Spiffy

guess you've already got your answers, but... I shopped for a Forester with an LSD in mind as well... I referenced cars101.com to see which ones had the LSD... I ended up with a 2000 Forester S... lots of fun little comfort options... I think if you get one a year or two newer you can also get the moonroof option... but I didn't want to spend the extra money at the time... --Spiffy

awesome, I'll have to look around for that check valve to see if that's it... sounds cheaper than a squirter motor... for some reason I didn't find that other thread in my search... d'oh! --Spiffy

as subaru360 said, this is a great route to save money... replacing a headlight with a new genuine part through a shop is expensive... much cheaper to go used with a local or web place and replace it yourself if you're not afraid to take off the grill and disassemble things... same with the fender and hood... never, ever, go with the insurance-recommended shop... they are almost always in some kind of contract and you almost always get sub-par work and parts... when I had a recommended shop work on my 2000 Lego GT they messed up multiple things... unfortunately I had to take it back to them to get those fixed... next accident I took it to a good reputable shop who generously pointed out even more errors the insurance-recommended shop had messed up... if it's the dealer that's recommending the shop it might not be bad, but you should always check with other subaru owners in your area to see what shops they've had quality work done at... --Spiffy

ok, this is starting to really annoy me now... when I accelerate in the '98 Imp wagon the rear washer fluid starts squirting up on the window... it's not the motor, it's physics driven, so the faster I gun it the more water comes out and the higher on the back window it squirts... this happened a few months ago and then stopped... so I kind of wrote it off as a fluke... but then I went through an Eco Wash automated car wash last week and the squirting started up again... what's the deal? is there a valve somewhere that needs replacing? maybe the squirter motor is starting to go out? other than it wasting lots of washer fluid and mudding up the back of the wagon it works fine when I trigger it on the column tree and purposely squirt some water up there... where should I start looking for the issue? --Spiffy

here's a video of an ea81 hatch with snow tracks... looks like a lot of fun... http://www.jokeroo.com/extremevideos/saburu_with_snow_tracks.html --Spiffy

I was going to give him some sh***¡t about that as well... I guess he just got used to subaru's low center of gravity... subarus spoil you! --Spiffy

I like how the jeep puts his wipers on when he's fully submerged... and yeah, floating down the river looks pretty scary... get to much momentum and catch a rock and you might barrel roll... I tend to like the inside of my car dry and mostly clean so I won't be going through any water deeper than the rockers... my defroster already has to work overtime just for normal winter driving... --Spiffy

that's an EA series vehicle... the dual-range AWD that the US didn't get is on the EJ series vehicles... mostly people want to mate the EJ22 and EJ25 engines to a newer generation transmission... in the US they got rid of the dual-range with the EA series (loyale) and none of the newer models (1990+ legacy/impreza) have dual-range... --Spiffy

I think it's called Dual-Range AWD everywhere... it can be identified by the extra dual-range lever near the parking break... probably only available with the 5-speed (5MT)... you can see it in the interior shots here... an article from the UK talks about one in the 2007 model... and here's a good pic from the italian subaru site... I have no idea why they didn't import these into the US as everybody seems to want them... --Spiffy

congrats on joining the subaru world... you may never go back... you'll have more luck with your tech questions on the New Gen Forum... with the gas gauge I'd start with measuring the resistance from the sending unit on the tank... get yourself a cheap manual (hayes/chilton) to get yourself started... the parking/nuetral sensor is always an issue with autos... you may be able to just take apart the shifter console and clean the contacts... somebody probably spilled soda/coffee on it too many times... last time that happened to me (on an old vw) I just bridged the connection so I could start it in any gear... cheers! --Spiffy

Super Swamper Radial, Three Stage Lug --Spiffy

yes, but not all brands of cds... I have an '00 forester and it doesn't like the officemax CDs from work, but it likes the cheap Fry's brand ones... actually I'm not sure if it's the CD or the burner... but what would happen is after a few songs you would start to hear static and if you skipped back and then forward it would go away for a while and then come back... I copied the CD at home onto another brand of CD and it works just fine... I also have a stock clarion deck in the '98 impreza and never had any problems with all the burned cds we played in that... so most likely the older ones will work fine for you, but you may have to try a different brand of media if you have any issues... and always make sure you close the session on the CD when you burn it... --Spiffy

I had a similar weird thing happen on my '85 wagon after getting brand new tires... I assumed something else was wrong and the tire shop wanted to replace my axles just to see if that would fix it... I took it to a real mechanic who found that one of the new tires had a bubble that appeared in the tread once the tire warmed up... if you really think it's a tire then rotate them and see if the problem changes... if the rear wheel is bent of the tire is bad then putting it up front should make it worse, and obvious... --Spiffy

doesn't sound like much of a friend... people should be happy to get their vehicle back with a full tank of gas (instead of just refilling what you used)... for the price of a tank of gas you could rent a truck from UHaul or Home Depot... --Spiffy

I bet that thing is really hard to turn on asphalt... also difficult to get a subaru with 2 axles in the rear... have to cheat and use solids from another vehicle... --Spiffy

if you want to know what year and model has what options you'll want to start here: http://www.cars101.com/impreza_archive93_96.html this way you'll better know what to look for that had everything you need... --Spiffy

sounds like an awesome road... since the DMV isn't doing anything to keep idiots off the street at least we can count on a few miles of road to keep the idiot-driver count down... --Spiffy

my forester has had a torn boot for at least 2 weeks and it's not clicking... it's the driver's side, if that matters... as stated the passenger side has more heat near it... --Spiffy

I just own 3 or 4 subarus as my powered vehicles... other than that I have bicycles... I'd like to have a retro-style scooter though... --spiffy

sweet! did you actually crawl all the way over those rocks? is that the 6 cylinder? the 4-bangers were horrible with big tires... --Spiffy

I got my roll pin a little stuck once when I was in a hurry... didn't take the time to notice I was pounding it out backwards... then I took a couple minutes to check the size of the holes... stuck my punch in the small hole and just hit it REALLY hard until it came out... btw, I had the same problem with Napa giving me a non-turbo axle for my turbo wagon... turned out that it was in the wrong box, and they didn't have another correct part so I had to go somewhere else... now I'll always check the spline count since a 25-spline axle can fit on a 23-spline hub and you can strip the splines if you don't check first... --Spiffy

it's even more funny because it's illegal... he blocked his rear-view mirrors... --Spiffy

everyone in the states will say to go with the 14"... primarily because we don't have those over here and they're "r33t"... the stock H-alloys are everywhere, so you won't get as many looks with those... the multispokes are also nice, but they're only 13's... with the 14's you can run a lower profile tire and improve handling... --Spiffy

red on the hood and silver on the wheels... that brumby looks great that way... --Spiffy

I know this doesn't answer your question, but I use an FM modulator that plugs into the cigarette lighter when I need to hook up my mp3 player in my old sube... they're pretty cheap... --Spiffy