Subaru Crew Cafe

xwesx

How much room do you have around the plug when you do access it from beneath? I assume that your end wrench fits to the casting around the end (top in the photo) portion of the plug? If you have the room, I think a large pipe wrench should take care of this puppy. Granted it may mar your plug, but I'm willing to bet it will give you the leverage you need.

It may be that the shop also did not lube the O-ring on there. If so, that would provide significant friction in addition to the metal-to-metal contact.

:mad:

fibber2

Show's you how out of touch I am. I had to google cartridge filters to learn that they have made a comeback in the automotive world. I remember dealing with them on small engines as a kid, but they were long gone from autos by then.

One downside depending on how hard it is to get to (from above??) is that you are more likely to loose some gunk back into the engine when you pull it out as oppose to a canister that drains only after removal.

ateixeira

Pipe wrench, as in what Plumbers use?

Yes the top in the photo is where the filter wrench goes, you can see how it's nearly round and doesn't let me apply much torque before it slips.

The filter in the pick is upside down, that's actually the bottom position. So I look up at that 3/8" drive hole.

Around it I have about an inch or two, no more. Access it only good from the bottom.

I may let the store fix it. It was RIDICULOUSLY overtightened. Spec is only 1/4 turn past contact with the rubber gasket. I'm shocked it did not leak.

xwesx

Pipe wrench, as in what Plumbers use?

Yep, that's the type!

It may not be a bad idea to make the store remove it, but I'm certain I would not want to let them reinstall it...

ateixeira

I called over there, after an overnight cool down period (I was FURIOUS last night), and politely talked to the tech who answered the phone. He said he'd be there tonight and would loosen it for me.

I'll probably take the filter cartridge with me and ask if he can swap it out and top off the oil, too.

I think my new strategy will be all or nothing - either noone ever touches it, or I outsource it completely. No more me once, them once.

xwesx

That sounds like a good plan to me.

I used to be sorely tempted to have a shop perform an oil change from time to time, especially when they came due in January or February and we had weeks of -20F or colder weather. Sometimes working on a car in the driveway is just not fun.

However, now that I moved to the annual oil changes, I get to pick my change date (I usually do them over July 4th weekend) to coincide with more pleasant weather and end up saving significant time (75%) and money (~50%) versus quarterly oil changes.

ateixeira

Are you using synthetic?

Toyota asks for 5000 mile intervals, which isn't bad I guess. The van does mostly trips - so highway miles.

I'm on the 3750 interval for the Miata and the Forester.

rsholland

Does anyone care?

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/06/02/ford-kills-mercury-to-expand-lincoln/

Bob

xwesx

That's great news for Ford! Their lineup has been crowded by the three brands for a long time now. The only thing I will miss is the iconic "Ford-Lincoln-Mercury" dealership signs. :P

xwesx

I do. I use a 25,000-mile filter and a 35,000-mile / 1-year oil. We tend to put 12-15,000 a year on our primary drivers.

fibber2

I run Mobil 1 with a Subi filter, and change the oil every 6 months or so. For me, that is still less than 4,500 miles average.

I've been pretty much following Juice's policy. I do virtually 100% on the OBW, my wife's Odyssey gets virtually 100% service from either Honda (most items) or a local quick oil place for basics between major service..

xwesx

I have heard that the Honda's can be a real PITA with regard to regular maintenance items, and it must be true if you (of all people) elect to have it serviced at a lube shop! :P

ateixeira

That saddest part is that no, noone cares.

Mercury became Fords with more fake chrome.

ateixeira

Well, they installed a filter for me, I provided the filter, they installed and it topped off the oil since it was already changed.

Manager said it wasn't hard to remove - I say no way that's true. The mechanic probably didn't want to admit it.

I hope I can get it off next time, sheesh. I asked them to not overtighten and to oil the gaskets before installing them.

xwesx

Well, at least it was done for the time being. I bet you can't wait for the next oil change! :P

fibber2

Wes, it comes down to time management (or in my case, a frantic effort to manage the unmanageable!!). Thanks to staffing reductions, I no longer have a junior level engineer to assist me and provide off-shift coverage. My lab techs stagger their days/hours to make best use of the equipment - 7 days a week, 6:30 AM until midnight when workload peaks. So guess who is at work or on call much of that period? Last year my management gave me a 'replacement week' of vacation for one they ruined during the summer, and an extra week this year for killing Christmas week. We'll see if I actually get to take it!

So everything I do at home becomes a matter of love or priorities. I hate paying for services that I can do myself, but one has to make a choice. I spent 3 long evenings last week with my home AC system in pieces doing diagnostics and ordering/installing parts. For $150, it would probably have been a $600 bill if I called an HVAC guy, or more likely they would have tried to sell me a new condenser unit for $3k installed rather than rebuild it.

The Subaru is mine, and a certain degree of pride prompts me to do pretty much all (other than the HG issues which were covered under warranty). The Honda (also an '02 with 130k) is a nice car but there is no emotional tie. Beth isn't working (kids), so she has time to run it to the shop. I still rotate tires & check brakes, do basics like air filters, but anything more it goes in. So I pay for services there so that I can have the time to make a living, play and be involved with the kids, garden, ride my bike, work on the Subi, do some charitable work, etc.

fibber2

I'll miss Mercury because I remember what it once was. My college & first job car ('76-'79) was a 1972 Mercury Montego MX Brougham. While it shared a chassis with the Torino, 100% of the sheetmetal and much of the interior on this top trim line was unique. In later years, Ford added the Torino Elite, which was a Montego MX-B clone, and the '74-'76 Cougar also shared the body.

And that was how it was with Mercury. They'd get something unique, then it would get watered down. Too bad.

xwesx

It sounds to me like you keep an incredible pace, as well as disciplined approach, to pull all that off! The only thing in life that I do extremely well is piddle away my time. :mad:

KCRam

Dad had a 70 Montego, then a 72 Montego MX, both bought new, ran the 72 for 7 years and 210K miles. Three weeks after it was traded, he saw it on the street. The MX was traded for a used 76 Grand Marquis with a 460 4-barrel... various issues (primarily an untraceable failure in the exhaust system that caused backfires, stalling, overheating, and on one memorable occasion, glowing red exhaust headers under the hood) sent it packing after just a year and a half.

The Ford Gran Torino Elite (74)/Ford Elite (75-76) was the twin to the Cougar XR-7 of the same years. In 77, the Elite was heavily restyled and rechristened as the "downsized" Thunderbird (which had been sharing the Lincoln Mark IV platform).

Anyone remember the 77-79 Cougar XR-7 Chamois Decor group? Chamois-tan padded-vinyl roof and faux spare-tire bulge, chamois-tan vinyl bodyside moldings, and chamois-tan painted wheels


kcram - Pickups/Wagons Host

fibber2

I do!! When I graduated from Clarkson (Potsdam, NY) in 1979, I shipped my '72 2-dr Montego MX-B down to Texas (new employer paid move). In our brand new apartment complex in the North Dallas suburb of Carrollton lived another couple that had one, and I occasionally parked next to it. I really did like that car. Unlike the Lincoln, the tan padded spare tire bulge was square-ish. Compared to the new for '78 downsized GM models, it was out of step with the times, but still looked great and floated down the road with style.

Also in our complex were two Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, but that's another story for another day....

But it was Gas Crisis #2, and I also bought a much more sensible Ford Fiesta to get back and forth to work. Beth drove the Montego, and within a year, we traded it in for a Datsun 810 2dr coupe. Heart of the Z, in a more sensible body. Beth loved the new car, but we both missed the Mercury of our college years. I had made her leave her '69 Buick LeSabre back in Potsdam, so we were really letting go of our past.

These are images that I found on the web, but are nearly identical (down to the colors) of our '72 and '79.

See more Car Pictures at CarSpace.com

See more Car Pictures at CarSpace.com">

aaykay

SVX
Honda S2000
Porsche 944 turbo
Mustang Cobra (early 2000)
Corvette
E30 M3
RX-7
Supra
Mazda Miata- V8 conversion? Supercharged? Turbo?
Mazdaspeed Miata?


I personally might go with an S2000, if it were my money. I drove one a few years back and felt a one-ness with the machine that I had not felt in years with any other car.

What I like about the S2000 is the fact that it is a superbly built product where an engineering powerhouse like Honda has gone all-out to make a point that they could build a top-notch RWD handler - and they delivered. It is of course normally aspirated, which is a big plus in my book for a used car (lots of folks fiddle around with turbos and shorten the lifespan of the underlying engine and drivetrain and then remove all evidence of the modifications - including seemingly innocuous things like an ECU reflash for more power - before selling the car :sick: ).

My second choice would be a normally aspirated Miata.

robr2

Also in our complex were two Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, but that's another story for another day....

No it's not. We want details - RIGHT NOW!!

ateixeira

My dad had an '86 Mercury Cougar that was basically a watered down T-bird. No turbo coupe model, even.

ateixeira

And with pics please!

ateixeira

Saw Bob on Friday, at a VOB BMW event where we were allowed to test drive these side-by-side.

Here's a review of the navigation portion of both cars:

http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.ef14ab8/1890#MSG1890

We drove the Benz first.

I've mentioned how much I like the 3.5l V6 in other vehicles (SLK), but the E class feels heavier so acceleration is only adequate. I swear my minivan is quicker. It's smooth as butter but the transmission hesitates a little bit.

Comfort is excellent, as was fit and finish. Loved the massive sunroof which serves front and rear passengers, and even the passenger seat has 3 memory settings.

I felt out of place, though. It's just not my type of car. Heavy, deliberate. I felt like a fat cat, an investment banker on a soothing drive home while on speaker phone trading futures or something like that.

Then we drove the new 535i. It does just about all the things the Benz does well, minus the dual moonroof (single here) and the lack of memory for the passenger seat.

It's quicker, though, at least once it spools up. It has the new twin scroll single turbo (so says the BMW employee hosting the event), but I still noticed a bit of lag. That plus the transmission hesitates a bit, until we used Drive Sport mode, that is. Then it was fine, though you still had to wait for engine to spool up the boost, then you got a satisfying push in the back.

So I was more impressed with the BMW, which managed to maintain 90% of the luxury of the Benz, while offering maybe 20% extra sport.

Then we drove a 550i GT.

NOW you're talking.

The V8 doesn't need to wait for a turbo to spool up to offer right-now torque. The 8 speed automatic (in Drive Sport) mode would hold a gear to keep the revs up and offer quick responsiveness.

We took it on a longer drive (the test route was pathetically short), and out on a highway, where it could really shine. Passing was instantaneous, available on demand. It held corners and had less body roll than my Miata, while offering a ride on par with the Benz E-class - very, very impressive.

The back seat also had acres of room, though the trunk seemed smaller than the 5 sedan, and even the BMW employees could not figure out how to open the bigger portion of the twin-opening hatch.

It even had a huge moonroof that I loved.

OK, so what's the catch?

$80 grand.

Ouch. With base models at $50 grand or so, you'd think you had it all, but not so. I figure we drove $60,000 cars with the options they had, and each car was still missing something.

The 5er GT was not missing anything, but get one and your life savings will be missing entirely. :shades:

volkov

So after looking for a replacement for her Bug for over 2 years, Dra has finally decided that she's going to get a Prius! Tossing about half of the objective criteria we started with out the window, in large part because she likes the shape and thinks it's cool. To me, it's the Toyota who's accelerator sticks and then the breaks don't work either. My choice had been the Legacy sedan which I thought beat it on every score except fuel economy. Even then, it has very good numbers for a mid-size vehicle. The lack of AWD is somewhat mitigated by the fact that she'll simply take the truck on heavy snow days and leave the Prius home.
I have to admit I was impressed by the room it offers inside, but the quality of the interior materials screams, "Yaris". Lots of hard cheap plastic for such an expensive vehicle. Now we have to see if we can find the one she wants before we leave for France in 10 days. There is currently a $2000 gov't rebate which expires June 30th.

tsy

I udnerstand where you're coming from- I was hoping the older my kids got the more time I would have. Unfortunately, the opposite is the case and I've just been paying money for other people to 'fix' stuff instead of dealing with it myself.

Oh well, you know what they say, time is money. Or I need to spend money to have time! :sick:

tom

tsy

I really like the S2000 as well- kinda raw but really rigid for a convertible!

I'm going to take a look at an SVX if it's still for sale. May be fun to restore!

tom

fibber2

Ok, Rob, here you go!

The late 1970's saw tremendous growth in Northern Dallas as rustbelters moved to the Metroplex. Dozens of relatively inexpensive luxury apartment complexes opened up offering 'country club' amenities, and we moved into one such place off of Marsh Lane in Carrollton in the Spring of 1979. We were a mere 10 miles away from Texas Stadium, and the University of Dallas where I was taking nighttime graduate classes while working for Mostek.

Well, that September brought a new ritual to our corner of the complex. Two young ladies from the cheer-leading squad of the famed Dallas Cowboys moved in shortly after us in the adjacent building. On Sunday mornings of a home game from September on, mysteriously, every guy (single, married, living in sin, etc.) had this burning need to do car repair beginning around 10 AM! Hoods popped up, jack stands came out. Oil flowed like water, and plugs now needed weekly cleaning. The reason for this frenzy? Our young ladies needed to run thru their routine on the front lawn! A few additional cars would show up, and their teammates would join in the rehearsal. This would last around an hour, until the team party bus would pull in. It was basically a Hertz-like airport customer van-bus (Ford E-350 nose, large volume carpeted & decked out interior) filled with more screaming girls. They'd all clown around (in uniform, of course!), then get back in and drive off. The cloud of pot they left behind in the still morning air could get the entire complex high.

Within minutes, car wheels would return to the ground, distributor caps would snap back into place, tach-dwell meters would be stowed away. I went thru several sets of points on the Mercury that month! Peace and quiet would return.

Except inside the apartments... The cheers were replaced by the screams of wives & live-in girlfriends, etc., as they slowly caught on to why the sudden need for auto maintenance! The ritual continued until the end of that football season, when the girls moved to new digs.

robr2

That's a great story reaffirming what my wife says: Men are pigs!!

Doesn't matter how old, what background, level of education - we're all pigs.

ateixeira

I can hear my wife asking, "Do you REALLY need to rotate the tires every 75 miles".

But honey, with AWD you want to ensure very even wear...

rsholland

Mini Countryman stretch = MaxiMini?

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/06/08/rumormill-mini-planning-larger-seven-seat-cou- ntryman/

Bob

ateixeira

Any heritage there, Bob?

I don't think so.

To me that would be too much of a stretch. It would water down and even hurt the brand image.

rsholland

Any heritage there, Bob?

Not that I'm aware of. Yeah, this one is kinda hard to fathom.

Could be cool though? BMW/Mini marketers have done remarkably well, so I wouldn't write it off just yet.

Bob

ateixeira

I'm just imagining a 2nd and 3rd row about as useless as the 3rd row in the Outlander.

rsholland

Back in the 1960s, when the "original" Mini was in full swing, BMC did introduce a larger car based on the Mini formula. It was marketed as the Austin 1100, Morris 1100 and MG 1100. There were other badge-engineered models as well (Riley, Vanden Plas, etc.). There was also a 1300cc version as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMC_ADO16

So there is some "heritage" with a larger Mini-like car. It wasn't a 3-row seating car, however.

Bob

KCRam

We are not worthy



kcram - Pickups/Wagons Host
(No, that's not me...)

fibber2

Beth says the same thing: "All Men Are Pigs!"

rsholland

Actually, there is already a 3-row seating MaxiMini out there. It's called the Ford Flex.

Bob

rsholland

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/06/09/video-2011-wrx-sti-sedan-runs-ring-in-7-55-qu- ickest-ever-for/#continued

Bob

ateixeira

See more Car Pictures at CarSpace.com

ateixeira

Watching it now...

You know what they say? If you want to win, hire a Finn.

xwesx

Except there's really nothing "mini" about the Flex, except perhaps its height.

rsholland

http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/250426/

Does this mean the DC suburb and the comedian must now also be referred to Chevrolet Chase?

Can't wait to read Peter De Lorenzo's (AutoExtrememist.com) response to this; or Letterman and Leno, for that matter.

Bob

ateixeira

They also recalled 1.4 million vehicles with heated wiper fluid. The supplier is defunct so instead of fixing it they're giving each customer $100 and that's that.

robr2

Well other than trying to engineer that will probably cost $500 a car, it's simpler to remove the feature and hand the consumer $100.

I'll bet most owners didn't even realize they had the feature.

ateixeira

It was hyped up a bit, at auto shows and in ads. I remember Cadillac bragging theirs was a few degrees warmer than Buick's.

In highsight, LOL!

KCRam

Maybe it's just me, but I never saw heating washer fluid (often an alcohol-based mixture) to 150° and spraying it on sub-freezing glass as a great idea.

kcram - Pickups/Wagons Host

ateixeira

Can you say "cracked windshield"?

I'm sure the contrast in temps make that more likely.

tsy

After thinking about buying a convertible I found a '97 SVX LSi on Craigslist and bought it this weekend! Cosmetically it has some issues but mechanically it seems to be in reasonable shape. I'm having a Subaru mechanic here who has worked on SVXs give it the once over and flush out all fluids and replace them with synthetics.

Hopefully with my 2 boys we work on the brakes and suspension this summer and anything else we decide to do!

I'll try to post a pic when I get the chance

tom