[STORMINORMAN]

Warranty transmission replacement (1) & MULTIPLE!!! rear wheel bearings @ Lithia in Oregon City & (FINALLY!) at Wentworth Subaru downtown.

I had my 120K timing belt, all front oil seals, water pump, radiator, etc. done at Dan's Auto Center in Lake Grove: this was the "only way" to get this taken care of in their opinion, and for them to be able to warrant the repairs for 18 months/18K miles. Soon after this work my harmonic balancer dynamited, necessitating new belts and plastic covers... I wondered why they hadn't suggested that they replace it at the time the timing belt was being replaced (and it was already off the car!) if it was their experience it was likely to go out in the near future? Their answer was "we didn't think of it"...

I'm happy with the quality of their mechanical work, but less than impressed with their policy of suggesting they have found additional "problem areas" which might indicate more work to be done on my car that I don't feel is legitimate, i.e. You need a new starter (when I had the car in to have what was OBVIOUSLY an intermittant connection in the ignition switch), you may need to have the fuel injectors "serviced" or the plugs replaced (when the plugs were less than 5k miles old and the fuel injection system was clean & had been working perfectly). I took it in to have the mass airflow sensor replaced and they charged me an additional $75 to "diagnose" the very same problem: an additional $75 in labor to count the code flashes?

There is also a place called Rallitek located at 1040 SE Clinton Street in Portland, with a tel# of (503) 546-9209 that also specializes in Subaru performance products. One of the founders was a service writer at Wentworth and always seemed to me to be a straight-shooter. I'll probably give them a shot at any new things that may come up.

Hope this helps.

CHEERS!