schlit

Unless you have a chemistry degree and understand what the tolerances are, how the catalyst degrades, and the effects on the environment I think you're talking out of your rear.... an unguided guess at best. Sounds like you're just angry at "the man". Sorry. For the record, the fact that most of the posts on this site are by two people is why I don't visit much....as what I've heard from many other Subaru owners.

After reading through all the posts I think the only one missing something is you. I find that people who pollute look for any and every excuse to do so. How can you judge that the limit is too harsh?

One accident during the 75% of the time I'm on dry crowded interstates with people flying at 85mph or during the 25% I'm slowed down due to winter weather?

Thanks to those who've understood the climate I'll be driving in. I've decided to just make sure my allseasons have good tread on them and roll with it. It seems like the people who have them are farther north or backcountry and maybe have to rely on the snow grip more.

Thanks for the opinions. I do find it surprising, though, that you would not see any performance loss at highway speeds. I was expecting to hear that it's soft but stable at high speeds or something like that... I know the forester isn't a sports car, but really is there no loss in handling?

Just wanted to get some opinions about using a dedicated set of winter tires for the Forester primarily for interstate travel in the midwest and east this winter. I wont be venturing north of Nebraska, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, but assume I will be encountering some snow. There doesn't seem to be many options for performance winter tires, so I'd probably be forced to use studless tires like Blizzak WS-60's. I guess my question is how poorly do studless winter tires do at high speeds on dry interstate? Will I be kicking myself?

Too much liquid at once in the cylinder will create an overpressure....whether you have the engine running or not doesn't make a difference. You either blow the engine right away or when you start it up.

Careful, pouring too much seafoam in at once is an easy way to hydrolock an engine... I'll blow some through the intake before changing spark plugs, but would never place a solvent in the crankcase. A few short hot oil changes will do just as good for sludge removal

It took me the same amount of time to change the 200,000mi clutch on my Civic SI last year as it did to do a few tune up items on my forester. To name a few, Sub spark plugs and front diff fluid changes were huge PITA's. Foreign cars are packed tight and their parts are expensive. Some items will be easier on a Sub and others on a Honda. I personally feel more apt to work on my honda because of the MUCH better (and about $250 cheaper) service manual, and that there's no VIN guessing game when getting parts.

I think you guys are getting a little out of hand there. From regular maintence to major repairs, Subarus are not any easier or cheaper to work on than Hondas. At least for my 2.5L Forester almost everything is a PITA compared to my Civic, my moms Accord, and dad's CRV. Back to the OP, I wouldn't buy any foreign car with 150,000mi on it if I weren't a do-it-yourselfer and was afraid of paying $500 for a repair.

Yes, its an interference engine. If you go for it make sure the valve seats in the head aren't damaged as well.

Just an observation... I frequent Honda forums and rarely see as many "my car is a POS" threads as I do on USMB. I find it difficult to say subarus are bulletproof when they made so many 2.5l engines that self destruct.

I've used one before on my daily driver just to get through the winter months so I could replace the joint myself once it warmed up outside. It's a temporary fix that works if you catch the rip before you lose the grease and contaminate the joint with grit. Consider it like driving on a doughnut tire....it'll get you around but it's not something you want to take a 400 mile vacation on.

I second Grossgary's post. Yea, the 15% is bunk and misleading unless the sources are to be named. In my experience, the 2.5 PHII is as reliable as this website.

If you seriously are having withdrawals from this site going down, I hope you read this: http://www.minddisorders.com/Flu-Inv/Internet-addiction-disorder.html

From reading other posts, I thought it was bad to rebuild only the top end of an older engine? Just wondering because I'm going to be facing the same situation soon.

If it's sitting out in the sun, I would also try to protect your tires. Tires that arent driven have accelerated sun damage. Normal driving motion works the protectant in the rubber to the outer surface. No motion, no protection. A good coating of ArmorAll should help.

I wouldn't want to put up with the poor handling of a Blizzak over the entire season just for a few ski trips. I tried a set of Blizzaks one year and thought it was a complete waste of money. I didnt see enough improvement over my allseasons to make it worthwhile unless I was driving in snow/frigid cold more often than not.

I doubt you have much of a case here. They didnt lie to you. The engine "appeared" to be strong. The only thing I see is they didnt state the limitations of thier assessment. You'll try to say they should have been more cautious, but who's to say how many checks they should have performed? What is due dilligence? It will vary from mechanic to mechanic. The engine would have needed rings no matter what, so it's not like they're repairing more than is needed, and they're not charging for tearing it back apart. $1200 sounds reasonable for ring work in your case. I would hang my hat on the fact they didnt properly inform you of the well known risk of head gasket work on a high mileage engine. You need to play the ignorant customer while they're the experts. If they dont budge, you gotta decide to give up the car, fix the rings and take a chance something else is damaged, or drop a new engine in and take a chance it wasn't rebuilt correctly. I sure as hell wouldnt trade it in to them though if you give it up.

I wouldnt recommend CVM based on my inlaws experience. Strike 1: They replaced a cat converter with 80,000mi on it due to a P0420 code without even trying to see if it was just an 02 sensor. Strike 2: On the 10 min ride home from the cat repair, the inner cv boot just above the cat spews out it's grease due to a big gash. CVM called it coincidence and charged full price. Strike 3: They charged my inlaws to put the slime in the radiator...I made them go back and argue that one. Yea, their service techs did all that with a smile, but I think at the same time are not being honest with people.

You can rack your brain over what actually happen, but I'd hang my hat on the fact it failed 15 minutes after taking posession of the car. Any other approach will probably not work. Remember, you probably signed an arbritration agreement so no easy way to take them to small claims court. In my experience, all dealers are shady. Check out the new edition of consumer reports, they did a study on it.

I replace mine around 120,000mi with OEM. Three issues: 1. Insulation and rubber boots cracking (most likely) 2. Worn/loose connections 3. Poor wire conductivity (never have seen wires out of spec..even at 250,000 mi) I see anything other than OEM as a waste.

No, it is a waste of money to replace your rear O2 sensor as preventative maintence. What are you preventing? If it goes bad, you will see a cel, but will not leave you stranded. IMHO, replacing front O2 is also a waste of money unless you have symptoms of a bad one. It's not the cheapest part to replace either.

If you think your particular car is a lemon, then dump it. If not then keep paying until she's good again. I would consider $4000 in non routine maintenance repairs and engine swap for oil consumption at 150,000 mi as a lemon.

My 02 Forester has an external headgasket leak that will need to be replaced soon. The warranty extends to most 2002's, so the problem is still in that year. If I were to buy another $ubaru, (after all it's problems there's no way in hell I would), I would stick to 03's and newer.