brus brother

Don't get granny's bloomers all bunched up. I believe my initial statement highlighted above makes room for all kinds of teen drivers, in this case gals. I have heard similar comments from teen boys who envisioned themselves boy racers with a neato wing on the back of their car and not wanting an Outback. The original poster raised the point of granny cars so if his daughter had a preference, perhaps a swap at this point would be more in order than sinking more $ into this car. Just sayin'

Do you have a teenage daughter? Seriously... lift, bigger tires, tint? I would have jumped at those suggestions when I was a teenage boy but I'm not sure how much more this scholastic young lady will groove on Grandma even with shades, high heels or a "lift".

Yup, nearly impossible to easily swap out the head unit. I have seen some earlier posts where people hardwired the unit with an aux input. I will poke around and see if I can locate them if you are dead set on some serious work. I know where you are coming from wanting to reward your daughter but honestly, the wagon will always be "grandma". This will always be the case unless she is the outdorsy/sporty type who needs room to haul stuff around. Why don't you do what I did which was to drive the wagon myself and I bought my daughter an 05 sedan. Even if you were to sell the wagon for what you put into it and just broke even, your daughter would likely be happier with the sedan. Congratulations on the ACT scores, scholarships or not. Be proud.

I feel your pain. My 2005 has the same all in one HVAC and radio. Recently, the lights on the unit flicker on and off. I plan on doing nothing about it as it comes and goes. I have a long list of "do nothing about its". Sometimes these gremlins give in to my superior will and revert back to normal.

I would bring the receipt and speak with service mgr. If no positive response, call SOA.

What I've learned here on Roller Derby is that after market axles are a crap shoot. Best to have the original axles rebooted or replaced with OEM. Otherwise, odd symptoms are reported including shimmying or even your dog howling unexpectedly in the middle of the night ;-)

The 2.2 is considered bullet proof. Non-interference so somewhat lax maintenance and a broken timing belt won't mash up the engine. I stand corrected by the masters. Enough power for the Impreza footprint. Auto is just fine for me as I am past the boy racer stage. If the Impreza fits your needs size-wise, then why buy the larger Outbacks and Legacys? They will just cost you more to run. Hope I don't sound too much like your dad but that is what I'd advise my daughter/son if asked. Just sayin'...

Aftermarket axles or original Subaru axles? Did the shimmying relate to when the axles were done? Switching tires front to rear as our Texan friend suggested above might have diagnosed the problem unless all the tires were out of balance...

Is there room to get a nut splitter up there? The power of the almighty wedge. Google Image Link with many sizes and shapes

Welcome to the board. Unless you are about to careen over a cliff, HELP! is not a suitable title. Please repost with sufficient information not to waste people's time who may have no knowledge or interest in your issue. Perhaps something like "Which coil overs fit 2001 LL (BE)"

That's outrageous! How long do they expect this guy to wait to get his car back?

Have car towed to a shop to install a junk yard/rebuilt if available. Open complaint/chargeback with CC company as soon as it is off their premises.

Did you by any chance hit the "virgin switch", that little toggle switch on top of the steering column?? You may have hit it while cleaning or reaching through the steering wheel to reset the trip odometer? Subaru techs also refer to it as the battery kill switch since it kills many a battery when the lights are left running.

As with Nipper, the strange wandering (the Ghost?) first noticed on rutted snowy or slushy roads, on my 05 OB turned out to be poor alignment and the four corners of the car fighting for supremacy. Alignment and new balanced tires ended the battle.

There is a toggle switch atop the steering wheel column. Once virgins, some among us have inadvertently hit the switch while cleaning, reaching through the steering wheel to change the trip odometer etc.. It is also called the kill switch by Subaru techs since it kills many a battery when the driver doesn't realize that the (parking?) lights stay on, even when ignition is off, when the switch is in the on position and drains the battery. It is intended as a safety feature in some areas for double parking.

OK before carefully reading the storyline, my first thought was that a newbie had hit the virgin switch on top of the steering column...

If you disassemble the switch, do so in a protected area. I recall opening the switch in my 1991 Loyale while parked in my gravel driveway and then spending a significant amount of time sifting the gravel searching for dropped parts! (As first read in the magazine Doh!)

Also consider that aftermarket axles (NEW or rebuilt) are viewed as potentially problematic in my reading on USMB site. It is possible that the one you replaced a year ago was going bad. Consensus is to always rebuild the Subaru axles if you can as they are more reliable than aftermarkets, so save you old one and reboot it anyway. There is also one or two aftermarket manufacturers that get the thumbs up but NOT Advanced Auto, PepBoys or Autozone or the other chains. I can't recall the manufacturer. Perhaps someone else will chime in.

As I reported in other posts, I had the same sensation that the 4 corners of the car were fighting each other for control. Got 4 new/balanced tires and a proper alignment (it was way out of specs) and all is well. BTW, bought the tires retail and had Subaru mount/balance and align. Thought they'd be more sensitive to our little friends.

Sounds like the wear indicators on your brake pads are, well... indicating wear. Often called "tweeter" or "squealer" it consists of a small tab of thin metal attached to the brake pad that rubs on the brake rotor when the pads are nearly worn out.

Interesting read. I always like to hear from the guys in the trenches here as I too see the occasional flashing warning lights and every unknown new noise as potentially resulting in my car flipping end over end and causing at least moderate bodily harm. My 0420 showed up at 105K on a fairly well maintained car. Unfortunately my 05 Outback has 5 O2 sensors and the cheaters don't work (I've tried)! I too am old enough to remember burning eyes from emissions from various environmental sources and am glad to contribute to a world that betters its condition even if I am just one grain of sand on the beach. The "power of one" is recognizable if that one person throwing the cigarette out the window mentioned earlier, on a dry SoCal day, starts a fire that burns down your house! OK, enough of my Geezer Grousing. This post has devolved into opinions (yeah, we all have one of those too) on what is tolerable. Perhaps the old tail pipe sniffer test could allay some concerns but my State relies on the OBDII output. I guess I would be more comfortable with flashing the ECU if I knew the real number of how far my system was out of tolerance. Cardoc on Subaru Outbacks does a fine job of analyzing 0420 here and helps individuals analyze some of the parameters if Charm wants to analyze his problem further. You never know when the aha moment may present itself.

My 2005 OB has the single HVAC unit combined with the radio unit. Last week I replaced a rear brake light and whether related or not, I since have an intermittent problem with the HVAC/radio controls. First time, the digital display on the radio was unintelligible (only parts of numbers and letters) and the HVAC was unresponsive. Restart had no effect. Finally turned the light switch on the stalk on and all worked as expected. Turned lights off and once again got the erratic behavior. Yesterday, the controls were unresponsive on both the radio and hvac until I turned the lights on. Turned car off and restarted and all worked as expected with or without lights. Close encounters of the third kind??

Last winter I experienced horrendous handling in my 05 OB and at first I thought the ghost had taken up residence in my car. Turns out the alignment was way off. The four corners of the car were fighting each other for supremacy. New tires/balance and alignment and the ghost was exorcised. Just sayin' if you hear something clip-clopping down the road, chances are it is a horse and not a zebra. Common things occur commonly.

Sometimes you can drill a slot across the gutted Phillips screw head that would then accept a standard head screw driver (impact or manual). Use a dremmel tool to cut slot.

Today, it wouldn't start. Turned key to off position and then back on and it started. Does that clue point in any direction? Other times that hasn't had any effect... I'm gonna just keep posting symptoms until the day when I'll have to post asking for a ride home.