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The older Subaru EJ series engines are prone to head gasket leaks – I thought there was a recall at some point, but that might have been for older models. Now Subaru has you use a coolant conditioner in the car to help prevent it.
Some questions, though – why do you feel it’s a head gasket leak – if compression is ok, no oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil, no white smoke trail behind the car, etc. – are you sure the oil’s not coming from somewhere else? maybe the valve cover gaskets, etc.?
The older Subaru EJ series engines are prone to head gasket leaks – I thought there was a recall at some point, but that might have been for older models. Now Subaru has you use a coolant conditioner in the car to help prevent it.
Some questions, though – why do you feel it’s a head gasket leak – if compression is ok, no oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil, no white smoke trail behind the car, etc. – are you sure the oil’s not coming from somewhere else? maybe the valve cover gaskets, etc.?
[quote=”dosmastr” post=115768]I had a rotor that I don’t think I burned it in improperly because not long after getting it on I got pulsation.[/quote]
You could have got some pad material on the rotor (sometimes if you stop from a decent speed, then leave the brake pedal pressed down firmly, you can get material transfer to the rotor that can make it pulsate) – re-bedding the pads sometimes helps with this (I usually clean up the rotor with a coarse sand paper (just to remove any pad material/glaze that is on there) then bed the pads again doing a number of stops from gradually increasing speed, leaving time for the rotor to cool between stopping. you need a clear road to do that on, thoughOk so 1. I need new rotors (got pads too) What brands are good ones for rotors?
for basic rotors, Autozone or Napa sell decent rotors
2. When putting 0 pressure on the brakes, and taking a moderately aggressive turn (around a circle/roundabout) I hear the warped rotor scraping the pad….. why?
would help to know what you are driving, how many miles on it, etc. – could be play in the wheel bearing allowing things to flex a bit. Is it doing this with new rotors or old ones? another thing you see sometimes is rust buildup on the outer edge of the rotor that can contact the caliper bracket and make noise. everything is fairly well connected, but take a 3000 lb car and throw it into a corner, and things are going to flex a bit.
[quote=”dosmastr” post=115768]I had a rotor that I don’t think I burned it in improperly because not long after getting it on I got pulsation.[/quote]
You could have got some pad material on the rotor (sometimes if you stop from a decent speed, then leave the brake pedal pressed down firmly, you can get material transfer to the rotor that can make it pulsate) – re-bedding the pads sometimes helps with this (I usually clean up the rotor with a coarse sand paper (just to remove any pad material/glaze that is on there) then bed the pads again doing a number of stops from gradually increasing speed, leaving time for the rotor to cool between stopping. you need a clear road to do that on, thoughOk so 1. I need new rotors (got pads too) What brands are good ones for rotors?
for basic rotors, Autozone or Napa sell decent rotors
2. When putting 0 pressure on the brakes, and taking a moderately aggressive turn (around a circle/roundabout) I hear the warped rotor scraping the pad….. why?
would help to know what you are driving, how many miles on it, etc. – could be play in the wheel bearing allowing things to flex a bit. Is it doing this with new rotors or old ones? another thing you see sometimes is rust buildup on the outer edge of the rotor that can contact the caliper bracket and make noise. everything is fairly well connected, but take a 3000 lb car and throw it into a corner, and things are going to flex a bit.
[quote=”EricTheCarGuy” post=115061]The issue of US legality has come up a few times. Yes everyone says that it’s against federal law but I don’t see the federal police force pulling people over on the highways for HID’s and LED’s in older vehicles. According to Ohio law this kit and HID kits are legal.[/quote]I agree – enforcement is something that generally doesn’t happen. The relevant laws are federal (not state) and are fairly straightforward (as laws go…). The relevant law is established by the NHTSA and is Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 108 Lamps, Reflective Devices and Associated Equipment, which specifically addresses headlights and their light sources. (The US isn’t alone in this respect – other countries have done the same (Germany, New Zealand, and others)) – in a nutshell, you have to use a source for which the light is designed (so an HID kit in a light designed for a halogen bulb is illegal – it would also be illegal to use a halogen bulb in a light designed for an HID light source)
The reason is the shape of the light source – the reflectors (for both reflector and projector lights) are optimized for the light source they were designed for – if the light source is larger/different shape (e.g., the arc in an HID light vs. the filament in a halogen) you may get plenty of light where you need it, but you also get lots of light going where it’s not supposed to resulting in increased glare. A real simple way to demonstrate is to look into the lens of a projector headlight – you’ll see a perfect projection of the filament in the bulb. These kits also seem to make it really bright immediately in front of the car (more uncontrolled light) which makes it feel like you can see more, but it actually hinders your ability to see things further away (sort of like being around a campfire and trying to see far away while looking past the fire)
With an LED, they should be able to design a system that puts the light source more or less where the filament is, but since the LEDs are planar, that could be difficult (I have seen some for sale where the LED is much smaller than the one you installed – and LEDs have been increasing in performance pretty dramatically over the past years, so who knows what the future will bring)
In any event – enforcement has been pretty lax to say the least, and the Feds have only gone after importers (and not many of them, at that)
[quote=”EricTheCarGuy” post=115061]The issue of US legality has come up a few times. Yes everyone says that it’s against federal law but I don’t see the federal police force pulling people over on the highways for HID’s and LED’s in older vehicles. According to Ohio law this kit and HID kits are legal.[/quote]I agree – enforcement is something that generally doesn’t happen. The relevant laws are federal (not state) and are fairly straightforward (as laws go…). The relevant law is established by the NHTSA and is Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 108 Lamps, Reflective Devices and Associated Equipment, which specifically addresses headlights and their light sources. (The US isn’t alone in this respect – other countries have done the same (Germany, New Zealand, and others)) – in a nutshell, you have to use a source for which the light is designed (so an HID kit in a light designed for a halogen bulb is illegal – it would also be illegal to use a halogen bulb in a light designed for an HID light source)
The reason is the shape of the light source – the reflectors (for both reflector and projector lights) are optimized for the light source they were designed for – if the light source is larger/different shape (e.g., the arc in an HID light vs. the filament in a halogen) you may get plenty of light where you need it, but you also get lots of light going where it’s not supposed to resulting in increased glare. A real simple way to demonstrate is to look into the lens of a projector headlight – you’ll see a perfect projection of the filament in the bulb. These kits also seem to make it really bright immediately in front of the car (more uncontrolled light) which makes it feel like you can see more, but it actually hinders your ability to see things further away (sort of like being around a campfire and trying to see far away while looking past the fire)
With an LED, they should be able to design a system that puts the light source more or less where the filament is, but since the LEDs are planar, that could be difficult (I have seen some for sale where the LED is much smaller than the one you installed – and LEDs have been increasing in performance pretty dramatically over the past years, so who knows what the future will bring)
In any event – enforcement has been pretty lax to say the least, and the Feds have only gone after importers (and not many of them, at that)
In the video, the bulbs you took out of the rear lenses looked pretty dirty – if the bulbs are dirty, the reflector and lenses are going to be worse – cleaning things out would probably improve light output even more! (I know in my old 88 Corolla, the turn signals were low on the bumper and when I changed out the bulbs, I noticed that the lenses were really gross – cleaning them up made a huge difference!)
Cleaning lights is pretty easy – basically just sloshing around water with some dishwashing liquid in it – I have also stuck a paper towel in to help knock things loose. I usually do a final rinse with distilled water so I don’t get water spots on the inside of the lenses or on the reflectors (also have used a hair drier and compressed air to help dry things out)
In the video, the bulbs you took out of the rear lenses looked pretty dirty – if the bulbs are dirty, the reflector and lenses are going to be worse – cleaning things out would probably improve light output even more! (I know in my old 88 Corolla, the turn signals were low on the bumper and when I changed out the bulbs, I noticed that the lenses were really gross – cleaning them up made a huge difference!)
Cleaning lights is pretty easy – basically just sloshing around water with some dishwashing liquid in it – I have also stuck a paper towel in to help knock things loose. I usually do a final rinse with distilled water so I don’t get water spots on the inside of the lenses or on the reflectors (also have used a hair drier and compressed air to help dry things out)
You’ve invested a ton of time and effort into making a spectacular site full of great info – if doing an occasional promotion helps you do more of that, I say go for it! You can never make everyone happy all of the time!
That being said, I kept watching hoping there would be some discussion of how well it worked (like the other tool, etc. reviews you have done before) – however, given the constraints you were under (as you mentioned in the vid in this thread) I completely understand why it’s not there.
You’ve invested a ton of time and effort into making a spectacular site full of great info – if doing an occasional promotion helps you do more of that, I say go for it! You can never make everyone happy all of the time!
That being said, I kept watching hoping there would be some discussion of how well it worked (like the other tool, etc. reviews you have done before) – however, given the constraints you were under (as you mentioned in the vid in this thread) I completely understand why it’s not there.
Amazing how much brighter these are – looks like the kit on motorfiend is 3200 lumens, so more than three times what the 9006 bulbs put out. For a reflector housing, I’d be worried about glare as you are really overdriving what the reflector was designed for – you certainly can see it in your light output as you pointed out in the vid. I wonder if one of the other kits out there might be better from a glare point of view – there are 1500 and 2400 lumen kits, which might not be as bright, but would significantly reduce glare.
I believe all of these kits are illegal in the US, but if you can get the glare under control, the ability to essentially never have to change the bulb again can be a real selling point for cars where access is limited! The glare issues are essentially the same as for an HID kit – and is the result of the light source being other than what the reflector was designed for (it’s funny – for OEM applications there are even different bulbs for projectors and reflectors (D2S and D2R) but for retrofits it’s one size fits all…)
What would be interesting to see would be an upgrade to one of the kits that can also function as a DRL – a lot of newer cars use the high beams as DRLs (so something like a 9005 bulb) and some kits have a separate circuit to allow them to function as a DRL – an LED would look a whole lot nicer than an underdriven halogen!
Amazing how much brighter these are – looks like the kit on motorfiend is 3200 lumens, so more than three times what the 9006 bulbs put out. For a reflector housing, I’d be worried about glare as you are really overdriving what the reflector was designed for – you certainly can see it in your light output as you pointed out in the vid. I wonder if one of the other kits out there might be better from a glare point of view – there are 1500 and 2400 lumen kits, which might not be as bright, but would significantly reduce glare.
I believe all of these kits are illegal in the US, but if you can get the glare under control, the ability to essentially never have to change the bulb again can be a real selling point for cars where access is limited! The glare issues are essentially the same as for an HID kit – and is the result of the light source being other than what the reflector was designed for (it’s funny – for OEM applications there are even different bulbs for projectors and reflectors (D2S and D2R) but for retrofits it’s one size fits all…)
What would be interesting to see would be an upgrade to one of the kits that can also function as a DRL – a lot of newer cars use the high beams as DRLs (so something like a 9005 bulb) and some kits have a separate circuit to allow them to function as a DRL – an LED would look a whole lot nicer than an underdriven halogen!