robm

Raincoat? Umbrella? There is water falling from the SKY!! What to do? Remember, she doesn't live in the great NorthWet, where good weather means it isn't raining sideways....

Shut off the car, connect up an ammeter (multitmeter) and measure the drain. Then pull fuses until it goes away. Once the bad circuit is found, trace through it to find the bad component. If it doesn't, then disconnect the alternator. You could have a bad alternator, with a shorted diode. It will still work OK when charging, but will drain when shut off. The clock and the radio always consume some current, but it isn't much. Good luck.

Bleeding the brakes after letting all the fluid out is a PITA. I did just that, and the brakes still aren't as firm as they should be ( air in the system). Keep as much fluid in the system as you can, then bleed it till clean fluid comes through. Don't let the reservoir empty completely, to let air in the system. Do all 4 wheels. Chances are the caliper froze because of old fluid ( absorbs water and rusts the piston in place.)

Back from the dead, or what? The original post is 5-6 years old! I wonder if his car made it to 500,000 km?

Broken belts will not damage the engine. Just a pain, not a car killer. The after market stuff is usually just fine. Make sure you get new tensioners and idlers, as they will be worn. Don't bother with cam and crank seals unless they are leaking. Consider resealing the oil pump if it is leaking or if the valves are clattery.

I drained the oil from the tranny, cleaned it well with epoxy thinner and a toothbrush, and added more epoxy. Right above the bolt that got bashed is what looks like a freeze plug in the tranny. The oil was oozing out from around it. The plug itself was actually distorted. It is amazing the transmission case flexed far enough to distort this plug, then went back, without cracking. So far, the oil is staying where it belongs. I also cobbled up a heat shield over the cat from some sheet metal. The grease from the DOJ was oozing out from the boot, there was no nick in it. It all looks OK. I will find out for sure this weekend, when I head back to Vancouver.

Those fuse sizes are based on the electrical code. It doesn't really apply to cars. Using those fuses will be safe, but may not work, as often conductors on cars are "overloaded" by the standards of the CEC/NEC.

An update: I took the train to Prince George, then got a ride to Cache Creek with a friend who was hauling the family south for school break. The car was back in one piece, with a new (to me) front cat and transmission support, tranny oil topped up, and some kind of epoxy on the bashed bit on the transmission where it was oozing. The car ran fine, with absolutely no problems. However, the next day, In Prince George, there was oil on the garage floor, and the level in the dipstick was down. Also, there was grease from the DOJ joint spread about, as there was no heat shield with the new catalytic converter. I topped up the transmission, and carried on to Terrace. By the time I got home, the oil level was down to the add mark on the dipstick. I have cleaned it up really well, and will let it sit to find where the oil is leaking from. If I can't seal it up, I may be looking for a new transmission. Also, I will have to rig up a heat shield of some kind, and check the DOJ boot really well for damage. It shouldn't be spreading grease about like that, there may be a nick in the boot.

Yes, that is a bad blower relay. Mine would do that when it got warm. It helps to keep the defrost on, and the blower on low, as the warm air going by the relay causes it to drop out. I finally fixed mine, after living through a stint or 2 of -30 deg. C winter weather with very flaky heat....

Deener, was there a good 5 speed on that car you grabbed the engine from? I might need one. The rock did a number on my tranny, which is leaking despite a big wadge of JB Weld the guys at Kal Tire put on. Runs fine, except it goes from full to add on the dipstick between Terrace and PG. Rob.

What I am finding I don't like about new cars seems to be common to all, and a result of styling and recent "safety" requirements. This covers a broad range of cars, some considered quite desirable: Chevy HHR, Camry, Mazda 3 (too fast!) Mazda 5, a Nissan, a Chrysler minivan. WHt I have noticed: Huge front pillars at steep angles supporting the roof, right where one needs to see out to notice things like where you are going in a turn, or other vehicles. It is a good thing many of these pillars have airbags in them, as the airbag will be really handy when you hit the F250 that was hiding behind the pillar. High dashboards, making it impossible to see the front of the car. If I sit way up high and way forward, then I can sometimes see the hood sloping away in front, but it is still a guess where the front of the car is, as the end of the hood is still below that. I have poor depth perception, I know, so I have to have strong visual cues to tell me where the end of the car is, like being able to see the end of the car. Vision to the rear is often really bad. Huge pillars in the rear quarters make lane changes scary, the rear headrests often block the view in the rear view mirror, some of the rear windows are really small, and always, really high, so the rear of the car is impossible to see from inside. I get paranoid driving them in traffic, and frustrated trying to park them. I am not sure about the ABS either. I found the rental car I drove back to not stop well in slippery conditions, with ABS going like mad. I am not sure if this is due to the different drive train ( 2WD Auto vs 4WD manual), the car's weight (Impala vs. Loyale) or the inherent properties of the braking system, but there were a few scary moments that I wouldn't have had in the rusty, trusty Subie. I really need an AWD car, living where I do. Most AWD are automatic only now, manual transmission is not an option, and even ones that do have it, (Subaru and Suzuki) the manual is rare as hen's teeth. I prefer the manual, I still don't believe the autos get better fuel consumption in the real world yet. It was such a relief, getting back into my Subaru, that I can see out of, and can see the ends of, and don't have to worry about snow or slush. On the way back in the rental I stopped to see some friends, and nearly had to walk the last half mile as their road was nearly impassible to 2WD. (Their driveway is impassible, but I was expecting that.) Traction control got me up the hill, at 0 mph, and it was pretty smelly when I got to the top. I don't think it is supposed to be engaged for 5 minutes straight... Other than these items, there are lots of good things about new cars, like 30 MPG on the highway (decent, but it could be better, I used to get 35+ MPG out of my old Corollas and 510's), good instrumentation for trip meters, fuel consumption, outside temperature, cruise control, etc. No news on how my car is yet. They have most of the parts, and are going to start today. I should know by the end of the day.

Oh , I am keeping, it all right. I have been driving a lot of rentals recently, and haven't yet found a new car I would want to own. I haven't even found one I can see out of yet. But this my daily driver, only 5% tops is off road. Lifting it should not be necessary for driving it on the TransCanada Highway, where this little incident took place!

After getting my car running again (Thanks again to Deener) I ran it around Vancouver for a few days to ensure it was reliable, then headed back home to Terrace, 1400 km away. That was last Thursday. It was a great day, sunny, dry, no snow or anything. Then I hit a huge rock in the middle of the road, 30 km south of Cache Creek. It was a choice between the rock, a 2 ft wide shoulder with a concrete divider, or the semi coming the other way. I tried to line up the rock slightly off centre, so it wouldn't destroy the suspension. The rock was at least a foot in diameter, and I was going the speed limit, 100 km/h. It banged the sump guard, ripped the front cat off completely, bent the tranny crossmember, pushing the transmission up about 2 inches. It dented the floorpan several places as the car rolled over it. Under the front passenger seat, the pan was pushed up about 2 inches. The cat was sleeping under that seat at the time, he was pretty lucky to escape with nothing but a severe shock to the system. Believe it or not, the car was still drivable. One header was flattened completely, but the other was open enough to let the engine run. I drove it into Cache Creek at 100 km/h. It is getting new parts there. They managed to source a used header/y-pipe/cat and a cross member from a wrecker on Vancouver Island. With luck, it should be ready by next weekend, when I can go back to retrieve it. I am fairly certain that any other car would have been totaled by hitting that rock. It is a miracle this one wasn't. It is time to look for another car, I think. This one is getting pretty used up.

Got back from NM late last night, and Deener and I had a go at it this morning. Actually, it started right up on the first turn of the key! After the grief I had 3 weeks ago, running the battery down, then leaving it, I didn't expect it to even turn over, let alone run. The best we can figure is it was the MAF. There was a lot of oil on the air filter, so I cleaned the MAF with what I had available, WD-40. I know this leaves a residue, but it was all I had. I figure after 3 weeks, what ever was left had evaporated and so it ran. The connector was a bit wobbly, too, so after hosing out the sensor with carb cleaner, Deener strapped it on tight with some cable ties. Having the tools handy, we also did a compression check, as I had noticed some oil on one of the plugs when I replaced them last time around. Numbers were OK: 150 120 ish (ouch!) 140 150 This was measured warm. I can't remember if the wet plug was the low one, or not. It was from that side, but I thought it was the back plug, not the front one. Anyway, it is back up and running. I will stick around town for a day or so, to check on its reliability. Many thanks to Deener, who came out with a big bag of tools, early on a Sunday morning to help someone he had never met before. Rob.

It could be the brake shoes hanging it up. There is an adjuster, look for it, or pull off the other side to see how it works It is hard, but not impossible to go in the brake adjuster slot and back off the brake. You might need 2 tools, one to push the arm out, and the other to rotate the adjuster wheel. It is supposed to go only one way, so you have to push the arm off the wheel, then back off the wheel. Worht a try, if you have any motion on the spline at all. Rob.

Miles said it well. The surge to half way indicates a sticky T-stat. Fix it, and check the rest of the cooling system at the same time.

I will check it. But I am pretty sure it is ok. No covers, and everything looks tight, and I know the driver's cam is turning to make the distributor make spark. Besides, I hear these things will run on 2 cylinders, if the other cam belt breaks, why am I so unlucky it won't? I will be looking at timing. I don't know how it has slipped, but that is the only thing left. Cam? Spark? How do I check, when my timing light is 1000 miles away, and everyone I know in Vancouver is car illiterate? I will try Deener. He lives somewhere near, and his willingness to take on the Loyale with blown headgaskets indicates his competence, and the amplenss of his tool box! PM coming. Rob.

I will give it a rinse with alcohol, or similar. There is spark, so there is cam and rotor rotation. Extended cranking gets a smell of gas to the tailpipe. I may try to spill a bit of raw gas in to see if it helps, but I doubt it. To make it worse, I am now several thousand of miles away, and won't get back to it for 3 weeks. The battery will be low low low when I return.

A quick update: I replaced the plugs and air filter. They were due anyway. No effect. Still just cranks. Checked the rotor. Firmly attached, not wobbling loose. I pulled off the MAF and hosed it out with WD-40. I am now waiting for it to dry. I think I wil help it out with a little warm air from the vacuum cleaner. Getting desperate here. Why won't it run??!

And I am 1400 km away from home and tools. It has been reluctant to start the last week or 2. Not every day, just sometimes, when cold. The last 2 days, it has been fine. Today, after driving 2 days to get to my mom's place, it won't start. Ran like a champ yesterday, 800 km, no problems at all. I parked it last night, and today it won't start. Turns over, but won't fire. It has: Spark (pulled the coil wire to check) Fuel (popped the FI intake to check, and it is full of gas from the busiest gas station in the neighbourhood, so the fuel should be good.) Timing belts are on, tight and turning. There is no reason why stopping the car would cause them to jump, nor is the distributor likely to have slipped. This is especially embarassing as my relatives all think it is a rusty POS and unreliable. Rusty I will grant, but it only has 326,000 km, burns no oil, and is otherwise in good shape. What am I missing?

That should have showed up as coolant loss. Was the rad low, too? And an extra cat wouldn't have been any dumber than lots of other things that have been done to these cars...

Yup, sounds like HG's. I am glad I wasn't tempted to buy it, being so far away. No lift or stand or time.... I have had milkshake on my oil filler cap in cool weather from day one, when I bought my Loyale in November of 2003. And that was in Vancouver. I wonder how you avoid it? I wonder if an exhaust restriction could cause the blown HG's? Hmm. 4 EA82's. Do you have a decent one you want to get rid of? Say,<200K km's, and not enough rust to attract the police?

I saw that car on Craig's List, but it was too far away to check out. The price was certainly right, even with all the problems. Don't say head gasket just yet. Mayo on the filler cap is normal on these cars at this time of year. Any moisture, and there is normally some, in the crankcase gases condense on the filler cap, as it is so far away from the block and in the cool air that comes through the rad. So, this thing has how many "appliances" in the exhaust system? A cat at the Y pipe, a "resonator," an aftermarket cat and a muffler? I believe you will find that the "resonator" is another cat. These things have 2: one a reducer, the other an oxidizer, instead of a more usual "3 way" cat. If exhaust is seeping out of it, that may be where the restriction is located. I would look at the restriction idea first, before tearing into the engine any deeper. Save your self time, money, parts and grief.

Somehow, I cant' see myself traveling by air with a half-shaft and a caliper in my luggage. The extra baggage fees alone would be unattractive, not to mention hauling them around. Pack, PC and duty-free bottle is enough of a hassle to get onto the plane and through customs.

Shipping, brokerage, and taxes on all of above would probably double the cost of shipping a MWE rebuild out of the US. Might as well buy one at the dealership. These Napa axles have been excellent in the past, and not too expensive. This is the third or so that I have put in, and the only one to give me any trouble at all. Normally, it is just a matter of pushing them into the hub by hand - which is exactly what I did when I finally got the good one. Rebooting old Subaru axles is a big gamble, as there is no way to tell how many miles it has been driven with the blown boot. How much water, sand and salt has it eaten before I got it? Also, the work to reboot is significant. So is the mess, with grease dripping everywhere. I would much rather get a shop-rebuilt axle with a new CV on it - as long as the CV fits the bearings!