EF15

[doc_moreau]

So, there's this picture here of everyone at Eurofurence 14 last summer (at least most everyone - i'm sure there are a few people who didn't make it into the photo) and i'm amused because... well... scanning the crowd, i see like maybe a dozen females XD Haha. You know, the gender ratio at US cons i've been to is fairly balanced. Probably a few

Comments

[nahaniotieno]

I've had my Honda Civic for seven years now. I bought it at 27,800 miles, it's going to roll 206,000 miles today, and it still keeps on going. It's no AWD or 4x4, but with a good set of snow tires I go anywhere I need to go, it still gets 32MPG city, and costs me less than $20 a week to put fuel in, 89 octane. This is also the basic SOHC four cylinder with a five speed, but surprisingly, it's a bit spirited. My only grip? Not enough room to stuff things into the trunk, I wish it was a wagon.

If you're going to go for a Subaru again, and you're not able to afford a new new new one, look for the 2.2L engine. The older 2.5L motor, as found in the older Outbacks, tend to blow head gaskets and have a lot of other quirky crap go wrong.

If you absolutely need to get an automatic, well...let's just say most people don't know how to take care of a Subaru, so most of the used ones wind up being junk. It's good policy to, regardless of mileage, flush the transmission fluid once per year on a Subaru.

[nahaniotieno]

Random addendum as i'm sort of not paying attention...

...if the thing is blowing white smoke when you drive it, yeah...new car time, head gasket is gone.

There's also something else, I forget the name of it...I wanna say (something) intake that is a fairly common leak on GM vehicles, but this plus non-working 4x4 plus whatever else?

Probably about time to shitcan it, IMO. If whatever your driving gets to the point of unreliability that you can't trust it anymore, should go buhbye.

[doc_moreau]

I haven't seen any smoke... the white smoke you're speaking of is definitely obvious? Not just a little bit like exhaust on a cold day?

If it means anything to you, in regard to the 'something' intake, the leak seems to be on the bottom of a projecting part of the engine in the front, right below where the big hose to the radiator connects. It's not from the hose or where the hose connects, but right below it on the same sort of blocky part. The hose attaches to the side, and on the front there's a big wheel that the belt goes through... and right below it is another belted wheel that gets the majority of the coolant splattered on it (probably splashing the stuff all over the place when it's spinning)

The non-working 4x4 i can deal with, but this is a real problem, because it eliminates the possibility of long range travel without stopping a bunch of times to refill. (and i wouldn't trust it not to get worse on such an extended run)

[nahaniotieno]

Oh!

That sounds like your water pump, if the drive belt is going around it.

If you can do it yourself, a not-so-bad repair. If a garage does it, probably staring down between 200-300 and change...but don't quote me on it. External water pumps are usually not that expensive parts wise, it's the labor that gets pricey.

I'm not sure if the A/C compressor would be spitting coolant, as well, but IIRC, that runs on R134A, which is entirely different.

If it was blowing white smoke, it'd be VERY obvious if the head gasket was gone. We're talking like...huge billows, looks like you're a cloud factory smoke.

[doc_moreau]

My old subaru was a '90 Legacy, with the 2.2 litre engine. The engine didn't ever really have any problems, aside from a little oil drip toward the end (nothing even close to the amount of fluid my GMC pisses out currently, though it's coolant, not oil... but still)

You're right though, the tranny was going when i got rid of it - i was told there were shavings of ground off metal inside the case and such, which is never good :P And my friend who "bought" it from me (never did give me any more than $100 bucks, the cheapass...) later on ended up only being able to drive it with one gear, as apparently most of them stopped working and it'd go right to second and stay there... it was an auto, but i get the gist of what he meant.

Yeah, a honda would be good too. Japanese cars seem to fare well. Those small engines have enough spunk to make them agile, too.
Er... i'll avoid Hyundai though probably. I've heard worse things about them...

[nahaniotieno]

As far as Hyundai goes...the newer ones are actually not too bad, their quality has come up a lot in recent years, but I wouldn't get anything older than, say, 2003 for a Hyundai