gbhrps

Your large bodyshops won't want to tackle a job like this, where you aren't as fussy about the final paint, as much as you are about the structure underneath. Find a small independent, 2 or 3 bay bodyshop. Since you're replacing the glass anyway, they can take out the old one (who cares if it breaks?). Get them to sandblast the window channel areas where the rust is, and replace any rotted metal. They should then prime the areas and paint match as well as they can to match the body, without going overboard or getting terribly fussy. With that done its off to the Auto glass store for a new windshield. Good Luck!

This problem comes up a lot. The seal right at the mirror area is the usual culprit. On my 02 OBW while at speed I could hold the seal by the mirror in with my fingers and stop the noise. My fix was to simply lower the window and sqeeze the seal. It has a sheet metal interior that bends easy under pressure. The result was that with the window up the rubber seal now contacted the glass and stopped the wind noise. My LTD has speakers right at this location and I pulled the grill off and removed the speaker first before I tackled sqeezing the seal. I'm not sure that I needed to do all that before squeezing the seal together, but it worked for me. Good Luck!

I agree with everyone else FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE! I recently had the same wobble in the steering, and when I swapped the bad tire (I didn't know it was bad at the time) to the rear of the car .... wobble gone.

You can save some money by getting rid of the smell with Maguires Odour Eliminator, a hand pump spay in a transparent yellow bottle. Two applications in a used car I bought completely rid the car of all of the smoke odours. Get it where you can buy other Maquires products.

Gentlemen, Thanks for all of the input. For interest sake I'm using the same chrome acorn nuts that came on the car for both sets of wheels and tires, and there is absolutely no corrosion on any of the nuts or the studs. As I stated earlier, I'll monitor the lug nut torque very carefully over the next couple of months, and if the wheels show any tendancy to loosen up again, I'll junk the original wheel nuts and put on a new factory set. Thanks everyone!

Gentlemen, There are obviously a great many ideas out there as to how tight to torque a set of alloy wheels! I've always set the standard at 75 ft lbs for alloys and 90 ft lbs for steel wheels on any car I've ever owned, and I've never had this situation before. The alloy wheels are stock for this LTD OBW, and are not cracked or abused in any way. In fact I even switch them over for steel wheels and ice grip tires for the winter. There is no lubrication of any kind on the wheel studs, and yet twice within the last 3 months one or both of my front wheels has worked itself loose, while the rears have maintained their torque. The click type torque wrench I use is dead on, as I have a second pointer type torque wrench that gives pretty close to the same readings. For now I'll leave things at 85 ft lbs and check them again weekly, for all of the time it takes.

Twice in the last three months my 02 OBW LTD has developed a rubbing/wow..wow type of noise from one of my front wheels, that would disappear when I applied the brakes. Both times I traced the problem to loose front wheel nuts, that I had personally torqued to 85 ft lbs. (Curiously, the rear wheel nuts were all tight and correctly torqued.) If they continue to work themselves loose then they must need to be torqued tighter than I've been setting them. What is the correct torque? (It sure would be nice if Subaru would sell a reasonably priced service manual.)

Take the car as it is to a good body shop. With the door panel off, they'll be able to tell you what your problem is in less than five minutes. Then you'll know whether you need just a readjustment of the front glass track, or the crank assembly, or possibly that the track attached to the bottom of the window, has come loose from the scissor assembly of the crank mechanism. From what you describe, its got to be one of the three. Unless something is broken, you won't need any parts, and if you do, your cheapest route will be to get used parts from a wrecker. Good Luck!

I recently have had my headliner (02 OBW LTD) down to chase down a leak, and for sure if you have water leaking into the accessory seatbelt retractor in the right rear ceiling, then your drain tube at the right rear corner of the sunroof drain track has come undone or split where it a pushes on to the drain rail at the rear of the car. There are no clamps on any of the drain tubes where they attach to the drain rails, but you can surely add one when you get the rear of the ceiling down. In your case, to get the rear headliner down in the back half of the wagon on that side of the car, remove the 4 push in plugs in the rear ceiling (forget about the one about a foot straight in from the rear ceiling light as its just access to the motor of the sunroof and doesn't need to come out), pull straight down on the rear ceiling moulding at the tailgate opening to remove it, pull off the ceiling light lens, remove the 2 screws that hold its assembly to the roof and unclip its wiring connector. Remove the screws (one on each side) where the rear security panel plugs into each side. Carefully pull the upper moulding that goes from the C Pillar to the D Pillar out, and carefully pull down the headliner on the rear of the car until you can get to the rear drain tube and fix the problem. In all, its fairly easy to do, just be sure to keep your hands clean so you won't mark up the headliner with greasy finger marks, and pry carefully on the mouldings to remove them, and then be sure that each clip or pin is correctly lined up before you push the mouldings back into place when you go to put the car back together.. Good Luck!

There are 4 drain tubes, one in each front corner of the sunroof that run down the A pillar and out below the front fenders, and one in each back corner that run down the C pillar and out of the bottom of the rear fenders. They get plugged on some cars with maple keys, small leaves or dirt and usually just need to be blown out with compressed air. The dealership knows where they are and can do the job in quick time. If, as suggested in the above post, one of the tubes has come free from its drain , the headliner will need to be pulled down on that side of the car to reattach it. Good Luck!

Did this just today. 16 year old Nissan 300ZX toy was blowing hot air. Two recharge cans later, and with a thermometer in the centre vent, the reading was 61 degrees F, outside was 92 degrees F. Seemed just about ideal to me, considering how hot and sticky it was here in Southern Ontario. Put the toy away and got in the 02 OBW and (both cars are heavily tinted) couldn't help but notice that the OBW AC was blowing much colder than the 90 ZX, at least by another 10 - 15 degrees colder. That would put its output at about 45 degrees F from the vents, again in 90 degree weather. I suspect that my ZX needs to be updated to the newer legal refrigerants to get it any colder.

Since your licence plate lights are on the same circuit as all of your other running lights (parking lights), if you can't find the problem in the wiring to the licence plate lights, just run another set of wires from one side or the other of your tail light running light circuit. Good Luck!

My experience with gas tank sealants from the inside required the removal of the tank. The sealant was put in through the filler neck and then the tank was rolled and turned upside down in all directions to distribute it over the entire interior surface. It worked well for me, in this case on a beater car that I wanted to put little money into. In your case, if you need to pull the tank to do it, it makes more sense to just replace it with a used tank or a new one. Regardless which way you go, with the high price of fuel, and the even more important safety concerns of a gasoline leak, get it fixed! Good Luck!

Check the simple things first. There could be quite a bit of corrosion on the leads going to your starter and/or starter selenoid to almost totally insulate any juice to the starter. The selenoid may have a dead short. The starter itself could have a dead short on one side of the armature, and is stuck at that point of its rotation, rendering it inoperative. Could one of your main cables be grounding/shorting itself out? Check for bad fuses or fusible links indicating the cable in question. That's where I would look for the obvious DIY snooping. If it doesn't rear its ugly head, you'll need the help of a professional. Maybe someone else can jump in with other ideas. Good Luck!

It is not uncommon for water to find its way in around the seals of the rear taillights and the reflector panel and backup lights of the tailgate. Been there, done that on my last 97 OBW.

I'm not familiar enough with North Carolina's winters to know whether or not you get significant snowfalls or none at all, but here in Southern Ontario, Canada, we can and do get more than our share. I changed my 02 OBW summer stock mags and tires for steel wheels and ice grip tires each fall, more to maintain the mag wheels, but for the added traction as well. Unfortunately, I stayed with the stock tire size for the winter tires, and I find that the 225's ride up on top of the snow and slush and aquaplane at much slower speeds than my 97 OBW did with the same ice grip tires, but at the narrower width of 215. The wider tires just do not cut through the snow at moderately high speeds like a narrower tire will. If this is a concern for you, go to a narrower width.

If you haven't any glass removal/replacement experience, you may be better off letting the professional replace it. What you need to do as DIYer is to remove the interior rear panels to see if there are any nut fasteners on the inside. Even if there aren't, you will have to CUT the sealant between the body of the car and the glass. Push the end of a guitar string ( G string is stiff enough {don't go there}) from inside the car between the glass and the body of the car until you can pull it through. Then using a buddy on the outside of the car, and you inside, wrap the ends of the guitar string around a wrench (use as a handle), and saw back and forth through the sealant all around the glass, until the glass falls free. Not a real problem with the broken window, but very much a problem getting the good window out of the parts car without breaking it. Instead of the guitar string the professionals will use an air powered knife for cutting the sealant, and even they break the glass occasionally. Good Luck.

If you're certain that the switch is the problem, try this first, because the switch contacts may just be dirty. Get a spray can of electrical contact cleaner, pull the switch from the arm rest and disconnect it from its wiring harness. Find the seams and openings where you can spray in the contact cleaner and cycle the switch several times, and repeat the process. Give the unit lots of time to evaporate before you hook it back up to its harness, turn on the ignition switch and try it out. Its worked for me in the past, more than once. If the window glass is sticking in its tracks and binding somewhat, that will slow down the entire process and stress your window motor, and possibly burn it out. In this case, spray some silicone lubricant into all of the window glass tracks. Not only should this free the glass movement up and down, but it'll help prevent the glass from freezing in the tracks next winter. Good Luck!

I have a 90 Nissan 300ZX, and consequently have followed the TwinTurbo.net forum for these cars for many years. There isn't a week go by that someone asks for a cure for hard shifting and grinding gears with their 5 speed tranny. The response from the forum members each time is to change tranny fluid to RedLine MT90. The rave reviews from members who have made the change has been simply been amazing. I've yet to make the change in my own 300 ZX (being a toy it has very few miles on it at this point), but I have done so in my 54 MG TF with very good results. It really transformed my shifting experience with this old and crude gear box. And, NO, I am not a dealer for this product, but rather a retired car enthusiast with some toys and an OBW as a daily driver.

Assuming that the spare key has seen little useage, therefore little wear, and it acts the same way as the main key, the problem is in the ignition switch key tumbler. The fix will be to have the ignition lock key tumbler removed from the car and rebuilt by a lock smith, using your spare key. That way you'll still be able to unlock your doors and trunk with the same key after the rebuild. This shouldn't be a big job, nor all that expensive to do, particularly if you take out the ignition lock yourself, if you have the capability. Good Luck!

Another approach......... take the car to an AAA or similar lockout specialist and have them open the door. Then remove the panel and get to the bottom of the problem.

I've seen this same thing done before on a Lincoln some years back, and it may hold some value for you. The gentleman doing the install cut the entire roof section, including the interior bracing for the entire sunroof, from the donor car to ensure that the sunroof opening and its rolled sides were correctly shaped and aligned with the glass. No guesswork as to will it work and seal up properly after the install. Welding the old roof into the new car took some bodywork and paint for sure, ( this fellow had his own antique restoration shop and was a panel beater and lead man by trade) but the end result was just like from the factory. Good luck!

You brought back memories of my 1970 Datsun 240Z that had exactly the same shaped knob in exactly the same location, but it was for the manual choke. And if I recall, yes I recall .... the steering wheel was on the other side of the car!

In the last 2 months I've had my headliner down (02 OBW LTD) to track down a sunroof water leak. I took the headliner down myself, lots of work, but not rocket science. (I hate paying someone to do something I can do myself.) The dealership then, through a TSB, tracked down and sealed the leak, spider cracks in the paint of the sunroof opening of all things! I then reinstalled the headliner. My advice would be to see a dealer and discuss what they will have to do to readjust the mechanism. Then decide whether you want them to do it, for the money. When I had mine apart (2 sunroofs), it struck me that by loosening the side brackets that hold the entire assembly to the roof supports (each bracket, there were six or eight in my car, had a single bolt to the roof support but two bolts that held the bracket to the sunroof side rails, you might be able to slide the entire assembly towards the front of the car slightly, enough to cure your binding problem, but no guarantee. I can't say that it would work for certain, but I have a feeling that in your case it might just be possible. If you decide to let the dealership tackle it, remove the headliner yourself. After removing overhead light assemblies, grab handles, sunvisors, various push in plugs, undoing the seat belt anchors on the upper B pillar, and the A, B and C pillar mouldings, the headliner will drop down once you pull it down from the velcro fasteners that surround the sunroof opening itself. The only thing to be careful of on reassembly is to ensure that the pillar moulding clips and pins are aligned with the openings they snap into before you slap them into place. (Don't want to break any of them.) Good Luck! By the way, if you were to decide to replace that seal on the sunroof glass itself, be aware that in my car the seal is sandwiched between a metal frame that is glued to the glass. The only way to replace the seal would be to cut the sealant between the two to remove it, much like they do to install a new windshield. Not something for the average person to tackle!

Edrach's suggestion of polishing the wheels professionally should give great results, but I have done several sets myself with a buffing wheel on a speed drill and various grades of rubbing compound sticks. I did one wheel an evening (about 3 hours each), over four nights. When I was satisfied with the results, I clear coated the wheels using a spray bomb enamel clear coat. When the clear coat started to look shabby several years later, I left the tires on the rims, removed the weights, marking their placement on the tire and their weight) and used furniture stripper (thick stuff, and it won't hurt the tires) and brushed it on a wheel at a time, and simply power washed it off. When dry, I repolished anywhere needing it, used a wax remover on the wheel, and reclear coated them. It took time, patience, was rather messy with compound flying around, but the results and the price were well worth it. Good Luck!