BillFitzmaurice.info

Tom Smit wrote:

Bruce Weldy wrote: (Goingsouthus Grayhairedimus).

Oooooo, we even have Latin on the forum!

I learned it from watching Roadrunner cartoons....

Looks like they made it with 381 Subarus, 50 more than needed. Half of Traverse City drives Subarus, it seems.

Quick update. The Forester needs a new front O2 sensor, there's a good $100 part. Also needs the transmission fluid, center diff fluid, and rear diff fluid changed. There goes another $120. Such is owning a car I guess.

Also, made a really stupid decision a couple of weeks ago, copied from the Subaru Forester Owners Forum:

The stupid mistake I'm about to explain is small potatoes next to some of the other gut wrenching stories on here, but I figured I'd document it anyway to hopefully prevent another from making this mistake as well.

Cliffs Notes: Basically I made an irresponsible decision and got stuck in the mud behind my school trying to get some quick off road pics and had to get towed.

So me and a couple others were dropping materials off at our school for a project; school was not in session and the only other people on the premises were the maintenance crew. We were in the rear parking lot by the back door, a secluded area of campus that happened to be next to the room we were dropping off supplies at. We finished moving the materials inside the building and I told them I was going to take some quick cell phone pics of my car "off-road" in the grass, and then they all left.

I wanted to get that picture seen often on this forum where the Forester is "on three wheels", so I needed an embankment to "hang" one of the rear wheels in the air for that cool shot. I drove my car up a small hill to an embankment that leads down to a small creek. Mistake Number One. It had rained the day before and the ground was wet and soft. In retrospect, I realize that I was not really thinking about this because I was excited that I was finally going to get the cool three-wheel pic with no people asking "what the heck are you doing???"

My car has worn Firestone all season tires. Mistake Number Two. Worn, not-offroad-spec tires + soft wet ground + embankment = stuck Fozzy.

I got to the area where I wanted the picture and scoped for an area that was steep enough to raise one wheel off the ground, but reasonable enough that I could simply back out of it. I was keeping in mind that the creek bed overhang was close by and I had to stay far away from it; if I got too close the wheels would break through the false edges on the overhang and my car would go headfirst into the creek bed. Well it's great I took that into mind at least, because that's about the only thing I took into mind.

I found my spot and carefully lowered my Forester down the embankment, keeping my eyes riveted on the rear drivers' side wheel to see when it would get elevated into the air. Mistake Number Three. I was looking backwards almost the entire time, and little did I know I was driving into a muddy trap at too steep of an angle to simply back out of.

The rear wheel finally popped out of the air for a second and I stopped. It's in the air, but only barely. A stiffer swaybar would definitely help.

After a blurry failed first pic, in this one you can't see the wheel in the air and this pic doesn't give a good representation of how steep the embankment was. This doesn't look too bad to back out of now does it? Pic:




Here's another shot. At this point I began to realize it was kind of steep. The grass was barely touching the exhaust resonator in the midpipe. Pic:




I was done taking pictures, so I tried to back out of the spot. Remember soft wet ground + steep embankment + worn not-offroad-spec tires= stuck Fozzy? I put the trans in reverse and slowly gave it throttle. The Forester didn't move and I didn't hear anything over my exhaust, so I looked at the tires and gave it some more throttle. Engine droned and the front and rear tires started spinning and churning that soft wet grass into smooth mud.

Crap.

I quickly let off the throttle and thought for a moment about my next move, then put it into D, turned the wheel all the way to the left, and slowly gave it throttle. I was trying to pull to the left, off the embankment, which got less steep as it went up to the left, finally tapering up to a plateau and a small hill back down to the parking lot. So I gave it some more throttle and the Forester started edging down the embankment. I then realized I was getting close to the false edge of the creek bed and stopped.

This was when I realized I was actually stuck. I was still taking pictures- not for fun anymore, but for documentation of my stupid decision and for the insurance company if they needed (not that they would have helped; I only have liability insurance that only covers the other cars' damage in a wreck).

This was taken from the other side of the creek. While this doesn't look super steep, keep in mind that the ground was soft and wet and my tires are not meant for off-roading. Pic:



I tried to gently reverse out again, to no avail of course. The spinning rear wheels were rendered pretty much useless because they had no traction and there's not much weight in the rear of the Forester anyway.




I then finally realized what I had gotten myself into and what I had not taken into perspective at the beginning of what I planned to be a 5-minute photoshoot. I was messing around with a 3000lb vehicle on a steep muddy embankment in a secluded school parking lot with not many people around and no permission from the school admin. I freaked out for a second and then got my thoughts together. I decided that I should not try anything else or I would get more stuck (my only good decision that day ). I then called my parents and told them what happened. My dad offered to bring over some old carpet and a shovel, but I told him that no carpet or shovel was going to get my Forester out of this one...

He arrived and this is what he saw as he walked up the hill:




After asking me what the heck I was doing and I explained how much of an idiot that I was, we called a tow truck. Night fell fast!

Some pictures of the ruts made by the front wheels:





The tow truck came and hooked up its hook to the tow hook underneath the rear of the Forester...almost as if Subaru knew stupid teenagers would get stuck in the mud. The tow truck driver looked at my predicament and was like "**** son, how'd you manage that?"



The flatbed tow truck:



Tow hook hooked up and gently applying throttle in reverse as the tow hook reeled my Forester in:




After 30 minutes, the tow truck had finally reeled me in. BTW, shout-out and deds to Holloway Towing in Memphis TN for great service at a great price. I then checked over my car and did a leak/damage check. No damage at all to the underside of the vehicle! Only some grass lodged around the midpipe exhaust flange and a ton of mud on the wheels/tires/wheel wells/bumpers.



Folks, don't make the same mistake like this with your vehicle. AWD is great, but it doesn't fix shoddy tires and muddy ground, and it doesn't help if the rear wheels have no traction whatsoever. Know what you're getting into before getting into it. Be aware of your surroundings and notice the subtleties that I didn't, like 1) rain the previous day = soft wet ground, 2) embankment + shoddy tires + soft wet ground = stuck Fozzy, and 3) if the car rolls over and you are injured/knocked unconscious, no one is around to see it, hear it, or notice it until they happen to cross that secluded area by chance.

This was a stupid mistake and I have learned my lesson. I only have to pay for the tow truck and turf repair, luckily no car repairs needed. I went in the next day and told my school's headmaster all about it; he just laughed because he's chill and turns out he has done the same exact thing, and he appreciated my honesty. I will be repairing the damaged turf on my own dime and sweat, which shouldn't be too hard with some bags of dirt and grass seed. Live and learn folks.

It's rough to have to eat some humble pie, isn't it? Glad that you know what's going on, and the right way to handle it.

Sounds like being young with a car to me. Spinning your tires is always bad (except when drifting.) Here's a trick I've found: try driving with the parking brake - it stops your wheels from spinning, and you can drive really slowly. This also works on icy hills and wet boat ramps.

I thought my Subaru was unstoppable when I first got it, and attempted to leave a big party through the yard full of snow (about a foot and a half of snow.) There was a shoveled path free of cars and I went along with two wheels on it and then thought I should 'plow' my own path. As soon as the last wheel left the shoveled area, my Outback got stuck. The car was sitting on top of the deep snow and the tires could no longer reach the ground. A couple friends rocked it back a foot or two, and as soon as the one tire touched the ground, I could back it out and it was fine.

I've replaced the front 02 sensor in my current Subaru, it's a breeze.

Humble pie is kind of tart at first, but it's good for you I suppose. I didn't know about the parking brake trick at that time, instead I lightly applied the regular brake pedal and sort of brake torqued a bit (I have the automatic, sadly). Seeing as the back wheels had no traction whatsoever, it was pretty futile. I can't wait for the snow to come though, I've never driven in the snow so I'll go over to a big church parking lot and learn to drive, and maybe do a bit of hooning around in the snow once I get off my training wheels. When the snow comes today and the RWD muscle cars are stowed away, the Subies will play...

glad to hear that turned out ok.
i did some stupid things to with my scooby ( 2005 impreza 2.0gx )
one of them was thinking i was ben klock and almost drifted into a ditch.
i've personally never got stuck with mine but did tow a lot of people out of
the snow and mud. even once my dad with his navara and trailer .
he got stuck on some wet gras that went uphill and laughed when i said i was gone
tow him out. i was the one laughing in the end

we to are a scooby family . my sister has a 2002 impreza and my mom has a 2010 forester diesel.
they are great cars to drive .
and the only reeson i'm gonna sell mine is to get funds for a wrx !

greetz ketoet

Jealous, your country has the Forester Diesel. I'd love to get a set of good offroad tires and do some light offroading and help people get unstuck, but I should probably invest in a skid plate first.

i still prefer an my petrol engine. the rumble sound and the instant reaction to the throttle is something i mis in the diesel.
it's great to go on trips though. my impreza has a custom made exhaust that produces quite a lot of volume ( haven't rta'ed it yet )
and as long as you're pulling up and cornering that's fun but on the highway it becomes anoying.

tyre's make a great difference , espescially in the winter. i'm sometimes amazed about how much traction the car has
on the snow.

greetz ketoet

I love my scooby as well. Have a 1997 Legacy L (2.2L) sedan, the thing is still rock solid with 175k miles.

During mn winters I drive around in snowstorms with all my gear (towing strap, shovel, gas can, AT of course) and help pull people's cars out. Even though it doesn't have much clearance its never gotten seriously stuck yet, but then again I've never departed the road to the ditch either.

Painted my tail lamps. Normally you can't open up these tail lamps to paint them, so I cheated and painted the outside in the STi color scheme. They look just like STi tail lamps until viewed up close where you can see the paint is superficial and not blacked out on the inside bezel. I saved $300 by painting my stockers instead of ordering real STi tail lamps, hopefully that will offset the cost of the O2 sensor and idler belt tensioner adjuster I just ordered.


Before (stock color scheme):



After:




Also, I deleted my power steering. It's like driving a go-kart, but harder. It's not so bad when going straight. I can actually feel bump steer and roll steer now, and it's quite fun. If I decide I like the raw feel of no power steering, I will eventually delete the power steering pump and loop the steering rack fluid lines.

Dual TT in the back of the Forester...I removed all the rear hatch flooring so the dual TT basically sits on top of the spare tire. This way, the mouth points right at the back of the driver's seat like recommended by other forum members.



Stealth.



The passenger side rear seat is still useable and locked in, but there is currently an amp setup sitting in the footwell.





I want to build a slimmest width, single GTO804 loaded TT for permanent install sometime after Christmas. The 24" dual TT is just too heavy for me to lug in and out each week for the lawnmower for my landscaping job. With the slim width I'll still get the super low TT extension and smooth tone, but it will be lightweight (sort of?) enough to be practical and will be slim enough to fit under a roll-over hatch cover, so it will be completely stealth.

Also, claimed my 3rd victim of the dual TT in the car demo. I called him over and he looked at the big box in the back and first thing he said was, "Not really discreet there, is it?" to which I replied, "Well, I was never really the subtle type." So I started up the car to get the alternator juices flowing and plugged in a song, then revved the engine to 2500 RPM to increase alternator output, which apparently increases the efficiency of the 130w (lightning strike max power number, actual output is probably less than 70w) DC/AC converter I have plugged into the 12v socket. The intro to the song, Waka Flocka's "Grove Street Party" (song has some good sub 40hz bass in it) played and I waited for the bass to hit.

This pregnant moment is always the best. You know the bass wave is fast approaching, but your victim...err...friend..., doesn't know, so their eyes are wide with anticipation and confusion like a deer in the headlights.

Then comes the drop. Mirrors flex, interior rattles, the works. Friend's face goes from to then to Friend starts nervously giggling then sort of chuckling, the same kind of chuckle you get when you first fire up your newly built BFM subwoofer, or the chuckle you get when you hear a rumbling V8 muscle car rev up and do a rolling burnout in 3rd gear. Friend shakes head in approval and yells "Is this max volume?" To which I reply "Nope, only 10 volts (peaks at 10v, average about 7v according to the multimeter)- it can take over 30.'" Friend asks "What's it like at high volume??" and I reply, "This, (pointing to the rearview mirror) rotates straight down." So I turn off the sub and he chuckles again. He didn't even bother to mention how the dual TT compared to another friend's sealed dual 10" setup. Demo successful? I think so. Demoing this thing never gets old!

You're doing what with your 12V accessory socket? Is there no fuse on it? Usually good for 4 or 5 amps. Don't catch fire.

Please heed the advice that Gregory posted. I had a 2010 Toyota Tacoma almost burn to the ground over a overloaded 12v socket running a 250watt power inverter and a laptop. The socket started to overheat and melted the plug into the socket and melted the plastic dashboard where the socket was. Bad part was that it melted itself into a much larger power wire behind the dash that had a 30amp fuse on the circuit. Once it was now powered by the 30amp fuse some really smelly things started to happen. 1 fire extinguisher and $2800 worth of parts and labor later all was back to normal.

That's a scary story!!

It's a little converter that plugs into the 12v socket that you can plug a pronged plug into to charge your laptop on...come to think of it, the converter did recently blow a fuse in our Saturn Vue with my 95w laptop charger The metal conductive tip on that converter plug was searing hot after you pulled it out of the 12v socket. I am lucky it didn't melt anything. In my car it's fine, I don't run my laptop charger on it, but I run two small computer speakers and the Bash amp. I check it regularly and it doesn't get super hot in my car. On normal listening volume it's fine, the converter doesn't get hot at all really. Can't wait to get a real car audio amplifier and ditch this ghetto setup.

If I were forced to use a converter instead of a car audio amplifier I'd get one that hooks straight up to the battery. The 12v system in my car just can't support a high-powered laptop, or subwoofer for that matter.