nipper

See you didnt put your left foot in, then shake it all about. Thats what you did wrong. Lets do a quick test while the handshake is figured out. Go drive in a tight circle and see if the car does it smoothly and with very little to no throttle. That would rule out the nasty torque bind. If the car does lurch put the FWD in the holder and see if it goes away. if it doesnt you need to get it to a dealer soon. If there is no sign of TB, and no driveability issues, have a dealer look at it when you can. There rae 6 solenoids (maybe 8 i forget) in the tranny, the ATF sensor, and a few engine sensors that can throw the TCU light. The one that can do damage is the duty C (torque bind). The others may not even be percievable. nipper nipper

Not a very good driveshaft shop then. I had my 87GL driveshaft rebuilt. It too was staked in and un reabuildable. I found a good (and seems the only) driveshaft shop on Long Island. They were familiar with the problem, and replaced the staked U joints with ones from a ford ranger. Look around more, ask around, even out of your area. The other choice is to get a used driveshaft fomr a scrap yard. nipper

HAve the charging system tested. Dont by an altenator at an autoparts sotre unless you are in a rush or get a good price. I got one for my 97 at 61.00 plus core plus shipping. from the on line dealers. sounds like the alt. Alt is used to run the car, battery is used to start it. The car will run off the batter if the alt isnt doing its job. nipper

Thats total BS. A car is unsafe if it doesnt track straight. That drift to the right isnt valid on divided highways, and one way streets (or generally anytime). If this shop is licensed by the state, i would drop the licensing authority a letter too, as well as subaru and the shops owner. nipper

You are beyond drain and fill. you need to change all the fluid, which is 3 or 4 drain and fills (drain, fill , drive, repeat). Do change the spin on filter. Do not drop the pan. After this then its 3/36000 for AWD soobies, 50,000 is better then nothing, but its just too long for the awd clutches. After this one, another nice way to for it (depending upon how often you chnage your oil) is to do a drain and fill with every or every other oil change. I like this idea more and more. nipper

what he said, its not the head, its the cable. nipper

this is such an easy line but ill be nice. Check for a loose nut ...... in front of the windsheild, at the base of the wiper arm IF somone who operates the car is one of those people who dont clear off all the snow/ice before turning on the wipers, its possible that the wiper arm is stripped. The arm is soft aluminum while the shaft is hard steel for this reason. nipper

YOu lost a vss sensor, The car is in limp mode and will stay there untill the sensor id fixed. Poor performance is to be expected. nipper

tranny mount yes Cv joint almost. Jack up the car turn the wheel full lock, rotate drive wheel slowly, it should turn slowly and smothly. turn wheel straight grab axle and shake, should be no play. As long as you have it up, wiggle the wheel, that will check the wheel bearing. nipper

http://subarujusty.proboards20.com/index.cgi If its an autmoatic, walk away from it. They have a cvt (belt drive) transmission which had disapointing performance for a fairly powerful little car. Tehy also had a powder electronic clutch that had major issues. Sometimes the problems were as simple as very expensive bad brushes, other times it was far worse. Stick with the manual. 3cyl cars, watch the oil pressure, otherwise fairly neat. nipper

U joints are suspected at over 150,000 miles. I would suspect any engine mount, or the tranny mount (most likely). Keep in mind the car has 60,000 miles on it, but it is still 11 year old rubber. BTW you are overdue for a timing belt. nipper

Thats also the trick on 9.99 and 19.99 oil changes. Technically on an oilchange they are supposed to be inspecting your car, but the lower the oil change price, the higher the chance of them finding something. nipper

Next your going to say the garage is airconditioned...... i hate you :-p nipper

This is what i was looking for http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/byfuel/FFV2000.shtml and remeber these are vehicals with puters calibrated to run this stuff at their highest effecincy. nipper

FFV fule economy is crap to begin with, at 30 less or more (EPA figures available on EPA site). It can actually cost more to use e85. http://www.edmunds.com/advice/alternativefuels/articles/120863/article.html The computer is calibrated differently, there are acouple of differnt sensors, and there are other meaterials used in the fuel system. Using e85 in a car that has never had it before is very brave, as its a solvent and can flood the fuel system with dirt. Why anybody wants to use e85 is beyond me, as its just as expensve as gas when the fuel differnce is taken in, and is a very water hungry process. The one side effect no one has thought of is that it has driven up the price of corn and all corn byproducts, which has raised the cost of food. I think the search function may pick it up as ethanol, but this subject has been bought up many times http://www.caranddriver.com/features/11174/tech-stuff-ethanol-promises-ethanol-economics-page6.html e85 cars i think are also excused from the corrected epa mpg esitamtes (i could be wrong) so they are even higher then they should be. Auto mfgs get tax breaks for making e85 cars, weather the customer ever uses e85 or not. nipper

Or a vw rabbit diesel. nipper

Price the cost of axles, it may be cheaper. Axle seals should only be the labor to remove the seal itself, not the cost to get to it. YOu have to remove the axle to replace the boot anyway. I'ld look into the cost of replacement axles and then make a decision. CVS last a long time as long as the boot is in one peice. nipper

First thing is change your PCV valve. All engines use oil, no matter the oil. It is burned not in the cylinder, but in the crankase cooling the piston. More of an evaporation. Normal consumption is a qt every 3000 miles, normal consumption can be as low as 1qt to 800 miles. This is one of the things with synthetic oil that people tend to forget. You still need to pop the hood and check the oil level at the very least once every two weeks, to once a month depending upon your driving habits (once a day on a road trip). I do my oil changes at 3500-5000 miles ( i start thinking about it at 3500). The 7500 mile makes me uncomfortable ( i can hear the engine getting a little noisey at 5000), and the 10,000 plus of synthetic would just make me paranoid. But thats just me. Synthetis oil still means that at that 7500 mile interval one needs to look at the car and make sure everything is still in one peice. nipper

http://www.aa1car.com/library/ar996.htm how smooth is too smooth. Just for the record, gaskets so all their sealing at the edges. Everything else is for locationof holes and the gaskets. It was an education (and very frustrating when i had to mfg and design limited run gaskets). Made one amazed that some of these things actually worked at all nipper

The lines use O rings to make a seal. Clen off the rack and see if the fluid is soming from those points. If it is its a cheap fix. nipper

http://www.aa1car.com/library/gasket_failure.htm "Improper surface finish is probably the second most common reason for gasket failures, according to McKnight. This includes surfaces that are too rough and surfaces that are not flat." "And never, never use a Scotchbrite abrasive pad to whiz off old gasket residue from a head or block. Abrasives can leave low spots on the surface that will prevent the head gasket from sealing," I have never ever heard that about the surface finish at anytime anywhere, including my engine design class, and all the TSB's in the past 15 years. Thats one machine shop i would never take an aluminum head to. nipper

Thats what i am here for . i dont have the space (and working on getting the ability back) to build things, but love helping others out. nipper

Thats part of the pricing game. But remeber the spot market is out of control of OPEC and EXXON. OPEC keeps trying to bring it down, for fear of what you just said. i think the next big bubble will be energy futures, which is what banks and pension funds are investing in now. Thats why oil is about 30.00 higher then what everyone else says it actually is. I will be dancing on the graves of investment houses when the artificially high oil price bubble pops. nipper

The surface finish is critical on mid 90's engines. Its not so critical on older engines, but it is something else to look into. nipper

Cars have been this way for years, this is nothing new. Do you have cruise control? I dont remember is this switch is tied into the cruise. If it is I would just get used to it. If its not, just jump the terminal on the switch. nipper