hohieu

Wow, that's a really great job of diagnosing and fixing the problem, Mark. Just one question, had you noticed an abnormally high rate of oil consumption as a result of the bad exhaust valve?

Did you try testing the coil with the engine at operating temperature? Sometimes coils only test bad when hot.

The government does not write the tax code for graduate students, whose fellowship and grant income can be filed (and interpretted) in multiple ways. As an accoutant, I imagine that your job is not only to know the rules, but to also interpret the rules in a manner that minimizes both taxes paid and the likelihood of an IRS audit. The magic is in the interpretation, never in the cold hard facts. My only question: do these guys :banana: keep the IRS away?

So I guess you need to find a replacement crankshaft pulley as well. Is the Woodruff key intact? As already mentioned, this is pretty normal to have a little bit of play. The new bolt may help. So long as you can crank it down to the specified torque, the threads are fine. If even the new bolt doesn't go in smoothly, chasing the threads isn't a bad idea. The size is M14 x 1.5 -- same size but different pitch as spark plugs, which are M14 x 1.25. You're right -- there are no threads in the first 1/2 inch or so on the crankshaft snout.

Had I known this a couple of weeks ago, we could have bartered services. As a grad student, my taxes are unduly complicated -- will spare you the self-inflicted physical harm stories...

Some good points, and these issues can be diagnosed with a visual inspection of the wires. Makes sense with the low voltage distributorless ignition in Subarus. Perhaps this is why Subaru specifies inspection of wires but no regular replacement interval.

It's good to be able to laugh at yourself.

It is acutally possible to regrease the tensioner pulley, though popping off the grease seals is a bit tricky. I regreased mine at the first hint of noise, and it hasn't come back. So long as there's no play in the bearing, I feel it's fine to regrease them. You'll have to take off you accessory belts to confirm that it is indeed the AC pulley that's causing the noise. If so, it may be your AC clutch engaging and disengaging that's causing the noise. Does your A/C work?

Glad you got it done. That price sounds about right. I bought a Hub Tamer set, a bearing, and seals for about $250, and with some time, it's worthwhile to do the job yourself if you are so inclined. Correction: OEM Subaru wheel bearings are made by NTN, Corp., which recommends a grease fill of approximately 30% of the free space inside the bearing. Overfilling a bearing can cause it to overheat. See: www.ntnamerica.com/faq.htm

normally aspirated, yes.You can check out www.cars101.com for year to year changes. There has been a clutch "judder" problem, especially when cold. A search will yield some results. I think my 99 Forester has had these symptoms since purchased at 72K miles, but with smooth clutch action, it's unnoticeable, at least on my car. Now at 133K miles, I'll just replace it when it wears out. I drove another 99 Forester with updated components installed and noticed that the clutch engagement was definitely smoother than that in my car.

Subaru all wheel drive vehicle so there are 4 cv half shafts. On front wheel drive vehicles, you have only two in the front. Four wheel drive vehicles with solid axles, like my 91 cherokee, have no cv half shafts. If you get an OEM wheel bearing from the dealer, it'll be the updated tapered roller bearing made by NSK, which are also used on the Legacies so you don't need to specifically order a Legacy bearing. Unless you're buying new old stock, you'll get the updated bearing. As an aside, I used Koyo (an OEM supplier for Toyota and many other cars) bearings from RockAuto. Like NSK bearings, they're made according to metric units in Japan and have worked just fine for me. They actually supply one of the OEM T-belt idlers for Subarus. These bearings should theoretically last forever if properly installed, but what happens is that the hub seals fail allowing grease to leak out and contaminants to leak into the bearing. This is why it's important to check the polished surface of the outer cv joint on which the seals slide. The only question left is whether to repack the bearings. Subaru says no in their updated installation procedure, but there remains some debate on this issue. If you repack with a quality grease, you can't go wroing. I use Mobil 1 red grease because it's readily available and not all that expensive.

Makes a lot of sense. I have a 91 Cherokee with 205K miles and can't say enough good things about these earlier models. 30K miles is premature -- the maintenance schedule calls for replacement of cap, rotor, and wires every 60k miles. I have a set of KEM Mag-Plus wires, similar in construction to the Magnecor though probably of lesser quality, to swap in when the time comes. With the lower voltage distributorless ignition on our Subies, there is no mention of ignition wire replacement in the maintenance schedule. That's really why I started this thread in the first place. That said, it's amazing these materials last as long as they do, being baked over an engine for over 100K miles. I'd love to take this car as far as it'll go, but with current trends in oil prices, who knows how far this will be. I'll just stick with the new OEM wireset I already have, and I'll still have the original wires to swap back in as needed.

Ok, then it's probably a matter of time for the other side, but it doesn't make any sense to pre-emptively replace it if it's not making noise. On my car, the previous owner went through two sets (both sides) of those caged ball bearings in the rear over the first 60K miles. Subaru had already revised the parts, grease, and install procedure in August 2001 when he had them replaced again at a dealer, and they seem to be holding up pretty well. I may have an out of round housing one the rear passenger side caused by one of the previous installs, which resulted in premature failgure of even the revised bearing -- will just have to wait and see how long the one I put in lasts. Another thing to check is the polished surface on the outer CV joint. If it's pitted and rough, it'll just eat up the new inner seals allowing contaminants in and grease to leak out, decreasing the service life of the bearing.

Agree with with A/E about leaving the other side alone. However, due to unusually high rates of rear wheel bearing failures on early Foresters, Subaru released an updated low force service procedure using Hub Tamer type tools. I purchased a set and the job was quite easy after dealing with that lateral link pinch bolt. I replaced a bad passenger side rear wheel bearing on my 99 Forester last year, 4th bearing on this corner over 118K miles. The original owner had the new tapered roller bearings installed just before I purchased the car. I noticed the noise shortly after purchasing the car, and I drove it for another 45K miles before replacing the faulty bearing -- noise got louder, but there was never any play. You can also feel a bad bearing by putting lifting the car up and turning the wheel with one hand and placing your other hand on the coil spring. Any roughness in the bearing will be transmitted to the coil spring, where you'll feel some vibration. How many miles do you have on your car and are you the original owner? Just wondering if you still have the orginal caged ball bearings in the rear.

I was just curious about how long the OEM wires hold up under normal use, but I'll just go ahead and swap the new ones in. I'd rather replace them before the engine starts missing. I've seen cars with cracked catalytic honeycombs as a result of prolonged misfiring -- unburned fuel overheating the catalytic converter resulting in an expensive repair. I've seen you mention them before, and I'm curious. Aside from the wires never arcing, have you or your friends noticed better performance or sloved persistent ignition issued not remedied by conventional solid wires? How much did you pay for a set? I'm seeing $126 for my car in their catalog -- Ouch!

99 Forester, 133K miles. I'll be doing a 30k-mile service very soon and plan on replacing the spark plug wires with an OEM set I've already purchased. I've checked resistances on the old wires, which are all well within specifications. Should I go ahead and replace them? At what mileage do you people generally replace the wires?

I wouldn't do it on a flying machine either, but a low load bearing should theoretically last forever if properly greased. As long as there's no play in the bearing, I just regrease them -- now if only I could find a place that sold those silly grease seals.

It's possible to regrease the pulleys. You need to carefully remove one of the seals by prying up along the outer circumference of it. Clean the old grease out with non-chlorinated brake cleaner and blow dry with compressed air. Then fill up about 1/3 of the bearing space with a decent grease and press the seal back in. I've done this with the accessory belt tensioner pulley as well as the T-belt idler pullies. This on a EJ25 SOHC engine, but all these pullies are similarly constructed.

Indian Head Gasket Shellac Compound will also work.

Thanks for the input. I usually change my oil in the Fall because the oil thickens over time. I figure it's better to have fresh (thinner) oil during the winter months. From what I've read, it takes quite a bit to plug up an oil filter causing the bypass valve to open, and my car consumes some oil so I get to top off with about 2 qts./OCI. This is why I opted not to replace the oil filter midway through each OCI. I agree that I should probably stick with one brand of oil in order to avoid incompatible chemistry of additives, but I just needed to use up the Pennzoil I had on the shelf. I've also left M1 15W/50 in my motorcycle, which I've had little opportunity to ride in recent years, for a couple of years. I would be willing to run these longer intervals using virtually any synthetic motor oil on the market today.

Here's the data and some observations: I've been using extened drain intervals since I puchased our 99 Forester in 2004 with 72.5k miles on the odometer. The car now has 132.5k miles. I've done all the scheduled (and some unscheduled) maintenance on this car, and it still runs as it did when first purchased. I've changed the oil 5 times over the course of these 60k miles. Oil Change Interval (OCI) OCI #1 = 5 months/11,292 miles OCI #2 = 10 months/10,667 miles OCI #3 = 10 months/13,026 miles OCI #4 = 12 months/12,974 miles OCI #5 = 11 months/11,900 miles The first two OCIs used Mobil 1 (M1) 5W/30 exclusively. I had about 15 qts. of M1 15W/50 that I had purchased for my motorcycle and needed to use up so I filled the engine with a 50/50 mix of M1 5W/30 and M1 15W/50 for OCIs #3 through #5. For topping off during the last three OCIs, I had Pennzoil Platinum 5W/30 lying around so I used it to top off during the colder months. During the warmer months, I topped off with 15W/50. I've used Supertech oil filters for all but OCI #4 when I used an OEM filter. I've not paid for an oil analysis to this point, but I can say that oil consumption has remained steady at a rate of .45 qt./3,000 miles. Fuel consumption has also remained relatively stable with no noticeable difference between straight 5W/30 and the 50/50 mix. I'll pay for an oil analysis at around 200k in order to decide whether it's worth it to perform major serivce items (e.g., clutch, struts, timing belt). At the next oil change, I'll have a chance to visually inspect the top end when I adjust the valves, though I don't anticipate finding any unusual sludge or deposits. What I'd be curious to see is a similar set of data using conventional or synthetic blend motor oil in the same vehicle under the same conditions. I just wonder if running synthetic makes much of a difference in a normally aspirated Subie. This link has been mentioned on the board before, and it's worth a look: http://neptune.spacebears.com/cars/stories/oil-life.html Edited for typos

The worst and most frustrating part was stubbornly soaking and pounding away at that bolt for days to no avail. Once you decide that you need to trash the bushings and bolt in order to do the job, which adds around $100 in parts from the local dealer, it's not so bad. That bolt is made of some really high grade steel so you'll need to just patiently cut away. I would suggest trying to get that lateral link bolt out before purchasing your bearing(s) and seals. This way, you'll know whether you need the bushings and bolt as well. Rest assured that I really lathered some antiseized onto the new bolt before reassembly.

The bolt has to come off even with the Hub Tamer because the half shaft has to come out of the knuckle in order to gain access to the bearing. You could detach the lateral links at the differential end, but then you would also be messing with the rear alignment. The bolt is most likely seized inside the bushing collars. If you can't get the bolt out, order two new bushings and a new pinch bolt along with your bearing and seals. As for the long pinch bolt, mine was corrosion welded into the bushing collars, and man, I hit it with everything I had over the course of several days: PB Blaster, impact gun, punch and 3-lb hammer, torch, impact hammer..... In the end, I had to cut off the head of the bolt with a grinder fitted with a cutting wheel. Then I separated the bushing from the rear lateral link with a two-jaw puller, cut that end of the bolt off, separated the bushing from the front lateral link with the puller, and finally tapped what was left of the bolt out of the knuckle. There will be enough play in the lateral links to do things this way. It was a real bear, and by far, the most time consuming part of the job

Yeah, I figured you already realized this, and I do feel you pain. I went from a Toyota Corolla to the flying box(er). I'd imagine the newer legacies get a bit better highway mileage with their more areodynamic design. I don't even keep track of so-called city driving/around town mileage, which can mean many different things including 2 hours of bumper to bumper rush hour traffic over a 15-mile stretch if you live in a major metro area like I do.

Could you use a two jaw puller against the support bracket with an appropriate socket against the caliper piston to pull it off? Sometimes petroleum based greases can cause the rubber bushing attached to the end of the slide pinto swell inside the bore, making them very difficult to remove.