Subaru Crew Cafe

14566 messages, Last post on Nov 30, 2009 at 3:59 PM

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Your Community Leaders are ateixeira and rsholland.

This is the place for Crew members to kick back, relax, and talk about...whatever!

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#13664 of 14566 misc ramblings by jfl Dec 11, 2008 (2:05 am)
I've been off the boards for a few months but many of the past 200+ posts are hitting home right now. Fix or new: My Legacy is nine years old and has 180k miles. It's a keeper as I've just been laid-off. The good news is that I have over 1000 Subaru bucks. I'll do a full (pads & rotors) brake job myself, but I'm trying to decide if I should do the shocks myself of at the dealer. Mike, your thoughts? [I can't believe Pat's Titan is 8 years old with only 32k miles!] Cellphone: Returned the BB to the company and I'm just going to get a prepaid. For as little as I use it for personal calls it should run $50-60 for a whole year, much cheaper than adding me to the family plan at $10/month. juice: The knock sensors on the Toyota are under the valve cover!? I had to replace mine to pass the smog inspection. On the Subie, it's right on top. You just need small hands to get it out and the new one in. Good to see all the familiar names still here. Jim Replies to this message: ladywclass (Dec 11, 2008 3:03 am) xwesx (Dec 11, 2008 9:08 am) lucien2 (Dec 11, 2008 3:35 pm) ateixeira (Dec 12, 2008 12:00 pm) paisan (Dec 17, 2008 5:14 am)
#13665 of 14566 Re: misc ramblings [jfl] by ladywclass Dec 11, 2008 (3:03 am)
Replying to: jfl (Dec 11, 2008 2:05 am) sorry to hear of the layoff ... that's rough! and quite generally nothing at all to do with job performance .... we're 'sweating' it here as my husband inspects auto pistons .. with 10 years in the company he's third from the bottom after all the layoffs over the past year .. they will do 2-week shutdown at year's end (not so new), and we're concerned there may not be any job after that ... it's a wait and see ... tough all over and getting worse ...at least people keep having kids to send to school! (even that's going to get harder before it ever gets any better ... class sizes will increase, doing even more with less $$, etc.) at any rate ... taking it one day at a time ... all we can ever do ... hang in there, guys ..
#13666 of 14566 Re: misc ramblings [jfl] by xwesx Dec 11, 2008 (9:08 am)
Replying to: jfl (Dec 11, 2008 2:05 am) Jim, I'm sorry that happened. As for your shocks, though, it is a fairly easy job. If I remember correctly, and Subaru did not change the design much, changing out the shocks is an easy task. You will need a set of spring compressors, but the ones I purchased for my car were only about $60. Now, of note is that the original struts I put on there had fully enclosed mounting brackets through which the brake lines fed, while the replacements had brackets that were open-sided. That meant that I "needed" to disconnect the brake lines to get out the originals, but not so for the replacements. As such, I pulled out a small grinder and cut off one side of the brackets so that I could remove the brake lines without having to disconnect (and subsequently bleed) them. You have to be careful not do damage the lines, but if a two-armed monkey like me can do it, I know anybody can accomplish the task. I had a friend who helped me, and it took us about two hours to replace all four. I was very careful when replacing the front struts to note the camber on the front alignment, so when I put it back together, I got the system locked in at the right spots. I did not have it aligned afterward (felt no need as the steering was fine and tires continued to wear evenly). Total, I think it was about $400 for the new struts, $60 for the tools, and four man-hours. It felt like a new car when I was done: Definitely worth it. The old struts were so shot that, after removing them from the vehicle, the pistons fell effortlessly into the cylinders. On the new ones, they did just the opposite - they pressed outward from the cylinders when I removed them from their packaging! Replies to this message: lucien2 (Dec 11, 2008 3:35 pm)
#13667 of 14566 Re: Andrewtech [xwesx] by lucien2 Dec 11, 2008 (3:33 pm)
Replying to: xwesx (Dec 08, 2008 2:36 pm) clutch was 15%, so $400 for that as well.
#13668 of 14566 Re: misc ramblings [xwesx] by lucien2 Dec 11, 2008 (3:35 pm)
Replying to: xwesx (Dec 11, 2008 9:08 am) I'll throw in a caveat here though. On my dear departed BD, a couple of the bolts that hold the wheel assembly were T-I-G-H-T. We went from hand tools to breaker bars to air tools and finally to blow-torches. It added almost 3 hours to the job, which became an all-day project.
#13669 of 14566 Mike... by rsholland Dec 12, 2008 (6:34 am)
Nissan may be getting out of the big SUV market. http://blogs.edmunds.com/straightline/2008/12/nissan-getting-out-of-big-suv-busi- ness.html Bob Replies to this message: paisan (Dec 17, 2008 5:22 am)
#13670 of 14566 Re: misc ramblings [jfl] by ateixeira Dec 12, 2008 (12:00 pm)
Replying to: jfl (Dec 11, 2008 2:05 am) juice: The knock sensors on the Toyota are under the valve cover!? I think they're under the engine cover, the little plastic thing that basically hides everything you need access to. Sorry to hear about the job. Hopefully we've hit bottom and at least prices are down from the nose bleed levels of a few months ago.
#13671 of 14566 Re: Timing belt Replace or Not [hondafriek] by ateixeira Dec 12, 2008 (12:02 pm)
Replying to: hondafriek (Dec 09, 2008 2:57 pm) My Miata is like that, old age but low miles. I just did my timing belt this year, along with the water pump. Let's see, it's a 1993, so that was 15 years, at least. Probably closer to 16. Mileage was around 70k, so I definitely stretched it a bit. Thing is - the NA Miata is not an interference design, so if my belt snapped it only meant I'd be stranded. Replies to this message: hondafriek (Dec 14, 2008 12:42 pm)
#13672 of 14566 Re: Timing belt Replace or Not [ateixeira] by hondafriek Dec 14, 2008 (12:42 pm)
Replying to: ateixeira (Dec 12, 2008 12:02 pm) Yeah I think I am just gonna leave it, money doesn't grow on trees unfortunately, and like everybody else our retirement savings are taking an awful pummeling at the minute. Cheers Pat.
#13673 of 14566 Stock Bridgestones.. by kyfdx HOST Dec 15, 2008 (1:07 pm)
Well.. I found out that these tires really suck in the snow.. which makes perfect sense for an AWD economy sedan ('08 Impreza). I have a set of 205/50-17 Dunlop winter tires... .they would be a perfect fit.. except that I only have 16" wheels.. They have about 20K on them, so not the greatest tread left, but it would have to be better than these crappy OEM all-seasons.. Now, if I can just find a cheap set of 17" alloys off a WRX... Replies to this message: volkov (Dec 15, 2008 1:59 pm) kyfdx (Dec 15, 2008 2:05 pm) xwesx (Dec 15, 2008 2:13 pm) and 1 more...