ronemus

You can find a big selection of inexpensive wheels with the correct offset at TireRack.com; just choose a set you like the look of. I got mine for $100 each, and a few weeks later they went on sale for $69 each. The folks at TireRack are good to deal with; they even called me up because I went with a non-standard fitment (235/45-18 on 18x8 wheels with a 48 mm offset).

The easy AND safe way would be to drill a hole through the side to cut the connection - no chance of excessive current, inadvertent arc welding, etc. Just cut the narrow bit that connects the two tabs. I'd guess that a 1/8" drill would do the job nicely and leave enough of the body intact that it would hold together well.

There are all-season tires that carry a M&S rating available, and they do very well in the snow. I had Pirelli P0 Nero M&S, but switched to Goodyear Eagle F1 All Seasons and much prefer them. About the only drawback is that any tire with an M&S rating will be much louder than a summer tire or standard all-season due to the open, aggressive tread pattern. I'm easily able to drive in 10" of fresh snow, which is pretty good considering that my groung clearance is less than 6".

I'd bet on the MAF/MAP sensor or throttle position sensor. I had exactly the same problem when the MAF sensor on my Celica GT would drop out, so it only fueled for idle conditions; it idled perfectly, but wouldn't rev over 2500 rpm. It felt exactly like somebody threw out an anchor, but if allowed to cool off it would work perfectly until the next time. It was only diagnosed when I was able to limp to a dealer during business hours and have them diagnose it while it was actually malfunctioning.

Mine are apparently the 2nd-generation version that clears up the wear problems with the original design. I've had no problems (no uneven wear) but I'm still at ~8k miles on them.

I've been very happy with the Goodyear Eagle F1 All Season (Ultra High Performance All-Season) tires I've been using for the last two years. I had Pirelli P0 Nero M&S tires before that, and the Eagles are far superior - especially on snow. I'm running a +2 upgrade (225/40-18), but they're available in higher profiles for the standard fitment.

You may have a stuck idle air control valve; when you brake, the booster will dump some air into the intake manifold and the IAC valve should close to compensate. It's easy to pull the IAC valve and see if it's free to move.

The lower body metal on older Legacies/Outbacks is anti-corrosion plated on both sides, and all metal on recent ones. In addition, they come undercoated from the factory. There really isn't any benefit to third-party rustproofing since the factory treatment is already so thorough. My '90 Legacy went 12 years and only had a 1" square rust due to a gap between a fender liner and the fender. My '02 shows no signs of rust at all. I drive on salted roads all winter, and wash the car maybe twice during the winter. Subaru really put some thought into their rust protection and it works very well.

There are drain lines at all four corners of the drip tray under the sunroof. They do tend to get clogged after a while. You can either pull the headliner and blow them out from above, or pull the fender liners and clear them from below. They have a flap covering them at the lower end that sometimes sticks closed, so sometimes you have to cear them from the bottom.

There are always machining marks and other surface texture that is polished out by running. When new, I reset mine after 1000 miles and didn't need adjustment again until 60k. After 60k the clearances were closer than they were at 1000! They didn't really have to be adjusted either time (still within the spec wear range) but I don't like to hear the ticking sound when they're not just right.

A friend's son had a similar problem. It turns out that something other than brake fluid was put in the reservoir, and that caused the soft lines to swell shut! You really wanted a set of stainless steel lines anyway, didn't you?

You might also ask whether they just pulled the book price for changing the hose and changing the valve, then added them up. There are a lot of procedures in common (Freon recovery, evacuation, leak checking, etc.), so they might be willing to come down on price if you call them on it. It would certainly cost less to have an independent do the job as the cost of parts will be much lower, and their shop rate is likely to be lower as well. $1100 is way too much for a simple part replacement ad recharge.

I'm in the same situation and decided to buy the Pirelli P0 Nero M&S for about that price. They have fantastic grip compared to the OEM Bridgestones, and grip well on snow. Living in Indiana, I get occasional snow but spend most of the winter driving on dry roads; dedicated snow tires would be a waste, especially given the short service life. TireRack does a lot of comparison testing and the Pirellis don't give up much to summer rubber. The only drawback I've found is that they're noisier on worn surfaces (humming, singing or whistling), but any tire with the aggressive tread pattern needed for a M&S rating will do that.

Water injection can reduce flame temperature (reduce heat and wear), increase the octane tolerance (reduce knock/ping) and extract more useful energy by converting liquid water to steam; however, doing so isn't a simple or inexpensive proposition. You would need a water injection system comparable in complexity to a fuel injection system integrated with the engine management, remapped engine control, modified internals to take advantage of the new setup and to resist damage from added water, etc. You also wouldn't dare let the water tank go dry as that could toast the engine. Cold weather operation is also an engineering challenge. This isn't something for the shade-tree mechanic to tinker with.

The security controller/receiver may have lost the ID of your transmitter during a long power outage. Try the procedure for familiarizing the remote with the system before buying a new remote.

I have GR-2s on my '02 LGT. I replaced them before the OEM struts and shocks wore out (~45k mi) and have >10k mi on them now. The GR-2s are much stiffer than the OEMs and have nicely tamed the ride. I'm still on stock springs as this is my daily friver and the 5" ground clearance is low enogh for me. The only complaint I have is that they get a bit too stiff at temperatures below freezing. The Bilsteins came out after I installed the GR-2s, but I'd go with them today despite the higher price (and the Bilsteins are adjustable). I also have Whiteline heavy duty swaybars front and rear, and they are a huge improvement, keeping the car nearly flat in the corners. I tried ADDCO bars, but neither the front or rear would fit. They took them back and even covered shipping both ways. They're aware of the problem and will fix it at some point. Their bars are bigger and probably stiffer then the Whiteelines, but you shound check whether the new design is available yet.

That type of vibration is usually caused by pad deposits on the rotor, not warping. A hard stop from highway speed to a standslill will heat the pads and keep them in contact with the rotor. Subaru OEM pads use an organic binder that cooks out when they're hot, leaving a deposit that grabs with each revolution of the rotor under braking. You can get rid of it by making a few consecutive 60-5 stops (don't stop entirely), but the problem will reappear until you get better pads. I have Hawk HPS pads on mine and like them a lot, but they do dust noticeably; if that bothers you, Hawk Ceramics have very little dust and it's light colored.

The '01 Impreza turbo clutch doesn't show any more, so it must be sold out; I got mine for $400.

I'd recommend a Centerforce DFX clutch - it's a much better street clutch than the OEM part. The pedal is lighter and the engagement range is much wider, so it's much smoother. You can save ~$200 by getting the corresponding Impreza parts (same parts in both boxes, different prices). I found the best price at Summit Racing's site. It's cheaper than buying the Subaru parts even at full price. At that mileage I'd replace the axles (CV joints) and wheel bearings since they're likely to need it within the next 30k anyway. My mechanic didn't charge for changing the axles since the inner ends were dropped for the clutch and the outers for the wheel bearings. If you still have the original struts it would be a good idea to replace them as well; there should also be a discount on the labor since the hub is already being pulled for the bearing replacement. A 4-wheel alignment would be a good idea to make sure everything is tracking properly after being put back together. You're also due for a timing belt and water pump if they haven't been done already, but there's no advantage to doing them at the same time as the clutch.

I found that on my '02 LGT (same remote), you have to press and hold the fob button for a second or so. The signal sequence it sends is fairly slow, and it only transmits while the button is pressed; the car won't unlock unless it receives the complete sequence.

I have the Pirelli P-Zero Nero M&S on my '02 LGT wagon, and am very satisfied with them - they're much better than the OEM Bridgestones. The only downside is that they're a bit noisier than the original tires, but that's likely to be the case with any tire that has decent snow performance.

This could also be due to a bad water pump (had it happen to me); when the shaft bearing wears, it sucks air and blows the coolant out the overflow. The pump is easier and less expensive to change than head gaskets. You should do the timing belt at the same time, if you haven't already, since you'll have to remove it anyway.

Before replacing the bearins, check the runout on the rear disks - it can sometimes be confused with bad bearings.

The problem probably isn't warped rotors. Stock Subaru pads use an organic binder that cooks onto the rotors after a hard stop to a standstill. I went through several cycles of resurfacing rotors, only to have the pulsation return. The solution was aftermarket performance (not OEM replacement) pads - I used Hawk HPS. The cost is about what Subaru charges for OEM, but no pulsation and a firmer pedal to boot.