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From what I have seen with the Autozone/Pep Boys axles, it’s sort of hit or miss – some work fine, but some die shortly thereafter. On our Odyssey, I replaced both front CV axles with remanufactured ones from Honda (purchased from Majestic honda online) – looks like they list them for your car at around $200, but indicate that they may have been discontinued (they still let you add them to the cart, though). I have bought a lot of stuff from RockAuto, and the one thing they have always been awesome about is warranty replacement – if a part turns out to be defective within the warranty period, you pay for the new part, then send in the old one and they refund you for the one you bought.
So the arrows aren’t showing you a direction that the wheels are pointing per se – the are indicating where within the specification range the particular value is aligned – when you look at one of the bar graphs for the corner, the “dip” in the middle is the center of the acceptable range. Anyway – it looks like all 4 corners are toed in – so looking at the front wheels, the front left wheel is toed in 0.06 degrees towards the center and the right front is toed in 0.02 degrees towards the center.
Caster on the front must not be adjustable, so they left it alone.
Found something for a 92 Festiva – I imagine your car is similar – oddly enough, it looks like if one of the resistors blows in the resistor pack (the left one) you will be able to power the AC switch, but not power the fan, but in medium and high, you’d power the fan, but not the switch – weird.
https://www.justanswer.com/ford/4afm9-ford-festiva-1992-ford-festiva-blower-motor-not-working-no.html
Looks like you need a new resistor pack.So the blower is off, but the AC is on (compressor clutch engaged, compressor functioning) when the blower is in the low position
the blower is on, but the AC is off (compressor clutch disengages, compressor turns off) when the blower is in the med and high settings.
Have you pulled and checked the resistor pack to see if it’s ok, or if one or more resistors are blown? I tried finding a wiring diagram for a Festiva, but couldn’t locate one
Sounds like the shop isn’t sure what’s wrong and is just throwing parts at it… cross threaded spark plugs are not generally due to someone using an impact – more often than not, someone doesn’t start the threads by hand, and uses a tool (ratchet) instead – if the plug starts to cross thread, the ratchet just lets you drive them home and the steel threads on the plug destroy the aluminum threads in the head. Generally, that’s repaired by helicoiling the offending plug hole – shouldn’t require a machine shop. I’d be leery of folks saying something has a hairline crack… there are lots of casting marks that look like cracks… what did they do to clean/reseal the injectors? hopefully “reseal” just means replace the o-rings when putting them back in! An engine flush is not generally a good idea – was there sludge or something like that? After $4300 in repairs, I am going to guess the shop is going to say the failure was due to some other thing they never touched… my trust level would be pretty low.
If you are concerned the clearances are off, why not pull the valve cover and measure the clearances. Odds are you’ll find the exhaust valves a little tight and the intake valves a little loose.
Before you start trying to boost performance of the engine, I’d strongly recommend making sure it’s in good shape mechanically (do a compression test as a minimum). Next – make sure your goals are realistic – it’s a 20 year old economy car. Depending on the condition of things like your ignition system (plugs, wires, coil, etc.) you could see a noticeable improvement in performance and fuel economy by refreshing that. The fuel system could also potentially use some help (fuel filter, fuel pump, etc.). Have you pulled the injectors to see what sort of condition they are in? are they badly fouled? How about the intake/exhaust valves? there are lots of places to look for improved performance.
the difference in power could be due to all sorts of things – cams, valves, engine management (ECU/tune), etc. – there is probably not a whole lot to gain in terms of the engine. Once you have the car sorted out, I’d focus on handling and stopping – better springs/struts, wheels/tires, brake pads/rotors/lines, etc. will probably have a more significant impact on how the car feels.
With coilovers, you are paying for the quality of the damper, the behavior of the damper (adjustability – the KSport units have 38 different damper settings), and things like that – the two KSport units have different applications – the cheaper one is street oriented, while the other is rally oriented. Almost certainly differences in the dampers, as the rally ones will be built to handle more abuse. Travel is also going to be different – the KSport rally unit can be OEM height or lower, not sure about the street kit, and the raceland kit lowers a minimum of 1″, and up to 3″. the raceland kit is coilovers in the front, but not really in the rear (more of an adjustable perch)
the spring rates are also pretty different – the ksport rally units are much stiffer than the raceland kit – the spring rates for the ksport street units wasn’t listed.
Found more info on the KSport site – the rally shocks are an inverted design, and larger in diameter (so they will be more rigid) – also stiffer springs in the AR version. So increased cost is due to inverted design, etc.
http://ksportusa.com/products/coilovers/rally-spec-ar/
http://ksportusa.com/products/coilovers/kontrol-pro/If your goal is increased power (sounds like that is not the case here) there really isn’t much to gain on the older NA subaru engines (or more modern NA engines, for that matter – the exception being the H6 engines – either the 3 liter or current 3.6 liter) – if you are trying to just keep costs down, then I’d just get aftermarket equivalents – you can get pretty much everything (springs, struts, bushings, engine components, etc.) from rockauto, typically with a number of options for manufacturers. If you are looking for stiffer springs/bushings, then aftermarket performance oriented parts are the way to go, but if you are looking to make it perform as it originally did without spending OEM-part like dollars, then OEM equivalent parts from rockauto or similar warehouse like stores is the way to go.
Have you ever tried using the starter to remove the bolt? When I was doing my second timing belt on our Odyssey (at 210k miles) I was remembering the fun I had with 2 breaker bars and the crank pulley holder the first time around, and figured I’d give the starter bump method a try. I pulled the fuel pump relay and removed the spark plugs (the latter I do because it’s a whole lot easier to turn the engine by hand when lining things up when the plugs are out and the cylinders can’t build pressure) put a breaker bar with an impact socket on the bolt, wedged it appropriately (the engine in the Odyssey goes clockwise – it’s pretty important to know which way your engine goes for when you brace the bar – you want to double check that) then just bump the starter (using the key in the ignition) – bolt came loose immediately, no drama at all – I removed it the rest of the way by hand then got to taking everything else apart.
Given how many miles are on the car, one thing I would not do is flush the fluid. A drain and fill might not be a bad idea, particularly if there is a filter you can change in the process. As the transmission ages, there is debris from the clutches that builds up – if you plan on hanging onto the car for a long time, I’d go ahead and do a drain/refill along with replacing the filter if it’s serviceable
For Subaru, the service manuals just call for periodic inspections (I have a manual, and have been driving one ever since I got my license (over 30 years now) – for Honda, my wife has an Odyssey, and it says never to flush it, but calls for a transmission fluid change every 30k miles or so (a single drain/fill, which is about a third of what’s in the transmission – they have you do that four times to “change” the fluid completely. In the van, you have one filter you can change, but the main one is buried in the transmission and not replaceable (unless you are rebuilding the trans)
It looks like Nissan calls out the same as Subaru, though they also do note that for severe driving conditions, it should be replaced instead of inspected – here’s a link to an owners manual for a 97 that has the info
http://www.vadennissanservicecontracts.com/owners-manual/nissan/1997-Nissan-Sentra.pdfwell – that’s not a solenoid, that’s a valve (it is apparently driven by the solenoid in question, because if it drags/sticks, it can cause the P0751 code to be thrown)
I am a little confused by your description – first for the blower, does air come out at some settings, but not others? The resistor is usually a set of resistors, and is used to step up/down the power to the blower. Depending on how Ford implemented it, if a resistor in the pack is blown, one or more than one speed will be non-functional. On most of the cars I have worked with, when there is a problem with one or more of the resistors, you can get high speed, but all the other speeds don’t work.
For the AC compressor – have you verified that the compressor is kicking on (the light is not a great indicator – you want to verify that the compressor clutch has engaged and the compressor is functioning.
If the blower works at all speeds, but the A/C doesn’t blow cold, then there could be an issue with the system – low refrigerant, failed components (pressure switch, etc.) and so on. Could also be that the evaporator is badly fouled with dust and debris, restricting airflow across the evaporator (cleaning would solve that issue, but access to the evaporator might be limited)
Well that’s the right part – could be they use that on multiple vehicles, so you need to compress it a bit to get it installed.
Looks like Honda has discontinued the pre-assembled rear suspension, but you can buy the pieceparts and assemble it yourself – this is what it looks like you need
90364-SG0-004 NUT, SELF-LOCK (10MM) (0.89)
51621-S84-A01 WASHER, SHOCK ABSORBER MOUNTING ($0.44)
51728-SR0-003 COLLAR, SHOCK ABSORBER MOUNTING ($0.65)
52631-S5A-004 RUBBER, SHOCK ABSORBER MOUNTING ($6.39 x 2)
52675-S7A-004 BASE, RR. SHOCK ABSORBER MOUNTING ($25.25)
52687-S5A-014 COVER, RR. DUST ($9.78)
52686-S5A-004 RUBBER, RR. SPRING MOUNTING ($13.13)
52441-SKN-G01 SPRING,REAR ($76.98)
51689-SH3-004 PLATE, BUMP STOP ($4.52)
52722-S9A-014 RUBBER, RR. BUMP STOP ($12.92)
52611-S9A-A03 SHOCK ABSORBER UNIT, RR. ($119.53)$279.57 plus shipping from Majestic Honda (hondapartscheap.com)
brake fluid is very hygroscopic – it absorbs it from the air, and you will have moisture make it’s way past the seals in the calipers/wheel cylinders. (that’s why the brake fluid in the reservoir changes color with time (if you live in a climate where there is rain/humidity) – when you bleed the brakes, if you watch the fluid that first comes out, it will be much darker than the fluid that follows it.
Generally, water in the fluid does two things – it makes the brake fluid more corrosive (damage to the inside of the caliper/wheel cylinders) and it drops the boiling point of the fluid.
Not a bad idea to flush it every other year, at least. Any quality brake fluid (Dot 3,4, or 5.1 – not dot 5) will be fine.
Not sure what caused the failure – going to the floor generally means the system isn’t holding pressure – could have been an issue with the seal in the master – maybe a piece of debris? I’d start with flushing the fluid with fresh fluid, just to be on the safe side – watch carefully for any crud. (unfortunately, if there is corrosion, and you aren’t leaking, you might not know about it until you replace the pads and push the cylinders back)