Scottbaru

What year and model is your car? What are the symptoms you notice, and what symptoms did the mechanic point out or talk about?If your bearing got bad enough to damage your hub or spindle you may need to replace them, but you won't know that 'till you have it apart. An experienced mechanic should be able to tell if there's damage and how bad it is. I've put new bearings on slightly worn spindles with no worries. If you have to replace the hub, you'll probably save even more money having it done by a capable friend. If the dealership discovers you need new hubs, it'll be apart in their garage, and you're kind of at their mercy.

I've heard worn keys are hard on locks. Since I have manual locks, my keys get a lot more use than most, as do all my locks. It's no surprise my keys are already a little worn, and I don't want to make an exact copy of my worn keys. I'll probably get two sets made, the second is usually cheaper after they've already set up the machine.

My neighbor had warped front rotors on his '04 3.0l OBW. Turned them, then replaced them when they warped again. He says he found a service bulletin about it, something wrong with the alloy.

First, you should be talking them into an FZJ80! What kind of son are you?? Otherwise, I like the turbo, not sure about the 2.5liter. Do a search on headgaskets, here or any Subaru forum. Search used Subarus online, and note how many need engines or have new engines. My neighbors have an '04 L.L.Bean Limited Outback wagon with the 3.0l, sweet car. They've had trouble with the brake rotors, bad alloy according to the service bulletin he found online.

B! We need a flipoff button on this forum...

Nice, what engine is that? Are those idlers the same as on later engines?

Mist? One sweep when you pull the stalk aft?

I think the digitals rely on the changing resistance between two thin sheets of metal, when one is bent by air pressure. Not much to these, not much to go wrong, pretty reliable until the battery is dead. Don't forget tire pressure goes up pretty quickly with heat, easily 5-lb higher from normal driving. You should go with the tire pressure recommended on the car (not on the tire) and check it cold.

I hope this car came this way, I don't want to find I can't get new keys cut from the VIN. I bought it in Feb, no history, but it looks lightly used and well maintained. The keys have different shape heads and the different "-X" & "-Y", but same Subaru logo and decorative pattern on them.

My Sub came (used) with two Subaru keys: door key marked "-X", and ignition key marked "-Y". Not normal?

I'm in the same position, need a spare set of keys. I recently went to the Toyota dealer for spare keys, they said they could make good keys copying my old, worn ones. Those didn't work, so they made new keys from the VIN for no charge. Done that twice at that dealership. I plan to stop at a Subaru dealer to get new ones cut from the VIN, but the closest is about 45 minutes away.

http://www.obdmeter.com/orobmet.html There are a bunch of OBDII scanners that display on PDAs, $80 seems cheap enough to not warrant a lot of effort building one. $40 for the software only on this site. I'll probably be buying one, haven't done the research yet.

I was under the impression you had to get the stopleak to keep the warranty?? I'm not sure how that could work, hopefully I'm way off on this.

I think that's the direction the hybrids are going, haven't gotten to diesels driving the whole thing yet, although that seems perfect to a lot of people. Trains use a diesel-electric system, and Saddam had a fleet of Bluebird Wanderlodges fitted that way for luxury desert cruising.

http://www.jeep.com/wrangler/models/rubicon.htmlThat's the Mack Daddy! It'll still have tranny problems and leaks and other Chrysler/AMC typical troubles, but what a machine! Almost as tough as the '91-'97 Landcruiser. I've had to limp home stopping to fill the radiator before. I'm not saying it would've been worth it, but would it even be possible with this failure? Does the combustion air force the coolant out so the engine will go dry, overheat, and catastrophic failure? Or is it less dramatic than that? Luckily I have a 2.2l, but a friend has an '03 OBW for his wife, with the leak currently fixed by coolant conditioner.

Thanks blitz, that's probably all I could want to know on the subject. Hopefully I'll never have to design my own diesel engine, but if I do I may have more questions. Most of my experience with diesels is renting them overseas, and a few VW diesels over here. I don't set up the rentals, take what I get, sometimes I have to check if it is a diesel they're so quiet and smooth. Diesel cars use less fuel, if fuel prices go up again Americans will buy them. Jet fuel is kerosene, that's why Air Force tankers are designated KC-135 and KC-10. Turbine engines are a little tough to fit in cars, I haven't seen a lot about them lately. They're efficient in a fairly narrow rpm band, takes a heck of a transmission. And exhaust system. How big a catalytic converter would you need?

Sorry, I just cut-n-pasted so I could ask specific questions. All pistons constrained to a rotary crank follow the same sine wave shape, it can't be changed. A tiny crank running at high rpm will have exactly the same piston speeds and accelerations as a huge one at low speed, but travelling shorter distances in less time. So a smaller crank would mean shorter stroke and less dwelling at the top, not good for a diesel. I know rods are usually no longer than necessary, and so follow the crank size, but not necessarily. I still don't get why rod length is figured in at all.

I thought the high compression was what made a diesel diesel? Couldn't you burn all kinds of fuel by compressing and heating it enough? Isn't diesel fuel slower burning to control the rate of expansion of the cylinder? Isn't the time a piston lingers at TDC just a question of engine rpm? Longer lingering at lower rpms? What's a longer rod have to do with it? If I had three-foot piston rods I'd still have the same stroke wouldn't I? The smaller space is just the chosen geometry of the engine. I don't get this part. I know diesels put out more power at lower rpm, didn't know why.

Good example of why conductive objects with corners and edges don't attract lightning like non-conductive objects with mostly curved surfaces. On conductive surfaces, the electons collect on an edge closest to the cloud with opposite charge, and fly off when the charge is strong enough. The conductive surface allows them to move rapidly to the edge, so they stream off quickly and harmlessly before building a massive charge. Rain water isn't that great a conductor (too pure), nor are tires or pavement or a house's foundation. A metal conductor with good ground contact is a good ground. Most lightning is cloud-to-cloud, and sometimes airplanes trigger it, but usually lightning from airplanes is relatively small (but still impressive). I've also been hit many times inflight, usually the ground crew finds little or no evidence of the hit. Pinholes, squiggly lines, maybe a soft spot in a radome. I have flown planes that had something a little screwy after being hit, like a computer that didn't work right. Airplanes tend to stream the charge off their sharp trailing edges.

My brother ran 80/100 bulbs in his stock headlights with stock wiring on a '96 Legacy. I'm running 80/100 Hella bulbs in my stock '99. White, of course.

Well, it's supposed to work that way. There've been a lot of problems with airbags breaking windshields. Previous windshield damage, low-quality replacement windshields, or just poor designs from the factory.

Nice! I've heard of small planes running diesels. I wonder why it's so altitude limited?

I just checked the Timken catalogs, your Impreza lists a ball bearing for the rear, very wimpy. Legacy lists Timken inner bearing assembly 513248, probably a taper roller bearing. It doesn't list outer bearings for either Impreza or Legacy, is there's an outer? I'll check my Haynes when I get home, I've not had mine apart.

It's primarily due to the California Air Resources Board. They've set particulate emission standards for California that can't be economically met in passenger cars with the standard US diesel fuel. Carmakers don't want to sell a car in the US if it can't be sold in California. Gas engines produce more total pollution, but they won't budge. Cleaner diesel fuel would help, but would cut into oil companies profits. We're approaching the point where we'll have to go to diesel, there's been a surge of diesel offerings in new vehicles, and pressure to have cleaner diesel. I love diesels, drive them often overseas, can't wait to have an awd diesel wagon. Diesels are very popular overseas, but I don't think Subaru offers one, so I wouldn't hold my breath for them to lead in that area.

I like the Tire Rack site for comparing tires. Go through the "select by model" process to find your size, then select "view all". Click on most of the categories, leave the brands unchecked to select all. On the results screens select all the check boxes (several pages), and click "compare selected tires". That'll give you a ton of tires to compare. On the comparison screen click the categories on the left side to sort by that category. My priority is snow traction, and the Goodyear Triple Tred wins that. Good in several other categories as well. Several cheaper tires are not bad, but I'll probably get the Triple Treds this fall. I live in Michigan, work in Chicago, and dedicated winter tires don't hold up on the dry roads I see most of the winter. My final step is to print out the tire and price from Tire Rack, show it to the local dealer, tell him he doesn't have to beat it, just be in the ballpark. They've matched it on my last four sets. Tire Rack is an hour from my house, I used to go there, but it's nice to buy locally.