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Comments
-juice
-juice
Maybe have to change the oil in Mama's car this weekend, but nothing due on the OB.
Cheers!
Paul
PS. It appears I sent this message to wrong place yesterday, through e-mail. Sorry. Yuki.
-juice
Cheers. Tom
Yuki -- Can you describe the sound you're hearing again? Some cold engine noise is normal in our boxer engines. However, you should not be hearing a knocking noise after the engine warms up. My advise is to keep taking it back to the dealer so it gets logged while under warranty. If you don't think the dealer is helping you, try contacting Subaru of Canada to see if they can help. Sometimes an average mechanic won't be able to pick up sounds like piston slap, if that is the case.
Good luck,
Ken
Thank you very much for your prompt reply. At the present time I am waiting for regional rep. to come to this city. I will report his view.
Ken. My two sons hard the noise and one said "lack of oil" and another said "tappy" noise. Yuki.
About 6-7 months ago when changing my wife's OB's oil, I noticed the oil pan(?)seal towards the front of the engine looked a little damp with oil.
Upon changing it a few weeks ago, I noticed a small drip from a place where the front of the engine is bolted (sorry for my exteme lay-description). On each side of the bottom of the engine toward the front are two bolts.
Also there appeared to be a leak around one of the two other bolt thingy's that are on the bottom in front of the oil pan (these don't look like typical bolts and are round and closer together).
Anyone think this is major work that needs to be done? Or just seal replacing and bolt tightening.
I'll try to find some pictures on the web or maybe someone has a picture of the bottom of the engine in front of the oil pan.
On another note, my 2.2 OBS was making strange sounds in the cold this morning. I recently had a 60k miles service and a replacement of the camshaft retainer(?) o-ring. My car sounded like a late 60's model VW bug but more "airy" sounding. Haven't had a chance to peek at that yet.
Any help appreciated.
Thanks,
Dennis
Anyone ever dropped the oil pan?
-juice
Craig
Put the front of the car on jackstands, I recommend under the beefy framerails aft of where the control arm connects. Unbolt the two lower motor mounts, unbolt the exhaust at the heads (might need new exhaust manifold gaskets, fyi), and jack up the engine to the sky with the jacking plate. If you have a long enough jack you will raise the engine off the crossmember and the studs on the bottom of the block will come to rest on top of it.
It's not hard to remove the pan, use a rubber mallet and just be very sure you have all the bolts out--there are many along the flange. You also need to be sure that the pan and block are very clean, and keep wiping the block esp. near the back just before you put the pan in place. I can probably dig up the Subaru part number for the sealant you're supposed to use, but we used Yamabond and it is working just fine.
To get the engine back in the crossmember instead of sitting up on the two lower bolts, jack it again and pull forward on the tranny-- there are a lot of big bolts that you can use for leverage. The engine will slide right back to its correct resting place with a little bit of encouragement.
-Colin
Dennis
Craig: last time I spoke to Darlene, they were still in business, but she could not order parts from Subaru. They are in a financial mess, basically. Before that, it was a problem with UPS, again unpaid bills. That place needs to be acquired by someone smarter than the current owner.
-juice
Speaking of Darlene, I'm down to my last 2 $4.00 delivered oil filters. From the other on-line prices I've seen, my dealer is about as cheap as anywhere out there at ~$5.30 with the crush washer.
-Dennis
Question: My sister drove down in her 96 OB 5 speed. The car has 85K and by the time she pulled into the driveway, the clutch was smoking. She took it into our local Subaru dealer and they confirmed the clutch and fly wheel needed to be replaced and it would cost $1200. Does that sound about right, both on the dollars and the mileage?
Thanks for you help.
Pete.
Pete -- $1200 sounds a little on the high side. With a new flywheel, it should be more like $1000 including labor. Milage wise, 85K might be a little early, but not out of the question. It partly depends on how the previous owner drove as well.
Ken
of course that dealer probably also won't install parts they don't sell. call around for estimates, other dealers and independents both.
-Colin
-juice
I got a flat tire this morning, but by time I noticed the tire was probably too damaged (long white line on the side wall). I pumped a bit more air into it, and made it to my work place.
Now, if tire's beyond repair, what are my options (all other Yokohama Geolander tires on my Forester have 27K on them, and look good)
a) replace that single tire (rear driver side)
b) replace both rear tires
c) replace all tires (yikes! it's expensive!!!)
any other ideas?
thanks, mates
--kate
I would also recommend shopping around.
-Dennis
That stinks, Kate. 27k is a lot, how is the tread? If you replace only one, put it on the front axle, which has an open differential. Don't replace two - the AWD will go haywire thinking you are slipping all the time.
The spare is a Geolander, so measure the rolling circumference of both to see if there is a noticeable difference. Mark the tires in the same spot and drive straight until you've made two complete revolutions, then see if they rotated the same amount.
I got 28k out of my Desert Duelers, so I'd be shopping for a full set, honestly.
-juice
When it happenned to me the tires were 3/4 worn anyway so I replaced them just to be on the safe side. Rotate every 3,000 miles. Found a great tire dealer who encourages rotation.
-mike
My tire was indeed beyond repair. They did not have Yoko Geolanders in stock, so I was talked into changing all 4 for Yokohama Avid Touring.
Hope it will last longer...
Its the same scam with brakes, oh sir, madam, your rotors are scored the need resurfaced or replaced, take a look at any rotor after several months of use with metallic pads I guarantee they will be just as scored and just as alright as new rotors.
Also in the case of flywheels if it is scored it is more than possible to resurface it, a lot of racers actually have the flywheel skimmed to lighten it for better throttle reponse, I say shop around $1200 seems like way too much to me.
Cheers Pat.
Cheers Pat.
At my 60k miles service, my dealer spot-welded (or soldered?) my exhaust shields because I was complaining about the rattling noise. The car was unbelievably quiet after that.
Last night though, I found that part of the weld or solder came off exposing a hole the about the size of a pencil eraser. It's just before where the pipes form a "Y".
The dealer can't even look at it until Jan. 5th (I have to take it on a Saturday because of distance/work).
Does anyone think something like this can be patched or are they most likely going to replace part of the exhaust?
Low and mid-range torque seems to have improved a little. :-D
Can I put some kind of exhaust tape to at least stop the noise until it's fixed?
Lots of questions lately.
-Dennis
-mike
Kate: I've heard the Avid Touring tires are good, but I don't recall the source.
Dennis: I'm sure they can fix a tiny hole like that. Either that or it's time for a SS cat-back (if you're gonna keep it).
-juice
I recommend a more professional repair btw, just wanted to give you an option.
-Colin
I'll keep the header putty option in mind as a quick-fix though.
-Dennis
Mine ("old" tires-ha!) have maybe 3k miles - I'm not too worried, but curious nevertheless. Cut a sidewall somehow, still scratching my head on how. Thanks.
Cheers!
Paul
Slap your spare on that rim, and use that. Then get a replacement tire for the spare.
-juice
http://www.isrperformance.com/tuning.html
$425 for a high performance clutch, $479 for a lightened flywheel. If I replace the clutch, that's what I would get. I'd try to have the flywheel machined - their lightened model weighs less than half the original. I doubt it's that worn.
-juice
Just think that $400 US = $800 AUD = $1000 NZD ... and many many millions yen I guess.
Is all that stuff about different circumference really that important? What would have happened if I put 2 new tires in front, and left 2 good old ones on rear axle?
With an auto, I guess the AWD would get confused and continuously adjust the power distribution. It could overheat and cause serious problems.
Get four tires. It's 2% of the price, almost insignificant in the big picture. In reality you only lost a little, because you probably only had 15k miles or less left on the old tires.
The tire pressure sensor would have saved you in this case, if you stopped, that is.
-juice
Chuck
-juice
regarding the possibility of using two old tires on the rear and two new on the front... first let's address the math on that. say you had a stock 215/60-16 which is by the numbers 26.2" tall. (tires in actuality will vary a little, look at the manufacturer's quoted diameter and revolutions/mile)
let's say that 26.2" tire had 10/32" tread depth when new and only 6/32" now. that's 4/32, or 1/8" off the radius, which gives us somewhere around .8" less circumference. that's .5% difference between the front and rear axles.
to me it's within tolerance, especially with a manual transmission Subaru. I think that's too little of a difference for there to be enough slippage to result in binding in the center differential's viscous coupling.
you can agree with me, or ask Subaru who will probably faithfully error on the side of caution. but I also agree with Pat that you do get some benefits out of replacing tires with 27,000 miles on them. I would have replaced all four even after doing the math, because I hate to get into a situation where you can't rotate tires properly and are always replacing a pair of them at odd intervals. I like to rotate them in a timely fashion and replace all four.
if you're not checking tire pressure regularly, it might be a good idea to get in the habit. I've slacked more than bit here myself, used to do it every fillup and now it's probably been 2 months or so. !
-Colin
Cheers,
-wdb
-juice
1/2" diameter smaller on one tire was causing all kinds of AWD problems and what sounded like a differential whine as well. It also would not shift out of 4wd lo properly. I thought I needed a new transfer case or differential. After getting diagnosed and a tire with the same diameter installed, it cleared up almost instantly. YMMV but IMHO you should always replace all 4 if they are anywhere near 30K miles in a situation where you have AWD.
-mike
-Dennis
Anyone else had this?
Thanks, Dan
need a bit more info. what specifically are you experiencing with this rough starting? it is normal for the engine to turn over a few more times before firing when it's very cold, and also for it to bring the idle up to 1200-1500 rpm and wander a bit while warming up.
-Colin
-mike
I got the overall diameter of the Blizzaks from the Bridgestone website, but the Yokohama website doesn't list the 215-60-16 size in the Geo. I guess that size is only offered as OEM for the Forester, and isn't available as a replacement from Yokohama. The Miata tire size calculator (which I got from someone on this forum some time ago...thanks) lists a .10 inch difference in diameter and a difference of about 5 revolutions per mile. Is that enough to make a difference? I have a 5 speed, if that makes any difference. Thanks in advance for any info or opinions you guys and gals can offer.
Len