Alexx

Are you saying the original subaru radios can power extension speakers?

I had a Clarion 8024 radio in my Subaru that has malfunctioned. I was told that due to the lack of clearance only a certain kind of radio can be used. I was also told that very few vendors have such a radio. What does the forum do when a radio needs to be replaced in an older Subaru? I will probably be quoted over $200.00 to replace the radio later on today. I have a low end speaker in each front door, so I'm assuming the original Subaru radio cannot power that. Help!

Maybe a poll is in order. Which comes first, you detect a rip in the boot by smell or spray under the hood, or by checking the car once a week. I think it's overall faster to detect a rip while the car is in use then to periodically check the boots because I doubt we check out boots everyday.

Do you feel mislead by who sold you the car? Can you share with us "tell tale signs" that the car was about to lose it?

The first time I had the axle replaced it did not last that long, I think it lasted somewhere between 10,000 to 20,000 miles. But the next time I had them replaced they lasted quite a while longer, I think I'm still driving on them and it's been several years since they were last replaced. When you replace the boot yourself, are you using the split boot? I bought one of those once and could not figure out how to actually keep it perfectly sealed so that the grease would not come out or so that gunk would not get in.

So which comes first, do you periodically check your CV boots to see if they are torn by getting under the car, or do you wait until you think they might be torn to check them? Do you check the roof on your house for leaks when it is sunny or fix it when it's leaking water onto the dining room table? The point isn't how easy it is to check your CV boot for rips by looking at it, the point is one probably never checks their CV boots unless they think there is something wrong with them, therefore it's wise to know how to monitor a potential CV Boot problem before getting one's clothes dirty. I use the three rules, smell, spray, clicking noises, as a method to then further inspect my CV boots by getting under the car and looking. In my opinion if none of those three signals are evident, the chances are that the CV boot is OK.

And don't forget to rub it's belly.

There are three ways that I know of to detect if you have a broken CV Boot in the front of the car without having to get underneath your car. One way is the grease inside the boot will begin to spray and usually it will hit something hot. The burning grease smells differently than when one spills motor oil on the manifold, call it a "funny smell". Number two is to look for a "spray pattern of grease" that will usually occur when the boot is torn. The pattern can usually be detected under the hood below where the spare is kept. And three is if you make a hard turn and you hear a clicking sound that means a boot is cracked and the grease is mostly gone and you probably will have to replace the front wheel axle as well as the boot. The rebuilt axle usually already has a boot on it so it's an all in one repair.

Just to complicate the issue. Years ago a Subaru tech told me that if you have broken CV boot and you make a hard turn and you hear a clicking sound, you will have to replace the axle as well as the boot.

Don't forget to look under your hood, you may have a printed diagram of your whole carburetor system. I had the carburetor diagram on the inside of my hood but just plain forget to check it until I took the car to someone else, and then suddenly I noticed the diagram! :-\

I had my subaru transmission rebuilt at 190,000 miles by an expert. The car is now at 257,000 miles and the transmission still runs better now than when I originally bought the car at around 80-90 thousand miles back in 1988. I was very fortunate to use a mechanic who actually races cars, he knew who to send the tranny to for the rebuild and they really did an incredible job. I just don't see how a newbie could do as good a job as the work that I paid an expert to do. So was my tranny rebuild expensive? I don't remember what I paid. I'm pretty sure it was under $600.00. Was it under $500.00, or $400.00, that I don't remember. However, based on 67,000 thousand miles of driving at $600.00, (and the tranny appears to still be in great shape,) my cost per thousand miles of driving is under $10.00. (and dropping ) Is $10.00 (and dropping) per thousand miles of driving really too expensive? Plus, I didn't have to spend time doing the rebuild. Now, having said that, the very first car I ever owned I did a ton of taking apart and putting back together, so I understand that concept for those of you who love your subarus. I just don't want to risk making a dumb mistake on my favorite car. I'd rather pay an expert to maintain the complex problems and hopefully the time that frees up in my life I can put into work, and come up with the money (and then some) to pay for work done by an expert that I did not have to do.

Should I start a new thread about fast idle when cold starting?

It's interesting how some people think rebuilding a carburetor is like putting a quarter in a gumball machine and others (like myself) think it's like rocket science. I would say that if one doesn't understand what all the parts do, rebuilding the carb oneself probably isn't worth it. The carburetor works really well now. The only thing left is to perhaps get the fast idle to work when the engine is first turned on in the morning. How hard is that fix?

My 81 Subaru gives me the illusion of speed when I accelerate. I can actually get the front wheels to peel out and I'm still on the original engine. And the car can allegedly do more than 60, but how would I know that?

Snowman, thanks for explaining my life to me.

Picture possible? I wonder if the oil pressure is higher in the oil filter which might render the magnetic neglible in trapping dirt?

How and where does one attach the magnet to the oil filter?

But when you are at a red light you don't want your foot jammed all to the floor waiting for the light to turn green, do you? ------------------------------------------------ I took off the spare tire and noticed something odd. There are two rubber washers that I assume go on each side of the clutch harness/car mount where the cable harness ends and the last part of the actual cable comes through. Both of the rubber washers were on the same side of the mount. Well, one of the rubber washers looked like it was on both sides of the mount. I noticed that as the cable came out of the harness it was at a slight angle. Over time the slight angle can cause additional friction against the cable harness. I loosened the two nuts and was able to correctly reposition the rubber washer, one on each side of the harness mount, and then I set the reset the nut to where I liked it best. It took me two readjustments of the nuts to get the pedal exactly the way I like it. I disagree that bending the pedal is the way to get the ideal setting, I think it takes a bit of tinkering to get the clutch pedal to engage exactly where it feels comfortable.

It's not that far off. I'm just trying to understand how much room to the floor is ideal when pressing in the clutch.

Disagree. If the pedal has to almost hit the floor to disengage then it's not ideally set. If it's slightly harder to get into first or reverse then more friction is being generated which means something will wear out quicker.

I'm more concerned with when I've depressed the pedal and I can still sense the clutch is slightly engaged unless I've pushed the pedal almost all the way to the floor.

Thanks for the info! How much space from the floor should the clutch pedal be when it completely disengages the clutch?

I don't agree with not replacing the actual cable housing, I think that should be replaced just to be certain. How does the clutch pedal get adjusted?

Has anyone actually replaced a clutch cable flawlessly and effortlessy THE FIRST TIME THEY TRIED? Because my dilemma is I can make equivalent money working than I can taking the time to replace the clutch cable, which means I can stay caught up on my workload while helping to keep a subaru mechanic/expert gainfully employed. Plus, I think it's important the dealership know our cars are still around otherwise they will stop carrying the minimal parts that they do carry.

On my 81 Subaru, I didn't like that the transmission always seemed hard to shift for the first few minutes/miles that I drove. I assume this was because the 80/90 weight conventional gear oil doesn't work that well when it is cold. Several years ago I switched to Red Line synthetic oil, aka Shockproof Gear oil. It's rated at 75W to 250W! I noticed that shifting when the car was cold was definitely easier. The stuff is actually red in color. I didn't put it in the back axle, just in the front wheel drive transmission. The stuff is quite expensive, really expensive, I forget what it cost but I haven't replaced the stuff in several years and it still seems fine. At 190,000 miles I had the transmission rebuilt. Shortly thereafter is when I think I switched to the Red line synethic oil. My car now has 256,000 miles and I can actually burn rubber on my front wheel drive only subaru wagon.