cookie

One telling point I think is that they are hard to find in Junkyards here unless they are wrecked or picked clean. I see people driving those 2.2s that should be shot for lack of auto maintence and they just keep leaking and putting along if they keep oil and water in them. I think 350,000 to 400,000 should be upper limits, but some well cared for examples may beat that.

Probably no chance you have room to put tension on the engine with the hoist and cut the rubber with a hacksaw...

If you don't get satisfaction take it to an independent Subaru mechanic you trust for an opinion of what is wrong. Thay had a lot of suff out to so the ehad gaskets and they is a lot of opportunity to make an error. Soemtimes even just bending plug wires (which you have to do to pull the heads) can cause them to start making the engine run roughly. Leaving a msall vacum hose or a wire off is a common problem.

When you get in the SF area let me know.

Going anyplace in particular or just on the road nip?

Since I am sure some of our gay members may have been offended by this thread I almost hate to contribute to it. To anyone who has been hurt by this I apologise for the board.

Let's see what I can remember of your questions. A lot of folks get in the 25 mpg range overall as I do in my Forester. Up or down a bit for conditions, fuel, and equipment. There should not be oil on your plugs, you probably have leaking sealing gaskets and it may help a bit to replace them. Your plugs are in the head, just down there a bit. I believe your timing belt replacement should be 105,000 miles if I recall correctly. For manuals the beat is found a Endwrench on the web and can be downloaded.

Sounds normal to me. Belts don't tend to set up as precisely as gears or chains and often adjust a bit at the first running. Usually if it is off the engine does not run well.

Better than the CAI stories I hear on the BMW board. Last winter a couple folks with aftermarket CAIs fed the engine on water requireing a whole new engine. Glad to hear it's only a MAf.

The Forester should have rear drums and my 99 forester L had bad drums when I bought it. I could clearly feel the pulsation by applying the hand brake and new drums has cured it. If you had rear discs I'm not sure if you could feel it though the emergency brake.

over here a 99 Forester L should have rear drums Kiwi. We don't get the good stuff you do.

I agree with the idea of waiting until you need something elase back there. mine got everything when it got headgasts otherwise it would have wited until it needed a clutch. I also needed a clutch so that was a good time. A few years now with no leaks.

I'd wonder a bout a wheel bearing. A heavy load on a trip and whump whump whump and noise changes in corners? Take a look at the wheel bearings too. Regardless it need to be put up in the air and inspected.

It is a fair amount of work and expense so it would depent how long you are going to keep the car. I considered this on my 99 Forester but decided to stay with a new set of drums and shoes instead. I assume you would need a proportionng valve to balance front and rear or perhaps a new master cyl if it's built in. I know it has been done a number of times and info should be available. I figured if I had gotten 100,000 miles out of the stock rears that an easy to comeby set of drums (about $20 apiece if I recall) and and a couple sets of inexpensive shoes would probalby go as long as the engine. A bit less than 30,000 miles later this seems to be working out OK.

If you don't feel it in the steering wheel it could be rear drums too. Try slowing with the emergency brake and see if you feel a pulsation.

A TSB is a Technical Service Bulletin and all it tells you is to change the hose, slave, and sealing washers. I found it on the web but i don't recall where, and your dealer should have it.

The author of that other article may have meant with the transmission and low range on then. Perhaps you could get down to that torque multiplication then but these articles indicate the the torque converter cannot do it alone.

I remember a few years ago when someone told me they towed thier five speed Subie flat behind a motor home. I had always thought that was a no no but I guess you can do it. With the automatics you's be safest dolly towing by disconnecting the driveshat.

Is it really 2 to 1? I saw the 40 to one number on a Jeep board a few years back and I have always trusted it. Does this mean I can't trust everything I read on the internet?

Thinking about what MT Smith has said about the controllable power delivery of the automatic reminds me of my last Jeep. I have had several Jeeps with both stick and auto. The last one was a CJ7 with a rare turobo 400 automatic and a transfer case with clutches like and automatic Subaru. I bought it when my manual Chevy S10 was a pain in the butt pulling my heavy sailboat up slippery SSF boat ramps. The Jeep just dropped into gear and the torque converter gives you about 40 to one advantage. It would just idle up the boat ramp withoput spinning a wheel. My five speed Subie goes through the mud well but there is some drama involved and I get to clean a lot of mud off later thrown by all four spinning wheels. I have to keep speed up to make it through. I'm sure if I had actual traction ony two wheels would spin but when they are all somewhat free look out.

The temp sensor may not show up on a code. It fools the engine into a different temp setting but the ECU won't see a problem unless it is totally dead.

Must have been an automatic. They have been using GM automatics and I forget who is makeing them now. Not an impressive record of reliability with those. BMW is like everybody else, they make some things very well and others are not up to standard. The water pumps have a very poor record of early failure on the sixes. I have a pump made by Stewart and an alloy radiator made by Zionsville on my car because of those weak points.

There was just a guy on my BMW board who had a cam sensor failure. The engine ran like crap and poured gas into the cat. Naturally it ruined the cat. He had a few codes before he was done. Hope your code is a little one!

And it can be crappy when one part fails up stream and cause codes down stream...

well Nip, since we can't hear it hopefully we'll get a report next week. Most of the time I've heard folks describe the sound as ticking it has been a valve and I sure hope that is what it is for her.