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if you feel there are other questions i should ask/information i should get, please let me know. they said its not driveable right now which ties out with my experience. im just suprised that this would go out. i assume the price of the repair relates to the fact its a 3.0 6 cyclinder awd? it seems expensive.
Now, if it's really the differential, that's different than a transmission problem. Unfortunately, Subaru puts them in the same case, so you replace both at the same time (or possibly do a rebuild). If the diff is toasted, there's not much else you can do. I assume you changed the diff fluid as called for in the maintenance schedule? I believe it gets changed every 30K miles.
-Dave
I don't agree with the idea that how you drain the transmission caused the failure---the real enemy of automatic transmission failure is HEAT above all the others. I'd certainly consider cleaning out your transmission cooler (bottom part of your radiator on your car I believe) if you are going to install a new transmission....or adding an aftermarket transmission cooler, if they make one for your car and IF you plan on keeping this car for another 100K or so.
Replace Camshaft drive belt
Replace Drive belt(s)
-juice
John
(and *I* don't know all 'that' much about it!)
Yesterday, the service mgr stopped by with his own vehicle and took my F-XT in. He lives only a few blocks from us, which is fine, saves me a 45 minute round trip. Calls me today: it's not the power steering pump making the noise, it's actually the idler pulley nearby that is the culprit. In fact, when they removed it, it was not able to spin very freely. This is not stocked as well, but may be at the shop by tomorrow afternoon, if not Friday AM.
-Brian
-juice
I think the replacement hub unit was about $250...
One of their sets of parents is visiting from Eastern Europe. They took the 9.2X to the Finger Lakes and Niagara Falls and Toronto. Last Sunday night, after a weekend in Toronto, they go to head home and the car won't start. It had been garaged in some sort of self-serve municipal facility.
The wife had to be at work, so she and the parents get back to NY somehow, and the husband stays behind to get the car fixed. After a few minutes in the shop, they tell him a belt was broken, they're very surprised, they'll fix it in a jiff.
You can probably guess where this is headed. When the car is ready to go, the tech takes him aside and tells him they found a dead rat in the engine. (note: this was relayed to my wife by his wife and then to me, so some salient technical details -- which belt, was it just a rat or a rat's nest, where was it found, etc. -- are missing.)
It seems like the rat was from Canada -- they didn't have any problems along the way, and the car was not used once for three days in Toronto. Still, I'm a little worried about our garage.
As impossible as it probably will be for most of you to envision this existing in the Bronx, our building and parking garage back up to a pretty thick stand of woods/wilderness. There are skunks and raccoons in the garage and on the property all the time. I don't know if that explains why I've never seen any rats or mice.
However, depending on what's happening with my wife's schedule, we frequently will not drive our car at all on weekdays, and I know idle cars are inviting homes for rats. Anyone else out there ever have this problem, and any suggestions on how to preemptively stave off rats (we keep an immaculate car, at least to the extent that is possible with a three-year-old)? Juice, what was your solution to the chipmunk problem?
Never did try to catch him, but he hasn't done any more damage, at least.
Pics for fun.
-juice
Got the XT back tonight. All I can say is W O W. :surprise:
I must have been living with the whiny idler pulley for a while, I can't remember my XT being this quiet. They also changed the oil, which wasn't necessary since I use Mobil-1, but a nice thing anyway.
-Brian
-juice
The only other thing is that I had a friend look at the car a week ago and he found that one of the spark plugs had popped out (the rubber part that snaps in) and there was a bit of moisture around the plug. We dried it off and snapped it back in. I've been checking and it's still snapped in place properly so don't know if that has anything to do with it.
Is this something potentially serious that I need to get looked at right away or...? Anyone have any insight?
Access is a bit tough, but go ahead and change the tires and the spark plugs while you're at it, unless they're new. In fact, since the boot was loose, who knows what debris got in there, I'd change the plugs regardless.
It would help to know the code, do you have a reader? I bet it's registering a misfire.
I bought a code and that's what mine was. It ended up being - get this - a chipmunk had chewed on my spark plug wires! A new set, plus new plugs, cleared it up. I actually replaced the ignition coil as well, about $80 from an on-line Subaru OE parts wholesaler.
-juice
PS Get the grease that helps estalish a good connection and keeps the area water-free. Also use the thread lock stuff on the new plugs.
Len
juice, get some rest!
The grease he was referring to is dielectric grease. Apply it around the ID of the spark plug boot. It will make removing the boot much easier the next time you change plugs.
Jim
Yeah, dielectric grease on the boot plug, anti-seize on the spark plugs. I need more sleep.
-juice
Len
My car has been to the dealer once, where they supposedly cleaned the track and adjusted the wind deflector. The problem occurred again within a half-hour of leaving the dealership. Today it is back at the dealer, and I was told that the motor would need to be replaced, because the pinch protector sensor is part of the motor and there is no other way to resolve the problem.
Do I have any other options? Subaru is going to charge me $546 for parts and labor. Isn't it odd that the sunroof motor would go bad after only two and a half years? Thank you for any help you can provide.
It wouldn't hurt to call the Subaru 1-800 number, open a case, and see if they can help on this (who knows, they might offer to split the cost with you). I don't see this as being a normal repair to expect -- certainly not a wear/tear item (other parts of the moonroof maybe, but not the motor overload aspect). And the bill is pretty steep too!
Just having a little trouble with my 2001 WRX.
I went to take off from a stand still and my engine started to die and run rough like it was struggling for fuel or losing spark. After a couple of minutes the problem went away and the car ran perfectly but the engine light come on. This is the second time it has happened within a week.
I have taken the car in to have it diagnosed on each separate occasion and they have said that the air flow meter is faulty. Will a faulty MAF make the car run rough?
I will add that the engine was cold and the car has had a couple of modifications such as after market exhaust, blow off valve and the standard air box has been removed and replaced with a pod filter.
Cheers
First, is your BOV atmospheric? If so, your car is running rich unless you have modified the ECU mapping. The stock BOV recirculates blow off air back into the intake. An atmospheric BOV would dump it all, but the engine still thinks the air is coming in and meters fuel accordingly. I think the car will run OK for the most part, but you'll waste fuel and have a sooty tailpipe, and the long term effects of running rich can be bad (clogged Cat, uneven heating/cooling of the engine and exhaust components, soot deposits, etc). The only reason people go with an aftermarket atmospheric BOV is for the cool sound (and that's not a legit reason in my opinion). In any other respect, the stock BOV is better.
The MAF sensor may have been damaged when the aftermarket intake was installed, or it's possible that the aftermarket intake is producing funky airflow that causes erroneous readings. Early WRX's were prone to these issues if I remember right -- espeically if it's an oiled filter that may have sent droplets downstream onto the MAF wire. Either way, the MAF reading will be incorrect if your BOV is atmospheric. None of the data I have seen shows an improvement from aftermarket intakes, and many are worse than the stock air box and resonator (which tunes the standing wave pattern in the intake for positive pressure). Here's another case where stock is probably better.
By the way, are you in the US? If so, you have an 02 WRX -- there was no 01 model.
Any mass air meter can develop misreads from turbulence, and if he does have a 2001 WRX (non-North American), I think that they did have the less-than-reliable hot film MAF sensor. Atmospheric blow-off valves are extremely problematic unless you have added the necessary aftermarket electronics meant specifically to use on. The stock computer definitely won't like it.
~Colin
Thanks -- that's my most productive work this week then!
Helen
~Colin
IT guy at a big oil company
Plus, at 116k miles, I don't think I'd change anything. It's too late to go synthetic, all the seals are used to dino oil.
Just keep up with the regular schedule.
-juice
I say that because WB failures were far more common than AWD or differential issues. 10 times more.
-juice