ThosL

My older sister changes the oil at 3 months or under, she drives like grandma, less than 20 miles on any given day, many days she doesn't run the car. At $50 a pop, the oil change places are overkill unless the oil needs changing. Only change what needs to be changed; of course there are sales people always trying to promote religious rules about all the cars, making people fearful that if they don't do something like clockwork, dire consequences will result.

I have had people at the auto parts store brow beat me into trying to get me to buy the expensive stuff in a EJ22?? My car has bigger problems and I doubt a scientific analysis would reveal any risk to engines in most all cases of the usual store antifreeze.

Excellent feedback. Thanks.

I was curious how this may happen; during the on and off cold snaps in the NY area the ride gets rough like the struts or something are less functional. During regular weather the ride is OK. Also what should we know about the extra stress Subarus go through during cold weather and how to handle it?? Thanks.

I have had a number of Subarus with blown head gaskets and managed to deal with the problem. At this point I have one that I think has a blown hg, so I pulled out the thermostat and it runs great now. I would try to get an accurate diagnosis, there are false positives.

One reason I don't like power window, automatic trannies, if there is a choice. More problems and expense if you have failure.

Thanks for the feedback on this issue; it looks like the best product is the POR15. I don't need a quart, though. I will look over the remedies again to see if there is any basic remedy which makes sense for me.

I have some significant body rust in the wheel wells of my Subaru, the metal is still intact, but I was wondering if there is any treatment to staunch the rust process to prevent the rust from eating through or the metal decay to develop holes? Is there a paint or primer product you can spray on that will solidify the weakened body and prevent it from breaking down?

Recently I checked around for cv axles, and the super quality ones have greater tolerances for stresses. As usual do your online research on quality levels, it doesn't hurt to check feedback on O'Reilly or other auto parts stores online, to see what other people have gone through with them. I know Auto Zone quality level tends to be substandard.

Hopefully others will be forewarned about possibly damaged hubs, probably that happened initially, maybe why the bearings failed. Recycled parts make a lot of sense with lots of bearing grease, too bad they don't still have grease fitting that might save a lot of aggravation.

A garage installed the two front spindles from the used parts junkyard today, vehicle runs fine in that regard. But they forgot to install the the two cv joints and rotors I had told them about that were in the back of the car. They said they would put those in on Monday if I wanted. As far as I know the front wheel bearings were original on the car when I bought it with mileage around 125K. For the bearings to go after two years of use is not normal, the second garage confirmed the faulty wheel bearings, but once installed there were no other vehicle issues needing immediate attention. It makes me wonder whether Moog units or some other after market bearings were installed two years ago.

The whole shaft. Was also at the local junkyard and picked up a brake caliper with hardware for $35; and there were two rotors in the junked vehicle for $15 each, so that is the least some will pay. And on the cv joint, nothing beats Southend auto in Lyndonville, Vt that installed cv axles for $90 or less part included, and had 6 month warrantees on used Subarus they sold for $2200 each.

I followed a recommendation I saw on this site about the online orders of Advance auto parts. You go online to do the order then on checkout, you enter a bunch of discount codes and reduce say a cv joint cost from $64 to $44 each. I don't know why Auto Zone, Pep Boys or Napa don't offer comparable deals or do they?

A local vehicle recycling yard has two replacement spindles, $65 each, very fair price. Plus they recommended a local mechanic that will do the job. Hopefully I get this job done at a reasonable price, after the problems are nailed down by them. No sense in changing out parts if they aren't bad.

There are many types of mechanics; the best are honest, fair, plain-speaking, communicative, not under-handed, surly, two-faced, incompetent, greedy, pig-headed, refractory, irresponsible, or evasive. Many parts places have lifetime guarantees on some parts where the charge covers the small percentage of parts with those claims. So for every part that does fail a small number of replacements are requested and claimed. It is usually a very steep obstacle to overcome to get any type of guarantee honored. I know with what I have sold over the years well into the millions in parts and services I have always been happy to cover any irresponsibility on my part with refunds. The shop kept me waiting until the end of the day until they got to the Subaru; The mechanic who checked out my car had me sign the following acknowledgement. "Advised customer vehicle is unsafe to drive and should not be on the road. Right front wheel bearing and hub are falling off of car, right front pads and rotors are grinding metal to metal. Possible damage to caliper, tie rod (sic) need to be replaced an (sic) ball joints are broken. Both left and right front axles need to be replaced. This vehicle is not safe for the road and should not be driven. Advised customer of all the issues and conserns (sic). Customer denied work at this time. "

The shop put the Subaru up on the standard lift to examine the front end and showed me the wobble in the front wheels. CV joint boots are torn; the grating sound I was hearing was actually the brake rotor, metal on metal on the worn pad. Last oil change I asked Monro to check out any defective front end issues, the guy said he saw none, less than a couple months ago. Another mechanic did rear wheel bearing a few weeks ago, no mention of the other issues. Probably replacing the wheel hub/spindles would make sense at this point, getting them used from the junkjard if I want to put a lot more miles on the vehicle.

Mileage was around 50K on the two front wheel bearings since it was done; I can get original records. Axle nuts were not touched in the two years. Can struts not performing up to par cause the problem? Thanks.

I went to a local repair shop a couple years ago for my front wheel bearing they replaced. They also installed a ball joint and tie rod end. Fast forward two years, today I had the vehicle up on the lift and they said I needed them replaced again, also the CV joints and a tie rod or two. Estimate = $1700!. They said the vehicle had gone over the mileage guarantee.... Do I have any options here, shouldn't the parts place guarantee bearings or do they sunset those too? Also do problem CV joints or other such issues lead to wheel bearing failure?

Thanks for the feedback; a friend tried to make progress and we were not able to, not the right tools, and the rentals at Auto Zone, etc. did not help.

My friend Sam has been trying to help me to do the CV joint on my 99 Outback. Unfortunately one strut bolt is still frozen as is the ball joint retaining bolt. We tried lots of PB Blaster (Auto Zone had the lubrication PB, not the penetrating type which I got elsewhere). I used a breaker bar with a Stanley 1/2 inch to 3/8 adapter which twisted off the adapter! Sam was thinking the torch would be a way to loosen the bolt, I don't have one. Are there any tricks here we are missing?

My sister had one of these codes, that her catalytic converter was below sensor level, though she recently passed emissions. If she runs premium gas would that help? Does any product help with these? The lady at Auto Zone after finding my cat. code came up on a 99 Outback with a 2.2 said probably the misfire or other less than optimum combustion triggered it. Is that right?

I got into this with a friend with more tools than myself; the lower bolt would not turn though we tried WD40, etc.. So he started loosening the strut bolts and saw the Abs that would also apparently have to be removed. I know when a mechanic did the other knuckle, ball joint etc. it was a bear, and actually the driver's side ball joint is bad too which can be a challenge getting it out of the knuckle if frozen so I may need to go the mechanic route.

My Advance unit was a Carquest CV joint, I figure they are all coming from the Orient now anyway, I didn't check this one out for place of origin. $50 with discount. South End auto up in Lyndonville, VT was getting under $100 installed, which is dirt cheap with all the hassles.

I knew a mechanic up in Newington who was very good and reasonable on small engines, Mike Cretella. I would check with the auto parts places in your area to see what their recommendations are. And are the hourly rates real hours??

The reality is that many jobs rated "piece of cake" are in actually tough in many cases due to dozens of potential problems that mechanics are well versed in but do it yourselfers are not. If I want to work on anything on my car I have to do it outside on the pavement in a parking area that forbids working on cars, but not enforced. If you have lots of tools that helps but technique is critical. I wonder what the prevailing wisdom is on PB Blaster vs. WD40 vs. Liquid Wrench.