nipper

OE has a tighter spec they must meet, since if the part is bad they get hit with a recall. Bosch really could care less as an aftermarket part. nipper And as stated time will tell.

Sheesh at 191,000 miles i put a brand new engine in mine. If the timing belt jumps usually a pair of cylinders will have high pressure (DOHC) or will have low. 170 actually is a bit on the low side, as normal is the 180-190 range. The dealer woosed out on the compression test, as i am sure they didnt charge you for 3 cyl time, they charged you for 4. If the wires looked old and the customer was showing a missfire, they should have thrown a set of wires on it to see if that solved it. I still dont like this shop. nipper

Does it do this on a dead straight road? Are your tires cupped? Check for heat shiled issues. This is a noise of harmonics. Longshot check your main pulley. nipper

If there is no leaking at the Rack Boots, then the rack is fine. Thats how sooby racks go bad. Another general symptom for all racks is binding when the car is cold, then feels better as the car warms up. It may be that your pump is tired. They are available in junkyards and are plentiful (ie cheap). If the failure is non pulsing, then look at the pump. if it is pulsing/binding it may be the universal joint in the column under the hood. nipper

Unplug the green connector then clear the codes. Wait a day or so then rescan and tell us what comes up. BTW subaru O2 senssors for the front should be OE. nipper

Use photobucket as a third party then post the link here and the picture appears. nipper

We need a better description of what is happening then just "dying". How many miles on this car? Are the rack boots torn or leaking? nipper

I am sorry but this is not "if the car is running it is fine" thing. There are issues here. There should be a wet and dry compression test, and we need all FOUR cylinders done with the plugs removed. We need a dry test and a wet test. If the shop only did a 2 cyl compression test take the car out of there they dont know what they are doing. I've never heard of 2.5's burning up exhaust valves on the #3 cylinder. On occasion they will burn a valve (as any car will). Questions: How many miles are on this car. When was the last time the timing belt was changed. If the belt was changed, what other parts were changed along with it. I am leaning toward the car being in time, but i want to see what the compression is on the other cylinders first. nipper

If you are going to try a last ditch repair before actually giving an honest attempt to fix the car i am going to bow out. Antifouler (which I do not like as a repair, as it doesnt solve the problem, only masks it) is the last thing to try, not the first. nipper

Odd ive drven those plains roads (my nephew lives in bumbleflick South dakota) and gravel would have been welcomed . But then again they felt safe at 55. Loose gravel if you have make a manuver at speed over 40 can be a killer. Also Tires have better have thick belts in them, as gravel can be sharp, the higher the speed, the higher the chances of a puncture.

Actually thats not really true. !st this is a completly differnt design (becoming the owner of a Justy I can now speak as an expert after much research). There are several variations on CVT's out there and they seem to be doing well. In the Justys case Subaru was just asking for too much from too little a car. The biggest flaws with the Justy were too long a fluid change interval for such little volume of fluid (asking for 7000 miles out of 3 qts of oil is too much). The CVT was misunderstood by dealerships, and it is a surprsingly simple unit. The #1 fault for them was the brushes would go bad, and at 200.00 a pop people baulked at it. That was alos 20 years ago. A well maintaned Justy can go over 150,000 miles. CVT's have been around for almost 7 years now. The only real issues i have seen isnt so much the CVT itself, but its valve body anc computer mgmt. I can make the same statement about 2001 BMW automatics (my sisters loved to go into two gears at once, 4 tranny laters she sold it), but I wont condem all geared autos for that fault either. nipper

Nor tires with 1" deep treads

Well depending upon the gravel at over 40 you can tire punctures too. I would go all over that front end, and my guess would be it has worn out parts making it twitchy. nipper

You can buy the proper fatseners with the proper holes (i too did my time building missle launchers bomb racks and mind sweepers). Just drilling holes in fasteners can come back and bite you in the tail. I hope you dont think the military just has a shop drill little holes in bolt heads (but then again). Military and airframe use fastners made with the holes along with nylon loc nuts. McMaster Carr usually has both. nipper

Nothing like a good honest truck. Fords from the 60's and 70's always looked good, without looking like they had something to prove.

45 on gravel is awfully fast, as well on a snow covered road. Subarus are FWD with RWD added. It is easy to disable/remove the RWD part, but to make one RWD (can be done) but takes some work. Why not just buy a RWD vehicle? I know someone had converted one to Rear Wheel Drive someplace. nipper

thats not bad. i hear some people sell these clear little rocks for 100,000 dollars, and for what? Not like you can do anything with them!

Do you have a parking garage you can drive through ot something with a good echo so we can get a little better fix on the noise? A front pump will have a differnt sounds then a diff, as a diff will roar, and a pump tends to scream. nipper

What year and how many miles on this car. When was the last time a timing belt was done and cam/main seals?

Common thing for the tranny mount to fail with age. The rest of them seem to last the life of the car. nipper

It was ok to use just got tired of the stabbings from saftey wire. It isnt always the smilpiest thing to do right. Use what your supposed to use for the specific fastner. nipper

AH galley plugs. nipper

And put the heater on a timer. Havr it come on 2 hrs before you are ready to leave, if you have a regular scheduale. And as stated above, the rest of the car is still ice cold so give it a little time to warm up. nipper

Yes subarus goal will be CVT's in all base models as the automatic transmission. It will come as they cars come up for major redesigns. Assuming nothing blows up. nipper

Test plugs?