Muppit

Awesum feedback, I appreciate it! I'm skeptical also when it comes to mechanics, because the general Jack (me) knows very litle about what these things should cost. The weld was for a warrant which I need in order to avoid a $400 fine...so should really just sit back down... I don't know whether this particular shop has a minimum charge, it would seem so in this case, as I can't understand how the weld went from being a $25 job to an $85 dollar job 'just like that'. Perhaps he felt ripped off because I had replaced the RHS rack bush myself (*quoted me $90odd for this, cost me 0) and had to make up for lost business because I'm not a total ************************. Seahag has a good point, I'll have to remember it...cheers mate. Another thing, I have had a small leak on the same system before, while I can't say how bad it was, never saw it, it set me back a measely $10, from another mechanic, which seems fair, and this one I paid for yesterday wasn't a massif job, even I coulda done it...possibly. Yeah, SuBrat, he told me 'big job mate, gunna have to drop the whole exhaust out...bla bla bla' then when I went to see how he was doing, all he did was release 3 of those brace things that clip into the rubber holding things. Took him about 8.5 seconds to get it back to a normal state. I dunno, I definately think he ripped me off, but like I say, I'm skeptical. I'm considering, just for a bit of extra knowledge and piece of mind, going round with a photo and asking some of the other local mechanics, because it just doesn't seem like a fair price to me. See what happens... Cheers for the replies. G

Hey all, a quick query: Had a small exhaust leak on my 92 Legacy, just before the rear muffler on the bend. The mechanic ended up braze welding it, to the extent of about 15 minutes labour, some maniseal and black spray paint. The entire weld is about 4 inches long. It was initally quoted at NZ$25 (USD$15) verbally, then later I was told it was worse than first thought (had been quoted roughly 3 weeks prior) and so the entire 15 minute job ended up costing me NZD$85 which is $USD51. Any honest mechanics here able to say whether that's about right or whether that's a complete rip-off? I wouldn't know so I'm trying to find out more. That's $340 NZ an hour for exhaust welding, sounds like great money to me, there should be more people doing it. Appreciate any feedback, cheers! G

Hey, I have had the exact same problem with my 2.0 1990 Legacy. I would've bled the cooling system at least 5 or 6 times trying to figure the problem, and being a student the income doesnt let me take trips to the mechanic willy-nilly. So, I've been driving round with no thermostat, and it has never overheated. Our winter here gets down to sometimes 2 or 3 celcius but average bout 8 or 9 first thing. Whether its doing permanent damage I'm not sure, but what else can I do? It rarely but will sometimes get up to normal operating temp but most of the time sit around a quater. Anyway, whe I did get it into the Suby mechanic, he forgot to replace the thermostat before bleeding, but did a pressure check and this returned positive. But to my point, you asked how big-a job it'd be to do yourself, I don't know if you've discovered them yet, and I don't have the web address on me just at this time, but there are a heap of service and technical manuals that some legend scanned in and put up on the web. A quick search would probably return results, and these would be a great place to start, with special tool lists, diagrams and instructions....plus others have posted their step-by-steps too. Just my 35 cents, cheers muppit P.S. THESE pages: http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8080/subaru_manual_scans/

Interesting to find out how the TCUworks with torque shifting etc, I always thought it was a 50/50 split, I'm still learning about the inner workings of SuB engines. Does it make any difference as to the ground type? For example from dry tarmac to wet grass? I expereinced some slip yesterday on the wet road, but it didn't last long - say a few seconds, yet it'll sit in one place for as long as I hold my foot down on the old mans lawn? My tires are pretty sweet, especially the fronts as I had them replaced few months ago. Will check the pressures tho to be sure on that one. As for monitoring the TCU & C Solinoid, is this something easily done by a realitively mechanically-minded person such as myself? Does this require electronics testers and whatnot? If the problem is intermittent, which it could be, electronics in my opinion are normally the first things to start doing their sh-t intermittent, so if the above applies, it probably would be a good idea. Regarding the fuse issue, of all the stuff I've read on this, i haven't yet decided on whether or not it's worth trying it - interesting to hear the possibility of burning out the solinoid, as well as the issue being with the trans, not the AWD itself so resulting in FA fuel economy....i'm in town tommorow so will stop in and talk to one of the mechanics on this issue, see what his thoughts are...with fuel prices doing what they're doing, and being the poor student I am, every little bit helps. Appreciate the feedbacks! muppit

Talking more smoothness in AT shifts, i replaced the radiator in my 92 Legacy (auto) with a radiator from a manual of the same car, which required me to install the trans cooler as the autos share this with the radiator, and the manuals have them separately. The dude at the wreckers told me he'd done the same with noticable improvement, and he was right. Heaps smoother in shifts on all stages. Im not sure what kind of setup forresters or any suB in the later years for that matter have, but thats my $.02 worth.

Cheers for the replies, Yeah it's a New Zealand car, so 2.0l. I layed a mild pad in the old mans (gravel) driveway couple days ago testing it out, and like me, he's pretty sure it's FWD only. Being a nanna's car I think it'd have trouble 'lighting up' all wheels on solid ice, so to do a skid was pretty exciting for me As for the fuse issue, so far I've been reading a lot of contradicting opinions on this, but it seems to be that many people have installed switches thru these and have happily been able to alternate between 2 & 4WD. The local SuB dealer told me this also, I'll be sure to post my results when I get round to installing the switch. Which at the moment I don't need to if I'm already in FWD.....??? I might check the wiring anyway, see if I can find any abnormalitites or something of suspicion. As for the torque bind issue, cheers for that, will do! muppit

Hey all, wikkid site you've got here, glad I discovered it Apologies if this has already been covered, I did search....pretty well... I have a 2.0 ltr 92 legacy, auto, which has just recently become front wheel drive. I think this because the front wheels slip at intersections, on the gravel etc whereas they never used to before. If i had intended for this to happen I'd be happy, but I haven't changed anything. I have been meaning to install the FWD fuse for a while now to try get it it more economical, so there's definately no FWD fuse in the FWD fuse slot, and no smoke or metal filings are coming from anywhere, is there a common cause for this? Appreciate any feedback, muppit