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schlit

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Posts posted by schlit

  1. Unless you have a chemistry degree and understand what the tolerances are, how the catalyst degrades, and the effects on the environment I think you're talking out of your rear.... an unguided guess at best. Sounds like you're just angry at "the man". Sorry.

     

    For the record, the fact that most of the posts on this site are by two people is why I don't visit much....as what I've heard from many other Subaru owners.

  2. Just wanted to get some opinions about using a dedicated set of winter tires for the Forester primarily for interstate travel in the midwest and east this winter. I wont be venturing north of Nebraska, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, but assume I will be encountering some snow.

     

    There doesn't seem to be many options for performance winter tires, so I'd probably be forced to use studless tires like Blizzak WS-60's.

     

     

    I guess my question is how poorly do studless winter tires do at high speeds on dry interstate? Will I be kicking myself?

  3. I to have used waterfroth (seafoam). I Introduced it though my PCV hose and let the engine sit for 15 minutes and started it and poured more through as the car ran (about half the can) then poured the rest into the gas tank.

     

     

    Careful, pouring too much seafoam in at once is an easy way to hydrolock an engine...

     

    I'll blow some through the intake before changing spark plugs, but would never place a solvent in the crankcase. A few short hot oil changes will do just as good for sludge removal

  4. Bullsh*t. Ever do a timing belt on a Honda? a clutch? Hell just try to replace the starter! You have to unbolt half the motor mounts, and a billion other things just to get the damn covers off.

     

    In a Subaru, you just have to take off the AC belt tensioner and the Radiator fans and BAM.... you're there at the T-belts.

     

    Hondas are WAAAAAYYY more difficult to work on. And Honda parts are every bit if not more expensive than Subaru.

     

    And what is this Foreign car over 150k crap? I would ONLY buy a foriegn car that had 150k. I have seen too many Jeeps, Dodges, Buicks, and Fords, completely lose major engine internals around 150k

     

    With a Subaru, you might have to replace a clutch or headgaskets, but you are unlikely to have a piston explode.

     

    It took me the same amount of time to change the 200,000mi clutch on my Civic SI last year as it did to do a few tune up items on my forester. To name a few, Sub spark plugs and front diff fluid changes were huge PITA's. Foreign cars are packed tight and their parts are expensive. Some items will be easier on a Sub and others on a Honda.

     

    I personally feel more apt to work on my honda because of the MUCH better (and about $250 cheaper) service manual, and that there's no VIN guessing game when getting parts.

  5. soobie's are alot cheaper then honda's, i know that first hand. find a 90-99 legacy with a 2.2 engine, do the oil changes, and timing belt when needed and they will last for ever.

     

     

    I think you guys are getting a little out of hand there. From regular maintence to major repairs, Subarus are not any easier or cheaper to work on than Hondas. At least for my 2.5L Forester almost everything is a PITA compared to my Civic, my moms Accord, and dad's CRV.

     

    Back to the OP, I wouldn't buy any foreign car with 150,000mi on it if I weren't a do-it-yourselfer and was afraid of paying $500 for a repair.

  6. Well the sad thing is that you can have this trouble with any brand car at any given time and any given dealer! Too bad you let your bad luck with the one subaru you had lead you to never own another! There must be reason there is this huge forum and several other subaru forums.......maybe cause subarus are awesome, and the majority of them are excellent and most of them are pretty bulletproof!!! Sorry you had a bad experience!:-\

     

    Just an observation... I frequent Honda forums and rarely see as many "my car is a POS" threads as I do on USMB.

     

    I find it difficult to say subarus are bulletproof when they made so many 2.5l engines that self destruct.

  7. I've used one before on my daily driver just to get through the winter months so I could replace the joint myself once it warmed up outside.

     

    It's a temporary fix that works if you catch the rip before you lose the grease and contaminate the joint with grit. Consider it like driving on a doughnut tire....it'll get you around but it's not something you want to take a 400 mile vacation on.

  8. With 30yrs of experience driving in Canadian winters I can say that the depth of the snow has little to do with which tires you should use.

    Whether there's 1/2" or 3 " on the road, once it's deeper than the tread on your tires, it's all the same....and once that first 1/2 is on the road, your "all season" tires are almost no better than summer tires.

     

    I've always run Blizzaks on both of my Subarus and love them. They are only a bit noisier than the Michelins which came on the car and they wear quite well......actually, as we speak, I haven't taken them off yet...and it was 80°F here all week-end.:-\

     

    I wouldn't want to put up with the poor handling of a Blizzak over the entire season just for a few ski trips. I tried a set of Blizzaks one year and thought it was a complete waste of money. I didnt see enough improvement over my allseasons to make it worthwhile unless I was driving in snow/frigid cold more often than not.

  9. I was told that the cylinders looked good and that the engine appeared to be strong.

     

    Should the mechanic have determined if the rings were bad before saying the engine appeared to be strong?

     

     

    I doubt you have much of a case here. They didnt lie to you. The engine "appeared" to be strong. The only thing I see is they didnt state the limitations of thier assessment. You'll try to say they should have been more cautious, but who's to say how many checks they should have performed? What is due dilligence? It will vary from mechanic to mechanic.

    The engine would have needed rings no matter what, so it's not like they're repairing more than is needed, and they're not charging for tearing it back apart. $1200 sounds reasonable for ring work in your case.

     

    I would hang my hat on the fact they didnt properly inform you of the well known risk of head gasket work on a high mileage engine. You need to play the ignorant customer while they're the experts. If they dont budge, you gotta decide to give up the car, fix the rings and take a chance something else is damaged, or drop a new engine in and take a chance it wasn't rebuilt correctly. I sure as hell wouldnt trade it in to them though if you give it up.

  10. cumberland valley motors (CVM) in mechanicsburg is where i bought my car. never had any issues there with the service writers or the mechanics. they rock!

     

    I wouldnt recommend CVM based on my inlaws experience.

    Strike 1: They replaced a cat converter with 80,000mi on it due to a P0420 code without even trying to see if it was just an 02 sensor.

    Strike 2: On the 10 min ride home from the cat repair, the inner cv boot just above the cat spews out it's grease due to a big gash. CVM called it coincidence and charged full price.

    Strike 3: They charged my inlaws to put the slime in the radiator...I made them go back and argue that one.

     

    Yea, their service techs did all that with a smile, but I think at the same time are not being honest with people.

  11. It's hard to tell where the coolant came from, especially since both caps had coolant on top of them, and since the rad cap was unscrewed (still don't understand that). It's been cleaned up now, so we'll never know for sure...

     

    Gloyale: I checked the fans when they mentioned it, and both were plugged in. They still insist they went nowhere near the rad, although the mechanic mentioned he had to remove the overflow tank...

     

     

    You can rack your brain over what actually happen, but I'd hang my hat on the fact it failed 15 minutes after taking posession of the car. Any other approach will probably not work.

     

    Remember, you probably signed an arbritration agreement so no easy way to take them to small claims court.

     

    In my experience, all dealers are shady. Check out the new edition of consumer reports, they did a study on it.

  12. so is this a good item to replace as preventative maintenance or not?

     

    i'm replacing my front O2's on my legacy and impreza but i'll hold off on the rears if it doesn't do anything to fuel consumption.

     

    No, it is a waste of money to replace your rear O2 sensor as preventative maintence. What are you preventing? If it goes bad, you will see a cel, but will not leave you stranded.

     

    IMHO, replacing front O2 is also a waste of money unless you have symptoms of a bad one. It's not the cheapest part to replace either.

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