nipper

i have a 97obw aith 182K on the original headgasket. if it blew tomorrow i would blame old age, nit the car. My civic blew a Hg at 156K, none of my subarus ever blew a HG and all went over 200k. Part of it is that no one held onto cars long enough to get into the milage where HG failure is likely to happen. we used to walk away from cars with 100K miles on them. Now its not uncomon to have cars last 200K, so more and more times we get into the max life of the head gasket. Remeber you have two dissimlar metals creating a seal. the HG ic copper (or something similar) between two peices of aluminum. There are differnt expansion rates and other proerties for these materials, and after 100K miles, thats alot of stress. Any part that can hold its function for that long in my mind is not junk. And we all know that as a car gets older, we have more expensive repairs that happen. In the 50's and 60's it was typical for a engine to not last longer then 80K miles without a rebuild (i am not making a blanket statment so im sure there is somone that had one that lasted longer.. always is). This same engines now last for ever due to better fuels and oils. Nothing lasts for ever. if i had a 10yo refirgerator die on me, i wouldnt be jumping up and down screaming that the appliance is junk. Why do people do the same thing with a car that has over 100, 000 miles on it then complain the product is junk cause it needs a major repair. what about all those other trouble free miles before then? nipper

You can do it, as it is the same fluid that is in the tranny, with the exception of some additives. Big old ford station wagons had PS coolers. Its really not needed on the subraus as its a light car, Have you tried www.radiator.com ? they have good prices and i have been very happy with them. nipper

With the statement posted in the other thread, call you area rep and let him know what is going on. The dealer is snowing you. In extreeme cases you can use a quart per tank and still be considered ok .. but thats unacceptable in a new engine. Eventually this will have an effect on your cat and your O2 sensors. how many miles are on this engine? nipper

70k on a clutch is early but not unreasonable. Now throw in the clutch is the original one from 97, its old. You could have a main seal leaking oil on the clutch disc, and that will cause failure. Oil seals will dry out, and ive seen it happen with low mileage soobys. they like to be driven, they like lots of miles. No matter what, the clutch has to come out. A hydraulic clutch is self adjusting. My gut feeling is that you have a leaking seal that has contaminated the disc. nipper

The best you can do is file a complaint with the NHTSA. It will be hard as its not a saftey deffect, and its not a emissions defect (the leak is so small it doesnt affect emissions). The defect affects less then 15% of the combined years totals, and most are already fixed. you can also try to contact the Federal trade commission. Also on a ten year old car they are going to tell you you got your moneys worth out of gasket. Subaru addressed this issue through an engineering change, and in all honesty, ist the same way any automaker addresses this kind of issue, be it Ford, GM (notorous for it) Chrysler, or any other manufacturer that has a "weakness" in its design. i personally think the car is a great product, and far from crappy. Also once you get past 100K miles or 10 years old, any car can blow a headgasket at any time, and it may not be the manufacturers fault. Old hondas would blow head gaskets at over 150K like clockwork (read the old civic boards) but no one complained. they just wrote it off to age. Personally if a HG blows past 100K i would write it off to age if it was any other car, i think the only reason we get so excited about it is because of the cost issue. Personally i would take a subaru 4cyl over any american 4cyl engine of the same age and mileage. Given enough time most aluminum engines at some time in thier lives will blow a head gasket. nipper

yes a bad gas cap can make it go on. It should click at least three times. Extreeme cold weather can make cars do odd things untill warmed up. You can have a weak sensor that the cold weather just made go out of its parimeteres and throw a code. If thats the case, the dealer should keep the car over night and check the codes then. This is something that i wouldnt necassarily get annoyed with the dealer for. nipper

i used armourall before the winter season on all the door seals. Keep in mind if the weather conditions ar right, noting is going to give you a 100% guarentee of getting in the car, any car. What also works is to have a can of windsheild deicer in the house and at work. ive used that to get in a frozen car. nipper

There you go again .. its always about those oposing thumbs .... brag brag brag nipper

It stores the codes. ALso you can check parimeters on the fly to see hat sensor is reading what. I would rent the code reader for a few days and play with it. When was the last time this thing had a tune up (fuel filters, pcv plugs wires). Things to check with a multimeter, throttle position sensor, O2 sensors, knock sensor. When do you gte the hesitation. Have you lost any top end performance (this would be a clear sign of the converters clogging up) nipper

Use the search feature, thats wht it is there for. This subject is like beating a dead horse. Basically the best filters are OE as supported by indepedent testing. There are extensive threads on this subject. nipper

manual trannies have center differentials, automatics dont. nipper

Only thing i see wrong is synthetic tranny fluid. Synthetic lubricants have reduced friction properties. An automtaic transmission needs friction to operate. This may or may not have an affect on your tranny, but i would never do it myself. In the crankase you can use whatever you want. The screen filter doesnt really need to be changed unless the tranny pan was leaking and had to be removed, then i would do it as long as i was there. Thats just me ... im sure some sort of war will start over synthetic auto tranny fluid, so ill just hide in a ditch now nipper

Could be a bad tank of gas, could be a dying cat converter. the next tank of gas, go to an amaco station and by premium (its going to hurt). If its two concecutive tanks of gas, i would look at the O2 sensors and the cat. One bad tank of gas milage is something to watch. two is to be investigated. nipper

sounds like a bad brake booster. with the car off, pump the brake pedal 10 times. Put your foot on the brake pedal and start the car. The brake pedal should go towards the floor. if it does not its a bad booster, if it does it is a bad master cylinder. ABS wil never affect normal braking, unless its leaking, and even then wont have a huge effect nipper

i think there is a pressure switch in the p/s system some place. The purpose of this switch is to have the computer raise the htrottle speed a hair when turned to lock. If this switch isnt working the car will stall on turns. One thing to try (got strong arms? turn the wheel to full lock. Remove the ps belt and make the car cut a circle. If it doesnt satll its cause the PS system is loading uo the engine and the switch is not compensating for it. Just an idea. nipper

how many mikes on this car Put a fuse in the awd holder and see what happens, the voltage may unstick a sticky solinoid. Next would be to try a transmission flush. The only other thing i can think of is a bad vehical speed sensor as the car uses two of them to make the AWD work. A tranny shop can put pressure gauges on the system and see whats going on. Everyone relies on codes way too much, when good old fashioned diagnostics works just as well if not better. nipper

You may have to take it to a tranny shop and let them throw some pressure gauges on the system to see if its working right. of course the 10.00 question, when was the last time you had the tranny flushed?

Head gaskert failure is not a saftey item, and the mode of failure not even in ones wildest imagination can cause an injury or death. Also the problem is over 5 years old now in less then 15% of the vehicals. It is also so small a leak that it doesnt effect emissions, so an emissions recall can not be instituted either. nipper

i poked around my seats and there is a cable going to the seat backs. Odd how both seat backs dont heat.. and seems to be alot of us that dont have that nipper

do a search on climate control, somone mentioned how to use leds to replace the bulbs. There is alsso a step by step procedure for it.....use the search nipper

OK so it only makes this sound when you drive the car a foot, or is it there all the time? Have you checked the driveshaft and carrier bearing to the rear axle? What conditon is your transmission fluid in,and what condition is your differential fluid in. Does the sound change with engine speed or with road speed. Does it change when you make turns (go faster slower or depending upon turn) nipper

Defroster bypasses the REC switch, so fresh air comes in, and you suck up any fumes from under the hood. You have a fluid leak of somekind dripping on the pipes. nippper

and here i was so happy that i got a used car where everything worked nipper

they make it that easy to replace, i would replace it nipper

OK here we go, my mantra .... ENGINE TRANNY YEAR MILEAGE:banghead: that siad if it is an auto, put int the FWD fuse and see if it helps. If thee is no cahinge look at the ceneter carrier bearing and universal joints, as they make this noise too. If ti all goes away with the FWD fuse, i would look at having the tranny flushed. nipper