DrD123

Lucky! They don't even have 93 in NM that I have found (on a trip down to Carlsbad, I couldn't even get 91 - only 90 at the time!) - in Albuquerque, 91 is the highest you can find unless you get some race gas at 100+ and mix... did that once on my old WRX (very noticeable difference) but haven't on the LGT - the local station that had Trick race gas (107, I think) is long gone... (main reason they don't have it here is the elevation - I live at about 6k ft. above sea level...)

I thought it was pretty funny - most of the videos I have seen show it being rough to remove them from the knuckle without the astro tool, so I bought that a while back. When doing them this time, I just used a wood block and a hammer to smack down on the control arm once I had the pinch bolt off. Took a few good hits, but they both popped out. They were rusty mostly up towards the end/bottom, but the part closer to the boot was actually pretty clean... We get snow very infrequently here, and I am pretty good about getting an undercarriage wash shortly after we do. Very little road salt to deal with. (growing up in the northeast, I am used to everything rotting out, but it definitely doesn't do that here) - I put antiseize on them just in case when installing (as well as inside the knuckle) then just used the floor jack and a block of wood to pop them into the knuckle and they went right in. I am curious how folks torque the front bushing down while the car is on the ground - I ended up just lifting from under the control arm with a floor jack/block of wood until the center of the hub was as close to ride height as I could get it with the wheel off (maybe a cm or so away from actual ride height- I was lifting the car up off the jack stands at that point... figured it was good enough and torqued it down.)

Installed the control arms - didn't get to use my cool Astro Pneumatic tool, though - one of the benefits of living in the southwest - I was able to just pull the ball joints out of the control arms without removing them from the control arm first. Front bushing on the drivers side was destroyed, and the rear bushings had some partial tears in them. Sorry if I offended the Mevotech fans - their supreme line was 0 and 2 for the lower control arms on our old minivan (05 Odyssey - even got fancy and upgraded to the aluminum ones from the 08...), so confidence lost, so to speak. Maybe next time I have to do control arms I'll try them or another aftermarket version - the OEMs lasted since I bought the car new 11 years and 80k miles ago though, so it will probably be a while!

I have had poor experiences in the past with Mevotech lower control arms - now that was on a Honda odyssey using their "supreme" line bought from Rockauto - first set had the boots split in pretty short order (month or so) - replaced without complaint by rockauto - then in about a year and a half the ball joints on both sides were wrecked with tons of play - replaced again without complaint, but didn't give me a positive impression with respect to quality control. Granted, different vehicle, and the parts get high marks (well, the little heart) on rockauto, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it, and didn't know about the other brands - OEM is $118 a side from Heuberger and they'll be here on Wednesday, so I decided to do that (they come with a new castle nut and cotter pin

So driving to visit my kiddo at college and the car would shake accelerating (but only once you got over 70mph or so) and on sweeping right turns at highway speeds - also when changing lanes to the right at highway speeds I'd get a little vibration/shaking... checking over everything all of the axles looked fine - no torn boots, etc. - went to the front left (drivers side) wheel and got significant motion when rocking it back and forth - figured oh joy, fried bearing - but when it moved, you could see everything connected to the hub/knuckle move which was weird - poked around some more and noticed the front bushing on the control arm (the small one - not the big rear one) had significant motion (as in, all of the motion of the wheel was from that) - few mm, anyway! Ordered up some new control arms (figured if one side was bad, other would likely follow) - car has 81k miles on it, so nothing crazy, but on the off chance one or both of the ball joints are bad, and the rear, while not moving, definitely have cracks in them, so they are probably not long for this world, so might as well replace the whole shooting match. So I have two new control arms ordered up from Subaru - hopefully this solves the problem (plus it gives me a chance to use my spiffy Astro pneumatic subaru ball joint puller, which is good!) - as a southern car, there's like zero rust, so probably not that hard to get them out without the tool, but since I have it, I'm definitely going to use it! Didn't see anything about a better aftermarket alternative than OEM, so that's what I have en route.

while changing the oil and under the car saw oil dripping off the engine right about at the head gasket... noticed it looked odd, then when I got out from under the car I noticed the PS reservoir was a little low and thankfully found that it was just my power steering pump peeing fluid on the top of the engine... replaced the suction side o-ring, cleaned up the mess, and we're good to go. (went from "oh crap, not a blown head gasket" to "$3 o-ring and we're good to go")

yeah - I read turbo inlet but thought throttle body inlet... I am running the stock turbo inlet (with a turbosmart kompact diverter valve)

Just the Perrin one and I thought Morimoto? Definitely Perrin, though - the one for the 15 WRX works (have one on my car)

Definitely a lot of folks with long-covid - wish that could get sorted out. Been fortunate thus far that my friends whom have had it, while some had a pretty rough go, no one has that. There's supposed to be a revised vaccine more effective against the current strains this fall... so it really does look like it's going to be another flu shot like thing... we're back to masking at work which is sort of a drag, but what are you going to do.

Is it 44652AA940 - that's the "Turbocharger Mount Heat Shield"

there are usually a bunch of them on eBay in the 50-70 range - I'd just swap it out, or use it as a chance to upgrade to something fancy

I always assumed the extra holes were if you needed the hood opened higher while working on the engine (often see something similar with the standard rigid strut where there is more than one spot to mount it) - can you not get the broken one out of the hood?

might want to check for combustion gasses in the coolant... a head gasket failure can give symptoms like that, as can a leak somewhere in the coolant system (if the cooling system can't hold pressure, the coolant can boil) a bad thermostat could cause problems, too. (I'd be pretty surprised if they re-used the coolant, but it wouldn't be surprising if they didn't replace the thermostat)

PM'ed you about the floor mats

So the BIU only provides power to the dome light and the map lights if you are using them as the interior lights when you open a door. If you have that switched off (for the map lights, the switch just in front of them - it's a slider switch - not the pushbuttons for each light) then the BIU can not provide any current at all to them - same deal for the dome light - it only powers them if it's set in the door position - set it to off, and the BIU can't provide any power to them (but if something else that's powered has a poor ground in the neighborhood, it could possibly send power through the light if that's best ground. (you do mention turning the switch to off and the lights staying on, which suggests a problem - perhaps the new lights have a better driver that doesn't go on at low power, but the underlying issue is likely still there) If you have the switches both set to door, and you are getting the dim lighting all the time, but it goes out when you switch the slider switch off of door, then it's the BIU - if not, then my thought would be to check your grounds - something is dumping power through the light that shouldn't be.

pretty much all manufacturers have some cars with issues - Subaru seems to do quite a bit better than many. Some folks have more problems than others, that's for sure. My 02 WRX did great until it got hit/totalled. My LGT has done great with the exception of that spun bearing thing a few years back... Subaru defrayed quite a bit of the cost and it's been just fine since then. That being said, our Honda Odysseys have been pretty impressive >280k on the first (transmission died at 211k), a bit over 110k on the second (and still going - it's only a 16). Just picked up an 05 Pilot for my oldest with 200k on the clock from some friends that's been solid. I tend to be pretty neurotic about maintenance, though, so that probably helps (the Pilot owners were as well, but did everything at the dealer - things in pretty great shape) New cars scare me with all of the electronics, though... I like dedicated knobs/buttons - controlling everything through a screen is disconcerting.

Except that yes, they do? Go to their website, click on the "About Us" link at the bottom and it gives the number as 1-608-661-1376 - maybe that's not a technical support number? (not sure - haven't called - I have purchased a bunch of stuff from them over the years (the side of my toolbox is covered with rockauto magnets) - haven't called, but have emailed with issues before with good results when something wasn't quite what it was supposed to be.

a larger front and rear swaybar to accompany the Konis makes a big difference, as well. (though the front is a bit of a bear to do if the engine isn't out of the car for something like, say, a new shortblock... but then it just drops right in... )

If there is a NAPA parts near you, they have a number of options listed, and the images show the correct 2 pin connector. For Rockauto, have you called them or are you just going off the website? there's a good chance (since the fans they list which all show 4 pin plugs are indicated as being for 2005-2014) the images are a generic photo (for the connectors) and the fans are correct (one has a heart next to it indicating it's a popular product, which I wouldn't think would happen if everyone that bought it had to return it!)

Worked beautifully! Another thing I like about most t-bolt clamps is the wider band (provided there's room for it) - they work really well, and apply pressure very uniformly

No worries - got the t-bolt clamps in today (pack of 2 all stainless ones for $13 on amazon) - probably will install it tomorrow along with a couple of other things.

Another potential cause for a vibration/binding sort of feeling that is worse when the car is cold could be the center differential, but that's usually apparent when turning... a worn cv joint could be it - haven't had that go on my car, but on our last van, the inner cv joints went on both axles (1 at a time...), but it would only vibrate on acceleration, not deceleration (granted - it's an fwd van) - the inner joints made no noise when they were dying, though. I wouldn't think a cv joint issue would go away when warm, but maybe lubrication is marginal for some reason, and as the grease warms up it smooths things out?

So it just donned on me that 38.5mm = 1.5", so not what I want. Went and checked what I have on the upper radiator hose and it's 44-51mm, and I measure at 49mm or so for the current position (on the outside of the clamp, so it's probably more like 47 or thereabout), so I'll just get that! (for the spring clamps, I find them kinda annoying, actually - particularly when they are in an awkward location for me - on the upper radiator hose, the OEM clamp was letting the hose slide back on the nipple, which was weird, so I had replaced it (based on Amazon, that was back in 2016) - that's the only time I removed it (upper radiator hose = less mess) - I really like the all stainless t-bolt clamps for uniform pressure. The worm drive ones that are the non-marring kind (with a loop that goes under the screw and part of the band that has holes in it) are good, and more readily available, though, so I have used those, too.

Thanks - so looks like 38.5mm. I need to replace the clamp onto the thermostat housing, so not so worried about cracking it - the worm drive clamp that I have on there now is not in great shape, so I am going to just replace it with a t-bolt clamp. (replacing with an OEM clamp requires removing the lower radiator hose and draining a bunch of reasonably new Subaru coolant. I can replace the worm drive clamp with a t-bolt clamp with the hose in place)

So the worm clamp I have on there is a little messed up (or at least it's weeping coolant) - does anyone know the diameter I would need for a t-bolt clamp? (I suppose I could just measure, but I was hoping someone knew off the top of their head!)