intrigueing

Did you ever check the differential level? Not changing your oil yourself because it is not worth your time is fine. I had the same opinion as you, and have since changed my position back to doing my own oil changes - after a place changed the oil on my wifes brand new car and did not tighten the oil filter. The headache of one mishap is worth a lifetime of doing my own oil changes - only my opinion. We don't care if you fix the problem yourself - take it somewhere. You talk about buying a car to be reliable, yet drive it under conditions that could likely cause any car to sustain significant damage. You asked advice on here if it was safe to drive or as you put it "Oil overfill: OK or death?" - the opinions you got were that it is an extremely bad idea "death" to keep driving the car, and yet decide to still drive it. Get the car fixed immediately or take a cab - it could save you thousands of dollars. Let us know what happens.

A junk yard will hit you 75-100$ for one in good shape.

I'd take it to another mechanic, because if they screwed it up you will likely end up in court. They are likely to cover their blunder if you take it there, and do you really want them working on your car anymore? If the diff was drained, how can they compensate you for unknown damage down the road......definately not by just correcting the fluids

You get any overheating symptoms? The brown goo would have me scared........Crosses fingers........ Good Luck.

Your last post really made me think there is a huge possibility that firestone drained the differential fluid and then added oil to your already full motor. The front differential (if an auto) has a dipstick to check the level (passanger side opposite of the trans stick). Check the diff fluid-quick, as running it dry will cause serious damage in a hurry, you better let firestone know what is going on too, in case their mistake causes your car damage. The 2.2 is far less likely to have blown a HG than if you had a 2.5. Keep us posted.

I believe napa filters are made by WIX - not Purolator and are still excellent filters. The anti-drainback will help hold oil higher in the engine, and keeps the dirty filtered particles from being flushed back into the system.

Did the oil look normal? I've seen head gaskets go, allowing large quantities of coolant to get into the oil, making the level extremely high. If this was the case your coolant would be low and your oil would look chocolate-milky. Why drive it? It would take like 5 minutes to drain the excess out and feel more confident that the headgaskets are ok, and the car will not die on the side of the road requiring a tow possibly causing a dangerous situation - or irreversable damage to your car? No flame intended - just better to be safe than sorry.

Loose hoses, or heater core? I dread even saying the worst possibility, that headgaskets are heading south, however your symptoms are not the "tell tale ones".

Every oil change since my experience has been done by "yours truly" - it is hard to believe someone could screw up something as simple as an oil change, but it does happen quite frequntly.

I've had relly good luck getting my well maintained 95 with 100K on the clock. Put on 25K and nothing but simple maintenance needed. More trouble free than any other car that I've owned. Let someone else eat the depreciation. I am a big fan of the 2.2, and personally would avoid the 2.5. If you work on cars at all the 2.2 is really nice to work on - everything is in the right place and done for a reason.

Same thing happened to me at a dealer on a brand new car (first oil change), except the oil filter was not tightened, and the car was down over 2 1/2 quarts of oil - called the place and asked to talk to the manager - told them what they did , and the manager jumps in "oh no problem just bring it in and we'll tighten the filter and add the oil". Can't believe he advised me to drive the car after hearing the car was virtually out of oil. One week later and multiple calls to the car manufacturer the dealer calls me with a sweet deal - free repairs for however long I own the car up to 100K and if I decide to sell they will buy it for full retail - but they wanted confidentiality on the problem - sure fine by me. Free repairs and 85K later I cashed in and sold the car to them - full NADA retail. Never really had many problems that were related to the low oil - but several other things that were nicely taken care of for free:D PS it wasn't a Subie - starts with a H and ends with an onda.

If the wires (I suspect coil pack at the same time) made the problem go away I think that is close to the problem. The #2 misfire is your biggest clue. Try the free / cheap things first. Pull the #2 plug and check the tip to make sure it is ok. Try swapping a working wire from another one of the cylinders and see if the misfire code follows the wire - indicating the bad wire. If this does not work check the coil resistance, however it may only be failing under load - you have any friends with subarus you could try swapping coils for 10 minutes? It may also be a bad injector or weak fuel pump - the pump does have to work harder to pump gas to the front of the car which is higher going up hill - ever try going up a hill in reverse and see what happens - If it was fine I'd say it's your fuel pump for sure, as the car is under the same load just going up backwards that gives the fuel pump a height advantage. Let us know what happens...good luck.

When the check engine light comes on codes are stored in the computer - these codes are related to a specific sensor that has an error in reading. The codes almost always tell you exactly what is wrong, or at least give you clues of what to check. Get the codes pulled and ask them to tell you the codes - some autozone stores will pull the codes for free, or some dealers are nice enough to pull the codes as well. My wild guess at your problem is the coolant temperature sensor, or cam sensor. Get the codes, it sounds like your shops are not telling you the whole story - ask them the #'s of the codes and what they think the problem is.

NADAguides.com shows around 6,000 retail, so with the work needed, it is not a screaming good deal. How badly worn are the tires? They can be a huge deal if there is significant wear differences between tires - that can cause drivetrain problems, it may not be as simple as just replacing the tires. Tires will cost $300+ the timing belt / seals / waterpump will run 400+ wheel bearing 200+ Make sure you take some slow tight turns to see if the AWD is binding. Get quotes from the a subaru dealer to do the work that is needed, then I'd start at 4,500 - make sure you keep telling them the work that is needed. Make several visits and offer 4500 then leave if they don't take it, come back and tell them 5000 if they do all the repairs before you get the car, but make sure the AWD is ok before even making an offer, repairs to the AWD can often exceed a grand. All dealers go by NADA, edmunds is often overpriced for the market. Print out the Nada value, so you can show the dealer why after the repairs he is overpriced.

You have any external oil leaks? I would tend to guess leakey cam/crank seals that could be consuming your oil. The seals tend to go south around 100K - Rings do not - 100K is barely even broken in for the 2.2.

How does the trans fluid level and quality look? I tend to agree it does not sound like a trans problem, and it seems the dealer is full of it - get another opinion.

Try pressing the brakes lightly when it is making the noise to see if the noise goes away, I had brakes giving me the exact symptom you are speaking of.

Tires seem like a possibility, try inflating to 35 psi and rotating them, if there is significant wear differences front to back, replace them.

How does your front diff fluid look, from the sounds you are getting, it does not seem that there could be a "simple cheap solution" Keep the fuse in - AWD engaging at 45 mph with dry pavement = quick damage. Maybe your subaru will be fine with the fuse, and you can just be happy with "the beauty of front wheel drive".

Engine Temp sensor messes with the Air/Fuel Mixture - I would bet that is your problem (very common). When the car is cold the computer is getting a signal that it is warm when it is not, and bingo a messed up A/F ratio.

How bad was the damage from the accident? The car may not be 100% straight, causing the car to think wheels are slipping, when it is just the car out of wack.

Your car is at the common age for oil leaks to start, regardless of maintenance. The valve covers, cam and crank seals, as well as the oil pump are common to start leaking at 100K. Get a book, you can fix em'. If you have any questions, you can always find a wealth of info here!

The drone could be the waterpump going south, however when I removed the snorcus, I got the exact noise you are speaking of, I put the snorcus back in and the noise disappeared - it could be slightly heard when the car was on, but was most noticable just after the car was turned off.

I would guess coolant temp sensor. Check to see if the car has any stored codes. http://www.surrealmirage.com/subaru has instructions on how to do so. The fans coming on would not keep the actual engine temperature ice cold, I'd guess the sensor is wrong. Is the heat warm? If so maybe your thermostat is stuck open.

Lex - Or anyone else - Ever use rockauto.com? Recommended?