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Am I doing any damage to my engine by over-filling the oil? I'm talking maybe 4.5-4.75 quarts instead of 4.2.
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Feb 21, 2015 02:31
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I'll do that. I ran the engine a little bit after changing the oil, but I didn't check it with the engine running.
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Feb 21, 2015 03:17
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It's a Subaru EJ22. Phase 2, the interference engine, although I don't think that makes any difference.
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Feb 21, 2015 06:30
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My car is starting to stink after highway driving. Is there any way I can distinguish whether the smell is tires, brakes, or clutch? My TOB is making noise, so I'm leaning towards clutch, but I haven't been shifting at all for the entire drive until maybe 3 minutes before I park.
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Mar 11, 2015 22:45
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I'm replacing the hatch struts on my Subaru. I got them both out, but now I can't get the ball joints out. They are little tiny ball joints with a bolt coming off the ball. The how-to guide I looked at had a guy just twist them over to full rotation and pull them out with a pair of pliers. I tried that, couldn't get it to work. I put the strut in a vice, tried again, and the shaft directly below the socket twisted almost 45 degrees. I'm going to autozone to see if they have a separator for one this small. If they don't, are there any other ideas? My replacement struts from RockAuto didn't come with new balls, otherwise I would just pop those in the new struts and throw the old ones out.
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Mar 29, 2015 01:12
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Last week I took my car into the shop for some clutch-in noise and what I thought was clutch smell after using it for a while, usually navigating parking lots or stop and go traffic. They fixed the clutch noise, but I've still been getting a smell. I was wondering if it was brake-related instead. I haven't gotten the chance to slide under the car and start sniffing at the clutch to make sure that's where the smell is coming from, but I noticed something. The smell is only really noticeable on the inside, not once you get out of the car. And it's coming through the vents. I turned the car off, had to come back about a minute later because I realized I had forgotten to roll up the window. The car doesn't smell at that point. Then I turn it on enough for the windows to roll up, air comes out of the vents, instant hot/burning smell. Any ideas? edit: In case what they did to the car at the shop is relevant, they replaced the transfer bearing on the input shaft with a larger one, since the channel for the bearing had worn wider than it was out of the factory. If I remember what they said right. 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 15:16 on Apr 1, 2015 |
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Apr 1, 2015 15:13
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What's involved in flushing brake fluid? Aside from it presumably needing disposal, it seems like it should be relatively simple. I should probably do it. Put that on the list with a million other things.
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Apr 2, 2015 07:21
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Does anyone have a sealable drain pan recommendation? I bought a screw-on drain pan at wal-mart, and it leaks all over the place. I'd like to not cover the cargo area with a thin layer of oil every time I take my oil to be disposed.
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Apr 11, 2015 22:58
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The engine bay and drivetrain has always been kind of a black box to me. I perform the rituals as mandated by the holy user's manual, satisfy it with blood sacrifice, and speak over it the curse words of power. But I don't really get more than the absolute basics of what goes where and which part does what. I don't have a spare car to make mistakes on, what should I read?
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Apr 28, 2015 03:06
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That's an idea, I guess. It will have to wait until I turn 25 and can afford the insurance on two cars, though. If I did it now, I'm pretty sure within a year I would have paid more for the insurance than the car. Maybe six months.
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Apr 28, 2015 04:14
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Awesome, thanks. I figured there was probably some good resource for how internal combustion engines work. Online is even better.
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Apr 28, 2015 04:32
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TKIY posted:Sorry to come back to this but the dealer is making some very aggressive offers. A corollary to my last question, are there any good "working on cars" shows? The ones I've seen are half commercials for stuff like magnaflow, disregarding normal commercials.
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Apr 28, 2015 15:47
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So, this is probably a premature question. I'm not actually going to be buying anything for a year and a half. But I also want to sperg out, learn about the cars, learn about the market, that sort of stuff. Taking the advice from earlier in the thread, once I'm no longer saving every spare dollar for a wedding, I want to pick up a beater to learn to wrench on. The problem is my desires are kind of restrictive, and I'm not sure if they're realistic. I'm wanting either a fun car (quick and decent handling relative to an impreza hatchback), or an AWD wagon. The problem is, I want something messed up enough that I can get into its guts, but I want something that I don't have to worry about breaking down on me all the time. I want something older for simplicity and price, but I want at least dual front airbags and a decent safety rating. I want something cheap to fix, and I want something that hasn't had it's price jacked up by all of the racing/autocross people latching onto them, so no E30, 240SX, Fox body, Hondas, no MR2s, and probably no Miatas. I had been thinking of a Volvo 940 for safety/wagon/turbo, but unless those can be turned into fun cars, they are RWD and wouldn't be a good winter beater for my by-then wife. I also had been thinking W124 300TE/300DE, but then I found out the 4matic transmission is both overly complex and failure-prone. I could list a bunch of other cars I knocked out of competition, but nobody wants to read through them all. Am I asking too much from a car? So far all I've come up with is an old Subaru. Either an EJ22 wagon or an EJ25 and I cut my teeth on engine work with the head gaskets  . We do live somewhere that the only rust is imported, so that helps.Basically, I'm trying to do the same thing as Sperglord Firecock was, but without being a loving idiot about it. I'm trying to learn to work on cars with the eventual goal of having a fun fast car, even if it's not this one. I'm not going to buy a car obviously full of PO fuckery, not going to dream of Initial D racing stardom while being unable to drive stick, and I'm not going to wear ugly blue plaid pants as some sort of ironic anti-fashion statement. I promise. We also have two reliable cars, so if this one has to sit for a while before being safe to drive, that's fine. It will be a nice change from having to do stuff on my car quickly over a weekend so I can drive to work on Monday.
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May 1, 2015 06:16
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Thank you for all of the advice. Trying to hit all of the points without making a wall of quotes. I wouldn't be relying on this to get me to work. We have a Subaru Outback Sport and a low-mileage escort zx2. Already having a Subaru is part of why I was considering getting a legacy-based Subaru. What little I know how to fix, I learned on a Subaru. I wouldn't mind RWD for myself, but something AWD would be nice to let my fiancee drive during the winter. I would let her drive my car, and take a two wheel drive car, but she refuses to learn stick ( I know, sever  )I had been thinking about just getting a domestic economy shitbox, but I guess I'm mostly concerned that I'll fix it up and then have absolutely nothing to do with it and then sell it at a loss. Not that I expect it to be profitable, I'd just like to get something I would use. I'll look at XJs. I know my friend was complaining before he got his 4-runner about how stupidly priced jeeps were around here, but maybe he was thinking about a particular model, IIRC Cherokees aren't the ones that are most popular for offroading, right? Just the normal about town SUV? Edit: missed one. I'll start reading through project threads again. For a while I was scared off because I had no idea what I was looking at in a lot of those pictures. That's why I liked Sperglord Firecocks thread until he went completely off the deep end, it was all in language simple enough for a beginner. 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 17:22 on May 1, 2015 |
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May 1, 2015 17:18
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ilkhan posted:Turn around at the border. But don't come to Colorado, we're full.
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May 3, 2015 18:21
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Enourmo posted:Well. does it start the car? That's job 1. Before you check the motors or fuses, hit the window lock button. Then try rolling them down.
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May 3, 2015 21:56
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I need some new headlights. Halogens, not HIDs. Slidebite suggested osram Nightbreakers. Any other suggestions for particularly, far-shining bulbs? I'm a small car, so I'm not too worried about blinding people. But at least I'm not one of those people that puts HIDs on their lifted truck and then forgets to turn,off their high beams. We get a lot of those.
22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 01:58 on May 19, 2015 |
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May 18, 2015 20:42
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Yeah, I should probably add that to my criteria. I have auto-off headlights, so I end up running mine during the day pretty often. And that's not counting that I turn them on whenever it gets overcast so people can see me more easily. So long-lasting is important to me, but I really don't give a drat about white light. I found a consumer reports article that says brighter lights don't actually cast their beams any farther. That seems wrong, since intensity is directly related to power at any given distance. But maybe it's just a trick of the eye, where you see whiter, shorter wavelength light as brighter? I don't know. All I know is I had these things for five and a half years, and the PO had them for who knows how long. Probably anything would be better than these. Speaking of light colors, why don't they use red headlights? Is it because tail lights are red, and that would be confusing? Red lights impact your night vision the least.
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May 19, 2015 15:56
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Geirskogul posted:If you shine a flashlight so the top edge of the focused beam touches the ground 500 feet away, it doesn't matter how bright the bulb is, because it will still only go 500 feet before hitting the ground. Is that the range most bulbs have? Because I'm nowhere near that. Or are you talking high beams? Are most beams aimed for the same range, just with different angles depending on the height?
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May 19, 2015 17:12
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I have a Fumoto valve, and it's not quite sealing at the pan-valve point, so I have a very small leak. I have a spare crush washer. Should I take that and put it between the valve's rubber gasket and the pan, or will two gaskets gently caress up the seal even more? Also, I haven't had a leak before, so I've never been overly worried about oil levels. I have been checking my level every few days. I have been noticing that even after I wipe off the dipstick, put it back in, and pull it out, the wet section goes way above the full marker. Is that what I'm looking for, or is it a bead of oil? I did check, and there is no foaming of the oil when checked while running, so the crank isn't aerating the oil. 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Jun 2, 2015 |
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Jun 2, 2015 16:08
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BoyBlunder posted:Are you using that washer that came with the Fumoto valve? It definitely could be, this car is old enough to drive. I got a plastic/rubber washer with the valve. No metal one like the original plug uses. It only starts leaking once the car heats up. In the morning, no leak. After it's been running for a while and I park, about 3 minutes later I have a quarter sized spot. I never had leaking with the plug bolt, bit I have torqued this one down to the point that the brass they make them out of started to strip, and I figured that was a good place to stop.
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Jun 3, 2015 16:28
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Next question: I posted in the Subaru thread about my transmission clicking. I've figured out it's actually the brakes, it just happened mostly when I was braking and shifting at the same time, which is pretty much every time I do more than lightly touch the brakes. Which is probably bad driving technique, I don't know. The click sound is just once, not a rotating, repeating thing. Only under relatively heavy braking, but the brakes don't need to heat up, it happens fairly often just coming out of the parking lot at work after 4-9 hours of the car sitting there. I'm not positive whether it does it once the brakes have warmed up or not. Any ideas? I just realized I haven't checked the brake fluid reservoir, I can check that tomorrow if it sounds like it might just be too low.
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Jun 4, 2015 04:42
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I'll need to listen tomorrow just to be sure, but I think it's neither. I remember having it happen on the second stop, too. But it does happen a lot when it's the first stop after switching to forward.
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Jun 4, 2015 07:27
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So, the hub nut is that big, 20-something millimeter nut on the end of the CV axle? I have to remove the wheel for that, right? If I do, is there any downside to rotating the tires more often than the standard interval?
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Jun 4, 2015 16:57
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InitialDave posted:It will change your speedo reading so it's 3% "off" for a given speed, as the smaller diameter needs more rotations to cover the same ground, but that's really not enough to be a major issue. On the other hand, depending on how your speedometer skews, you might get closer to right. My car was always 3 miles slower than indicated on surface streets, now it's 1 slower. I also did it for availability. You try finding good, cheap 225/60/15s. With 16" wheels, I got DWSes and a set of Legacy GT snowflakes for the cost of average all-seasons on my old wheels.
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Jun 4, 2015 22:30
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Are there any good resouces for someone thinking about buying back a totaled car? I'm in Colorado. Also, if I disagree about how much a car is worth with the insurance company assessing the damage, how do I go about arguing it? KBB has my car listed at ~2500, but in Colorado, Subarus this age and mileage are asking $5000, because loving Subarus is a requirement of living here. I haven't heard back from the inspector yet, but going from the independent inspection and the KBB, I expect them to say it's totalled, and since it's geico, I expect them to lowball the hell out of me. E: Am I right in thinking I'm just shafted on the $2600 of repairs I have had done in the past year if I don't buy it back? 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 18:31 on Jun 5, 2015 |
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Jun 5, 2015 18:02
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tater_salad posted:Dont take the check and cash it. Thanks. It turned out I was being overly worried. They didn't total it. Unfortunately, since they didn't pull on the hood release hard enough to get it to open, they didn't see the twisted grill supports. So their estimate (and check made out to me) was $500 short of what an independent inspection said. Now I just have to decide whether to take that check, pay off some debt, and learn how to replace a hood, grill, and headlight housing down the line, each for significantly less than estimated parts cost, or to take it in and have the shop do everything. Probably a big make or break question related: could a ~5mph parking lot collision be causing the clicking I mentioned earlier? Single click the first time I get on the brakes after going into a forward gear from reverse. Not all of the time, but often. The impact was a Tahoe on my impreza, hitting right where my driver's side headlight and grill meet. At the time of the impact, I am not sure if I was on the brakes, I was in the process of getting into gear trying to avoid the collision. Edit: I think I found where a lot of the difference is. They want to repair the partially crumpled hood rather than replace it. Charitably, she just didn't notice it was crumpled because she wasn't looking that far back. I'm just going to get it fixed now, it's not worth getting $1100 now to pay 1100 and several weekends later. 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 00:16 on Jun 6, 2015 |
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Jun 5, 2015 20:41
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I'm probably going to call my mechanic for a professional opinion, but could having the brakes on when stationary in a collision cause a clicking in the brakes? Single click, most audible with the window open. Mostly, but not exclusively the first time I brake after I put it in a forward gear.
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Jun 8, 2015 22:06
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Geoj posted:Do you only hear the click when starting from a complete stop? You could have a damaged CV joint that's clicking when torque gets applied. No, but I do get a click when I come off the clutch weird sometimes, not sure if that's similar. It would be cool if both were related, because then I could get rid of the two weird noises my car makes (except for grinding into reverse) on Geico's dime.
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Jun 9, 2015 03:51
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I have a small oil leak and today I noticed my powerband was kind of lumpy. Is this a symptom of low oil? I noticed something similar when I had first filled it, but I think I overfilled it because it went away after a day or so. I just don't want to gently caress up my car, and it's a while before my oil is due again. I might just do it early and put that spare crush washer in between the Fumoto washer and the pan. Would that be a good idea, or would doubling up on gaskets make it worse? I could try taking the rubber gasket off and just using the crush washer, but I'm not sure that would help. I haven't looked at them side by side, but I think the Fumoto gasket is thicker. e: I guess if it would be bad, I could take the rubber washer to Home Depot and see if they've got anything like it, but thicker.
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Jun 13, 2015 23:19
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Is there a car audio thread anywhere? I looked in here and in IYG and couldn't see one. I'm wanting to replace this CD-only unit the PO put in.
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Jun 15, 2015 17:36
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I'm actually still at the point of deciding between a new, modern head, a stock head that came with a tape deck, and one of those things you put in line with the antenna to basically give yourself an aux input on a FM station, but in a way that overrides even looking for the actual FM signal. I have a traditional FM transmitter, but almost all of the stations are taken, and the ones that aren't are getting heavy interference.
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Jun 15, 2015 19:00
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IOwnCalculus posted:There is a Car Audio Megathread in case you want to sort through more info. Awesome, thanks. Like I said, I looked in IYG and AI and couldn't find it. I don't have a kicking rad tape collection, but I do have an old cassette adapter.
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Jun 15, 2015 21:18
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Is there anything about a full tank vs empty that I could notice when driving, or is it just placebo that I feel like the car's weight and body motion when accelerating are different immediately after filling up? <3000 pound car with me in it, 16 gallon tank. That seems like it doesn't even add 100 pounds, much less than any passenger I carry. Maybe because it's over the rear rather than the front?
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Jun 23, 2015 04:51
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Am I right in thinking cars generally get better mileage at lower elevations? I'm thinking more oxygen, more complete combustion, more power for the fuel, further distance for a given amount of fuel. Assuming you don't have it tuned specifically for high elevation.
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Jun 24, 2015 17:00
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Safety Dance posted:I'm reasonably sure that, within some sane altitude range, your O2 sensor will tell your ECU how to compensate for the amount of available oxygen per combustion cycle. What does sane mean? 0-5000? 0-9000? Geoj posted:Caveat to the above: at higher elevations the lower oxygen content makes gasoline harder to burn, and 87 starts to act like mid-grade (89/91.) If you drive into a higher elevation with a tank of 87 you likely will see a decrease in fuel economy. I guess that's why we get 85 up here, then. I thought it was just gas companies being as cheap as they could get away with. E: is the height you'll actually get outside of the Himalayas going to make a drag difference? Planes are up at ~50,000. I know someone on here said that cars at Bandomere in Denver generally are a second or two slower on their runs than at sea level. 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Jun 24, 2015 |
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Jun 24, 2015 18:17
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But we get lower octane at our pumps, not higher. I haven't ever even seen 93 around here. E: that was for Velocibacon.
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Jun 24, 2015 18:24
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I have my car in at the mechanic, but it sounds like they are grasping at straws. I was in an accident, someone backed into me. Shortly after that, I started getting a single click upon braking. This only happens the first time I brake going forward after I have been going backward. So I back out of a parking space, drive to the exit, stop, click. Or I start from a hill with my manual transmission, and next time I stop, click. I took it to the shop, they said the exhaust was bent, it sounded related to the accident,and it was the shifting on the mounts that put everything in position to click. The insurance guy got there and said that the exhaust had been pushed up from the back, not from the front. He said the clicking was from the muffler being right up against a bracket, but he couldn't explain how that would fit my symptoms, so I get the feeling he is full of poo poo. Does either of those sound plausible for my symptoms? I think I might just have to take it in to a muffler shop, have them fix it, and take it back in if it doesn't fix it.
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Jul 31, 2015 17:38
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On a late 90s, early 2000s automatic Ford, I have two drives. One is marked with a D surrounded by a circle, one is just D. What does that mean?
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Aug 1, 2015 17:59
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Motronic posted:You need to slow down, pick better lines, or not drive a mini pickup. Or at least drive it with a few hundred pounds in the bed. So is the circle D the OD, or is the regular D? I just want to know what gear to keep it in for normal driving. If we're going up to the mountains, odds are we're doing it in my Subaru anyway, and that's a manual so that's simpler if I need to speed up faster.
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Aug 2, 2015 01:29
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