Subie Scoop - February 24

[00:00:10] Hello everybody, welcome to another edition of the Subie Scoop. I'm your host, Rafael, if you don't already know that. I hope you all had a great weekend and maybe got out and had some fun. We had a cold and rainy weekend, which I know cold is relative because people up in the Northeast and the Pacific Northwest will laugh at us when we say it's cold and it's like, you know, mid-30s or something.

[00:00:37] And they're wearing shorts and a t-shirt and we're all bundled up. But we're just not used to it down here, so it affects us. Unless somebody is from the Pacific Northwest or the Northeast and they're living down here now, they laugh at us too. So, but you know, it is nice to get some cold because then it actually makes it feel like we've had some kind of a winter because we don't always get too many cold temperatures here. So it is nice and welcomed at times.

[00:01:06] All right, so on the episode last Monday, I said that I did a brake job on Pearl. I changed out the brake pads and I also replaced the rotors because I knew that it was going to have quite a bit of miles on there before I was going to be able to replace them. So I decided instead of, you know, trying to reuse the OEM rotors that came on it or trying to get those turned, I figured I would just go ahead and get new ones.

[00:01:35] So I went to my buddy Jonathan's house who goes by Subamu and also Roy who goes by N2 Explore. He came by as well. So from start to finish by the time, like when we first started to the time we got finished, it was about four hours. But Jonathan was helping Roy and I was like taking a break while I was waiting for them to do some stuff so I could move my car. And it probably should have only taken about maybe two hours or less if I had done it before.

[00:02:05] So now, you know, now that I know exactly what I'm doing, if I have to do it again at some point on Pearl or maybe help out my daughter or something with her car, at least I know what I'm doing and I can get it done a lot quicker because I did some things incorrectly along the way and then figured it out as I was doing it. But I'd watched a YouTube video before I went to go do the job, so that definitely helped out.

[00:02:28] I did notice that my rear brakes, the pads on the original brakes were pretty much gone. I think it was about to be metal on metal. There was very, very, very little left, so definitely needed those. The front pad still actually surprisingly had a decent amount of pad left on them, but I wanted to go ahead and just do all of them, of course.

[00:02:56] I mean, I didn't know what they look like until I took them off. So all new pads, new rotors and Subaru on the rotors, they have this little screw thread so that if you have trouble just pulling the rotor off, you can get a screw that fits that screw thread and then screw it into that hole and it will push on the hub behind it and it'll push the rotor off. And we did do that because we couldn't just pull it off.

[00:03:24] So that was like a really great feature to have on there. Now, when we got to the rear driver's side, it took forever to get that, to get the rotor off. I mean, we just, we tried using the screw threads and trying to get it to back off and it would move and it would move. And, you know, it was loose and we could wiggle it back and forth and just would not come off.

[00:03:47] And that was until Jonathan said, hey, do you have the emergency brake on? And yeah, I had the emergency brake on because when we were doing the front, I had the emergency brake on. And then, of course, we chalked the back tires still. But, you know, you just want to be safe. So when we moved to do the back tires or the back brakes, I didn't really think about it. Chalked the front tire on the driver's side and then chalked the rear tire on the passenger side.

[00:04:17] And then, you know, because we lift up the driver's side rear. And I just didn't even think about it. He obviously didn't think about it. But, I mean, we were probably like 20 minutes into trying to get this thing off. And he realized that we probably had the emergency brake on. And sure enough, we did. And then once we took the emergency brake off, it came right off. So that was one of the little mistakes that I made along the way that would have made it go a lot faster if I had actually been paying attention to what was going on.

[00:04:47] But we got the job done and they work, which is good. That's the important part because it is kind of scary sometimes doing, you know, certain types of work. You want to make sure that you put everything back together correctly and not having done it before. I wanted to make sure I was doing it right. And Jonathan had all of the tools. He had done brake jobs on some of his Subarus before. So he knew what he was doing.

[00:05:12] And, again, having all the tools was very, very helpful because I don't know what I would have been able to do if I didn't have the tools or a spot to do it. I mean, he's got a house. He's got a driveway. I'm in an apartment. So it worked out really well. So thank you so much, Jonathan, for allowing me to come over and work on my car and get the brakes done. So I've been over there before to change my oil. I've also changed my pitch stop over there. And I think I've done a couple of other things.

[00:05:41] But it's either we either go to Jonathan's house or we go to Carla and Hutch's house. And Carla goes by Ventures, Texas Lady. So between those two, we'll usually get over to either one of their houses and get stuff done. We kind of try to put together like a wrench day so that people can come over and work on their cars if they need to. So that's what we do around here. And it works out well for us.

[00:06:08] I also went to my first soccer game on Saturday the 22nd because my daughter's husband, he played soccer through, I guess, through junior high and high school. I know definitely through high school. So he really likes soccer. And then we have the Houston Dynamo, which is our hometown team. And they bought tickets for Saturday night and asked if I wanted to go. So me and Luke went as well. And it's actually pretty interesting.

[00:06:36] I've, you know, I've never really been a soccer fan. And I've never really watched it except for when it's on here and there. I might watch it for a little bit. But it was fun to go to the game. And for us, it was cold. It was like, I think, mid 30s. But it was also kind of windy. And it was a little rainy. So, you know, that combination is never good. But they did end up scoring. So that was cool. And, well, they scored in the first half. And then me and Luke left after the first half. But we got to see them score. And that was a lot of fun.

[00:07:05] So I'll definitely go back because it was a pretty cool experience. But I'll prefer to go back when it's warmer. And I'm not, you know, feeling like I'm going to turn into a popsicle. So before I wrap this up here in a little bit, don't forget that you have a few more days to purchase a Carhartt beanie. And I posted it in one of my reels a few days ago or maybe a couple of weeks ago. So go check that out.

[00:07:30] It supports Operation Warm, which they help to give under-resourced kids warm clothing. So go purchase a beanie. You have until the end of February to get a beanie. You just go to SubaruGear.com and search for Carhartt Beanie. It's the brown one. So you can also go see it on the reel, like I said. But you can also use the code SUBINU25 to get 20% off your purchase. So go check that out.

[00:07:59] And explore the whole site if you've never been there before. They've got a lot of really great Subaru-branded gear, as well as Subaru Motorsports USA-branded gear, which of course is a great time to get some of that because we've got the ARA Rally going on, or the ARA Rally season and series going on right now. So go check that out as well. And of course, with all of that, you can save 20% by using the code SUBINU25.

[00:08:27] And if the total purchase is over $50 after the 20% discount, you automatically get free shipping, which is great. So what I will close out with is that I have been pursuing voiceover work. So I'm looking into starting up that journey. And I haven't really done anything per se,

[00:08:51] but I have created a couple of profiles for places for voiceover artists to get work. So I figured I've already got all this equipment. People have said I have a great voice. So I figured I might as well give it a shot. Just because I have a great voice doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to be a great narrator. But I want to give it a shot and see where I can take it. So once I get some stuff going, I will share that as well and let you know where you can find me

[00:09:21] and you'll be able to hear some like audio samples of my voice and everything. So I'm going to give it a shot and see what I can turn it into. If anything, just something on the side to earn some extra money and help supplement my income. But either way, I'm looking forward to the journey. I found a really, really great community of other voiceover artists that are very, very supportive and helpful. So I'm super, super excited about that.

[00:09:50] I'm glad to have other people that are doing it and have been doing it for a while that can help out. So with that, I will close out this edition of the Subie Scoop. Hope you all have a great week. And we'll see you next Monday for another regular episode. And it sounds crazy to say that we're getting close to episode 200. Almost 200 episodes and over four years of doing this podcast. And thank you all so much for sticking around. Thank you all so much for the support.

[00:10:20] I really, really appreciate it. And it's been an incredible journey. And we've still got more to go. See you all later. Much Subie love. Wrath. Whoa, whoa, whoa. This show ain't over yet. I recorded everything that you just heard Sunday morning. And then Sunday afternoon, Luke and I were driving around because he needed to take some photographs for a photography project that he has for school.

[00:10:46] So we're driving around and I'm turning into a parking lot and I'm turning kind of hard, sharp left. Not going, not driving fast, driving slow. And for a while, I'd been kind of feeling something like the wheel and the front end was kind of moving a little bit. And then I heard a clicking. So what do you do when you hear something going on with your car?

[00:11:14] You text your friends that you know something is probably broken on their car multiple times. So I texted Carrie, Mountain Subie. I also texted Charlie and Anthony, Falcon Rue One, and Judy the Subie. Then I also texted Jim, who goes by Little Ruby Subie. And I asked them, or I told them what was going on. And I asked them like, hey, what's going on when you hear this noise?

[00:11:43] And they all said, could be a CV axle that's going. And so then later on, I texted my buddy Jonathan, who goes by Subamu, and asked him like, hey, have you ever had to change out a CV axle? And thankfully, I guess if you want to call it that, he said yes way too many times. So that's good news for me, because I have no idea what I'm doing. And I know he's going to have all the tools.

[00:12:13] So yeah, I just did a brake job last weekend. And now I'm already looking at having to do, replace my CV axle. And I don't know if, I think it might just be on the left-hand side. It might be on the right-hand side. I haven't really turned to that side yet. So I'm still trying to assess the situation. But I do know that maybe I just get a whole new CV axle.

[00:12:39] And obviously, from what I hear, go with OEM. So of course, my options are going to be to find a used one, potentially, from a junkyard. Or maybe just suck it up and buy, you know, one from Subaru. I don't know. And I don't know, I mean, do I need the whole axle? I'm not really sure, but I'm guessing I probably do.

[00:13:02] This is where me not knowing a whole lot is kind of like a disadvantage for me. And it's funny, because I have people assume that because I do the podcast, and I talk to a lot of people, that I know a lot of stuff. And I kind of don't. So that's where I need help, you know, reaching out to other people who know more than I do,

[00:13:27] who have broken stuff on their Subarus, and can lend a helping hand by spreading some knowledge. So Jim did send me a video of a guy that replaces a CV axle on a first-gen Crosstrek. So I'm going to take a look at that. But yeah, so I go from talking about doing my brake job to later on in the same day, realizing that I'm going to have to replace my CV axle.

[00:13:53] So I'm so thankful for this community who have a lot more knowledge than I do so that they can help out. And of course, that's not just for me. So many people that I've had on the podcast have talked about how they have something going on with their Subaru, and they reach out to other people in the community, and people lend a helping hand. And so, you know, not only do you have people that can share knowledge and kind of tell you what's going on,

[00:14:20] help you assess it, but then you have people in the community, like here for me, Jonathan, who opens up his driveway and his, you know, will share his knowledge and help out, you know, because he has all the tools. And then, of course, we have Carla and Hutch. They open up their home and their driveway to come and do work there as well. So we have a great community here, and I know a lot of other people have great community and connections

[00:14:49] and just friends all over the place. So that's what makes part of what makes this community so great. There's a lot of things that make this community great. But yeah, so it's I almost feel like in a way I'm kind of it sucks that I'm going to have to replace my CV axle because I've heard it's a job. But at the same time, I'm kind of like proud because that means that I've really used my Subaru

[00:15:16] and have, you know, beat it up a little bit. And but, you know, that's OK. That's what this is all about. Having fun and then having to, you know, have it breaking stuff and then having to fix it. But when I was out in California and I was trailing with a bunch of people and Anthony, Judy the Subi was having issues with his Subaru.

[00:15:42] And, you know, I was like, man, I feel so bad because you were all taking this trip and going out on these trails because of me, because I was here and y'all wanted to show me a good time. And his reaction was worth it. And so, you know, it is it is worth it. But, you know, it can be cost us some money and time and a lot of hard labor. But yeah, it's worth it.

[00:16:10] So thank you, everybody, for your support. And I'm so glad that people have other people to help them out and we'll get this done. I wanted to let that little whistle drop in there because it's in this song that Luke did. And I think it sounds cool.

[00:16:35] But yeah, so now I have another project to do and I'm going to try to get it done as quickly as I can. But, you know, it's going to cost money, however much it is and wherever I can find one to get a replacement. So wish me luck and I'll let you know how things are going. So this will be another Subi Scoop where I can come back and talk about replacing my CV axle.

[00:17:02] Fun, fun and more fun to come, I'm sure. So now this will end this segment of the Subi Scoop. Much Subi love. Wrath. Take two. And I'm going to let the rest of this song play out because I think it sounds cool. Hope you enjoy.