till it dies. The problem is that if you go to the trouble of replacing the head gaskets you need to carefully consider the other items that will need attention to insure your investment in parts and labor isn't wasted. I did my head gaskets at 120k miles. I spent a lot more than $250 because I did some other stuff. I think I spent something like $500 on parts that I would consider necessary to do a good job. I spent an additional $350 on a broken pully and rear brakes.

Setright, I don't know. I hesitate to think they aren't exposed to the elements somewhere on the car. I have found that the fuel lines like to rot out on top of the fuel tank where they come out of the tank.

I have only felt it a couple of times with our outback wagon. It was something I felt rather than heard. You will know it if it happens. Maybe someone else can describe it better.

Rust can "weld" pretty well. It doesn't really join the parts but creates so much interference that removal can be (nearly) impossible.

My $0.02. If that vehicle has been in Michigan for 11 years with that many miles on it, it isn't worth more than about $2000 to me no matter how cool it is. If it has been garaged and never driven in salt then maybe it is worth $4000. On a car that age that has been exposed to salt the brake lines and fuel lines will be questionable. Not to mention that any bolt will be extremely difficult to remove if it still has a head on it. Inspect the car thoroughly. Check the maintanence records. Of course, it IS a subaru, so check for oil leaks, drive some tight circles in a parking lot to check out the AWD. Inspect the tranny fluid. It should be red. Smell it. If you don't know what it should smell like buy a new bottle and smell it to compare. The oil shouldn't smell like gas. The engine oil should be blackish or brownish but not milky tan. I like to smell the exhaust because an engine that isn't running properly will have a different smell, and a blown head gasket may cause the exhaust to smell sweet if coolant is beeing burnt. Look at all fluids for signs of contaminates. Contaminates could indicate a problem or indicate that the seller is trying to mask a problem. Listen for noises. Check the operation of everything. If in doubt have a mechanic look at it. This car is at the age where things like wheel bearings, struts, water pumps, etc. start failing. I hate to be so negative, but you haven't bought the car yet, so now is the time to be that way.

As for the best AWD/tranny combination, my 86 Tercel sr5 with 6 speed manual tranny and 50/50 torque split would run circles around my 99obw with an auto trans. Not to mention that the manual never shifts when you don't want it to and break the tires loose. I can also shift a manual smoother than any auto does, eliminating the unpredictability of auto trans shifting on extremely slippery surfaces. The tercel did like to kick the rear around, but I preferred that to the absolutely scary understeer of the obw.

Basically pneumatics at a simple level operate the same as electricity, so I will make an electrical analogy. This is a huge simplification but should be roughtly accurate. Behaviour in a pneumatic system can be described by the pueumatic equivalent of ohm's law, where flow equals pressure devided by resistance. Ohm's law is I = E/R where I = current(flow), E = voltage (pressure), and R = resistance. The power dissipated can be written as P = IE, P = E^2*R, or P = I^2*R. Therefore in a pneumatic system the power dissipated can be thought of as roughly equal to flow times pressure drop (P=IE). The power dissipated in the system would be roughly the same as the power(HP) delivered to the turbine. The system isn't really that simple though. The turbine dissipates power by compressing the intake gasses AND stores energy in the rotating mass, but you get the idea. Backpressure after the turbo limits turbo performance by dropping the pressure elsewhere than the turbo. Hope I am making sense.

I remember when all of that firestone tire business was going on. Somewhere I heard that some of the tires that they were considering replacing the wilderness xt with actually had higher failure rates. That makes me wonder why we are even talking about it, and why it was even an issue then. Shouldn't we be talking about one of the tires with a higher failure rate? Obviously somebody really pushed the issue.

To get good mileage your air filter, plugs, and wires must be in good shape. Once that is covered if you still don't see better mileage your O2 sensor could be at fault. Your car may need premium fuel, and if it does and you aren't using it then the timing may be retarded to the point of noticable power loss. Excessive carbon buildup in the engine could also cause the computer to retard timing. Start with the cheap stuff.

Tuned? Huh? Sounds like BS.

First off let me say that I don't know one way or the other. It does make sense to me though. You can really hold your foot to the floor, so the boost should be good.

The looks don't really excite me. I see design elements of so many cars when I look at it, but I can't quite put my finger on it. It doesn't look like getting in and out of the back will be easy, though it is hard to tell. Looks as if the rear seats will have limited head room and foot room. It just doesn't look big enough for seven people. Don't get me wrong, I would love to have a bigger suby. Hopefully it will be priced within reach. I know, I sound so negative. I just think they could do better. That thing looks so ordinary, so similar to what I see on the road. I like the looks of the current gen so much better. I can tell a car is a new gen suby from so far away that I can't tell which car it is for sure. I don't get that feeling from that car. ok, let me have it...

Well, with the Phase I 2.5 is does seem to border on routine maintainence. My guess is that a huge percentage of these engines will eventually have head gasket failure, it's just a matter of when. I feel pretty confident that my repair with the newest gasket revision should last the life of the car. If not, it's a pleasure to work on, and I would gladly replace it again. I must add that despite the troubles I have had with the car, it is extremely well designed and built. By far the best car I have owned, and I have had ford, dodge, chevy, cadillac, buick, nissan, and toyota. I am not saying subarus are the best cars in the world because I haven't owned every make, but they are IMHO the best car I can afford.

99 outback, about 140k miles. Head gaskets, water pump, seals at 120k. Runs and drives like new.

When I used mine for gas recently the rubber bulb melted. Time for a new one.

We got about 40k out of the original XW4 Michelins. They were terrible in the snow so we bought some Blizzaks. Replaced the XW4's with a set of Michelin Symetry's, and they wore out even quicker. I ran the Blizzaks this summer until they were done and then bought four yokohama avid touring tires. A great three season tire. A little noisy and a bit rougher riding than the michelins, but a much better value. Rated pretty well by consumer reports by the way. Tread life of 620, compared to the XW4's 400. Your AWD vehicle will really shine with some snow tires. Paying more for an AWD vehicle and then running it in the snow with all season tires doesn't make sense IMHO. Many of my friends here locally own subarus, but I am the only one who runs snow tires, so take it for what it's worth. I bought inexpensive three season tires to save some money for 4 new winter tires.

We leave our headlights on too. You are much less likely to get hit head on. The bulbs seem to burn out much faster though, so I always keep a spare in the car.

Frag, FWIW, I have found it less expensive to buy an extra set of steel wheels for my winter tires as opposed to paying to have them changed twice a year. Unfortunately I had to learn this the hard way.

The VW TDI's get nearly 800 miles to a tank, so that makes it much less of an issue. I doubt that diesel is really that hard to find, you just need to be familiar with where to find it. Living in a rural area I find diesel is readily available.

That really isn't too awfully far from my neck of the woods. Wish I could make it! Have fun!

Every shop needs a turkey baster. I found out the hard way that they aren't gasoline resistant though.