Subaru Crew Cafe

rsholland

Pat, the 2.5 engine calls for 105K for a timing belt replacement. The 2.2 engine gets it replaced at 60K.

Bob

paisan

You bring up a good point Pat. Have you or your mechanic physically checked the belt? If it's at all dry or cracking I'd replace it. If not I'd let it go another year, but at 9 years old I'd probably swap it.

-mike
Subaru Guru and Track Instructor

lucien2

called. The BG does need head gaskets and a transmission separator plate. At that point, they'll decide about the clutch. They'll also do the timing belt and the water pump, and replace a CV boot. Waiting on the detailed estimate, but he ball-parked it at $2500 not including clutch

xwesx

Well, if they are doing the head gaskets at the same time, I would think labor for the clutch would be pennies on the dollar compared to a stand-alone job. If they pop the engine out of there to do all that gasket work, a new clutch is a matter of putting in the new parts as they put it all back together.

lucien2

I'm with you on that one. The tech simply wanted to wait and see what it looked like first is all.

hondafriek

Mechanic says it is fine, and forget about replacing it.

Cheers Pat.

p0926

Well Pat, if your mechanic says its fine and by doing so, is voluntarily passing on a golden opportunity to make some money, then who are you to question his professional opinion?

-Frank

P.S. I hope you know how fortunate you are to have such a honest mechanic. I hope you at least send him a Christmas card

jfl

I've been off the boards for a few months but many of the past 200+ posts are hitting home right now.

Fix or new: My Legacy is nine years old and has 180k miles. It's a keeper as I've just been laid-off. The good news is that I have over 1000 Subaru bucks. I'll do a full (pads & rotors) brake job myself, but I'm trying to decide if I should do the shocks myself of at the dealer. Mike, your thoughts? [I can't believe Pat's Titan is 8 years old with only 32k miles!]

Cellphone: Returned the BB to the company and I'm just going to get a prepaid. For as little as I use it for personal calls it should run $50-60 for a whole year, much cheaper than adding me to the family plan at $10/month.

juice: The knock sensors on the Toyota are under the valve cover!? :confuse: I had to replace mine to pass the smog inspection. On the Subie, it's right on top. You just need small hands to get it out and the new one in.

Good to see all the familiar names still here.

Jim

ladywclass

sorry to hear of the layoff ... that's rough! and quite generally nothing at all to do with job performance ....

we're 'sweating' it here as my husband inspects auto pistons .. with 10 years in the company he's third from the bottom after all the layoffs over the past year .. they will do 2-week shutdown at year's end (not so new), and we're concerned there may not be any job after that ... it's a wait and see ...

tough all over and getting worse ...at least people keep having kids to send to school! (even that's going to get harder before it ever gets any better ... class sizes will increase, doing even more with less $$, etc.)

at any rate ... taking it one day at a time ... all we can ever do ...

hang in there, guys ..

xwesx

Jim, I'm sorry that happened.

As for your shocks, though, it is a fairly easy job. If I remember correctly, and Subaru did not change the design much, changing out the shocks is an easy task. You will need a set of spring compressors, but the ones I purchased for my car were only about $60. Now, of note is that the original struts I put on there had fully enclosed mounting brackets through which the brake lines fed, while the replacements had brackets that were open-sided. That meant that I "needed" to disconnect the brake lines to get out the originals, but not so for the replacements. As such, I pulled out a small grinder and cut off one side of the brackets so that I could remove the brake lines without having to disconnect (and subsequently bleed) them. You have to be careful not do damage the lines, but if a two-armed monkey like me can do it, I know anybody can accomplish the task.

I had a friend who helped me, and it took us about two hours to replace all four. I was very careful when replacing the front struts to note the camber on the front alignment, so when I put it back together, I got the system locked in at the right spots. I did not have it aligned afterward (felt no need as the steering was fine and tires continued to wear evenly). Total, I think it was about $400 for the new struts, $60 for the tools, and four man-hours.

It felt like a new car when I was done: Definitely worth it. The old struts were so shot that, after removing them from the vehicle, the pistons fell effortlessly into the cylinders. On the new ones, they did just the opposite - they pressed outward from the cylinders when I removed them from their packaging!

lucien2

clutch was 15%, so $400 for that as well. :sick: :shades:

lucien2

I'll throw in a caveat here though. On my dear departed BD, a couple of the bolts that hold the wheel assembly were T-I-G-H-T. We went from hand tools to breaker bars to air tools and finally to blow-torches. It added almost 3 hours to the job, which became an all-day project.

rsholland

Nissan may be getting out of the big SUV market.

http://blogs.edmunds.com/straightline/2008/12/nissan-getting-out-of-big-suv-busi- ness.html

Bob

ateixeira

juice: The knock sensors on the Toyota are under the valve cover!?

I think they're under the engine cover, the little plastic thing that basically hides everything you need access to.

Sorry to hear about the job. Hopefully we've hit bottom and at least prices are down from the nose bleed levels of a few months ago.

ateixeira

My Miata is like that, old age but low miles. I just did my timing belt this year, along with the water pump.

Let's see, it's a 1993, so that was 15 years, at least. Probably closer to 16.

Mileage was around 70k, so I definitely stretched it a bit.

Thing is - the NA Miata is not an interference design, so if my belt snapped it only meant I'd be stranded.

hondafriek

Yeah I think I am just gonna leave it, money doesn't grow on trees unfortunately, and like everybody else our retirement savings are taking an awful pummeling at the minute.

Cheers Pat.

kyfdx

Well.. I found out that these tires really suck in the snow.. which makes perfect sense :surprise: for an AWD economy sedan ('08 Impreza).

I have a set of 205/50-17 Dunlop winter tires... .they would be a perfect fit.. except that I only have 16" wheels.. They have about 20K on them, so not the greatest tread left, but it would have to be better than these crappy OEM all-seasons..

Now, if I can just find a cheap set of 17" alloys off a WRX...

volkov

Nice try, but mine are safely tucked in the basement for winter! But seriously, I made a point of going the other way ie. smaller rims for winter given my lousy winter driving conditions. I for one am very happy about having purely summer tires on the new WRX as I always switch wheels for the seasons.
If Subie did spec A/S tires which performed better in winter, their summer performance would almost certainly suffer. Reviewers can be significantly swayed by such things, and in fact you'll often read when they have comparos that Car B would have scored better with grippier tires blah, blah, blah. To wit, if you want to win one of these "shootouts" and generate more sales, put on tires that will stink in winter. It was in fact one of the repeated knocks against the older WRXs (RE-92s) and a big plus in reviews of the new one with the Dunlops. They never do those tests in winter onditions it seems, because the result would have been the opposite.
There is certainly a difference between what you expect from a WRX or an Impreza sedan, but the above principles still apply.

kyfdx

I understand the trade-offs you have to deal with on tires... I'm just saying the choices they made suck for an Impreza.. Plus, they really aren't that great in the dry, either....

I'd understand on a WRX...

I really would like to find a cheap set of 17" alloys that fit... Those winter tires are left over from my wife's 330ci.. It would make it much more likely that the stock tires would still be acceptable at the end of my 30K lease, as well...

xwesx

I think the key is finding a *cheap* set. Otherwise, purchasing a new set of 16" winter tires and having them mounted might be a less expensive proposition - especially if the 17" tires only have a winter left on them and you would have to replace again while you are leasing the Subaru. 17" tires are considerably more expensive than 16", at least from what I found when I was looking at winter tires on the '07 Outback (with 16" steelies) and the '08 Outback (with 17" alloys).

kyfdx

I agree.. I wouldn't buy a whole set of winter tires/wheels. I don't like the tires, but they aren't going to kill me. (Even though they almost got the neighbor's mailbox).

I'm only musing, because I already have those winter tires... I think even 90% worn, they'd be better than the stock all-seasons in the winter.. My wife's convertible was a tank with them on...

rsholland

This due to the economic conditions. I'll have blog up in the morning of about a bunch of car companies pulling their racing teams from various venues.

Bob

hammerhead

Heard the Subaru WRC story on BBC this morning...

rsholland

Yep. Subaru out of WRC—along with a bunch of other race teams pulling out of various racing venues!

http://blogs.edmunds.com/straightline/2008/12/porsche-honda-motorcycles-suzuki-c- ars-and-subaru-cut-racing-teams.html

Bob

lucien2

Lots of people close to me are losing jobs. Good jobs. Tremendously talented people. I'm beginning to think this might be a 2+ year deep freeze after all. :sick:

volkov

What's next?? "We've decided not to continue with this boxer engine and AWD thing." I mean Subie and WRC has been an association for longer than the AWD only product line - minicars excepted.

rsholland

This strictly about money, and the current global economic crunch. It's not about marketing. FWIW, SOA is going to continue with their rally team here.

Bob

xwesx

I wonder how much is sunk into the WRC and racing, in general, by the companies. I have to imagine it is quite a lot....

fandc

The rules for WRC for 2011 and beyond are based on a class of car that Subaru doesn't have and would have to develop. FWD, which is not Subaru's market and makes no sense for Subaru from the marketing standpoint. Given the economic landscape, it's not a surprising decision.

Rob

volkov

I was being somewhat facetious. I know where it is coming from, but it does mean that there will be a change in image going forward. Rally based marketing is everywhere in our dealership and all the Subaru brochures I've ever seen. I would agree though that the writing has been on the wall so to speak for a while here due to multiple factors. I think it is good that SOA is maintaining involvement, and arguably, that is more appropriate since they run the same car you can buy at the dealership. The WRC car is a completely different animal.

xwesx

Ah, the irony. FWD rally. :sick:

paisan

I'll do a full (pads & rotors) brake job myself, but I'm trying to decide if I should do the shocks myself of at the dealer. Mike, your thoughts?

Shocks are real easy. Shoot me an e-mail and I can give you a bit more of a detailed info on where to get, and the little tricks to get em done.

-mike
Subaru Guru and Track Instructor

paisan

Nissan may be getting out of the big SUV market.

http://blogs.edmunds.com/straightline/2008/12/nissan-getting-out-of-big-suv-busi- - ness.html

It doesn't suprise me. They are/were going to shift their pickups onto the Dodge Ram platform for the next generation, so it was suprising to me they hadn't cut the Armada out completely. I just did Bilstiens and will be putting a Stillen front sway bar in and a Superchips tuner as well on the 04. She is running like a top so we will see how and where we are in 5+ years to see what if anything replaces my Armada. With the LGT Wagon, I can get most jobs done w/o issue except for the people moving and towing. So the Ramada will likely be relegated to family trips and towing. I'll split the rest of the daily driving between the LGT and whatever car I get by the end of the year, most likely an 08 STi.

-mike
Subaru Guru and Track Instructor

paisan

This strictly about money, and the current global economic crunch. It's not about marketing. FWIW, SOA is going to continue with their rally team here.

Bob

IIRC Honda out of F1 and Audi out of American LeMan's which they basically have owned for the last few years. It's all about the money and for the WRC, going to FWD basically has nixed it for Subaru. I hope they start to focus on road-racing deals and lower cost racing ventures like more contingency for non-pros.

-mike
Subaru Guru and Track Instructor

ateixeira

It wouldn't be as fun to watch anyway.

Us car fans are going to have a couple of really bad years coming up.

rsholland

A Plano, TX Subie dealer is offering the following: Buy a new Outback (full price, I would assume), and also get a Impreza for an extra $1.00.

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/12/30/todays-2-for-1-cars-deals-are-on-subarus-in-t- exas/

Bob

kyfdx

It's a two year lease on the Impreza for the extra $1...

That's worth around $4800... A couple of fine-print extras on an '08 Outback, and I could see it...

Not bad for a gimmicky deal, though...

lucien2

Well, as expected, the end of the cycling season, the end of daylight saving, and the busiest time of year at work (not to mention all the eating holidays) came together for some weight gain. My final weigh in is 175, that's up 5 from my last one.

Can we do this again with a July 1 date and see where we stand? I usually shed the 5-7 pound of winter fat within the first 5 weeks of the cycling season.

ladywclass

My 2001 Outback has lost something, but I'm not sure what or if it's something to worry about ....

so guys ... you have to help me here ...

For quite awhile now, I have had something "rattling" under the car. It was only audible when idling, and was louder when I was next to a building (drive-through, etc.) When looking under the car from the front, there was some sort of a 'shield' just behind the front bumper which was held on with a couple of straps. I could see for a long time that one of the straps was hanging down and not really holding the 'shield' very well. My intention was to get it looked at over the holiday break. My schedule really doesn't handle putting in anything extra unless it's an emergency.

As you may have noticed, that paragraph was written in the past tense, because sometime in the last week to 10 days, I have completely lost this 'shield'. I can no longer see it under the car. I suspect that I lost it in one of the recent snow/ice storms. Possibly even heard it when I lost it. One evening, I was going to pick up food, and as I went around a busy corner I heard some sort of a loud "rattle", but when I stopped to look I could see nothing and the car was running fine. (Maybe caught on a chunk of ice that had fallen off another car?)

At any rate, my question is - what is it that I have lost? Is it necessary? What will it likely cost to have it replaced? Am I a real dummy about this? (LOL)

Thanks, guys ...

Brenda

lucien2

you lost the heat shield off your exhaust, along with every other Outback owner with a car more than 7 years old. Be thankful the noise is gone, and remember you don't have one anymore before parking the car in tall, dry grass after a long drive.

grahampeters

G'day

I think you folk are exporting your recent chill.

Melbourne is famous for the changeable weather. The claim is that you go out in the morning wearing a swimsuit and overcoat, carrying snowshoes and umbrella. If you don't like the weather, wait ten minutes!

Today is swinging between brilliant sunshine and chilly downpours. In the heart of summer, there are warnings of snow on nearby hills!

Elsewhere, temperatures were 47C (117F) yesterday.

Cheers

Graham

hondafriek

Is it just me or does anyone else think that the rear end of the hatchback is horrendous. We were out yesterday and Rita said yuck what car is that. The tailights look like something an 18 year old kid would put on from the aftermarket. I think the derogatory term is Ricer. The big broad chrome bar that runs along the tailgate between the backup lights looks like something GM would have done in the 1960s. I was almost looking for large tailfins

And BTW happy belated new year to the crew, hopefully a more prosperous one for all of us, I am getting so depressed watching our retirement savings go in the toilet. I am almost tempted to take out what we have left and stash it under the mattress.

Cheers Pat

rsholland

I think it's you Pat. Sales on the new-generation Impreza continue to grow. Perhaps even more surprising is the increased sales on the 5-door—the one you don't like—have even surprised FHI and SoA.

In fact, in your neck of the woods—Canada, Impreza December sales are up 59.8 % over last December.

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showpost.php?p=25077813&postcount=1

I love the look of the rear of my '09 WRX 5-door. No chrome bar on it however, but that chrome bar I think looks just fine (IMO) on those models with them.

Bob

kyfdx

... that I'm jealous when I see the hatchbacks.. Even in the same dark gray as my sedan, they look a whole lot better...

I think it's the Kia-like rear end of the sedan... Otherwise, it's a handsome little car... But, the hatch is where it's at!

just my $0.02

volkov

I actually like the lines on my hatch, but agree that there is clearly "convergent" design happening here, as there are definite similarities to the Mazda and Focus. I am also not a fan of the chrome revival, but don't blame Subie - everyone is doing it. That's why I prefer my WRX butt to the regular Impreza.

tsy

I must say I like the hatchback too- but I've always been partial to them. I like a lot of the European hatches we don't get here. It's funny, my son would rather have the sedan than the hatch, so I guess it's not an age thing.

Other than the appearance though, it's certainly a ton more practical!

As far as the clear taillights go Pat, I agree with you, I'm not a big fan of them and am looking to get red overlays for my lights to bring them back to 'normal'.

tom

xwesx

Agreed. I think the hatch looks great, aside from those nasty tail lights. They do function well, though: Much brighter than the old red, single-bulb-driven lights. I think red overlays with the same LED setup would work just as well, but look nicer.

rsholland

As to the tail lights, I do agree that some "red" might help; if for no other reason in that it's "expected." Honestly though, the clear lens don't bother me that much in terms of styling.

In the daytime, the current brake lights are much brighter, as it's "bright red" against "clear," whereas with traditional looking red tail lights, it "bright red" against "red." So there's more contrast with the existing lights, therefore making them more visible, and therefore safer.

Bob

ateixeira

Add me to the list of people that don't like the chrome stripe.

Then again, I don't like chrome, period.

ateixeira

Finally joined the bandwagon. I'm looking for Lucien to send a Friend request, anyone else here? Maybe Lucien can suggest friends from the Crew once I find him.