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Welcome
HG
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Revka
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Hatchbacks & Wagons Boards
My insane modification days are behind me, which is weird, because I can much better afford them now! I may just do a few little things here and there, but nothing big.
Again, thanks for the advice.
BTW, I have dealt with other dealers in the past of other makes, and have not been nearly as impressed with them.
I have serious reservations about buying another Subaru while the Eddy Stevens franchise owns the brand in Wichita. they suck.
but I'd like an STi, please. white.
-Colin
They gave us an unbelievable deal on our silver Rex wagon and shipped it at no charge to Wichita for us to drive back to Denver. Great, friendly people with Bible-belt honesty.
I think the basic nature of the interior stems from it's rally car heritage.
That's why it doesn't have burled walnut on the dash and 8-way adjustable electric leather seats. Instead, you have seat covers that zip out from the back for easy cleaning (or replacement). And inexpensive carpeting because on a rally, the carpet is just going to get caked with mud anyway. The flat black plastic on the dash helps prevent eye-fatiguing glare, etc. When you think of the car from the rally-car perspective, the whole thing makes sense.
P.S. Just think of the antenna as a "set-and-forget" convenience item!
Got the PEG2, boost gauge, armrest, shifter.
I plan to order the cargo tray and net on the internet (I think that I can manage to install these myself
I will do a stereo later (wait till after the heat comes and goes in Dallas-my garage faces west and gets to be a gazillion degrees).
My dealer experience was very good. I bought from Huffines. Chris is out of town (good luck if you read this!), and I dealt with Gary Potts, the sales manager. He was great and I feel I got a good deal. Highly recommend dealing with these guys.
Gotta go now and work on my 1000 miles!
Where in SoCal are you or your dealers located? From my experience, starting from the border the first reasonable dealer is located in Irvine...
If you know of other good places, please share.
- D.
-Colin
They are the first dealer I thought of when the STi came out. Heck, I might call them myself to see if they can offer a discount on that car!
To Everyone - Regarding dealership recommendations, you may also want to check out our Subaru Crew Dealers & Pricing discussion. Also, for those that would like to share information, please take note of the Town Hall guidelines posted at the top of that discussion:
"You may include the dealership name and city/state where you purchased, but NO direct links to the dealership site. Also, please do not post sales people names, phone numbers or email contact information."
The same rules apply to this discussion. If you want to share further details (i.e. specific salesman's names), you can ask people to email you for further details.... Okay? Hope this is helpful. Thanks for your participation!
Revka
Host
Hatchbacks & Wagons Boards
Probably not a good idea to mess with them unless you really need to because you'd have to undo all the head-rest parts also.
Sorry if this is old news to everyone else, but what is the "VIP membership", and how do I get one? I'd love to buy the next time at invoice!
The program may not include hot tickets like the STi, though. It's up to the dealer to decide that.
-juice
they're good causes, and the Subaru benefit is a very good one, I think.
The mechanics were unable to get the car to come out of first. I returned to the dealership and took my service writer for a short ride and it popped out of first twice. A quick search for similar problems with this WRX wagon discussion group turned up nothing. Guess it's the luck of the draw. The service writer, a nice guy, seems to be trained to give customers the feeling they are imagining things. He couldn't duplicate the second gear hard shifting problem after I explained it only happens when the car is cold. It was in the high 60's today. His mechanics couldn't detect another complaint about hot oil/ crankcase gas odors coming out of the air vents when the engine is hot and the blower is on. I demonstrated this problem for him, too. I took the car home unrepaired again to wait for the Subaru Technical department to respond to his inquiries. My negative dealership experiences with Subaru mirror ones I had with my Oldsmobile dealership. I had the same problem convincing that dealership that I had a transmission and oil leak problem. I had to put in a leak tracer and show them where it was leaking. They ended up replacing a transmission solenoid, the oil pan gasket and the intake manifold gasket.
As a first time Subaru owner, I'm disappointed and frustrated. Any thoughts on these matters? At this point the thought of having my transmission repaired vs replaced isn't sitting well.
When you mention that your tranny slips out of first, what exactly do you mean? Is it happening when your hand is on or off the shifter? At what revs does the problem normally occur?
You should really try to narrow down the causes so you can be more specific about what is possibly wrong with it when talking to the service people. Service people are like doctors, they may be good for some people, but not always you. Try a second opinion.
John
John
-mike
Please keep us posted and hopefully someone with more technical smarts can provide assistance.
-Frank P.
-Colin
Thanks for the feedback. I have considered changing to a synthetic transmission oil but want Subaru to repair/make recommendations, first. Also, have you seen how thin the stock tranny oil is? It looks like 10 weight. The force required to shift into second when the temperatures are in the teens or below is so extreme it's hard to imagine a synthetic oil will make it all better. And why do the rest of the gears shift properly? The down shift, when cold, always requires excessive force unless I double clutch. I'm leaning more toward syncro problems. Maybe the tolerances are too tight in second?
When I say the tranny slips out of first, it's with hands off the shifter, around 1000 rpm or less and usually as I slow with engine braking to a stop sign. Sometimes see the shifter slip silently out back into neutral and other times it comes out with a nasty snap and driveline lash. In all cases the transmission is positively in first and have traveled 50 feet or more. Fortunately, idling through a new development of condo's brings out the defect. It popped out of first two for two an the end of the culdesac for the service writer.
Frank, thanks for the Subaru phone number.
Thanks for the feedback. I have considered changing to a synthetic transmission oil but want Subaru to repair/make recommendations, first. Also, have you seen how thin the stock tranny oil is? It looks like 10 weight. The force required to shift into second when the temperatures are in the teens or below is so extreme it's hard to imagine a synthetic oil will make it all better. And why do the rest of the gears shift properly? The down shift, when cold, always requires excessive force unless I double clutch. I'm leaning more toward syncro problems. Maybe the tolerances are too tight in second?
When I say the tranny slips out of first, it's with hands off the shifter, around 1000 rpm or less and usually as I slow with engine braking to a stop sign. Sometimes see the shifter slip silently out back into neutral and other times it comes out with a nasty snap and driveline lash. In all cases the transmission is positively in first and have traveled 50 feet or more. Fortunately, idling through a new development of condo's brings out the defect. It popped out of first two for two an the end of the culdesac for the service writer.
Frank, thanks for the Subaru phone number.
Thanks for the feedback. I have considered changing to a synthetic transmission oil but want Subaru to repair/make recommendations, first. Also, the service writer says he hasn't heard any other complaints about cold temperature second gear shifting problems. The force required to shift to second after start up in cold temperatures is so extreme it's hard to imagine a synthetic oil is the answer. And why does double cluthing eliminate the difficulty? Why only second gear? I'm leaning more toward syncro problems.
When I say the tranny slips out of first it's with hands off the shifter, around 1000 rpm or less and usually as I creep to a stop or near stop. Sometime it slips out silently and other times it comes out with a nasty snap and driveline lash. In all cases the car is positively engaged in first and I've traveled 50' or more. Fortunately, a new development of condo's turned out to be the perfect test track. It's come out of first all three times I've idled through the development. The service writer had to see it twice to believe it.
Frank, thanks for the Subaru phone number. I positively won't give up until my WRX is back to performing as designed!
-Frank P.
1. Warmer weather.
2. Pushing the stick shift to the left a bit when shifting from 1st to 2d.
3. After 1,500 mile the shifting improved.
I still find the WRX shifting performance to be the worst of any car I ever driven. I'll instal the Kartboy's short shifter w/bushings to fix the problem.
Also maybe look up the TSB under NHTSA's web site, then take it to the dealer. You have the exact same problem, I'd bet on it.
-juice
Moral of the story, a good dent repair place can get those dents out.
Ladnek
ladnek--that's great to know, had no idea the dents would come out of the aluminum hood. Here in Colorado the insurance companies call us "hail alley" because we have 3-5 catastrophic hail storms every year--it's your worst nightmare living out here when it comes to the Rex, believe me. That's why they flew all those Denver specialists out to you guys--we have the most experience! I keep a special hail-resistant car cover in our Rex to protect it from sudden damage. Knock on wood, haven't had to use it yet!
Rexaroo, I assume you've tried the Neo transmission fluid and noticed smoother/easier shifting?
The service writer called back today to tell me he'd heard from the Subaru Tech people regarding the slipping out of first gear phenom. He said they had heard of this problem in an earlier model and had "approved" the replacement of some parts. He would set up an appointment when the parts come in and provide a loaner. Here's the kicker. The Subaru Tech told him to advise me that this may not work and further work might be necessary. I find this a little strange. This is not a Subaru confidence building experience.
When I bought the car having watched a lot of WRX commercials and a Subaru infomercial on Speed Vision I was sure my Blue Subie was engineered using state of the art off road racing technology. I never dreamed a Subaru Factory Technician would be throwing parts at a problem hoping to nickel and dime it until they get it right.
Thanks.
- Never remember watching those Ford commercials of the '80s - "Quality is Job one". Or the current ones "Chevy - like a rock"? These commericials ended up being jokes with Ford having all sorts of troubles in the 80s and 90s, and Chevy having problems with quality today!
You can delete your old posts, whenever you want to. You are not limited to 30 minutes.
The 30 minutes limit is restricted to editing your post. If you go back to one of your posts that is older than 30 minutes, check if the "Delete" tab is available.
Later...AH
Bob
Neo 75W90 RHD When I called Neo, they did confirm that it is OK to use with bronze synchros.
The WRX 5-spd. tranny is very durable considering the tremenous AWD shock-loads it is often subjected to (no wheel spin on hard take-offs like FWD or RWD).
But it is an older design and has only single cone synchros in first instead of double or triple. This may account for many of the problems others have reported when downshifting into first or putting into gear at a stop.
Yours is the first I've heard of it popping out of gear at idle tho. The Neo would be good preventive maintenance once they finally get it fixed, IMO. Just my 2 cents.
My OEM filter was about 15 months old; and it was filthy black. Since I've never had this in any other vehicle I've owned, so it's easy to neglect. You might want to check yours if it's been in there for a while.
I got the replacement from Subaruparts.com; a very nice experience. I will definitely use them again.
They have a web special right now (free shipping) on the electronic compass/auto dimming rear view mirror. This was one option I didn't get and often wish I had. Has anyone installed one of these? How big a job is it? I'm especially wondering how hard it is to get the power from under the headliner to the mirror. I had the little center sunvisor out today as well as the courtesy lamps above the mirror, but it's not real obvious to me where this wiring will route and hook in.
Thanks.
I think you're referring to the engine air filter (15K - 30K)?
I also don't know what the "secondary dealer add-on filter" is. My car came with this filter from the factory.
The pollen filter is located behind the glove compartment, and is accessed from inside the car, on the passenger side. You have to remove the glove compartment to get at it.
Replacement is recommended once a year, or every 12000 km (7500 miles). As I said, mine was ~15 months old, and pretty dirty.
After reviewing hundreds of posts on nasioc.com and other forums, here is a summary of what owners have reported on their synthetic gear lubes, from best to worst (roughly speaking):
Motul Gear 300--excellent results, almost no complaints, also recommended by Prodrive. One owner stated this oil greatly reduced the deceleration noise that the tranny often makes. Only drawback is must use separate product for rear LSD, Motul PA.
Neo 75W90 RHD (racing)--Highly praised and expensive, although one owner later reported having trouble shifting into second after 2000 miles. Not known what part the oil played in this, if any.
One owner who rebuilds his own trannies said the regular heavy duty Neo (75W90 HD) might actually be fine for the Rex for less money.
Redline Shockproof--many owners reported this worked very well in the Rex tranny, even though Redline itself says its not for street use. Also the Redline MT-90 got many good reviews even tho it is GL-4 spec and Subaru recommends GL-5. Go figure.
Brands that many owners reported gear grinding or other problems with--Redline 75W90NS and Mobil 1 75W90, although owners whose gear boxes were already broken-in for 5-35K miles with OEM said these worked fine.
Occassionally my '03, with 3100 miles on it smells like paint burning and small quantities of smoke waft out from under the hood. This is hard to dublicate, almost unpredictable.
I also get a clunk sound when pulling into a parking place, or backing out of the driveway. Dealer(great dealer in NE OH, Huebner) could not duplicate this either.
j0elboy
-juice
My car is completely stock including the tires. I experienced just a little understeer in some of the tighter corners. The RE-92's gripped suprisingly well. My only real complaint would be that the car rolled more than I would have liked.
The group I was in consisted of about 4 corvettes including at least one Z06, a newer 911, and a 350Z. I was able to keep up fairly well in the corners, and because of the traffic, they couldn't really open all the way up on me, so I kept up fairly well on the straits. The only car that really blew me away was an NSX that came up from behind like a rocket, followed be though a corner, then swept by on the exit like I was standing still. Very impressive.
The best part was all the guys that came up behind while I was in traffic. Seeing my blue station wagon with a bicylce rack on the roof following a bunch of Corvettes, many swung to the inside on the exits of corners thinking to blow by and catch the Corvettes. Seeing their cars get smaller in the rearview mirror very quickly, then watch them go back to the prefered line when they saw there was no chance of catching me was immensly satisfying.