Wayne Boncyk

Well, I'll tell you what I've done -- not that I would generally endorse a "store brand" tire, but I was incredibly surprised at the miles that I got out of a set of Big-O "Legacy" tires. My OEM tires got me about 44K miles and needed to be replaced shortly after my '96 Outback's second birthday. The first set of Big-O Legacies that I replaced them with lasted over 75K miles, and I'm now on my second set of Legacies. My total mileage on this machine is in excess of 215,000. They are fine on wet pavement (unlike some other long-life rubber that I've driven), and moderately good in snow. My only complaint is that they are a little noiser than the OEM rubber on dry pavement. If anything, these tires are/were too good. I'm not sure that Big-O even sells them any more. But if you can find them, they're worth considering.

So, I'm curious -- what happens now? If you haven't spent the insurance payout, can you instead get your old car back (with appropriate repairs, of course)? From your description, it sounds like they didn't run it very long or very far; they were just after the easy to snatch stuff inside. Seems like you might be better off getting it back, rather than trying to find a replacement.

Do you have the numeric values of those codes "in the thousands" that you mentioned? That info would help.

I still think it's the ECU, or some problem in the harness/connectors.

I suspect that either you have a generic harness/connector issue, or you have a bad ECU. The likelihood of all those things failing and throwing codes at the same time is pretty slim -- and your poor mileage probably reflects the "default" limp-along config that the engine is put into when the ECU can't control things properly any more.

What he forgot to mention is that the increase in mileage only happens when the vehicle is spinning!

Hey, Gnuman! What do you mean the center driveshaft bearing was "in wrong?" How do you do that?? Just curious....

awww... nipper always beats me to it!

Well, if it's just valve covers that are leaking and that's $400 for each side, then I'd say you were being charged too much. However, if it is an all-encompassing price to address all the various seals and gaskets that may leak oil in a Subaru, then that would be a pretty good deal. Subaru engines are notorious for oil leaks around gaskets and seals. If you tell us which engine is in this vehicle, (2.5 or 2.2 L), then we could tell you what else to look out for down the road.

With that engine and with evidence of an "internal" (i.e. into the coolant loop) leak, don't bother to try the conditioner first -- it won't help. Since it can be devilishly difficult to determine which side is leaking it is best to have both sides replaced. The good news is that using the redesigned headgaskets for this engine fixes the problem without subsequent worries on 95%+ of the 2.5L DOHC engines out there. I don't think that this job is beyond the capabilities of any experienced mechanic. They just need to be aware that there is very little clearance to work if the engine remains in the car, so pulling the engine may be a more time-effective solution than doing it in-situ. Also, the mating surfaces need to be cleaned completely, wihout scoring or otherwise damaging the metal. Just the usual common sense precautions when working on any soft-metal block or heads.

Well, it wasn't here after all that I saw the warning about Eastern Cats. I found the original message thread on the Google newsgroup alt.autos.subaru. I think those Google groups are just images of the old Usenet newsgroups -- which you internet old timers will remember! My mistake....

I remember reading a note about the Easterns here on the forum back when I was still in California and whining that I couldn't do the job myself -- of course who knows if "Eastern" was spelled correctly in that post? Anyway, I did get the Walker replacements (or ordered them, anyway) at Pep Boys. The trouble with any of the "discount" parts places is in many cases you can't tell where a part really comes from. I think the large chains want to keep it that way; it avoids direct comparison shopping! Walker, as I understand it, never really sells parts for retail consumers. They are mostly wholesale to the trade. So many of the retail muffler shops that you see around actually use Walker components, unless they have deals with overseas suppliers. The only reason that I know I'll be getting Walker from my Pep Boys order is that the manager of the store told me that's where these are coming from. The price differential is certainly a consideration. That all-in-one assembly from Eastern cost me $349. The Walker set (front and rear as two separate pieces) will cost me about $250 more. Still, that's cheap compared to OEM, and from the online research I've done, the Walkers meet EPA guidelines for new equipment, which means they are certified to last at least 80,000 miles. In general, replacement cats are not required to meet that spec. So, the Walkers should last as long as my OEM units (provided I take care of the vehicle), whereas the others might work for the first emissions test, but who knows how long after that? I think it's worth the extra couple hundred $$.

As far as use in the crankcase, as I stated earlier I use it kind of like an oil flush. Dump it in, run the engine for a while, then empty and refill the system. Never a problem and I have many miles on this rig. It certainly has a more dramatic effect (on performance -- not just the smoke cloud) when fed in thru the intake.

I don't usually badmouth any aftermarket parts companies, because I figure they, like everyone else, can have a bad day from time to time. But, in this case since the crappy workmanship incorporated in the replacement set of cats that I got for my '96 OBW cost me both the price of a new O2 sensor AND use of my car for the next five days, I feel that I have the right to vent. Based on my experience -- DO NOT under ANY circumstances order a set of "direct fit" cats from Eastern Catalytic! I went to my local Pep Boys for replacement cats, and the drone behind the parts counter found this direct fit pair for me but he couldn't tell me who the supplier was. I figured what the heck, I'll try 'em. How bad could they be? And anyway I needed to get the car up to passing the Colorado emissions test before I could get it re-registered here, and since I just moved back from SoCal to Colorado, I was delighted that I could do the swap myself instead of having to go to a "licensed" shop where my choice would have been limited to OEM, at a cost to me of nearly $2400! So, to make a long story short, I had to destroy the old cats in order to get them off (cutting the pipe from the front of the front cat in order to have enough room to break the old bolts free). Then I opened the box to my "new" aftermarket cats. That's when I saw, under the orange Pep Boys order sticker, that these were from Eastern. I remembered reading bad things about those guys on this site before, but I was at the point of no return in the disassembly of my exhaust, so I started to bolt 'em up in place of the originals. All went reasonably well UNTIL I went to install the front O2 sensor. I should say that the weld job done on this set was so bad, that if I were teaching a welding class in High School, I'd have flunked the kid who did this job, but anyway the rig looked like it would hold together at least as long as needed to pass inspection. What I didn't count on, and didn't check for, was that the idiot who jigged this assembly up didn't cut a large enough hole for the O2 sensor fitting in the front. Bottom line -- the O2 sensor element got caught on the metal shard left behind by Eastern's crack assembly team, and it broke! &@$%!! So, I removed the assembly from the car, took it back to Pep Boys, this time spoke to the manager, who told me that the guy who placed the order should have told me that the piece of @#!$ they sold me was coming from Eastern, and by the way they also can order a set of cats from Walker... but they'll take another week to get here and they'll cost me a few more $$. <SIGH> The Walker cats are on order -- that piece of scrap steel from Eastern is on its way back to the factory -- and I now join the ranks of those who say for all the world to hear -- DON"T WASTE YOUR TIME WITH EASTERN CATALYTIC products!!

It's definitely a miracle in a can. My OBW (215K+ miles) thanks me every time I use it (about 3 apps so far, with about 50K in-between each).

Nipper, I still think that it's fuel starvation, either because something's clogged up (filter) or again based on my experience, that the pump just can't push enough volume to make up for opening those injectors from a dead stop idle. I could be wrong... but it would be the first thing I'd check. Let us know what you eventually find out -- or what whoever actually works on it finds out. And best wishes that you make a full recovery as quick as possible. I can't imagine not being able to work on my own vehicles -- it just isn't right!

Carl, That's absolutely the best article I've ever read on the technology of braking. Finally somebody explains exactly why you want to break in a new set of pads, and what will happen if you don't do it the right way. Thanks for the pointer!

Hey, as a Buckeye native (although I haven't lived there for decades) I can substantiate that Ohio really is the crossroads of the country. Northeastern OH (including where I grew up - in Youngstown) looks a lot like the industrial parts of western PA or NY -- definitely both "east coast" states. Likewise there are parts of Southern OH that are indistinguishable from Kentucky or Tennessee -- certainly not "Yankee" by any stretch of the imagination. Finally, as the gateway to the midwest, a lot of the state is indistinguishable from Iowa or Nebraska. I suppose it is "eastern" in the sense that it bears little resemblance to anywhere I've lived in the past decade (Colorado and California), but by that measure the Dakotas and Texas could also be considered "eastern."

Well, I only suggest the fuel pump because the symptoms you describe are nearly identical to those I saw on our Chrysler. It took me a couple of weeks to figure it out. As it turns out, the pump needs to be able to compensate for the huge change in flow rate from idle flow to wide open throttle, and as it wears out it can't deliver the fuel volume to compensate for the change in flow without taking a fairly long time to recover. It isn't so obvious when you accelerate from higher RPMs, because the instantaneous change in flow rate isn't as high.

Well, no codes does make it a bit of a challenge. How's the fuel line pressure at the rail? Does it fluctuate more than spec when you open the throttle wide from idle when the car is in park/neutral? Maybe you have a fuel line restriction or a failing fuel pump....

I think you'll be fine with the rest going thru the PCV valve, based on my experience.

Here's the old thread on how to use seafoam, specifically in a subie 2.5L: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?p=351010#post351010

I agree totally with nipper. My AT has now seen two complete drain/flush cycles within the past 10K miles, and 4 flushes within the past 50K miles (the result of me trying to clear torque bind with a fluid flush first, then accepting the inevitable and pulling off the extension housing to see what really needed to be done), and it is shifting gloriously better than it has for a long, long time! My mileage: 215K+ These transmissions love when you change their fluid -- its as if they have been fully reconditioned, all for only the price a case of ATF! And nipper, my old machine is perfectly happy with its new synthetic fluid -- despite your earlier concerns.

One final note - applicable at least to the DOHC 2.5L that I have in my outback - I've done a belt swap twice now, and each time the marks on the cam sprockets didn't appear to line up perfectly with their reference points when I got the new belt on, but the tooth count was correct in-between cam and crank marks. This last time, I decided to try a little experiment. I manually rotated the crank through several (no, make that many) revolutions -- enough to bring the marks on the belt back around to where they were when you just get the new belt on. Interestingly enough, once that was all set and done, everything lined up perfectly! So, I guess the system has to move enough to allow the belt tension to equalize, and then viola, perfect alignment and dead-on timing is the result.

I've seen various opinions on this, but from what I can tell, it does its best work as a top end cleaner. It is an agressive solvent, so it probably does a reasonable job of de-gunking rings as well. Of course on the can they recommend using it as both an oil and fuel additive, too. I suspect that mixed with a tank of gas it would be about as effective as any other fuel line/injector cleaner out there -- and some solvents do a number on nylon and other plastics as well as on varnish in the fuel lines, so since I worry about such things, I've never used it in fuel. Since it is relatively thin, I haven't used it for long in the oil -- only like an oil system flush -- where you put it in old oil and let the engine run at idle for 5-10 minutes -- then drain and refill oil. IMHO, it really is best at cleaning the gunk around valves, and for that sucking it in via manifold vacuum is the best way to get it into the system.