Setright

First of all, an historic reference: Henry Ford had intended for his cars to run on ethanol, but alas "Prohibition" put an end to brewing the stuff for a long while. He looked around and found a fossil fuel instead. Thanks a bunch, lawmakers. Second: Ethanol won't kill a gas/petrol car immediately. It's a slow process. The fuel pump will wear out faster, the injectors might do the same, depending on design. The big problem is that all those fuel lines are made of rubber designed to withstand petrol and ethanol will slowy eat them up. This causes slow leaks to develop. Very slow, and essentially they only emit vapour. Of course, that means the environment is suffering! Those fancy evaporative emissions control systems are useless when the fuel lines are leaking the vapour. Swedish tests, done recently since they made it mandatory for all gas to have 5% ethanol have proven the above. And now we're following suit in Denmark. How daft is that? It's typical of knee-jerk environmentalists. They champion ethanol as the new savior - and fail to look into the implications of changing just that one parameter. I'm all for ethanol powered cars, they just need to have fuel delivery systems designed for it.

Okay...here comes the stickler: Original Equipment Manufacturer This is not the same as "Genuine Parts". Unisia can chose to sell the same parts they deliver to Subaru, but without any Subaru logos and these parts are OEM. It's like buying KYB shocks for you Subaru. Nothing to worry about there. Buying Monroe or Gabriel shocks would be aftermarket. :) :)

It looks perfect to me "Stance" as the late Russel Bulgin wrote is something all car nuts can spot a mile away, and dropping a car 50mm is not how to achieve it ! If I may, I'm going to borrow your pictures Texan? A fellow ImprezaClub member over here is looking to lower his 2.0R sedan and I'm urging him to get STI springs P.S. HOW are you keeping the rims so clean???

Struts, or "dampers" as a UK English speaking person like would call them, cannot alter ride height. The do not have any capacity to lift a car. Nice one on the choice of springs, Texan

Very tidy

I can't see the sway bar itself being different. Hubs are different on 2WD and 4WD, so you might run into problems. Might. Have you considered buying a set of "used" Impreza/Legacy Turbo springs? So many Turbos have been lowered and that makes stock springs cheap and plentiful

I've vote for the passenger side wiper. Based on my 125mph + experience in a Forester 2.5XT. In even mild crosswinds the wiper lifts above that speed.

Pardon me for being tardy: I'd stick with a Subaru Genuine rad cap to replace the old one. Over here at least, the factory fitted caps read "1.1 Bar" and the replacements read "108Kpa". The same rating, yes, but the new text indicates a revised part.

Glad to hear (and see) it

The extra inches of clearance could give the Outback and advantage, but the WRX does have more power. Of course the Outback does have a full-size spare, so if things get really ugly, it'll have a better chance of getting you home after snake-biting a tyre over a hidden curb/stone..

Yeah, it can be done in-car, but as well as being easier out of the car, you're likely to do a better and more thorough job.

First of all, I have owned a used EJ22 that blew a headgasket around 120k miles. Blew in the same way as in the pics, only it was just one leak on cylinder three. They were black. So was the first replacement, which developed the external leak within days. Silver coloured, multi-layer gaskets solved the problem. Second: Judging by the number of failed 1.1 bar OE radiator caps that I have seen, I would suggest they are the weak link. The pressure seal fails and the coolant is allowed to escape practically unnoticed, until suddenly one day the temperature needle makes a dash for the red zone. Observant drivers will stop before they overheat long/hard enough to blow an HG. SO, if you have any late 90'ies Subaru and haven't relaced the original rad cap yet....get it done !

Replace when they break. Broken cables give a very characteristic rough idle.

I'm not sure I'm reading this stuff....EJ and fears of reliability? So, a Forester wouldn't start in winter? What about all the stories we read about EA engines cracking the heads between the valves? I've heard more of the latter, and expect the former wasn't due to bad design, but more likely neglect by the owner. I am definitely with the "you never look back" crowd on this one. Get an EJ and don't worry.

I hear you guys complaining that we get the Dual-Range transmissions over here Europe, but you know, I'd give it up for the turbocharged Legacies you people get

May I quote Sir Alec Issigonis? Designer of the orginal Austin Mini : "If you give drivers margins, they use them up." He was referring to the little car's huge improvement in handling and roadholding over contemporary rivals.

Hi! No need to flush anything. If you insist, then I suggest just pouring fresh oil in without installing the drain plug. Clutch alignment requires the standard pilot shaft tool thingy - can't recall the trade name. Nothing fancy. Running in shouldn't be too tricky, just drive normally and avoid "jack-rabbit" starts for the first 300 miles. Avoid them anyway of you want it last for a long time

A prosecutor will only focus on speed, I assume. Not any relevant info from the brake or possibly steering and ESP systems. On speed: As Nipper says, what about calibration? What about people fitting non-standard size tyres and causing inaccurate speed readings?

Well, that may well me true. I have seen plain bearings that live inside engines. These have oil feed into them and pushed in between the bearing surfaces (hopefully!) and that seems to me to provide a major advantage to free flowing oil.

The official recommendation is for chains on the fronts only. Keep in mind that they set a very low speed limit, too. What is it, something like 30km/h ?

Lukas, I think you're dealer is right. Once you past the 10-15,000km mark, you'll get better power and/or economy

How does 20% count as majority ?

Duh? What I mean is that plain-bearings inside an engine do not make contact in points like ball bearings on plates. They make contact in lines, and the oil is forced into them, meaning that an oil film is sustainable.

You've still not explained how the Bardall test is relevant to oil lubricating an engine's internals.

Some Europeans may not rack up the miles as fast you do Nipper. Swedes rank do easily rank high for example. They live in a big country, with plenty of remote areas that dictate the need to drive. Others may even stress their oil more than you, since they so much stop-start city driving, where each run is too short to really warm the engine up. On a sidenote: Consider that Skoda/VW/AUDI Diesel engines have intervals set at 30,000km! (The old 1.9 liter engines have 50,000km service intervals!)