kfabel

forgive my ignorance . . what do you mean by "smog it" how is that done?

Mobil One every 6k-7k miles so oil maintainence is not the problem.. . not sure of the exacte code . . my mechanic said 'bad catylitic converter' thanks for the advice

the rear suspention on my 2001 forester seems to be getting kinda soft . . how hard is it to replace the struts yourself? anyone know?

My 2001 forester has 90k miles on it. . easy, highway miles. The car runs great. The check engine light has come on and off now for the past 2 years. In as much as the car was running great . . i paid little attention to it. In the past 3 months the car appears to be using more oil than normal. I took it to my mechanic (not a subaru dealer) to check it out. The check engine light indicates that there is a problem with the catylitic converter. There is a small amount of black on the tailpipe. My mechanic . . admiting that it is difficult to diagnose, told me this could be signs of bad valve seats or piston rings. . . or . . if the oil consupmtion is less than a quart per 1500 miles . . a bad converter. i did some research on line and there appears to be a known problem with the catylitic converter and the O2 sensors for this car . . . is this engine really going bad? or is it just a converter problem? any thoughts???