unverviking

Me too. Joined today. I purposely drove home the "long" way to get it over 200K. Still rides/drives like a dream... Hopefully it will last awhile longer, without too much going wrong.

I am from Spencerport (west of Rochester), I too have my issues with Van Bortel, but they are the least of all evil's when you add Piehler and Doyle's Service Depts.. Don't get me started. I have heard from a co-worker, another Sube nut, that there is a good Sube guy in Naples. Pat's Radiator 8633 State Route 21 Naples, NY 14512 Phone: (585) 374-2262 If you find anyone in a little less rural spot, let me know. I too am looking for someone other than these dealers to give my business to.

From my experience, Sube's like thin oil. I religously use 5W30. I had similar issues a couple of winter's ago, the local guy uses 10W30. When I chagned it to 5W30, it went away. I have found it best to request 5W30 at all shops (when I take it in,as opposed to doing it myself) most of their bulk oil is 10W30. Good Luck, keep in touch...

On my 93 Leg Wagon AWD 2.2L, NON TURBO, 5 Speed, how do I (other than very carefully) remove the MPFI Shroud from around the upper ends of the Spark Plug wires. I need to replace the wires and want to save time in asking rather than standing in the ice cold (no garage again this year, construction begins in March on a 4 car) with a mirror and offset screwdriver trying to figure it out. Many thanks in advance to all.

I would have to agree, the quality in the other car lines is worse than Subaru's worst. My first is our 01 OBW, bought new in Jan 01, and it has been the most reliable car we've owned. Yes, we've had our problems, and still will, but when we had our Chevy's, (Corsica, Cadavilier, S-10, Silverado, GMC Sonoma) we'd be at the dealer every other month for something. Let's not mention my Dodge Dakota... I bought the 93 Leg Wagon as a 2nd car in Oct 03 from a family friend with 190k on it. It has 199k on it now, only had to replace the brakes/rotors (what car doesn't need that to keep running) and the exhaust. I can't complain about that. It starts whenever I need it, and still runs great. In fact both of my sisters drove it, and remarked how nice it still drives, even with 190k on the ticker... Happy Thanksgiving all...

There's also eBay. There's a guy who sells Nippon Oil Filters. I have bought them before, not too bad. The filter are very solid and look to be well made. I changed the oil over a month ago in both my Sube's and the oil is still golden. I will be back to the eBay guy and buy more. Overall I spent about $20.00 for 4 filters. Not too bad, I think.

The local dealer sent a post card for a free 28 point inspection on all Sube's. On my 01 OBW 2.5l they say that the valve cover gaskets are bad. They showed me oil on 1 of the spark plug wires. I was tempted to pull 1 of the other's, but couldn't get close enough to it. Is this definately a tell tale sign that the gaskets are bad ? What are some of the other signs of bad VCG's. Get this, the 93 has a full complete list of gaskets they want to replace... $1196.00 was the estimate. I am not losing any oil in between changes and it's not a daily driver... Even with oil at $1.50/qt, that buys a lot of oil if I need to start topping it off, but I haven't had too yet...

I am considering these too. I've seen them on a lot of VW's with 4motion. I think 1 of the local dealers use them for their used/"certified pre owned" cars. I haven't seen any with chopping, and with what looked to be signigicant wear. Don't know how many miles, etc... I just got 2 Uniroyal American Gold Plus tires, with 2 more on order. The last set got about 40k before 1 of them developed a high spot on the outside edge and caused a shimmy. They still had 4/32's left. Not too bad. I have a set of their "Trendsetter SE" on my 93. They've got over 5k on them, so far so good. Smooth ride, low noise, good traction so far, just waiting on the snow... I don't expect any trouble.

1 of my co-workers had a 00 OBW, and he had an external coolant leak from the head gasket. Passenger side, I think. He had 105K. He was quoted $4500.00 for replacement of the motor. Head gasket replacement was not recommended, as it would/could fail again. He bought an 03 OBW instead. I have an 01 OBW, hopefully the coolant additive will do it's thing. I advised him of recall, which came about 3 months after he bought the new car. He contacted Subaru, they offered noting but an apology, and thanks for buying another one...

I have a 2001 OBW, no problems with it... I would suggest just to pull the nozzle back a little... But if the dealer replaced the tank thinking it would help, you must have tried that already...

How are these oil filters ? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7932448170&category=33661&sspagename=WDVW Are they the old OEM's ? Are they any better/worse than the OEM's now ? Fram, NAPA, Purolater ?? Just wondering, I bought a set and have them on both of my Subies, and need to restock. Thanks in advance to all who reply.

Noticed that you live in the Rochester NY area... I am having some issues with tires for my 01 Outback Wagon. I have had nothing but trouble with getting a good set. The OEM tires were slashed at about 30K, bought some Dunlop SP Sport A2's. Terrible. After about 9k, and rotating SEVERAL times, gave up on them, they sounded like a turbo prop plane... I got a free set of Uniroyal American Gold as the replacement from Dunn's and they have their issues too. Just had to replace 2 because 1 had a high spot on the outside. The remaining have 7/32'nd left, but feel as if they are starting the same thing as the others. Where did you get your Traction T/A's ?? How have they lasted ??

I have a buddy who work for a NAPA store. I had to replace the OEM pads on my 01 outback wagon at 22k. I thought that to be a bit premature... But since it was our first automatic vs a stick, I wrote it off quickly. He recommended a set of NAPA OE replacement. They worked fine for about another 17k, then he called me and wanted to swap those pads for a set of their new Ceramix pads. Since there was no cost to me, I did it. What a great pad, have over 30k on them now and haven't even had to clean them. I am starting to notice a SLIGHT pulsation, think that I'm gonna have to turn the rotors soon.

I too found this webpage useful... I had a FRAM on both of my SUBE's and replaced them quickly. I found on eBay, someone selling the Nippon oil filters, apparently the old OEM for Subaru. I like them, they are about twice the weight of the FRAM's... (new in the box, no oil of course) I changed the oil and filter last week on my 01 Outback and drive about 1k so far (trip to NJ for work this week) and the oil on the dipstick is still golden. Can't complain about that...