The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Share Your Badassity => Topic started by: Car Jack on May 18, 2017, 05:31:05 PM
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A year ago, we needed another car so my son, home from college could go to his summer job. My mother in law had passed a year earlier and father in law kept both cars but now was offering one at low cost, so we bought his 04 Subaru outback with 45k miles. I already knew a few things about the car since he bought it new. The engine had been replaced for "piston slap" by the dealer. So off to the dealer I go to get the maintenance records which they refuse and say my FIL had to get them. FIL goes and gets them. They go back only about 4 years. Great. So no idea when the engine was replaced and what exactly was done. I start going through the records and most complaints are honestly pain in the ass customer complaints.....the brakes don't feel right....I think I hit a pothole.... So in the last one, I see that they've checked the brakes but I'm a big DIY guy so check them myself. These clowns said they're all fine and I find that the rears are near metal on metal. Easy fix. There's also a complaint of a CEL. Reported P0420 and reset and all ok. I'm like "what?". The worse case on this is that the cat needs to be replaced.....and there's 2 of them.....and they're about a grand each. For a car that I paid $3500 for, no.
Here's the good news part. Over the weekend, I repaired an exhaust leak (cut the 2 flanged pieces for muffler and mid pipe, insert $4 autozone coupling pipe, 2 clamps and some muffler goop just for fun. Fixed. While I'm on a roll, I get some spark plugs after seeing that other things could cause that P0420. I reset the code and trip meter and hope for the best but expect the light to pop on in less than a hundred miles. I hit 101 and no light. I keep driving the car. My son drives a couple hundred miles down to his girlfriends. Light is still off. Tonight, I put gas in it and see it's hit 400 miles. I think it's fixed.
So what this means is that instead of going till december (inspection time) and dumping the car for low money with a cel, it's all working. Well, only 1 of the 4 speakers works but the car works! I feel like I have a car again.
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Awesome job!
Btw a couple of speakers and a few googles on how to put them in and you could be riding in pure luxury for a little over 3500!
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Awesome job!
Btw a couple of speakers and a few googles on how to put them in and you could be riding in pure luxury for a little over 3500!
But that assumes it's actually the speakers that are bad.
Could be wires, or connections. Could be channels of the amp in the radio itself.
First, easiest check; remove the good speaker and connect it to the connections of the other speakers one at a time.