I just wanted to drop everyone a note that I finally got my 90,000mile servicing completed a week and half ago. After nearly two weeks of driving the vehicle, I feel that the servicing was a success and the performance of my car is MUCH more greater than it was the day I took it in. First off I want to thank everyone in here who offered advice on letting me know about replacing items like the water pump, cam seals, oil pump gasket/seals, etc. Plus along with purchasing my water pump, thermostat, and timing belt from SubaruGenuineParts.com, I saved well over $200 on those items alone vs paying for them at the dealership.
The story behind this is, I took the Subaru in on a Monday morning to leave it for an expected overnight stay. In fact it was there over night. The service rep called me (new one, 4th one in 6 months) to let me know that what was initially thought to be a headgasket leak from the heavy coolant smell and slight oil leak was NOT a headgasket leak. Instead it was the waterpump seal/gasket leaking and it was "tear-dropping" coolant and sucking in air. The oil leak happened to be a coincidence in that it was seperate from either the cam seal or crankshaft seal. The service manager told me I was smart to have brought those parts in (and amazed at how much I paid for them for what they charge) because they would have had to been replaced regardless. He said the thermostat was showing signs of starting to stick, and agreed that it wouldn't last another 100,000 miles if I pushed that.
With that said, they replaced the timing belt, checked the tensioner, tighted the bolts, replaced the oil pump seal, gasket, cam seals, crankshaft seals, water pump, waterpump seal/gasket, thermostat, oil filter, fuel filter, air filter, cabin airfilter, and NGK spark plugs. On top of that I got a full coolant system flush, brake fluid flush, and transmission fluid flush/change. This steps back into the area that I think I riled up some others here on the board by going with an 'unproven' mixture of oils for the tranmission, but I did decide to take that risk myself. I went with the "Uncle Scotty Cocktail" which was praised by many many folks around. When I got the car back that was one of my concerns to see if it really worked. I can truthfully say I see a huge difference in the shifting. At first I was expecting a major notice in change right off the bat. However I did notice a change, but it wasn't as great as I expected it. When shifting into 3rd gear, it felt like the synchro gear issue was gone. In that I couldn't feel the normal 'touching of metal' that I had felt before. But within a day or so of driving, the shifting has gotten much softer reminding me of when I purchased the vheicle.
When I say the shifting is 'softer' I mean that when I go to shift into any gear, it feels like the shifter is cushioned. There is no more of the metal touching metal feeling I had before. There is no more of that pushing the gear into place, but halfway through it feels like the shifter encouters resistance so I have to finagle or push harder than expected. That is 98% gone. I assume with the various oils mixed, it simply took it a good 100 miles worth of driving to get everything mixed in really well. Anyhow, I'm very satisfied with the result.
As I mentioned earlier, I noticed an IMMEDIATE performance boost with this vehicle. Two days before taking the vehicle into the shop, I drove the car up a newly opened 4 lane highway outside of town. The first 1 mile is uphill at about a 7% grade until the vehicle cross the top of the ridge and goes down the mountain. To use as a constant variable in my testing, the two days before I took the car in, I noticed my vehicle was extremely sluggish going up this hill. The speed limit was 50 for the first 3/4 mile and then 65 for the next 1/4 until crossing the top and 65 the rest of the way. I drove it twice and each time it was hard pressed to get the car above 50-55 until going down the other side of the ridge. After the 90k servicing, I was cruising at 65mph several hundred feet BEFORE the 65mph sign and peaked at 73 or so before deciding to back off before the boys in blue saw me. But the performance boost was that immediate.
When all was said and done, the servicing bill for this was ~$1300 however I had a coupon with the dealership and got it knocked down to slightly under $1100.
Brad