Quote:
Originally Posted by jwasbury
This will be the 2nd time I've felt compelled to chime in on a PPOT subaru legacy thread.
Once upon a time when I lived in VT, I bought a '96 (or '97, can't remember now) outback brand spankin' new. Subaru ownership is almost state law up there. This car was a POS, and a lemon. I think the quality may have improved since, but I can never buy another Subaru again or recommend them to anyone.
Within the first 600mi of ownership, a critical bolt in the front suspension/steering linkages fell out. Luckily I wasn't hammering through the twisties between my home and workplace, or else I could have easily been killed. In the 2 years (35k mi) I owned the car, it ate through 3 sets of brake rotors (they would warp badly). Yes VT has hills, but I don't ride brakes, and it was a 5 speed, so I used engine braking mostly going down those hills. The quality of the interior was very poor, especially when compared to Toyota or Honda. Back in the day, the Outback model was 10k more than the stripped down "Brighton" version. For 10k you got 16" alloys, foglamps, a couple inches extra ground clearance, and a 1 micron thin layer of "luxury" applied to the interior, which began to wear away the moment the car is driven off the dealer's lot.
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My personal policy is to NEVER "turn" a brake disk.
I'm serious- this is the biggest scam in automobiledom. They use a form of lathe to thin your brake disks down a tiny amount, the reason being that they want to make it "straight", and you need this to seat your pads correctly. Bullscheize! I've done my own brake jobs the past 12 years, and I've only used NEW disks on my 928 and my '97 Ford Aerostar, and both stopped just fine without being "turned"! My theory is that if you change your pads, just do the disks as well- they might cost $20 each. But you will NEVER have the wobble upon light braking like you do with a thinned brake disk. You see, the manufacturers make the disks as thin and light [unsprung weight...] as possible, but if you "turn" that disk, it is now TOO thin and it will WARP. That's when you get the wobble upon brake application.
N!