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I have known a whole lot of Subie owners with 2.2s and smaller who did minimal maintence and just cured the oil leaks with another quart of oil. Treated like this these cars have been wonderful. The 2.5s have been another story. The good part is the way the new 2.5 head gasket fails is that if you keep water in the car, and just sort of expect that it goes down now and then, the car will run fine. The owner I bought my car from had no idea the head gasket was weeping, and I would not have known to look if I had not read it here on the board. I suspect there are a bunch of phase twos running around that just seem to lose a little water. Like you I would love to know the real percentage of cars that have problems like this, but it would require some sophisticated surveys. You could probably make an educated guess if you were to contact all the engine rebuilders that do subies in a city like Seattle, and take that number by the amount of subies registered in that city. This would give you a percentage anyway.

I love it when someone gets away with the easiest fix. That helps to make up for all the folks who get the hard stuff.

but I am sure the experts here will weigh in.

be pretty routine with an American car or a Volvo. I think you won't hear very many people slamming the 2.2 engine either. But the 2.5 just seems to need more work than most motors. There are things you expect such as a water pump or alternator at high mileage. Routine head gaskets and oil pump seals, are not part of my expectations. When people went to timing belts they added another couple of expensive maintence items with the tensioners and belts, and I knew the car had those so I expect it. Lousey clutchs from when the car is new??? Crank seals, oil control items all over the place? They should last till a rebuild is necessary.

supply the numbers of the parts I bought from the TSB when I am at home.

That sounds so much like an advetising claim. Reduce wear in some cases I couold believe. If it would stop wear we would no longer need to replace engines at all. In my BMW I have run synthetic since new, but it is still going to wear out.

I have seen mistakes from all the major manufacturers I can think of. Even Saturn. I recall a lot of the first ones blowing head gaskets of all things. I had a pal who was a machineist who kept busy on those. I think you are right, with this many thousands of bits many of which are made by outside suppliers, mistakes are going to happen. The real difference is going to be how the customer is treated.

are certainly a good thing to check. I was trusting that they were checked first, but maybe not. My symptoms were that the clutch pedal stayed on the floor till you pulled it back, not crunching. I changed the hose and slave, but still did not have adaquate volume, and so changed the master. Do we know that this Legacy has a hydraulic clutch? One way to tell if it is master, slave, or air in the system is to measure the movement of the arm wahile some one presses on the clutch pedal.

new. GM started the Aussie Holden as a rebadged Chevy and BMW and Datsun started with rebadged Austins. I have driven the same engine in a Chevy six, a Holden, a Vauxhall, and an Opel. What really matters is what the company does with the parts. The Aussie Holdens I drove a while ago were much better cars that the nearly identical Chevys. The Falcon GT was one hot four door in Oz and Kiwi, and the Cortina my father in law had was the best Pinto engined car I have ever seen. It cruised at 80, had good sway bars for Kiwi roads, double insulation for silence, and a real leather and wood interior worthy of a Jag. I hear raves about the Ford engine Jags form thier owners. Maybe Subaru will actually improve given access to these components. He said optimistically.

and bus trannys, but maybe ten automotive. I have never seen any kind of syncro on reverse. If they have been crunched in to first and reverse (if first is non-syncro) the teeth on the gears are pretty beat up. Tiny chips out of the teeth is the usual, but sometimes you have to change them. They get pretty noisey after a while with damage to the teeth. A new transmision in a few years will probably be cheaper than a divorce. If you change the clutch in a short time it may be cheaper still. I think you can put a million gallons of redline oil in the tranny and it still won't help a dragging clutch.

was a 96 with the three cylinder, three carb Monte Carlo engine. I rolled it end over end off an 18 foot drop practiceing for a Rally and we rolled it back over and drove it home with no windows. They certainly were unique.

The few I have seen on other brands had a relay. I used to change that first as it is something that would likely go soon, and if that did not fix it I would do the pump.

and you can get around it for a while using the syncro trick. On older cars where you could do clutch adjustments you could sometimes adjust it out of this.

Not that much rust is likely here in SF.

upgrade. The reason is that the after market is sometimes years behind on upgrades. The one place I have seen real aftermarket up grades is in high performance stuff. Your average local place is not likely to be Subaru hip unless you are in a few special areas. If they were a place like CCRINC I would trust them, but most places no.

One thing you would notice is how clean the fluids are. I feel the same way about brake fluid. The darn stuff is hydroscopic and the system will rust and corrode if you don't change it. Now with so many cars having ABS it can get really expensive not to. On my BMW the ABS pump is about 2 grand and I don't imagine a Subaru is that far off. I also spend many misspent years as a mechanic and a shop manager and learned to appreciate synthetic oil. On an old car like my 99 with a hundred thousand on it I am not sure it pays for itself. But on my high performance BMW you can bet there is synthetic in it.

will be on top of things and it will be the dealer's problem. Since I bought with no warranty it was my problem. I suspect the head gasket was weeping when I bought my car but it was so small it was very hard to notice. When I saw the coolent level go down a tiny amount in two weeks I had it inspected on a lift with a light. We could see it then. A good long warranty would be nice.

I have only had it on mine for a few months, so it is a bit too early for me to comment. It was OK yesterday, that's all I can say.

and a lot of folks have no idea what anything means. Perhaps you and I know that a four can be made to put out as much power as a six but not everyone does. Two more cylinders must be better. In this case it may be. If Subaru left more area around the bores there is a fine chance that the six will have no more head gasket trouble than a 2.2. Having been though a few gas crisis times I hope to be able to keep a four. The turbo 2.5 is a good sign becuse if they don't do some serious fixes on that thing it will have to come with a case of head gaskets. This means there is a good chance the fixes will help us earlier 2.5 owners.

Do you guys use the 2.5? My brother in law in kiwi has several 2.2s he has good luck with. Sometimes your models are a bit different and usually better and tougher.

But it was T shirt weather here. We did Home Depot for long shower curtain rods, and then to Berkely for giant plant pots. We loaded several pots of about 20-25 lbs which just fit in the Forester. Not to mention cans of paint and other stuff I might as well not even ask my wife what it was. The wagon body with the high roof is exactly what we bought it for as well as replacing the Jeep to get to my friend's farm during mud season. I like the way it drives, although I may do a bit more work on the stuts and sway bars later, and we can haul passengers for an evening out. ( The BMW is two seats). Right now I also like the four cylinder's peppy performance as I am currently having no trouble with it. No question that when the car is running well it is an enjoyable car that does just what we need it for. No wagons means no sale to me.

but the only one I drove when I was looking for this Subaru felt tinny and loud. I got the feeling I would have been using the warranty, but for the amount I have in the Forester with engine and clutch repairs I think I could have had the Hyundi equivelend brand new.

That had some dismal issues. turn on the AC and it could twist off the vibration damper at an unwarranteed $600 for the part. It did not happen till it got off warrantee of course. You can have issues with any car, the Mercedes was just my last issue car so I remember the several pains very clearly. I bought the thing becuase I wanted the best quality small car in the world. Wrong. I had much less trouble with the stripper Chevy I had before the Merc.. I admit one of the resons I bough the subie was another shot at a real realible quality small car. Sounds like I should have bought the subie in 85 instead of the Merc because they were relly making the quality car I was looking for then and not mercedes.

but I have never heard an H6 owner tell me he blew a head gasket, and I don't recall seeing one mention it on this board. I know there are not a lot out there yet compared to the large number of fours, but this seems good so far.

can also cause a sound that some folks mistake for piston slap. Of course there are always valve train noises too.