Commuter

Did you have a front half shaft replaced recently? I had the same vibration issue crop up after a half shaft replacement last year. They changed it out under warrantly. It's much better, but not as good as it orginally was. The other side was changed recently and again, the vibration went up a bit. Overall, it is still (barely) acceptable to me, so I'm living with it. I don't want to take the chance of having them replace it and it gets worse. Just why this happens, and what is the cause, no one really seems to know. When I had engine work done 4.5 years ago, I had them put in the newer liquid filled mounts. I had changed to a light weight crank pulley shortly before the engine work and the vibration had gone up some. The liquid filled mounts quelled most of it. Personally, I didn't care about engine rock, snappy take offs etc. (the reason for the harder mounts). Heck, it's a 97 auto Outback! :-\ Commuter

The one comment I have heard on the Nokian WR tires is that they are on the hard side in terms of ride, and a bit noisy. Personally, I didn't want either of these attributes, so I ended up going elsewhere. Additionally, I was looking for higher tread wear rating as well. Having said that, they apparently are the ultimate "all season" tire. Commuter

Uncomfortable in what sense? Ride? Seats? Just curious. Commuter

Ah... ok, didn't realize that this is something labeled for specific retailers. In Canada, the Harmony tire is sold thru Canadian Tire stores as the Michelin Destiny. The world of marketing... Commuter

If you mean X-Ones, I've had a few sets of them. Put 160,000 km on them on my 97 OB and still had tread left. Excellent all around tire. Not the ultimate in rain or snow (for an all season), but right up there. The X-One is no longer made. I know of the HydroEdge and the Harmony (which I now have), but not of an "X". Commuter

My dad did this too. My first car was my dad's 69 Pontiac. I drove it to within 3 months of 20 years old. The oil was sprayed on by some people with pressure equipment. IIRC, they would shoot inside the doors and other spots where they could get in. It works, but has it's drawbacks. Messy, big time. Smokes like crazy until you burn it off the exhaust. Smells during this time too. Drips for a while. One gallon of oil can contaminate 10,000 gallons of ground water! That's a helluva ratio. (As an aside... the Rust Check does drip some too. It does not eat into asphalt or cement... but I've often wondered what it does to the environment... I think both Rust Check and Krown have some 'dripless' sprays now... not sure.) It won't creep into the seams and displace moisture the same way the specially formulated oils do. Cars are much much better from the factory today in terms of rust proofing. Still... I think it is worthwhile. It use to be said (not that long ago) that corrosion in the seams (where all the spot and seam welds are) reduce the torsional body strength by 30% within just a few years. Corrosion here can be going on for many years before one actually sees it. Commuter

Correct. It is the manufacturer's "corrosion" warranty that is voided. Commuter

When I bought my 85 Civic, I had the Waxoil (or whatever it was called) treatment done. It was an actual "coating". After a couple of years, I could see it flaking off as it dried out. Several years later, I had an interior rear panel off to do some work and I could see they had only gotten coverage about half way up inside. The rest just had a 'sputter' of coating on it. I started using Rust Check on that car at 2 yo and ran it until 14.5 yo. It was still solid with no rust to speak of, other than a bit of exterior rust at the rear fenders due to scrapes. I have no idea if the British Waxoyle you are talking about is the same thing or not. IMO, anything that results in an actual "coating" is going to have the same issues. By coating, I mean something that turns solid enough that it can crack, peel, and moisture can get in underneath it. For those that are interested, you might want to check out CounterAct. It is electronic rust protection. It is not the cathodic approach which is known to not work on cars, so please read before dismissing it. I know that this technology has passed the gov't investigation in Canada. Happy reading. Commuter

I've had a couple of 05/06 courtesy vehicles from my dealer. For the most part, with the way I drive (gentle), the electronic throttle was transparent. But... I pulled into my apartment building, gave the throttle a quick 'stab' to about the half way point to get by some on coming traffic... wondered what the heck was happening as the car took about half a second until it decided to go! I was not impressed. Later on, I purposely stabbed and floored the throttle a few times in quick succession, varying the duration and the lift off. The system got totally confused and didn't know what to do. Granted, what I was doing would probably never be a real world scenario, but it was disconcerting. I've read other reports (Honda) of people complaining about the electronic throttles. They don't have the algorithms down right yet. If I was looking for new right now... It's one aspect of the car(s) that I would be paying close attention too. If the vehicle is inconsistent in its shifting behavior as related throttle response, then I'd say there is a problem. Perhaps you can lay out a route, with a hill, with a specific point where you can floor it to simulate passing, with varing speeds, etc. Take your car and others of the same year and model on this route and show the rep that you have an oddball. Just an idea. Commuter

I've been using Rust Check for 20 years. Same application method as Krown. Same S. Ont location as the original poster. Rust Check was around first. Krown started from some disgruntled Rust Check dealers. It does not trap moisture; it displaces it. It does not form a 'solid' coating, it remains oily and tacky. It does work as it continues to creep and is self healing to a point. I've never had a problem with the drilled holes. Yes, the drilling will void new car warranties, but Rust Check and Krown provide their own life time warranties. The only negative I can comment on is that it does slowly (over several years) cause rubber weatherstripping / seals to expand and soften. Most notably on my 97 OB, the strip along the leading edge of the hood, since the oil flows right to it and soaks it. My orginal strip is still there, but it could use replacing. Commuter

No limited slip in your car's rear end. Sounds like you have some wear and tear in there the additive has solved it for the moment. I presume you changed the oil as well? Commuter

From what I know of Cdn pricing, that would be remanufactured. $100 sounds about right to me from what I've observed in pricing on both sides of the border. My front axles lasted over 8 years and 450,000 km plus before the boots failed. I'm not complaining. A boot tear can happen at any point in time and may have just been bad luck. Commuter

Subaru has remanufactured axles, about 1/3rd the price of a new OEM unit I believe. I'm not sure what they are worth in the states. A remanufactured one for 97 OB front cost me $210 Cdn recently at the dealer (less a slight discount). Commuter

97 OB, 503,000 km... hmmm... As to sensors, can't complain really. O2 sensor a couple of years ago. Given the age and mileage, not any surprise. MAP sensor (manifold / atmospheric pressure sensor, tiny black box on the passenger strut tower, expensive) a few years back. That's been it for stuff like that. I threw a code for the camshaft sensor recently, but I think it was some missfiring, or damp connection that caused it. So far, it's been running fine since. Not really a sensor, but I had to replace a couple of parts in the EGR circuit to get rid of a recurring CEL. What bummed me out was replacing the engine at 260,000 km. Trust me, I'm getting a little nervous, the second engine is very close to that point. Commuter

Frameless windows... they have their pros and cons. One of the cons is leaks leading to wind noise. This thread discusses some simple solutions to fixing the problem. Good luck. (It just recently worked for me on a 97 OB.) Commuter

Once I learned about the seal leak issues on these cars, I decided to have the crank and cam seals changed with every timing belt. So far, (knock wood) no leaks. I'm approaching 10 yrs old and have just past 500,000 km on the car. Commuter

The mid to late 90's often had the contacts wear out in the starter. Not too difficult a job and inexpensive if you just replace the contacts. One thing I can think of. Commuter

Careful with aftermarket thermostats. People have had problems. I know on my 97 2.5L that the thermostat 'guts' are offset. It only goes in in one orientation. Some aftermarket t-stats have been known to interfere with the housing. And this may only happen as the valve tries to open, thereby not opening fully and causing overheating. I believe the 2.2L is the same. It's safest to stick with OEM for this part. Commuter

Was it a new resistor pack? Long shot, but it could be that the 'new' resistor pack has the same fault as your old one. Commuter

nipper, perhaps you can search for me? At the time I was investigating these plugs, I found an excellent article from one of the spark plug manufacturers (I forget which one) about the various phases a spark goes thru from its initialization, to the 'main' spark to its collapse. It all happens in a split second, but it is not as steady state as one might think. One of the things I remember reading, is that once the spark develops, the resistance along that path increases. The spark will look for the path of least resistance, so it may develop a new path to another ground. I believe this is the argument behind the multi-ground plugs. One can actually get multiple sparks during a single "spark". In the case of the TorqueMaster plug, with its continuous fully surround ground, the spark doesn't have to jump, but it 'shifts' sideways, and continues to do so, and hence, ends up spinning, creating that 'disk' of sparking. Yes, a lot of things are snake oil, but in my experience, there is often some bit of science behind it all. Unfortunately, marketing and unscrupulous advertising usually blow it all out of proportion. Happy searching. Commuter

I'm not proposing that the TorqueMaster plugs are going to increase your performance. I indicated that I did not find that to be the case personally. This is typical marketing people playing off any edge they can find. However, if you want a plug that you can put in and forget about for a long time, it might be work pursuing. My experience is just that - my experience. Commuter

I used regular worm gear hose clamps on my old Civic years ago after the mechanic messed up the OEM bands. Never had an issue. If you are worried about balance, you could probably disassemble one hose clamp, slip the 'worm' fastner part of it onto another hose clamp, then position it 180 degrees from the other worm fastener, thereby providing balance. I'm not sure just how doable this is. I haven't studied one close enough. Just an idea. Commuter

Back to the original question... My 97 OB calls for platinum plugs every 96k km. Around the 200k km mark, I decided to try the TorqueMaster plugs. I found a reference to them on Magnecor's website. (They were the only brand of plug mentioned at all on the site.) I'm not sure what has happened to the company. They were in the States (Calif I think), but the website disappeared a while ago. It was very much a "ma and pa" operation. I spoke directly with the inventor of the plug several years ago. You can see some info on the plugs at this site. A very interesting design. Long story short, I changed them out about 6 months ago at 470k km. Due to an engine change, the plugs were not in my engine for a brief period, but in all, I put around 240k km on the plugs. Upon inspection, they looked like they would have gone another 100k km! A couple were showing some wear of the center electrode. The other 2 had just a trace of wear. Did I experience any increased performance, or gas mileage, or "something"? No. Did they 'feel' any different? Not that I could really tell. Perhaps just a hint smoother idle, but that might have just been me looking for something. Did they give me any problems, with that wide gap? No! My interest in trying them at the time was due to my issues with some carbon build up in the engine. I thought that if this plug caused a slightly better burn, it could only help. At the time I bought them, they were $14.50 US. When I changed my plugs recently, the dealer charged me around $23 Cdn for the platinum plugs! This is about double what I last recall paying. If I had known that I could still source these plugs, or if I had been there to see just how the plugs were, I probably would have told them to put them back in. (I don't change my own plugs and I work a long ways from my dealer.) So... something for people to mull over. I haven't read thru the site link I provided above. That is, I don't know if it is current, where it is, etc. I just found the link quickly and it provides a picture of the plug design. I just thought I'd pass along my experience. Years ago, I also stumbled upon a web site with a "sonic plug". It had a tuned blind hole in the center electrode (I think) and another hole in the ground prong. The theory was that the explosion from the spark caused a sonic shock wave inside the combustion chamber, thereby further atomizing fuel droplets, helping to increase fuel burn, etc. I tried to contact them, but was unsuccessful. Fun stuff out there. Someone is always trying to build a better mousetrap. Commuter

This particular generation of engine / ECU does have fuel maps on the rich side. They can be aggrevated by a sluggish O2 sensor (that is, run more rich). Twice, I've had issues with some carbon build up in my 97 OB 2.5L auto, and I do mostly highway driving. I'm not the only one, there have been other reports. Some years ago, Emily of CCR posted that these engines look like carburated engines from the 70's when they tear them down. There is that much carbon build up happening. Just FYI Commuter

Ditto, I had this happen with one of my Civics. I lost the lowest fan speeds (1 and 2 I think). Commuter