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Good luck to your friend!
Xwesx, yes, where I live I need definitely need all season tires as the weather can change so dramatically from day to day, especially considering I can drive up into the snow, and then leave it to come home to dry roads many times. And, the dirt roads can turn to mud here in a heartbeat. Loving this fall change of season. We already have had some of the high roads closed for a bit until they plowed them.
After using them a year, I was sold on the practice. However, I live in a very starkly contrasting climate where winter means six months of consistently slick roads (although the degree of slick varies). As such, the investment is sound and I don't have to worry about wearing them down on dry roads for the majority of the winter season!
The Nokian is a great tire. Many folks use them here (in Fairbanks and Alaska in general). Kurtamaxxguy, who lives in Portland, OR, and has a Forester XT (well, he's on his second one now!), also swears by them.
The dealer techs don't seem to understand this system: When later my Bluetooth connection was inexplicably lost, the tech spent over an hour to get it back!
I think Subaru had good reason to change suppliers for the audio equipment.
1. 04 Outback. Tire started losing air after the dealer rebalanced the tires and replaced the older type of lead weights attached to the rim with newer stick-on weights. The corrosion where the older weights were attached didn't allow the tire to seal to the rim properly.
2. 07 Outback with metal valve stems. Leak came from a failed tiny gasket where the metal valve stem attached to the TPMS monitor. Tire guy told me if the wrong gaskets had been installed they would corrode and fail.
Same car. Road salt caused corrosion on metal stems and then a small leak. After three different metal stems leaked, I switched to a system with rubber-stemed TPMS.
If your car has rubber valve stems now, I'd ask a tire guy to reseal all the tires on the rims with some special goop. That's what is done where I am in a high salt use area. I also had one tire guy grind all the corrosion off a rim, but that only worked for a while. Sealing worked best.
Good luck. I also carried a 12V tire pump for a while when I was getting leaks.
I'm lucky on my cars and have zero issues. I visually check them regularly, but I only adjust pressures in the spring and fall, when I do my semi-annual tire change-outs. Or, on my low-use rigs, I tend to adjust their pressures annually at the beginning of each summer (or beginning of winter in the case of the plow truck).
Usually, pressures are off by no more than 5 PSI from where I set them the prior year, which I view as leak-free.
Free air.
Won't help in the backcountry but free is free.
Yeah, cracked windshield; that's a Forester haulmark, sadly! I'm not so sure about the creaking over bumps, though. That's odd. I'll sometimes hear noise from my moonroof over heavily uneven terrain, but not the windshield.
And, I think I would have to see those "scrapes" to figure whether they're normal or not. Paint isn't durable like it used to be. I look at the myriad of micro-scratches that cover all my newer cars as part of the aging process. One time washing one and you're set on that front.
You could talk to your dealer @oftendrive ("open up a case") in the event this develops into a common problem. Clearcoat can be tricky to apply, but the factory should have a good handle on applying it and baking it in.
LOL; that's an odd connection, Kurt! I'm glad you were able to catch it under warranty, though.
How's your "new" XT treating you?
I just bought an 2014 Outback 2.5i with 10k miles. It's my first Subie but so far, I really like it. Going for an i instead of a Premium, I gave up a few things but I couldn't pass on the idea of a 6 year/90k warranty with the CPO.
I've got a question. The i only has a 4 speaker stereo, whereas the Premium has 6. The i still has 6 speaker grilles, with the dash tweeters being dummies. Anyone have any insight into how easily I could get those tweeters in? They're pretty cheap, so I'm wondering if the head unit will accept them and how much surgery to get them in and wired.
I really don't know about the tweeters. I do know that the base speaker system is pretty tinny though. If it turns out to be a fair bit of work on the tweeters, maybe you could make it worthwhile by just upgrading the whole set of speakers at once!
I used to really like the base sound system in the Subaru, but now that I use my Fiesta most of the time, I have a hard time tolerating just how bad the Forester's sound really is.
You might check online about subaru tweeter installation. Back in 2000, my Legacy was pre-wired for the tweeters. I ordered the tweeters from 1stsubaruparts.com, popped off the covers, connected the wires, and installed the tweeters in place of the covers.
It's more efficient to use the same wiring harness for all models than to have 4 or 5 different wiring harnesses in inventory.
I've got the CPO warranty and 2 years left of bumper to bumper. I declined additional warranty coverage figuring the powertrain will be enough. But now looking at the enhanced level, I might like it to get coverage for things like axles and the AC system.
Does anyone know if Subie is in the practice of sending offers when the bumper to bumper expires?
I picked one up for my Forester at 35,899 miles. LOL But, I'm glad I did. First, I paid with Subaru Bucks (I miss those things!), and second, we had an issue with the oil pump at about 64,000 miles as well as a current issue with the transaxle (at 82K).... neither of which would have been under coverage otherwise.
That was $1,500 of not-real money well spent!
I purchased mine through Mastria Subaru in Raynham, MA. It was a simple process and buying with the Bucks (even though I had to physically mail them) didn't present any complications at all.