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The old ones I have worked on were cable. It does really sound like a hydraulic clutch problem though.

may be normal. I add a tiny bit to both of my cars every few months. The coolant recovery tank actually is vented to the air I believe, and some evaporation of the 50-50 mixture of water and glycol would seem to be normal. Gnuman, It seems on a boxer that a DOHC becomes so hard to work on that its advantages are lost. It should give you a bit more power and allow better valve layout and plug placement. In reality most of the time we don't operate in RPM ranges where the advantages would count.

like stuff on oil changes. I was not sure if this was just to charge me another seven bucks, but now I think they may have been trying to cut piston slap.

it could be a nightmare. You need so many small parts it could make you crazy. Check out Josh's website, he did the job himself and has a lot of good pointers. I have driven a number of JDM cars in New Zealand after retirement from the domestic market. The mechanicals are usually in pretty good shape.

than I can. I'll try to post a link. http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=72&currentpage=1

I don't really see any difference between it and the Mobil 1 I run in my BMW. I plan to run it another few thousand miles and get Blackstone Labs to analyse it to give me some idea waht is going on with both the oil and my typical 2.5 piston slap.

I would first have the clutch slave and master cyl checked. This would only be a couple of hundered if that is what it is. There have been many clutchs replaced in error for failed hydraulic parts. It is true that a 99 would likely be ready for a clutch by now. I'm not sure about prices in your area but that seems a bit high, but perhaps they are reccomending all the service items like seals, belts, reseal the oil pump, the plastic plate on the rear of the engine, etc. If so this would be about right.

remember there are several rear end ratios. It seems somewhat common for folks to install a tranny with the wrong ratio because they bolt right on.

I have just gotten used to my car to the point I only notice it if I have been driving the BMW, and then drive the Forester in traffic. In stop and start traffic it is a bit of a pain in the butt.

to see if yours is normal. I work in San Carlos and live in San Mateo if you want to try my Forester. They do buck a bit, but your description sounds severe.

The rear main seal is behind the flywheel or flex plate and requires removal of the engine and flywheel or flexplate. Any time the engine is out this is a good idea to change.

I am not really familiar with an XT6. Is this a case of a larger engine turning less revs at speed, or is the aero helping out a lot?

the mechanic probably thought it was good to go for another 39,000 miles. I would have changed it on a job this big myself because I think it is false economy. I had a dealer do a clutch job and not chage the $10 pilot bearing on me. Same stupid thing.

many years. I don't claim to have a solution myself. As I get older I have much less tolerance for the occasional breakdown I used to laugh off. I also used to be much easier to patch a car up to get home than it is now. When a chip fails a piece of sandpaper and a matchbook cover is not much help. I think at this point my best experiences have been buying cars with several thousand miles on them, the less the better. When I was a kid I preferred to buy with a blown engine so I could rebuild and know what I had. This sort of thing also can be controlled by where and how you drive. If you live in an urban area with good bus and train service it is much easier to deal with a breakdown. If you can work on your own car like many of our members service and breakdowns are much more tolerable. I have sold my last few cars when the irritation from unrelibility passed my tolerance level. Now I sell cars exactly at the condition I used to buy them in. I used to love to buy cars from finicky over serviceing old farts like me with all the records I keep.

on the dash that do proctically the same thing. If you can look at the dash and see your MPG it might be pretty helpful. My stripper Forester has nothing like this of course, I'm lucky I have a fuel guage.

aero is not the only factor. I have had busses and trucks that had larger motors but got better mileage with superior highway gearing. An example right now is that my friend Doug's Corvette gets better mileage than my tiny six cylinder BMW M Roadster. He has a six speed and a high speed rear end and I have a five speed and a 3:23. My car has no overdrive at all and only a five speed, it turns up like a Subaru at highway speeds.

my best mileage ever was going around the corners of Big Sur at 27.75 if I recall. If I could only stand to do 55 on the highway......

There is supposed to be a very good independent in the Palo Alto-Menlo Park area. I could try to find the name if that is close enough.

I imagine my cats are tired too. I was thinking of changing just one, but I have also been thinking of changing the entire car. At 120,000 miles I have put a lot of money into it, maybe six grand in the last couple of years. That piston slap continues on and I will be doing the cat work in the future I am sure. Then of course it will need rear brakes soon and tires after that. This is up to the point where I have to consider whether to put the money into this car that will bring it up to the standard I like, or is it cheaper to trade?

I did get the PO 420 code again 7 months later on a dry day. I still have not gotten around to changing the ox sensors, but I will use a silcon grease as reccomended. Thanks.

I have the 15% stiffer than stock KYBs on my 99 Forester with a WRX rear sway bar. Works well.

low dust and performs like stock. Like TC says just buy new rotors.

you are not so likely to beat a rental car. I drove them pretty fast when I was a kid but the only thing I recall damageing was left side hubcaps in New Zealand when I had not mastered parking while driving from the other side. Actually I have had my best car experience with a certified used car. It was great being able to take it back to the dealer for any little thing that made me cranky for 100,000 miles. No maintence costs at all...whee! Rental car abuse stores abound like the Shelby Mustangs Hertz rented that folks took right out to the racetrack. I kind of wonder if the fact that rental cars at least get maintence makes up for abuse. A lot of folks buy a car and treat it like a refrigerator.

As stated in my post above I have gotten a very good reduction in noise from the Mobil 1 15-50. I have not tried anything heavier.

after nearly 120,000 miles. I have to wonder if the cold winters back east don't make them crack a bit more too. The climate here in San Mateo Ca is moderate.