chipper

Get ahold of the folks at Scorpion offroad in Oz, (Australia) http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~colfam/index.htm and see if they will sell you one of these; http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~colfam/photos/Subytrio.jpg http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~colfam/photos/bullbar2.jpg If so, i'll buy one too, and I'll bet others would step up as well. These look for all the world like a TJM bullbar. Looks like they have a sump guard as well. I had a brief email exchange with them over a year ago, and could never get them to contact me again. These folks http://www.ozified.com/index.htm Claim to be related to the byb from Oz, and the byb homepage; http://www.ausubaru.com/ also shows what look for all the world to be TJM aluminum bullbars (roo bars) for the OBW/Forester. I would dearly love to get one. If you have any luck, lemme know.

98, OBW, 2.5l. 180k miles HG finally gave up on me 5 miles west of nowhere last weekend in the snow. Limped it to a safe-zone some 85 miles back down the road on 10 gallons of antifreeze. Tried to get a flatbed in 'nowhereville' but none to be had due to the weather. Which is completely fair. Bought up the entire stock of premixed antifreeze at the local parts house and drove her back through the mountains. Averaged about ~8mpg on antifreeze Spent a lot of hours over the weekend reading about this issue, and all things considered, this is just flat out the best car for driving in the mountains I've ever encountered. Shod even with old blizzaks, she climbs and descends anything with confidence in bad winter conditions. So, I'm going to get her repaired. I really like this car. I've had her for going on 2 years, and 70k miles. She's been great. I limped the HG problem for nearly a year. Keeping a close eye on the temp gauge, and keeping some coolant handy, running a cored out thermostat and using cardboard radiator blocks in the cold weather. So, she's down for a while, However, one thing this car needs, that I haven't seen discussed, is new headlight lenses. Where can I get some? These are so eroded from whatever it is that eats the finish up, that they are just don't lightup the road very well. Her '03 Forester has pretty good lighting, but my headlight lenses are really crudded up, and don't work well. Clues? Thanks in advance.

Not too sure exactly what you need, but if you are running H-4 type lamps and want to really amp them up, the ARB (aus) harness is really very nice. Not just a harness, has good quality relays that take the current straight from the battery, and just use your old headlight connectors to power the switch side of the relays. In the states, my buddy James and 4x4connection.com sells them. His phone number is on the website http://www.4x4connection.com. Yes that is a blantant plug. It's a good shop and they are nice folks.

Hi all, I'm a proud owner of a brand used '99 outback legacy. Big miles, but nice car. Runs good, looks okay,and oddly, everything works!. I've talked a lot of friends and family into subarus over the last few years. I've personally sold one 2003 forester and one 2004, and sold my sister a 2000 legacy. Wish i'd get some commission ;-) However, for me, I've been driving junk my whole life and never really thought I needed a "good" car. The only new car I ever bought was a 89 VW gti 16v. I loved the car but hated the whole "new car" experience. As I am commuting over 2 hours a day though some of the worst traffic around (near DC) and have helped pry many folks out of wrecks over the years, I decided I really wanted abs/airbags and awd in my life. I wasn't looked, but I found my outback so I bought it. -- can you good folks tell me, the quickest way to determine which engine I have? Can you good folks tell me if there is a tell-tale way to determine if my timing belt is getting ready to dump me on the side of the road with a terrible bill waiting at the end of that horror, what else suddenly, traumatically fails at 120+ thousand miles? Prior owner was an engineer who was very friendly, and downright opaque about comming up with info other than "the shop across the street did all the work and took real good care of it, and I changed the oil early and often cause that's how you make them last." Car seems real nice, leave no nasty stains when parked, looks like it is as old as it is, but happy about it. Runs good, doens't even stink. Thanks much in advance. --chipper