1 Lucky Texan

nice! although pricey, rims can really help personalize a car.

a shock - often directed onto the starter itself with, say, a piece of 2x4 - that results in the starter working is almost certainly a sign that the solenoid needs to be rebuilt. Quite common on older cars. There are kits with contacts, or contacts and plunger available.

my WRX had a bad rear bearing - under 60K miles.

Aisin waterpump is also OK - make sure it comes with a metal gasket, or source the gasket from Subaru. You might look at autoanything and mizumoauto on ebay. you might cross-shopping any OEM stuff by looking here; https://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/121-subaruonlineparts-com/501795-new-lower-pricing-subaru-gear-codes-vip-s.html or, challenge your local dealer to match those prices - it's sometimes better to spend a little xtra if you feel you may need multiple trips back to the dealer vs waiting on shipping or the hassle of returning a wrong part. I had a local dealer match a price on an item, and also get close to a match with a discount on a different item. fyi

ooohhh - good point on the tensioner style. I thought the 'problem' of skipped belts on cars went way back to the late 70s even, - dunno if other makes got any kind of belt 'guard'/'guide or not, but, I have read of typical FWD econoboxes that were towed away to an impound lot having skipped timing when the owner goes to retrieve their car. Of COURSE a good TT driver should confirm the car is in neutral - but do they sometimes forget??? MT, parked, trans in 1st, hooked up to a stinger tow or w'ever, dragged away by tow truck and the tires turn the crank. Or, car gets bumped by some other car.....could also happen if trans in Rev and car bumped from the back I guess. here's one I found on another Forum;

other than hassle - no I 'assume' there are bolt holes for them on all the blocks???

well, starting to seem like something is seriously allowing leak-down of the fuel rails. Before the next cold start, maybe pull the plugs to see if one is wet with gas - could be a leaky injector? ever smell fuel underhood?

because of the torque converter, I guess there's much less risk of belt jump. My WRX has FIVE of those things, 1 for each sprocket, kinda a hassle to set them back in place.

no chance for the crank to turn backwards if an auto-trans car is bumped when parked.

hmmmm, doesn't seem to be fuel-related. you could try some starting fluid as an additional test coupla not-great suggestions; inspect the large tube from the IACV - maybe it's cracked or partly loose. dunno why it would be worse when cold though. clean the throttle body - check into the SeaFoam can with the nozzle. again, maybe gummy when cold....???? inspect spark plug boots for oil/moisture on those cold mornings? how old are the plug wires? is it dew-y on those cold start events? Crank sensors have sometimes been known to fail at warm temps, maybe yours is flaky at low temps?

OEM all the way or, if not, Japanese manufacture; Aisin waterpump, Mitsuboshi belt, Japanese bearings in the rollers....

I think the discussion at the time was some kind of cap...gas cap or windshield washer res....not sure doesn't mean aftermarket won't step-up, probably just with a poorer quality replacement.

next time it has sat and you feel confident it would 'fail' , don't start directly; cycle from Off to On, wait for a 3-4-5 count, then back to Off, immediately back to On, count, Off - On. 3-4 times and THEN go from Off to Start. That should pressurize the rails if they have lost pressure.

could it be belt noise?

GD says some parts for cars built in the 2000s are NLA.