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I've seen many forms of wheel bearing failure in my years as a bus mechanic. When they start to go you have no visable play. The first thing tends to be plating flaking off the surface and it will show up as sound and sometimes you can feel roughness at that point. After a while the rollers or balls start to disintegrate and you can feel play at that point. If you continue to drive it becomes a thumping sound and you can feel a good shake. The final stage is the wheel in the road syndrom. I've torn down a number of them that had no symptom at all and we could spot wear and the begining of flaking on them on inspection. In the old days you actually serviced and inspected these things on a frequent basis as the seals and grease were not capable of 100,000 miles or more like today.

A subie mechanic who posts here when he is not busy said he checks them on the lift by rolling the tire and putting his hand on the spring to feel the vibration.

Take out your filter and take it in to a big store like Autozone. Try matching it up by opening boxes.

Heck 99, be sure to inspect for Subarus and report back! Sounds like a blast.

Setright, That works very well here in CA, but back east they love to add lots of salt to the road. All that salt rusts those suckers on so hard you would think they are welded.

You guys make me shiver by reminding me of what it was like to remove old drums back in Maine. I used to have the torch and 10 pounder out pretty regularly on anything to do with suspension. Here in CA I just jack it up and pull the rims off by hand, or at the worst use the puller screws. Good luck guy and we feel for ya.

Yeah but now I'm down to 5-30 dino and so far the Havoline seems pretty good. It really seems quieter but it has not been that cold yet. The other thing is that when the oil gets old my piston slap goes up in volume and I was comparing year old Mobil 1 to brand new Havoline. I had a seal leaking in front and now I'm not seeing a drip with the Havoline either, but I have the underpan off to watch it and that might be making the difference.

do you have to do the battery dance to clear an old one like that?

I should probably check mine some time. It has been a few years.

I always have to trace it down and move a big wire loom on my 99 Forester. You have to hold the loom out of the way and pull the stick on my car. Since I only do it once a year or so it has not been worth moving the loom.

Prices seem really reasonable up there. I've said before that for major work it would pay a Californian to drive up there and for the same money get a vacation too.

If you recall the 1974 fuel crisis (some folks may not have been born) we could get propane a lot easier. We already used it in forklifts as it was much cleaner in a warehouse environment so we had some experience with the fuel. I can't recall if it is CNG or propane they are using in taxis in Kiwi, (perhaps a Kiwi will comment), but the drivers reckoned it saved them a bundle. I seem to recall we lost 10% mileage unless we raised compression. Saving the environment is a noble cause and this should give you a lighter footprint.

I have four cars and the two old Pontiacs are automatic. The Subaru and BMW are five speeds. the only time I manaually shift an automatic tends to be on steep hills. In SF the hills can make your car shift up and bog and then slam downshift. It is a lot easier to select second and hold it in and just watch your rpms. Sometimes you have abit more confidence on a downhill too in a lower gear.

My car only takes 4.2 quarts. That really does not seem like much oil.

A year or so ago I ran a test on my Forester running higher octane. I got no change in fuel mileage at all.

I've had a fair bit of propane, lpg, and dual fuel experience on fleets. I'm sure they must have licked the refirigerator problem we used to have heere at SFO. With the fog and cold at the airport if you did no high idle until it was warm the fuel system would freeze up like a propane refrigerator. I'd pop the cab and the engine would be invisable under snow. More power to ya but except for the environmental benifit I doubt this will pencil out on such an old car. If you plan on moving the system to yur next car you might win in the end. Just for interest CARB called Friday and offered me a hydrogen van for my shuttle program. We are getting a hydrogen station here in San Carlos and another at SFO. We are having a couple small busses converted to dual fuel, gas and hydrogen. I've driven the hydrogen Toyota and the hydrogen Mercedes, they feel like a Prius.

It really depends on what you use your car for. These Michies have enough grip to handle anything I throw at my Forester.On my BMW I currently use Bridgestone S03s as that car requires much more grip. If I was running a WRX as my only car I would want a tire that was up to the power of the WRX. The tires on my Forester need to be up to the super market, Home Depot, and mud and snow on trips. these tires are fine for this car as used.

If he is getting a steady signal that could explain showing 40 mph.

Just for a test I switched to Havoline 5-30 dino for a while. Changing more ofter will be a bit of a pain but the guys on Boboistheoilguy swear by Havoline as being quieter with piston slap. I ran Pennzoil 10-30 for several years, Mobil 1 10-30 and then Mobil 1 15-50 for a coupple of years. The Mobil 1 15-50 was the quietest so far. No comments on the Havoline as I just installed it yesterday.

I'm leaking a little oil down there myself in spite of new seals and head gaskets 30,000 miles ago. I would not have noticed other than when I changed my oil I could see evidence of seepage and one drip ready to drop from the timing belt cover. I'm just leaving my underpan off for a few days while I watch it to see if I should go in and deal with seals. Any of you guys ever just leave the under pan off? It takes me longer to remove it than change the oil. I'm thinking of cutting a big hole in it for the filter so I don't have to pull it.

By the way, mine don't say X, they say Weather guard if I remember correctly. They look like Xs so I don't know if this is marketing or what.

Valve covers leak oil, so do seals. Dealerships can be a pain in the butt. even if you had a leaking head gasket, which you probably don't both engine should fallinto the ones that are warrnateed by the recall no? My 1999 Forester did and if I recall myself correctly that was for up to 2001. the recall meant that if you install Subaru goop you are covered for 100,000 miles. Install the goop to be sure and get the new valve cover gaskets and seals you actually need.

Switch back and fourth all you want. Those oils are quite compatible. I have run dino in my 99 Forester and am currently running Mobil 1 15-50. she uses a fair amount of oil too, at about 129,000 miles I expect it to use a bit. Next time I might try running Havoline dino for a while to see how it works out.

But she spends a lot of time driving around town. A deflect could hurt highway but would not make a lot of diff around town. It looks like you and I are the only ones interested in this Nip.

George, Like you I just can't complain about these things. I beat heck out of them when I was tuning my suspension and I figured I might get about a year out of them after that. Two years later I'm still wondering when they will have to go. They have to rank among the world's longest lasting tires.