felipe01forester

Why not get some heavy-duty door seals?

Do you have a plastic bumper? If so, why don't you try to attach the mounts by screwing them into the bumper in front of the grill? Use drywall anchors to ensure that they won't go anywhere.

The 98-2000 EJ-25 engines were notorious for head gasket problems. Those were fixed in 2001.

I feel your pain. I know how bad it is to be on dialup. When I had AOHell, I once tried to connect and it took me 27 times. SBC Yahoo DSL rocks!

It should be in the car's manual, if you still have it. If the fog lights have a protective grill, those can be popped out by a screwdriver, allowing you to access the lens housing itself.

My grandmother's Mercedes 240D had a separate key for ignition and locks. Also, all the GM cars are like that too. The square key for the ignition, and the round key for the locks.

A tip I learned from an AC tech that came to my house one time is to pump nitrogen into the system to dry everything out, THEN pull the vacuum. That way, everything is dry.

Get a used Forester, preferably a 2001. I was skeptical when my parents got one for me, but I've grown to love it. Do you have a lot of cargo to carry? If so, the Forester does the job. It has some good power, and the all-wheel-drive will definitely get you out of some jams. By all means, get the Forester, preferably a used one.

Brother, I feel your pain. I was in the same situation with my dad's almost-like-new 1969 VW back in October. Going through a green light, this woman tried turning left from the opposite side of the street, I plowed right into her because I didn't have time to stop. Bug got totaled and the idiot woman in the other car WASN'T INSURED!!! Anyway, I'm glad you're OK because no matter how dear they were to you, cars can be replaced. Lives, however, cannot. Oh and BTW, we got $4000 for the Bug. I think you should just total the Outback because you'll probably spend much more than it's worth trying to get it fixed.

Welcome to the board, amigo. You'll find a treasure trove of knowledge on this board. If you have any questions, just ask. Someone here will have the answer.

Right... like someone's actually going to send an email or otherwise contact Ian Anderson to see if he wrote a song about a Subaru. On second thought, it's worth a shot. I sent a letter to Robert Moog (the synthesizer guy) asking him how to build my own synthesizer. He sent me a lot of technical manuals and got me started on my electrical engineering hobby.

Hmm... perhaps he was referring to a Subaru?

I never realized that Jethro Tull could do a car song like that. I wouldn't put it up there with Rush's "Red Barchetta" or Motley Crue's "Kickstart My Heart", but it's rather interesting.

Very nice, Zef. I'd kill for a Brat like yours. Well, not really... :-p

Same in Texas. Anything older than '81 and you just need seat belts and headlights. What do you expect coming from a state that has drive-thru liquor stores?

I had the same problem with my rubber mats. All you need to do get a box cutter and is cut out a small area from the part of the mat that catches the clutch to give the pedal enough clearance. Problem solved.

There are kits you can buy. Try http://www.a1electric.com or http://www.specialtypowerwindows.com. Better yet, try the good folks at JC Whitney. I've seen this done before, it's not rare.

That's probably the kill switch from the clutch to the starter. In all modern sticks, there is a safety feature that disables the starter UNLESS the clutch is depressed, so your car won't run away from you if you happen to leave it in gear.

My folks had a 1978 VW Rabbit that they believed was struck by lightning in 1985 while driving along US 80 from Terrell to Dallas. The car never acted the same since. If there is water on the tires, that small amount of water will attract static electricity as it's moving along the road. Two frictioning bodies (the road and the tires) rubbing together, creating a static capacitance on the car, plus a conductor of some sort (water) plus a static capacitance in the atmosphere will allow those two capacitances to connect and discharge to each other. If your car comes in contact with power lines, that's only a few thousand volts at the most. Your tires will insulate you, as well as Lenz's Law, stating that an electric charge will only conduct across the SURFACE of the conductor itself, so as long as you're inside the car and don't touch anything metal in the cabin, you'll be alright. As you see from those pictures, lightning packs a wallop of a few million volts in a split-second discharge. The thunder concussion was probably what broke the windshield.

I get mine changed every 3K or 3 months, whichever comes first (got it done today, in fact). With the mystery stuff, you'd probably want to have it changed a little sooner, but not every 500 miles. Maybe 2500 or 2000

Subaru of Dallas on Lemmon Avenue. Good place, nice people, reliable work. That's where I bought my Forester and where I get it serviced. The phone number is (214) 526-5555. Ask for Neil Bywater in the service department and he'll take care of ya.

I've been wondering how to replace the flimsy plastic engine cover that got chewed up the last time I went out. Road signs, eh? Haven't thought of that.

Well, if it's spinning free in the roof rack, like Scottbaru said, time to whip out the ol' Milwaukee! Then all you have to do is buy some new crossbars. That shouldn't be too bad, and it'll be better in the long run.

I got my 01 Forester for $12K. It was from Soob of Dallas, though. Either way, welcome to the board, amigo. You'll find a crapload of info here that will easily help you. If you got a problem, feel free to ask around and any one of us here will try to answer you to the best of our ability.

Any model after 2000 has the Phase II EJ-25 engines. They corrected the head-gasket issues this time. As long as you get one newer than that, you'll be OK.