Subaru Crew Problems & Solutions

ricrod

Thanks for the info guys.

Our forester xs does have a roof rack without a sunroof. We have never carried a load on the rack and have never tried to remove it. It is usually parked in our level driveway. I am supposed to hear back from the service mgr today(Mon) and he is looking in to it personally, since they seem to contract out some of their work at the dealership. I am not sure how that works.

Patti
I will contact you after I hear from the service mgr today. Do I just ask for you or do you have an ext I can reach you at. Thanks for your interest.

Thanks
Ric.

andmoon

It's been cold here in NJ. This weekend my 03 wrx started fine in 10F and after a 2 minute normal (1500rpm in cold) idle I put it in gear and when I released the clutch ...Knock Knock...not a detonation sound but a rod knock noise. I instinctively depressed the clutch and when I re engaged, there was no more noise.

This morning it did it again! This is the coldest it's been since I bought the car...anyone else's do this?

Mobil 1 5-30.

Don

p0926

Ric- FYI: Patti doesn't normally handle cases directly (she's more like a guardian angel). When you call 1-800-SUBARU3 and talk to the customer service rep, just mention to him/her that Patti M. (the Subaru rep on Edmunds) requested that they review the case with her.

-Frank P.

hondafriek

After they got Jagr they got handed a 9-1 pasting by the Senators, Sather should get his head handed to him on a Platter, the Rangers have the highest Payroll in the League and they are utterly pathetic.

  Cheers Pat.

ateixeira

You guys can have him. Look how much he did for us (Caps). He's a shadow of his former self.

-juice

nygreg

they lose 9-1 in Jagr's first game. His first home game is tonight. I wouldn't say the Rangers are pathetic this year, just very, very inconsistent. They need a goalie and 1 or 2 good defensemen. I do agree, though, that Sather needs to go.

Greg

nygreg

the Rangers are hoping to hook Jagr up with his old linemate- Nedved. However, NY does tend to get star players that wind up being ineffective in all sports. Must be the fans.

Greg

dcm61

this topic was for care & maintenance of Subarus, not hockey teams. ;-)

DaveM

ateixeira

My Forester is so covered in ice that Jagr could skate on it. )

-juice

nygreg

heated seats in my OB comfort me after a game.

Greg

98redgrey

When I bought my 98 obs (94k) on 1/3/04, the dealer included a one month/1000 mile warranty. Now (1/26/04) I have about 300 miles to go for the 1000 miles. I had the right-rear cam o-ring replaced (engine is bone-dry otherwise) at no charge.

With a few days/and miles to go the only other thing I have noticed is an idle hiccup while stopped and in drive. I drove up Thompson Canyon to Estes Park this weekend (fun road) to maybe flush out any other problems. None found (it is an AT). The only thing is that when I got to town and turned around and stopped at the light it seemed like she was chomping at the bit and the idle was jumping some.

Does this involve the transmission or maybe just the idle sensor (if there is such a thing) or something as simple as a fuel filter, fuel choice? If this indicates a major internal or electrical problem, I would like to have it remedied before "Sarah" is all mine.

Anyone else have this? I love this car. But mostly I love the first owner for taking such good care of it. Thanks. And so will I, save the occasional mountain road

Thanks.
Jon

dcm61

How are you caring for and maintaining the damaged paint and soiled seats?

DaveM

once_for_all

you may be experiencing the natural shake of the boxer H4. Since the engine is "self balancing" with the cylinders opposing each other, it occasionally gets an irregular rythym at idle.

Other 4 bangers have the added complexity, cost, and inefficiency of requiring balancing cams etc. to do the same thing.

John

98redgrey

for the response. I started noticing it after my first refueling. I would be sitting at a light idling at a nice 300-350 rpm (1/2 way between 2nd & 3rd mark I guess) and it would just blip alittle. If it is just the nature of the beast (beauty) That's fine-It runs perfectly otherwise.

Thanks.

There is a thread about a velour padding on the column for the keys. Well, I need to install a nice soft place for my right knee against the center console.

ballistic

idling at a nice 300-350 rpm

I know of few gasoline engines that can idle that slowly and stay running, let alone do so smoothly. Normal idle speed on mine is closer to 750rpm. If yours actually is idling at anything under 500 or 600 at the minimum, you should probably have it ajusted upward. That will smooth things out quite a bit.
<edit> Mine is a manual gearbox, so there's no "in Drive" drag holding the idle speed down. Maybe others with automatic Subarus can comment as to whether your 300-350rpm in-gear idle is too low. I'm betting it still is.

nygreg

01 4EAT OB idles below the 500 mark. Not sure how accurate it is there. I get the typical bouncing once in a while. Rocks me to sleep.

Greg

ozman62

Klee443, here's my stab in the dark with regards to your rear seat flooding problem. I think you may have some obstruction in the HVAC system that is preventing proper drainage. Water may be draining through the under seat heater vents to the rear seat footwell area. To test, try spraying some water into the inlet area directly in front of the windshield.
HTH, Owen

ateixeira

FWIW, it's common for leaves and debris to clog up the area under the door sills on Miatas. So check there first.

-juice

ballistic

Rocks me to sleep.

Whereupon, when the light goes green, the horns behind gently awaken you? ( - ;

outback_97

Mine idles around 650 rpm, vibrates a little when stopped sitting at a light. If you rev it just a little or shift into N the vibrations stops. It's done this for a long time. Here's a photo at idle (when I turned over to 100K miles):

http://users.sisna.com/ignatius/subaru/mods/100K.jpg

I'm calling midway between the 2nd and 3rd line 625 or so, since first line = 0 , second = 500, third = 750 the way I see it. Note the second line is thicker like the other 500 increment lines; I don't think there IS a 250 rpm line on my tach.

utahsteve

p0926

I had a Jeep Cheorkee where the cabin air intake under the hood would flood the front passenger's footwell everytime I took it thru a carwash. Fortunately I figured out where the water was coming from and fixed it myself (with a coat hanger IIRC!).

-Frank P.

nygreg

here in NY they give you short, little taps on the horn. Kinda like a hybrid car - goes to sleep during lights and gently wakes up.

Greg

hypov

where in New York is that? ;-)

-Dave

nygreg

in my dreams as I am sleeping.

fibber2

gentler NY.... (not)

ballistic

98redgrey

a good thing to have to monitor a 2.2l? Or is the engine temp and CEL enough to warm me of any emminant trouble? It may be a "bullet-proof" engine but someday something could fail and I want to know as much as possible beforehand.

I assume any loss of pressure (no matter how insignificant) could affect performance.

Thanks.

Hey Juice-ever driven from Boa Vista to Manaus? 19 hours and very bumpy. Would be a fun (straight) rally.

rangner

I mentioned awhile ago about the clop-clop sound coming from my 00 OBW w/59k. Well now it's more pronounced and added a squeak to boot! Anyway, I'm thinking it might be something around the timing belt. What's the best way to get at it? The only way I see is to go from the bottom, but not much room to work with. Any experience changing timing belts?

Thanks,
Eric

ateixeira

No, but I've driven from Recife to Fortaleza. Pot holes big enough to swallow buses, never mind a little rally car.

That was back in the late 80s, I'm sure it's different now. Probably worse! LOL

My '93 Miata has a real working oil pressure gauge. I bet that Subie has an idiot light. The catch is that most just look for the presence of oil pressure. If your oil filter fails and clogs, you'll have pressure, sure, but the engine will still blow. The light won't help.

In 1994 Mazda cost-cutted the gauge out of the Miata and used a dummy guage instead, some people do put the real one back.

It may not be worth the trouble, though.

-juice

nygreg

with 59K miles, I would think you are still under warranty. Check with your dealer. Might be the easiest way to handle this. Could be belt tensioner.

Greg

ballistic

I've always felt that the ideal would be a gauge (say, oil pressure) together with a blinking warning light to draw one's attention to the gauge when pressure falls past a safe level.

rthompson10

Just wondering what any of you use to inflate tires to maintain PSI- take it to the local service station or have your own inflators?- Any brands/models to recommend?

Robert

nygreg

just when I need to top off (consider it excersize). I carry a compressor in each car just in case, but it takes more time than I want to spend and is noisey. Gas station once in a while, but I won't use the ones you need to pay a quarter for.

Greg

rangner

yeah I might end up doing it after all, but they'll charge me just for looking at it an arm and a leg. Then they'll say that they can't reproduce the problem. That and they don't know squat about Subarus. But what are you gonna do--the other dealers are at least 100 miles away.

Eric

fibber2

5hp / 30gal floor standing compressor with ceiling mounted retractor reel for the air hose. I can get an air tool or inflator to all corners with that setup!

Steve

fibber2

As an engineer, I love a suite of gauges. But who can take in all of that information while driving? What goes unnoticed for even a minute can kill you. I too always thought that gauges backed up with a light for "YO - Pay ME ATTENTION!!" would be a great way to go.

Steve

nygreg

you mean 8 "corners" don't you?

Ready for the snow??

Greg

ppek

I too wish more cars (including Subaru's) had more gauges as standard. Idiot lights normally come on when it's too late. My last car ('93 Talon Tsi AWD) had an oil gauge and it saved me big time.

I was driving home after getting my oil changed at one of those quick change places. They didn't put the drain plug on properly and it popped out on my drive home. Luckily I noticed the oil pressure acting weird, so I pulled over to watch all the oil drain out of my engine. If I didn't pull over right away, who knows what might have happened.

Take care, Paul

p0926

Hey Paul, I had a 91 Talon Tsi AWD. Fun to drive but the cargo space and back seat sucked.

-Frank P.

ttrujillo

I have a 2000 Outback wagon and trying to find a tire that will handle well and have a quite ride.
I had the Dunlap A2 sports, couldn't keep them balanced...and I barely got 15,000 miles out of them. I just had the Turanza LS-T put on. The salesman talked me into the T vs the H. I am not very happy with the ride. It bumpy and noisy.
After several calls, rebalance, alignment I asked if I could switch to another tire, he said yes Has anyone tried the Turanza-H?

98redgrey

"I was driving home after getting my oil changed at one of those quick change places."

Sorry, to hear about that Paul-very inconvenient I bet.

How many Subie owners change their own oil? Those quick change places must just love to see Subarus-"great, another subaru-do we have any crush washers left?".

I look forward to changing my own oil-always have. The least I can do for my car and a chance to inspect all areas underneath. The only pain is estimating that darn .2 US qt.

Should adding just the 4 qts be adequate?(Thinking there is some left in the engine).

Someone mentioned they fill up the new filter with oil before they install it (is that .2 qts?)

Btw-the dumbest thing I ever did as a kid was flush my '76 Toyota SR5 with Kerosene during an oil change-good concept bad idea (probably). That would be considered car abuse this day and age.

"Good judgement comes from experience, and experience, well, that comes from poor judgement."
Aesop

c_hunter

5hp / 30gal floor standing compressor with ceiling mounted retractor reel for the air hose. I can get an air tool or inflator to all corners with that setup!

Everyone, let's have a round of gorilla noises!

Craig

hondafriek

a 4Hp 20 gallon + a 2HP pancake type that I use for my air nailers and stapler, it is easy to carry around so I use to inflate tires and stuff.

 The 4HP I use for air tools and paint spraying.

   Cheers Pat.

hondafriek

Technology wonderful these days, they now have managed to connect the green traffic light to the horn of the car behind you:-)

  Subies have to the easiest car to change oil on the filter hangs down in the correct fashion, in many intances you can do it in a pinch without even jacking the car up.

On my GT wagon I have to jack it a little but I do not even have to get the wheels off the ground.The proper oil capacity is 4 Litres including filter.
 Cheers Pat.

ballistic

On my GT wagon I have to jack it a little but I do not even have to get the wheels off the ground.

I just place two foot-long stacked pieces of 2x8 plank in front of each front tire and drive onto them. Raises the car about 3.5", which is just right. Piece of cake.

jfl

Oil change?...I got the Fumoto valve. Very clean oil changes, no need to jack up the Legacy.

Jim

ballistic

You can change the filter without raising a Legacy at all?

jfl

I just have one of those wimpy and noisy little compressor/flashlight thingys, but it works and cost less than $25.

Jim

jfl

My battery was disconnected during the CD changer install but is there really anything for it to learn with a manual tranny?

Jim

jfl

Yes, but obviously, I don't use a creeper.

Whenever I dream about lowering the car for improved handling, I now remember the added labor when doing oil changes.

Jim