What have you done to your car today?

[PauSum]

A tricky question to give a direct answer to because I buy the one, when needed, that is on special at the time. I work on the supposition that the active ingredient will probably be much the same in each brand and do a Doctor Google search for comments. They are usually about $20 when on special. I am suspicious of "SupaCrap" home brands but if the shop and brand is reputable then I will use that one. So far all I have tried, over about the last 50000 kms, have been successful. As I change oil and filter every 6000kms I use about two bottles a year. It takes about 400/500 kms to notice the leak stopping, which I guess depends upon leak volume. Current addition is branded "LiquiMoly Engine Oil Resealer 300 mls". Whether it would assist a gasket leak I know not.

I might try resealer too...they reseal the gaskets right?

 

[Ratbag]

I

I'm using Castrol EDGE Engine Oil - 5W-30, A3/B4 and was ok. I used one bottle of Penrite HPR 5 and the car didn't feel right at all. I replaced the oil fully back to Castrol but the car has been thirsty with oil since. Will try the exhaust pipe test tomorrow.

I use Shell Helix Ultra 5w-40 FS in both of ours. 20,000 KMs between oil changes or 3 years, whichever comes first. I only ever top up with the same oil.

The oil still looks good (not dark brown or black), smells good (not burnt) and feels good (smooth and viscous, not slightly gritty and thin).

 

[PauSum]

I use Shell Helix Ultra 5w-40 FS in both of ours. 20,000 KMs between oil changes or 3 years, whichever comes first. I only ever top up with the same oil.

The oil still looks good (not dark brown or black), smells good (not burnt) and feels good (smooth and viscous, not slightly gritty and thin).

I usually change oil every 6 months or 12500km, little bit dark but that's the oil that has been added throughout the period.
Still contemplating is it worth fixing the engine/ring as it will be my son's first car.

 

[ateday]

I might try resealer too...they reseal the gaskets right?

For about $20 it is worth a try. Much less expensive than an engine rebuild (which will no doubt come sooner or later).

 

[El_Freddo]

@PauSum - how many kms on the vehicle? My sister’s Gen3 RX Liberty with the 251 uses oil regularly. We just keep topping it up. The thing pulls like a freight train even at 484,000km!

I was meaning to check the owners manual to see if it’s the factory engine still resides under the bonnet. It’s already got the MLS head gaskets, no issues there!

Cheers

Bennie

 

[PauSum]

@PauSum - how many kms on the vehicle? My sister’s Gen3 RX Liberty with the 251 uses oil regularly. We just keep topping it up. The thing pulls like a freight train even at 484,000km!

I was meaning to check the owners manual to see if it’s the factory engine still resides under the bonnet. It’s already got the MLS head gaskets, no issues there!

Cheers

Bennie

Hi Freddi, it has 270000 km on the clock. Good to hear topping up the oil works!!! Still can least another 200000 km to go (with potential no issue)

 

[ateday]

@PauSum - how many kms on the vehicle? My sister’s Gen3 RX Liberty with the 251 uses oil regularly. We just keep topping it up. The thing pulls like a freight train even at 484,000km!

I was meaning to check the owners manual to see if it’s the factory engine still resides under the bonnet. It’s already got the MLS head gaskets, no issues there!

Cheers

Bennie

Nothing wrong with needing to top up, just as long as it is not excessive. Oil is cheap insurance for your motor.

 

[El_Freddo]

Still can least another 200000 km to go (with potential no issue)

If this is the factory engine I can tell you the coil pack starts to give up around this mileage - at least in our case. Lots of country kms.

Cheers

Bennie

 

[PauSum]

If this is the factory engine I can tell you the coil pack starts to give up around this mileage - at least in our case. Lots of country kms.

Cheers

Bennie

Strictly stock except the headunit so I do feel much better now of handing down the car to my son.

 

[Sid51x]

Over the weekend; Drain and fill for the ATF and Front and rear diffs, Replacement of steering rack bushings, replacement of the clutch on the A/C compressor, and have an appointment for the head gaskets in the coming weeks.

 

[El_Freddo]

Tomorrow I continue the oil change and spark plug lead replacement on my MIL’s S2 SG Foz - by swapping out the water pump gasket for a new one and replacing the three missing exhaust nuts at the heads. I noticed the missing exhaust nuts and some coolant droplets on the bottom of the water pump while doing the oil change. The minor leak seems to be from the water pump gasket.

The story goes she had a check engine light that came and went. Then it started playing up back in Feb but didn’t tell me. Finally she said it’s the worst to drive as it dragged its arse along before dropping a gear with a bang and revving high.

I worked out it was dead spark plug leads - having the end of the lead remain on the spark plugs was a bit of a giveaway while I was trying to replace the spark plugs. My thinking is this misfiring engine caused vibrations from the long period of time that it was an issue that it rattled the exhaust nuts off and possibly did the water pump gasket in at the same time. The pump and gasket are about three years old now and are genuine items that should last a lot longer than this!

Interestingly at around the same time my sister’s Liberty was playing up so I had done the plugs on that already without change. I swapped the coil pack from the Foz to the Lib and that solved the liberty’s misfiring issues. I’d already replaced the leads with “genuine” items from a reputable seller so that was a bit of a waste, but still way cheaper than local aftermarket leads (if available!). This is one of the leads. From memory at least two in each set came like this which was disappointing and hopefully not a sign of what’s to come:



Next issue with the Liberty was a gearbox issue that reared its ugly head quite quickly but was soon realised to be a clutch issue. Initially I couldn’t select second gear properly. Within a couple of blocks in the CBD of Bendigo I had to rev match all gears and had to ensure I had first gear before stopping at a red light, foot had to be on the brake to avoid the vehicle creeping forward - the clutch worked enough to sit stationary like this. Fun fun. After the CBD it’s about a 40km drive home.

My weekend was a balancing act of working on this, meeting with a men’s group and attending a mate’s 40th, thank the Subi gods for good weather and no hangover! This was the issue. I didn’t see this coming and haven’t experienced anything like this before!



To minimise my work effort to get to the clutch I kept the gearbox in the car, sitting on some steel rods on the front gearbox crossmember, removed everything from it effectively isolating it from the vehicle so I could slide it off the engine as far as possible until the firewall became the stopper. This gave me enough room to do what I had to do - and to align the clutch disc correctly making for an easy mating of the gearbox to the engine session. Luckily I had a spare in the wings for another project so it was a quick fix that didn’t require waiting on parts.

All of that was done on a set of car ramps on our gravel driveway…

Replacement (2nd hand) coil pack is yet to be fitted to the Liberty, other than that and a clicky front CV, all is well with it since the gearbox work at the end of July.

Cheers

Bennie

 

[El_Freddo]

Annnnd the work on the foz stalls.

One of the threads for a water pump bolt didn’t come up to torque (a whole 12Nm). Swap bolt same issue. Remove pump and can see the thread is shot.

Time to go get a helicoil kit.

*sigh*

 

[ateday]

Annnnd the work on the foz stalls.

One of the threads for a water pump bolt didn’t come up to torque (a whole 12Nm). Swap bolt same issue. Remove pump and can see the thread is shot.

Time to go get a helicoil kit.

*sigh*

Them`s the breaks........
Good it was that simple, could have been worse.
But sounds like the job was, more or less, successful.

 

[Ratbag]

Annnnd the work on the foz stalls.

One of the threads for a water pump bolt didn’t come up to torque (a whole 12Nm). Swap bolt same issue. Remove pump and can see the thread is shot.

Time to go get a helicoil kit.

*sigh*

Bugger, Bennie!

 

[tek1975]

That sucks, Regarding the stripped thread. I am amazed you could do the clutch with that little room from the pic's

 

[Ratbag]

Finally got around to tracking down why the lightbar on the SG wasn't working.

Turned out that one of the two vampire connectors on the LH headlight wiring was loose.
Pinched them both tight, and voilá, the lightbar now works.

The grovelling has nearly killed my back ... .

 

[ateday]

@Ratbag

As I may have said in the distant past it`s those bloody electrons....
Just can`t see `em.
I dislike intensely tracing electrical faults.

 

[Ratbag]

^^ Me too, @ateday .

This was relatively straightforward, as I remembered where the probable culprits would be, even after all these years.

 

[jf1sf5]

Gave my Forester a mud bath, really loves it, now the skin is so much smoother....!

 

[ateday]

A much needed facial eh?