Was wondering if anyone out there has done their own cat replacement? If so, where did you purchase the converter and what did you pay. Did you have any problem with fit or parts house?
I tried this back in Feb and due to mfg/design problem the converted didn't fit as the O2 sensor was hitting the front driveline. Have been fighting with AutoPartsWarehouse since then to get my money back. Was just informed yesterday they are crediting my bank account with full refund.
Do need to replace the converter but don't want to find myself in same situation. APW had a "we walk on water" rating at BizRate but found some postings from Epinion last week that were all negative.
How to minimize problems: go to your Subaru dealer and buy the proper cat. Screw the cost. Go home, put it in, and drive off happy!
Sounds simplistic, no? Well... my Subie dealer tells me aftermarket parts are almost guaranteed NOT to fit Subies. My experience tells me he's right!
Other OEM items I recommend: t-belts, water pumps, complete axles and CV joint boots if simply doing maintenance on the axles. My "aggravation level" has been considerably lowered since adopting these theories! And the additional "cost" of purchasing from the dealer has often, if not usually, been offset by not having to go back and forth numerous times to get a part that fits. Or my money back. Grrr...
Jim Stewart wrote in news:4cydnZnpuZ snipped-for-privacy@omsoft.com:
A while back I was talking with an guy in charge of fleet maintenance for a large cab company. Most of the vehicles he was responsible for ran up huge mileage while city driving. He had a couple of opinions and years of maintenance logs to back them up.
Number one was, "CHANGE THE FREAKIN' OIL!!!" It doesn't have to be expensive oil as long as it meets the API rating the car manufacturer calls for. Forget the "normal" change intervals. Go with the rough service interval and use whichever is shorter, time or miles.
The other was "don't shave nickles on consumables". OEM is generally the way to go for filters, brake pads, exhaust systems and sensors. You can buy cheaper parts, you can buy better parts, but on consumables it is really rare to find a better quality part for less money.
He also told me that the single best thing I could do to improve the lifespan of a new cars engine is install a pre-lube system. The main reason they get so many miles from a vehicle is that, except for fueling and maintenance, they never shut them off. Most of the bearings in an engine are designed to operate with a supply of oil delivered under pressure. They last almost indefinitely as long as they have that oil. Using a pre-lube system to deliver that oil at startup can easily double the life of your engine.
Not for Impreza oil filters, tho...they've gone back and forth on what's right, what's wrong, and every "improved" issue this year has leaked. Stick with Champion Labs.
I'm with you so far, even my favorite indie shop prefers OEM parts.
Old-school, outdated, J.C. Whitney catalog info.
The whole pre-lube idea came around with straight weight oil and aviation engines. Heck, if they do it on an airplane, it's got to be good. STP even puts "jet fuel" in STP Fuel Treatment!
Large airplane engines often use(d) straight weight 50, 70, and even
100 weight oil. Oil weights change with seasons in airplanes. This oil is measured in many gallons, barely flows at startup, and takes a while to warm up due to massive oil coolers with large amounts of air being directed over them. Add those thoughts to the sheer distances the oil needs to travel on a larger engine, and prerolling starts to make sense. Remember, most of these engines are also air cooled, so they can depend on devices such as thermostats to help speed the time to normal operating temperature.
The truth is, a pre-lube system a.) will probably void your warranty, and b.) is totally unnecessary with today's almost instantly flowing, synthetic multi-viscosity lubricants, check valve equipped engines, short oil paths, etc...
My own small airplane is equipped with a Lycoming IO-360 that when filled with AeroShell synthetic 20w-50, gets almost instant oil pressure (we have mechanical gauges, this isn't a guess ), anytime during the year in New England. I know old pilots who still don't trust "new fangled" synthetic multi-viscosity oils, even though the engineers at the power plant manufacturers embraced them years ago, and still scramble to have the proper oil installed at season changes!
If pre-lubing was such a great idea (proven by actual engineers) on a typical car engine, I'd bet that the better manufacturers would at least offer it as an option on fleet, police, etc.. car and light truck builds. Want rough service? Think ambulance! Start, drive hard for a few miles, park, cool down, repeat... The aftermarket ambulance fitters don't bother with prelubing, as a cost / benefit gain isn't there, and there's always the chassis manufacturer's warranty...
Bonehenge wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
You make some good points. There have been radical advances in lubrication technology over the past twenty years. Also, horizontal opposed engines like the O series of aircraft powerplants, (and most Subarus!), have fairly short lubrication paths compared to large V or inline engines.
What you left out is that light aircraft engines have performance and maintenance standards an automobile owner would never tolerate. The IO-
360 is a fuel injected, horizontal opposed, four cylinder of 360 cubic inch displacement. The early models were rated at 180 HP and had a TBO, (time between overhauls) as short as 1200 hours. Newer models are around
200 HP and 2000 hours. Oil consumption of a quart every ten hours is still in the "normal" range and may reach one quart per hour before the engine is pulled from service.
Keep in mind that oil presure gauges normally tap either the main gallery near the pump or between the pump and spin on filter. Presure at the gauge does NOT mean there is significant quantities of oil arriving at critical points in the engine. Anyone who's driven an older car with leaky hydraulic lifters has had audible evidence of this. Although I'll admit that's an extreme example.
Fleet vehicles are the worst candidates for a pre-lube system because they generally have the least number of "dry starts" for the miles logged. Some large trucks run for days at a stretch without being shut off. Even a squad car that spends most of its time parked at the donut shop gets more run time that the average commuter cruiser.
Actually pre-lube systems are quite common in some applications. Diesel engines have high bearing loads due to their compresson ignition and suffer much greater wear during dry starts. They also have turbo chargers that are some distance from the oil pump and are more sensitive to lack of lubrication. Large emergency generators often have pre-lube pumps that are run on a regular schedule. Sometimes the lube pump will go through daily cycles while the engine will start less frequently.
Why don't auto makers offer them as an option? Because it's not in their best interests to do so. A car is like any other piece of machinery. It has a normal service life. A successful auto maker will try to match components so the majority of them reach the end of their service life concurently. An extra $50 per unit is a lot of money on a long production run. It's worth it if you're upgrading a component to match the service life of the whole assembly. Cars that become known for premature failure of one component don't sell well and affect the owners choice of which make to buy new. Doubling the life of the engine while leaving the rest of the car alone is a financial "non-starter". Aftermarket suppliers fill the need for those people want the units anyway.
An average car being driven the average number of miles on a regular schedule will probably get little or no benifit from a pre-lube pump. By the time the engine wears out the rest of the vehicle is trash anyway. In the case of a secondary vehicle that gets driven on an intermitant basis, a pre-lube system can pay for itself many times over the life of the vehicle.
FWIW, I work for a company with 100's of large (mostly 300-500 KW, and even some 2 MW) stationary generators. One of the power plants has (14) 450 KW Detroits, that are added or dropped as needed. They're kept warm, but none are prelubed, other than possibly a slightly long crank cycle before the fuel is injected. They are routinely run weekly for an hour. Many are 25+ years old, with little major engine work.
I agree with that. But remember, cars aren't usually replaced with NEW cars because they're worn out. New cars are most often replaced by folks who want a different vehicle because they have different needs, they're bored of the current car, or they need to roll a lease. A typical 3-4 year old car with 45-60k is just broken in, far from worn out, and usually in excellent mechanical shape. Once upon a time, a 4 year old car was pretty beat.
Typical folks who replace cars that are totally shot are either not in a position to buy a new car, or choose to drive 'em to the grave. Manufacturers can care less about folks who junk 10 year old cars to replace it with a 4 year old car.
Trucks, ambulances, heavy equipment, etc. ARE re-engined at times.
What about the warranty?
I had a brand new '96 Nissan King Cab with a difficult oil filter location. Unless it was on a lift changing the filter was a PITA. I wanted to remotely mount the filter, using braided lines, and of course add more oil to make up for the increased capacity. I was told in writing that I would clearly violate the engine warranty coverage by modifying the oil system.
On the other hand, my current Toyota is throttle-by-wire, so it seems that the ECU could simply be programmed to crank longer before it lights off.
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