psychsurf

Nice. Really wishing I lived near some good subaru junkyards.

So, since that's the only thing I'm finding thats fishy at all... Where do you get a new carrier bearing and the rubber that goes around it?

Jacked it up and fiddled with it yesterday afternoon. The only thing I could find that seemed like it wasn't "right"... Other than the alignment, of course... Was the carrier bearing. It doesn't look broken or anything, but it was the only part of the whole drivetrain that had any play in it at all. I could shift it probably 1/8" to 3/16" in each direction. But it just felt like the rubber was giving, not like it was seriously slopping around in there. After finding that, I took it out for a drive again to see if I could more accurately pinpoint what kind of sound it was making and where it was originating, and guess what? No vibration. It was starting and stopping spontaneously the day before, and now I can't get it to do it at all. I really hate intermittent problems.

So, bad front axles can feel like a vibration in the rear? And is there any other way to check them? I'll pull the boot back and see if I can assess the condition of the grease, but as far as I know the two fronts have been replaced within the last few thousand miles. They look like it, too.

Ok, now here's a dumb question... But I'm %90 sure all the action was at my right rear wheel, why would that point to a front DOJ?

Are there corroborating symptoms for a DOJ, or is it diagnose by replacement only? I grabbed and wiggled the rear half-shafts, and they seem tight to me, but again I don't really know. And is this something that would have just started out of nowhere like that, no slow failure or anything?

Nope, no response to throttle, no response to clutch, no response to brake. It's like its completely independent.. Like I said I haven't had a chance to jack it up and wiggle it yet, but it almost feels like loose lugnuts. Of course, if that was the case, I think (think) I would have been able to shift the wheels on the lugs when I was shoving it around with 4 wheels on the ground, but maybe not. It seemed like a surprisingly high frequency rattle for the speed I was going, almost like a machine-gun.

This just started. I noticed this morning on the way home that there seemed to be a very slight vibration at highway speed. When I hit the last light and turned down the road to my apartment, the vibration became SEVERE at very low speed, then went away entirely. Also sounded like a scraping sound at the same time, but it was hard to tell because the vibration was so loud. Plus, it came and went. I just went back out there and drove it around the block again, and it really comes and goes like an on/off switch. When it is vibrating at 10-20 mph, it sounds like the whole car is going to shake apart, and then it goes away for apparently no reason at all and sounds perfectly normal. It definitely sounds like it is coming from the rear, and I definitely haven't done any recent work back there. I crawled under and wiggled what components I could and nothing seems loose. Next thing is to jack it up and see what wiggles... Can't find my jack right now, doh! Anyway, just wanted to see if anyone had any ideas of a direction I should be looking for this. Oh, also, I don't know if this is related, but the inside edges of my rear tires are definitely more worn than the outsides, and you can see how they are tilted (canted, cambered?) in at the top. Could this have anything to do with it? Maybe a wheel bearing issue or something? I did lay my hand on the rear hub when I first noticed it and didn't feel any heat coming off.

Hi, noob here... What the hell is WTLW? Tried a search, but all I can find is that it is in reference to something that has already been posted before. I've seen the phenomeon on other MBs before. For example on ADVrider.com it is, "sorry if this is 205, but..." But you have to be "in" to know what 205 refers to there...

Well, that seems like an easy solution, woundedbrat... Now, should I take off the two front doors, or the two rear doors? Would taking off both the passenger doors have the same effect of making a two-door out of it?

Yeah, it's funny, I'm not that tall, 5'11" and my legs aren't that long, 32in inseam. And the position actually feels pretty comfortable and relaxed when I sit down, knees slightly bent. But after a while, it just feels like I need to be able to straighten my leg just a little bit more or my knee gets to feeling tweaked.

Sorry I've been posting so many threads with questions lately. Hopefully as I edjumakate myself I'll be able to contribute as well. Anyway, I was wondering if there was any "easy" way to get a couple more inches of legroom out of the driver's seat? My right knee starts to feel tweaked after about an hour, and it would be nice if I could stretch out just a little more.

Oh, my bad, I thought you were talking about that in reference to my other electrical gremlins. On the compressor, the shaft seal is definitely bad. They filled it with coolant and dye, and there's green stuff all over the front.

That sounds interesting, skip! Can you elaborate?

You shouldn't be modest, Daeron. I actually read it last night when I was searching for information on the possibility of a bad ignition relay. I've been working on my own cars for 15 years, and that was the first explanation I've ever read of a relay that made me say, "Oh, now I get it." Amazing what it simple concept it is, and how voodoo it all seemed before. So yeah, toot your own horn by all means, it was a very good nuts-and-bolts article.