Scottbaru

I fear snipping might not do the trick, the circuit usually needs to be connected through the seat belt latch. Of course this one may be different. You'll probably need to make a connection between the parallel wires under your seat. A scotch splice would work well, you'd have to cut it out a little to have two wires run completely through. It would be simple, clean, and easy to remove. Just a thought.

Is your objective to be able to drive without wearing your seatbelt and without the annoying chime?

Most factory racks are fastened with rivnuts into the sheet metal. That's not especially rugged. If you load it up the feet flex and rub the paint, and can eventually rub through. They're great for occasional use and light loads, but serious use requires a more serious rack.

Another vote for Thule. My VWs came with Thule style cross bars back in the 80s, I've had the same Thule components since. My wife has had a Thule rack on her Landcruiser for several years here in salt country, with my old components on it. No corrosion at all. Off-brand rack components that fit Thule seem more common than round-style Yakima. I've removed my stock cross bars, and I'm making some blocks that will hold Thule cross bars to my stock rails. It won't be as strong as with Thule feet, but stronger than mounting to the flimsy cross bars, and cheap and convenient.

I think most factory roof racks are installed with expanding rivnuts. http://www.mcmaster.com/ has them and installation tools. Installing with backing plates would be more work but stronger. A Thule or similar aftermarket rack is much stronger and more versatile.

The headgasket issue. About 15 years ago I was in annual flight training in Dallas. I decided to buy a rust-free Subaru, drive it back to Michigan, and sell it. I looked at dozens, and most seemed to have bad or new engines. I thought that was ominous, but I found one and made a few bucks on it. I'd not come across a group of cars with so many bad engines until recently when I searched for a Forester. I've purchased quite a few used cars in the intervening years, done a lot of searching over the internet. I like everything about Subarus except the 2.5 engine. I know a guy with an '03, the headgasket is leaking, SOA gives him stopleak so it'll make it through the warranty period. That's sad. I'll have to see a few years of better performance before I'll consider a 2.5.

My Dad is looking to replace his aging Lexus, maybe something awd. He took a look at my Subaru, nice car, but I can't recommend one for him. A Passat tdi wagon is about the same price as an OBW, better comparison, or a Passat wagon with 4motion. Why no stick on the 4motion? I had a couple VW Quantum synchros, same engine (detuned) and drivetrain as the quattro. It's not good to compete with your own products. Fortunatly for Audi, the synchro option was very expensive, and the Quantum was a much lesser vehicle. These days you can't tell the VW from the Audi.

Maybe he meant me, I unashamedly brag about my 15-year-old car!

Mine too, I've asked before if there's a source for new ones. I fear if I leave that hole open, salty road slush will find it's way in there.

On other cars I've found complete rod and end assemblies as cheap as ends separate. Much easier job that way. Does anyone sell the assemblies for these cars?

It took you three weeks to come up with that? Those responses to your questions were pretty tame compared to what I'd expect on the several car forums I'm active on.

I found this on the Timken site http://www.timken.com/industries/automotive/autoaftermarket/timkencatalog/PartCatalog.aspx, shouldn't there be an outer bearing assembly? This site has bearings for tranny, diffs, etc, in case you need to look them up. Part TypeLocationTimken Part NumberQty Req.OptionFootnote Bearing Assy inner517008 1 Seal inner1993 1 Seal outer225650 1

If you spin a front wheel and it turns a rear wheel, you either have a limited-slip front diff, or a bigger problem than we're talking about. Thanks for the castle-nut tip, I'll have it up on jackstands for a look-under soon. Hopefully Haynes has procedures for torqueing that nut.

It sounds like just a bolt is sheared, maybe a guide pin/slide pin? Those should be replaceable.

I have a suspicious rumble, or maybe I'm just not used to the louder road noise of this car compared to other cars I've owned. I tried swerving gently left and right at about 50mph, it changes very little. It could be a bearing, a tire, or alignment. Since I'm new to the car, I'll just have to wait and see if it gets worse. I suspect it's normal for this car. You should try the gentle swerving, if it's noticeably worse in one direction, it's probably on the side you're putting the increased load on.

Is the 2.2 semi-closed deck? Is it susceptible to air bubbles in the coolant? I haven't seen evidence the problem is gone, and I'm not sure why these are the fixes to the problem. One of my brothers gets paid to evaluate production cars and trucks, and help plan new cars, by several car makers. His opinion is valued by the big car companies. He advised me to stay away from the 2.5 Subarus because of the headgasket problem. It's known about in the industry. Subaru certainly knows about it, why it's happening, and how to fix it.

On my Mom's Legacy I just walked up to it, grabbed the top of each wheel, pulled and shoved in & out. One rear responded with a quiet clunk, that was the bad bearing.

My dog occasionally gets zapped by the underground fence system I installed this winter. According to the literature that came with the fence, it's because dogs don't generalize experiences very well. It's unfortunate he has to suffer this painful experience over and over because he can't generalize the information he's received. Disclaimer: I have no formal training in dog psychology.

Perhaps I should've sent it to you privately.Scary thing is, I just spent a little time looking for used Foresters, and found a lot of them needing or having new engines. All with less than 150k. This winter I spent some time recovering from an accident. I searched extensively online for a quattro or 4motion, then for 2.2l Subarus. I looked at hundreds of cars over months. I found a only a few mentioning bad or new engines. So those 2.5l engines are reliable? I don't know the statistics, but this seems ominous.

Look at eBay: '01 Forester S needs an engine, currently under $2000, in Georgetown, MA. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=13484&item=4545607006&rd=1Is that close to you? Put a new engine in it and have not much more invested, with a new engine. Other high-mileage Foresters are going for a little more than you're spending, sounds like you're getting a good deal.

I wouldn't think of it as simply $1500, as he pointed out it's reliability he wants. I haven't been stranded on the side of the highway by a car in decades, because I choose cars carefully and put time and $ into keeping them reliable. If I knew I could make a burnt offering of $1500 to the car gods and be on my way, I wouldn't bother maintaining my car at all. Unfortunately, being let down by a car is usually far more inconvenience and expense than just the repair.

It looks like galvanized steel does better with aluminum. I've used zinc-based anti-sieze with good results in the past, copper-based for high-temp applications. I've always hoped the zinc would help with corrosion, maybe it did. My Thule rack came with what looks like black-oxide coated hardware, I've since determined it's black zinc coat. I haven't found black zinc coated screws in metric, I think that would be best for my roof rack.

Sounds similar to the problem this guy had in Iceland: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=33297

I guess I've never fully understood galvanic corrosion, despite decades of working on boats, racing aluminum bikes, flying aluminum aircraft, and now designing mostly aluminum industrial machinery. I assumed stainless would contribute less to whatever is going on, and maybe stick less to the crusty aluminum. Perhaps my good results in the past have just been from cleaning it up and using anti-sieze? I use Boeshield over dry lube on my bike chains, but I've never been convinced it lasts. It'd probably be perfect on the roofrack 'till I run through the carwash.

Sounds like he has a lot to lose if he buys it with the hope this cleaner will fix the seals. eBay, I saw a slew of them before paying $4700 for mine with 77k on it. Of course, I don't have ABS, you may pay a little more for that.