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Comments
As long as the temp is kept where it's supposed to be by normal air movement, the fan shouldn't need to come on.
-Brian
Have not filed a claim with the insurance company yet. Not sure if it's worth driving up premiums since I have a $250 deductible.
My old Ford Crown Vic also has an aluminum hood and didn't appear to ding in the same storm.
Anyone else have experience fixing hail damage to the new Forester hood? I think they changed to aluminum with the new body style. If the metal is ultra thin and prone to dents maybe it's not worth filing an insurance claim now just to get a new set of dents in a few months.
Sounds like dry ice works on steel but not aluminum, although I haven't tried it myself.
The rest of the car has performed well so far.
On my new Subie I decided to forgo the touch up paint in lieu of a plastic hood protector. Well worth it.
Elissa
Elissa
Jim
We have a 2001 Forester and a 2003 Outback, each with the 2.5 and 5 speed manual. The cooling fans do not run on either one when the ignition is switched off, even if they had been running as they were switched off. I hope this helps.
Len
-Dave
In most cases, the parts come with the appropriate connectors on the ends. Do you have bare wires, or gold plated needles already crimped onto the wires?
If you have the 'needles' attached, you will have to remove the old ones from the Molex (or whatever brand of connector they used), and replace them with the new ones. If you examine the new ones, you will probably see little 'one way' tabs that lock them into the plastic shell when inserted. You will need to depress these in order to slip the old ones out. You can buy the tool, perhaps bring the assembly to a parts store that can do it for you, or search for some thin walled tubing to slip over the pin to depress the tabs. Once out, push the new ones into place (insure the correct orientation - pos & ground).
The other alternative would be to simply cut the existing fan wire a few inches above the connector and use Scotch or other crimp connectors to attach the stubs from the new fan to the old connector.
Hope that helps,
Steve
Thanks so much for the info. I had an aftermarket motor with bare wire ends. I had to splice them to the wires coming out of the connector. :-( Took a little bit to figure out which was positive - the blue wire or the black and yellow one! Yikes! Had to get a 12v tester and turns out the black with yellow stripe was power afterall! Anyway, spliced, covered, installed, working! What fun! Thanks! -elissa
Jim
Please take this as a strong positive, and not a negative: I am impressed... Even in my lab environment - filled with male and female engineers and technicians - not many of the women will even pop the hoods on a car, or consider fixing/installing equipment at work. I am trying to teach my daughter about things mechanical, and hope that she will be independent and capable.
Steve
I have the following that were purchased a long time ago for my '99 Impreza 2.5RS:
- thermostat
- upper radiator hose
- lower radiator hose
- cam seals
- a few plastic trim fasteners (handy if you've lost a few installing mudflaps, why I bought them)
hopefully you would never need the cam seals but they're included. anyone with over 50k miles will need the radiator hoses and t-stat eventually.
even though it's free, please only take this stuff if you have a 2.5L SOHC and you do your own work. email me at the address listed in my profile.
oh, I also have a stock 2.5RS shift lever that I could throw in. yes, Ken, I found it again. LOL. it's shorter than a stock Legacy/Outback/Forester shifter.
~Colin
Chuck
Ken
She rides her own motor cycle, has worked at a motor cycle place as an occasional mechanic/parts person. Currently drives a 1970's Comet (I think that is the name).
She also does her own house repairs and builds fences, etc..
Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
MNSteve
John
Thanks for the compliments - I am also pretty proud of the handy-work I do! I don't know how I got so interested in cars but I'm glad for it. I can remember my step father talking me through checking the battery, tires, oil, etc but that's as far as he got, I taught myself the rest. Hopefully your daughters will be equally intrigued. :-)
By the way, once I got the motor installed, I realized why the previous one blew - the switch or relay is stuck in the closed position apparently and the motor runs continuously when the key is in the ignition. I tried to change the switch but the old one was stuck on too good. :-( So now I have to pay someone to change it for me - very frustrating when the skills for the job are well within my reach but the tricks/muscles for doing it are not. Oh well. At least I know how to do it.
Elissa
Under slippery conditions, it would be a good way to immediately rotate the back end around.
-Frank
Owen
John
-juice
On low traction conditions (great on snow...), a turn of the wheel and a sharp pull up on the handbrake (assuming it locks only the rear wheels) will induce incredible oversteer. The car will just about rotate on axis. I used to have to deal with a particularly dangerous spot some days at my old home. Down hill with a sharp turn at the bottom. The front end would tend to plow (understeer), and threaten to put me into the rail. Modulating the handbrake would make the car track exactly where I wanted it to go!
The down side is that it is relegated to emergency use only on an AWD car. Locking only one axle puts terrible wear on the center diff as it fights back.
Steve
Steve
Thanks,
Don
Now that I think about it, I used to do the same thing on a dirt bike when I wanted to point in a different direction in a nano second time frame.
John
Was that a good enough explanation?
MNSteve
MNSteve
MNSteve
John
1) I don't know you'll have to test it
2) blue is ground
3) blue is power
What's a girl to do? So I bought a 12v test light. Blue was ground and black with yellow was power in this case.
Elissa
Also, it is a good idea to have some type of servicing history with a dealer. If you ever have a problem once it is out of warranty, if you have a relationship with a dealer, they will be more likely to go to bat for you. In fact, I've seen quite a few dealers eat the cost of repairs out of warranty for good servicing customers.
Just some thoughts to consider!
Patti (another chick)
In my particular case, I was not talking even about Subaru dealer ( I didnt like shopping experience, untill I got to fitzmall.com folks), but dealer shops in general- since they are making most of money in service and not in sales, it must be not a very good deal to consumers. I still prefer to be told about problems by folks, who cant benefit from them. Like I know that fast service places have no incentive to rip my CV boots, or overtighten my lug nuts, or poke my radiator
To say the truth, I dont like living my car for service and letting it go out of my sight. I once went to pick up my Ford and listened for 5 minutes how the service person in the back was killing my 6-speed Getrag clutch, trying to move the car to bring it around, I can only guess, how much abuse it got over the term of repair from the "highly paid professionals", who didnt fix the problem anyway for another 3 visits. They managed to forget to put back numerous plastic fasteners, tighten the radiator/condenser assembly and other annoying things. They also regularly scratch the car during their complementary wash. I hope Subaru dealers are better
By the way, the dealer next to my house is Isuzu mostly, and has added Subaru cars about a year ago. What kind of training they need to pass to be certified by SOA? They didnt really know much about the car during test drive, for example.
My tally of dealer inflicted damage or sloppy maintenenace with 3 diferent Subies in 2 years (03 Forester XS, 03 OBW, and 04 Forester XT), tallys the following:
1) They did a great job installing the rear window deflectors on all 3 cars. It took me the better part of a day overall to buff out the scratches they put in from leaning against the sides when they did it. Thankfully they didn't go beyond the clear coat.
2) They mis-positioned the lift on the side rails of the 03 Forester and wiped out the rocker panel molding. The dealer replaced w/o arguement.
3) They ran one of the "arms" of the lift into the door. Had to have that commercially buffed - the dealer paid for it
4) Consistently overtorque the lugs - I had the brakes inspected and fluid flushed in the OBW and the XT. After getting both of them home I had to jump up and down on the lug wrenchs to free the lugs so that I could re-torque them before the rotors warped. Or before my wife couldn't get the tire off in an emergency.
5) Speaking of the brake fluid flush, they overfilled the reservoir on both cars, a little on the XT, a lot on the OBW.
6) While straighening up the turbo gauge they mis-installed at an angle in the XT, they shorted out the instrument panel lights. Of copurse I didn't know that until the next time I was driving at night.
7) Oil fills - I let them do one on each 03 and one on the 04. They all got 5 qts. Fine for the XT, bonus quart on the two 03's. I do my own now. Thankfully they're very easy on the Subie's
8) Noise and rattles - I gave up and now fix my own. Keeps the collateral damage down as well.
9) I cleaned off the dirty grease of the sunroof rails in the XT and had the dealer apply fresh grease. I almost have all of the stain out of the headliner.
BTW - for those that might suggest I change dealers, of the 3 within this area, these guys are the best. :<( waaaaahhhhhhh.......
Any product is only as good as its dealer network. Ford, Chevy, Honda, etc. I would rather have an inferior car with a great dealer than a great car that gets hammered every time it goes in the shop. Granted the dealer fixed most of the damage, but it was still additional time in the shop.
As Subaru moves its price point up, they might want to think about the level of care that people who spend over 30k on a car expect. It's not the same level that a 13000 Hyundai owner would expect. BTW - I'm not saying the previous statement is fair, everyone should be treated the same, but that's not how it works out IMO.
I still remember the day my independent mechanic retired, one of the saddest of my life.
This may be a rant, but its a factual rant.
Larry
Aside from the exorbitant cost (about $750-800 installed) I have a few complaints with the film. While the hood still looks great, the lower bumper looks really pitted up close. It's especially bad after waxing and the little pits turn white. Granted, the actual paint underneath is not pitted, just the film, but it's the same difference. I've also had a couple of rocks penetrate the film on the leading edge of the hood. I guess I was hoping the film would be a bit more resiliant.
Otherwise, the front of the car looks 1000x better than it otherwise would have after a brutal commute over the snowy mountains this winter. The film isn't perfect, but it has preserved some of the finish on the car...and if I were really retentive about it (and independently wealthy) I could always have the film on the lower bumper redone to bring it back to new condition.
I have always just used black vinyl bras on my cars, but they have their own drawbacks and you have to be extra vigilant to keep them clean and dry to avoid scratching the finish underneath. Sure, StoneGuard costs about 10x the bra, but I think they are worth it.
Brian
Larry
Juice - I did get Falken 512s put on yesterday. Can't thank you enough. The dealer installed them for $61 each, which is close to what I would have paid had I shipped them from Vulcan tire. Also got rid of the stock Yoko Geos for $20 credit a piece - had about 16K miles with 6/32 tread left on them. I left the store a net $220 shy, a grin on my face, and free lifetime rotations, road hazard, tire checks, etc in place.
Now, my forester is fun. Minimal lean in turns, and powering into and out of turns is fun, and quieter.
BB
Be aware that the removal of this film is a real time consuming PIA. I think I spent more in adhesive removal products than in the bra itself.
Don
thanks.
We bought a MT black XS (premium) a few months ago and are really liking the vehicle, though we needed to have the Hill Holder set to its least sensitive setting. I wish that feature could be turned off - it seems to get in the way of backing up too often.
Anyway, I have two questions I'm hoping someone can help with:
1. When we depress the clutch pedal there is a dry squeaking noise that seems to come from the clutch pedal. I'm guessing I can just ask them to lubricate this but has anyone else experienced it, and does it mean anything nasty?
2. This is really my wife's vehicle, and today, I accidentally scratched it about an inch above the handle of the driver's side door. Deep enough to look white and be impossible to rub out with wax, but not totally horrible (well, that is relative). About 1 inch long.
Any advice on removing it? I want to remove it 1) because the thing is still almost brand new, 2) it looks like it could become a rust spot, and 3) because my wife will be unhappy with a scratch on her car. I've tried applying some wax and rubbing it out but to no avail. What else can I do, while not messing up the clear coat, and so on.
Any advice is appreciated, thanks!
If you scratched down to the sheet metal (shiny silver color for the first 24 hours and likely perfectly rust colored thereafter) then you need to apply touch up paint to avoid rust from getting in. If you only scratched the clear coat then you can buff out with polish/polishing compound/compound and wax over that.
You likely only scratched the clear coat. Wax fills in holes with wax but doesn't smooth a surface scratch like polish and compound do. I usually go at light scratches first with a gentle polishing compound(which removes hazing and swirls and light scratches). You probably want to pick up a "polishing compound" from an auto parts store that is safe for clear coats. Polish and compound remove surface scratches by removing tiny amounts of clear coat down to the level of the scratch. Follow the instructions. Polishing compound will leave the area looking hazy and dull so wax over the area when you're done to shine and protect it.
If you think you've really gouged the door and are down to sheet metal and are concerned about rust, then you should pick up touch up paint at the dealer for $5 (ask for a discount if they want to charge you $10). The paint should be applied after you have removed residual wax with something like a polish. It won't look beautiful with the gob of touch up paint on it, but it won't rust and it won't cost you $100 for the detailing. You can also polish over the touch up paint when it's dried but it's doubtful it will ever look brand new again unless you spend some real money.
Hope that helps - elissa
Regardless, it sounds like I should try a gentle polishing compound that is safe for clearcoats. That'll either work, and then I can wax over it, or it won't work, and the area will be ready for some touchup paint.
Can something like this be fixed beautifully for $100? That is a hundred bucks, but only a drop in the bucket for the cost of the new car. If I can just pay someone $100 to return it to almost-new condition, that might be a better idea than me taking a stab at it (the touch-up, that is.)
Thanks again.