Philip

Doubt you have seen me too many places, I don't go driving much since I moved here, just straight to where I need to go, or parked in front of my place.

As to my car, here is what I have decided...

1) To factor out the entire tire and wheel assemblies as being a cause to it, I will get them tested (depending on cost thou), as these members were recommended in this thread

- This would help me prove that tires and the wheels are not the cause, and that something else is. If they do come out as being out of round or way unbalanced, I actually don't know how that would happen with how I drive, but at least this would be a way to get close to 100% proof that they aren't causing it.


2) Get my friend that has been a passenger in my car for long periods of time, to see if he can feel or hear the problem from the passenger seat.

- This is a long shot but an easy one to setup and do. If he does hear or feel it, I will get a description of what he thinks it feels or sounds like, to rule out my explanation being a factor in why the problem wasn't found.

3) Get an owner of a wrx that has more miles than mine, drive my car and see if they feel or hear the problem.

- I have a bay area friend that has over 70k in miles on his '02 wrx, which comes to Modesto from time to time. Will just meet up with him and if he does feel or hear it, then get his explanation on it. Which would give me another opinion and a bit more proof it isn't from "wear". Only factor I need to make sure is my insurance covers another driver... just in case.

4) Take the car to Santa Cruz Subaru Service.

- After all said and done, I should know there is a problem and I am not just loony. My car is coming up for service anyways, and as far as Turlock says, it is fine on the freeway (or more exactly "the wheel won't come flying off"). With my temporary job coming to a close soon, I will have a full day to drive over early, take a day in Santa Cruz, and give them time to look at it, while also doing my service.

5) If all that happens and the problem still isn't resolved, I will just have to live with it and actually hope that it is a driveline issue, since that should be covered under 50k warranty... so I will make sure to bring it up as an issue again before I hit that (hopefully a few years)



As to Turlock Subaru Service... I cannot recommend them, but at the same time I can't condemn them right now.

They did not offer the "quality" of service I expected, but that might be just fine for the next person. I expect from the beginning to have the person that I will be talking to, to have the knowledge to explain why the problem was diagnosed as this.

And this person should on my behalf question all the issues of my problem to the mechanic. The first visit all they focused on was noise, never working on any vibration issues. Third visit they were only worried about deceleration, not the vibration that is caused during acceleration, cruising, coasting, and deceleration. If this person does not do this on my behalf, I should be expected to have a one on one conversation with the mechanic. This did not happen the first day, I had to come back the second day to talk to the mechanic and take a test drive with him (third visit the service rep. made as sure as he could that I spoke to the mechanic).

All this and I can't sit here and say they didn't try.... they did. They did give up quicker than I would of hoped, but they did try. I am still out the money from the first visit, they did not charge me for the return, which I will not argue at this time, and most likely won't in the future even if it does end up there was a major, or minor problem that they over-looked. If I do find out it was a major issue they over looked thou, I will be notifying them to hopefully help the process for the next person that walks in.

Philip

P.S. Still got to thank them for all the hard, long hours that it took to check the check engine light, that cost me $17.80, to find out it was the exhaust O2 sensor acting up. I know how hard it is to plug the diagnose unit in and read the code, I am glad they have trained professionals to do it....