Subaru, My One-Sided Love Affair.

Poor Subie blew a radiator hose this morning. We were on our way to work and "POOF!"   Smoke.  Steam.  Red line on heat gauge.   We pull over and a very nice person gives us a ride to town.    A few moments later, we walk into our favorite auto place and they fit us in for the afternoon...Easy!  Right?

   The catch?  (There is always a catch!) They do not have a Tow-truck.   In the end,  a simple hose replacement ( that I could have done had I had the tools and parts)  cost more than double...because we had to pay for an expensive recovery.    Grrrrr.

One "good" thing that came from this was that we were able to get a mechanic to take a look at the very loud road noise coming from the rear wheel.   Turns out...it is my worst suspicion:   The bearing is shot.

The price for fixing it is actually less than the bill we paid for the radiator hoses.   However, that is still a bit more than we had hoped or planned for when we have a half marathon coming up next weekend.  Wouldn't it have been awesome if the hoses had NOT broken/slipped off and we had simply scheduled a visit for the mechanic to fix the darn thing...without the towing bill!

I have watched numerous videos about this procedure.   And,  given the proper tools, time and parts,  I think I may be able to handle it myself.   However,  there are a number of "variables" that come into play that might require  special "handling" when trying to remove a seized up or stuck on bearing.  Procedures I have very little to no experience with.   Looks like I will not be able to save us any money on this one.


This all comes on a day when the job is wrapping up and people are leaving the project like migrating birds.   There are now only 6 scorers left out of 18 initial hires.  More work for us, I guess.  And Goodness knows we need the money...especially now!   But Cheryl and I are ready to be done with this project and hopefully take a short break before focusing on Stockings.   We shall see how things turn out.

As for the Bearing, I'm hoping we can get it done tomorrow.  Cheryl is kind of mad at me because I've been complaining about that noise for weeks now.   Th Mechanic told us to get it fixed within a month...and with a major trip ahead of us,  We both agree we would feel better with the repair safely behind us.  Fingers crossed!