Flaris

Happy New Year! What did I do yesterday: First pass of underbelly cleanup. Combustion leak test on coolant (Neg), Contamination check (Neg on Oil, Neg on Coolant) What I'm doing today prior to work: Checking ground conditions and playing the "whats missing" game where I try to figure out what bolts have simply never been reinstalled & where from previous service + Searching around for some rear fender..inner splash guards? The rears have been..Mauled, for lack of a better term. Additional Bonus Update: Coolant leak has been traced down to a very easily-missed scraping of the plastic where the cap sits, leading to inconsistencies with how it seals. It's much less now, but a new rad is a certainty.

I have an OEM one from the dealership in the mail but it's been delayed considerably by some routing errors that sent it all over the place. I..probably should have just gone to the dealer the next town over and asked if they had one instead. But I saw coolant and went "oh crap, need immediate temporary fix" and figured the OEM would have arrived already. A DIY Block test sounds like a pretty good idea. Subi has about 40k miles away from her 250k, so it wouldn't surprise me if the HG went the wayside or was getting close to doing so. So far none of the other usual signs have become apparent. Aaaand that makes sense, hope the tradeoff for the little bit of coolant loss was a good few moments of fun. And for the "what did you do today?" I replaced the rear brake pads and rotors, so I'm in the process of bleeding the lines and then I'll likely wait until daytime to break in the new stuff. Too many close calls with deer out this way at night.

Good idea! Also she/her (shockingly, I know). I'll make a new thread for it, though I was largely just reporting what I had done/what I had yet to do given the theme of the thread. I'll check NAPA for some decent caps, though. As for what I'm doing today goes: Fighting with the rear upper caliper bracket bolt and cursing the piston dust seal, y'know, normal brake things.

I had discovered the OEM one was slightly loose, so I swapped it out as part of my investigative process for finding the leak. Given that this wasn't the first time she had coolant up that way, focused around the cap, I swapped it, cleaned it and everything was fine for a couple days -- but now there's coolant everywhere and there's not a loose cap in sight. Also I'm rocking a 2.5i so sadly no boost for me. Though I can see the allure of a GT, given how Subi performs otherwise. Light car with a good amount of power? How about even MORE POWER? Also obligatory "How'd you figure that out?"

Subi started overheating whilst at work, but I managed to catch it before it went too close the red (I'd say from 50%/operating to maybe 65% max) -- set the heater to full blast and sped up, since it was cold enough out I managed to bring her temps down and get her to the lot. Switched to company car, let her cool down and filled/burped the radiator so that I could make the trek home after work (Roughly 25 miles). That small leak? Yeaahhh, I don't think it's so small. I had previously wiped it all down so I could try to track everything down, this was taken this morning (I couldn't honestly see much, as I get off at 2AM). Looks like a new radiator is a certainty. Reservoir is also full, so there's likely a broken hose along the line outside of a crack in the radiator itself/vaccum failure. I'll have to do some poking around to see if any coolant lines run anywhere that can lead to such a pattern, outside of the big one, just in case I'm jumping the gun on the radiator. Whilst I was below Subi I also noticed a little bit of red, so I suspect that's where the transmission fluid passes through for cooling -- that hose needs replacing, as does the one below it. Attached an image of the..splash. Not sure why the image is upside down, but eh. And yes, I shoved an old carpet under Subi for spill-catching when I've not got a pan under her -- given that her leaks are very erratic it helps for "what is this liquid on the ground" because the green shows up really, really well on a lightly colored fabric. But as for what I'm doing today, outside of rad-hunting & hose checking, are my rear brakes, caliper rebuilds and wheel bearing swap. And another wipe-down, after eyeballing it a bit more at a few different angles -- since I'll have her fully up for the brake bleed. Then I'll take her to get an alignment done, if I can, prior to work.

My next day off is tomorrow, however, whilst working on Subi and going in for a regular soapy wipe-down of her engine to track down a coolant leak -- I noticed that the new radiator cap I got (due to the old one having some wiggle/wasn't sealing properly) has dried coolant on it as well as much of the area around said cap AFTER I cleaned it all off. Given the chances of the fluid coming out from under the cap looping itself around to sit neatly on top of the cap, I'm going to assume that I have a micro-fracture somewhere along the upper part of the radiator. Additionally, I need to wipe her down along the underside as well -- I didn't think to do it during the oil changing as it was sub-30 that night, but she does have dried coolant on the outside of the oil pan, so I suspect there's a bit more at play to track down. I've been gently adding fluid with a no-spill set and giving her a couple of good burps to get any air out of the system every couple of days, just until I can get it all tracked down and sorted. I may just buy a whole set of tubes if I need to replace the rad, though. My wheel bearing FINALLY arrived along with my rear brake pistons, repair kits and a wire brush, so tomorrow is going to be a Subi day. I'll be bringing her for an alignment after its all installed, as I suspect a failing wheel bearing probably knocked SOMETHING out of alignment, then hitting the junkyards for possible strut assemblies so I can fix her suspension and stop her rear from bouncing like she's at a rally.

I'm a bit late on the update but I did a liqui moly engine flush, just to make sure there wasn't any sludge in the system. Followed instructions to the letter, performed my first oil change in the dead of night, installed a Fumoto F-105 oil drain valve, replaced with economy filter & oil and ran her for a bit (15min idle, at operating temps) before repeating the process and installing a dry air/cleanable filter + Mobil High Mileage Full Synthetic oil w/ WIX 57712XP filter. She seems to have liked it. I've got a Timken front wheel bearing ordered after detecting a bit of roar around 65MPH on the drivers side. I also ordered some caliper pistons and repair kits as I suspect I've got an occasionally-stuck piston on my passenger side rear wheel, which I'll be repairing as I replace all of the brakes and pads. May as well do caliper rebuilds while I'm there! I have a B/E Ignition Coil Pack (The box that all the wires plug into that I swear should be named something different) for testing purposes and an OEM PCV Valve ready to go into the system on my next day off, assuming the valve comes off willingly. For the PCV Valve -- I've already marked the exposed thread with a paint marker so I can roughly gauge how much to tighten the new one when it goes in. I've got a full suspension rebuild that I need to do as well, but that'll have to come later. Little by little..I will fix her!

Ordered a Cabin air filter, wipers, Ignition Coil Pack (B/E Rebrand of OEM, to have as a backup, if current fails testing) and a WIX 57712XP Oil Filter. I've also ordered a PCV Valve from the Subaru Dealership near me and I'll be requesting a quote for installation once I have it so that, if I fail (again) to get the old one off I can have someone else give it a shot. I've discovered a coolant leak, dripping onto the drivers side heat shield. I can't seem to see the source from up top, so once I get a better floor jack (that can actually lift Subi high enough for jack stands) I'll be checking to see if I can find it from below when I go under for generalized leak-finding (vaccum, fluids, exhaust so on and so forth) and rust-hunting.

I'm heading out to get the bolts I need to push the old rotors off of Subi. I'm thinking that if I'm lucky, I'll be able to take care of the ABS sensors whilst I'm futzing about back there. I'm also going to be grabbing some sandpaper to clean up the calipers, hub and back-of-wheels with and using some sil-glyde to lube up the brakes correctly, after double checking to see if it'll have any adverse affects using it on the glide pins before I head out, though, as I hear some types of lubes can affect the rubber boots (cap?) adversely. I now have detected low-speed rubbing on the front passenger side (which stops if I turn away from the direction of the sound) and a roaring around 65mph on the front drivers side, so I'm thinking I've got a bearing issue as well. Suspension is definitely in need of replacement in the back, as her rear bounces like she's at a rally going over any speedbumps or railroad crossings at sub-20mph -- so I may as well look into replacing the full set as well. tl;dr: Rear brake job + TLC for Subi + Awareness of more to fix. Future plans are: Wheel bearings (all) Shocks/Struts/Springs/That whole assembly (front and rear) Front brakes (Likely Element3's with Akebono pads just like the rears) Fluid change (all -- only after floor jack acquisition because scissor jack is too risky and prevents me from placing stands properly) Fumoto F105 Oil Drain Valve installation (For later fluid changes, for the oil specifically, though I may need to research more for the right fitment in case GT/2.5i have different sizings)

I received my new brake pads and rotors, but have no time to install them today. I am considering using steelstik to fill an overdrilled hole where the metal bracket/hood strut clip goes so I can re-drill the correct sized hole -- however, I'd been thinking 10mm was correct, but it might not be. So today is "figure out what size hole the washer fluid reservoir bolt will fit into and measure it out" day. Whenever I can get that metal bracket onto Subi I'll finally be able to reinstall her air inlet duct. Worst case scenario is I'll just see if any of the local dealers have it (901120061), buy a couple and take them to a hardware store to try to eyeball the right sized drill and tap to use.

Will do! I'm going to keep a little notepad so I can try to keep a closer eye on it and check/mark at regular intervals.

Checked Subi's oil and saw she barely had any, surprisingly! The oil leaks have been stopped and seemingly have been successfully, no signs of oil where it shouldn't be (ground or otherwise). So she's simply burning the oil fast. I'm a delivery driver so highway to work, then a lot of local running around. Typically 100 miles daily give or take. I'll be trying to pull codes to see if there's anything potentially out of sorts to be safe. I topped off her oil and went for a ride to let it work its way into the system and stopped at the store to grab some antifreeze -- I had heard some sloshing on a cold start last night as I left for work so I'm burping her now juuuust to be on the safe side. And I ordered some new rear rotors (element3/coated) and akebono brake pads (as per info on the forum!) which should arrive tomorrow as I noticed that the rear pads were quite slim and I need to go back there anyway for ABS sensor shenanigans.

I replaced Subi's PCV Valve Hose and sussed out the cause of her misfires. Spark Plug Wires 2 and 4 were swapped, but were swapped since buying the car -- when I swapped to fresh wires, I reinstalled them as they were and didn't notice. To be fair..I wouldn't expect anyone to play musical chairs with their wires, so I didn't think to check them. This is why I work with computers and not cars. That said! Subi seems to be notably happier. Quieter and much more responsive, so huzzah!

So! Working on the PCV Valve and the hose is stuck. I have a new hose as it was stuck before, as I suspected I may need to cut the hose -- so I did..and it snapped off right over the valve itself so I'm currently trying to get a good cut in so I can try to remove it. Also it seems a misfire is causing the stuttering, the other issues were largely caused by accidental overfilling of the oil (because I'm an idiot and misread the dip, despite knowing how to read it) and the misfire could either be the final spark plug I put in (likely, as the issues only cropped up once it went in) or a failing (aftermarket) ignition coil. So today: PVC Valve Hose Removal, PVC Valve Cleaning, PVC Hose Replacement, Spark Plug Swap & Possibly also Ignition Coil Swap. Still no codes, so "figuring out why she's not reporting stuff" is going on the list.

Swapped the spark plugs on Subi. She was running well when she had 3 out of 4 plugs, now she ran well but a new problem surfaced -- which given that I am a delivery driver is a touch rough. She's rough-idling, dropping idle RPMs fast at start, dang near doing the stutter-and-die. She's also seemingly having trouble at low RPM shifts -- seems like she misses the mark, then retries half a second later and resumes accelerating. She's also struggling getting started from a full stop, similar stutter. No lights, no codes (I suspect CANBUS is funked up from something -- it only sees the rear ABS sensor) so I'm going to need an OBD and pray I can sus out whats causing it before work tomorrow (or that I can at least borrow the company car for my shift). I did finally get the new PCV Hose, though, so I can at least check that out if nothing else. So what I did for yesterday: Change the plugs. (woo!) What I will be doing (because I posted after midnight its a double post all in one!): Replacing PCV Hose and cleaning the PCV Valve. Troubleshooting and making due without a floor jack or half the tools I probably need. If lucky (or unlucky, depending!) it's a bad plug.