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keith3267, You hit the nail on the head. Tires can make all of the difference with road noise as well as ride. If you find it bothersome, do a lot of online research to find something more to your liking and do a swap. You may even find a tire dealership locally who will buy your old ones from you. Good Luck!

abpos, With children, the most obvious choices are the Foresters and the OutBack Wagons, just to be able to cope with all of the stuff that needs hauling to grandma's and hockey practices, etc. Personally, I've owned 4 OutBack Wagons since 1997, one of each generation, and they are downright unbeatable in snow and ice, if properly equipped with good snow tires. Add to that the additional space you get, as well as the reliability of a Subaru and you can't go wrong. As I've stated, I've owned 4 of them, and I will own more. (I spoil my wife with a Lexus, she's had four of them, but the Subie is the car of choice in bad weather, or when we need to carry lots of things.) Your best bet is to go used by two or three years with low mileage, and a car that screams "pride of ownership" by the previous owner. Let him pay for the depreciation, and you can get far more car than you would normally be able to afford if going new. In your case, test drive several of the model you prefer to narrow it down to Forester or OutBack, say. Then shop the dealerships in your area to find one that fits your needs, and is a one owner/carfax/the whole route. Then get the dealership to verify from the previous owner that it was a pet free car. Get the dealership to give you the previous owner's contact info, so that you can verify it yourself, and then speak to the owner yourself. Don't know about your state, but here in Ontario, Canada, the dealership can't give you the previous owner's contact info, without asking the previous owner for their permission to do so. If you can get it, and get satisfaction that the car has been pet free, you may be further ahead in the long run. I'm not certain of this, but you may be able to write the guarantee of a pet free car into the deal. (verify with your lawyer to be sure) Good Luck in your hunt!

wankel, Yup! That's how it works in my 2012 as well. In Auto mode I frequently use the downshift paddle when braking. If mmediately after braking, I accelerate, I can then upshift through the "gears" as well. If downshifting to a complete stop in Auto mode, and being at a stop for 10 seconds or so, the CVT then goes back into D. Put the shifter into Manual Mode and you will have to do all of the gear shifting, down and up. In Auto mode, you can do both, but accelerate at a low rate and it will shift into D on its own. The same happens when down shifting. Stop for a brief period and it will shift to D. Yours is operating normally. Enjoy!

subaru forever, Generally, you can swap parts like this across the same generation vehicle. What you're trying to do stretches two. That's not to say it wouldn't fit, but I wouldn't bet on it. Then again, compare the two of them closely. You'd be better off trying to get one from a wrecking yard from a 96 to a 99.

mhoughton43, Fibre glass will fill the hole, but there will be no strength if you're hit in the side. Beg, borrow or steal a reciprocating saw (battery powered) and a speed drill with say a 3/8's inch drill bit and head out to a wrecking yard where they have several subies of the same vintage. With their permission, find a decent donor vehicle and use the drill ti make a large enough hole for the reciprocating saw blade to fit through, and ten use it to cut out the entire dogleg section. Get at least 10 inches by 10 inches, to gibe you something to weld in past the rusted out section of your car. When you're finished, be sure to spray oil into the repaired section to prevent a rust through again from the inside. good Luck!

crazyman03, I believe you are biting off a big chunk to swap in a factory GPS unit, for the following reasons: If the GPS antenna is not in the nav unit itself, where is it hidden in the car? The headliner above the mirror? The 2010's and up have a separate antenna on the roof, and how the wiring from the head unit to it is routed may require tearing half the interior out to install it. The same can be said for the nav unit main wiring harness. Do you have to tear half of the dash apart to route it? You may need to buy a new dash surround to fit it. Then, if its from a 2009 Subie, updating the unit to 2015 navigation software will add even more money to the equation. I'm sure its doable, but I'm not certain it'll be worth the time and money.

tbolt10003, My error on the tire size that I step down to on my winter tires. They are a 205's, not the 215's I previously stated. Compared to the original 225's that my 2012 OBW LTD came with (summer tires), the 205's make a whole lot of difference in improving the winter drivability of the car.

1-2-3-4, After some searching online the 2014 Outback isn't listed as having the oil ring problem. I know my 2012 doesn't either.

angerthis, That means nothing to me, but maybe someone else will recognize it and jump in. Good Luck!

tbolt1003, I wonder if he has the right tires. Are they snow tires? In my opinion the stock tire 225's are too wide for use in snow. I've owned one of each generation OBW LTD since 97, and every one has been superb in the snow if ......... you have the correct winter tires, and if you size them correctly. I run as narrow a winter tire as will safely fit on the winter rims without crowning. At present the 215's I'm running cut through the snow, rather than push the snow at slow speeds and aqua planing up on top of the snow at speed. Check out the width of the winter tires that ralleye cars use (yes they're studded). They are less than half the width of the tires they run in summer ralleyes. Just a thought.

angerthis, Just where under the hood is this connector located?

cascadeclimbn, (Told you ... once we knew what you had!) Generally you have to pry off the surround trim from around the air vents/radio/HVAC. Most models just require taping a flat blade screw driver (to keep from marking the trim pieces) and prying the surround trim off. If its different than this, hopefully someone will jump in with the procedure, but it most likely is as OBW's are this way. Then you'll see that the HVAC switches assembly is held in place by by 4 screws. Remove them and pull the unit out of the dash as far as it will allow. Then follow the cable back to the heater box to locate the problem. Because I don't have any experience with Imprezza's, someone else will have to be more specific. Good Luck!

First, the existing paint would not have to be stripped off the car. Second, for any paint to stick to what's already on the car, it would have to be sanded lightly with 400 to 600 grit sandpaper, enough to take the shine off the existing paint, to allow the chalk board paint to have something to adhere to. Third, that being the case, even if the chalk board paint was rubbed off, the metal would still be protected by the original, primer coat, base coat, and clear coats underneath. Fourth, why would you want to do this anyway? A Subie deserves better!!!!!!! (tongue in cheek)

cascadeclimbn, You aren't going to get a response until you can tell us what year and model you have, whether its a manual or automatic HVAC system, and the mileage of the car. There could be a thousand different reasons, but we can't narrow it down to a probable cause until you give us somewhere to start.

sirtokesalot, If you were to tell us what model and year you have with each post you start, you would really get the answers you seek with a lot less confusion. Depending on the answers you are seeking, it also helps to give us the mileage on your car. Depending on the year of your car you may be able to retro fit a system that already exists . My 2012 OBW has this feature, as did my 2007 OBW and my 2004 OBW before that. I can't recall whether the one on my 1997 OBW did or not. On my 2012 I believe the circuitry computer that runs the rear wiper and its settings is inside the combination switch (the right hand steering wheel stalk that runs the wipers front and rear as well as their washers). Whether this is true on other generations, or whether the circuitry is in some module under the dash I couldn't say, as I don't have their FSM's. How all of this integrates with the body control module remains to be seen. Get back to us with the info and maybe we can give you ananswer.

toyaholic, From what you describe, I suspect that you've fried part of the wiper motor's wiring, or the circuit board inside the combination switch (the wiper switch/ stalk on the right side of the steering column). A check of the FSM shows that there are 3 different combinations of electrical connections that can be made to run the wiper motor. One pair of connections is for the low wiper speed, another set runs it at high. The third combination of four connections parks the wipers, suggesting to me that in this sequence the motor must reverse itself to park. In this last combination, one connector is used for the first time and I suspect it is the connector that is used for the intermittant setting. I'm going to put the diagnostics page for testing the motor at the bottom of this post. If the motor doesn't test out as described in the procedure, the motor needs replacing. If it does test out correctly, the combination switch has fried part of its circuitry, and the entire switch assembly needs replacing. I'll put the diagrams for its removal here as well. In either case, I'd be getting a used one from a wrecker, as I suspect neither one is going to be cheap from the dealership. Good Luck! CombinationSwitch1.pdf CombinationSwitch2.pdf

yewman, Work on enough modern cars and you will see as many different plastic fasteners as there are jelly beans. The fact regarding most of them is that the center portion must be pried up, to allow the barrel portion of the plug to decrease in diameter and allow it to be pulled from the parts its holding together. Whether the center section is pulled up or unscrewed, the result is the same. If you don't like the plugs that hold the tail light shields in place, take an original to an auto parts store and get something else that has the same dimensions and barrel length that you do like. If you want something really confusing, try the ones that cover the entire engine bay on my wife's Lexus. To remove them, you have to push down the center section and then the entire plug can be removed. That's the easy part. To put them back in you have to push that center pin section back up, but it must be raised until it sits above the main barrel at a certain height. Only then can the plug be placed back into place. Then to lock it you have to push tha center section back down flush with the rest of the plug barrel. Push it too far ... and the plug simply remains under sized and pops out. It doesn't help that the entire plug is only a half inch in diameter either. It'd be so much easier to do with a different designed plug that made sense, and was larger. The big thing with these type of fasteners is that they make putting the car together very fast. Getting them out without breaking them can be a pain.

yewman, Yes they usually unscrew, but if they don't just use a sharp knife or similar to pry the screw head up until you can grab it and pull it out. Usually doing this will not destroy the plastic fastener at all, and you'll be able to reuse the entire plug again. This is a very common issue with these type of plugs.

totalled, Fairtax4me is correct. Years ago I had a 6 pack CD player that could be moved from vehicle to vehicle. It came with a small box that you plugged the radio's antenna cable into, and then plugged a short similar cable into the antenna port on the back of the radio. All that was required at that point was to turn the car radio on and tune the FM to 89.1 (I believe) and the CD's played just like it was off air. Simple and great sounding. Go to a car audio install place and tell them what you want to do, and they'll point you in the right direction with the correct product you need. Shouldn't cost a great deal of money. Good Luck!

totalled, Years ago I had a similar problem with a car cassette deck, the transport system refused to load or eject the cassette. I'm not shy at tearing things apart, within reason, and have had experience at digging into all kinds of electronics as a kid. Conequently I pulled the radio unit from the car and opened up the case. Lots of tiny screws and ribbon cables from this circuit board to that circuit board. While not particularly difficult, it is not for someone without a sense of how things logically would come apart. Cassette transport systems frequently are driven by pulleys and small rubber bands. I suspect that you have one rubber band that has broken from old age. Simply replacing it should cure your problem. Take the old one in to an audio repair shop so it can be matched in length and size for a new one. While the drive band will be cheap to buy, the labour rate for an audio tech to do the job may be sizeable. If you're so inclined to DIY it'll be a cheap fix, if indeed this is the issue. Then again, another P117 from a junk yard may be a cheap alternative at $50 or so. Good Luck!

terry52, Major cities all across North America haveshops that import container loads of used Japanese engines, almost all of them with less than 45 000 miles on them, and guaranteed. Many of these suppliers will even install them for you. Here in Ontario, Canada, we have these guys: JDMTigerJapaneseEngines.com

steve56, If you have power to the seat heater connectors when the switches are on, the obvious issue I see is the heating pads or wiring in the seats themselves have gone south. You can buy aftermarket seat heater pads (not sure Subie has them at a price you'll appreciate) and install them yourself. Search eBay to see what I'm referring to. Good luck!

wad, First, you'll know whether you can add a heated mirror, if you remove the inner door panel and find the extra required connector for the heated mirror. You shouldn't require an additional switch to power it, as the rear window switch circuit fires up the mirror heaters at the same time. Again, you won't know until you look, unless someone else has been there, done that, and replies to your post. As for fixing the vibrating mirror, it can be done, as I've done several over the years, just not on any Subies I've owned. Your best bet is to pop the triangular cover off the inside, pop off the inner door panel, disconnect the wiring harness to the mirror, remove the 3 10mm nuts holding the mirror onto the door, and trying to fix it on the work bench. Check under the mirror body for a screw that can be removed. Some have one, some don't. After that its a matter of moving the mirror glass around and looking behind it to spot how the glass is attached to its tilt mechanism. Some have a clip on the bottom that you pry up to unlock, and then the entire glass section is slid upward to disconnect. Others simply have a large central ball joint that the glass swivels around, and two smaller ball joints that pull in or out on a screw mechanism. The glass section can be pried away from all three ball joints to remove the glass. Be prepared to have to shim one of these points to stop the vibration, or even use silicone seal on a clip to prevent the shimmy after it cures. As I've stated, you won't know what you'll have to do until you can see into its innerds. Good luck!

sirtokesalot, Thanks for the clarification. I agree with jp98. Your cig lighter isn't connecting on its cylindrical outside or its center end with your lighter socket. I suspect the center end. Your best solution is to replace the socket with another from a junker.

sirtokesalot, Based on your signature, the comedian in me would like to respond with "you're smoking too much weed" and it really does work after all, but you're too stoned to know the difference. That aside, if your lighter element works in other cars, and other elements work in your lighter socket, the only thing that makes sense, is that your element is not making contact with the center electrode or the outside grounding parts of your car's socket. Rather than dink around with trying to fix your element and develop a short circuit, just pick up two or three elements from junk yard cars of the same vintage as yours. When you find one that works, throw your old one away.