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You often get the entire life of the engine on them. Subarus have all the weird seal leak problems and oil pump o ring, etc. Since you have to go in for those the timing belt isn't much more trouble, and I guess I can live with every 90,000 miles.

I got all the stuff in the bulletin. When it is cold there is still a tiny judder that goes away after the first use. It's not a bad fix and did not require a flywheel on mine.

think the Miata is one of the most reliable and best deals out there. My boss races one and a few friends own them and all love them. Porsches tend to cost a fortune to maintain, but if you have too much money they are nice. BMW Zs and Ms are in the middle, cheaper than a P car but twice as expensive as a Miata.

You can get nearly the same effect by useing a heavy single grade oil like 50 wt. It will give you some good effects temporaily like increase compression a tiny bit and reduce oil burning, sometimes it will even quiet worn lifters a bit. The fact is that the engine is worn and this won't change that. Think of it as marketing in a can. I have some extra spark intensifiers for you too.

My 99 Forester had similar symptoms (shuddering on brakeing) and I had a local shop do a brake job. Still shuddered enough to irritate me so I bit the bullet and bought new rotors, pads, and rear brake shoes, and drums. The new rear drums did not fit so I didn't use them, but it is fine now. Killed a Saturday doing brakes and struts on the front, and did the rear the next weekend. It sometimes seems hard to get a really good brake job.

he did a very nice write up when he changed his. Frankly yours is about like doing two Hondas with two heads and two timing belts I believe.

if it goes the engine goes south. Can you say bent valves? where is Mr. Rodgers now that we need him? I think your choice of changing it is money well spent.

a good diagnosis whether or not you have them do the work.

but on my car I had both water pump and tensioner changed at 90,000. the results are too catestrophic on an interference engine to take a chance for me. Some folks say a water pump lasts 200,000 and a tensioner can do that too. Not on my car.

how old is the clutch? Does it smell hot?

but I just get another part. In the past I have covered interior panels with leather and such, but the car has to be worth quite a bit of money to make this worthwhile. Any good junkyards nearby?

I work in San Carlos and live in San Mateo. You might just be throwing extra money away for nothing if you change the mounts with nothing wrong with them.

but there is one more option if you can find a tool called a nut splitter. This device surrounds a nut and tightens with a wrench to split it. Thus you prevent damage from heat and damage from hammering.These bearing are known to be fragile and Subaru has instuctions on how not to damage them.

when I lived in Maine it was salt central. That nut is rusted on tight enough that oil will do nothing for you. We used to cherry the nut and sometimes we would only get a couple of turns with a breaker bar before we had to cherry it again. Yes the seals are at risk. With the worst nuts we cut them off with a torch, but this requires some skill to avoid damage.

out weighed the mechanical shortcomings. I like the size, its fun to drive, fairly easy to work on, and can make it through the woods where I want to go. If I was going to do it again I would buy a slightly later car with lower mileage from a place offering an extended warranty. I bought a car with nearly 90,000 miles on it from a private party figureing most bits would be pretty solid. Wrong.

extended warranties. They are definately working the percentages, plus the fact that most folks are going to lose the original paperwork or sell the car or appliance. The way Subarus used to be I would not have considered the extended warranty. The way Subarus have been lately, especially the 2.5, I would get it and be happy to get it. With my budget I prefer a few bucks more a month that I can plan for, rather than a $3000 plus expense as an interesting surprise, like I got from my car in one shot. I think it is cheap insurance and ask any of the other folks who have had head gaskets, clutch, or transmission failures on a late Subaru and I supect they might agree.

They can be cleaned or easily replaced. The dealer and the plug wires have nothing to do with it. It could also be battery cables or connectors but since you said you serviced them, and starter switches are less common problems. Look up solenoid contacts in the archives.

folks bring them in and never have the bucks to pick them up. Also most junkyards have a wire connection to see who has what. Get a local to put it on the wire for you. they last time I wanted to rebuild a Volvo engine I found a whole running car for $300 for a block. Check the local pennysaver also if you have one.

unlike you I keep my cars for a long time. Seventeen years on my last Mercedes and my last Jeep was twenty four years old when I sold it. I have no idea what my Forester cost in 1999, so we need that, as well as how much financeing would cost. I bought my Subaru used so I don't have the original numbers. I can pull the file when I get home and give you the exact list of repairs and maintence and we could see which would have been the least costly way to buy. I never lease since I can't write it off and I think the cheapest way for me to go is to buy a used car in good basic shape. Who knows, we all might learn something.

but the way Subaru has been the last few years you are a lot better off with an extended warranty. Just look at the long list of weird failures new Subarus have had. If you said you were buying a Toyota I would feel differently about the extended warranty.

but in most cases it is not worth it. I can get a junkyard block pretty cheap hear in CA, far cheaper than welding. If you are in a place where Subarus are fairly common get a replacement.

and we are all chanting OHHHMMMM.

and they have lost a few bucks on me. I used it to get the latest upgrades for problems that could become an irritation later. No unplanned costs on that car at all due to the warranty. My Subaru Forester is also a 99. No extended warranty and unplanned costs have been at least four thousand bucks. I suspect that warranty might be cheap insurance, although I hope they have developed fixes for the problem like head gaskets, clutch, clutch linkage, etc, that befell my 99.

I used to change stuff like this for High performance and constantly mess with it to get a couple of more horse power. These cars are already running extremely sophisticated equipment. Computer controlled fuel injection, high performance ignition, overhead cams. This was Formula 1 stuff a few years ago. My Forester is pretty peppy for a little 2.5 phone booth even though it won't be setting any records soon. In the right situation it can be more fun to drive than my BMW M Roadster. I like to keep the engine stock so that it is easy to maintain and reliable for everyday driving. The factory engineers had a lot more time and money to test parts than I do. Sometimes they don't get it right and then you have to seek a solution like Blitz has on his knock sensors. If it ain't broke..........

that is one failure mode. Did it slip before? How many miles on the clutch?