eryque

FWIW, I think the Valvoline quick-change places here charge $15.99

I think I like method 1 better. It's a little more time consuming than a regular oil change each time, but a lot less time consuming than doing it all at once. btw, did you get my PM about the intake hose?

Maybe folks here do, but I actually read on about.com "Never, EVER, flush your transmission fluid unless you have the money to pay for a new transmission." Lots of folks believe in not flushing your tranny. But back to the other question: how can you do this yourself? I know there's more to it than simply drain & refill.

Thanks, Lew. I'll give that a shot in a day or so.

Getting various fluids flushed seems to be somewhat controversial. What do you folks think of flushing the radiator and tranny, etc? And can you do it yourself? Flushing has got to be more than just drain and fill, right?

Well, there's a source right there Daniel Stern says the same thing, though it wasn't where I remember reading it. He makes it seem smarter because he uses the same technical mumbo jumbo that he derides the cheap products about. In the end, he says that they make yellow light by one of the various methods of filtering, which will always reduce the total output of your lights. He does say that yellow lights cut down glare, which is true. It does this because it reduces contrast, while bluish lights increase contrast (he doesn't say this). This is sometimes perceived as glare as you try to squint to make out he details in the shadows. However, there is more detail in the midtones. Yellows wash out the details a little. He also fails to account for the fact that everyone's eyes are different and are more sensitive to certain colors. Heck, I can even notice a little bit of difference between my own two eyes. Colors are a little warmer in the right eye and a little cooler in the left.

The hatch on my 98 Impreza rattles a little when going over bumps. The rubber stops appear to be in good shape. How can I make it fit more snugly so it doesn't rattle? Is it an issue with the latch maybe? If I have to I can glue some shims onto the existing stops, but I'd like to avoid that if possible.

I read recently that yellow fog lights are actually worse than normal white fog lights because most of them are made yellow with a filtered lens, which reduces the light output. I also read that the yellow light is not any better at penetrating fog than white light.

I'd check out the struts and ball joints and transmission and all that normal stuff. It's a 12 year old car with 217k on it, so you gotta treat it as such. What about the engine accessories (power steering, alternator, etc.)? Anything that's original to the car is on borrowed time. And should you need anything, I've got a dead '95 wagon that I'll be parting out.

It works. I don't know what else to say about it. For $40 I can't ask for much more. It doesn't do anything fancy, just check codes which you have to look up in the included reference booklet. It's not built like a Fluke meter or anything. Drop it too many times and you'll probably crack the circuit board. So don't drop it. Was it worth it? Saturday night I was trying to figure out what the heck I'd done to cause the howling noise in my engine, which I eventually traced to the idle air control valve. It was after dark when I buttoned it up. Got in the car a bit later to get the groceries and got a CEL immediately when I started up. I plugged in the reader and a minute later found that there was a low voltage condition in the MAF circuit. WTF???? says I. Oh yeah, I forgot the electrical connector. Three minutes from start engine to fix. In the dark. It was after 10 and the parts store was closed so I couldn't go to them for help. Was it worth the $40? Damn right.

Sent you a pm.

Lots of parts stores will read the codes for free. If you'd rather have the tool to do it yourself they're not that expensive. I picked one up at Harbor Freight for $40.

I'm not positive, but I thought that only earlier cars had a MAP. If it has a MAF, it'll be right after the air filter in a box about 3" on a side with an electric connector on the side. The sensor itself is a little bitty thing in the middle of this box, and I don't think the sensor itself comes out of that box.

after cleaning the MAF and throttle body i drove it for 94 miles w/o the a/c, about 80% of it on the highway at 10 mph over the posted limit, which put me at 75 mph most of the time. 94 miles on the odometer and 3.2 gallons of gas. i like that. i have a feeling it was mostly the a/c bogging me down.

i kind of feel the same way. i don't think they're too bad, but i'm not in love with the design. the wrx is subaru's flagship race machine, so i have a feeling they were trying to make it more attractive to the rest of the tuner crowd.

Yep, absolutely. Can you be a little bit patient? The car is still sitting dead at the shop and I need to to pay them for the timing belt they put on there before I start taking parts off of it. And I need to figure a scheme to get it towed home without costing an arm and a leg.

How about the intake hose from a 95, before they put the airbox on it? I've got a 95 I'm going to start parting out and it has that hose.

Really? I didn't see anyone post that solution in the numerous threads about this problem, and that seems awfully expensive. We're talking a couple hundred for all that.

You mean this is what they don't do? Difference is that theirs is for the model that doesn't need the spring. I'll give Jason a call and see what he can tell me (and sell me).

There's something I'm not getting, maybe it's just a matter of not knowing all the correct terms. There's two pieces connected to the u-joint, the boss that connects to the tranny stub with the pin, and then the long rod that connects to the shifter. The u-joint is connected to that rod with a rivet, isn't it? TiC's stuff looks good, but they don't seem to have a boss for my early '98 style shifter with the spring. Theirs is for the later style that doesn't use a spring.

Getting the roll pin out is a straightforward thing, but how do you get the actual linkage apart? Those two pivots are riveted and it looks like you'd have to drill them out. And it looks like you can't do that without taking the shift lever out of the car.

Was there a no-smoking version of the '98 Impreza that comes without the ashtray? I'd like to see if I can find the bezel for the center console that will give me that little storage space instead of the ashtray.

I think it's just the fuzziness of that picture that makes it look like a bolt, but it really is a double roll pin. I thought I'd be taking the bolts out of the boss itself to put in bushings instead of removing the boss from the tranny stub. I found a post ones where someone bought an OEM boss instead of just ordering new bushings. Depending on the cost of the new boss I might just do that. I'll have to order that washer too. Looks like there are bushing in the forward axle of the boss, but they've worn away on the rear one. What's the bar with the missing washer called, and what does it do? Looks like it can't rotate or anything.

Was looking at my shifter linkage before I fix the slop in it and I think I'm missing a couple of parts. Isn't there a spring that's supposed to attache to the eyelet on the boss (at the yellow arrow) and isn't there supposed to be a washer with an eyelet on that other big part (at the red arrow)? (Can't remember the name of that other rod there.) And what do you suppose this zip tie is accomplishing?

I've read other threads about removing or stabilizing the heat shields. I tried the trick with a sheet metal screw on the one shield that was loose and wobbly, but my rattle is still there. I figure that it's just as easy to remove them if they're not doing anything for me. I'm talking about these on the exhaust pipes before the cat: