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I suggest buying some anti-seize and a tub of axle grease, along with primer and paint and runner gloves. Clean the replacement REALLY good and prep, prime, paint any bare metal poking through. Try and get the donor bolts too as they might be in better shape than yours. When ready to install replacement, crack open the tub of grease and while wearing the rubber gloves, smear the axle grease on the top, sides, crevices, underside, etc. Apply anti-seize to the entirety of every bolt you remove. This will go a LONG way to making sure future jobs go EASY and if you have to get future alignments, the mechanic will love you for it ;) During the winter, snow pack with salt will pack up in these areas and in a few years you'll have the same issue IF you weren't proactive with protecting it. Other option would be to then annually have the car oil sprayed. While not an overly difficult job, it's no fun to go through every few years. Also, you'll need a rear end alignment after it's in.

Edited by Bushwick
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Thanks for the tips Bushwick. I'm planning on going to a junk yard and seeing if I can find one that looks good and pull it myself along with someone else. I took it to another mechanic to get a second opinion, but by the looks of it, it doesnt look good. 222k miles it was bound to happen at some point, im just keeping it alive till I get back from basic training then im gonna have some money laying around. If I fix this it might be worth riding the car out till it dies.

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It's not the miles, it's the age and location.  The '96 OBS I had and my '00 OBS both are near or were over 200k miles and have no problems with rust.  The difference is the '96 was an all over west coast car (california, idaho, nevada, etc...) and the '00 OBS is a strictly Idaho car (lived here it's whole life).

 

We have very minor, if any, rust issues here.  Especially when comparing to the East coast where I've seen pictures of cars 10 years old that are rust buckets.

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We have very minor, if any, rust issues here.  Especially when

comparing to the East coast where I've seen pictures of cars 10 years

old that are rust buckets.

 

Yes thats the issue I'm having, rust isn't an issue in the front the rear got destroyed by the Pennsylvania road salt.

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Mine was completely rotted through in my 95' wagon and wasn't really driveable. It was factored into the price of the car which I had towed nearly 65 miles via flat bed. Was able to drive it 1/8 of a mile to get in the driveway from road where flat bed dropped it, but never went over 4 miles an hour. I got super lucky and found a 225k mile beater at local pull a part that appeared to have a brand new crossmember installed within the previous year before getting junked. It already had a few surface spots on it where the factory coating appeared cheap.

 

Anyways, it only cost $16. It's a one man job too and can be done in a few hours. Need at least one jack and 2 jack stands. I suggest investing in a 1/2' breaker bar AND having a decent map gas or propane torch tip (about $50 at Lowe's). Not the cheap basic tips, but the ones that actually get the gases going. I have a Benzomatic TS4000 and run Mapp gas for really stubborn LARGE bolts (it gets SUPER HOT fast, so use carefully), or run Propane (propane takes 3-5 times longer to heat, but *works*) for to save $$. Go to Walmart and into the camping section. They sell short and stubby propane green cans meant for portable gas grills in bundled packages for something like $10. Works great under a car as they don't have a lot of length, so car doesn't need to be raised super high. Can even set tank upright and let it heat on it's own. Just make sure you don't smell gas and have NO leaks at the filler tube neck. About the hardest part was the 2 bolts at the back of the pumpkin were stubborn, and getting the bolts for the lower trailing arms back in was a little bit of a pain.

 

Also, while you are back there, I strongly recommend draining the pumpkin oil and installing fresh fluid. Best bet is to crack filler bolt FIRST then drain. Some people can't get filler bolt loose. Heat works great there too if needed, though it'll stink and should drain prior. Although pumpkin oil lasts awhile, it's a safe proactive move considering you'll need to drop everything again to get at it. Plus, if the pumpkin has a slow leak, it might be low anyways, OR it can have water contamination which is bad. Riding through high water can let it enter through the vent up top. While under the car, probably worth draining the trans fluid too. You won't get all of it (unless you want to drain the converter) but it'll help prolong the car's life. Can always do the trans annually like that as it'll get most of it out. Other option is to drain, fill, run through gears, drain again (auto). Manual I think you just drain and fill. Use premium fluids in the trans as it'll help it engage and shift better. Manual will feel better too.

 

Very easy to get all this done in a day (or 2 if taking time) for under a $100 total. Don't get raked over the crossmember price. Like stated already, I paid $16 and it was a 9.5 out of 10 and was in eastern Ohio. If you get one online like at car-part.com, I suggest looking south, west, etc. for best example. Though being a somewhat newer model, you might luck out and find a low mileage non winter car. Call the yard prior to confirming and ask for a visual description. If they give vague info, ask for cell phone pics ;)

Edited by Bushwick
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When you say pumpkin oil, are you speaking on the differential? Also, the one thing I am stumped on is the two studs that go through the differential housing are those attached to the diff? If so what do you do if you snap those upon removal of the nuts that go over them, due to the rust? Are those something I can snatch up at a junk yard, or do I have a big problem if those snap off?

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Yes, the differential fluid. It's optional, but is cheap enough and you'll just cross one more box of the "make it last longer" check list. Mine was almost pure black coming out and it had around 172k miles IIRC.

 

You won't snap those studs. I suggest cracking them loose first before anything else so the rear diff will still be anchored. If you do it later once the diff is lowered, it won't be as rigid. It's basically a stud that threads into the diff cover (it might be backwards threaded at the diff cover, or it'll back out instead of the nut loosening, I don't remember). If the nut doesn't readily crack loose with a 1/2" breaker bar, put some heat directly on the stud. Just get it warm and it'll crack free. Try not to get flame on the bushings they go through or it'll smolder and stink. Replacement crossmember will have it's own bushings.

 

Entire process is very easy. You have the 2 bolts going through the diff cover, I think 4 more that directly attach crossmember to unibody, then 1 bolt per side for lower trailing arms. If the rear brake line was replaced at some point and routed around crossmember, it may need loosened and set aside. When you initially jack rear up, leave yourself enough room to work crossmember out/in. I think mine needed to uncouple the rubber exhaust hanger so the exhaust pipe could be moved a bit for extra room when fishing the crossmember out.

 

Any time spent will be the bolts needing heat. If you add anti-seize to them during reassembly, they'll be super easy to remove in the future.

 

If you plan on reusing your trailing arms, crack their bolts at the crossmember around the time you crack the diff cover nuts. They are a PITA to remove sometimes if the crossmember is out of the car.

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Talked to a second mechanic that I know and trust, we both went underneath it in the garage up on the lift. Its worse than expected, looks like its more than just the sub frame. Other parts of the suspension are rusting away and the previous owner decided to use spray paint or like a flex seal of some sort to cover them up. Its a long story on the car and how I got it, so I really had no idea this was going on until last week.

Just gonna cut my loses and buy something when I get out of basic training and AIT training for the military. He checked it over, said the suspension is still good and firm for me to drive it till December when I ship out. Other than that he said, you are looking at a big bill or one hefty job to do it yourself just for you to keep it for the long run.

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Hmm, that's strange. The trailing arms are solid. Are you saying the actual unibody is rotted? Not really much back there. If it's JUST the crossmember and/or trailing arms, it's very easy and cheap to do.

 

Keep fresh engine oil in it and change timing belt at proper intervals, and they'll run awhile. Are doors, hood, hatch rusted? What color is car and what state are you in again? Might be able to find someone on here willing to buy it from you when you are ready.

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Pennsylvania, there's spray paint on stuff that isn't the crossmember and trailing arms. Pretty sure the actual uni-body is rotted out, everything in the rear is rusted you can name anything in the rear and its rusted all up.

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Bushwick, the 01 has a multi link rear suspension with stamped upper and lower lateral arms, and stamped toe-link arms.

The rear crossmember is entirely different on those, and all of the rear suspension parts are much more susceptible to rust on those. Subaru really just cheaped out on that stuff.

 

If rust is severe there's a good chance the bolts than hold the sub-frame on are seized in the body and may need to be drilled out, or cut holes inside the car to get to the captured nuts that the bolts thread into.

 

Here's a pic of one that broke: 104762d1410835235-rear-subframe-bolts-dc

Edited by Fairtax4me
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