Scottbaru

I wish Holland Imports worked on Subarus, I was told by two friends they did, which helped me decide to buy my Subaru. I grew up down the street from Sybesma, kind of a difficult guy to talk to. He inherited the shop and house, and doesn't seem to need much work. I drive by his shop several times a day (I live out near Castle Park) and don't remember seeing a Subaru there. Who's Mike? There are several Subarus in my neighborhood, I plan to ask around about mechanics when people start coming out of their houses this spring.

(Pulling out the dictionary) The quattro is smooth and quiet at high speeds, the suspension feels solid through potholes and rapid lane changes. The Legacy is rough, it skips and stutters over bumps, the suspension feels less supple. "Bad" weather for me means crossing thick slush to get in the unplowed fast lane at 60+mph, to get around slower cars. The quattro's suspension handles it better. At slow speeds the anti-spin in the A4, and locking rear differential and torsen center on the 200, will muscle me through deeper snow.

One of my customers has an '03 with a headgasket external leak. That is, the coolant that flows between the block and the head is leaking out through the headgasket. The dealership put some sort of gasket sweller/sealer in the coolant and it stopped, that's apparently the official fix for this not-uncommon problem. What dealership do you go to? I'm looking for a local place familiar with working on Subarus, half-hour to the nearest dealership.

I sympathize with Outbackman, the difference is obvious when you have one of each in the driveway. I disagree with rweddy's assessment of VW/Audi.

Consumer Reports staff have had a bias against Audi/VW since the unintended accelleration debacle. Audi winning the libel suit against them proved malicious intent, and deepened the mutual hatred. In their latest survey, Audi matched the average of Japanese vehicles, 12 reported problems per 100 new car owners surveyed. And those "problems" include gadgets that aren't built the way the owner would prefer. Cars with more gadgets tend to have more reported problems, even if the gadgets function as designed. My adult daughter and I rode in the back of an A4q this morning. That's the smallest back seat in the Audi line, I'm not sure what's unuseable about it? My neighbor's A8Lq has a very useable back seat. Terrible in inclement weather? I see my share here downwind of Lake Michigan and on my weekly 400-mile drives. I've owned a few quattros, there are two quattros in my driveway right now, I'd take either one over my Legacy in bad weather, no comparison. Bottoming out? What? Terrible resale? I looked for an awd wagon this winter, spent a lot of time on the internet, looked all over the country. Prior to that I helped find a quattro for a friend. I bought this Legacy because it was a third the price of a quattro or 4motion same year, mileage, condition. That was pretty typical. They don't start out a third the price. The quattro is a better car with better conveniences. I've cruised at over 100mph in many different quattros, well over in some, they're consistently smooth, quiet, and easy to drive at those speeds. I wouldn't dare go that fast in my Legacy, it's unpleasant at 75mph. As Outbackman pointed out, the ammenities on the quattro are consistently more generous than on the typical Japanese car. If you slide under a quattro, you'll see typically heavier built suspension, brakes, and driveline compared to most Japanese cars. That sometimes makes them harder to work on. Subarus are good cars not because they're so well built, it's because they're simple, they stick with tried and true concepts. There's less to go wrong, and they're easier to maintain. They don't have a luxury reputation, so people who buy them new aren't typically as picky about a clunky convenience item as long as it can be made to work. That helps them in satisfaction surveys. I hope this isn't too unpleasant for devoted Subaru fans to hear, but bring on the flames. I've got a couple Nomex suits in the closet I haven't worn in a few years.

I'm reading between the lines. Pimping/ricing is mostly bolt-on accessories. Maybe the body panels will have to be painted to match before bolting on. New springs/struts might require jacking the car up and getting under it to bolt them on. A turbo or S/C kit will require basic mechanical skills, some time and tools. He just needs to pick through the many catalogs and websites to choose what suites his taste and budget, not really something a bunch of strangers can do well. But we're really good at giving opinions and philosophy!

Back in the 70's one of my brothers put sticky, very low-profile, and very wide tires on his ragtop Bronco. The truck was wide and short with a very stiff suspension, and not many sports cars could corner as well. He ended up cracking a few of those huge rims just from cornering so hard with such a heavy vehicle. He did pretty well on the dragstrip as well. My brothers and I have had a lot of crazy vehicles over the years, that was one of the most enjoyable. Your Forester won't be all that fast or unique for a much bigger investment, but maybe it'll be fun.

Fill your oil filter a bit before installing, you won't be running dry while it fills. This is an old-time turbo engine technique, but good for all engines. You need some oil to wipe on the gasket anyway.

How dirty is your engine compartment? If the components are dirty, moisture can absorb into the dirt and form a conductive layer, slightly shorting things. The blowing salt and gravel roads you likely experience are really bad for that. I've seen powerpole insulators glowing at night in many tropical islands from the damp salt layer. I've spent a lot of time at NAS Keflavik, mountain biked a lot with a group in Reykjavik. I cleaned a lot of salt off my gear when the wind howled, which was most of the time. I've had good luck fixing your problem with spray silicone, rags and toothbrush. Wipe and scrub everything down, the silicone will clean and leave a waterproof, water repellant layer. It helps to pull the wires out to get them and the components under them clean. Might as well wipe down everything else in there while you're at it.

Springs are what the weight of the car sits on, struts control how fast the suspension extends and retracts. To raise the car you'll need longer springs, and your struts (shocks) will need to be longer to accomodate the longer springs. On some vehicles spring packers or spacers can be used for a lift, not the best way, and I don't know if anything like that would work on your Legacy.

Possibly the turbo waste gate opens slightly in that situation? I've had a few turbo cars, on some I could hear the turbo clearly when the waste gate opened.

Sorry, it sounds like I didn't interpret your question very well. On forums like this you usually get more responses, and more useful information, if you thoroughly explain the problem and what model, year, engine, etc. It sounds like maybe you have the tranny from your legacy apart? Something to adjust in there? Do you have a repair manual?

I use mostly red when assembling machinery, it comes apart alright without heating days later. This is on newly machined parts, usually hardened steel bolts #6 through 3/8, in oxidized steel or anodized aluminum parts. Does it set up harder long term? I also use bearing locker on bearings, it releases with some persuasion. I've used superglue instead of locktight in a pinch, similar results.

I noticed my rotors get rusty faster than any I've seen, and I'm pretty sure they're original. In the morning and after work I often drag my brakes briefly 'till the grinding rust sound goes away.

I'm in the habit of hacking my trip odometer every time I fill the tank. It's hard to get out of the habit after owning a car without a gas guage long ago, and it's a good habit.

A customer of mine has an '03 OBW, leaks coolant, dealer put in gasket sweller. He's considering another Subaru, so I guess they'll keep some customers. A big consideration should be resale value. I was looking for a quattro or 4motion wagon when I found my Legacy. It was about a third the price of a similar quattro or 4motion wagon same year, mileage, condition. I don't think new price was a third of the quattro, so my Subaru didn't hold value as well. Granted this was a great deal, but I spent two months looking aggressively at awd cars all over the country, and this was pretty typical.

I thought that sound was detonation on the compression stroke? These engines are pretty wide, they're probably doing everything possible to shorten those cylinders and the block so you don't have to change the spark plugs through the wheel well. Short skirts would be a logical part of that if you wanted to up the displacement without widening the engine.

What's difficult about NY DMV rules? I've bought and driven home cars from Texas, Ohio, Indiana, and Kansas in the last few years, never dealt with DMV. There seem to be a lot of cars from NY for sale on the internet, I've seriously considered a few, never suspected there would be hangups buying from NY.

I'm no expert either, but I'm the best to respond so far! With help from this board I found my clutch cable at the rear of the engine, top of the tranny. On mine it's under an air box just in front of the firewall. Loosening a few hoses allowed me to lift the air box. The cable has two nuts on it, tightened against each other so they don't move. Loosening them and screwing them aft tightened the cable, the clutch engaged with the pedal higher, which is what I needed. My owner's manual has a diagram of how much slack should be in the pedal, that didn't seem useful to me. The spring on the clutch pedal is much stronger than the spring on the clutch cable, so I couldn't get noticeable slack by loosening the clutch cable. Hope that helped.

It sounds like Subaru is trying to cut fuel completely for more engine drag, restart when the speed is back, but only when the cruise control is on. Maybe they can't get enough engine drag for the relatively heavy and slippery car? I wonder if you retard the set speed several clicks, will it do it on level ground?

There are various sealers that can be put on the rim before the tire is mounted. I asked for it when I had tires put on my Audi, they didn't do it, I've been back four times with leaky tires needing sealant put on the rim. It seems to help with the corrosion from salt getting trapped in between the rim and rubber.

Synthetic oil is supposed to be better at cushioning, might help with slap. I've switched my last seven cars to Mobil 1, most have gone over 200k without a problem. I've run M1 15W50 in my Audi and Toyotas for many years, and it gets a little cold here. I just put M1 5W30 in my Legacy, will switch to 15W50 if I get any clatter or ticking.

Guys on the Landcruiser board have been doing this as well. It holds up well off-roading, if it's put on right. Rolling it on can give a nice texture, but not as deep as professional bedliner. I think it comes in grey, maybe some other colors. That looks good.

Ouch, I think only the hummer gets mileage that bad, nothing else comes close. I noticed a lot of smaller SUVs over there, often with small turbo-diesels. They're bigger than your cars, which are typically smaller than ours, but they aren't huge. I don't commonly see hummers, escalades, excursions, and navigators, those are bigger than most of your commercial trucks! It's still a bad trend toward less efficiency, but fuel prices still make huge SUVs a rarity there compared to here. Those who can afford to waste energy will continue to, but higher prices will reduce that number.

Amen. Now that's the real reason people need to stop buying so many SUVs. All the fantastic stories about how unsafe SUVs are hasn't made a dent in sales. People either don't believe them or don't care. I travel to Europe and Canada often, SUVs aren't nearly as common as the U.S. The difference? Gas prices. That works, raving about them doesn't. You can't legislate against SUVs, you can't even define them. Gas prices will reduce SUVs, make people buy more efficient cars, and carmakers produce more efficient cars. I just switched for that reason. Anyone remember the 80's? People in big cars were considered clueless and behind the times. If you want to rave about something usefully, go after the Califonia Air Resources Board. They've been holding up diesel car sales in California for years, so carmakers aren't bringing them to market in the U.S. That would save a lot of oil, as it does in most countries. Lobby for higher gas taxes.