Clutch Pedal/linkage problems of the 1998 Subaru Outback

Have a 1998 Subaru Outback. Bought it new in 1998. Has roughly 90000 miles. In the first year after purchase clutch went. Dealer replaced clutch free of charge (didn't want to, though). Read on the internet that there was a known clutch problem with the Outback and a lot of people had similar problems. Clutch was never, and has never been "right". The clutch has been looked at on several different occasions by different mechanics. None have been able to determine what the problem was. The clutch pedal will fade and drop to the floor (requies bare foot to grab the pedal w/toes to pull back up) sometimes eventually failing completely, other times, miraculously, returning to working order. We are out of warranty range, so we don't expect much from Subaru, however we would like to register a complaint. We would never buy another one. I am putting down the date of the most recent failure event, which was yesterday.

The automatic transmission failed with just 61,000 easy miles. The failure was in the clutch assembly (it would not decelerate when taking pressure off the gas pedal). I took it to the dealer and the manager told me that the drive train was technically out of warranty and that I would be responsible for a new transmission. (before 60,000 I had the dealer check out the whole car and they could find nothing. When the transmission failed I took it in again and the mechanic told me "nothing is wrong". . . I am not kidding; they were not competent enough to know that the transmission was not performing properly!!). After that experience there was no way I was going to replace the transmission with another Subaru product. I took it to aamco for a rebuild. The mechanic there told me that the factory settings for the clutch assembly were set at 50 thousandths and should have been set at 15 thousandths or less. In other words, the factory built the transmission to self-destruct. When I approached takao saito, president of Subaru about this problem, he had linda fouch contact me by telephone. She promised to help out with the repair bill because the failure was so close to the warranty. When she discovered that I was not interested in litigaton, she promptly forgot her promise and failed to respond to any further correspondence! if Subaru is to keep its loyal customer base, it needs to aggressively address the problem of quality control and mend the bad experiences of its patronage.

In hot weather, especially in slow-moving traffic, the clutch pedal will not return after being depressed. The first incident happened in may 2001, but the dealer could find nothing wrong. After the second incident a month later, they replaced the clutch master cylinder. The clutch recently started to feel "sticky" again, and failed on June 30 while in a traffic jam. After letting it cool for about an hour, the car was driveable again. The clutch fluid was replaced, but the problem returned about 30 minutes after I left the dealer. I returned to the dealer, where they informed me that the latest theory from Subaru of America is that there is a pocket in the casting of the master cylinder that traps air which can't be released by pressure bleeding the system and it must be "gravity bled". They did this and the problem has gone away (at least for now). No reason was given for the return of the failure after a year.