Devin's To Do List: Show Your Subaru Some Love

First up on the list is checking over your tires. If you're on all season tires, now is a good time to check pressures, the tread, and wear making sure there's no weird bulges or cracks on the sidewalls and tread. It's recommended to change your tires if they are older than 6 years since the date of the manufacture. You can easily check this by looking at the last four numbers of the DOT code on the sidewall of the tire, which tell you the week and year in which it was made. It may seem like it's a good idea to keep an older tire even if the tire still visually has tread. Always remember the older a tire gets the higher probability of dry rot, (which as a little known fact, starts from inside the tire and works its way out!). The more dry rot a tire has the more the tire's traction has been compromised and the risk of blowout is significantly increased which as we know makes for no more smiles per mile and can end your day quickly. This is also a great time to remind you to check your spare tire and ensure it's in good shape and ready to be used in the event one of those vintage tires you have been pushing your luck with decides to give out. 

Now, for the dedicated track cars, now is a great time to check your tire pressures and ensure you won’t have any flat spots on race day. As for the spare set of tires you have sitting outside in the trailer, if you're cold they're cold. Bring them inside and store them properly! Personally, I put my spare set of wheels and tires in my basement where it's climate controlled and away from the extreme cold or heat. Some people choose to put them in airtight bags as an added layer of security. The main concern is temperature and how they're stacked to keep their proper shape, assuming they aren’t already mounted. If they do happen to be mounted, it's always good practice to stack your wheels and tires horizontally to distribute the weight across the wheel and not the tire. While you are here, be sure to check your wheel for any cracks! This is something often overlooked especially if you run Titan 7 wheels that happen to be forged from greatness. 

For those of us who experience lots of potholes on the daily commute or frequent the curbing on or off track… It's a good idea to check the integrity of your wheels before mounting them for the first event. Your tires tell a story of what's going on with your ride regardless of if the car is a daily driver or used under the extreme conditions of track racing. If you have noticed excessive or uneven tire wear while inspecting your tires, now may be a suitable time to have your alignment checked. Some shops and dealerships offer free alignment checks throughout the year, so make sure to shop around, or use one of your favorite drivers partnered companies for servicing if you're not checking it yourself. 

While you're down there inspecting your suspension, you might as well check the next thing on our list which is brake calipers and other braking components. You can start by inspecting for any brake fluid leaks, uneven brake pad wear and try to recall if your car was making any weird noises while braking or pulling to one side under braking. All these could be signs that it is time to get your calipers serviced and or replaced. Service providers offer a brake service that includes an inspection and necessary maintenance of your calipers to keep everything working as it should, or to catch anything before damage is done. However, if the brake caliper needs to be rebuilt due to a piston being frozen or a leaking seal, most shops will probably just recommend a replacement. That being said, if you're looking to rebuild your own calipers there are some kits offered on Subimods.com and plenty of DIY videos online to help explain the process. As a disclaimer, I’d like to mention that rebuilding brake calipers should be performed by someone confident in the craft of auto repair, in the event this is something you have not done before it is always recommended to seek professional help or guidance as a brake failure never ends well. It is always better safe than sorry, especially with your braking system. This is something I'll also be doing very soon on my brake calipers as the manufactured service cycle is once per season under racing conditions. Brakes are not something you want to play around with, race setting or not, you’re going to wish you had them when you don’t.

Brake pads and rotors should also be inspected at this time, as we previously mentioned you should always be looking for uneven brake pad wear as well the thickness of the inner and outer pads. It's also important to watch out for separation from the backing plate especially if you live in an area prone to rust, Rust can slowly build up between the brake pad material and backing plate causing separation and eventually failure. If the backing is starting to separate, or if any of your brake pads are wearing uneven or too thin, it's time to replace your brake pads. There are various places online where you can purchase a “Brake Thickness Gauge Set” if you want to track the thickness yourself. When it comes to inspecting your brake rotors, you'll need to measure the thickness to confirm they are within spec, and be looking to see if there are any surface issues such as hot spotting or cracking. If there’s hot spotting or cracks that end on the edge of the rotor, the rotor will need to be replaced. There are circumstances where rotors can be resurfaced to resolve uneven pad wear that is causing vibrations or inconsistent braking. This can only be done if the rotor is deemed in good shape and within specification after resurfacing. Good news for us Subaru owners is that there are companies like Subimods that make ordering brake replacement parts easy. In some circumstances there are replacement kits or you can always order the parts you need individually.

If you have seasonal allergies like myself, the next thing on the list of "Love Checks" is something you'll thank yourself for doing later, your cabin filters. For those of you who have race cars, this might not apply to you as much since you're probably only driving it on the track but, for those tow vehicles and daily drivers, this easy DIY task is recommended yearly and or seasonal depending on how bad your allergies are. While you're inspecting your air filters, you might as well check your engine's air filter too. The engine air filter for a daily driver car should be changed or cleaned annually unless you live in a dusty area, then you might want to clean it more frequently. Now for you race car owners, it's recommended to be changed about every other oil change. However, if you're driving at a dusty track or racing after drifters have left all their rubber on the course at Gridlife, then it's likely best to clean or change your filter after each event. A clogged engine filter is like allergies for your car and could cause misfiring/starting issues, reduced fuel efficiency, and less horsepower. K&N offers cabin and engine filters that are washable, so you don't have to even buy a new replacement at every service! 

Up next, is your driveline services such as your transmission and differentials. Whether you drive a manual or CVT transmission equipped vehicle, most service intervals recommend changing the transmission fluid about every 30,000 miles. If you drive your car in a spirited nature like most enthusiasts such as myself do, you might want to consider changing the fluid a little more often. As for you racers, we should be changing our fluids after every race to be safe, and if you haven't serviced your drivetrain fluids since your last event, here's your reminder to start your season off right. Be sure to check for any leaks and consider if you've been having transmission related issues, such as problems shifting, grinding of the gears, or being locked out of gears. If this is the case, make sure to check your fluid for debris. In the event you found some debris, it may be time to remove the transmission and inspect the internal components. Now just to be clear, it is normal to see small amounts of metal flakes within your transmission fluid but if the metal chunks are big enough you can pick it up with your fingers then you should be considering removing the transmission and looking at getting it rebuilt, as it has suffered some sort of mechanical failure internally. While changing fluids is a simple DIY project, rebuilding transmissions is not. Although this can be done at home with the right tools and some guidance from a YouTube video or instructional class from HP academy for the confident home mechanics, it may be smart to let your local trusted transmission shop handle the repairs needed if you’re not a confident home mechanic. Moving onto the rear differential, all of the previous transmission maintenance advice is similar. It’s recommended to change those at about every 30-60,000 miles but if you off-road or race your Subaru, the frequency should be more often. Same thing goes for the differential as it did with the transmission, when changing fluid, small flakes are okay but big chunks are a bad day. 

Now the last point I'm going to touch upon is mostly for the racers but could apply to the enthusiasts if you have a fire extinguisher mounted in your car. If you have a fire suppression system, they are recommended to have the lines tested and bottles serviced about every two years. The lines you can check yourself, making sure there's no damage, anything that has rust or is worn needs to be replaced. The bottle however, isn’t so simple and will need to be sent into a professional service such as Lifeline to be serviced. Now if you just have an extinguisher, those should be serviced annually or per manufacturer's instructions. It's good practice to do visual checks every month, such as making sure the pressure gauge is in the green zone and there's no visible damage to anything. 

Luckily Subimods carries a lot of the maintenance items we need, like a one stop shop that helps make this stuff a little easier. Once you finish loving your car back by having all of the oil leaks and maintenance items tended to, it's time to have the last bit of the winter fun before it’s gone and get to enjoy the car a bit before the open road and race season officially begins. Remember to go through this list at a minimum of once a year to keep the smiles per mile going for as long as possible and refer to the manufactures service manual or your trusted shop or dealer for specific questions on your application.