Wow, thank you all, with your responses and questions. We bought the car from an auto auction ( they put all types of vehicles on Ebay, Cars.com and Auto Trader all at once) but we went up to look at the '03 O/B with the 6 cyl. and approx. 135K. auto trans, 2 owners. you take a 2-3 mile test drive on local streets with a salesman.(he directs) The hood was repainted and it seemed possible that there was minor front end incident which was not listed on Carfax,the A/C wasn't even cool and the car had obviously been neglected. the salesman went out and brought the '98 around. It was clean inside and out, been a one owner and drove well on the same route we previously took.The engine was quiet, oil clean and level correct...though there was a slight smell of oil burn off like a drip on the exhaust maybe. From reading the reviews on Cars.com I was aware of possible H/G leaks, but the engine compt. was squeeky clean and I thought residue was washed down to dry on the exhaust pipe - hence the smell. We did the paperwork and I drove it ( wife followed in her V-dub) about 200 miles back home on I-66 to I-81 south to I-64 West to home doing interstate speeds no problem. Temp gauge was constant,all systems worked. We stopped twice with the 1st. stop to add air to front left tire...which was a bit low. Second stop was for gas and restrooms. The next AM ( May 19th) Judy took car for use and put on 25-30 miles or so. She said it was fine for her, and she's quite knowledgeable about vehicles. Yesterday, she used it agaln and when she got home she said it started making a noise and the "check eng." light came on, but no other indications displayed ( coolant normal - no oil light) and stopped at the subaru dlrshp. but the service dept. was out for lunch. I called and was told to bring it in about 3:30. We did and they took it in a bay and analyzed the codes. There were 2 #'s PPO's which show misfirng for plugs # 1 and # 3 , but it wasn't the coils. The service mgr. said valves may be sticking, possible cam wear....they'd have to take the valve cover off. He asked if the timing belt was done...I said I didn't believe so. He suggested trying Seafoam so we added about 7-8 oz. to the oil and drove it the 3 miles home. I did a lot of Subaru site surfing last night , and am still unsure. Does all this give anyone any clarity as to how this could come about so rapidly?
