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Comments
Of course it costs them time and money just to identify the problem. Would you be willing to pay for an hour of labor for them to diagnose the problem? My dealer's hourly labor rate is $92.
My suggestions is to diagnose-it-yourself, given it sounds like you want to fix things yourself.
Why not upgrade the rotors? Get Hawk pads, something like that. You sound like you're totally capable of doing that. There are lots of resources on the web for getting help working on your Rex.
So I say, change your strategy, stop going to mechanics for these issues.
-juice
- In terms of the brake pads, it has been widely known that the brake pads of the WRX do wear down quicker than other car's pads. It might be due to a softer compound that catches quicker to produce a shorter stopping distance over more "conventional" cars (see Camrys and Accords).
Mine have about 38K miles on them, and I might look to replace them at between 50-60K miles. Most of my miles are highway. A friend of mine is going to replace her pads at 30K miles. When I am ready to replace the pads, I will probably get Hawk pads, since they stop shorter, and do not need the consistant breaking capabilities of track racing that Bremos or Stop-Techs provide.
- One other thing about your break pads. Since it is known they wear out quicker, could the temperature fluctuation of your area (going from very hot to extremely cold) cause the pads to warp a little? Not saying it is likely, but possible?
Europeans are generally more tolerant of noisy brakes and willing to make that trade-off.
-juice
-juice
Does anybody here know (or know where I can find out) if these calipers cause the ABS to break if you put backpressure on the caliper?
I remember hearing a long time ago that the early abs systems would brake if you push backpressure on the pad and you had to bleed the brakes instead. My gti, oddly enough does not require this. I was wondering if anybody knew about the wrx. I don't generally have another person around who's willing to spend all afternoon hanging out so they can step on a pedal for me a few times. And I don't particularly trust those little canister one-person-jobbies. It's just a lot simpler if I can do it all myself. (I know, I know you're thinking I should be flushing the brake fluid anyway since it's two years old.)
Then again, I'm not sure it's such a sin if I do brake the abs system in this car. :-)
-juice
Don
I had the passenger side mirror replaced when the ring holding the spring inside the arm broke, and the mirror swung free. The technician came out and took a look and confirmed that there was no paint chip on the surface (not a hit), and everything was covered under warranty.
~colin
And, yeah my rotors are scored badly, both fronts.
But again, it was so easy to do the pads, I ordered some rotors, and it'll be worth it to take it apart again, probably 10-20 minutes to have the brakes be smooth again.
Karl: do you have any documentation, website, anything with any information about the broken mirror, or maybe a claim number with a subaru call center?
Perhaps I can refer it to the dealership and see if they care.
If you're getting shuddering up through the steering wheel, then you've probably got what is known as DTV (or Disk Thickness Variation), which is usually attributable to some pad buildup on the rotor itself.
I had the DTV problem on my WRX's front rotors (self-inflicted BTW, stupid me), and I remedied it by switching out the pads to Carbotech Bobcats, and then bedding in the new pads aggressively to abrade off the residual pad material. My brake problems went right away and have stayed away, despite the still-grooved rotors.
Maybe too late for nixomose, but hopefully this helps someone else.
Somebody explain blowoff hiss to me? I get the basic idea behind a turbocharger, is there some overpressure valve or something for when you downshift and the turbo hasn't spun down to the lower engine speed or something?
I do hear some hissing sometimes at full throttle, (like in 3rd or so) which I figure is odd given the amount of wind and engine noise, I figure I shouldn't be able to hear much else.
-Frank P.
Seemed to have happened in the past couple weeks - too cold for the windows to go down and drive, so my stereo was at "8" tops. I have the upgraded sound system.
I don't feel I've abused the system, and I find it odd that the speaker would be blown. Should I expect hassle from my dealer, or just spend $40 and get a new speaker myself? (or replace them all before another one goes, with better ones?)
-Frank P.
This is a sign from above to get some real speakers in there. ;-)
-juice
Blaupunkt San Francisco CD72 Receiver (this thing is more complicated than the Mars rover)
Rockford Fosgate 851x 5 channel Amp
Blaupunkt A08 10-CD changer
Infinity Kappa 60.5cs comp speakers for front
Infinity Kappa 42.5i speakers for back
Two small issues,one, the front speakers came with only one tweeter, so the passenger side is still connected to stock tweeter until i get the other shipped. Two, the 2nd din is now covered with plastic neatly but I would like a spacer that doubles as a compartment. Anyone know where I can get it? The damage for installation - $500. Well, a little more than expected but hopefully worth it. The guys at the shop did a good job as the finish is clean and laughed at Subie's stock speakers.
Anyway, I am on the NJ turnpike around 9 pm listening to Tom Jones covering Prince's Kiss on my new system and this new Altima blows past me. Hmmm, can't let that happen, can we? So I showed him a little Subie love. The car hit 125 and I was seeing his headlights in the rear view. I dont think those cars do over $115-120 max as I slowed a little and waited for him to catch up. Then I came to my senses and slowed down to speed limit as I knew that my Passport might be useless at that speed.
Well, any music lover in a WRX still driving with stock speakers should junk it and get something better.
Well,I am off to play some poker and lose more money. Isn't life great?
~c
~colin
-juice
I was very close to going for cobb tuning but warranty issues (added security) and the old adage 'if it aint broke, dont fix it' kept me from it. While I do enjoy driving, I am not a typical street racer. I am upgrading my tires but thats as far as I am going at this point.
Anyway, I am still figuring out my receiver and I can only say that Germans do take their car audio seriously.
All of the changes were cosmetic, but overall, looked pretty good. The wheels look better to me than the standard WRX wheels. The dash was about the same with some minor cosmetic changes to the climate controls. I wouldn't say it looked any better, just different. The seats were completely different as far as I could tell. The grey and black two tone leather treatment looked pretty good. I found that some of the other Saab seats I sat in didn't seem especially comfortable though. The steering wheel was different, and smaller than the WRX wheel which I think is too big.
Other than that, everything else looked the same. I definately got the impression that it was just a rebadged WRX as I looked at it. Luckily for them I suppose, the Subarus where on a different floor. Last year Saab and Subaru were fairly close to each other.
There was no price on the car, but I think that if it were not that much more than a WRX, I'd consider it. If it's closer to $30,000 which is likely, I can't imagine why anyone would bother with it.
-juice
Aside from pricing, I think the powertrain warranty on Saab isn't as long. Isn't it 4/50 b to b?
-Dennis
As for the warranty thing. When you sign a document, do you not read it? Or do you sign things blindly? I'm 99% sure that you signed a document when you dropped off the car at the dealer stating you would be willing to pay the XX diagnostic fee if in fact the problem was not under warranty. Most dealers (even the bad ones) will call before proceeding but I guess that yours went by the document you signed. Crappy thing, but 100% dealer fault, not Subaru.
As for the brakes? 19K miles is not uncommon for brakes on a wrx. 19-30K is the standard brake replacement for the WRX at least here in the NY/NJ/PA area from my experience (I've done at least 30+ brake jobs on WRXs in the past year or so)
-mike
I am starting to get a little steering wheel vibration at high speeds when the brakes are applied lightly...maybe time for a brake job.
What kind of brake jobs have you done? Were they mostly resurfacing the rotors? Popular pads? Aftermarket rotors? I also remember one of the auto magazine long term wrx's having brake problems with the dealer doing a resuface under warranty. My 03 wagon just turned 15K.
Thanks,
Don
Cutting rotors IMHO is a waste of time since blank replacements are about 4x the cost of cutting them might as well get the replacement rotors rather than pay $10 to get em cut.
-mike
Don
I foolishly asked them to fix a squeaky window. They fixed it, now there;s a slight rattle! Its barely noticeable and with the radio even on low volume its imperceptible but OCD me hears it!
how often should I change the airfilter and PCV? I only drive 7K a year.
-juice
My wagon developed a similar problem with the steering wheel vibrating under braking at higher speeds. In my case, however, it was pretty easy to diagnose the cause of the problem -- I went out and did a series of 10-12 "road dyno" runs to ~90 mph, and, like an idiot, kept the brakes depressed between runs as I read and reset my data recorder (incidentally, don't do this).
With the brakes heated up as much as they were, that left pad deposits/imprints on the rotor surface, resulting in what is known as DTV (or Disk Thickness Variation).
DTV caused by pad deposits is like 100x more likely to be the cause of your vibration problem than is the disk itself being warped. Under typical (or even very aggressive street) driving conditions, your stock rotors are not going to warp (from stoptech.com):
http://www.stoptech.com/whitepapers/warped_rotors_myth.htm
Anyway, the solution I found worked like a charm was to splurge on a new set of front pads (I chose the Carbotech Bobcats, which at least ~6 months ago were pretty widely viewed by the folks at nabisco as the best aftermarket street pad out there), and then I bedded them in pretty aggressively (well on the aggressive side of Carbotech's instructions) to abrade the offending pad deposits right off the disks.
That cured the problem right away, without my having to do anything more drastic. So that gives you something you could try anyway, before springing for replacement rotors.
Dave
is the disc REALLY warped when we've been calling it that all these last 40+ years of disc brakes? no, probably not.
regardless of the cause, the result is an uneven surface. the long-established methods of resolving this problem, by turning the face of the rotor on a lathe or simply replacing them, will do the trick no matter what.
semantics. hope they're enjoying their 15 minutes of fame...
~c
Well, I have already heard that subaru's does have problems, and my friend deals with a problem himself. He experiences the rpm going up and down from 600 to 1500 during startup when it rains. Does any of you guys experience this problem or any other. Honestly speaking, would you guys buy subaru again? Is it reliable?
Thank you
I do not have a WRX but I do have a 2002 LL Bean which has been very reliable. So far there have been 2 recalls (tranny-park and winterizing rear suspension pieces) on the Bean. All taken care of by the dealer.
There may be other reasons NOT to get a WRX or STI (like need for a large backseat). But reliability is not one of them in my mind.
I would suspect that the STI would tend not to be as reliable as the typical: more new components; driving style; bred for performance, but still better than similar performance cars. I certainly would not shy away from any Subaru product because of anecdotal reliability concerns.
So, finally took my '02 WRX Wagon to NaperThrill, IL from Minneapolis over the holidays for some work - APS Uppipe, APS TBE (sans cats, for now), and Ecutek Reflash.
Wow. HP and torque at the wheels around 220 each. Loosely translates to about 285-290hp at the crank based on baseline pulls. Sound may not be for everyone, but she purrs like kitten until you climb above 3K (so, like, all the time) and there is drone at high speed cruising (70mph+).
For the first time ever I got mid-20s+ MPG on the way home with a fully burdened ride (Santa was good to me) and bike racks up top.
Tuan (tuner) and Chris (wrench) did nice work. Have a low RPM rattle that popped up recently that I need to address - likely loose hanger or 02 sensor cable.
Power comes on sooner and pulls - hard - all the way to redline in each gear. Can't wait for the snow to be gone and get my Nokian Haaka/OE wheelset off and put the P1/Sumi set back on. The winter tires are just overwhelmed by the power. Somewhat conflicted on the no-cat situation - may opt for APS High Flow Cat this summer.
E-mail me at sepp at mn dot rr dot com with questions.
Sean
Regardless of whether or not the stoptech article I linked to is a "holywar" and/or "semantics", the point I was making is that my car exhibited the exact same symptoms that Don described, and the problem was rectified without having to turn or replace the rotors.
~c