Character builders (A Subaru update)
Ah the joys of character builders.
Since I bought my Subaru last summer, it had one minor issue that could be considered an annoyance. Whenever you would take a corner hard, or do any jolting action in the car, especially if the car had less than half a tank of gas, the car would bog down for a few seconds until it regained itself and then go on its merry way. I knew this was a fuel issue and was likely either the fuel pump, or the little pickup/sock looking filter thingy.
So in October, I bought a new fuel pump cheaply on eBay, and decided I would replace that as soon as I had a little free time, as the issue was getting worse. It got to the point where even the jolt of taking off from a stop would make it bog, which is a lot of fun driving in NJ traffic. I was extremely happy to discover that the fuel pump was accessible without having to drop the gas tank, just take out the backseat, and you could access it right behind it fairly easily. When I thought I had the free time, I began to dismantle.
As soon as the car was completely disassembled, I got the call that my friend Jennie was gonna need to go to the ER. This of course, resulted in me reassembling everything very quickly and not nearly as carefully as I would’ve liked. In this process I was able to do a very quick cleaning of the pickup filter, which was EXTREMELY clogged and dirty, but not thorough at all.
This was a band aid, as it did make it slightly better, but didn’t solve the problem entirely. So at least, I knew it was the pickup filter, and not the fuel pump. Also, after reassembly, there was always some smell of gas in the car, especially after refueling. So again, that was October.
A few months of trips, being busy, and actual winter weather, have prevented me from doing anything about it until just recently. The weekend of my Monty Python marathon, which was like 2 weeks ago, on my way home to assemble for the event, I was running low on gas. I had intended on stopping for gas just off the Parkway. Well, about ¼ mile away, literally feet before my exit, my car ran out of gas and died, despite showing an 1/8 of a tank of fuel remaining. It’s finicky-ness in fuel transport was getting worse apparently. Dreading the thought of having to push the car off the highway, and even more the outrageous cost they charge to get towed off the Parkway, I cranked away, and after about 15 minutes, the car managed to get a 2nd wind, and enough to get me to the Exxon station just around the corner. Phew.
So, last week I actually had shifted things around in my schedule to make the following Wednesday the day I would FINALLY fix my car. This was a very responsible thing I thought. However on Friday, just before I was to head out for a show, I had stopped for gas, and upon arriving to my house, not only did I REALLY smell gas, it was leaking out. The car decided it couldn’t wait I guess, the time had come. So even though I hadn’t intended on working on the car on Saturday, well, I was now!
Saturday was an extremely nice day anyway, first day of Spring, and it actually was like spring; already too hot for me! Upon disassembly I discovered that the bolts that bolt the fuel pump assembly to the tank weren’t all that tight, most likely explaining the constant gas fume smell as well as the possibility of leakage as well. I replaced the pickup filter, and reassembled everything, a little more carefully this time. I also used the opportunity to install my seat covers I got for Christmas (just a LITTLE late :-p) properly, since the backseat was already out. Hypothetically all was good.
So last night, well early morning actually, I was heading home from Christina’s. When I did my repair on Saturday as I mentioned, I had a full tank of gas. Last night, it was finally running low, so I gave it the test. I had about ¼ tank, and I decided to use the entrance ramp to the Parkway from Rt. 9 as my test bed…a nice long corner that starts off pretty typically, but the second half of it tightens up even more…lots of fun in my car :) Lo and behold, despite throwing the car hard around it, there was no bog at all, just nice smooth acceleration throughout! Victory!!! Or so I thought.
About 8 miles down the Parkway, the car decided to run out of gas again. I had just under a ¼ more than 1/8 of a tank (1/6 or 1/7 maybe?) on the gauge, but the car obviously had other plans. This was right before the Metropark exit, and I managed to coast around the exit ramp and off the parkway. I tried as I could to get the car to crank over, and it just wouldn’t go. Of course there couldn’t be a gas station right there either. There was however a Quick Chek moderately close the other way, and it was downhill. Luckily it was 4:30am and not much traffic. I pushed the car in reverse to U-turn in the road, and then coasted downhill to the Quick Chek at the light. I managed to get the car off the road, but not completely into the parking lot, as it’s driveway was uphill. I couldn’t even push it at all up the driveway. Luckily, the Star Ledger truck driver gave me a quick hand pushing it into a space. Ok, car secure. Next order of business, retrieving gas… at 4:30am.
I began the walk. It was actually awesome weather to walk in. A little on the chillier side for most, perfect for me, about 45 degrees I believe. I began the walk at a medium pace, no point in rushing, and I was a little tired at this point anyway. I walked down to Wood Ave past the Metropark, and up to Lincoln highway, about ¾ of a mile. 2 gas stations, both closed. The one however, did have a man working in the office. I walked up and got his attention, told him I ran out of gas, and he told me to go down the road to the next light, there was a station there open. He could’ve helped I’m sure, but he didn’t. Douche. So I walked down about another half mile and there were two gas stations both open. I went in and was a bit miffed that the gas cans were 17 dollars, but whatever, could be worse. The fact that they had both Pepsi AND Mountain Dew Throwback bottles almost made up for it! Bought the stuff, filled the gas can for 6 bucks, and was on my merry way back.
About an hour and a half later, I was finally back at my car, added the gas, and drove back to the same station to tank up. Luckily I just managed to beat the main rush of traffic to get home just around sunrise.
The conclusions that can be derived from this are as follows: I take it the car’s fuel issues are resolved. I no longer smell gas in the car (aside from the gas can and adding it myself lol), and when the tank was mere miles from running out of gas, I still had enough gas flow to eliminate the fuel cut/bogging that has plagued my car since I bought it. Also, I guess I must’ve disrupted the accuracy of the fuel gauge by possibly throwing the float off kilter just enough to make the gauge read inaccurately. So until I feel the desire to take it all apart AGAIN to calibrate the float (ie: bend it), ¼ tank = New “E”!
That all being said, I still love my car, and I didn’t mind the walking in the middle of the night for gas. It actually reminded me of being in Tennessee when I was on tour the night before our first show and Mike, James, and I were walking down the main drag at like 3am looking for my cell phone! I’m happy that the bulk of it is resolved, and I’m thankful that both times the car crapped out, I was extremely lucky in the circumstances that followed. Especially last night….that could’ve sucked.
Yay for character builders.
Since I bought my Subaru last summer, it had one minor issue that could be considered an annoyance. Whenever you would take a corner hard, or do any jolting action in the car, especially if the car had less than half a tank of gas, the car would bog down for a few seconds until it regained itself and then go on its merry way. I knew this was a fuel issue and was likely either the fuel pump, or the little pickup/sock looking filter thingy.
So in October, I bought a new fuel pump cheaply on eBay, and decided I would replace that as soon as I had a little free time, as the issue was getting worse. It got to the point where even the jolt of taking off from a stop would make it bog, which is a lot of fun driving in NJ traffic. I was extremely happy to discover that the fuel pump was accessible without having to drop the gas tank, just take out the backseat, and you could access it right behind it fairly easily. When I thought I had the free time, I began to dismantle.
As soon as the car was completely disassembled, I got the call that my friend Jennie was gonna need to go to the ER. This of course, resulted in me reassembling everything very quickly and not nearly as carefully as I would’ve liked. In this process I was able to do a very quick cleaning of the pickup filter, which was EXTREMELY clogged and dirty, but not thorough at all.
This was a band aid, as it did make it slightly better, but didn’t solve the problem entirely. So at least, I knew it was the pickup filter, and not the fuel pump. Also, after reassembly, there was always some smell of gas in the car, especially after refueling. So again, that was October.
A few months of trips, being busy, and actual winter weather, have prevented me from doing anything about it until just recently. The weekend of my Monty Python marathon, which was like 2 weeks ago, on my way home to assemble for the event, I was running low on gas. I had intended on stopping for gas just off the Parkway. Well, about ¼ mile away, literally feet before my exit, my car ran out of gas and died, despite showing an 1/8 of a tank of fuel remaining. It’s finicky-ness in fuel transport was getting worse apparently. Dreading the thought of having to push the car off the highway, and even more the outrageous cost they charge to get towed off the Parkway, I cranked away, and after about 15 minutes, the car managed to get a 2nd wind, and enough to get me to the Exxon station just around the corner. Phew.
So, last week I actually had shifted things around in my schedule to make the following Wednesday the day I would FINALLY fix my car. This was a very responsible thing I thought. However on Friday, just before I was to head out for a show, I had stopped for gas, and upon arriving to my house, not only did I REALLY smell gas, it was leaking out. The car decided it couldn’t wait I guess, the time had come. So even though I hadn’t intended on working on the car on Saturday, well, I was now!
Saturday was an extremely nice day anyway, first day of Spring, and it actually was like spring; already too hot for me! Upon disassembly I discovered that the bolts that bolt the fuel pump assembly to the tank weren’t all that tight, most likely explaining the constant gas fume smell as well as the possibility of leakage as well. I replaced the pickup filter, and reassembled everything, a little more carefully this time. I also used the opportunity to install my seat covers I got for Christmas (just a LITTLE late :-p) properly, since the backseat was already out. Hypothetically all was good.
So last night, well early morning actually, I was heading home from Christina’s. When I did my repair on Saturday as I mentioned, I had a full tank of gas. Last night, it was finally running low, so I gave it the test. I had about ¼ tank, and I decided to use the entrance ramp to the Parkway from Rt. 9 as my test bed…a nice long corner that starts off pretty typically, but the second half of it tightens up even more…lots of fun in my car :) Lo and behold, despite throwing the car hard around it, there was no bog at all, just nice smooth acceleration throughout! Victory!!! Or so I thought.
About 8 miles down the Parkway, the car decided to run out of gas again. I had just under a ¼ more than 1/8 of a tank (1/6 or 1/7 maybe?) on the gauge, but the car obviously had other plans. This was right before the Metropark exit, and I managed to coast around the exit ramp and off the parkway. I tried as I could to get the car to crank over, and it just wouldn’t go. Of course there couldn’t be a gas station right there either. There was however a Quick Chek moderately close the other way, and it was downhill. Luckily it was 4:30am and not much traffic. I pushed the car in reverse to U-turn in the road, and then coasted downhill to the Quick Chek at the light. I managed to get the car off the road, but not completely into the parking lot, as it’s driveway was uphill. I couldn’t even push it at all up the driveway. Luckily, the Star Ledger truck driver gave me a quick hand pushing it into a space. Ok, car secure. Next order of business, retrieving gas… at 4:30am.
I began the walk. It was actually awesome weather to walk in. A little on the chillier side for most, perfect for me, about 45 degrees I believe. I began the walk at a medium pace, no point in rushing, and I was a little tired at this point anyway. I walked down to Wood Ave past the Metropark, and up to Lincoln highway, about ¾ of a mile. 2 gas stations, both closed. The one however, did have a man working in the office. I walked up and got his attention, told him I ran out of gas, and he told me to go down the road to the next light, there was a station there open. He could’ve helped I’m sure, but he didn’t. Douche. So I walked down about another half mile and there were two gas stations both open. I went in and was a bit miffed that the gas cans were 17 dollars, but whatever, could be worse. The fact that they had both Pepsi AND Mountain Dew Throwback bottles almost made up for it! Bought the stuff, filled the gas can for 6 bucks, and was on my merry way back.
About an hour and a half later, I was finally back at my car, added the gas, and drove back to the same station to tank up. Luckily I just managed to beat the main rush of traffic to get home just around sunrise.
The conclusions that can be derived from this are as follows: I take it the car’s fuel issues are resolved. I no longer smell gas in the car (aside from the gas can and adding it myself lol), and when the tank was mere miles from running out of gas, I still had enough gas flow to eliminate the fuel cut/bogging that has plagued my car since I bought it. Also, I guess I must’ve disrupted the accuracy of the fuel gauge by possibly throwing the float off kilter just enough to make the gauge read inaccurately. So until I feel the desire to take it all apart AGAIN to calibrate the float (ie: bend it), ¼ tank = New “E”!
That all being said, I still love my car, and I didn’t mind the walking in the middle of the night for gas. It actually reminded me of being in Tennessee when I was on tour the night before our first show and Mike, James, and I were walking down the main drag at like 3am looking for my cell phone! I’m happy that the bulk of it is resolved, and I’m thankful that both times the car crapped out, I was extremely lucky in the circumstances that followed. Especially last night….that could’ve sucked.
Yay for character builders.