Rooster2

Got ripped off for sure. Prices and labor are WAY inflated. It would have been better for her to get an estimate of the repair, then show you the estimate. I bet you would have nixxed that deal. You may still have time to go back to that shop, and contest the bill, and ask for a substantial refund. Threaten bad business practice exposure on Angie's list, or elsewhere on line may help you get a refund. Shady repair shops are infamous for ripping off women, when repairs are not necessarily needed, needed immediately, or unnecessary work done to pad the bill higher. All they have to do to sell a woman is to say the car is not safe to drive, until repaired. Or..........tell her the car may break down, unless immediately repaired. It is always a scare tactic approach to women to get the business. Should be a special place in Hell for the crooks.

Have you been back to the store that sold you the tires and installed them??? Or, did you buy the tires on line, an had them installed elsewhere?? What are you being told as to why they are considered a risk by tire rotators??

Recommend changing the oil. It is the right thing to do for the car.

I checked on line. Looks like Mastercraft Avengers available in 4 different sub models. Which Avengers are you running Heartless?? Research shows tires made by Cooper, and that is good.

A good write-up for this forum. I have read others having similar problems. You may have given them the cure.

IMO I have never been a fan of Goodyear tires for years and years. When I did buy them, they seemed a little extra expensive when matched against comparative quality tires. They also did not seem to last long, in that they wore out quicker then expected. Michilens have a great reputation for producing quality tires. I am surprised to hear anything negative about them. They are expensive, but seem to last forever. However, they are made with hard rubber, so after 20,000 miles or so, their grip in snow declines. All tires are a trade off in performance characteristics: Touring tires...........are smooth riding made for interstate cruising, but not good in snow All Season............ not as smooth riding as Touring tires, better in snow. More of an all purpose tire. Mud & Snow tires.....designed to get you through the nasty stuff on road, and off roads, but ride rough, and chunky tread design makes for a noisy tire. Suggest your search focus on All Season type tires, since using 2 sets of tires is not what you want to do. I have Yokohama tires on my OBW that are all season. I am happy with them. Seem pretty grippy in snow, even after 20,000 miles, yet quiet on the highway. Price is competitive. Quality is there as they balance well upon installation, and have kept a good balance. Don't recommend buying any tires that are off brand. They generally cost less, but you get what you pay for. Too often I have read about cheap tires going bad

If not from Subaru, then try a wrecking yard.

If the plastic over flow box coolant was bubbling, then your head gaskets are bad. The bubbles is hot exhaust gas leaking into the cooling system, where there is a breach in the head gasket.

Yea, Subies are designed and built well, and mostly easy to work on .With care they last a long time.

years back I had same problem with 91 Leggie. I went to install a replacement blower motor with one from a yard. Upon swap out, I found leaves and crap around the blower. I cleaned up the mess to find out that fixed the problem. I prolly still have the replacement blower unit from a yard stached away in my garage somewhare, that I never used.. Seems like a common problem that develops if you park under trees

Could be bad spark plug wires shorting out.

If pulleys and tensioners have not been replaced for a long time................ Suggest you go on line to e-bay motors and look for timing belt kits for sale. Kit will include belt, pulleys, and tensioners. All should be replaced, as bearings go bad in pulleys and tensioners causing a "lock up.". When that happens, a lock up, resul is a broken timing belt and bent valves.

Your car owner's manual should list recommended brand and spark plug part number. Buy expensive plug wires, not the cheap ones, as they won't perform well, or last long.

My opinion is to go with a used motor. With 300 k miles of wear on that block, it is difficult to justify doing a rebuild. Gotta think you can find a good one for less then $1100.

Probably not much you can do to increase horse power with a 1.5 litre engine. A basic tune up with new spark plugs and plug wires may help, also replacing the fuel filter may help. There is just no magic to get an extra 30 or 40 hp with your motor. I would also increase tire pressure to 35 psi. Car rides a little rougher, but will have less rolling resistance. tires last longer too.

You are leaking antifreeze somewhere. Trace down the source of the steam, it will show you where the problem is.

I think any brand of ATF is good. My Subie is a 99, and I have had no trouble using Wal-Mart brand Dextron ATF on the 3 drain & fill program over the 8 years that I have owned the car. Your 09 may use something different then Dextron ATF. Read the owner's manual for what specific ATF needed for your car.

Recently, I had to replace one of those metal tubing connections to what I think is called a dryer. My metal tube developed a pin hole leak. I suspect from seeing your photo, that you either have a bad "O" ring where the tube attaches, or your tubing leaks. Clean the area as best you can, so you can better see where the bubbles are coming from, and what needs to be replaced. Suspect your tubing got bent during motor swap to cause your leak. I sourced replacement tubing from a wrecking yard. Replacement "O" rings can be bought from auto parts store. Think mine came from Autozone, sold in a plastic pack with assorted size "O" rings. O ring I took off at the fitting was black in color, what I installed was green in color. It fit well.......guess color doesn't make any difference.

Consider pulling off a front road wheel, so you can take a look at how much brake pad you have left. Most braking is with the front brakes, so the fronts wear out faster. Consider using dish washing liquid to clean off the engine. Just wet down the motor, then squirt on the detergent, wait about 15 minutes, then use a garden hose on full hard spray to wash off the detergent. This does a decent job. You can also buy spray cans of engine clean product, which is mostly kerosene, that works too, but I don't like leaving kerosene on my driveway. Consider changing the anti-freeze. It still may have the original that came with the car. Enjoy your new Soob. You will appreciate the traction of all wheel drive in the snow, and even when driving through heavy rain.

I love the Woody look on your Subie. I did something similar years back on a full size Pontiac wagon I had. The Woody grain factory vinyl was peeling off the car badly. I applied the contact paper just as you have done. It looked pretty good for a couple of years, but by then UV from sunshine had begun bleaching the color out of the contact paper. I fixed by reapplying fresh contact paper, which isn't that difficult to do. Suggest you stock up on the Woody grain contact paper for future use. Otherwise, it will be your luck that the store won't sell the brand, or color of contact paper you have used in the past.

With your strong belief.."No matter how hard I try, I just cant get comfortable placing my family's safety in a 8 year old vehicle with 80k." I agree with you, that you should buy a new car, or you will never feel comfortable with anything used you may buy. New Subies are engineered to be very safe, and you can be assured your family will be well cared for in one. There are a number of testimonials from forum members here of being in car accidents, and receiving no, or minor injuries. Even older Subarus protect occupants well.

Boot replacement is good and cheap if you are good at half shaft removal / replacement, and the bearings are not already clicking. The clicking is a sign that there is bearing wear, and I don't think fresh grease and a new boot is going to give new life to that damaged CV joint bearing. .

Not experienced the clicking noise from a bad CV joint, but have read on this forum of others, who have had bad CV joints that clicked, and drove on for many miles. If you do a search for "half shafts," or CV joints, you can read a lot of what others have experienced. Installing a rebuilt half shaft is a relative cheap fix. Lots of car parts store sell them. The problem is buying one that will last a while. Too many rebuilders, simply install a new rubber boot on a worn out joint, without adding any new parts, and sell it. Even if the parts store honors their guarantee with a new rebuilt, you can still get a bad one, plus you are out the time to swap out old for new, and also cost of a front end alignment. There are quality rebuilders out in the marketplace, Others should be able to name who they are.

You can drive for a long time with a blown out half shaft boot. Sure, the torn boot will throw out the grease, and allow dirt and road salt to enter the axle joint. You can buy replacement half shaft grease, which I have done, and jam as much grease back into the joint. A good temp fix is to then wrap the torn boot repeatedly with a lot of saran wrap. yea, it is a red neck fix, but it does work for a while. If your half shaft is not making clicking sounds when rounding a corner, then your half shaft joint is going to last a good while longer. Only true fix is to swap in a new or rebuilt half shaft, as their is no easy way to replace a torn rubber boot.

My car was running poorly at times. I got some maybe bad gas, but changing the fuel filter under the hood helped a lot. Got lots more power, and better driveability.