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CarSpace Car SaviorRandom thoughts about car related stuff. Well, maybe not always car related :) Oct 16, 2007 - Dealer greed or the advantage of having an older carSo I was summoned to help my trusty 1994 Impreza last Friday. It was sitting in the middle of the road stranded by a completely discharged battery. I stopped by an Autozone store and purchased a new battery. The old one was about 10 years old, so it was time. When I installed the new battery, Impreza started right up and was driven to a safe parking location. By chance I had my trusty multimeter with me. I checked the voltage and it was at steady 12.4V with engine running. Obviously the battery was not getting any juice. Thinking it was probably the alternator, I stopped by the closest Subaru dealer only a few hundred yards away. Service manager was not sure they would be able to get to my car before Tuesday and the alternator was not in stock anyway and would have to be special ordered. The cost quoted to me was $450 plus sales tax for a rebuilt alternator and labor. Next I stopped by Autozone and ordered a rebuilt alternator from them quoted at "only" $170 plus tax. This was not only much less expensive than the dealer, it would arrive to the store the same day and Autozone would test my old alternator free of charge. I left the store thinking that I would come back after work and swap the alternator out. On my way to work, however, I was driving by my favorite u-pull-it junk yard. Despite my office clothes, I decided to stop by and see if they have an Impreza on the lot. I walked around the lot and within a few minutes located an Impreza. It had severe front end damage but the alternator seemed unharmed. I returned to my car and took all the tools from the standard BMW toolkit. To my amazement, I was able to remove the alternator from the wrecked Impreza using just the few wrenches and pliers that were at my disposal! It took all of 15 minutes and I was out the door for $15.90 including sales tax! After work, I stopped by Autozone and had the salvaged alternator tested. It tested fine and wih lifted spirits I drove on to my broken down Impreza. Thanks to excellent lighting from a street lamp, I was able to swap out the alternator in about 20 minutes. Started the car, checked voltage -- solid 14.5V !!! Mission accomplished. So, what's the point? Had I gone to the dealer, I would be without my car for at least four days and would have had to shell out at least $480 (including tax). Instead, with some luck, I was able to easily fix the car myself for under $16 the same day. It pays to be a car nut! Also, if you have an older car, never pay the first asking price for any repair. Ask around, inquire about used parts, call junk yards, go to a u-pull-it junk yard. Actually, I greatly enjoy visiting u-pull-it yards -- they often have interesting models there and one can practice their repair skills without much risk.
Sep 11, 2007 - The joy of Subaru engineeringI replaced the timing belt in my 1994 Subaru Impreza last weekend. I had doubts about starting this project. I guess it was the usual thing -- fear of the unknown. I have done several timing belt replacements before but never on a Subaru. I seemed to be more involved because of the horizontal engine layout, the extremely long belt and what looked like a very involved procedure for compressing the hydraulic belt tensioner. Luckily and did not chicken out :) It turned out to be the easiest and most enjoyable timing belt replacement I have ever done. Let me explain. Normally, at least for me, the hardest part of a timing belt replacement is the guesswork involved when installing the new belt. Is the valve timing perfect? Do I have belt teeth exactly right? Is off by a tooth? I even had to redo a timing belt job once because the car was running poorly and I thought that I might have screwed up the valve timing. It later turned out to be a bad intake manifold gasket (and it did not show up on the propane test!) so all the double work I did rechecking valve timing was for nothing. In this case it was unbelievably easy! Subaru really makes it very, very hard to screw things up. To the point where any mistakes anyone makes must be intentional! This particular Subaru engine, the EJ18, is a non-interference design. This means that the valves have enough space inside the combustion chamber to move in and out without hitting anything. So if the belt breaks, it does not destroy the pistons and the valve train. It also means that during belt replacement you don't have to hold the crankshaft and the camshafts absolutely still. Even if they rotate, it is no problem and will not hurt anything. This makes for a lot less stressful approach and I like it very much! Tensioner design on this engine is absolutely brilliant. It is very easy to remove and once you remove and compress it, it takes absolutely no effort to put the new belt in. I have always struggled with this part, where you have to wrestle with the belt tensioner in order to slide the new belt over the sprockets. Volvo uses a similar setup with their timing belt tensioners but they still aren't quite as easy to install. Then there is my favorite part. The crankshaft and camshaft sprockets are all labeled in tandem with the new timing belt to the point where any guesswork is completely eliminated. You just use markings on the new belt to match up with markings on the sprockets. Additionally, you can count the number of belt teeth between these markers to double check that belt placement and valve timing are absolutely, positively perfect! This is really the part that makes the whole process so worry-free and easy! And then, of course, there is the exceptionally good access to everything so typical to Subarus. Things are easy to reach from the front and from the top. No need for a lift, no need for any special equipment. The service manual mentions several special tools that turned out to be entirely unnecessary. I am sure they make things slightly faster and easier for dealership mechanics, but for a private person they are not necessary. All you need are common hand tools. Useful links:
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