MR_Loyale

Update - Last night I had the car on jackstands on both sides and I tried the tire wiggle test. Everything was tight. I have no idea how this is possible as all the tie rod end, balljoints and bushings are original to the car from 1993. I expected to find something loose in the suspension but I did not. Then I began slowly moving one wheel from one extreme to the other listening to the steering wheel turn. I was shocked when I realized the Les Schwab guy was telling the truth - there IS a clunk, notch whatever you wish to call it. Moving the wheel starting from one extreme you get a smooth movement in the steering until a certain point and then a clunk and then smoothness. Is this normal? Should the steering rack be replaced? I don't feel this when driving or even moving the wheel from inside the car. My plan last nght was to start replacing things starting with the struts due to the sag. They looked easy enough to remove, until I got into it. Seems the brake lines on the front run through a bracket that is welded to the strut. In order to remove the strut, I'd have to remove the brake lines which would mean opening up another possible can of worms. I realized this after I removed the clip securing the brake line to the strut. So I then put the clip back on and thought about what to do. There is a principle in logic known as Occam's Razor. Basically it says that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. I looked at my tires. They had lots of tread and would certainly pass the penny test. The problem is they were four years old. Now I am sure some of you are thinking I am crazy in the head - suspecting four year old tires that look like almost new. But these tires had small hairline cracks I could see, cosmetic yes, but to me an indication that they are deteriorating. I have seen tires like this shake my little Loyale so much at highway speeds that you'd think the balljoints had fallen out. Besides the guy at Les Schwab had rotated the tires when the original torque steer cropped up - something I had neglected to do since I bought those tires from them in 2009. So this is where I decided to start and today purchased brand new tires. I took it for a test drive and I have to say my little Loyale is back to normal. Thank you all for your suggestions and offers of help. I still have some sag on my drivers side and will probably want to replace the struts in the future, but at this tme they are not critical.

I should be able to pull both struts and compare, right? If something is bad on one side, I replace both? I am unsure of when I compress the springs to remove them. Does the entire strut assembly come out with the spring and then I remove the spring after I have the asembly off the car? This is how Scotty Kilmer did it in his video, but that was a Honda.

Nothing. It is still there.

Am I looking for a crack in the spring where it seperated? Or does it just lose it's ability to push over time?

About 10 days ago I had Les Schwab replace the driver side cv axle on my Loyale sedan. It was returned to me with torque steer to the right. I created a thread about this earlier. I took it back to them to fix their mistake this past Saturday (6/15). After having it for about two hours, I get it back and they tell me that the steering had a "notch" worn into it and when they straightened the steering wheel for the alignment in the original work it made the steering gear go "off the notch". So they moved it back to the notch but my steering wheel would be slightly tilted. I told them that didn't bother me as long as it didn't pull to the right. I took the car home, the torque steer was pretty much gone. However I noticed after it being on the freeway the steering seemd to vibrate at certain speeds and "float" on the road. The vibration I figured was my tires which could be old enough to be out of round, I had this happen to me before so it seemed plausible. The floating I figured must be that too. I figured nwe tires were in my future, though I swear these ones look new. So tonight I was looking at my car and noticed that the driver side seemd to sit lower than the passenger side. Do you see where I am going with this? So I measure the difference. It appears to be about 1 to 1.5 inches. At this point I see two possibilities. 1) My shock coincidentally just happened to collapse near the time of the Les Schwab work. 2) The fat bald little crooked tech at Les Schwab "adjusted" the shock to make it lower or put in a shorter shock so the weight distribution would shift to the driver side and reduce the torque steer to the right.. I suspect this because my top strut nuts have yellow lines painted on the threads and nuts to indicate if they have been manipulated. The passenger side still has them, the driver side does not. I was thinking these front shocks were the ones with the adjustable base so i jacked up the driver side, took off the wheel and looked but could not find any notches. Is there something I need to take off to see these notches? I figure if I can look at both sides and compare, I will have a better idea. I tried pressing on the driver and passenger side to test the shocks and they both seemed to respond in the same manner. No bouncing, they move down and back up. I would have thought had the shock collapsed there would be no downward movement. I can take pics tomorrow.

Walmart has it in the first aid section next to the bandages. $3 a bottle.

Hey I used glycerin as you said. Works damn great! Thanks so much for the tip.

That makes sense to me. I got my Loyale new in 94 (it was a 93 model year) for $11K. I think it was because they weren't going to ever make them again. Camp subaru in Spokane got a shipment of these cars in and they sold like hotcakes.

Actually you can turn the switch on its back and fill it with epoxy to reinforce the mounting posts. If the mounting posts broke, then drill a hole where it was when the epoxy dries.

Tin foil hats actually attenuate the signal according to an MIT research paper: They theorize the tin foil fad was started by the government to increase prpopaganda reception amongst the sheeple. http://boingboing.net/2005/11/11/mit-study-on-aluminu.html

What serendipitous timing on this thread. I just realized my controls for my blower were only doing 3 and 4.

What brand do you have that are lifetime warranty?

I am not sure I want to even deal with them anymore. They lied flat out on my mileage on the invoice (36k warranty on axle ), putting down 142K when it was at 147K when I took it to them so I lose 5K right off the bat. I can't say for certain they bent my control arm, but it has been impacted. That probably explains why the camber is out of tolerence because it isn't adjustable. According to the paperwork, the range is 0 - 1.5 but mine shows at 1.6. The thing is the torque steer I am getting. It didn't do that before so something changed. Does anyone know the torque settings for end nut on the leading rod? And the two front bolts? I think I will try tightening them up first. I know legally if I sue them over it, I will probably have to explain why I didn't take it back to them to "give them a chance to remedy the repair". I am no legal expert, just saw a similar case on Judge judy lol.

I have been going to Les Schwab for years with no problems. This is the first bad experience I had. I also noticed they put a crooked mileage number on my invoice at 5K less than my true mileage. But I got em dead cold lying as I had work done a week prior from another shop that has a number larger than that on the invoice. I always went to the Mensker store here in Bremerton. I think when Mensker died and the employees took over it started down hill. I was going to take it back to give them a chance to fix this, but I think they will make it worse.

I think they bent my control arm. Take a look at these pics. Driver side control arm (notice the scuff marks and bent bracket): Passenger side:

We don't have airbags, so how would our cars react in a crash? Here is a crash test video from 1985:

Well now we, and Hitachi (hopefully) understand why not to use screws on fast spinning rotor shafts. Just another thing to look out for on my list of things that can possibly go wrong. I have decided that if I ever have to replace the rotor, I am getting a new set screw. That and some loctite. Kind of a moot point on newer cars though as they have no distributor.

LOL. I know man. No offense taken. Prior to my Subaru, I had never even seen a rotor that used a set screw. I was used to all the old American cars I had that all seemed to use keyed rotor shafts and rotors that just snapped in. It didn't really mean much to me unti the screw kept coming off.

Oh sure, rub it in.

An audio or video would be helpful.

Or instead of a specific processor, a virtual processor P-Code such as is done with JAVA, but with better performance of course. That way the flavor of the month hardware becomes irrelevant as the only thing needed is the P-Code interpreter.

How are motor mounts?

Do I just need to have them replace the bushings?

That shaft in the first picture is a reman that Les Schwab installed in 2006. I still have the invoice. If you look closely at the angle on the struts from the first pic to the second, there is less angle on the second pic. I think the shaft is shorter, thus it explains why the tech claimed "my frame was bent" because the camber could not be adjusted within tolerances. He actually said it slanted out, which would be logical if the new shaft was shorter. it certanly doesn't look at all like the one that came off there.

This is a front wheel drive car. There is no AWD.