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Comments
-Greg
-mike
Ed
2.5 engines - timing belt - heavier, thicker belt that requires less maintenance.
3.0 timing chain - to make room for the bigger engine. Looks good so far.
Patti
Cheers Pat.
-mike
We do a lot to encourage dealers to stock parts. Most do for things they see frequently. I'd suggest that you ask your dealer to order your parts as a VOR (old meaning - vehicle off road). This speeds up the delivery process. If the dealer is telling you it will take a week, it is because they are ordering as part of their regular stock order. As part of encouraging dealers to carry stock, stock orders are looked upon as "good job" with less freight charged to the dealer. With VOR, there MIGHT be some freight charges. You should not be charged for this. If you run into a problem, let us know about it and we can get involved and get the order moved along. You should call us anyway so we can note and report on the dealers lack of stock at the time of the failure.
Patti
There is supposed to be a "spare" fuse that you can put in the slot. I have not actually looked for mine. The current through this FWD fuse is probably tiny -- it might be neat to have it as a switch on the dashboard instead of an under-hood fuse. :-) It may be necessary to have the car in park (or neutral) to change over, though, so this would not be something I would try without care.
Anyway, AWD is more fun! :-)
Frank
This is just another reason why I really hate going to the dealer. I know everyone here likes to tout factory-trained mechanics and use of OEM parts but my experiences with dealer service departments (GM)has been less than stellar. My experience has been that dealer mechanics "throw parts" at a problem hoping to rectify and if it doesn't, "Oh Well".
My experience with an independent mechanic of 17 years is that they do a much better job of diagnosing the problem the first time to save money AND time. Additionally, it's rare that they cannot get a part the same day which amazes me because they are dealing with 100's of different makes and models.
I know I'm probably going to get hammered from alot of you, but my experience has not been good with dealer service departments. And so far, my experience with my Sube dealer, although not bad, has been mediocre at best. (I feel I'm being pretty objective about my dealer considering I got hosed for $130 on the 7.5k maintenance. But, as I said before, that's my own fault.)
Patti, if you read this, I consider this along with the relatively poor gas mileage as the only two "minuses" of my 2000 OB.
Whew... I'm glad I got THAT off my chest.
I'm off my soapbox now.
:~}
Let SoA know about any problems you have with a dealer. I had big problems with the service dept. at my former dealership. Parts never ordered, one person says "yes, it'll be under warranty" the other says "that'll be $1200", numerous trips to fix any problem, phones never answered.
The $1200 was the last straw. I met with the District Rep. about my problems and bombarded him with complaints. I guess there were numerous other complaints because the Service Manager and Advisor are no longer there.
I have since found a dealer where the difference is like night and day. It's more than twice the distance, but definately worth it. Their prices are considerably cheaper and their workmanship is a hundred times better.
Hopefully you're able to choose from a few dealers where you live. I have about 4 within 30 miles and have tried all of them. Two of them perform maintenance according to the manual. That's savings over $100 on the big services.
Dennis
My last car was a Peugeot. The dealer did not carry a huge parts inventory because he could get parts, any part, delivered next-day air from the central Peugeot parts repository.
SoA is a bigger outfit, with more dealers and more cars on the road, so I am willing to assume that there are scaling issues that might preclude SoA from delivering that level of service in every instance; however my point remains that parts availability is not something that should be laid solely at the feet of the dealer. They can only get what is available from the distributor, and they have to wait for the distributor to send it.
Regards,
-wdb
-mike
-Greg
[start of quote --------------------]
4-speed electronically controlled automatic with overdrive This transmission has an automatic power mode which engages with rapid use of the accelerator pedal. (Optional)
[end of quote ----------------------]
They have this on the spec pages for all models.
What is this about? Is it just a fancy description of a downshift? Then how come it's optional?
VTD Transmission
Gets rear LSD
No VDC
40/60 initial split
VDC A/T:
VTD Transmission
VDC
no rear LSD
45/55 initial split
The Power mode engages (but you don't know when) when you slam down the pedal hard. This will move the shift points to near red-line. All 4EAT trannies have them on subarus. On the SVX and XT6 we have a "power" light, this comes on on the dash when you peg the accelerator to let you know the car has auto-matically moved the shift points to this higher set near red-line. On my Trooper we have a power-button, this will set those higher shift points on a more permenant basis rather than basing it on the accelerator. The "optional" that you mention above is for the whole 4EAT, not just the power mode.
The other 4EAT trannies have a 90/10 or 95/5 depending on the car split of torque initially.
Hopefully this explains it for yah and if anyone has better info, feel free to correct me.
-mike
VDC itself is a stability control program, which the WRX does not have.
I don't think VSC exists in the Subaru world.
dducer: sounds to me like a fancy way to say they programmed the tranny for more aggressive driving.
-juice
[... standing applause, continuing cheering, kids with flowers, general screaming and fainting ...]
Seriously, THNX!
-mike
Sounds like I'm gonna have to do some experimenting...
-Brian
Ken
On the flip side, in the past year, we have done a lot to make the majority of parts readily accessible to our dealers. In fact,we encourage the use of "Parts Voice" by our dealers. If we don't have a part, this system (used by a lot of manufacturers) helps the dealer find the part that a dealer may have on their shelf.
I agree that this is room for improvement. But, we are focused on it, so we're not "swimmin' in d' nile".
Thanks for the feedback!
Patti
Patti
Who is the distributor for Flemington? SDC or SoA?
Dennis
robert
Disconnect the wires for the defroster, and turn on the defroster, if there is static, then the problem lies in the wiring harness or switch. If there is no problem, then the problem lies in actual wires in the window.
Follow-up question is this: Did you try a different dealer? I had vibration problems @ my local isuzu dealer, even had the district rep look at it 4 or 5 times, then I brought it 25miles away to a different dealer and the fixed it first try.
I see though that you are the typical sue-happy american, new truck? new car? Sueing won't get you everything in life.
-mike
I'm sorry you're having so much trouble but my armchair guess is that it is a defect in the dealership's ability to locate the problem, and not an indication that you have a lemon. Get thee to a different dealer, and tell the dealer to look at the back window for heaven's sake!
Patti, can you help this guy out? This one sounds like it should be pretty easy to fix.
Regards,
-wdb
Ken
second i am not going to spend upwards of 30k on a vehicle and have to take it to the shop mulitple times for the same thing and on top of that have to pay 30.00 a day for rental car out of my pocket not to mention time and pay missed at work because i am having to take the car to the shop all of the time and get docked for being late for work.
third my truck is the first time i have ever called a lawer except for wills and such in my life and that is only because my truck was in the shop 10 times in the last year for power train isses at 3 different dealers.
i dont see how you can judge me as a sue happy american when i have never been to court and have only used an attorney once outside of wills and such for advice and letters on and for my legal rights as a tax paying american citizen. if you cant understand that i wish i had your money to throw out the window on 30,000 worth of troubles, stress and financial burden! these boards are here to help owners with information exchange and to help each other with problems not insult.
i have a problem with my new car that costs me time and money and im not going to pay for others mistakes.
as far as your ideas go, thanks for the advice and yes myself and/or the dealer, have changed out the radio, switch and installed a new rear window and still problem exists.
as far as another dealer goes i would have to take even more time off of work and loose even more money since the other dealer is the opposite direction and that is one of the things i will deal with subaru on if it isnt fixed this time. its bad enough i drive for over an hour one way to drive 20 miles to work not to mention 30 min in the oppposite direction first then drive to work and be very late because of going to another dealer.
as far as your new car, new truck comment i replaced my 1994 chevy blazer 18 months ago because it had over 120k miles on it and was becoming undependable. we replaced my wifes 1994 nissan sentra a few months ago with this subaru because hers was also high milage and starting to have problems. we keep our cars along time and we met 2 years ago so it is a coincidence that we both had 1994 automobiles. if you cant understand the logic behind everything i have said i wish i had your understanding and obvious wealth and time.
thanks for your answers everyone but other than another dealer ive tried everything. i have already used up all of my vacation time between my truck problems and this cars problems and 3 days for myself yippiieee.
when it rains it pours
sorry for the long post everyone
robert
Has anyone replace spark plugs on a '97 Impreza? Is it something that can be done by someone without any experience before? Any recommendation on the type of plugs that I should use. What is the gap clearance. Any things that I must look out for? Thanks
Eric
cheers Pat.
Now on to the more nitty gritty stuff...
Have they tried to replace the wiring harness for the antenna and/or wiring harness for the defroster? If they have replaced the window, the switch, the head unit, and you still have problems, then the only thing left is the wiring harnesses for the antenna/radio, and the wiring harness for the rear defroster.
At least your dealer is willing to say there is a noise. I myself have had the "oh that is normal on this vehicle" or the "we can't seem to find a problem with it" and then you have not only the problem of it not be fixed, but you also have the problem that no one believes you. I hope you heed some of our advice and at least give a different dealer a try. Going the lemon law route, benefits the lawyers more than the manufacturer or the consumer.
-mike
i just ran down to look as i am driving the car today and there are no lines on any windows accept the front windshield that has the lines for the wiper defrost and thelines on the back window. there are 2 distinct sets of lines one set on top that have never done any defrosting and the ones that cover most of the window that defrost accept for a few of the lines. the ones on top sure look like they would be for the antenna but i will ask anyway.
thanks,
robert
Didn't they replace the rear window already? Then all the wires should do defrosting now (except for the antenna ones), just a guess.
-mike
I visited 3 different dealers for a clutch problem and made about 6 trips to my regular one and they still couldn't fix it. I merely mentioned it to another dealer and they knew exactly what the problem was. Had to stick with the old one since I had a pending SoA case.
My old dealer was near the train station and I could get to work easily from there. Now I go to a better dealer that's 30 min. in the opposite direction. They have customers from PA and NY city. I'm lucky that they do tech work on Saturdays though.
Also, you mentioned you called SoA. Have you opened a case? Have you met with the District Service Rep? Worked for me. I also think the Rep was helpful because I never lost my cool with him or SoA.
Dennis
Cheers,
-wdb
Even asking for a different technician can help. It's like getting a 2nd opinion.
-juice
thanks for your info paisan but on the truck dodge recommended a buy back, not me and i got a lawer for opinons on my rights and to view what their offer was. so there was never any nasty feelings on either party or anything and the lawer only charged me 100 bucks for about a total of an hour of questions and reading a contract which dodge made very fair and didnt need any altering.
i dont believe the courts can solve all our problems but if people dont stand up for their rights we would all get run over, and as the saying goes "everyone hates lawers until you need one" LOL... i didnt need one on the truck but i will never sign a binding contract without an attorneys opinion.
if subaru will be willing to pay for my rental i would be more than happy to take the car the day before and drop it off for another dealer AFTER WORK to work on. if i take it to another dealer in the morning i will be over an hour late for work and my boss is already unhappy with all of the time i have lost because of these vehicles problems. i cant blame him for hiring me to work here and actually be here to work. i have had to take a half day off over 10 times so far and that is not fair to me, or my employer. if i miss 1 hour i have to take a half day off.
i have learned after these 2 situations and will consider dealer availability more on my next purchase. i used this dealer because of reputation and location but in the future i will buy from a car manufacturer that has a dealer on every block so i can change dealers without the loss of income or job.
robert
p.s. if i wanted to sue someone i would have done it after the 3rd trip. i wouldnt have kept trying to fix it 8 times
Juice, I hear what you are saying about having a different tech look at Robert's problem, but don't you think the service writer or service manager should have done that by the third visit that the poor guy made??
I've been in Robert's position before - it took 8 trips for the Chevy dealer to FINALLY diagnose and replace a CRACKED WHEEL BEARING. (Real esoteric problem, eh??)
Ron
It doesn't hurt to ask specifically, of course.
-juice
My current dealer has several Subaru Senior Master Techs.
I had no idea what my previous had. Jr. Subaru Tech maybe?
Dennis
Ron -- 8 times is a lot, but usually it's cheaper for both the dealer and company to replace the sub-assembly than to go through it component-by-component to isolate the problem. I think it should raise some flags when they keep doing the same thing after the 3rd time.
Ken
My '95 Legacy has the 80W factory cassette deck and the backlight on the display is out. It's an annoyance at night and I'd like to get it fixed. does anyone have any experience w/ the degree of difficulty or cost? Best to live w/ it? A car audio store wants $90 to take it out just to look at it (or send it away) before repair cost.
Thanks,
Kevin
This isn't the answer but maybe it'll help. Russ's Little Subie Page explains how to Change the bulbs in the climate control panel for a 1995-99 Legacy.
..Mike
..Mike
Soobs are different. I don't think they slide out like the Fords (which were easy to steal as a result).
The catch is access to the head unit itself. You probably have to start at the arm rest, and take apart the center console, working up towards the radio.
It's probably time consuming, but not really difficult. For $90, I'd do it myself based on principal alone.
-juice
-mike
When I heard the $90 cost, the thought of a new system came to mind, too. Any good and easy fits for replacements? I guess I'll have to re-read the Mods discussion, I recall some talk of stereo systems in there.
BTW, do I have to do anything special to get into the chat room? For the first time, I actually thought of it while it was supposedly open, but it appeared that no one was there or I wasn't really connected. This was about 9:45 EST.
Thanks again,
Kevin