Good News, Bad News

[Aredubjay]

First, the bad news.

Crawled under the "Evil Twin" this afternoon to finally track down a P/S leak. Figured, "A hose. Quick fix." No dice. Checked out the hoses and no sign of a leak as far as hoses were concerned. Dropped the "under cover" and scratched my head. Fluid seemed to be coming from between the Radiator and condensor. With the help of a flashlight (torch, for my 'cross the pond friends ), I noticed a "hard hose" between the two and it seemed to be "oozing" fluid. Those of you who are familiar know what I'm talking about. I *wasn't* familiar and ran to my Service Manual. As you all know, one of the "terrors" of a New York car is R-U-S-T. Seems the power steering "oil cooler" has rusted and is seeping fluid. I now have one on order. 76.19 from subaruparts.com with 7.95 shipping. I also noticed that the rack was leaking a little and a hole about the size of a golf ball in my exhaust pipe just before my mufflers. Grrrrr. On the upside, I have the shiniest radiator bottom in the country.

Now for the good news (or, let's say, mixed bag news). Patience goes into the shop tomorrow to have her front diff difficulty (hopefully) resolved. I'm taking it to a shop that was recommended by a vendor of Jasper Engines and Transmissions. Our company is doing a project for Jasper and after badgering them about remanufacturing the SVX transmission, they assured me that there weren't enough units to make it profitable for them. I assured them that I could probably supply them a steady stream of cores, but, to no avail. My contact, however, did ask some of his vendors who might be a good candidate to take on the SVX 4EAT. He received three different shops -- 1 in Owensboro and two in Evansville (one of which was not the previous shop that did my rebuild -- duh!). So, she goes to the Owensboro shop first thing in the morning. Hopefully, she'll be good as new in about a week or so. Keep your fingers crossed for me. Luckily, there are no big meets (that I could possibly attend, anyway) looming, so, it'll probably be a quick fix. Just help me send out the "not too expensive" energies toward Willis Transmissions in Owensboro.

Thanks for listening to my babble, which IS EXACTLY SVX.

[Trevor]

Hi Randy best of luck with the repair.

I am simply unable to understand what you guys have to put up with.

The job you describe would take no more than two days for an New Zealand workshop to complete and would likely be completed in one day if the car was delivered at 8 a.m. A courtesy car would be provided while the car was being repaired at no extra charge if more than a day was required.

You have my sympathy, Trevor.

[ensteele]

Good luck with the repair Randy. At least it isn't as expensive as my tranny work on my blue 94 - 5 speed.

Later

[Chicane]

Good luck! My power steering leaked for along long time, but just recently it stopped.... and no, I am not out of fluid.

- Rob

[svxistentialist]

Positive vibes from Over Here Randy.

Will light a candle for your diff rebuilder, since I am not carrying a torch

Joe

[Aredubjay]

Originally posted by ensteele
Good luck with the repair Randy. At least it isn't as expensive as my tranny work on my blue 94 - 5 speed.

Later

Oh, I'm sure it was, all told. Observe:

Original Legacy Tranny re-build -- ~$2,100.00
(Was in the shop only 4 days)
Replacement SVX Tranny from ebay -- $480 + $250.00 shipping.
Rebuild SVX Tranny -- ~ $1,200.00
(Was in the shop 2 Weeks)
TPS (after 2-3 flair was discovered in re-build) $160.00 + 20.00 overnight shipping that took 5 days.
(Sat in shop for 20 days)
Used TCU 50.00 (after FWD would not engage and binding occurred)
(Sat in shop for 28 days before they figured they couldn't figure anything out)
Rental Car for 28 days -- 900.00(+)

So, unless you paid in excess of $5,160.00 for your fix, you've gotten a deal. Bad part is, is that this trip is an "add on" to that tab. Right now, I've sunk more money into this "rebuild" stuff than I paid for my second SVX (which hasn't really given me any trouble to speak of, in two years), and the tab is quickly approaching what I paid for the car in the first place.

I gotta quit liking these cars so much!

...Original Legacy Tranny re-build -- ~$2,100.00
(Was in the shop only 4 days)
Replacement SVX Tranny from ebay -- $480 + $250.00 shipping.
Rebuild SVX Tranny -- ~ $1,200.00
(Was in the shop 2 Weeks)
TPS (after 2-3 flair was discovered in re-build) $160.00 + 20.00 overnight shipping that took 5 days.
(Sat in shop for 20 days)
Used TCU 50.00 (after FWD would not engage and binding occurred)
(Sat in shop for 28 days before they figured they couldn't figure anything out)
Rental Car for 28 days -- 900.00(+)


A Fixed SVX ready to roll.... PRICELESS!!

[Jamsvx]

Good luck with the repairs - I am burning tranny fluid to the SVX gods to assist in the ordeal!



*shrine to SVX in the corner*

[Aredubjay]

As many of the "old timers" know, I usually "chronicle" the exploits of my tranny repairs. Of course, there were "intense expectations" in the earlier days, when an upcoming meet was looming and I was anxious about whether or not it'd be finished in time. Fortunately, with TWO SVXes, the pressure is off.

But, I can't help wondering how this "new" shop will do. So far, they're holding true to tranny shop form. Day 1, not word one. Perhaps I'll hear from them today.

Trevor,
We "Americans" have the reputation, in Europe, of being arrogant. That's mostly due to the fact that only the "snooty rich people" have money enough to travel there. However, we are also arrogant amongst ourselves. Especially as concerns auto repair shops (as a general rule). They pretty much figure they've got you by "the short hairs," and will put you in queue at their descrition. Long time customers get pushed to the front of the line. Relative's cars get first attention and (in the case of the former tranny shop I used) if they have a city or county contract (i.e. Police/Sheriff's cars), they'll be moved to the front of the line and you're left to twiddle your thumbs. In the case of the Subaru dealership here, when I took my car to them and they had to keep it overnight (after assuring me it was a day job), they directed me to their preferred car rental agency (and I had to pay for the rental). Mind you this was a car dealership with a lot-load of trade-ins, but, they made me rent a car, though it wasn't my fault THEY had to keep my car overnight. How's that for arrogance. Of course, after the tranny incident (in which they wanted 4,600.00 and they told me that INCLUDED the core allowance -- 1,200.00 which would've made the cost of that '92 transmission 5,800.00) I wrote to SOA to complain. They informed me that their dealers were "independent" and could charge what they wanted.

Well, we'll wait and see . . . and wait . . . and see . . . and wait . . .

[LarryIII]

Randy,

Best of Luck to you and yours.

[Aredubjay]

End of day 2. Still no word.

Possibilities:

1. They've not gotten to it yet.

2. They've lost my phone number.

3. They're afraid. Very afraid.

[Chicane]

Possibility #4: Giant Space Marmots!!!!!!



Heheh

- Rob

[Aredubjay]

That's bloody crazy, mate.


DAY 3
Heard from the shop today. 700.00+ to remove it, check it out, reseal and reinstall it (if nothing else is wrong). Although they didn't hear any "scrubbing noise" like I'd heard earlier. Maybe it has healed itself.

Again -- we'll wait and see.

[Mr. Pockets]

Man, I'm sorry you're having such problems, Randy. You really need to start doing that work yourself.

[Trevor]

Randy I will have to send you over a good old piece of Kiwi boot leather with detailed insructions on how, when, why and where in this "Shop", to anally place it.