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Let us know the results! If I can run a few feet of gound cable and stop my reading light from flickering it would be worth it.

Do you guys clean and or replace your battery cable once a year or so? I clean the battery too when I'm doing this service. I like to clean both ends of the cables and the spot where the cable bolts on. Here in no salt country we have it a bit easier on corrosion, but I am sure bigger cables and a good ground will be helpful.

A bit of discussion doesn't hurt. I wonder if plug companies websites have useful information on this? Maybe I'll take a look tonight at home if I remember.

At my age a nap looks better than sex. At least we found out what a professional is doing and if he does not have customers coming back it must work. I think we have both seen articles that warn not to use anti sieze. I first ran into this when I was a college kid with a VW. You would buy them and the plugs would remove threads. When somebody told me about antisieze I thought it was God's gift to mechanics. I have used it on alloy heads ever since with no bad results, but I have seen an article that said not to use it if the plug is plated in certain materials that do not require it. The question is how do you actually find out wether or not to use it in a particular application?

The tough part is that after ytou have been married for a few years your wife uses you for the remote contol.

Blitz and I were having a debate on this the other day. I feel better now and I'll go home and take a nap.

And you two are guys in thier twenties. Wait until you have a plus 40 year old wife who wants an autostart. You guys have it coming but I will be in New Zealand by the time it gets here.

And it also attests to the stupidity of those of us who have left this hose off and had the same symptoms.

A 1999 Outback is a phase 1 so its not going to happen with warranty.

Inquiring minds want to know if you use anti-sieze on plugs in your shop.

There is an air cleaner hose that can be left off or falls off that can do that. I'd check that first.

Most of the gaskets I changed in the 70s on Datsuns and Mazdas were about 60-80 thousand miles. By that standard these aren't too bad.

Just for security remove the plug wire terminals to see if they are making good contact. They should be clean and hsiny.

Take the fuse out. It only goes in when you need 2 wheel drive because of a flat.

And the body turns out to be MT....

I have heard nothing but good about 2004 and up Subies. Seems like a lot of issues have been corrected. The H6 seems quite solid. I don't know anyone who has the Toyota RAV but I do know a few folks with the Honda. I have been told the Honda is not as good in the snow as a Subaru but have not seen this myself. A co-worker has had no major problems with his Honda. the Volvo would not be on my short list as I have heard too many complaints about expensive service when the get a few years on them.

How about somebody has the doors frozen shut and a remote starter. He starts the car and stands outside waiting only to find out he did not turn on the heat in the car. they find the body in the spring.....

This should give us a few comments.

Head gaskets have been a weak point for a long time. In the 70s I was changing them on Datsuns and Mazdas, then Chevy had a bad run. Recently I have run into Toyota, Ford, and Hondas. Time to epoxy those suckers on there.

I'd call Emily at CCRC (did I get that right?) You would think if anybody knew what fits it would be them.

Dave, Sorry to hear about your experience. If it were my car I would probably fix it and sell it because by now (putting myself in your shoes) it would have made me mad. The phase 1 engine was not Subaru's best work I think we all know. It's also going to take them along time to repair the damage to thier rep from this episode, and that's not good as the competion has discovered Subaru's niche. If the rest of the car is great it might be worth keeping it after fixing, but only you know that.

Being a cranky old guy I am not all that computer savy. Send me a pm and I'll give you my email. Then you can send me a note and I will forward the report to you.

I went from 10 years of Volvos after a bad run on the 74 model 145. After 17 years of Mercedes I am 123,000 miles into this Subaru test drive. I'll get back to you in another 10 years.

as many of you folks know I have a 99 forester with the 2.5, 123,000 miles and the usual piston slap. The slap has concerned me less and less as it ticked along with a number of you telling me they tick on forever. I added Mobil 1 15-50 in an effort to cut the slap a bit and it has helped. I wanted to make sure that the 15-50 was not too thick and causeing damage, establish an oil change interval, and see how much aluminum was showing up in my oil from the piston slap. I am going to quote from the Blackstone report. "We often get samples from people who are concerned about cold-start piston slap problems, though we don't often find a reason for it. That's the case here. Wear looks about as good as one could hope, with all metals in your engine reading around averages for this type of engine. The oil was in good shape physically, containing no moisture, fuel, or coolant. The viscosity was normal for 15-50 oil. With wear looking tthis good, we think you could easily run more miles on the oil. (I changed at 3,890) Try 5,000 miles next time around. Looks like a nice engine from here." Actually my aluminum was right on area averages and below national averages because we don't have weather as cold as nationally. The point of this was to see what piston slap was doing to the engine as so many of us were concerned with it. It looks like the Subaru is right and piston slap is not greatly affecting overall wear, at least on this engine.

Thanks shaggy, nice to hear about a win!