cannonball

Where are the approx location/s for the hangers? Looking under form the side there doesn't appear to be any in the mid section. I need to get up under there to inspect further.

Just curious. When Subaru says my car has 7.3" of clearance, I assume that means from the exhaust pipe since that is the lowest part hanging. The reason I ask is because my exhaust developed a cracked right at the weld of the enlongated bubble shaped thing (sorry don't know the term) half way to the rear. I had a muffler guy replace it, but it seems to me it's hanging a little low even before I got it fixed. It seems the pipe could fit a little closer to the shield but wasn't sure how close. Anyways how far should the exhaust hang down from the shield?

I saw somewhere a few days ago a animated link to how all the Subie AWD systems works. I thought it was on Subaru.com, but I can't find it now. Anyways I think there are 5 AWD systems. VC,Active,VDC, VDT, and what the STi has CDDC IIRC. I think it's close to VDC with the enhancements you listed. It's all electronic as far as I know, but that ain't much. Someone with better knowledge can correct me if I'm wrong. Charles

Not sure for your state, but in SC the law says that an owner had the right to take his car where ever he/she wants for repair. You just have to take the car to their appraiser and accept what they give you. It's up to the owner to get the best price from there. Rates do not go up for hail damage. At least the first time. I must admit that I got a 3rd the value of the car. Needless to say I knew the car was a keeper so I was not worried about trade in or sale value cause I don't plan on either. And my car is nowhere near that bad. Just call your insurance agent. I have state farm and they made the experience as least painful as possible. Good Luck.

Ouch, yea I believe that has to be totalled. Thank goodness my car didn't get nowhere near that damage. The ding on the side 2nd shot had to have been cause by a piece of hail the size of a bowling ball. Remind me never to move where you live.:-\

That sux. This happened to my car last year from a freak hail storm. I was racing around trying to find a overhang of some sort. Did I mention how loud it was. I thought all was lost. My landscape was history, roof on house destroyed. I was pretty bummed. At first I thought that it wasn't worth going to the insurance company until I found out it wouldn't raise my rates. I got a lot of money out of it. Now to tell the truth I went and bought a Ding King and went to town. I didn't get 100% of the dings but I did get most of the larger ones. The hail didn't chip any paint. It just cracked my windshield. Now you have to have it in the light and look across the hood to tell it's there. Thank goodness I had AWD because I needed it to drive through the 2" of hail. Charles

I may be wrong, but a burnt out CEL shouldn't mean you can't get a reading. It just means the light is gone.

Richard I didn't mean to get you flamed like that. You are right that I wanted to make sure that something was not screwed up. To settle the matter I went back yesterday. Since this is not to far from my house I did a preride on my mtn bike to make sure that if I made it I the rest of the road was doable. Well I took my notes and headed back out yesterday afternoon. This time I took the turn a little wider and cut across the gully more perpendicular. This time she scooted through and up the short hill with style. What started out as an initial tire spin turned into traction. Well as you can imagine this made my day. I can't say enough how much I love this car. Charles

Supposedly during acceleration it distributes more power to the rear, but normally it just 90/10. I don't think you can make it 50/50 all the time like the MT. Take it on a dirt road and accelerate through a curve. Believe me you'll feel it.

If only I had more time to play. Life would be sooo much easier. Work is almost over and I'm ready to jump in the OB go home and drink some beer. Maybe I'll play tommorrow.

I believe you have what's called an active AWD system. 90/10 torque split unless slippage occurs. I may be biased but it gotta be pretty good. It's a Subaru.

So from what you are saying a continous AWD system that is roughly (according to Subaru) 50/50 will take the energy from the rear axle in a front slippage scenario and deliver it all to the front tire that is slipping which in turn by definition of torque distribution means all torque goes to zero. This kinda goes against what Subaru is preaching. Or are you saying that if the hill is steep enough and the rear tires have traction that the VC could be overwhelmed because the force to go up the hill is just to much. Thus the silicone in the VC can't keep the plates locked together causing the rear to lose all of it power transfer? Which in turn means that the stiction(for lack of better terms) of the rear tires is greater than the stiction of the VC. Or are you saying that a little slippage is ok, but a lot is not?:-\

I think both the OB and Forrester are S Sport A Activity W Wagons Borrowing from all schools of thought.

Or lived in the South.

I think I've read that the OB can handle up to 13" of snow. I wouldn't know here. We never get that much. We do get the ice though and this car rocks on ice.

Excuse my ignorance, but what do you mean by high centered? Charles

Hmmm... Interesting thoughts. Thanx for the replies. I agree that there has to be what I call fudge factors involved in the engineering. Charles

I was reading the AWD and spare thread and it got me thinking. It kinda concerns me that the tire diameters have to be within such a tight spec. It's been stated that you have to put the FWD fuse in an AT Model, but what can you do with a MT. Say you have a slow leak in the front that is not noticeable until it's way past the 1/4" rule. Since the MT can deliver more torque to the other axle during slippage and the front is open diff, what could happen if you drive 10 or so miles before realizing there's a flat? It seems to me that the MT would be more forgiving than the AT. A flat or partial flat tire would have a higher rotation speed because the tire is a smaller diameter. Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't that mimmick a tire slowly slipping. Can anyone enlighten me on this one?

Sorry missed a page. Someone beat me to it.

Dear allah I hope it's not the VC. When I was playing on the gravel road trying to spin out, and the car decided to go nowhere it resembled the clutch going because the front tires weren't spinning either. The rpm's were just revving way high. As soon as I let off and resumed normal driving habits it seemed to be fine. I don't notice slippage from day to day use. I still however have the infamous clutch judder from time to time. Makes me wonder if the clutch is very sensitive to heat build up, and if it's late in its life then maybe this scenario can happen. JOT

I don't disagree with this statement. I just need to go back to the same spot and try it again. I'm curious to see if at least one of the rear wheels was spinning as well. If so then I will know that the pitch was to much for the AWD system. If not then I may have a more serious problem or as in the header I pushed the limit. Oh well. Thanx for the replies.

I would tend to think it takes a lot to overwhelm a VC. I really wasn't pushing the limit here. I would hope that the sube could do better than that. What do you think of my clutch theory. If a VC does overheat what would it smell like? What I smelled was definitely a clutch.

Interesting concept. I have noticed when driving in the rain that when going through a turn with a puddle, the front of the car will push straight momentarily. Feels like it is slipping. The first time it happened it caught me off gaurd, but now I know what's happening.

You know. Something just dawned on me. I could smell the clutch burning after I was through playing. Could there have been a possibility that the clutch was slipping as well. The car does have 95,000 miles on it. A few months back I was playing around on another gravel road pointed up hill. From a stand still I was trying to make the wheels slip. Couldn't make it happen but I did it to the point where the clutch overheated and was slipping like an SOB. I quickly decided not to do that again. This could be the same scenario. I have enough clutch to drive day to day, but it's days are numbered.

True, I understand this concept but power should be transfered to the wheel/s with the most grip. Since I was going no where and torque split is 50/50 at least 2 tires should have been spinning. Correct?