heartless

disregarding the steering wheel position for a moment - when you are driving straight and let go of the wheel, does the car continue straight or does it pull to one side? If it continues straight, then the alignment itself is fine. Steering wheel centering "should" be an integral part of the alignment process, but many places do not do it/don't care. Go back to the alignment shop and ask them to fix it.

And that is EXACTLY how I learned to drive a stick! HAD to do it to get to the store for emergency supplies.. on a 1976 Plymouth Valiant, 3 on the tree.. Once I figured it out, I was hooked! So much so that I turned it into a living - drove truck for 18 years, long haul - and those have a lot more gears to grind! LOL (oh, and btw - I am female ) And I would have to agree with 3pin - don't discount the older models out of hand. I drive a 2002 Forester that currently has 244,500 plus miles on the clock. No major issues. Headgaskets were done on the car long before I got it - at around 108K or so. I bought it at 214K.

If you have the receipts from when the work was done, it should tell you what, exactly, was replaced. But your description of the symptoms really suggests an out of balance tire to me. potholes, accidental curb bumps, these can throw a tire out pretty quickly. the stick on weights also sometimes fall off... definitely worth swapping the tires around to see if anything changes.

good surface prep is just as, if not more so, important as what paint to use. If it were my car, I would be using automotive paint, but prepping the surface correctly before application. a good source for auto paint is https://www.automotivetouchup.com/ They also have some great directions and "how to" videos to help you get the best results possible

as comatosellama suggested, speed dependent vibrations/shaking are most often caused by a tire out of balance, sometimes a damaged tire - Start there. As texan suggested, swapping tires from front to back for a quick, inexpensive test.. if the vibration is still present, bet less noticeable in the steering, that would suggest it IS a tire out of balance and/or damaged. get them checked If swapping the tires has no effect on the vibration/shaking, then yes, you need to dig deeper. potential issues: ball joints, tie rod ends, wheel bearing, CV joint (axle), maybe a frozen brake caliper.. also check struts & springs.. also take a look at the lower control arm mounting points. the rear most mount bushing tends to be a problem area

I have an 02 Forester with the EJ251, 4 speed auto.. on the freeway, running at about 70-72mph puts me around 3K rpms - obviously, a 5 speed auto would do better in the rpm area. But even with the 4 spd, the car does fine. You want to make sure the cooling system is up to snuff, and all suspension stuff is in good nick. I run an all season, touring type tire - either Cooper CS5, or the Mastercraft equivalent (Mastercraft is made by Cooper - their "budget" line) Good traction year round, long lasting, and not terribly noisy. Side note - the Forester has a bit over 241K on the clock and going strong. I would not hesitate to drive it across the country.

struts themselves?? you mention every thing else, but not those... worn out struts can cause some weird issues. also that spacer that Texan mentioned.. not uncomon to get them installed wrong.. small end should be this way / \, not this way \ / but then again, if the shop that did the alignment is worth its salt, they would have said something about worn struts.. just trying to cover all the bases here.. it is pretty rare to have steering rack issues.

there is more to steering than just the power steering unit and the rack... what I don't see mentioned is if the tie rod ends or ball joints have been checked, or the front struts/tophats for that matter... the struts DO turn on a bearing in the tophat. any of those components being worn out can give you unstable steering feel. check ALL components related to to steering. Then make a diagnoses. Currently you are only looking at a portion of it. eta: don't forget the steering column, either.. there are joints there that can wear out...

if the lock will not turn at all, chances are you will need to pull them out and either replace the tumbler with a working used one (either another key, or have a locksmith reset the pins to work with your current key) you "might" be able to free them up with a good penetrating lube and working at it a little at a time, but they will seize up again unless they get used regularly - ie: daily guessing that this car had a remote fob so the key locks did not actually get used. They tend to seize up when they don't actually get used.

i kinda have to agree with it being a "regional" thing on the chances of them going bad or not.. to be perfectly honest, this is the first time either of us has had a Subaru driveshaft issue - out of roughly 7-8 different cars since 2000, all with varying mileage.. some well over 250k with no apparent problems. Heck - my 2002 Forester is creeping up on the 250K mark - no problems with it so far.. plus, cant really afford to have the car down for long.. a few hours to swap out with a replacement on the weekend is one thing.. but taking it out, taking it to a shop, waiting a day or 3 for the shop to do their thing, then putting it back in.. yeah, no. Plus, we are both getting to the age where we are more inclined to take the easier route when possible. yes, we could take the whole car to a shop, and have them deal with it, but again.. would be without the car for a couple of days. Gas is too damned expensive to be driving the pickup around... especially when it has its own problems, but i wont go into those here.

a new genuine Subaru one is ridiculously expensive. Plus, it would have staked in joints just like the current one does. He is looking at several options from several different sources - ebay, rockauto & partsgeek to name a few.

yeah, I think he has pretty well decided to swap the whole thing out.. he hates dealing with needle bearings, lol (has to do joints on PTO shafts at work on a fairly regular basis) He does want the replacement to be serviceable however - for any future issues.

how bad was it to get the old one off? it's only like what? 6 bolts or so? I know center carrier is 2, back end would be 4? then slide it out of the tranny tail housing, right?

these days, every penny counts.

hey, $5 is $5, LOL

as the title says.. bad rear u-joint on the beast.. 181K on the odometer looking for options, part numbers, etc.. we know the u-joints are staked in, but also know that others have done replacement, so it is possible or would we be better off getting a "new" driveshaft and just replacing the whole works (would eliminate possible future issues with front joint and center carrier) discuss.... comments, suggestions, etc.. Part numbers would be greatly appreciated.

this site has some FSM info for SVX under "old models" and yeah, it does appear that the fuel tank set up is quite different than the rest of the family.

^^^ that right there.

changing an alternator is not difficult. a basic metric socket set is really all you need, tool wise. Exactly how it is done will depend on which style accessory system you have.. a single serpentine belt to run all accessories (newer style), or two separate belts (old style) would help if we knew what year & model Subaru we are discussing.

yes, it is called daytime running lights.

actually, the sensor reads a tone ring, which on a Subaru, is generally attached to the hub.

what are you using as a comparison? And are you actually moving, or sitting still when you note these discrepancies? I have found that most bank or other signs that display temperature or more often than not incorrect.. there are a couple in town near me right next to each other, and they are invariably 3-5 degrees different from each other - and they are frequently higher than the reported "official" temperature. I have noticed with my 2002 Forester, that if the car is sitting still, with the sun beating on it, the temp will read a bit higher than "actual", but once moving, it is much more accurate.

while you are there, have them read the codes for that check engine light.

as an added note - the one I ended up getting rebuilt locally was so borderline that even in the car with a full charge on the battery it tested ok... but on the drive home my dash lit up like a Christmas tree with flashing lights.. pretty much all the warning lights were flickering - just a mere 20 minutes after being tested. Sure sign of an alternator issue. I swapped in an aftermarket alt while I had the stock one rebuilt. Once I got that one back, the aftermarket came out & went on a shelf.. I think I still have it out in the garage, lol. when I took the stock alt in to the re-builder, set it up on the counter, a diode literally fell out on to the counter. Guy says, "Well, there's your problem - those are supposed to be inside, not outside"

it must vary by region.. cause I got 2 Hondas at the top with trucks in the middle. Subaru is not even on the list.