gbhrps

Porcupine73, Darn fine answer and writeup! Even I learned something. Primoff, You may find that getting the endlinks to meet with the swaybar may be easier if you place a jack near the end of the swaybar, to push it up if necessary.

Try unclogging the nozzle first. It may simply be plugged up. Try using a set of the thin nozzle reamers that welders use to clean their torch nozzles with. They are all of various sizes and you should be able to find one that matches the fluid nozzle opening. If doesn't correct the problem you'll have to start at the pump and start by pulling the hose that goes to the rear of the car. See if it it squirts fluid when you push the switch. From there follow the hose as it disappears through the firewall for any breaks. From inside the car it goes up the driver's A pillar and along the roof on that side of the car to the rear D pillar and across the top back of the car to where it exits the body and enters the tailgate. (At least this is the route it followed in my 02 OutBack Wagon, when I dropped the headliner for sunroof repairs.) I would expect that inside the tailgate there is a one way checkvalve that prevents fluid dribbling out the nozzle unless its under pressure from the pump. It too could be plugged, if so equipped. Good Luck!

The standard method to removing a front or rear windshield is to cut it out, as suggested, using an old guitar string or piano string. Generally you push the wire through from the inside until you can grab it on the outside. At that point you pull through enough wire so that you can tie it around the box end of a wrench in a knot. So now you'll have say 15 inches of wire tied to a box end wrench on the outside of the car and the same on the inside. Then you and a friend saw the wire back and forth, moving sideways through the urathane sealant, all of the way around the glass until you cut it free. The glass shops have an air-powered knife that does the same thing. You must be careful pushing the glass out as you cut around it, for it won't take much to crack the glass. Once you get it home, use an exacto knife to cut the bulk of the sealant from the glass and then clean it well with alcohol. Do the same with the frame of your tailgate where the glass fits. Make sure there is no dirt in the frame track and certainly no rust. If rust is there or you've cut through the paint with the exacto knife, there soon will be if you don't prime and paint it before installing the glass. Obviously let the paint dry a day before you proceed. Then buy some windshield sealant from an auto glass shop ( usually in tube form like home window caulking ) and put a half inch bead of sealant all around the tailgate frame and carefully place and push the glass into its final position. Make sure you line it up properly in the opening because there isn't a lot of wiggle room if you're off centre, since the sealant grabs and holds pretty firmly. Let the sealant cure overnight before you use the car, and be sure to wind one of the windows down before you shut all of the doors, so built up air pressure won't force the windshield out against its sealant. Good luck!

Its been years since I did a mast job on the 97 OBW, and I've owned 2 newer OBW's since then , ... so My memory may be a little foggy. As I recall no special tools are needed, and once out of the car you can replace just the mast assembly for not a lot of bucks. Strip the floor panels in the rear, and remove the rear side (driver's side) panel. You'll now have ready access to the antenna unit. Its held in by two 10 mm bolts. Pull the drain tube from the bottom of the unit (Its other end goes through the side of the car to exit between the rear bumper cover and the metal body.) and leave the rest of the tube there. Pull out the antenna cable from connector, and disconnect the electrical connector from the timer control box (both are attached to the antenna assembly and easy to get at.) And now you'll have a decision to make. Unless the antenna is in a fully retracted position, you won't be able to remove the unit from the car. You can either try forcing it down by hand, or you'll have to cut it off using side cutters or a hack saw, and cut it on the outside of the car just above the chrome lock ring where the antenna exits the body of the car. Once done you'll need to unwind the chrome lock ring using snapring pliers, or I would improvise using two small nails the will fit down into the two holes on the lock ring, and held in a pair of visegrips. Be careful not to scratch the paint. Now the unit will come out of the car. One screw near the top of the antenna assembly can be removed and you'll be able to pull the entire mast assembly out of the top. At the bottom of the unit where the plastic mast whip winds up into a coil, you'll see a nut dead centre. When removed you'll be able to pull the circular cover off and fish out the remaining pieces of plastic mast whip. Now take the largest section of mast and a piece of the plastic whip to your local parts suppliers or Japanese car dealerships and match it up with one that is the same diameter and whip shape. ( I presently have a mast and whip assembly from an early 90's Toyota in my 90 Nissan 300zx, simply because Japanese car makers all use the same parts suppliers, and the closest Nissan dealership was 100 miles away.) When you get a new mast assembly you can simply push the plastic whip back into the assembly, being sure to get the geared side of the whip in the correct direction to match the interal gears, if you can force it by hand, or lay the unit inside the tailgate, hookup the electrical connection to the timer box, turn your radio on, position the mast whip into the top of the antenna correctly, and get someone to turn off the radio as you allow the whip and mast to be retracted back into the antenna assembly. Replace the screw that secures the mast into the tube, cycle the radio on and off several times to make sure everything works correctly, and then reverse the procedure to secure the assembly back into the car. Good Luck!

The same is true for my wife's Lexus, while the car is in motion you can not program another destination. I drive an 07 OBW LTD without navigation, and recently purchased a portable Garmin nav unit. Because it is portable, can be removed from the car, and can even be used while walking (has an 8 hour battery backup), it can be programmed while moving. But I would have the passenger do the programming while on the road, since even the slightest driver distraction can have terrible consequences. Its not worth taking the chance to save some time, and then possibly paying for it for the rest of your life.

I saw your pictures and then compared them with the windshield moulding on my 07 OBW. I sure would not accept the job done on your car, particularly with a new car! The moulding on my car is snug all around the glass, and there is no gap between the moulding and the metal. There is no way for water to get in between the two if the glass is installed properly. They blew it on your install.

RedLine MT90 is the tranny fluid being referred to and it can do wonders. It not only made the tranny in my 1954 MG TF far easier to shift, it dramatically reduced the gear noise, and rid the tranny of gear grinding unless I hurried the shifting.

Headlight bulb replacements are fairly easy. Open the hood, reach in behind the headlight assembly and locate the large wiring harness to the back of the headlight. You'll see a large ring that can be twisted a quarter turn counterclockwise to unlock the bulb assembly. Pull it out and unhook the bulb from its socket. Then replace it with the same number printed on its base (9005 I believe?) Reverse the assembly to put in the new bulb, ensuring that you don't touch the glass portion of the new bulb with your fingers. Apparently the oils on your hands will allow that portion of the bulb to overheat and cause premature bulb failure. The hardest part is finding room for your hands to get down in behind the headlight assembly. All in all its an easy DIYer. Good luck!

The clip keeps the floor mat from sliding around on you and interferring with the foot pedals. Several of the cars I've owned over the years have had them installed, and they do keep the floor mats in place. You'll have to decide whether replacing it is necessary for you. If you find the mat wanders on you, and drives you crazy, then you may want to get a new one.

My 07 OBW LTD has the Automatic Climate Control feature, which may be different from what you have in your car (Manual I suspect?). When starting the car it does take several seconds for the unit to analyze the set temp, and the temp inside the car, and then blow the correct air temperature out of the correct vents in the dash or out of the floor, but it soon settles on one approach and then doesn't deviate from there. There is no "hunting" after that. I suspect that your system is not operating properly, as the others have suggested, and I would agree that you need to get the dealership to demonstrate their answer by taking you for a spin in another 07 equipped with the same system as your car.

My 97 OBW had 168 00 kms on it with never a head gasket leak, but the 02 OBW I bought after it developed minor external leaks on both heads at about 23 000 km. You could smell the sweet odour of coolant when you parked the car after a run. Dealership replaced the headgaskets under warranty and I sold the car with 128 000 kms with no further problems. No doubt in my mind that the 02 was a far better handling and comfortable car than the 97. Then again the 07 OBW I now have is light years ahead of the 02.

I had a 97 OBW that I used 2 sets of 15 in. wheels on and they would not fit on my 02 OBW. They wouldn't clear the front calipers. I sold the one set through this forum and bought a new steel set of 16 inchers for the 02 OBW. I now have an 07 OBW and was happy to discover that the 16 inchers will fit and clear, even though the car came with 17 inchers.

AFC, I've had rear end rattles early on in each of the 3 OBW's I've owned, the 97, the 02 and this new 07. I've was certain with the first two cars that the rattles in the rear could be traced down to the tailgate. In the 97 and the 02 it turned out to be the way the overhead centre seatbelt anchor had been stored in the headliner back by the tailgate. In the 07 the cause was solved by wrapping the trailer hitch wiring, that I had rolled up in the trays under the floor, with a workshop rag. What I'm saying, and what you may have already done, is that you have to eliminate every other possibility back in the rear of the car before you get into the tailgate. I figured two of them out by having my wife drive down a bumpy gravel road with me in the cargo area of the car. It was much easier to nail down where the rattle was coming from in that manner. Caution dictates that you try this only in a very low traffic area. Good Luck!

When I read your entry I didn't immediately think that you had a bad switch, but rather a break in the wires that go from the body of the car into the hatch. Could it be that as the tailgate goes up, the wires stretch in the corrugated rubber boot, and the broken wire breaks contact, only to reconnect again as the tailgate goes down? Just a guess.

Since both the high beam switch and the turn signal switch are together inside what is called the combination switch, when you signal a turn and the high beams flash momentarily, logic suggests that you have a bad combination switch that has some slop in its mechanism that is triggering the high beams, or a short of sorts. I gotta believe that replacing the combination switch is the answer. If you DIY, disconnect the battery for 20 minutes before you take apart any of the steering wheel, to prevent accidental firing of the airbag in your face. As well, when you get to the part where you are disconnecting the wiring connector for the combination switch, tie a wire or heavy string to the end of the harness before you pull it out of the steering column. That way, when you install the new combination switch, you can tie the string to its harness end and simply pull the wiring back down through the steering column. It sure can save you some headaches in cramped quarters. Good Luck!

Your lighted switch has a burned out bulb. You can carefully take apart the switch itself and replace the bulb, as you can do with all of the dash lights and the lights for the HVAC unit. You can buy the bulbs from the dealership (expensive) or buy them from Radio Shack (cheap). Take the old one with you to the electronics store or Radio Shack and compare it to their bubble pack that has 2 bulbs for about $3.00. They come with a much longer pigtail than is needed, but you can just cut it off to the length needed. In some years and some applications the old bulb may have a bluish rubber condom on it to cast that bluish glow when lit. Simply slide it off the old bulb and slip it onto the new one. The socket that the bulb sits in (it'll be either rubber or plastic, depending on the year of the car) will have the pigtails of the bulb fit through a pair of holes and then wound around the outside of the socket, and the extra wire cut off. Just follow the example of the old bulb. Its straight forward, not rocket science, but depending on the switch take care when taking the switch apart. Keep it upright, and remove its cover slowly, since interior contacts may spring out and get lost. Good Luck!

I read such rave reviews of the RedLine MT90 (manual transmission, 90 weight) in the TwinTurbo.net forum and the MGT forums that I put it in both my 90 300ZX and my 54 MG TF. It totally transformed the hard shifting and the noise level in the older car. The newer car has a lot less miles on it, and I can't say that I've driven it enough to percieve a difference at this point. Unfortunately both cars get stored over the winter, so I don't have any cold weather reviews to give you, but I believe its got to improve cold weather shifting dramatically. The RedLine MT90 would be my choice in a heartbeat.

Both my 97 OBW and my 02 OBW had the piston slap to one degree or the other. The 97 had it severely enough that it was always there on start up until the engine warmed up some 5 minutes later, at which time you could still hear it if you were really listening for it. In extremely cold weather, the slap was very pronounced and never truly disappeared, but did diminish in volume. The car had it from new right up until it was traded some 169 000 km later with no other engine problems. The 02 had a slight slap on start up until it warmed up and totally disappeared, and like the older car, it was more pronounced in very cold weather. Sold this car with 141 000 km and no other engine problems. A search of the threads on this topic will generally tell you that it will not significantly hurt the longevity of the engine. It really comes down to how much of an annoyance you find the piston slap to be. If it drives you crazy, get the pistons changed. If you can live with the noise, it in all likely hood will not cause you any grief. As to whether you should accept the dealer's offer to do only one side versus doing both sides .... that's a hard one to call. It shouldn't be a problem for you, but then again, to have a truly balanced engine both sides should be done. I'd get some more feedback, particularly from other dealerships as to their stand on the same issue. After 3 or 4 feedbacks, you should know which way to go. Just don't let these other dealerships know that your dealership has suggested this solution of just doing one side. Tell them that you suspect one side needs replacing and would they recommend doing just the one side. If they know you already have one dealer suggesting a certain fix, they'll fall into line with your dealership's decision, not wanting to undermine your dealership's decision. Good Luck!

We share your excitement! Especially the part about being able to drive the Subie, rather than the Aerostar. It even gave me shivers! Congrats!

If you can't fit a hose clamp around the heat shield because its too wide at the point where it is rattling, either remove the thing entirely, or using channel locks and vise grip pliers, crush/bend the shield down to the header pipe, and either use a clamp, and if that won't work get an exhaust shop to mig weld the shield to the header pipe in a few places. Even crushed down to the header pipe the shield has got to do most of the job it was intended for, rather than removing them entirely and losing its insulating properties.

I wouldn't think that you need to remove the mirrors to cure the problem. My 02 OBW had the same problem on the driver's side. I found that when driving at speed, I could cure the problem by pressing the inner seal towards the glass. I simply lowered the glass into the door and squeezed the seal together from top to bottom with the heals of my hands, but not excessively so. The seal has a thin metal interior to hold its shape. Once the glass was up and the car was up to speed, no more wind noise. As to removing the mirrors, any I have ever removed have simply been the 3 nuts or bolts (depending on the car), and a gentle rocking back and forth of the mirror, in order to break free the gasket that may be holding the mirror to the door outer skin. Good luck!

Dear Nipper, In the last two years I have done at least five vehicles where the pistons are rusted in the caliper bore. In three of the cases, after the pistons were slowly pumped out of the caliper, the pistons and the bores were able to be cleaned up with careful scrubbing with 0000 steel wool. Because there was no visible pitting or scoring on the pistons, they were cleaned up, reinstalled and properly bled. On the other two there was too much rust damage to the pistons to be cleaned up, and remanufactured calipers were installed. Brake fluid is hygrscopic, meaning it absorbs water from the air, and water in steel brake lines and cast iron calipers means rust. This is one of the reasons why some people choose silicone brake fluid. It doesn't absorb water from the air.

The shields usually start to rattle when the clamping portion of the shield that wraps around the exhaust pipe rusts through or breaks off. My 97 developed the same rattle which I fixed with an exhaust clamp (since that was what I had at the time). I'd go with the alligator hose clamp method that was suggested. You'll be done in no time, and the problem will not occur again. Good Luck!

There are 6 drains in the wagon, at least there were on my 02 OBW. The fronts (one on each side) drain down the A pillars to exit somewhere below, the middle drains are just about even with the B pillars (actually at the front of the rear sliding sunroof opening) but follow the headliner above the rear door to the rear of the car, and drop down the C pillar to just behind the rear wheel well, where they are joined together with the rear drains. The rear drains follow the D pillar down and then sweep forward to be joined together with the middle drain into one fitting that goes out the body of the car just behind the rear wheel well, to empty between the car body and the rear bumper cover. They may be plugged, but I would also suspect that the plastic drain tube at the rear of the car has come unattached from its drain at the rear of the sunroof drain channel. It can be reattached and then clamped or sealed on, but that means dropping the rear of the headliner, from the sunroof opening to the tailgate opening for sure, just to get at it. If you decide to go this route, you'll be able to blow out the back 4 drains by unplugging them from the track and using compressed air. As well, do a search for "leaking sunroof" and you'll find several threads where I explained how to go about dropping the entire headliner from my 02 OBW, back in May or June of this year, if I recall correctly. If you can't find them, get back to this thread and I'll try to dig them out for you. Be warned, the headliner drop is not difficult to do, but it is time consuming.

Been where you are now in the past. Have had the noise attributed to the wear indicators on the pads, but have also had the sticking piston in the caliper cause the same thing, all because the car didn't get the required brake fluid flush every 3 years. Water absorbs into the fluid, settles in the bottom of the caliper bore and starts rusting. Eventually the caliper will start to stick, not totally releasing from the pad when you take your foot off the brake pedal, and then you get the scraping noise, that will go away when you step on the pedal. If you take care of the problem now, and if the rust damage has not progressed too far, they may be able to be cleaned up, and with a complete flush and fluid refill be as good as new. Good Luck!