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Well I'm fairly certain of what could happen...just like the time when I knew almost exactly when the timing belt was going to snap. Why...my pilot sense was good to within .0001%! --Damien p.s. There's no such thing as innocent in this world...just folks who plead 'nolo', those who fly bombing missions over Germany and those who kill gooks in Vietnam.

Yeah...that's true...it's wetter here than out West. So the cold cuts right to the bone. I'm sure it has such a physiological effect on our dear cars as well. The integrity of the tire seems fine so I'm just going to clip them hairs (so the technician won't poke his poor paws as he slam-dunks the basketball into my poor head) and put it in the the pile of 'mysteriously appearing metallic things' I keep in the ashtray. Cheers! --Damien -- Gold or bismuth...who can tell?

By the date code then it would be a 7 year old tire....

Well yeah...I probably shouldn't be driving it in such heat. I think it's on its 7th winter season...I won't know until I see the inside...but that is a pretty strange sight to me!

They're stuck in there pretty tight...(just like a vinyl record jammed in a telephone pole after a tornado!) Reminds me of the time the lug nuts mysteriously untightened themselves, once... Now I'm thinking about cancerous growths on the drive belt! Cheers! --Damien -- When the Faeries come out to play...will you know how to pray?

What do you make of this? Some kind of strange hairy growth on my tire...

Well it's the driver's side pillar...it's the reel/retracting mechanism. I got out there this afternoon and rocked the whole vehicle side to side (with my bare hands, even!)...it seemed to loosen it up and it reeled it back in again. Are there any electronics in there, tho? Thanks! --Damien -- Refrigerate immediately...it's magnetic!

Are the seat belt mechanisms purely mechanical in nature or are there electronic components to them? The drivers side seat belt in my 2001 Forester locked up and don't really want to ride bareback all summer long... I was down in that area washing some hefty salt buildup off with water so I'm thinking maybe I shorted something...

What they say about the gaskets are probably true...but it all depends how you drive it...what you use it for. Cars are almost like horses...if you abuse them they will kick the sh*t out of you. I think regular oil changes using suitable brands (possibly investing in the right additives) will help to keep those engines alive and gaskets intact much longer than someone who thinks chemistry is a bunch of bull. I have a Forester with the Phase II engine and I use additives in the oil and gas plus what Subaru recommends in the coolant with success. Of course, coming up with positive results (what with all the skeptics screaming in your ears) can take years of research but if you use your nose and brain even an amateur can figure out what works. Just like a famous scientist once said: "We have no money for equipment...we will have to use our heads!"

Well...that's what I was preaching at first...but now I'm in the choir! That theory may no longer be 'among the living'. p.s. We all had to drink our 'boos, man'.

Well a week has gone by and a Subie that I was sure was in for major repairs now seems fine, like the proverbial frozen snake thawing in the Sun and suddenly coming to life (if you've ever heard that fable...it was popular in Montana). I don't know how...but it sucks like almost an entire quart of coolant back into the radiator at night and in the morning the oil now crawls like almost a third of the way up the dipstick. So I threw the physical chemistry text out the window, bought some stock in snake oil and decided to believe in miracles...

This morning when I got up and checked the coolant level was back to normal...just a little high. But it was amazing to me how much of it got sucked back into the radiator! The oil wasn't really milky at all. I took it for a 50 mile drive today to take my Mum to the dentist and when I got back the coolant level in the OF tank rose even higher than the day before! There was some evidence of bubbling but it didn't seem to smell like exhaust gas. It made a weird sound a couple of times, too, once about a month ago...kind of like a rattling, thrashing sound for a few moments from a cold start. Seemed to be coming from the cylinders. Sounded like a snare drum... It also gives the same EVAP code, too, occasionally...usually on cloudy, low pressure days. Maybe the on-board 'puter really is that smart... I haven't changed or inspected the PCV valve... --Damien

Yes it's a 2001 Forester S with an automatic xmission and an EJ251. I check the vehicle after every drive practically to catch anything serious in the bud and also in the morning before I take off cuz weird paranormal stuff happens up North here in the wee hours of the morning (when we're all dead asleep). I could write a whole book about strange stuff 'it' does. Now what I notice is the oil is clean when I retire it for the evening but sometimes in the morning when I check the oil is slightly milky from coolant seepage (I guess). But it's far from clear to me how coolant seeping presumably through the headgaskets during the night could make its way all the way to the oil pan (and be thoroughly mixed, too!) It did spill a bunch of coolant during the winter onto the ground probably because it was very, very...very cold this year. So far the Radweld conditioner stuff seems to be working. I bought some Bar's oil conditioner for 5 bucks (they claim it could seal an internal leak). I haven't inspected the stuff or tried it yet. My $.02

I've been trying to diagnose what my Forester is doing and it's been a little difficult to nail it because sometimes the symptoms seem to disappear only to reappear. I noticed some substantial coolant contamination in the oil and thinking I was totally screwed I stopped by a local shop and they said it was the so-called 'external leak' that those Subies have and offered to redo the heads with no guarantee. I threw in an extra dose of Radweld and it seems to work... Maybe the right additive combo will seal it but figuring it out can be a difficult chemistry problem in and of itself as there are heat transfer, temperature and pressure issues along with the shear stresses and strains to consider. A recent video revealed that the boxer design does contribute to that failure as the breach occurs on the lower side of the head. The combination of friction and gravitational forces work against the gasket's integrity. I guess I if can solve that solid-state physics problem it would be worth $2200 bucks to me! There are a lot of nay-sayers out there but I bet a chemical solution is possible. It's all about getting a few drops of glue into the right place.

I'm a little confused as to what is referenced by an 'external leak' regarding headgaskets. Do they mean that the coolant is seeping thru the gasket into the combustion chamber?