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hehehe.....hope I did not offend anyone
But a rollong box can never be "sporty", and both minivans and SUV's are rolling boxes.
Greg
Last night an interior door I removed from our basement in order to paint down there fell over onto my Forester.
It bounced, so I have not one ding, but two.
Sigh. I hate it when that happens.
Two good-sized dimples in the top of the passenger door panel. Very little paint damage though.
Cheers Pat.
It does go away as the vehicle warms, usually in a 5-10 minutes. I've never been too concerned about it. I typically take it easy during the first part of my driving too.
I'll have to check, but I'm fairly certain they used 5w-30 dyno the last time I had my oil changed (December). FWIW, our MPV uses 5w-20.
-Brian
This week I visited My.Subaur.Com and under the warranty service history for my outback discovered a "reman transaxle assembly" had been installed. Needless to say, I was not happy. The car is barely broken in. Is it SOA policy to always use rebuilds for warranty work? I emailed them about this on 1/20 and as yet have had no response.
I will say I really like the car and it seems to be shifting fine now, but I am troubled by having an old reworked transmission in what is basically a new car. One which I had planned on keeping for many years.
Opinions anyone? I am still hoping to hear from SOA.
romy4: I wonder if they remanufactured yours maybe? Even so, I bet all the gears are new, maybe they used the casing from a used one. But press on and ask, because maybe they can explain that to you.
-juice
Greg
Running 10w-30 (IIRC..) dino. Maybe I should rethink this!!!!
BTW - no offense taken about the minivan. Unlike most SUV's, they are a pretty sensible vehicle.
Steve
Greg
What kind of longevity will a remanufactured component have vs a new one? If my car had say 30K on it, I might expect they would use a rebuild, but not in this case.
Anyway to date I have had no knocking or tapping whatsoever, idle and running oil pressure once warmed up is no different winter or summer.
Cheers Pat.
The gears would have to have been replaced because the teeth would have been worn (especially if the donor tranny had been bad). I doubt they could reuse those. I bet it's just the original housing with new gears.
-juice
Prior to this, I heard the very subtle slap-like noise occasionally at cold (< 35 degrees F) startup during light acceleration. It always went away within a few minutes of warm-up. I could not hear it at cold idle.
This latest noise is a bit of a concern. I hear it at cold idle very well. And of course, accelerating makes me cringe hearing this noise. Sure it goes away as the engine warms, but man is that hard to just listen to it.
I haven't checked the oil in a couple of weeks, so I'm going to first check that this afternoon.
-Brian
Jim
When I was filling the car up at night, by accident bumped into the gas door. This resulted in the hinge being bent, and causing the door to hit the side of the car.
Dealer will charge me $140 for replace and repaint, which seems reasonable.
First time this has happened to me with bending a gas door, so maybe it was a fluke or flimsy hinge to be warry of. Oh well.
I personally really like the style of the release lever inside though.
Since it goes away when warm, my first guess on your noise is the timing belt tensioner. When it's cold it isn't making enough friction and the belt slaps against the timing cover.
Your dealer can help for sure. If you're out of warranty or merely curious, pop the hood and listen around the timing cover area (lay under the front of the car-- make sure the brake is set, blah blah blah).
-Colin
Would I be able to feel the timing belt cover from the top and 'feel' the knocking?
BTW, I did check the oil level and all is well there, as it should be since it's only been a month and a half since it was changed.
I'm not out of warranty, in fact I have the Subaru Gold too. And I'm only at just under 27k on the odometer.
Silly question - would this type of thing happened if I would have used synthetic oil? It has been fed nothing but dino, fwiw.
-Brian
No, using conventional oil has nothing to do with whatever it is that you are experiencing. In fact, it took a while for Subaru to come out and tell us it was okay to use synthetic!
Ken
I have never been able to figure out the viscous-piston timing belt tensioner. It's needlessly complication and very fragile.
Proof: reinstallation instructions state that it must be compressed slowly over 3 minutes in a vertical orientation (so under a hydraulic press) at cannot see over 66lb/ft of torque at any instant.
Apparently this is better than a spring somehow???
-Colin
-mike
I guess I'll probably have to leave it overnight at the dealer one of these days.
-Brian
They don't carry Mobil 1 in all grades, and I was a bit leary of going with 0w-30 (althought it would probably be fine...). I settled on Quaker State full synthetic in regular Subi spec 5w-30. And even though I have Subi/Purolator oil filters at home, I went for the upper line PTFE impregnated Fram filter. I know, it is probably a scam, but if you heard how my motor sounded, you would go to desperate attempts also. I don't have any concerns about the quality of their drain-back valve, as the filter mounts fully vertical.
Anyhow, this morning the engine was as quiet as a start on a Summers day!! Oil weight is the same (it was serviced with 5w-30, 2900 miles ago), just dino to synthetic. I will let you know if it stays silent.
Steve
Using a synth. blend right now and switching to full synth at over 60k is probably too late.
Wouldn't a conventional usually oil keep things quieter? They're usually thicker at operating temps. (I'll verify that on M1.com).
-Dennis
--jay
This morning with fresh (synthetic), all quiet! I don't do all of my own service anymore. Who knows, maybe the shop put in 10w-30 instead of 5w-30 ??? Something wasn't right.
Steve
-Brian
Luk
Keep us posted, and good luck.
-juice
-mike
-mike
Maybe I'm just suffering from age-related memory degeneration....
I use original subie filters or the Purolator version when I can find 'em.
I've also tried Bosch and Mobil 1 (on sale) on my other vehicles with good results.
Hope that filter choice works out for you.
-brianV
I was getting a hollow noise over bumps and coudn't figure out what it was.
-mike
Steve
Greg
Ken
-juice
1. White gooey stuff on oil filler cap
2. Oil visible on top of radiator fluid
3. White smoke in exhaust AFTER warmup
4. Inexplicable loss of coolant
5. Inexplicable loss of power
6. One or more cylinders fails to hold compression
The best test is the last one.
I had a gasket go on my '91 Sundance - took me a while to figure out because I drove very short distances. I'd check the coolant level and everything would be fine for weeks - then I'd drive a little farther and the thermostat would open, allowing the high pressure side (due to the blown gasket) to "see" the radiator. Next time I'd check - no coolant anywhere, but no leaks either. Fortunately, the gasket failure had not "connected" the oil system with the coolant system, so I didn't suffer a catastrophic engine failure. I had the gasket repaired and sold the Sundance in favor of our Forester...
Hope this helps,
-brianV
After the engine warms up and the car is idle for more than 10 seconds or so, the engine seems to idle too low and a rattling starts (I've not been able to trace it). I don't believe it's anything materially wrong, but it sure can be annoying.
This is my first new car and I obviously don't expect this to happen, ever, but especially so soon. Have any of you heard of this problem before? Any comments/advise would be greatly appreciated.
Ken - My thinking is the 5W synthetic flows too well when cold. The 10W is 2x the viscosity so it will sit in the clearances (i.e. bearings) longer thus reducing the morning knock. Question; if synthetic flows better than dino at a given temp, why are they both rated at 5W?
Greg
you summarized my thoughts exactly as to why I ran 10w30 Syntec, and later, 10w30 Mobil1 in my '99 2.5RS.
it definitely was noiser at cold start with 5w30. used Mobil1 5w30 for one change in mid-winter and never went back... noticeably more valvetrain noise at cold start!
-Colin
Greg
Greg