SchwarzeEwigkt

What the hell car doesn’t have a front camber adjustment? I don’t think I’ve ever seen that, even on the cheapest and shittiest cars I’ve owned. This kind of sounds like the time an alignment shop said he had to adjust the caster on my BMW: Me: “You adjusted the what now?” Him: “The caster.” Me: “And how did you do that? It can’t be adjusted. The control arms mount in one place. You literally can’t change that without putting in adjustable racing type parts or by somehow moving the mount points on the subframe. Besides, the sheet from your alignment machine says it didn’t change. I don’t think you know what caster is.” Him: “I...uh.” Me: “Yeah.” Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My mother-in-law went to Firestone last year to get an inspection done on her Legacy. They sold her on getting an alignment done. I happened to look at her car a month or so later and realized that the outer edge of her driver front tire was worn down to the cords. Luckily, they were her snow tires and it was now spring. Told her to have her summer tires mounted and balanced at the dealer (since it costs the same) and have them do an alignment. Sure enough, Firestone managed to totally screw up both the camber and the toe for that corner and ruined a perfectly good set of tires. Firestone didn’t even offer to refund the cost of the alignment they sold her. Assholes. Plenty of other places to get tires and alignments but them. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My wife’s Forester did that a while back. Turned out the connection for the negative battery connector wasn’t so hot. It corroded and went from starting fine to not over a few hours. I had to clean it up and narrow the plastic spacer on the clamp to get it to grip a bit tighter. Worked fine for a year after that. Then it did it again. Ended up being the field coil wire on the outside of the starter got rusty and disintegrated, so the solenoid wasn’t connected to anything. I’d start with checking to see if you’ve got 12V at the B+ connector on the starter. If you do, you know your + connection at the battery and your cable is good. You did say you had a bad connector, so I’d be suspect of the battery cable or connection, honestly at either terminal at this point. If that doesn’t pan out, pull the signal connector off and check to see if you get +12V from it when you turn the key to start. That’ll prove your ignition is working and trying to close the starter solenoid. If you’re not getting signal there, my first guess would be that the immobilizer circuit is confused and won’t let you start the car. I don’t know much about that. If your signal wire lights up correctly with the key, it’s probably the starter solenoid or starter itself. You can try tapping on the solenoid with something like a hammer handle while somebody attempts to crank it. If that gets it to start, the solenoid is sticking and you’ll want to put in a new starter sooner rather than later. That is, before it stops working completely. If it doesn’t crank, something else is probably wrong with the starter, like my field coil wire issue. Luckily, if it won’t crank, there’s a fairly short list of things that can cause this. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Maybe it’s because the newer ones call for so much thinner oil? My ‘97 Outback with a Phase II EJ25D called for natural 10W30 or 5W30 every 7500mi, while my EJ253 ‘05 Forester took natural 5W30 every 7000, though you had to throw a quart in every 2500mi to keep up with the leaking oil cooler seal. The newer motors all have shorter intervals: the FB25B in my wife’s ‘18 Forester takes synthetic 0W20 every 6k, as does the FB20D in my MIL’s Crosstrek. The ‘13 EZ36D I’ve got now is supposed to take natural 5W30 every 6k. They specifically say you can use synthetic, but you should use the same interval. The sixes are probably outliers, though. Actually, thinking back on it, the older motors all used or leaked a bunch of oil. They’re probably leaning on the fact that you’ve gotta put in a quart or two between changes, so you’ve got fresh stuff in there and can go a little longer... Wanna see some crazy shit? Look at some German cars from the early ‘00’s. I’ve got an ‘02 BMW that takes synthetic 5W30 every 15k. You bet your ass I change it more frequently than that! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hmm. Good to know. I’m not particularly worried about it. Just more seeing if I can score a good deal and help clear out his garage a bit. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hmm. I’d been planning to get the Nameless axle backs with the mufflers at some point. Maybe this would fit the bill... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Would those work on a 3.6R? I feel like somebody told me the pipes are the same on the GT and the 3.6R. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This question has been asked regularly since time immemorial. The answer is, definitively: “You can run higher octane gas in your car than it calls for without harm as long as it’s not higher octane because it’s leaded. Your (stock) engine *may* run better or be more efficient with higher octane gas, but it’s almost never worth the extra cost. If your engine runs significantly better with higher octane gas than with what it’s designed for, there’s probably something wrong with it.” The only exception I can think of is certain recent turbocharged engines, specifically the recent VAG TFSI engines like the 1.8T they were using, would run fine on 87, but were performance rated on 93. They specifically said something like “Maximum performance is achieved using Premium gasoline. Using 87 octane gasoline will not harm your engine, but will cause it to run at a slightly lower output.” It’s heavily qualified cheating if you ask me. Anecdotally, some N/A cars I’ve had have run a bit better on 93 than on 87. Mileage is usually a touch better, power not noticeably better. Day to day, it was not worth the cost. All the rest were exactly the same on 87 as 93. One, a Subaru with an EJ25D, ran significantly better with 93 than 87 despite its rating for 87. I decarbonized it and it ran correctly on 87. Putting in 93 made it ping under heavy load a touch less, but no longer made any other improvements. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It kind of sounds like I should just reset it and then go for a long ride. I live in the country within a couple miles of a highway, so I should be able to do some granny stuff out the gate to baseline it. Then I can play with the shifters some and then get on the highway and flog it. I’m just bothered by the fact that the manual specifically calls out a procedure that nobody seems to do. I’d like to see about getting it tuned, but it looks like that’ll probably cost about $700 by the time I get done. $170 cable, cost of the tune, back and forth with Ed and all. I don’t really want to tune the engine right now either. I already burn enough gas and having to switch to 93 would blow a bigger hole in my budget. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nobody knows off the top of their head? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’m still not clear on the actual procedure for ‘10-‘14’s. The manual says to clear memory two and then do a relearn while the car is off the ground. The pre-‘10 forum posts say you should clear memory 2 and then follow a procedure involving particular throttle angles and maybe shifting at certain RPM’s. Other people just reset it and drive it. Which is it? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I bought a lever-type ball joint separator a while back for working in my German cars. Aluminum knuckles don’t take well to the rough treatment pickle forks give them, turns out. While pickle forks work, these are far less destructive than the pickle fork could ever hope to be. They’re especially nice when you want to unseat a balljoint you don’t want to destroy, like say you’re taking a knuckle out so you can have a bearing replaced or something. Really the only drama is when the joint does finally unseat; it sounds like a gunshot in your garage! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My parents have a ‘15 Outback. The rear calipers have screw-type pistons that ride on a threaded rod. The threaded rod is attached to a motor turns it and effectively screws the piston down when you engage the brake. It’s a pretty straightforward system. I had an old Audi a while back that had the same type of system, with screw type pistons. The parking brake cable was attached to a lever that turned the screw and clamped the pistons down mechanically. Frankly, I’m kind of surprised Subaru ever had the older system with the parking brake drum-inside-rotor design when they went electric. It’s far more complex than the newer one. All I can think of is that they had a whole bunch of parts stock they didn’t want to just junk, so they came up with a transition design to let them use up the stock. Though, I though Subaru practices JIT like most manufacturers do. I dunno. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That’s a good point! The notice says you only have until 12/31/19 to get reimbursed for any payments you made to have this fix done. Anybody who did needs to get on it soon. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I just got a warranty extension notice in the mail for my 3.6R. It extends the standard warranty (3yr/36k) on the parking brake to 15yr/unlimited. That’s better than I thought! It’s not the recall I had hoped for, but it should cover those of us with 5th Gen’s and autotragic transmissions for plenty long enough. I guess I’ll turn my hill-holder back on. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh, you’re definitely right. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Air tools to assemble things? Do you wanna get cut? ‘cause that’s how you get cut! Heh. Not really. You can use smaller things like an electric or air ratchet. Just start them by hand so you know they’re lined up. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mine works fine, albeit slowly, in manual mode as well. It’s more this “mode transition” thing it does. And the “oh, you’re at 15% throttle in second and we’re at 2000RPM? Okay. Time to shift into thiiiiiird...wait you gave it a tiny bit more throttle lurch 2500 in third!” I had thought it was bailing out on the shift for a while until I popped it into M for a split second to peek at the gear indicator when it did it. Plus, if I’m in M and in a higher gear but not accelerating much, it’ll be at lower revs with the converter obviously unlocked, and then you toe in a tiny bit more throttle and get a ton more revs than you’d expect. Plus, it rolls up slower than you’d think. I’m not explaining this in a way that makes sense either. I should shoot a video. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hey, so I’m still thinking I might want to do a TCU reset and see maybe if I can straighten out the transmission a little. I do have a better bead on what it’s doing. It’s always shifting, it just seems that the timing is kind of odd (to me). When I thought it was upshifting then quickly downshifting in the middle of it, it turns out I was toeing in more throttle as it was shifting into third. I don’t know if the engine is kind of peaky or what, but it seems like there’s a transition where you put in say 15% throttle to accelerate gently and you get about maybe 1800RPM before a shift, and when you put in a bit more throttle. It rolls up to like 2500RPM (but fairly slowly?). If I make that throttle position change as it’s shifting from 2-3, and it started the shift when I was at the lower setting, it’ll kind of lurch a little and the tach will swing way up. It’s like there’s a granny mode and a normal mode and it has trouble switching from one to the other. Since I regularly make a left onto a divided highway and want to accelerate more as I complete the turn, I seem to regularly catch it as it does the 2-3 shift. It’s magnified by the fact that this transmission is so god-awful slow to shift, especially 2-3. If I accelerate outside of “granny mode,” it seems fine. I also think this is why that TCU “tune” helps. Since he’s cranking up the requested torque values in that table, the car’s much less apt to be in granny mode. Anyhoo, this brings me to a question. Once I find my long lost VAGCOM cable, I plan to use FreeSSM to clear Memory 2. The few posts I find about that say “clear it and then drive around in different situations for about 60 miles to relearn it.” They’re all for the pre-2010 mode, though. There’s also some procedure involving certain throttle positions and shifting that’s a bit unclear. The FSM doesn’t talk about doing that. They have you clear the memory and lift the car, then instruct it to do some repeat procedure. They say it will “vibrate.” Who’s right here? Why should I be doing? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Son of a bitch. Nothing worse than taking your car apart and finding out that some prick who you paid good money to fix your car did a sloppy job. Especially when it comes to things like cross-threading fasteners. Come on. That’s serious amateur stuff. I haven’t cross-threaded a fastener in two decades since I was taught how to avoid it. Glad you’ve finally got the thing’s number and have got a plan to get it working again. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’m inclined to think that it’s the same reason my dad’s early ‘15 Outback has late ‘14 front brakes and ‘15-on rear brakes. Seems like Subaru was doing some weird transitioning of parts and tooling during 2014. Pretty sure the fronts were dual-piston because I remember not being able to use my single-piston brake retractor for some reason. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’ve got Centric PowerStop rotors and Akebono ceramic pads on my 3.6R. They were noisy at low speeds for a couple weeks while they bedded in (Akebono used to have a bed-in procedure, at least for the Euroceramics, and now they don’t?). Now they’re fine if you take into account for the behavior typical for ceramic pads. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh, okay. I got the impression that you’d be stuck at the dealer for all that time. That’s a long while to be stuck in a place that likely doesn’t have anything much more interesting on hand than what you’re coming in with... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They won’t give you a loaner? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh, of course. You’d likely just be less apt to have carbon buildup in the intake ports and on the backs of the intake valves. You’re right that regardless of injection strategy, if you’ve got a ton of oil getting into your intake stream, you’re gunna have a bad time. My point — which probably got lost in my rant — was that a catch can is a bandaid at best and a waste of money and a potential vacuum leak at worst. If you’ve got a bunch of blowby, you should address it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk