Strakes

Have you tried a clay bar? Meguires sells a kit with the clay bar and the lubricant and it has worked well for me to remove etched stains in the paint. However, I have seen bird dookey eat through paint if left on too long. Sometimes I wonder if those birds are on a diet of super glue.

I'm replacing the valve cover gaskets on our 1993 Legacy 2.2 Liter Normally Aspirated engine because of a small oil leak at the front base driver side valve cover. I took it off and it seems that someone put a silicone type sealer along with the gasket on it when it was maybe replaced before. What product/chemical can I use to remove the old silicone-type stuff? I am afraid that if I scrape it that I would end up damaging the cover and creating another leak. I have already used carb/choke cleaner and it seems to do nothing to the silicone. Also the silicone is a red color if that tells you anything. Thanks in advance!

I don't have a FSM, but the Haynes says torque for the intake manifold is 168-192 in/lbs. Can't seem to find the filler tube torque listed anywhere in the Haynes.

I have no idea the difference between the head gasket replacement cost, and a rebuilt motor with a warranty would be. However, a lot of people on this board recommend http://www.ccrengines.com/

Any updates on the engine install?

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=39270 check out that thread. I second Cougar's opinion.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/index.jsp Check that out. Take a look at the passenger "____-touring" tire categories.

Just a thought: If the clearance is just the location of the exit tip, maybe a good muffler shop could weld and bend the exit pipe to have the clearance you need.

POR15's good stuff. If you choose not to paint over it later, then par-al-ketone is good too.

I had a similar problem and it turned out to be the alternator. Please correct me if I am wrong, but according to the haynes manual, the battery voltage should show 14-15 volts when the engine is running. If it's not this much then your alternator is toast. I got my alternator rebuilt at a local electrical motor/alternator shop for about $60. They put in new brushes, a diode pack and bearing. It runs great now.

Got the latest copy of Car & Driver and saw an article by Larry Webster regarding this: http://www.toptiergas.com/ Apparently all the grades of gas meet the detergency standards necessary to keep the car running well, not just premium for these gas stations.

I am really glad your friend is okay...especially since he wasn't wearing his seatbelt. There are a lot of factors that need to be met in a split second before the side airbags deploy. Things such as vehicle speed, g-force of impact, rotation speed of rollover...etc. They are typically designed to go off when t-boned, but not always in a rollover. If the occupant isn't wearing their seatbelt, the bags may or may not have protected them. Or worse, the bags could have hurt him. I think there are weight sensors in the seat that might determine whether or not the bag deploys. So if the car's computer thought that no-one was in that seat during the rollover (since your friend may have been thrown up away from the seat), the bags may not of deployed. Anyway, I learned that my old Volvo 850 that I sold 4 years ago, with side airbags, recently got rolled and totalled. The side airbags didn't deploy in that wreck either. I think there are too many un-knowns here before you can really lay the blame on the car.

Bummer... If it were me, I'd just get a whole new set of tires with goodyear hopefully giving me some form of credit on that one failed tire and go on. Better yet, goodyear might credit you a prorated warranty amount on the entire set of old tires to go toward the new set of tires because you drive an AWD car and it was their tire that failed requiring you to buy an entire new set of tires prematurely to avoid damaging the AWD system. If they don't believe you, just open up your owner's manual and show them the spec for the tolerance between the tires on your Subaru. I have a friend that was able to get another tire company to credit (prorated) 4 tires toward the purchase of a new set because the old tires went bald sooner than the warranty stated they should. However, if your budget doesn't allow for that kind of purchase, I'd would get a tire from goodyear with as close to the treadwear & speed rating and get that one shaved and put on. That's just my opinion. Good luck. Hope things work out for you.

The Subaru spec is that the tires should match within 1/4 inch of circumference of the other tires. I don't know what that would be in diameter...but it sounds pretty strict.

Most places that put on truck tires for semi's and other large trucks have shaving equipment. Also, if you have a shop in your area that deals with performance/racing type stuff they usually have tire shaving equipment to shave competition tires.

There is a transmission fluid cooler built into your radiator with two little lines attached to the bottom driver's side of the radiator. The top little line flows transmission fluid to the radiator/cooler and the bottom goes back to the transmission. I bet that somehow that this is what busted and has leaked transmission fluid into your radiator and possibly sucked coolant into your transmission. Replace the radiator and flush out the cooling system and transmission and fill both up to the appropriate levels and then see if you've got any transmission problems. Hopefully the problem was caught early and didn't cause transmission damage. Also, you may want to replace your thermostat while you're at it. To flush out the transmission, take top little hose to the built in transmission cooler in your radiator and put it in a large container, and put the bottom little hose into a large container of fresh transmission fluid (about 10 quarts). Start the car in park and the transmission should empty most of the contaminated fluid out into the bucket and suck the fresh transmission fluid in. When the fresh fluid starts coming out of the top hose, turn off the car and reconnect the hoses and check the fluid level after starting it again. Good luck!

Yup. The key in the ignition with it turned on to the 2nd position and parking lights or headlights on = the glove box light on. That's the way it is for our 2002 and 1993 Legacy

Check the drain plug and washer. Sometimes spilling ATF is unavoidable filling through that tiny dipstick tube. I spilled some on my wife's car and it managed to coat a bunch of stuff and kept "leaking" for a week until I got tired and just sprayed engine degreaser all over it and hosed it down.

2 ideas: Have you tried epoxing the end of the broken off key to the other piece or another thin metal key-like object? Use sparingly so that you don't get the keyhole bonded shut. Or...call a locksmith. I bet he/she would have the proper extracting tools.

1993 Legacy 2.2: 87 octane no problems at all 2002 Legacy 2.5: 87 octane no problems at all either. About every 2 months of running 87, we run 93 octane in it for a tankfull. Don't know why we do this, but we always have. Maybe it's because we feel guilty of not giving our cars the "best" gas all the time.

yes POR15 works. I used it on a really rusted out Volvo with really good results. Also do a search on par-al-ketone.

Doh! Don't listen to me man!

Raised white letters? Did you see these? http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Firestone&tireModel=Wilderness&vehicleSearch=true&partnum=26HR6WLDHTOWL&fromCompare1=yes I don't know about the traction or performance of them though.

Depending on where you live, the local laws require the gas companies to sell oxygenated fuel in the winter months to reduce certain pollutants during that time...then switch to different mix in the summer. Depending on the "designer" fuel specified by your locality, you may experience a 15% drop in fuel mileage with oxygenated fuel during the colder months. Typically the fuel is oxygenated with MTBE...the stuff that leaches into the ground water and hurts fish.

What do the fumes smell like? Burning Oil (pungent) Coolant (Sweet smelling) Mildew (rancid) I had fumes come through the vents and it smelled like burning oil. I thought I had an oil leak, but after I looking in the engine bay, it was apparent that my inner cv boot failed, throwing grease all over the hot exhaust.