keith3267

My 2014 Legacy 2.5 came with a 2 year maintenance contract so I am about to do the first PM for myself. First I wanted to use the new Pennsoil Ultimate synthetic, but for some reason it can't be found in the 0w20 weight. Next issue is the oil filter, talk about hard to find. I went to Advanced Auto for a pureone oil filter, none listed. They have the Purolator Classic, which is the bottom line filter for about $8. Just for the heck of it, I had the counter guy look up the filter for the H6 engine. They have a Pureone filter for it, so I opened the box and compared it to the basic filter listed for the 2.5 engine. They have the same mounting thread and the same size seal, the difference is the one for the 6 is about a 1/4" larger in radius. I don't see any issues with using it on the H4 engine. Anyone know a reason for not using it. BTW, its a buck cheaper too and a much better quality filter. Its even gold colored. I also bought Mobil 1 EP 0w20 oil. Its going to be in there for 7500 miles. Rant time: Why does Subaru use hard to obtain parts for regular maintenance items. The FOB uses a 1620 battery which is very hard to find, I get them at the Jewelry counter at WalMart for $6 ea. A Toyota uses the common 2032 battery available everywhere at $4 for two ($2 each). Don't get me started about that cabin filter.

How do I know its not the seatbelt. You gave us no information other than it chimes. You didn't tell us the circumstances under which it chimes. Is it chiming when parked, running, idling, etc?

Put on your seatbelt.

I have had very good luck with Wagner ThermoQuiet OEM Ceramic pads. Be sure to specify ceramic as they also come in semi-metalic. They last about twice as long as house rand ceramics, but most house brand ceramics have a lifetime replacement so you only buy them once. However the house brands tend to be harder on the rotors and they don't have a lifetime warrantee. Be sure to flush the brake fluid with each pad change and lubricate the giude pins.

Subaru's are notoriously difficult to bleed all the air out of the cooling system. Your radiator is about the age when the rubber seals between the tanks and the core begin to fail. What appears to be a steam leak is really a full on leak. It can also be responsible for the system failing to pressurize. Since the Subaru engine is a horizontal configuration, that puts the heater core as high or higher than the engine, so an air bubble will migrate to this area, hence the cold air. The air bubble plus the lack of pressurization is responsible for the overheating under load.

Have you replaced the hub yet? If you haven't, get a bearing/hub assembly next time. The hub will be separate but they are cheaper bought together than separately. If you have replaced the hub at least once, you may need a new steering knuckle.

When you purchase the complete hub assembly, the wheel bearing is not pressed on the hub. The wheel bearing has to be pressed into the steering knuckle first, then the hub is pressed into the bearing.

Be sure to wax afterwards. TSP will strip off all old wax.

Almost all aftermarket filters have anti-drainback valves in them now, some are better than others. With or without the valve, larger oil filters take more time for the oil pressure to build up, maybe only a second or two, but its cumulative. Modern engines are well sealed, the fuel is accurately metered so the only contamination comes from the oil itself as it gets old and breaks down. Oil is getting much better now and lasts longer before it starts breaking down. The bottom line is that the filter just doesn't have as much to do in modern cars, so smaller filters can be used. Even the smaller filters are designed to last at least 7500 miles on modern engines. I would recommend that you use the specified filter and not a larger one, especially since you are way overkilling the oil change schedule.

If a CV boot is torn, it has to be replaced immediately or it will grind up the joint in no time. I've seen them go in as little as three weeks. A steering boot is not early as critical. I've replaced them after being torn for years, its on of those round tuit jobs. (I'll do it when I get around to it). Before disconnecting the outer tie rod end, I use a scratch awl to mark the alignment of the inner and outer tie rods. I pick one flat on each to bugger up. Then separate the outer tie rod ball joint (I prefer to use a small pitman arm puller, widely available at most parts stores and reasonably priced at less than $20), then count the number of turns it takes to unscrew the outer tie rod from the inner tie rod. Replace the boot and screw the outer tie rod in with the same umber of turns it took to unscrew it, line up the marked flats to fine tune it back to the original alignment and tighten down the locking nut. Edit: if you are not comfortable with your memory, or ability to count, another trick is again to bugger up two flats and then break the locking nut free. Then screw the locking not back to where it just contacts the outer tie rod again, about finger tight. Take some electrical tape or something similar and put three or four wraps around the thread behind the locking nut so it can't back up. Then unscrew the outer tie rod, unscrew the locking nut so you can replace the boot. Then run the locking nut back down to the tape and reassemble.

The interior of a car, any car, is never going to be a good audio environment. Typically the interior noise at city speeds (45 mph) runs around 65-75dB and on the highway(70 mph), 80 to 90 dB. You need a minimum signal to noise ratio of 20 dB for AM quality music. That is music that was recorded with a narrow dynamic range for AM radio. So AM quality music has to be played at 95 to 110 dB to be heard clearly. Hi Fi, forget about it, especially with classical music that can have a additional 30-50 dB dynamic range. Its much better to invest in a high quality sound system in your home and just keep it simple in the car.

If you chose to go to a parts store to get the codes read, get the actual code. Often they will only give you their interpretation of the code in order to sell you a part they have in the store. Get the actual code. It will be a P followed by 4 numbers, I.e P0451.

Does paint protection products count as a additive? You are adding it over your paint. If so, I tried the new Meguires Ultimate Wax on my car last November and the water is still beading. You do need to use the Ultimate Polish first as it is not a one step cleaner wax. Never found a oil additive that was worth anything, most end up doing harm. An oil change is often all that is needed. I have used alumaseal for a cracked block (cast iron) and it worked, but it never worked on a leaking radiator, water pump, head gasket leak or cracked aluminum head. I used Slick 50 for manual transmissions in my Nissan Pick Up. I put it in at around 20k miles along with Mobil One 75w90 gear oil. At 180k, I checked the transmission and found it completely dry. I don't know how long it was dry but it took the full 2.1 qts to fill it back up. At 195k, it is still full, go figure. No damage to the transmission either. Flush chemicals for cooling systems have always damaged by cooling systems. Every time I used one, it ate every seal and hose in my cooling system. When this happened on a car that had all new hoses in the last two months, I finally got the connection. I never had a problem with a cooling system until I flushed it, then I always had problems for awhile. Now I do a simple drain and fill every 5 years or so (more often "or so") and I don't have problems. I hear that Trans-X works on automatic transmissions but I haven't used it myself.

If you flush, you will do more damage than leaving the system alone. The difference between the Subaru coolant and the universal is a little stop-leak to keep the head gaskets from failing. Since you didn't drain the system, the correct amount of this special stop leak is still there. Look at your owners manual for the service schedule for the cooling system. When it is due, time or miles which ever comes first, then drain the system and refill it. Do not worry about a little residual old antifreeze, it won't hurt anything. The main purpose of the change is to get fresh corrosion inhibitors into the system. If you only get 90% of the old coolant out, the remaining 10% will do less damage than the contaminants you risk getting into the system by doing a flush. And ever, never, never use a chemical flush. It took me awile but eventually I figured out that every time I had a cooling system leak, it was right after using a chemical flush, and every time I used a flush, I had leaks, many leaks.

There is a drain for the evaporator section and it is common for these to clog up eventually. Usually the fix is to blow some compressed air up the drain tube but it can also be cleared by pushing something flexible up the tube. The tube is located near the bottom of the firewall under the hood on the passenger side. You have to run the car up on ramps or jack it up to see and clear it. Sometimes the housing around the evap has to be removed and cleaned out, not an easy job because of poor engineering design.

kenzoil, not sure what oil I will use yet, its real hard to find useful information, especially from the oil companies themselves. I will say this, it is FAR more important to change your oil per the recommended maintenance schedule in the owners manual than which brand you use. As for your filter question, the filters are so small these days, they fill up very quickly. Since the engines are so well sealed that now, the primary source of contamination of oil is the oil itself, that is the oil breaking down, and since synthetic oil (all modern oils for that matter) is more resistant to breaking down, the oil filter just doesn't have to be very big anymore.

I stand corrected on the Esters, however, there are natural organic esters, vegetable oil being the most common. But that is a field too big for a forum like this. We used ester based oils in some of the transformers that we made at the company I worked for before retiring. Much safer than the old PCB oils (we never used those). I absolutely agree with bratman 2 on the marketing hype, especially about Amsoil, but they do have a lot of believers. In the early days of Amsoil, I had seen a couple of engines at the on base auto hobby shop being torn down after 60k miles that were totally worn out. They had more wear than I had ever see before. The owners used Amsoil i them, but the owners had bought into the belief that the oil was a "permanent oil". I don't know if that was Amsoil's claim or just claims made by some of their salesmen. To be fair to Amsoil, we all know what will happen to an engine if the oil isn't changed for 60k miles, especially back in the 70's. There is some controversy as to whether oil has lost its ability to protect the engine when they removed most of the zinc/phosphate (ZDDP) and MoS2 from oils. This started when some owners of old vehicles, particularly British cars and motorcycles had their engines rebuilt and suffered engine failure shortly after, mostly camshaft lobe wear, but also crankshaft ad camshaft journals too. The mechanics would blame the new (SL and newer) oils for the excessive wear because of the loss of the zinc and moly. What these mechanics didn't understand about these older engines was the manufacturing process used. Today, engines use a high strength steel and harder iron alloys and are machined with carbide or diamond tipped cutting tools. These super hard tools were not available back in the old days so parts like cams, cranks and lifters were made from a milder steel and machined with stones. Then they were case hardened (tempered). Young rebuilders would re-machine these parts, but did not know that they needed to be tempered and as a result, they would fail shortly after. It was easy to blame the oil for this and the owners bought the story. The moral is, if you have an old car, you need a gray haired mechanic. Edit: my "n" key does not always work so if you see a word with the n missing, but it still spells another valid word, that is why.

I don't know about Valvoline synthetic. Pennzoil used to have an additive they called Z7. Z7 is some long chemical name I don't I don't remember but its initials were ZDDP. All brands of oil had it along with some MoS2 (molydimum disulfide). These have been removed from oil for gasoline engines cause it messed up the cat. That is what settled out of Pennzoil and all other oils. I still shake the bottle even though there is no reason too now, old habits.

I have been reading this thread with some interest and I see a lot of resistance to change here. Up till now, I have used 10w30 in all my vehicles, some synthetic, some conventional. I typically go for long intervals for my oil changes, 5k for conventional, 7.5k or longer for synthetic and I have never had an oil related engine failure. I sold my Saturn with 275k miles on it using conventional oil that I changed when the OLM (oil life monitor) light came on, usually 5500 to 6k miles and it still ran like a new car. I currently have a 97 Nissan Pick Up with 195k on it, I've done oil changes at 7500 miles with Castrol Syntec since new and it has yet to burn its first drop of oil. The 97 Honda Accord that I traded for the new Subaru had 190k on it, 7500 mile oil change intervals with Mobil 1 since new and it only lost some oil when the distributor O ring started leaking. No oil loss after fixing that. 3k intervals are just not necessary for a log engine life, but since you are responsible for your own engine and you will bear the cost of any mistakes or misjudgments, if you feel the shorter interval is needed for you, then by all means do it. It won't hurt. My new Legacy (2014) calls for 0w20 synthetic oil. It came with a 2 year, 24k mile free maintenance plan so I have been letting the dealer do the maintenance so far. They will do one more oil change and rotation, the after that I will be doing it myself until I get to old to do it anymore. I will stick to the 7500 interval and use 0w20 oil. As for brand, right now there are only two brands that I will consider, Mobil 1 EP and Pennzoil. When Mobil 1 was first introduced, it was a group IV oil. Group IV oils are synthesized from natural gas. The only other synthetic oil on the market at around that time was Amsoil. Amsoil was an ester based oil then, which is a group III oil that is refined until it has the characteristics of a group IV oil. It wasn't as good but todays Amsoil is a Group IV or so they say. Castrol came out with Syntec in the late 80's. When I was working at a cylinder head foundry, I had a talk with the Castrol rep and he told me a little secret. Castrol was doing all they could about implying that slick 50 would clog up your engine ad that it was not to be used, however in the development of their Syntec oil, they discovered that Mobil 1 with a teflon (PTFE) additive like slick 50 or ay other brand of PTFE additive resulted in the least wear in an engine ad that became the benchmark for Syntec to meet when it came on the market. But Syntec was made from crude oil instead of natural gas, therefore it is a group III oil. Mobil sued Castrol to stop them from calling their oil synthetic, but they lost the case. So now there are two types of synthetic oils, group III and group IV. Group III should not be confused with semi-synthetic oils. Semi-synthetic oils are a mix of synthetic (group II or group IV) oil and conventional oil at what ever percentage the manufacturer decides to use. I have not see any published information on this yet. Anyway, I have heard that most Mobil 1 formulations are now Group III except the Mobil 1 EP. It is still a Group IV. The new Pennzoil synthetics that say made from natural gas on the label are also Group IV oils. Theoretically there should not be a functional difference between Group III and Group IV oils. The Castrol rep never told me that Syntec was a group III oil but I have used Syntec in two vehicles with 7500+ intervals and have not seen a difference between it and Mobil 1, but the Mobil 1 that I have been using is the basic Mobil 1 and I don't know when this supposed switch to a Group III oil occurred. But my plan now is to use a Group IV oil only on the Subaru. In my opinion, oil companies should be forced to identify whether their synthetic oils are group III or group IV. BTW, do not use a group V synthetic oil in a automotive gas engine. It is for industrial applications and would damage your cars engine. Now for the push back on the 0w20 weight oils. 0v (zero viscosity) oil at room temperature is still thicker than 30v oil is at engine operating temperature, so the 0w (winter) part is really a non issue. It will have a thicker film when the engine is cold than 10w30 would at operating temperature. It will protect just fine. The issue is whether the 20v is sufficient enough to protect the engine at operating temperature. European spec oils are usually 0w30 or 0w40. They may be OK when the oil is synthetic, but I did several engine teardowns back in the late 70's/early 80's that had low miles but were sludged up from using 10w40 and 5k to 7500 mile intervals. After 1975, engine started running so hot that the wide range viscosity oils would breakdown very quickly and create sludge and in some cases, coke. The wider viscosity ranges were created by adding polymers called viscosity improvers (VI's). The VI's caused the oil to breakdown at lower temperatures. The less VI's in the oil, the better it can tolerate higher temperatures. 10w30 oils did not sludge up like the 10w40 oils did. Now I realize that times have changed, the VI's have bee improved so today's 10w40 conventional oil is not the same as the 10w40 I dealt with back then, but I still haven't forgotten and I will not use a conventional 10w40 in anything. I also avoid any oils that have a spread of more than 20 between the lower number and the higher number. Synthetic oils have a natural viscosity spread so fewer VI's are used but I am still not comfortable with the 0w30 or 0w40 synthetic oils, but I also accept the fact that I am probably wrong about the new oils spec'ed for those high end European vehicles. Back in the day before multi viscosity oils came in to common use, 20v oil was commonly used. Now engines usually did not last as long back then ad oil change intervals were usually 2 moths or 1500 miles. When most people were lucky to get 80k out of an engine, both may father and grandfather would easily go over 100k. They used straight 20v oil for the first 80 to 90k and 30v oil after that. In winter in Vermont, they used 10v oil in the winter and 20v in the summer. When we moved to So Cal, it was 20v year round. So for that reason I have faith that 0w20 will protect my engine. I do find it interesting that since Subaru warranties the engine for 60k miles, that they specify an interval of 7500 miles, where Toyota who warranties their engines for 36k miles specifies an interval of 10k. I guess if you are offering a longer warranty, You have to be a little more cautious on your maintenance recommendations. Edit: my "n" key does not always work but I think I caught all my spellig errors due to that.

Back in the day (60's 70's) when steering wheels were thin plastic rings with a large diameter, I used lace up leather steering wheel covers. They made the steering wheel much more comfortable and they didn't slip through sweaty hands (no AC). Todays steering wheels are often a soft foam with a thicker but smaller diameter ring and are comfortable when new, but the foam will deteriorate after a couple of years and start coming off in chunks. I use a slip on synthetic leather cover slip on cover. I tried a leather slip on cover but it kept slipping against the steering wheel. You generally can't lace up a cover to these modern steering wheels as the spokes are too wide. But on modern steering wheels, the covers are actually too thick for my tastes, but I put up with them as it is better than a steering wheel that is coming apart. My Subaru has a leather covered steering wheel. In my experience, leather will last a long time and gets better with age and use. I hope that is the case here. I'll report back in 16 or 17 (or more) years when I finally dump this car for a new self driving car.

Automatic transmissions were very common 50+ years ago, more so than today. But a 90 year old woman would have started driving in or around 1940 when they were rare. 50 years ago was 1965, before the Japanese invasion (Toyota/Datsun), VW bug was still rare but picking up and only a few MG Austin Healey and Jags around. Over 90% of cars sold in the US were US made and less than 3% had manual transmissions that year. Sticks are getting hard to find again. Same for the years 58 through about 72

While your vehicle is new, you should hold a steady 60 mph on a level road and record the RPM's from the tach in your owners manual. A 2014 Legacy will show about 1800 rpm's. Now when the vehicle gets older, you can periodically check the rpm's at 60 mph to see if the transmission is slipping or otherwise not working correctly.

Usually these symptoms are due to a system not holding pressure and the most common cause for not holding pressure is the radiator cap. Check the area inside the radiator where the inner gasket of the radiator cap seals to make sure there are no gaps or deformities. Check the rubber on the new cap to make sure it didn't come with a defect. A new cap should have fixed the issue. Maybe you still have a bubble in there.

Personally, I do not like the ceramic pads sold by either Advanced or AutoZone. I have AutoZone pads on one vehicle right now and they have not lasted very long and they have torn up the rotors, which ceramic pads are not supposed to do. I have also been hit or miss on several calipers from AutoZone, I haven't gotten any from Advanced. My preference is Wagner parts from O'Rielly's. I don't get much from them, but I do go to them for all my brake parts now, except for the truck which has the lifetime ceramic pads from AutoZone. AutoZone gives me free pads when mine wear out, which is pretty frequently. The old Duralast pads lasted about twice as long as their new ceramics. No trouble with Wagner OEM ceramic pads though. OK, so much for my opinion on brake parts. When you bleed and or flush the brakes, be sure the master cylinder does not go dry. This is critical. If it goes dry, then it has to be bench bled, and that means removing it. That is a real PITA. Siphon out the old fluid in the reservoir and refill with fresh. I generally just gravity flush the brake system. Instead of those one man brake bleed sets at $8 each, I get a length of clear vinyl fish tank tubing from the pet section of Walmart, about $3. I cut it into 2' or so lengths, enough to go from the bleed valve, up and over a nearby component and then down pointing into a bucket or container of some kind. Its important that the tubing goes up higher than the bleed valve itself by at least a couple of inches so that the tube fills up with brake fluid in this section and cannot draw air back into the caliper. You can open one, two or all four valves at once if you want and just let the brake fluid drain through the system, but make sure the master cylinder reservoir does not go dry. You have to be pretty quick if you try all 4 at once though. Start with the back wheels first. It does not matter which side as long as you do both back wheels first and then the fronts. The old pattern of RR, LR, RF, LF only applied to the single master cylinder brake systems of the 60's and earlier and a few o the early dual systems in the 70's that did not use the X layout of the brake lines.

There is a long discussion about spark plugs on this thread, which is on this page by the way. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/150167-question-about-spark-plugs/ I would not recommend replacing the spark plug wires unless the boots are hard and cracked. The early carbon filled resistor cables of the 60"s got a bad reputation for not lasting very long. They were usually good until you changed the plugs, then the flexing of the wires would cause them to leak and misfire so it was not uncommon the change the cables with the plugs, or with every other plug change anyway. Plug changes back then were usually every 12k miles. Todays cables are make with a kevlar reinforced carbon conductor. The kevlar holds the carbon in place. The cables are covered with silicone rubber. they do not leak. The only weak part is the rubber boots at each end. As long as they are pliable and not cracked, they are good. It helps to keep them coated with a good silicone dielectric grease. If the boots get hard and cracked, they have to be replaced, and since they are molded to the cables, the whole cable must be replaced. I have had several cars go 200 to 300k miles on the OEM cables and never miss a beat. But I do coat the boots with silicone dielectric grease when ever I change the plugs, which isn't very often because I use double platinum or iridium/platinum plugs. If the ground strap of the plug does not have a platinum pad on it, then it will erode faster than one that has the pad. The ground straps with the pad last almost forever. Because platinum and iridium is a much harder material, it does not erode nearly as quickly as an iron tip. The harder material can be made into a smaller/finer point and still last a very long time. The finer point concentrates the corona around the tip. The corona is the ionization of the gasses around the tip and the smaller the corona, the less voltage it takes to create an arc (spark) and the more intense and hotter the spark will be. This is of value only if the fuel air mix in the combustion chamber is not close to ideal. Once the fuel is ignited, the spark is of little consequence. It does not matter how hot or intense it was. Its just that a hotter or more intense spark is more reliable in igniting the fuel in less than ideal conditions and this is another reason the plugs can remain in the engine for a much longer time. If you use NGK or Denso plugs, they have an anti-seize plating on them. They do not need and you should not use an anti-seize grease on the threads. Other brands may or may not have the plating so you will need to use the anti-seize compound on the threads. I have never had an issue with removing the plated NGK or Denso plugs even after 120k miles.