Carsniffing (0 comments)
2002 was the first model year that the WRX was sold in North America. Mine is a 2002, so it suffers from a few odd problems that are expected of any first-release product. Specifically, when temperatures drop too far, the clutch and the fuel lines have a tendency to misbehave. I ran into trouble with the clutch last year, but had some trouble getting the problem to replicate for the mechanics because it wasn't cold enough.
The fuel smell had also been apparent last year, but rarely enough that I didn't take the time to get fixed. Today, though, Melissa told me to leave work early and I ended up with some unexpected free time. I smelled octane on my drive home, so I took it over to the dealership right away to get the problem verified while it was still cold enough to be occurring. The parts are on order, and they'll be installed sometime next year.
Unfortunately, the dealership isn't open tomorrow, so I can't drop my car off and take advantage of tonight's 1° low to get the clutch into a nice juddering mood. But then, there's always January.