How to Change Your Own Damned Subaru LED Brake Light (And No You Don’t Need to Replace the Entire Light Assembly!)

How to Change Your Own Damned Subaru Tail Light (And No You Don't Need to Replace the Entire Light Assembly!)

Guess what! When your brake light (that white sideways U) goes out on your Subaru, you don’t have to have the whole assembly replaced, and you don’t have to take it to the dealership, and you can in fact change out that specialized, proprietary Subaru LED bulb yourself, for under $50. And if I can do it, you certainly can!

NOTE: This is based on my own experience with my 2017 Subaru Forester. If you have a different year or model YMMV (no pun intended), but it probably won’t vary by much.

First, those sideways white U lights are your brake lights, so they’re pretty important. And Subaru knows this. So when you go to check how to change your rear lights in your Subaru, and in particular that sideways U brake light, in your Subaru owner’s manual you are told “consult your Subaru dealer for replacement.”

In fact, in the user’s manual those white rear sideways U lights aren’t even given a part number, instead they are designated not by a number, but by a letter, F. As we all know, F stands for F*cked. In this case, you’re effed if you want to change the burned out bulbs in that sideways U. They want you to believe that you can’t change it out yourself. Because of course they want you to do it at the dealership or, as one post I saw called it, “the stealership”. Where you will be charged at least two limbs.

And, indeed, when you ‘consult your Subaru dealer’ you are likely to be told “you need to bring it in”, and nearly as likely to be told “we need to replace the entire light assembly; that’ll be $300 please.”

So….

How to Replace Your Own Damned Brake Light No Matter What Subaru Says, Here’s How

First things first:

Order a set of Torx drivers. Here is the set that I got, they are less than $7:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Q21RPS2

Then order the LED light that you need here (NOTE that this one is specific to my 2017 Forester, if you have a different year/model you may need a different one):

https://www.subarupartsplus.com/oem-parts/subaru-bulb-84960sg000

(These are NOT affiliate links. I do not use affiliate links because I want you to know that if I am recommending something it’s because I really use it myself and recommend it, and not for financial gain.)

Once you have your LED light and Torx drivers, you are ready!

Remove the Rear Light Housing

Before you can change your Subaru brake light LED, you have to be able to access it. This means removing the light assembly/housing. Some YouTube videos will tell you that you need to pry the back end of it away from the car. DO NOT DO THAT! You will break it!

How to Remove the Rear Light Housing Assembly on your Subaru

There are two screws at the front of the housing which hold the housing to the body of your car. Remove those.

Then the rear light housing slides out by pulling it straight back. This is because the back part of it is held on by a post-and-slot fastener.

It may be slightly difficult to slide this housing off, but trust me, it will happen. Do this slowly for two reasons: 1. You don’t want to risk breaking it. and 2. There is a wired connector connecting the housing to the body of the car, which you will need to unclip.

Wired Connector

Wired Connector Disconnected

Changing Out the LED Rear Brake Light

Once you have the rear light housing disconnected from the body of the car, gently set it down and look for this:

Brake Light LED Bulb*

Brake Light LED Bulb Closeup*

*I could have sworn that I took pictures exactly like the two above to include in this tutorial, however they seem to have disappeared from my phone. The above two pictures are credit to Reddit and, specifically, drinkythedrunkguy on Reddit.

Now take your Torx driver (I found that it was the #15) and remove that darned Torx screw.

Once you’ve removed the Torx screw, slide your LED brake light bulb out, and unclip it.

Clip the new bulb back in, slide it into place, and screw the Torx screw back in.

New Subaru LED Brake Light Bulb

Business End of Subaru LED Brake Light Bulb

New Subaru LED Brake Light Clipped in and About to Be Put Back In

Now just re-connect the wire between the housing and the body of the car, slide the housing back into place, replace the screws, and you’re done!

About those Weird Plastic Pieces from Inside the Front Door Panel of a Bosch Dishwasher

Earlier this year we had occasion to remove the front panel from the door of our Bosch dishwasher. The occasion was that it had developed a leak. Now fortunately, one of the most common reasons that a Bosch dishwasher will develop a leak – especially if it seems to be coming from under the door – is that the inlet water valve needs to be replaced. And also fortunately, it turns out that the water inlet valve is relatively easy to replace, once you take the door panel off. (In case you’re interested, this is the inlet water valve that we used to replace the leaking one – ain’t Amazon amazing?)

Well, as soon as that door panel came off of the front of that Bosch dishwasher, two weirdly-shaped plastic pieces literally fell out of the dishwasher, onto the floor (the floor of the kitchen, not the floor of the dishwasher). “Weird,” we thought, and set them aside, sure that it would be obvious where they went once we started putting the dishwasher back together.

Boy were we wrong.

What the hell was this thing?
About those Weird Plastic Pieces from Inside the Front Panel of a Bosch Dishwasher

At first we were misled by the apparent channels in the thing, which led us to think that it was some sort of harness for wiring. But, nope.

In fact, it took us quite a while to figure out what this thing was, but once we did, and once we actually figured out where it went, it was obvious. Dumb, but obvious. Of course it’s obvious once you know, so that is why I wrote this up for you, so you will know, without going through the frustration that we did.

It’s a door spacer for your Bosch dishwasher!

Well, actually, it was obvious where they went – whether they are a door spacer, or something to protect the inside of the door from damage, or both, still wasn’t 100% clear. We are choosing to call it a door spacer.

But once you know what they are, where they go, and how they go, is obvious. So if you have found pieces that look like the above, here is how they go back in.

Inserting the door spacer protector back into your dishwasher

Notice the single prong on the plastic door spacer; once you insert the plastic piece as in the above picture, it will seat into place with a satisfying click.

This is what it will look like from above, once it is clicked in and fully seated.

View from above

And that’s all there is to it. It probably took you way more time to discover what those silly plastic pieces are than it will to shove them back in!

By the way, in case you’re wondering, this is what the inlet water valve looks like:

Bosch Dishwasher Inlet Water Valve
bosch dishwasher inlet water inlet valve

And, again, you can find them on Amazon here (although be sure to check that it’s compatible with your model, this is the one that worked for our model). It costs all of $12.50.

Searches that led to this article: https://www mangemerde com/about-those-weird-plastic-pieces-from-inside-the-front-door-panel-of-a-bosch-dishwasher/,

BinLadenLand to Become a Reality

Ok, it isn’t really Bin Laden Land, but developers are building an amusement park in the very area where Osama Bin Laden was ultimately captured and killed. It kind of boggles the mind. The site, in Abbottabad, Pakistan, will be called Hazara Heritage Park, and is being developed by project director Sheikh Kaleemuddin.

“It’s a beautiful area,” says Kaleemuddin. “You won’t get such a beautiful landscape around anywhere in the world where the water is there, the mountains are there, the trees are there, the natural wildlife is there.”

And the memories – ah, the memories.

But, says Kaleemuddin, “We should move forward from those incidents, we must move forward with our beautiful world, this global village, to improve the world… We should get away from what has happened in the past.”

In addition to the amusement park, Hazara Heritage Park will feature as many as fifty attractions and amenities, including hotels, zoos, and a food court.

Of course one can argue, and indeed it is being pointed out in the press, that the site means something quite different to residents than it does to those outside of Pakistan in general, and Abbottabad in particular.

On the oter hand, consider that Kaleemuddin is going for the international tourist trade.

“We’re going to attract the worldwide tourist over here,” says Kaleemuddin. “We want…the tourists from all around Europe, America. People should come and see what we are doing.”

What’s Your Sign? What Did it Used to Be? New Zodiac Dates Required, says Planetarium Society

First Pluto is excommunicated as a planet, now the signs of the zodiac are given new dates, meaning, say some, that the sign of the zodiac under which you have believed all along you were born is the wrong zodiac sign. Can we rely on nothing celestial?

It seems that due to the moon’s influence on earth, says the Minnesota Planetarium Society, the signs of the zodiac, assigned millenia ago, are no longer accurate. So do you need to change your sign based on the new zodiac dates? Or are the new signs of the zodiac dates just an interesting thought experiment?

The zodiac as we know it was developed by ancient Babylonians as long ago as 600 years or more before the birth of Christ. In the past 2500+ years, the moon’s effect on the earth, which creates a bit of a wobble (or, in astronomical terms, “precession”) has caused our points of reference to have shifted some. And so, says Professor Parke Kunkle, on the board of the Minnesota Planetarium Society, “When [astrologers] say that the sun is in Pisces, it’s really not in Pisces.”

And the reason you should care, if you want to care, is that the astrological sign under which you were born is determined by in what sign the sun is on the day of your birth.

Prof. Kunkle expounds:

“In science we deal with a long tradition of fact based investigation. We are not in the business of interpreting the purported relation between the positions of planets and human affairs.

The Earth spins and, like a toy top, the spin axis moves around, pointing in different directions. Today, Earth’s spin axis points toward the pole star, Polaris. Around 3000 BC Earth’s spin axis pointed toward Thuban. Wait 26,000 years and the north star will again be Thuban. Astronomers call this motion of the spin axis precession. About 130 BC, Hipparchus noticed that the Earth’s spin axis had changed directions, so astronomers and astrologers have known about the Earth’s precession for over 2000 years.

But this means that if the sun was “in” a certain constellation on a particular date, it is in a different constellation on that date today. For example, the sun was in Pisces on March 1, 2000 BC but it is in Aquarius on March 1, 2011 AD.”

However, not everybody agrees with the good professor. In fact, says one commentator, pointing out that the very Babylonians who created the zodiac also were very aware of precession, “The stars are markers that drift, but our main points of reference are not directly the stars. They are the equinoxes (both spring and vernal) and the solstices which altogether make the four cardinal points of the zodiac which in turn determine the signs. The stars help us locate those points which define the SIGNS of the Zodiac which remain constant in relation to the equinox point. The CONSTELLATIONS do move about and we take that into consideration when locating planets.”

That said, in case you care, here is the new set of dates for the signs of the zodiac, as propounded by the Minnesota Planetarium Society:

Capricorn: Jan. 20-Feb. 16
Aquarius: Feb. 16-March 11
Pisces: March 11-April 18
Aries: April 18-May 13
Taurus: May 13-June 21
Gemini: June 21-July 20
Cancer: July 20-Aug. 10
Leo: Aug. 10-Sept. 16
Virgo: Sept. 16-Oct. 30
Libra: Oct. 30-Nov. 23
Scorpio: Nov. 23-Dec. 17
Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20

And here is the traditional set of zodiac dates:

Capricorn Dec. 22-Jan. 19
Aquarius Jan. 20-Feb 18
Pisces Feb. 19-March 20
Aries March 21-April 19
Taurus April 20-May 20
Gemini May 21-June 20
Cancer June 21-July 22
Leo July 23- Aug. 22
Virgo Aug. 23-Sept. 22
Libra Sept. 23- Oct. 22
Scorpio Oct. 23- Nov. 21
Sagittarius Nov. 22-Dec. 21

Archie Proposes to Veronica, Jilts Betty – WTF is He Thinking?

Much like the “Ginger or MaryAnn” argument, the “Betty or Veronica” argument has gone on for decades, pitting the girl next door (Betty, MaryAnn) against the spoiled little rich girl (Veronica, Ginger). And everyone, but everyone knows that the girl next door – the faithful, smart (but still cute and perky), steady girl next door is supposed to get the guy. But apparently nobody told Archie Andrews that, because next month he will be proposing to Veronica, while a stunned Betty and a befuddled Jughead look on.

As Entertainment Weekly (no, I don’t actually read it, I found this article while researching this piece) put it so succinctly, what the hell is Archie thinking?

More to the point, what the fnck are the writers thinking? What the hell kind of message is this to send to the thousands of pre-pubescent, pubescent, and even post-pubescent boys and girls – the already confused teens – that read the Archie comic books, about values, and what matters in a mate?

It seems that, at least in comic book land, slow and steady does not win the race – but rather that gold, glitz, and girlie gets the guy.

Red Bull Cola Energy Drink Tests Positive for Cocaine

It seems that the NFL and NBA aren’t the only energy pumps to have problems with positive drug tests! Authorities in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia say that a lab test of Red Bull Cola Energy Drink revealed that Red Bull contains 0.4 micrograms of cocaine per liter of Red Bull!

As a result, at least six German states have issued a ban on Red Bull.

Meanwhile, Red Bull have said that the Red Bull Cola is “harmless and marketable in both the U.S. and Europe,” that it uses coco leaf extracts that are used the world around “as flavouring”, and that their own tests found no cocaine (of course, they wouldn’t, would they?)

On a different, but related side-note, it’s interesting to note this truth in advertising from the Red Bull website, where you can sign up for their newsletter:

Teachers Stage Fake Gunman Attack as Students Cry and Cower Under Tables

Teachers in a Tennessee elementary school staged a fake gunman attack while on a field trip, telling the sixth-grade school children that it was “not a drill”, while the children cowered crying under tables, believing that they were about to be shot to death. Can a lawsuit be far behind? (Let’s hope not.)

Join in on my rant at Indignation.org.

Britney Spears versus Susan Butcher

On election day, I got a CNN news flash email. With it being election day and all (and late afternoon) I figured that it was probably some early return election upset or something.. something really potentially important enough to warrant a news flash… So I opened the email and it was the news that Britney Spears had filed for divorce.

Fast forward to last Saturday, and I’m driving along on the highway, behind the wheel, and my husband casually mentions something about Susan Butcher having died a few months ago.

I literally felt the blood drain from my face and upper body, then I went cold all over. I seriously considered pulling over because I wasn’t sure I could drive.

I knew Susan Butcher. I went to school with Susan Butcher. I hadn’t heard, and I was stunned.

And then I was outraged. Because I hadn’t heard.

Because here an American woman who had won the Iditarod 4 times – truly an American Icon – got so little press when she passed that I hadn’t even heard about it, but Britney Spears’ filing for divorce deserves a CNN newsflash???

WTF is wrong with this country?

James Kim – Sad but WTF Was He Doing Leaving His Car?

Ok, it has to be said, and when something callous about the recently-departed has to be said, you can rely on me to be as tactfully tactless as I can.

This guy and his family get stranded in the snow, in the middle of NOWHERE between Grants Pass and Gold Beach, Oregon, and he leaves the car to go find help. In the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by snow.

Now, what’s the first rule of survival – of keeping safe – when stranded in the middle of nowhere?

STAY WITH THE CAR!

Now his wife and two children are safe, having been rescued from the car, and he’s dead.

Such a shame.

Kopi Luwak (Cat Poop Coffee or Weasel Poop Coffee) – Coffee Made from the Beans which Fall Out of a Cat’s Bum – Yum!

Today I got to thinking about the coffee which is made from coffee beans which are pooped out by a civet cat that is indigenous to Indonesia.

I’m not making this up. The coffee beans come out in the cat’s poop, and people in Indonesia actually collect these beans, and people actually drink the coffee which is brewed from these beans.

(I was thinking about it because I alluded to it in my post about how to save 75 cents off a venti iced coffee at Starbucks.)

But here’s what I want to know:

Who the f*ck first thought of this?!?!

I mean, really!

Who was the first person to think “Ooh, look, that cat is pooping out coffee beans – what if I brew them up into a beverage and drink it?”

WTF were you thinking? Or, should I say, “WTF, were you thinking?”

Apparently so, because, like, Kopi Luwak, as this coffee is known (“Kopi” being the Indonesian word for ‘coffee’, and the cat in question being called a “Luwak”), now sells for more than..wait..are you sitting down?

Kopi Luwak – coffee which is made from coffee beans which have traveled down a Luwak civet cat’s intestinal tract and been pushed out its rectum – sells for more than $600.00 a pound!

And people actually buy this stuff!

Here’s something else which makes Kopi Luwak unique, other than its amazing price, and that people actually drink it. According to coffee resource, importer and retailer TheCoffeeCritic.com:

“Kopi Luwak has a very unique and distinguishable roasting smell and taste… like no other coffee.”

No sh*t.

Or maybe..well, yes.

You just know that somewhere in Indonesia someone is laughing their tails off all the way to the bank, and thinking “Those crazy Americans will drink anything, the more expensive the better.”

Mange Merde

…if you'll pardon my French

Category: WTF?