Subject: Re: Subaru known problems?
From: (e-mail address removed) (P T)
Newsgroups: alt.autos.subaru
Randumb thoughts:
Bruce said a car should get 100 000 miles on wheel bearings. I had a '89
Mercury Tracer (i.e., a bastard Mazda 323 born in Mexico; actually a
very good car) that made "that" grinding noise after about 85,000. I
fixed it myself and it was pretty easy although another car might be
harder. Maybe the toughest part was deciding how tight to make the wheel
against the bearing, without some fancy tool. Well, back when daddy was
a machinist in WW2 they didn't have a fancy tool; he taught me get it
SNUG then back it off a 1/4 turn. Much easier to fix than a water pump
:-| or head gasket :-O
To the OrigPoster, I'm having the same problem as you, shopping for a
new car. Look hard, and you can find a defect on any fairly priced car.
Saturns were notorious in this respect: a budget car, and buyers with
very high expectation. For example, supposedly Saturns eat brake rotors.
(My '95 ate mine. So it goes.)
Well American cars are right out, I don't need to do any further
research, the GMC S15 I had was little more than a tractor with a
highway plate and a great view of the road through the rusted out floor.
You'd think all that oil it leaked would help preserve it. I currently
own a 4 Runner and I know all about the sludge reports in Camry engines
which so far seems to mainly center around one kook named "charlene" who
got ripped off by a quick lube place and demands Toyota pay for it.
Can't say much about alignment problems since I've hit more curbs, logs
and big rocks than I can count with the wheel at full lock in the snow
and mud and have yet to put it so much as a half degree out of alignment
in the 5 times I've had it checked since owning it. I researched my
Toyota in a similar fashion to what I'm doing now, I knew that it had
head gasket troubles and that's about it. One head gasket in 133,000
km for a truck that has an engine, transmission and driveline that
typically sales past 250,000 km with no major work besides timeing belts
and valve adjustments was acceptable to me. 25,000 km wheel bearings
and 60,000 km transmissions that I can't change myself, that is not. I
have had to do brake work almost every year, but that is purely a
function of how I drive it. Both of the first two years I had it I
burned a set of pads up and cooked the seals right out of the front
calipers from left foot braking under power through corners on snow. I
calmed down a bit after that and now have 4 years on the current
calipers. The original wheel bearings are still in my truck and that
has spent a lot of time door deep in mud and even sea water.
I was interested in a RAV4 also; don't you just love the way they use
the spare tire as a BUMPER? The CRX isn't much better.
Have you seen my truck with the 32" spare tire in the back?
http://www.ramsayscycle.com/truck/rearview.jpg It's what I bolt my bike
rack to so I can do extra damage to the econo boxes as they slide right
under it, I've been meaning to get a Red Baron style decal for the door,
3 and 1/2 cell phones to show how many of those blind retards have
shortened the life of their car behind me at a red light. I get to use
the same rack on the Rav4 that I have for my 4Runner and the door swings
out even with two bikes attached so that's a bonus. I always read in
reviews about rear mounted spare tires and how much it costs when you
back into a pole. I find it's much cheaper NOT to back into a pole,
I.e. don't let your wife drive.
The CRV is not an option for me, and
I work at a Honda dealership so that should tell you something. I have
waited and waited for Honda to come out with a full time 4wd...anything,
even if it's twice as ugly as an Element I would buy it just to say I
have a Honda and be able to get parts cheap. But no, they just make
that same reactive system they always have. Pissing me off and keeping
me paying retail for parts on other brands.
The Rav4 has a full time 4wd system taken from the old Celica All-Track
not unlike the Subaru design (of course not as good), the CRV has a
reactive system, you are in front wheel drive until the front wheels
slip, then the back wheels engage 2 weeks later with a little bit of
power in time to toss you into the ditch just as you set up the pendulum
into the corner. It's a great system for people who need help getting
up their icy driveway but you'll embarrass yourself at a rally cross
event with it.
Honestly I can't find the Achilles heel of Rav4s yet aside from being
slow and everyone seems to have a dash rattle that they aren't willing
to fix themselves. Oh, and the 2000 body style which is what I'm
shopping for is by far the ugliest thing on the road, not counting the
whole lower subset of ugly that exists in american cars (Aztek, PT
Cruiser, Avalanche etc.) Ravs seem to be like my truck, an overbuilt
drive train with an underpowered engine so it doesn't have the ability
to wear itself out. Rather than smoke the heavy duty clutch in the Rav4
when you pop it, it just stalls. Lighting up the tires on pavement is a
physical impossibility. I think most of the Subaru tranny problems can
be easily traced back to the incredible torque the engine produces and
the owner's use of it, it has the potential to burn a clutch in one day
if you are not careful and with an automatic you don't get any lights or
screeming in pain to warn you that having your foot to the mat off the
light is killing some important parts. I found the 25% torque split of
the Rav to be fun to drive, the engine is a dog but with a 5 Speed is
sufficient for my purposes (other guys are driving Golfs and Subaru
Justies so it's no exactly top level competition and the few that show
up with WRXs were going to win anyway). I tried an Impreza TS and that
was WAY too much fun to drive. I think I would have to factor in the
cost of speeding tickets as part of my monthly payment plan. And then
there's insurance, it's almost like the insurance company knows what I
would do with that car.
It's tough. Do you roll the dice, or look for a better bet? With my
Saturn I just lived with it, paid for the premature brake repairs. I
bought a certain motorcycle, ignoring several reports that they run
lean. Major mistake. At virtually every stop and shift the bike wants to
kill.
Maybe we should just keep the cars we have. Sometimes the devil you know
is better than the devil you don't know. And you won't be upside down. I
read a report that it's getting to be a problem, people go to get a new
car and their current car loan is upside down. And I think it's going to
get worse. But that only happens to other people.
Pete
More and more I keep thinking I should keep my 4 Runner. And I would
but I think the glares I get from the volunteers when it sails though a
carefully prepared snow berm at a rally cross event are starting to get
to me
and still, if it was a 5 speed I probably would keep it, but
I've about had it with automatics, it's just no fun to drive around a
track and murder on brakes because of all the nastly little left foot
tricks you have to do to get it to corner. Plus the price of gas has
kept me from doing any long road trips in it for 2 years now. At least
another Toyota is a Devil I sort of know vs. a Devil I never met before.
I believe my next car after this one will be a Subaru, and I don't think
will bother with a Forester either, that Impreze TS wagon is a whole lot
of car for a lot less money and it's what I'll be pining after for next
time. Maybe I will even get lucky and a Subaru dealer will open up
here, we had one about 10 years go but they folded and no one ever
stepped in to replace them. If there was a dealer here I think I would
look past the problems reported and still buy one, but with no mechanics
around here having much of a clue about Subarus I jsut can't take the
plung with my limited funds.
P.S. One of the service guys at work told me I should get the TS, a car
is a car and any mechanic should be able to work on it. I showed him a
picture of a stock TS under the hood:
http://webhost.kendra.com/altekruge/subaru/sube2e2.htm
He said, "Uh, nevermind."
Double P.S., he drives a 1982 Honda Civic with 381,000 kms on it. All
you need to fix it is an ajustable wrench and a hammer.
