I've got a coworker who was a mechanic, he now runs spacecraft flight simulations. In a lot of America it's not a 9-5 job with full benefits, upper middle-class wage, and time to properly diagnose and fix things responsibly in a satisfying way.

Too many techs end up being ground up and spit out of auto-row after putting themselves into tens of thousands of debt at a shit for-profit school and end up doing long hours at flat rate (paid by the job, not by the hour). The ones that love it find or create an independent shop or a dealership not interested in squeezing blood from a stone.


Oh I also forgot about the leaky timing cover, non-issue for later cars iirc? It's just messy right now, I'll get around to it eventually.

I bought mine new in 2014. It now has a little over 97K miles on it.

No major issues for the first 65K miles.

Catastrophic engine failure at 65K miles. The oil pump ring exploded, starving the engine of oil and spinning at least two bearings and wrecking one of the heads. Replaced at a dealership under warranty.

Third and fifth gears turned crunchy after the engine swap. Tech said it was normal Subaru crunchy transmission. Odd that this "normal" condition didn't start until the engine was swapped (with the same transmission).

Oil leak at 96K miles dripping on the catalytic converter and causing stink and smoke. That may have been an issue with having a shop-built engine dropped in when the first one died.

Throwout bearing and clutch at 97K miles, replaced in a local shop. Now I have some weird vibrations and rattly noises between 1K and 2K RPM, especially under load. The clutch is still in the break-in period, so I'm hoping this is something that will go away.

Would do it all again. Would also buy the extended 100K mile warranty again.

Oh, also, I'm on my third windshield. To this day I'm not convinced the first one (factory) was even hit. I was just driving along and noticed a crack traveling across my vision. Second one had a tiny impact point that started the crack.

Both of those happened in the first year I owned it. I became much more aware of trucks kicking up shit and have somehow managed to avoid another replacement, knock on wood.

Back before every phone had a GPS, and Google Maps was at your fingertips, and iOS and Android didn't exist, I had an HP Windows CE Phone and a Bluetooth GPS I used with it for travel.

My son would have concerts at University of Georgia (NE of me) which should be about an hour from my house. I discovered that if I had the software map the path will sitting in my driveway, it would map the path West through Alabama, up through Tennessee, back down to Georgia within 10 miles of my house, then pick up the right path to UGA. Total trip for the 60 miles was a little shy of 800 miles.

If I went a half mile from my house and did the trip, it mapped fine. It also mapped fine on the reverse trip.

Being a former programmer I would have been fascinated to have dug in to see what would cause such a specific error when any other trip it did was dead on.

Meanwhile I have been waiting patiently for the little star chip in mine to spread so I can get it replaced through insurance. Been two years now and even the hot cold heat cycle of bitter winter air vs hot defroster hasn't made that sonofabitch spread.

Is there any way to disable that? My tint is screwed up and the seal didn't even roll up.

Somewhere in this vast repository of knowledge I seem to remember something about an adjustment screw for the angle of the window that wasn't set right from the factory but fixes the seal issue if you readjust it. Or did I imagine it?

get a larger rock.

Think you dreamed it. The TSB changed the size of the gap when it opens though.

Well, I hope it can hold up at least 150K miles until newer car come out.
2013 10 series, bought it 2015, 19000 miles, now 68000 miles still running strong despite I track and DD.
The only issue was the TOB decided to die on me at 45000 miles. Other than that no issue found. Probably cus I maintain it well, I oil change every 5k, diff, tran, clutch, brake oil change every year.

What @Tcoat said. The earliest builds had window controllers that were set to drop the window 20 mm. They quickly cut it in half to address the rolling seal issue.

Check to see if your window drops 10 mm, or 20. The only fix is to replace both controllers.

@extrashaky, my windows were adjusted sloppily when built. I spent a bunch of time getting to know the mechanism before I saw the published adjustment procedure. I'm not sure I would follow it even now. I hate those felt pads that collect dirt and scratch the windows. I set mine a tad on the loose side.

I have no idea - :popcorn:


humfrz

A center punch and a hammer will take care of that - :D


humfrz