SchwarzeEwigkt

This may sound like a stupid question, but I want to make sure I'm not missing anything. So, still working on the wheel bearing. I know it's been a long time, but it's cold out and I don't have much free time. I've gotten the lateral link bolt out and pulled the axle. I've got my slide hammer puller plate attached to the lug nuts and got the hammer on it. I read that it takes a couple few shots to get the hub out. I've pounded on that thing with the slide hammer for long enough to sprain my wrist. What am I missing?

You'd be surprised how having that little thing flopping around all the time makes you subconsciously drive more economically. My BMW has one and I find myself playing games as I drive. The most common one is "do everything I can do to keep it over 30." Really helps you develop a rapport with the drivetrain and gives you something to do on long trips. It also really illustrates how really big a difference large throttle openings make when accelerating. Keeps my from that whole jackrabbit start thing lots of people do. Except when it's time for zoom. In that case, if the needle isn't pointing at "why?!?!," you're doing it wrong.

Oh, wait. I see it now. I've never actually gotten my face up in there. You'd think I'd have seen it when I had the valve covers off my EJ25D, but I didn't. Bigger fish to fry I think; I was doing the timing belt.

I wondered where that actually started. My wife and I just picked up an '05 Forester with 69k on it. I don't expect to be doing bearings for easily 8 years with the milage she does, but it's good to be prepared. The rear suspension design looks more or less identical to my Legacy, though. This is good and bad. Good in that I know exactly how it works. Bad in that lateral link bolts are SUCK.

This thread is starting to sound like a hypermiling club. How long before we see stuff like this boat-tail Geo Metro going on in here? It's always heartwarming to see what people will do to keep their Scoobs around and keep them from eating them out of house and home.

Is there a chunk missing from the bottom of the spark plug tube in the head, or is that normal?

Pre-purchase Inspection. Take it by a mechanic and have him look at it, draw up an estimate to make it right. Any seller that won't consent to a PPI is hiding something. I've even worked out a deal with a seller that we split the $100 or so on a PPI if I don't buy the car and I'll pay for the whole thing if I do. That way, it gets done, I get peace of mind, he gets documentation as to what needs to happen for other sellers. Nice selling point. "Look, I had the car looked at last week and this is what the mechanic said."

I've been cutting flanges off with a die grinder when they rot and replacing them with those neat sleeves they sell at Advance Auto. If you still have most of the pipe, you could get an appropriate length of pipe and do that. They even sell flexible duct type stuff you could use. It's like flexible HVAC duct only smaller. It's not smooth on the inside, so your flow won't be optimum. It would be cheap, though.

My EJ25D slaps until it warms up. I've found that running the German Castrol 0W30 seems to help with it. That stuff's impossible to find, though. Either way, it's just a quirk of these engines. Doesn't hurt anything. It's like that old saying. "It's like a big rump roast on a pretty girl. A shame." You wouldn't kick her out of bed. :cool:

This is why a PPI is key. And a good test drive.

I think on the much newer models it does work kind of like that. On older ones like mine, the bearing is pressed into the rear knuckle. You need to remove the rear lateral link so you can pull the knuckle far enough out to get the axle to come out of the hub. After that happens, you put the lateral link bolt back in, slide hammer the hub out and use a Hub Tamer (or equivalent) to press the old bearing out and the new one in.

I soaked it in PB Blaster over a few days and pounded it out with a 3lbs sledge. It took about four hours. And my wrist is messed up. Now I just have to clean up the end of the bolt; I mushroomed it a bit and need to file it down. It's completely out. Now I just have to get the hub to pull out right...

Little update. Had to put the project on hold for a while. My wife hit a deer and totaled her car, so we had to get another one. On the bright side, it's another Subaru. Anyway, I did manage to pound the lateral link bolt out. Nasty sucker. I ended up giving up for the evening when I couldn't get the hub to pull out with my slide hammer. I think the bearing is destroyed now. The hub wiggles around. It just won't come out. I was hoping it would come out easily after the debacle the lateral link was. I'll try again tomorrow evening. Any other ideas for teasing the hub out would be greatly appreciated.

I've got a slide hammer. I should be able to pull the hub with no trouble. I just wondered about the grease and how people have been pulling the lateral link bolt. I haven't tried twisting the bolt with my breaker bar too hard. I didn't want to break it. I suppose it doesn't matter much if I break it. I'm going to torch it and see how I do.

So, I got the tools and am waiting on the bearings to show up. I wasn't planning on doing this quickly, but a deer decided it wanted to wreck my wife's car, so now two out of three are down... Figured I'd get a head start on it on my day off. Of course, since I live in the rust belt, that bloody lateral link bolt is stuck. I really don't want to replace all the bushings stuff. I really just want it to come out. I've been pounding on it for about two hours now. What does it usually freeze to? The link bushings or the passage in the knuckle itself? I'm wondering what to start with when I get the flamethrower out. The other thing is that I'm getting conflicting information as to whether the bearings need to be repacked or are pre-packed with the proper kind of grease. I don't really feel like doing this job again in 5k...

So, digging deeper with this it seems that this job requires just a few relatively cheap parts and a ton of expensive tools. But, since Subaru is worried that using a press will bend the bearing carrier, this is how it's going to be. Oh well. On the other hand, I stopped by my local Advance Auto today and the guy there was quite skeptical that I could use the FWD bearing kit to get the bearing out. I'm looking forward to proving him wrong.

Oh, I'm sure. Though, my snow tires ain't exactly quiet...

That'd be great, actually. I'm about 90% sure it's the passenger rear bearing now. I've got a good coupon for Harbor Freight, so I may pick up one of those bearing kits.

I'll have to try those things. As for the actual repair once I find out which bearing it is, what parts should I get? It sounds like there are two seals, inner and outer. I've never seen them on any aftermarket lists, so maybe they're dealer only? Obviously, there's the bearing. I'll just pick up a Timken. If I'm lucky, I won't have to destroy the lateral link bolt, but I could get one from the dealer if I have to. Other thing, what's the procedure for using the Harbor Freight FWD bearing set? I took a look at the Hub Tamer and a DIY on an Integra. I'm not sure how the hub gets pulled out.

My Outback has been making some pretty loud noises as of late. What I've been reading suggests that it's most likely a rear wheel bearing. I've got 211k on the originals, so it wouldn't surprise me if that was it. I can hear some kind of noise, not really a grinding, more like a whoosh from the back when going slowly like in a parking lot. The real fun begins at 40-50mph. You get a nice resonant sound at that speed. It's pretty freaking loud. I can't seem to tell where it's coming from, either. It seems to come from everywhere at once. It's not load dependent, so that pretty much rules out the diff. It doesn't change while turning and laterally loading/unloading the bearings (swerving back and forth) doesn't change it either. I'm really only left with wheel bearings and the axle carrier bearing. Trouble is, I lifted the car up the other day, pulled on the rear wheels and spun them. No looseness and no strange noises from anywhere. Wheels sound fine, axles, diff and driveshaft. What I read when searching says that you can't use the try-to-rock-the-wheel test on these bearings because once you get to that point it's completely shot. So, other than pulling it apart, which really sucks since it's getting cold out, how am I supposed to test this thing?

When I replaced my wheel bearing and hub, I just took the knuckle off and brought the whole kit and caboodle to a shop. They charged me an hour of labor to do it. You could get a new tone wheel and have a shop do that for you.

I live in the rust belt. Not washing the car isn't an option. I've spent countless hours and hundreds of dollars correcting the damage my sister did by not washing the car when she had it for a couple years.

Gotta pay to play. :-p

Besides replacing them, what do you guys usually do about sagging door gaskets? Both gaskets on the front doors on my OBW are just hanging off. I've tried sticking them back on the mounting thingies but if anything gets them sticking to the door jamb they pull off again. The holes are all torn. Has anyone had any success gluing the torn parts back together or anything? I'm talking about the row of circular holes that have all turned into slits. I've also considered wiping some silicone spray onto the gaskets to prevent them from sticking. Any thoughts?

My vote is for sticky caliper piston as well. My car did the exact same thing when one of the two pistons started to stick and the seal on the other started to leak. Replaced the affected caliper, all good.