B
Bradley Walker
I just wanted to drop everyone a note that I finally got my 90,000mile
servicing completed a week and half ago. After nearly two weeks of driving
the vehicle, I feel that the servicing was a success and the performance of
my car is MUCH more greater than it was the day I took it in. First off I
want to thank everyone in here who offered advice on letting me know about
replacing items like the water pump, cam seals, oil pump gasket/seals, etc.
Plus along with purchasing my water pump, thermostat, and timing belt from
SubaruGenuineParts.com, I saved well over $200 on those items alone vs
paying for them at the dealership.
The story behind this is, I took the Subaru in on a Monday morning to leave
it for an expected overnight stay. In fact it was there over night. The
service rep called me (new one, 4th one in 6 months) to let me know that
what was initially thought to be a headgasket leak from the heavy coolant
smell and slight oil leak was NOT a headgasket leak. Instead it was the
waterpump seal/gasket leaking and it was "tear-dropping" coolant and sucking
in air. The oil leak happened to be a coincidence in that it was seperate
from either the cam seal or crankshaft seal. The service manager told me I
was smart to have brought those parts in (and amazed at how much I paid for
them for what they charge) because they would have had to been replaced
regardless. He said the thermostat was showing signs of starting to stick,
and agreed that it wouldn't last another 100,000 miles if I pushed that.
With that said, they replaced the timing belt, checked the tensioner,
tighted the bolts, replaced the oil pump seal, gasket, cam seals, crankshaft
seals, water pump, waterpump seal/gasket, thermostat, oil filter, fuel
filter, air filter, cabin airfilter, and NGK spark plugs. On top of that I
got a full coolant system flush, brake fluid flush, and transmission fluid
flush/change. This steps back into the area that I think I riled up some
others here on the board by going with an 'unproven' mixture of oils for the
tranmission, but I did decide to take that risk myself. I went with the
"Uncle Scotty Cocktail" which was praised by many many folks around. When I
got the car back that was one of my concerns to see if it really worked. I
can truthfully say I see a huge difference in the shifting. At first I was
expecting a major notice in change right off the bat. However I did notice
a change, but it wasn't as great as I expected it. When shifting into 3rd
gear, it felt like the synchro gear issue was gone. In that I couldn't feel
the normal 'touching of metal' that I had felt before. But within a day or
so of driving, the shifting has gotten much softer reminding me of when I
purchased the vheicle.
When I say the shifting is 'softer' I mean that when I go to shift into any
gear, it feels like the shifter is cushioned. There is no more of the metal
touching metal feeling I had before. There is no more of that pushing the
gear into place, but halfway through it feels like the shifter encouters
resistance so I have to finagle or push harder than expected. That is 98%
gone. I assume with the various oils mixed, it simply took it a good 100
miles worth of driving to get everything mixed in really well. Anyhow, I'm
very satisfied with the result.
As I mentioned earlier, I noticed an IMMEDIATE performance boost with this
vehicle. Two days before taking the vehicle into the shop, I drove the car
up a newly opened 4 lane highway outside of town. The first 1 mile is
uphill at about a 7% grade until the vehicle cross the top of the ridge and
goes down the mountain. To use as a constant variable in my testing, the
two days before I took the car in, I noticed my vehicle was extremely
sluggish going up this hill. The speed limit was 50 for the first 3/4 mile
and then 65 for the next 1/4 until crossing the top and 65 the rest of the
way. I drove it twice and each time it was hard pressed to get the car
above 50-55 until going down the other side of the ridge. After the 90k
servicing, I was cruising at 65mph several hundred feet BEFORE the 65mph
sign and peaked at 73 or so before deciding to back off before the boys in
blue saw me. But the performance boost was that immediate.
When all was said and done, the servicing bill for this was ~$1300 however I
had a coupon with the dealership and got it knocked down to slightly under
$1100.
Brad
servicing completed a week and half ago. After nearly two weeks of driving
the vehicle, I feel that the servicing was a success and the performance of
my car is MUCH more greater than it was the day I took it in. First off I
want to thank everyone in here who offered advice on letting me know about
replacing items like the water pump, cam seals, oil pump gasket/seals, etc.
Plus along with purchasing my water pump, thermostat, and timing belt from
SubaruGenuineParts.com, I saved well over $200 on those items alone vs
paying for them at the dealership.
The story behind this is, I took the Subaru in on a Monday morning to leave
it for an expected overnight stay. In fact it was there over night. The
service rep called me (new one, 4th one in 6 months) to let me know that
what was initially thought to be a headgasket leak from the heavy coolant
smell and slight oil leak was NOT a headgasket leak. Instead it was the
waterpump seal/gasket leaking and it was "tear-dropping" coolant and sucking
in air. The oil leak happened to be a coincidence in that it was seperate
from either the cam seal or crankshaft seal. The service manager told me I
was smart to have brought those parts in (and amazed at how much I paid for
them for what they charge) because they would have had to been replaced
regardless. He said the thermostat was showing signs of starting to stick,
and agreed that it wouldn't last another 100,000 miles if I pushed that.
With that said, they replaced the timing belt, checked the tensioner,
tighted the bolts, replaced the oil pump seal, gasket, cam seals, crankshaft
seals, water pump, waterpump seal/gasket, thermostat, oil filter, fuel
filter, air filter, cabin airfilter, and NGK spark plugs. On top of that I
got a full coolant system flush, brake fluid flush, and transmission fluid
flush/change. This steps back into the area that I think I riled up some
others here on the board by going with an 'unproven' mixture of oils for the
tranmission, but I did decide to take that risk myself. I went with the
"Uncle Scotty Cocktail" which was praised by many many folks around. When I
got the car back that was one of my concerns to see if it really worked. I
can truthfully say I see a huge difference in the shifting. At first I was
expecting a major notice in change right off the bat. However I did notice
a change, but it wasn't as great as I expected it. When shifting into 3rd
gear, it felt like the synchro gear issue was gone. In that I couldn't feel
the normal 'touching of metal' that I had felt before. But within a day or
so of driving, the shifting has gotten much softer reminding me of when I
purchased the vheicle.
When I say the shifting is 'softer' I mean that when I go to shift into any
gear, it feels like the shifter is cushioned. There is no more of the metal
touching metal feeling I had before. There is no more of that pushing the
gear into place, but halfway through it feels like the shifter encouters
resistance so I have to finagle or push harder than expected. That is 98%
gone. I assume with the various oils mixed, it simply took it a good 100
miles worth of driving to get everything mixed in really well. Anyhow, I'm
very satisfied with the result.
As I mentioned earlier, I noticed an IMMEDIATE performance boost with this
vehicle. Two days before taking the vehicle into the shop, I drove the car
up a newly opened 4 lane highway outside of town. The first 1 mile is
uphill at about a 7% grade until the vehicle cross the top of the ridge and
goes down the mountain. To use as a constant variable in my testing, the
two days before I took the car in, I noticed my vehicle was extremely
sluggish going up this hill. The speed limit was 50 for the first 3/4 mile
and then 65 for the next 1/4 until crossing the top and 65 the rest of the
way. I drove it twice and each time it was hard pressed to get the car
above 50-55 until going down the other side of the ridge. After the 90k
servicing, I was cruising at 65mph several hundred feet BEFORE the 65mph
sign and peaked at 73 or so before deciding to back off before the boys in
blue saw me. But the performance boost was that immediate.
When all was said and done, the servicing bill for this was ~$1300 however I
had a coupon with the dealership and got it knocked down to slightly under
$1100.
Brad