Spazz698

Last night I went out, filled my tank and check the fluids as I tend to do when there's a suspicion that something might be leaking/burning, and my oil level was sitting around 3/4. I filled it maybe 2 weeks ago, thinking its not too bad since its used a lot (I think its averaging 1k mi/wk) filled it back up so it was on the F and went on my way. My car's been making a grinding sound, esp accelerating in 1-2 gear, maybe cuz my rpms usually go higher in those 2 gears than in the other 2? Anyways the grinding sound died down for about 20 min then came back so I checked the oil again and it's back down to 3/4. Definate leak so Im looking and there's huge leak where my valve cover gasket is on the drivers side, like an inch long on the bottom right corner. So oil's getting on my cv boot and I also notice its clicking now too (my stereo is up too loud to actually hear anything so Im not sure how long this has been going on) Go home check it out from under and theres oil EVERYWHERE!!!! Apparently its been leaking a lot longer than a thought, Not sure yet but the way it looks the oil pan gasket went too, unless of course theres just a mad amount of buildup thanks to the original leak. My question is, wtf is that grinding sound? sounds a little metallic, if it counts my tranny does need to flushed (last time i check it it looked nasty, as in dark and really...nasty!) havent had the chance to do that just yet I seem to end up with other weekend projects that have been more important. Also Im thinking I want to clean up the mess under the hood before I tear stuff off and have to wipe everything down by hand, will a pressure washer do? I keep thinking using a pressure washer will do more damage than good on a FI car (obviously I have more hands on experience with a carbed, much less electrical car) but since there's no hanging/stray wires anywhere I should be fine correct?

Yeah sad thing is he's a mechanic in his spare time (which hasnt been often since he keeps having to fix his own car) But when I met him a lil over a yr ago he never worked on imports, swore up and down he'd never own a honda ever again (amusing story to that one, all I remember it was his 18th b-day and he landed in jail for it lol) Then I took him street racing one night...oops. Dont think he had this problem with his last honda (he replaced an 96 prelude SI with the hatch) but then again I was there working next to him making sure he didnt forget anything too.

My bf just picked one up. As in last Saturday. Already busted something...I swear him and hondas do not mix, as he has an 88 Civic hatch too and apparently he's currently gone thru timing chain #3 on it (second motor from an 89 crx si I believe, this is chain #2 for this one, did i mention he's only had the civic itself since about july/august?) not to mention 3 or 4 ignition modules and a couple coils...and when I had it I had NO problems with it lol

You can do a lot of the same things you'd do on a muscle car on a 4 banger. The main thing is these kids dont realize adding a 3" exhaust system doesnt actually help them out, the one thing I learned going from working on V8s and V6's are that where you can stick a 3" exhaust system on those to add hp, 4 bangers need backpressure or you end up losing hp. But as far as your car goes, I have a 93, I was thinking about building this one up (shaving heads, port and polish cuz it has 245k on it, do a complete rebuild on the bottom end, new complete exhaust among other things) but in the end I figured just getting an STi motor/tranny swap would cost me about the same. Now if all goes well, I'll be getting another daily driver, hand my car over to the school I'm going to be attending soon for auto tech (being certified pays more ) and get the swap done for much less.

Hell I run my Sube hard all the time, not a thing has broken since I bought it almost 2 mo ago. Had my bf's civic before it was his (he bought it from a good friend of mine, he got a DUI, so I ended up with his car til he got his license stuff figured out) man the biggest POS ever. Well compared to every other car I've driven that is, first the pass. side halfshart starts clicking (still hasnt gotten fixed, this was a yr ago too) tranny went, motor went with the timing chain shortly after, clutch is almost always crap (tho that's more or less driver error, I never had a problem with the clutch even when it was slipping, bf seems to go thru them about 1x a month lol) I know, I just KNOW if I try to run the civic as hard as I run my Sube, that thing would be in pieces. Love hondas, but they just cant take the crap I am more than willing to expose them to and I really dont have the money to fix it all the time.

Camaros are not in production anymore and I hate the bodystyle of the last gen camaros but I cannot get the one previous due to the fact I dont look okay with a mullet Gimmie a 69 rs/ss and you're on.

lol My 93 isnt leaking oil, well not unless its a minor drip I cant find for the life of me. Thinking it's burning a bit when I run it, naturally...lol car #3 with this issue, bot the other 2 were domestics...and yes I run a motor with almost 250k HARD

if you go the aftermarket way Im going to recommend getting a wiring harness for sure. As a person who's done several wiring jobs (with and w/o harnesses) my 93 legacy was the one that caused me to create new cuss words. Not only that I couldnt find anything online that didnt cost me $$ to tell me which wires are what, found out the sedans apparently have a different wiring setup altogether from the wagons (since I did find the sedan info, none of it matched mine) tho I did in the end learn which ones went where since of the 2 harnesses only the one that goes to the speakers is being used (anger)

Didnt ford decide to cut back a bit on perfromance on the base model due to the fact they were having a hard time selling a car that didnt get good gas mileage? Not the greatest in looks and not the best they could have done on power (thank you gas prices) but remember 3 gens ago when we were having the same problem with the gas, ford did the same thing by cutting the hp to conserve on gas. Only now, thanks to FI and modern technology, their V6s are getting more than 18mpg and the cars dont weigh close to tanks.

4th gear isnt overdrive. In a way you can consider it that since OD is just that, one more gear. The reason you only get 1-3 on the shifter is so you can downshift for hillclimbing- no way to downshift into 4th. Generally cars that have OD will have something to engage/disengage it or have 2 drive gears (IE D3 and D4) in which my car at least doesnt have that, but it is a 4spd auto. My legacy (93) has a manual shift option but as far as I can tell it just locks the tranny in gear til I shift it as opposed to when the manual isnt on, it'll downshift automatically but not go past that gear.

Yeah see my main worry is it's gonna be like the mustang I owned, it *had* a low fuel light but it didnt work, so I keep filling when it starts getting close to E. My 120 mi trip today used about 1/2 tank (it was full when I started) but considering 5 bucks puts it right back to 3/4 I guess I shouldnt bitch, maybe I should use this as a safety, at least I wont run out of gas lol oh and the headlight thing is resolved, the wetsanding left some kind of residue that wiped off with a stiff cloth, theyre almost completely clear, I'm kinda proud

I dont like the new mustang body, it reminds me heavily of a cartoon version of the 1st gens, and if I wanted that I'd buy my bf's 66 and paint it lime green. That and it's just not a Mustang unless it has a powerplant under the hood, give me a foxbody 5.0 any day over that one! I actually ended up playing freeway tag with a turd in a new mustang today, either his response time is off or his car just sucks, got him off the line at the onramp and kept speeding around him lol maybe he was surprised at a female who can really drive her car.

1200 is a good price. I got my 93 (it had 239k on it when I first got it) for 1800 after the sales guy found out who I was (apparently he knew my bf) that was dropped from 3500 before tax and licensing (it blue books around the original asking price) Other than a couple scrapes on the bumpers this cars in damn good shape for a 12 yr old car. Clutch replacement totally rides on how you drive it. If you ride the clutch all the time it wears faster so it'd need to be replaced more often. I wouldnt worry too much about the shift play unless its so bad it pops out of gear (I had this problem with my bfs car, he forgot a bolt somewhere then decided I should drive haha)

Even if we're talking about 1/4 tank? according to my calculations Im missing 5+ gal so there should still be enough gas in there to float it. I cant look at my car at the moment since my parents borrowed it so I could work on their car but I've looked the thing up and down and there is absolutely no evidence of any kind of wrecks, not even a fender bender. Usually there will something slightly off, or a spot missing rust or buildup of some kind like dirt or something that just looks newer than the car itself/aftermarket parts numbers and I just cant find anything out of place. When I was under the car I dont recall the gas tank even being dented, it was fairly flat and even. My other thought was (if the gas gauge was right) there was some kind of buildup on the inside of it, but as my experiment showed once my car hits E the gauge will bob from just above to just below the E line (this was driving on flat land btw) so Im not sure that idea would be possible. and for the brake fluid thing, Im not sure I know what it does to windows lol, until I get assurance that it's not just gonna keep smearing more and more then I may try it.

Which was one more reason for me to get my subie since my mom uses my car more than her own (better gas mileage) she has this horrible habit of leaving the lights on no matter what. Drained her battery twice in a week.

I have the same car, the fans should still turn on and off periodically when parked. when the car's warm the fans turn on and off every 4 minutes or so (guessing)I dont know if your's will do this but when the fans on my car turn on and off you can hear a very quiet click. I only hear this when the radio's not on and my rpms are steady.

I had the same problem with my car when I first got it. Try replacing the spark plugs and wires, you might have a fouling out spark plug making you run on 3 cyl at times (which was my problem, then I managed to break a wire boot in the process too lol)

A couple days ago I tried my theory about the gas gause being off and I was right, I took my car a good 40 mi (that's on and off highway) on E and no problems. Every time I fill it it usually doesnt take more than 10gal and now that I've stuck almost 4k mi on it in the month I've had it I know the gause is right til I get to about 1/8th tank. So how do I fix this? Bf thinks the sending unit (I think) might be sticking. Still not entirely sure on how to fix this if he's right, he doesnt either since he has never touched a Subaru, and when I've done work on one before I got this car it was just small routine things. Second ? is I tried cleaning my lenses as it has the typical 1st gen legacy fogging going on, they currently sit almost white when dry. Given I started and they were a nasty yellow, to the point where I put new white xenons in and they were still dim as hell (which was the main issue, this made driving in the dark a bitch and since it's winter in seattle most of my driving is in the dark) I did the wheel cleaner/600 grit/2000 grit I kept finding online. Right now there is a HUGE difference between how much light's coming out and how much was before (much brighter) but I know these lights are still supposed to be brighter than what they are right now. So am I right in thinking I just need to continue wetsanding?

Mine does that too (usually it'll only lock into one spot) Unfortuantely, I have yet to figure that one out, cuz as you said its a PITA. My dad on the other hand has figured it out so I've just been letting him deal with it every time I unlock its place since once it's out of it it'll go as low as it can before locking again. I think Im not seeing/feeling a button or something.

Im thinking replacement is the best way to go- I pulled mine out recently (to install a new deck) and from the looks of it you'd have to get thru a dozen tiny screws just to get into the casing.

The main thing is airbags, still is and will always be a big no no with car seats! As far as child safety the biggest thing would probably be the LATCH system, my 93 actually has it- didnt even know it was around then either (then again, I wasnt even 10 yet lol) So honestly there's not a lot of new safety features your legacy doesnt already have that'll benefit an infant. And your car, I say keep it. Mine currently has 242k on it, runs strong and better than the last couple cars I had.

my car's in my sig yeah I was thinking I needed to take out part of the center console. What about getting to the blubs behind the instrument panel? Anyone know?

Not all of it tho, 2 things: I need to replace a bulb in the instrument panel and put in my deck finally, as I only have CDs and its a tape deck. I havent looked for the instrument panel just yet since the blub died on the way home just now, but the deck part is what Im curious about- so far Ive found exactly 2 screws and I know there's more than that holding it on. Maybe I've worked way too long on fords (lol snap in pieces) but where are the rest of the screws so I can replace my deck? Also I've noticed no one seems to sell wiring harnesses for subarus (or not mine at least, I've found exactly one for 80s models but not 90+) Anyone have a good idea where to look for that one? Online's out of the question, no credit/debit cards and Im not fond of waiting that long lol. It's not a biggie tho I've done complete rewiring before but it's time consuming.

Sounds like the cooling system isnt flowing the way it should, water pump maybe? I'd check your coolant level first tho, if it's low that could be your problem and thats a cheaper fix.

fords = cheap. ford parts= even cheaper. What does that mean? They break easily and this is how I make easy money, charge half the shops do and still make a profit lol