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Old 03-23-2013, 03:12 PM
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Skid Row Joe Skid Row Joe is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by elchivito View Post
Son is on spring break this week. Last Sunday he gets up and says "I think I'll go to Santa Fe and visit Angelo." I tell him to be sure and check all his fluids and pressures. He has a 2000 Outback with 230K miles on it. Solid motor that neither burns nor leaks oil, he takes pretty good care of it but is no mechanic. Off he goes.
He calls from out past Flagstaff and says he's hearing an odd whine, not very loud. He's stopped and says he's not getting any dash lights or other strangeness so I told him well you've got to decide whether to continue or go back to Flag and get it diagnosed, might just be some loose heat shield or something. He decides to continue. Makes it to Santa Fe without issue but with the noise.
Calls from Santa Fe and says he has discovered that his front differential is dry. No oil on the dipstick. Goes to a Jiffy Lube or somewhere and has it drained and refilled, calls on his way home and says the noise is still there, but not as loud.
Makes it back home. I took it out and drove it and it sounded to me like the diff was damaged. Sure enough, our indy confirmed it.
So then comes the process of helping him decide what to do. I tell him, you could probably get 2K dollars for the car as is pretty easily. Old Subie buyers are not scared off by high miles. You only paid 3K for it and you've had it 2 years, you're even in it right now. On the other hand, you got an extremely good buy on it at 3K, remember you were looking at similar cars for over 4k when that one came along. If you like it well enough to keep it for another 50K miles it might be worth fixing.
We have neither the availability nor the expertise to go find an Outback in a yard and pull the diff or tranny and diff. The best prices we've found for used parts is 850 for a complete auto trans/diff combination. It will come with a 2 year warranty. Indy says the time book quotes 8 hours labor and he'll do it for 7 to save the kid a little money and take cash to save the tax costs. All in all nearly 1400 to fix a 2K dollar car.
It wouldn't necessarily be my choice, but I'm going to let him do it. It may end up being an expensive lesson, or the damned car may go another 100K. I've seen Subarus do similar things.
Quote:
Originally Posted by elchivito View Post
You ought to think about, you know, shooting from the hip once in a while. Just type in the first thought that flits from one ear to the other, never mind that it'll appear to others as flippant, rude and poorly thought out. Say what you mean for once in your life.
What's the feedback from Subaru fixit forums telling you to do?
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