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30,000 miles and a couple of years. No furthur problem at all.

If I could afford a huge fleet it would also incude a WRX. The WRXs I have driven in New Zealand do everything my M can do except put the top down. If I could only afford one car it would probably be a WRX wagon.

When i removed the radio in my 99 Forester I started by removing the console. i am not sure this is the easiest way but it worked for me. If you open it there are a few screws there. then i removed the ashtray and cup holder and I seem to recall some screws facing up. then the face plate pops out with a butter knofe.

And I am not really disagreeing with you that there would not be a lot of difference in every day driving with a Legacy. You would get a crisper turn in with 17s if the tires and wheels not a factor. You also tend to get more noise with the 17s and from the amount of damaged rims I have seen more tendency that way. I have driven WRXs with 17s and they seemed right for that car. Frankly if I wanted more brake room or more road performaance from my Forester I would consider 17s. I don't think I would choose 17s for a Legacy unless it saw all highway and little snow use myself, but opinions may differ.

and 16s on my Forester. The BMW is a sports car and pretty useless in many of the conditions in which the Forester shines. The BMW has easily damaged rims, tires are far more expensive, much more road noise, (I have driven the same car on 16s and it was much quieter) and handles better on the 17s. The Forester with its 16s runs fairly quiet, get OK gas mileage, tires are cheaper, and you can park it anywhere without damaging a rim. The other day I drove it down a railroad track because I was too lazy to open a gate. To me it depends on how you are going to use the car. There is no way I would use a 17 off road and they would not be good on my much abused Forester. However 16s can turn in a fairly good performance all around.

anybody out there know for sure if the engine is built in the US? I wonder because the company I used to work for shipped engines and trannys to the joint GM Toyota plant in Fremont on a just in time delivery basis. Sometimes getting correct info can be difficult.

The new gasket was developed in 03, the question is when did it hit the production line? I imagine the engines are assembled in Japan and if the car is assembled over here there is going to be a time lag. When BMW had a probelm with the M engine the South Carolina factory was still cheerfully bolting in engines with problems long after the correction in Germany.

you can put on the stock racks. Today I had fence sections wider than the car and 10 feet long that are safety rails for a Railroad flat car. I was carrying two at once.These things are made from 4x6 posts with 1x6 rails. From the top of a Forester it is a straight hand over to the rail car. The roof did not even flex.

On a phase 2 it makes sense. The phase 1 tends to blow from cubustion inot the coolant. Nothing stops that that I have ever seen, with the possible exeception of keeping the engine cool and inhibiting corosion. With the phase 2 you get a slight external leak. The Subaru product can fix that. I run it in my phase 2 even though I have the new gaskets.

what will fit if they do this every day. One thing you learn as a mechanic is never send back a core before you are done. This is because you often find small differences like the manifold or brackets and exhaust. I have even had to swap heads, flywheels, drill a distributor hole larger, drill and tap an oil pick up bracket, swap oil pans, front covers, senders, water pumps, and I am sure I have forgotten something. The good thing about Subies is that a lot of the basic stuff fits like old American engines. You could put about any Chevy or Ford iin thier basic chassis if you swapped enough stuff, and Subies are much the same. These days I am an old fart that just likes stuff to bolt in. I have thought about going over to San Leandro to see what those guys had around. Some day my Forester engine will bite the bullet and I would like to know what my options are. If you make it out this way give us an email. If I was not fairly busy decorating the xmas Caltrain I would take a run over there tomorrow, but instead I think I will string some 220 volt wires. We ran about 180 feet of cable under the cars the other day but there is much more to do.

and just change the gaskets. A bit expensive though.

I have heard nothing but good about JDM used engines. Is that from one of the places here in the SF area? I have actually driven used cars that were from junkyards in Japan in New Zealand. They felt like new until they had been flogged in Kiwi for a few years. Rumor has it that they are required to be junked at 50 or 60,000 miles which is just broken in for a Subie. And when doing the fitting I would do water pump, seals, timing belt, tensioner, the stupid plastic oil slinger on the rear of the engine, and clutch kit if manual. At this time it would be good to change the usual sensors. I would keep the entire spare engine in the garage and you can buy $20 worth of tools and tear it down and learn something. But then one of the promient features in my garage is a spare Pontiac engine.

and the cooment said it was a show car. Like blitz I don't find it too bad but mine sure gets grubby a lot and it looks harder to clean.

My experience with my 2.5 mirrors Richie's comment. Unless I keep an eye on it at about 3,000 miles the oil seems to go quickly. At about 3,000 miles I just topped up the Mobil 1 15-50 I have been running as an experiment. Useage has been about half what I used with dino. I have also heard some truly horrendous noises that did not turn out to be internal. But I can also see the mechanic's point, the engine replacement is so cheap that he cannot justify tearing it down to find out the details. He may also have heard the noise before and be convinced he knows what it is. Still, if it was your own carand your own time it would be good to know just what happened.

and coil if I found any damage. The arc can easily damage both. I am going to do this on my own car soon even though it runs perfectly as PM.

They only do it when wet. This is also why you replace the wires on a regular basis. When a wire goes bad it can arc and take out a coil too.

so you can look at the other. If it's too late for that how about downloading that Subaru shop manual at Endwrench?

With no diesel and four wheel drive they have gone where they fit. In New Zealand Subies and common and I belive the Ozzies have as many as we do. It has been pretty clever of Subaru to develop the small four wheel drive car market. Now it seems a shame that all the big companies are on the band wagon.

something with rust proofing if I lived back east. The other day I was decorating the Caltrain holiday train in Port of Redwood City. It was raining and the warehouse we were storing the Xmas decorations in was down a road that had turned to deep mud churned up by big 18 wheel gravel trucks. I ran the Forester over the mud at the top of first gear to keep from sinking. When I hit sinkholes it splashed enought to require wipers and washers. At the end of the day I washed most of the mud off in my driveway with the hose before even attempting a car wash. As I washed it off the factory paint or undercoat came off in large sections. This makes me think the factory stuff is not too tough if you can wash it off with a garden hose. I am in CA and maybe they don't undercoat as well for this area? I really don't know.

I have run LPG in trucks and we used to raise the compression. I suspect the smaller valves will easily be offset by the extra power in LPG use. This is not something I would do on a US street car because gas is getting worse and high compression can be a problem without reprogrammed electronics. The other reason is that reducing the size of the valves reduces potential top end power with gas.

should be a part of your maintence schedule just like plugs, wires, oil, and belts.

I love the sucess stories!

If there is a large bearing supply house near you drop in and ask if they have a repair slieve for your application. I have heard on the net of a kit for this but that was a couple of years ago. The best fix is a new mainshaft, perhaps from a junkyard tranny.

Of course if your area uses salt on the road even simple things can be difficult. the spring must be compressed and moved to the new strut unless you fit a whole junkyard unit. This requires a compressor and a bit of manual labor.

It is possible to accidentally put a tranny in two gears at once. Be very carefull that you have a good neutral and can shift all the gears before installing into the car. also inspect for excessive wear on all gear faces and bearing surfaces do not have play when fitted with a new bearing. If you have to install a new lock to keep a bearing from spinning there is a fair chance you will get slight misalignment and a noisey transmission. Locktight red is the choice to keep a bearing shell from moving. I have even used this on Greyhound bus transmissions and that stuff stays. I polish shift rods with emory paper for easier shifting and prefit them into the case to see that they work smoothly before assembly. I have had to do nothing at all to my Subaru tranny in 120,000 miles so like many here I have never taken it apart.