Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!
Options
Popular New Cars
Popular Used Sedans
Popular Used SUVs
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
The oil from your fingerprints cause a hot spot on the quartz resulting in early failure.
Jim
Brakes can wear differently for different drivers/different road conditions in the area. What area of the country is this dealer located? Anyway, can you advise of the name of this dealer? We should councel them on providing incorrect information.
Patti
It could be a number of issues, from electronic controls thru mechanical sensors and valve body parts. I would try the simple stuff first. Have you considered one of those solvent flushes that some of the quick oil change places have? If the problem is gummy parts in the valve body, this might free them up.
Steve
Any ideas folks?
Don
Thank you for your prompt response. My '97 w/ just over 100K miles has had no symptoms of HG leaks or overheating problems, I just want to keep it running well and wondered if this would help. I am aware that when the Phase 1's leak it's usually the more hidden and hard to diagnose internal problems, so I watch my coolant level and condition, and temp gauge, religiously. I'll consider the coolant additive for our '03 TS though. Thanks.
Jon ('98 AT): My 4EAT goes 1-2 pretty harshly, esp. when it's cold. It gets better as the car warms up though. I noticed an improvement recently by my draining and refilling the AT fluid. It's very easy to do on mine, only cost $15 for the fluid. Mine *looked* and smelled clean on the dipstick, but when compared to the new fluid in bulk form, the old looked much darker and smelled a bit, and this was at only 20K miles since the last change.
utahsteve
Mark
mollyk: my 1998 Forester is still on its original brake pads, at 60k miles. YMMV.
Don: check the tires, make sure the diameters are all even. It could be the rear LSD locking up if one tire is flat or something.
-juice
Thanks y'all!
Mike
I am still on my original break fluid, well maybe not original but its been in there for quiet a while (had the master cylinder recall done at around 30K), service guys at Bridgestone Firestone wouldn't even touch it, saying the stuff in there is cleaner than the new fluid they would be putting it. No fading of breaking power, pressure is still the same as day one. Replaced the front pads once but that was a normal wear item and to be honest it probably didn't need replacement but I did it anyways as a what-the-hell item at 60K. Still on the original rear shoes at >106K! Go SUBARU!!
Mike
-juice
Mike
Patti
Jon
Jon (in New Jersey)
Thanks for the quick response. I'm not quite sure why you don't do this on My Subaru.com but I'm glad you do it. You deserve an AttaGirl. Have Subaru fork over some of Lance's endorsement cash.
John
Greg
This info just helps with the diagnosis, not the lube procedure!
Craig
-Frank P.
P.S. Ah the good ole days of grease guns and fittings :-)
-Frank P.
P.S. Speaking of brake wear, I followed a car home from the airport the other night and they rode their brakes all most the whole way!
Yep, you should use white lithium grease on rubber bushings. However, many sway bar bushings can only be lubed on installation. Not sure if you can do it afterwards....
Craig
Frank: Most auto parts stores still stock a healthy display of grease guns and lube tubes. So, I'm wondering if there is a use for that stuff on modern cars, although I'm not aware that my Outback actually has any fittings.
Also, speaking of lithium grease, what kind or color should be used on door, trunk, hood latches?
Jon
Steve
I get the spray cans of white lithium grease with the straw adapters. In the case of sway bar bushings, you can usually find an opening on one side or the other when the car is jacked up to squeeze the straw in and give a shot of grease. Hopefully it will work its way in with time. I then liberally spray the stuff on each joint (including the larger control arm mounts) each time I rotate tires. Remember to put a sheet of newspaper over the disk brakes to prevent overspray from contaminating them.
The upper strut mount is a tough one. I don't know of any way to do that right without removal.
Steve
Some mornings, after a VERY cold night, I notice a loud howling noise on the drive to work. With increased speed the pitch increases, with a slight increase in volume. It's almost impossible to tell where it's coming from. Not the tires, but it seems to be towards the back of the car. Sounds like noise from a wind tunnel, if you follow. A real moaning, howling noise. It has happened twice in the past week, just recently this morning. Most likely, when the car is warmer by the end of the day, the sound won't be there on the drive home.
Since there is no real consistency to when it happens, other than on cold mornings, does anyone have any thoughts as to what I could look for to better diagnose this? Since it doesn't happen on EVERY cold morning, if I take it to a dealer to check out from a cold start, it may or may not show up. Anything I could eliminate from possible consideration? Many thanks.
-Dan-
It's rubber against metal, every time your car sways, and it's exposed to the elements to the grease will wear off. It *will* squeek after a while, so try to keep it greased up.
-juice
Dan: this might be a long shot but check you roof rack. They should be mounted like airplane wings, wide edge facing forward, sharper edge facing back.
That can definitely cause the type of howling you describe.
-juice
Even though I just had my HGs done, I think I'm hearing that I should still add it as a preventive measure, right?
I bought a new outback wagon last week from my dealership in Connecticut. Drove it up to Vermont for skiing this last weekend and when I went out to start it up on Sunday morning at about -2F, it wouldn't start. When you turn the key, you can hear a relay click (I'm guessing it's the one to turn the headlights off), but no solenoid click, or ANYTHING else.
The headlights were bright and the radio etc worked fine.
I left it in the sun that day and when I came back from skiing the car started up on a dime!
Monday morning when I went back out, it was the same story. Roadside assistance picked it up and took it to the nearby dealership, which ended up replacing the battery because they said that two cells wouldn't hold a charge. I was skeptical that it was a battery problem but picked up the car and drove back to CT.
Tuesday morning, I went out to start the car at 19F degrees, and absolutely nothing happened AGAIN!
Roadside assistance picked the car up and took it back to the dealership I bought it from, where they've not been able to reproduce the problem (it's above freezing here now).
What can I do to get the reliable car I thought I was buying?
Jed.
My OE battery had 260 CCAs, something like that, my new one has 535. Some people put in batteries with 700!
Let's hope their diagnosis was accurate, keep records just in case.
-juice
The problem right now is that my dealership refuses to do any work on it under warranty unless they can duplicate the problem. And in the milder temps down here, that's going to be tough. I drive up to Vermont most weekends but the dealership up there is closed when I'm up there....
So I'm at my wits end! I've had this car for 7 days and I'm already having this kind of headache?????
-juice
Did you open up a case #, with 800-SUBARU3?
I would invoke the roadside assistance program if it happens again. Let them come out and figure it out while the problem is still happening. That will give them some data to work with.
I used to work in a Help Desk and it's very hard to troubleshoot an intermittent problem like yours. Best of luck.
-juice
I checked the roof rack, and it's installed the correct way, so no luck there. Thanks for the thought, but like you said, it was a long shot. It's the strangest thing, it sounds like there's a hole in the cabin or something when it happens. The rest of the time, the car is very quiet for its size.
-Dan-
My wrx crossbars howl when there is a little ice built up where the cross bars meet the rails. Sometimes it's so little that I can't see the ice but if I wet it and make more ice or clear it out, the howling goes away.
Don
Hmmm, interesting thought. We didn't have an ice buildup last night, but there was some very heavy frost. Perhaps it was in the cross-section. If it is, that would be why I don't notice it later in the day, since the sun would clear up any ice there while it sits at my office. Maybe I'll just remove the crossbars for the winter and see it that solves the problem. It's not like I use them at this time of year anyway. Yeah, I'll give it a try. Thanks for the idea!
-Dan-
I called 800-SUBARU3 at your suggestion and they talked with the dealership. I haven't heard back from Subaru USA yet, but the dealership called and invited me to come tomorrow morning to show them what I'm doing to try to start the car and see if I can reproduce the problem.
This is pretty funny because tomorrow it's going to be way above the temps that give this car problems and the car will undoubtedly start right up, but I guess they have it stuck in their minds that this is a user error scenario.
I wonder if they'll provide a loaner for me to leave my car up in VT for the week to see if they can take care of it up there, where the temps are cold...
Patti, is there anything else you guys can do to help through this? Record #: 590691
Thanks
Jed.
Don
Patti
Thanks!
Patti
I'll wait for her call. And fill her in further.
Jed.
any comments?
Len
I followed your advise and ordered the Philips Vision Plus H1 bulbs from the site in England (autolamps-online.com). $32.20, included shipping. They arrived last night - within 10 days. Not bad considering overseas handling. They provided 3 for the price of two, making the per piece cost very reasonable. I view them one at a time, and they looked quite impressive on the garage wall, much brighter than the stock bulb. Tonight will be the formal road test.
I was quite surprised by the condition of the OEM bulbs. The glass was still clear, but it looks like there has been tremendous tungsten displacement on the filament itself. High spots, thin spots, lumps. I guess that the gas filling is doing its job (redirecting evaporated tungsten back to the filament), but they didn't look long for the world.
Steve
Just curious......
MNSteve - another day, another few inches of snow, 33 degrees