Subie Scoop July 14

[00:00:10] Hello and welcome to another edition of the Subie Scoop. I'm actually not recording this in my quote unquote studio. I'm using my Rode Wireless Pro because I'm not at home. So it actually feels kind of weird because I'm used to hearing my voice as I'm recording and then I can play it back and if I don't like it, I can go back and change it. Not that I can't do that with this, but recording with the headphones on real time is a good idea.

[00:00:40] So before I get started into anything else with this Subie Scoop, I have to give a huge shout out and birthday wish to my daughter Catherine. Today is her birthday. She's 25. That's crazy. It's crazy. She actually put together a text with family because she wanted to try to coordinate going out to dinner for her birthday and she titled it Quarter Century Birthday.

[00:01:09] So yes, quarter of a century, but happy, happy birthday, Catherine. I hope you have a wonderful day, even though you're not going to be here. She is in Tennessee with, well, no, she's going to be in Arkansas. She drove to Tennessee first with her husband to go see his family and then they're going to be in Arkansas at Harding University. They're going to be helping to teach at a summer camp, summer band camp. So that's super cool. They've

[00:01:39] been doing that, I think, I've been doing that. I think at least the last two summers maybe. But anyway, I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful birthday and I look forward to seeing you again. And we will have to get together for your birthday with everybody and celebrate. So happy birthday, Catherine.

[00:01:57] So on this little edition, I wanted to just catch up on some things. First of all, I had an amazing time at Overland Expo in Oregon. It was great to see some people I hadn't seen in a while or hadn't seen since Flagstaff. And it was great to meet a lot of new people. So that was really, really cool. It's always fun meeting new people, of course.

[00:02:24] So I'm so glad I was able to go out there. And again, thank you Subaru of America so much for including me in the Overland Expo series and events. I'm truly grateful for that. I'm so glad that I've been able to. Why does my voice keep cracking?

[00:02:40] I'm so glad I'm so glad I've been able to attend these events and help share in the love of Subaru, not just for, you know, the cars themselves, but for the enthusiasts that are out there, the people that are driving them, using them, having fun with them, and then also helping to further connect the community through the podcast and the work that everybody does.

[00:03:04] People are out there using their Subarus. They're, you know, getting together with other people, doing trail rides, doing trail cleanups, participating in the Subaru love promise all over the U.S.

[00:03:17] And so everybody's doing something to help spread the love of Subaru and getting people connected and getting and showing, you know, people what Subaru is all about. So that's amazing. And so being able to participate in Overland Expo is really good because you have all these people that have probably been attending these events for years.

[00:03:38] And now they get to come by and see Subaru. And now they get to come by and see Subaru there with this amazing setup. Subaru did a great job with G7 and a bunch of other people to put together a space that one of the guys that I interviewed, which you will hear on the bonus episode that's coming out on Friday the 18th. This guy said it's like a Subaru Oasis. And that was such a great explanation of the space because that was so true.

[00:04:07] It was laid out so nicely and everything was spread out. You have very welcoming spaces throughout the whole, and I wouldn't even call it a booth. I don't like calling it a booth.

[00:04:18] I like calling it a space because a booth to me feels when I think of a booth, I think of like a square or a rectangular. It feels closed in. But the space that Subaru created for Overland Expo is open. It's welcoming. You can walk through the space. You can see the factory vehicles.

[00:04:41] You can see the vehicles that people have personalized themselves, the owner events or the owner. You can see the owner vehicles there at the event and what they've done with it. And then the little stage that they've set up for training that Milton and Carrie are doing, talking about off-roading and overlanding. And then in Oregon, doing an axle change out like live right there. That was super cool to see that.

[00:05:08] Then, of course, Rihanna Gelsamino was there to talk about Rally and talk about her experience with Rally and Travis Pastrana. And she did some giveaways and stuff. So I do want to talk more about it on the bonus episode. But I just wanted to share a little bit of that here with this because I had such a great time. And I'm really, really glad that I was able to go out there with my family, with my son and my daughter and her husband.

[00:05:35] And that we could all share in the experience of going to Oregon for the first time and seeing all of the natural spaces. Because I had mentioned before that I've been to Oregon, but just three different cities. I was only in the city. So I never really got to see the beautiful landscape that Oregon has to offer.

[00:05:56] And there are so many places that we could have gone. And as I mentioned in my in my in episode 207, where I talked about our trip to Oregon. So it was it was just incredible. And I just I wish we could have had a lot more time to spend there. And hopefully sometime in the future, we can go back and spend some more time there because that would be amazing.

[00:06:19] So one of the things I wanted to talk about was Pearl, because I haven't haven't done any like haven't talked about Pearl in a while. But as you know, I got my viscous coupling replaced in my car. So now it's not clicking anymore. It's and that's like that makes me feel so good. I know that it was OK to keep driving it the way that it was. It was just annoying whenever I would be turning, driving slow.

[00:06:45] And it was only after, you know, I've been driving it for a while that it would do that. But now I just feel a lot better knowing that it's fixed. So I got it replaced. I went to go pick up Pearl and I was driving out away from the shop. And as I was braking, I hear this creaking noise, like almost like metal shifting or something.

[00:07:10] And it's kind of hard to explain. But I would stop every time I would stop, it would make this creaking noise. And I was like, is that the suspension? You know, what's going on? Because it was not making that noise before I took it to the shop. And I'm like, did they break something or did they like I don't know. I didn't know what was going on. And then it would start doing it when I would turn like to the right, it would kind of creak and then not really to the left.

[00:07:39] But so I was doing this for a few weeks and I just I had this thought and I had this theory. And then I tested the theory out a couple of weekends ago and I was right. So what I was thinking is I was like, because I was trying to think of everything that they had to do to replace the viscous coupling.

[00:07:59] So from what I understand, you have to take the drive shaft out, take the back housing of the transmission and differential off, pull out the viscous coupling, put the new one in, put the housing cover back on, put the drive shaft back in, fill it with fluid. But in order to get to all of that, the only thing you have to take off that I could think of was the skid plates.

[00:08:25] So I was wondering, like, are the skid plates like did they tighten them up too tight and so much that as the as my car is breaking and then turning and the car is kind of shifting? Is it making a metal creaking noise because they're just too tight? So I went to my cousin's house to go change. Well, me and Luke went to my cousin's house to change the oil in Luke's Outback.

[00:08:52] And while we were there, I decided to take my skid plates off. First of all, I was able to get the engine skid plate off. No problem. But then as I was trying to get the transmission skid plate off, some of the bolts were tightened so tight that I can usually use a ratchet that has a short handle because I'm the one that put the skid plates on.

[00:09:17] So I tighten them enough that they're tight and they're not going to come loose, but they're not so tight that I can't just, you know, unloosen them with even a short ratchet handle. So, but I was trying to get these loose and I wasn't able to. So my cousin had a longer, not like a ratchet, but just a longer wrench or whatever you call it, but for to put the socket on. And so I put the socket on there. I'm turning, trying to turn, turn.

[00:09:47] And like they were so tight. Some like I would say like half of them were super, super tight. They were so tight that I cracked the socket that I was using. It was a craftsman socket and I'm turning and I thought I was stripping the bolt, but I pulled the socket off and I looked at it and it has a crack down the side. And I'm like, you gotta be kidding me.

[00:10:12] So thankfully my cousin had another 14 millimeter socket that was a lot thicker. And so, I mean, it took some strength to break some of those loose, but so I took my, both my skid plates off the engine and the transmission skid plate off. And I drove my car with no skid plates and sure enough, there was no noise at all because it was freaking me out. Cause I'm like, I just got my car fixed and now there's a noise that it's making.

[00:10:41] Why is it making a noise now when I just got it fixed? Like what happened? So, so taking them off made me feel a lot better because it wasn't making that noise. I'm like, okay, well it's not suspension or anything. So ended up putting the skid plates back on, tightening them to a reasonable tightness and that doesn't make any noise.

[00:11:02] So I'm so thankful for that because it was, it was one of those things where I didn't know what it was and it was annoying because it would just, it was creaking. So now it's not doing it. And now it's just like, there's just the rattle that I have in the back. That's been there since I went to Subaru flat fest in 2022. And ever since then, I've had this rattle. And every time I get under my car and I try to see if there's anything loose, nothing is loose.

[00:11:33] Whenever I had taken my car to get the viscous coupling replaced, Luke asked me if I was going to have them check the rattle. And I was like, no, I don't think so. I don't want to, like, I don't want to spend any more money. First of all, if there's something else that needs to be fixed because it's been doing it for a while and it's, you know, everything seems fine.

[00:11:51] And it's just like, whenever I go over a road that's like kind of bumpy, like, like the, if it's just like a regular road and it has like ridges in the road where it's, you know, uneven, it'll rattle quite a bit. And now I'm kind of used to it. It doesn't, that doesn't annoy me, but, and it's kind of one of those things where if it went away, I'd probably miss it. You know, as weird as that sounds. But so that's, what's going on with Pearl.

[00:12:16] Pearl, I also rolled over 129,000 miles and she's still doing amazing. She still drives so smooth after that many miles. Yeah. So that's what's going on with Pearl. Again, I'm looking forward to putting out this episode Friday for Overland Expo P&W. Also want to announce that I am going to Overland Expo Mountain West in Colorado, in Loveland, Colorado. So I'll be there.

[00:12:45] So if you're going to be there, I'll see you. If I've seen you before recently at one of these other Overland Expo events, then I'll see you again. And if I haven't met you yet, that'll be exciting. So I'm supposed to have a little bit more of a booth space for myself this time. And we're kind of working through that right now to see what kind of a space we can put together for me. So I'm excited about that.

[00:13:12] And so that will be something that should be at Mountain West and then also at Overland Expo East. So that I'll have more of a space of my own where people will have more of a visual aspect of the podcast. Because I am there with my Subi and You podcast shirt on. So that helps people to identify me. But having an actual little space will be kind of nice.

[00:13:40] So I talked to Joe from Subaru about that. And we're going to see what we can put together. So other than that, I don't really have too much to catch up on. I hope I get to see and meet some new people out in Loveland, Colorado and Virginia. So that'll be really cool to connect with more people and spread the love of these wonderful cars that we call Subaru. So hope you all have a wonderful week.

[00:14:10] Please look for the bonus episode on Friday, the 18th. It's going to be the interviews that I had with people at Overland Expo P&W. Take care. Much Subi love. Raph.