sonofbuster

up until this point i've done (or imagined) doing all my own work on my 01' OBW but, due to good 'ol life changes, i'm tapping out of that save for the oil changes and tire changes. i've got some work that needs doing and need someone who wants work to be doing. from what I gather, good private techs are like babysitters: if you have a good one, you don't share. but... however... that said... if anyone in CT knows of 'a guy' or 'has a guy', that wants a little work please PM me. i do have a regular shop i had been taking my wagon to, but they gotta charge what they charge and it's a bit hard to swallow right now. and as always, thanks!

i use T-9 on some parts of the car, but it's not long lasting. i feel like the grease that spews out of busted axle boots would be great to spread across the entire underside of the car but for the horrible smell that would emit. gonna do the axles soon using a tutorial from this site (i think?). will try to clean everything up then. wish me the best... haha

great information. that's wild that such a small deviation could cause what felt like the car was going to fall apart. had both front rotors replaced sometime in the winter then parked it in the driveway for a couple months. both rotors looked identical. i'm keeping the old rotors for just that posibility.

picked up a couple of new rotors and layed them against the old ones and couldn't really tell what was warped. maybe the part that contacts the hub? anyhow, issue is fixed for now but i'm gonna keep an eye on things and plan on servicing the brake system soon.

a few years ago, i mysteriously snapped three studs on the front passenger side of my '01 OBW and had to get a tow home. figured replacing studs was an easy job and getting them out was simple enough. back in? not so much. i tried attaching the lug nuts and spacers (almost stripped the new studs wailing on them) and a lot of hammering with no luck. finally had it towed to a shop to get it done. incredibly frustrating considering how inexpensive studs are and how accessible the repair is. thinking about it in hindsight, doing the job outside in the dead of New England winter might have done me in. shrinkage? who knows.

gonna try a couple rotors for now and keep an eye on things. i suspect i'm gonna need more work in the way of calipers -- either rebuild or replace -- and a complete bleed and flush of the old fluid. i assume i'll need to bed in these rotors after install. any tips?

still plenty of meat on the pads as far as i can tell. the rotor looks like it was wearing at some point, then it just never got touched again so the forces of nature chipped away (literally) at it to make it what it is now.

thanks for the replies. i'll have to decide what i have time and money for although rotors seem pretty cut & dry to replace. i forgot to mention the pads and rotors were new as of Feb 2014 (the rear sets are Summer '14). i think letting them sit (maybe before they bedded in??) for so long didn't do them any favors. my wife works at a school so maybe i can time the work to her time off b/c i sure as hell know i will be making multiple trips to the parts store for this and my axles. that's how it goes!

as the weather warmed up, my 2001 OBW started vibrating under braking. like i imagine a warped rotor would feel. in the last couple weeks, however, it's bad enough that i can feel it in the steering wheel and it causes the brake pedal to pulse. so i finally had a peek at it today. i pulled the driver side caliper and rotor and found that the rotor is clean on the outside, but pitted and rusty on the inside. the caliper slides nice and smooth but the pistons are tough to move in. i'm using one of those quick grip type clamps to push the pistons in. they will push out when i press the pedal so they're not completely frozen. the brake pads look the same as far as condition/wear. it doesn't make sense that on a caliper like this, the inside pad would NOT be causing some wear on the inside face of the rotor judging by the smoothness on the outside face. doesn't the inside have to contact in order for the outside to contact? background: had same/similar vibrating issue in winter of '14 after car had been sitting unused for a couple months. turns out rear brakes were completely non-functioning and i assumed all the braking load on the front was causing vibration. braking was very weak too. after replacing pads and rotors and cleaning caliper in the rear, issue was gone. issue returned this year with the warm weather with no other changes to the car as far as other problems. braking otherwise feels fine this time. car does need new axles in the front but no noise, grinding, etc. from that issue aside from play in axle. that doesn't seem to have gotten worse either. not sure if that has anything to do with things. my questions are: should i clean up this caliper and rebuild it, or simply replace it? my instinct is to lube the pistons. i don't want my instincts to get me killed, though. also, are the pistons supposed to move in and out fairly easily or does it require some force? thanks in advance for the help!

i'm throwing in the towel here. the studs are taking so much force to get back into the wheel that they are no doubt going to snap. in the process i lost my only 19mm socket in the snow. something so seemingly simple... not sure dealing with endless little issues is worth it anymore.

whew, got everyhting apart. i hope the remainder of the broken caliper bolt comes out with some vice grips! gonna call the dealer for some bolts and studs for my wife to pickup on the way home..

thanks for the help! as for the wheels' lugnuts loosening, i suspect it has something to do with being driven around loose last year and it's manifesting itself now. i will check that rotor if i can get it off. gonna go back out and wack this thing again.

also, what type of extractor would hold up to that bolt size? the square type or spiral type? thanks..

two nights ago driving home, i noticed a clunking noise coming from the front of the car. pulled over, got out and checked all the lug nuts since this car's had wheels loosen before*. sure enough, passenger-side lugs on on front were slightly loose and one popped while tightening. the other four snugged up fine (or so i thought). rear was a little loose too, but not bad. drove home the rest of the way without any more noise. fast forward to this morning, i was dropping the kid off at school and on the way noticed the clunking again so on my way back, pulled over to check the lug nuts. with wrench in hand, i went straight to the passenger-side front tire, took one look (maybe two), got back in the warmth of my vehicle and called for a tow. the wheel was hanging on with two lugs and three broken off studs. so i got it home and got the car up, wheel off (other two lug nuts came off without issue and, to the naked eye, look OK). removed the caliper no problem, but the lower bolt of the brake caliper frame snapped near the head. the top bolt came off fine so i tried to pivot it out of the way with no success. the bolt will have to be extracted since most of it is still holding the pieces together. if i wail on that frame hard enough, will it eventually swing out of the way so i can break some more parts? is my only hope to extract the bolt? * back in the spring, with my aluminum summer wheels on, every lug nut loosened and the passenger side was worse with one lug gone missing from the rear. i highly suspected vandalism or pre-theft as i had pulled a front wheel off and torqued it just before that happened so at the very least, that wheel should have been tight. anyhow, it was bad enough that there was noticeable clunking. fortunately, none of the wheels came off, unfortunately, my wife was driving the car for who knows how long before i tightened them up. i suspect that incident didn't help the wheel studs last any longer so possibly here we are today...

i had a chance -- and fair weather -- to swap over to my no season tires today so i took a closer look at the tie rods and axles. i really only get play out of the driver side tie rods but may do both sides if the parts are cheap and it's not too hard. i have to do both axles anyways. speaking of which, those were noticeably loose too. i'm going to start making a 'shopping list' of parts i need for these projects and hopefully document this ordeal project. i wouldn't say it feels like the ABS is kicking in, no. the feeling i'm getting at braking now is a thump thump thump like what i would think a warped rotor feels like. looking at all of them today, i can't say that any of the rotors are warped so i'm still thinking it's the tie rods and/or axles. car has 150k+ on it and no idea if it ever had the struts and plates replaced. not sure what to check for as far as sway bar and end links.

so how hard is this type of job and should i do the axles while i'm in there since i have torn boots (but no noise as of yet)? i saw a thread that may have been on this forum that went step-by-step over an axle replacement and it was written by someone who had never done one before. i'm confident i can do that given the time and tools. tie rods don't really look that bad either. any recommendations for brands? Advance Auto is having some kind of sale on Moog right now so may do that and try to use a coupon too. i don't think they have any decent axle brands, though. thanks again for all the help!

wow! i have no idea what i'm looking at there, but from all the reading i've done, i'm starting to get a grasp. when i got home with the kid tonight, i jacked up the front driver side quickly before i had to cook dinner and tried to see what was up. i was able to get play in that wheel at 9 and 3, but not at 6 and 12. it feels like the wheel is 'floating' just slightly. i didn't get to the passenger side but may try tonight.

i know it's been quite a while, but can you or someone give me an idea of what to look for here? i've developed some brake shudder so i'm gonna pull both wheels off and finally have a look in there to see what needs to be replaced. i've been looking at pictures and have a general idea, but if i wiggle this or that, would i get a good idea of what to target? might swap back over to my No Conditions tires too while i'm at it even though winter refuses to end. thanks!

my rear running light (right below turn signal on the body of the car) has been out since i don't know when so when my headlight blew, i decided to pick up a bulb and take care of that rear light too. headlight went in no muss no fuss. i went to remove the rear light assembly and what do i find? first, the bulb is shattered (good reason why it don't work), second, almost the entire assembly is full of water. how the turn signal didn't fizzle, i don't know. anyhow, the socket for the broken tail light is now rusted all to hell and won't budge. i was able to detach the wiring for both (one piece with two wires) and went to NAPA to get a replacement but was told i'm out of luck. i gotta think this removable part is available somewheres? i checked an online chain and came up with a bunch of stuff that looks like the same thing but can't verify. i'm sure, worst case scenario, if i can get the name of the part, i can solder in a new socket on the old wires? anyone have the parts or numbers. i'd much appreciate it. thanks!

need a little guidance here. i've been searching and trying to narrow down my issues and i'm not sure if i have one, or multiple problems. first, i think my CV joints are going. i had some grease splatter and burning smell a while back and now i'm noticing a subtle 'clunking' when going over bumps at slow speed. like something up front is loose. i've also noticed that small bumps seem to give more feedback at speed. like they're not damped and being transmitted directly through the wheels up into the chassis. not that i can feel every single bump in the road, but the same roads i've driven for months, i can now feel things that i didn't notice before but were there before my issues started. another issue is the steering. it seems to be not as tight as before. i don't feel a mechanical clunking through the wheel, but it feels as if there's an ever-so-slight dead space when driving under normal conditions. i don't drive on the highway so it's happening at street speeds. overall, it just seems like something's loosened up in the front of the car. i'm trying to get it over to my friend's well-equipped garage, but want to know what to look at either there or on my own. i've read bushings, cv joints, steering rack (?), suspension? any suggestions, pictures, videos, drawrings, sculptures, etc. to help point me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. thanks! 2001 Outback Wagon 146k

check eTrailers and Google. i remember seeing that having to be removed and reinstalled on some cars in order to install certain hitches. good luck!

i'm gonna go even further and say they are not any quieter than the snow tires i had on there. that should've been my first indicator that it was going to be an unimpressive ride. looks like they don't have a Traction T/A for the 16" rims from what i can tell. i'll look into the Yokos and in the meantime, look for some cheapie rims to mount up my snows for the rest of the winter. thanks..

i put on a set of Advantage T/A on my 2001 OBW last spring and have ridden all summer and was looking forward to some snow to test the tires. we got some unexpected snow in October here in Connecticut and i wasn't very impressed with the tires. the car felt like my wife's Camry sans winter tires in snow. with all the snow we got last year, i don't remember my car's anti-lock brakes kicking in all the much but they were going nuts in that snow. a friend of mine playing devil's advocate told me that was a nasty slush to be driving so any tire would've been slipping and sliding. so i waited again for some snow and when we got some accumulation last week, again, the car felt like any ol 2wd with no snow tires. i guess i was hoping that the one set of all seasons would be enough (based on reviews for the similar Traction T/A) and i've been disappointed. the car came with some Goodride snows and i had no issues last winter. now i'm shopping for steel rims so i can mount those back up. so before i go and do that, i've read that running a higher PSI (up to 35) increased the performance of the tire. does anyone have experience with this tire and can say one way or another if that's the case? and how was the wear and handling on the tire with that pressure? heck, is it even safe to run that tire at that PSI on my OBW? i think they recommend 29, i believe (on the doorwell sticker). any input would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

welp, went over the the auto parts store and picked up some ATF to finish this damn job. ended up punching through the side of the filter and using it as a lever and even then barely got it off. all's good, i think, and fill er up and give er a cold check: not even registering on the dipstick. i put in another 1/2 quart and warm it up: still nothing. another whole quart and test drive: still nothing according to the dipstick. no leaks and the fluid is definitely going in the hole. 5 1/2 quarts at this point. wow. hard to believe over a quart came out of the filter hole. the two times before this took 4 1/2 quarts for just a drain and fill. this time i do the filter and all the sudden i need X more qts??? that fkin fluid is gonna be clean enough to bath in by the time i'm done!!!

thanks for the quick replies. i've used up all the stock of ATF that i have for now. how much should i expect to lose if i eventually get that filter off? am i looking at another session of draining and filling or can get away with minimal loss with taking just the filter off? thanks again.