Want to play Car Talk?

[Dexter Rutecki]

Curious if any of the wrench heads can pinpoint this one (I believe I know what it actually is, and it's not the obvious issue that I originally assumed).

2014 Subaru Outback, started it yesterday AM at about -1 F and drove it to another mountain 25 minutes away. 10 minutes or so in the battery light goes on and the power steering disappears. Nothing else happens (still had power brakes), got it restarted late afternoon and drove it back. 15 minutes in every light on the dash starts going on, stays like that for a little while, and then just a few minutes from the getting back everything goes dark--entire dash, speedometer/tachometer at zero, apparently nothing electrical working anymore. Car barely makes it up the first hill (had it floored doing about 15mph), and on the next real hill gets about 100 yards up and then stopped going so I had to drop it into neutral and back down the hill into a lot (engine still ran).

Whattaya got? It's being fixed now and what I thought broke did not, apparently, break.

[TAFKALVS]

slipping engine acc. drivebelt?

[Flyoverland Captive]

Bad alternator?

[Beaver]

Subaru. That's the problem right there. Probably an alternator or voltage regulator, probably needed to hold in a relay to run some shit in the tranny.

[Dexter Rutecki]

slipping engine acc. drivebelt?

Nope, not the cause.

Bad alternator?

Said the obvious one was wrong, and that's exactly what I had assumed.

Subaru. That's the problem right there. Probably an alternator or voltage regulator, probably needed to hold in a relay to run some shit in the tranny.

Yeah, your attitude toward all things Subaru is well established. But alternator/voltage regulator did not break.

[MontuckyFried]

While if your alternator still tests good, a car should be able to run fine off that, BUT I've had cars do weirdo stuff like that when the battery was on its way out (but still starting the car ok) but alternator still good. Always found that odd, but I think more modern cars work differently than they used to on the electronics front so in my case a battery swap brought everything back to normal. Weird, I know. Anyway, have you tested your battery out?

[Dexter Rutecki]

Not a battery issue.

So, to help out, alternator is fine (according to the shop) but it did stop working. Your task is to figure out the actual cause (I'm guessing I may have just made it too easy for some of you).

[The Tortoise]

Sounds like a bad ground that was intermittently breaking contact until it finally gave up the ghost.

[Timberridge]

Low blinker fluid.

[ncskier]

Negative battery or ground cable loose or corroded?

[Self Jupiter]

Onboard computer/ECU and/or connections issue?

[Timberridge]

Flat tire.

[Dexter Rutecki]

slipping engine acc. drivebelt?

Further help...this is kind of closest, but I'm going for the cause. Slipped belt was the result.

[Dexter Rutecki]

Flat tire.

That was Friday, actually. $10 at the flat fix place around the corner (not in VT, obviously) and I was good.



You wanna run over to Chester and check on the vehicle for me?

[JimmyCarter]

A small mammal nest in the engine compartment?

[MakersTeleMark]

Seized power steering pump pulley.

[Dexter Rutecki]

A small mammal nest in the engine compartment?

Used to have that all the time, actually (not with this car, but long ago when I lived on Nantucket). Clearing those fuckers out kind of sucked.

[Jong Lafitte]

Seized power steering pump pulley.

ya I'm going with a bit more generic 'problematic pulley/bearing' on the acc belt.

[Dexter Rutecki]

Seized power steering pump pulley.

Getting very close.

edit: I'm not sure there is a separate pulley just for the power steering (is there?), so maybe this qualifies as a correct answer.

[TAFKALVS]

Further help...this is kind of closest, but I'm going for the cause. Slipped belt was the result.

bad bearing or pully?

Oh, it's a subaru, the Head gasket probably leaked.

[JimmyCarter]

Used to have that all the time, actually (not with this car, but long ago when I lived on Nantucket). Clearing those fuckers out kind of sucked.

Better than having half of one fall out of the front floor vent after you turn the car on and the fan starts.

Luckily the kids were in the back seat when that happened.

[Dexter Rutecki]

Too bad, they missed a good biology lesson.

[Timberridge]

You wanna run over to Chester and check on the vehicle for me?

I'm in NJ today, thawing out.

There's a spot on 11/30 where some weird shit happens. All the NY radio stations stop and the NH ones start. I've also seen ghosts there too.

[Dexter Rutecki]

bad bearing or pully?

Oh, it's a subaru, the Head gasket probably leaked.

I will say that over 12+ years with two different Subarus I have never head a head gasket leak. I know it used to happen all the time (but I also heard that Subarus weren't all that more disposed to the problem than other cars, generally speaking).

[Dexter Rutecki]

I'm in NJ today, thawing out.

There's a spot on 11/30 where some weird shit happens. All the NY radio stations stop and the NH ones start. I've also seen ghosts there too.

As long as NH people don't start showing up I'm going to sleep comfortably.