dirty_mech

No noise in the morning until the engine warmed up, then the chirping began. So I parked it and swapped out the new belt with the old once (since I like to keep the old one as a backup). Noise instantly gone. It was the belt, despite sounding so much like a bad pulley. Searched and it appears Bando may be the OEM supplier. Belt is also 1/3 the price of the AC Delco 6K864. Will run the Bando for the summer and see if it develops any noise. Perhaps I offroad it too much, and the dust messes with the belt, causing squeaking, and I'll have to replace it more frequently.

I've had a squeak on the front of this engine for half a year, and it's recently gotten worse. At first it only seemed to happen in cold or wet weather around idle RPMs, but now it's happening all the time. I know it can be either the belt or the pulleys, and that there's ways to check for both. I've already recently replaced the belt tensioner assembly and both idler pulleys. Belt was replaced almost a year ago with an AC Delco belt. I tried cleaning the pulleys with brake cleaner and the belt with paper towels. Scuffed the belt surface with a fine sandpaper, and put a fine crosshatch on the new idler pulleys. No apparent change in the the noise after doing this. Tried hitting each pulley in turn with WD-40 between startup tests, and it either stayed the same or got a little worse. I don't know, maybe I should be using a thicker lubricant for bearing testing. The squeak sounds closer to the right-hand side of the engine near the AC compressor. I'd like to suspect the aftermarket belt, but the noise didn't change at all after cleaning and scuffing. Really want to identify this squeak so I can fix it. Anyone recognize it? Any guesses or tests I can try? Video:

Well that answers a lot! Never heard of them until now. I've reviewed the technology and see there's no clutch to idle when it's off. Still, is it normal for the AC system to produce runoff constantly when the compressor is the variable displacement type? Perhaps when they get old? Update: Answered my own dumb questions. Guess I'm just too used to owning an older car. The AC in fact does run even when it's not activated. Someone online explains: " Does the AC Compressor run when the heat is on? Generally yes, as long as the outside temperature is above freezing and the more common settings are used. The compressor cycles on and off as its needed, the colder it is the less its needed. It serves to dry the air to keep the windows from fogging up. All air through the hvac system is passed through the a/c coils, the coils will be cooled to within a degree or so of freezing or the closest they can get depending on the outside temperature. This collects any excess water from the air, then is routed past a blend door that directs air to mix with the heater core in varying amounts depending on how much heat is called for, either full heat, no heat at all, or any amount in between. Although the lower limit for the a/c coils is about 33F (0.5C) the upper limit of the heater core is whatever the engines operating temperature is at. Which even in winter is 190F (88C) to 230F (110C), so this will be the temperature of the heater core as well once the engine warms up, so also due to the size of the heater core (its literally a mini radiator for the engine coolant) there is multiple times more heating ability available than a/c so assuming the engine is warm enough and everything functions properly full a/c and full heat at the same time will still result in very hot and also very dry air." So the AC doesn't even need to be turned on for the compressor to run and produce water. It's being used to dehumidify the car. No wonder my windows don't fog up so much!

I have a 2013 (Yaeger v.) Subaru Outback, M/T, 190k, of west coast origin that came to me with a minor amount of rust on all the pulleys at the front of the engine. I don't know if the rust is related, but my AC compressor clutch never seems to turn off. The AC produces runoff year round, even with the fan totally off. The AC works perfectly, and the fan doesn't seem to blow air conditioned air when the AC is off. However it does produce runoff constantly, and I'm never able to visually see the clutch disengaging at the front of the engine while it's running. It's a Denso TSE14F, which from preliminary research appears to be less common in Subarus of this model. Already tried adjusting the clutch but I can't seem to unscrew it from the compressor. Photos linked below. It seemingly has a large 20+ mm nut on the front, but it doesn't protrude enough to use a socket or wrench. Inside a dust cap in the center it has a very small, 8mm or less, hex head that might also be a screw. However it seems weak and I don't want to risk breaking it by using a lot of force. Is anyone familiar with how to loosen or remove the clutch on this AC compressor for adjustment and service? Also I considered the clutch solenoid might be stuck. I see two electrical connectors on possible compressor solenoids, but am not sure which one engages the clutch - the black or the blue-dot one. I'm also not clear on if the clutch solenoid is under pressure from the AC system. I read that at least one of the connected is in the refrigerant. There's also an intermittent squeak on the front of the engine that seems to occur most often in cold and/or wet weather, and only occurs at idle speed. I've replaced both idler pulleys and the tensioner pulley with no luck. I'm starting to think the AC compressor might be the culprit as it's running constantly whenever the car runs.s Perhaps I'm better just getting a new compressor? Any advice appreciated! Having it run all the time can't be good for my compressor or MPGs. https://imgur.com/a/yPBz4qf

Maybe in North Central Wisconsin. Not where I live. 😂

Solid advice Daskuppler. Thanks. I'll probably try to replace it if I can. However it's proving to have a compatibility issue. My transmission is the TY754VCAAA with an uncommon 3.90 final drive gear ratio. I've read in posts on this forum that the transmission and rear differential gear ratios need to match to be compatible. Found my Subaru transmission specs on this site: https://legacypic.uk/transmission/ It's the only 1 of 3 transmissions for the 2000 MY that has a 3.90 gear ratio; the other 2 have the 4.11 ratio which is more common for that era. I saw some comment suggesting any Subaru transmission with the same gear ratio might be compatible. I see there is a push clutch vs a pull clutch issue as well. The transmission I found has a 4.11 ratio so that's off the table. Looks like compatibility issues might make this a bigger headache than I want. Edit: Looked nearby and not many options in the junkyard. Maybe I can get lucky calling salvage up and find a compatible one, but even that would be hard. Repairing the existing transmission is starting to look more and more appealing. Or just selling as-is.

Hi there forum mates. To recap, my car started making a faint grinding / rumbling noise about 500 or so miles ago. I thought it was the engine at first because the oil was low at the time. Then I thought it was the clutch release bearing. After twisting the input shaft while replacing the bearing and consulting with you guys, I realized the actual problem is that one of the bearings on my transmission input shaft is going bad. Everything is back together and I'm driving it again. It drives great except for the faint, intermittent grinding / rumbling noise from the input shaft. I actually plan to sell this Subaru because I recently bought a 2013 Outback. I have 3 questions to ask regarding this 2000 Legacy's transmission issue before I sell it. 1. How long could I reasonably expect the transmission to last with a noisy input shaft bearing? The noise is most prominent when first starting the vehicle. If I drive enough, it gets more quieter and can go away almost completely. So I suspect perhaps it's not that bad yet. 2. Would changing the transmission gear oil help with the noise or reduce the time until failure? I'm due for a gear oil change anyways. I used 75W-90 and a healthy does of Lucas Oil Stabilizer last time. Perhaps using a lot of Lucas Oil could minimize the noise? 3. Should I bother fixing it before selling it or just sell it as-is at a reduced price? I was planning to get 4-5K without the transmission issue based on the current market conditions, detailed service record, and upgrades including Outback struts, performance clutch, dash cam, alarm system, GPS system, anti-carjacking system, and many recently replaced parts including the windshield, head gaskets, timing belt, and tires. In it's current condition I'm not sure what to ask for it. 3K maybe? The answer will depend on how long I can expect the transmission to last before it absolutely needs to be replaced. I see there is a good transmission for $300 about 300 miles away from me, so maybe double that with tax and shipping. Kind of tempting but not a job I actually want to do. What do you guys think?

Hi guys. Thanks for getting back to me Lucky Texan. Me neither! 😅 I'm always game to learn more about fixing these cars if necessary, but I'm getting to an age where I'm trying to avoid it. THANK YOU el_freddo for the very detailed guide on how to do this. That is excellent information. Even if I don't repair the transmission, that is an info will be helpful to anyone who might run into the same problem. I'll definitely be using it if I ever have to repair one of these transmissions. Hi Numbchux. Yeah, that's what I figured. I'm not even sure I want to go as far as replacing the transmission because I plan to sell this car. Not sure it's worth the time to fix. I'm going to start a new thread on this issue because I have some specific questions regarding my situation, now that I know the transmission is the issue. Thank you guys again.

So I watched the full 3-part series on this guy's Subaru transmission repair. I am confident that I could do the repair, but I wondering if it's more effort than just snagging a transmission from Pick n Pull, if possible, where they will only charge me about $200 if I pull it myself. I might try doing that, but it would be cool to fix the transmission on my own. Would love to hear your guys' opinions on what route I should take. The third part of his project (embedded below) shows that the input shaft made a click-click-click noise just like my input shaft, and that the noise was gone once he replaced a couple bearings and put it all back together. The video series has encouraged me to try and fix this myself. The only issue is I will need to disassemble the transmission and inspect the input shaft before figuring out which bearings have gone bad. Apparently there are several that can go bad, one for each of the gear sets, and not just the front bearing. In his pre-video on replacing the center differential, he mentioned that the 75W-90 gear oil these transmissions call for should NOT contain limited slip additive. Or at least on his 2012 transmission. Are you guys familiar on whether this also applies to the transmissions from 2000? I wasn't paying attention to such a requirement and may have used an oil with that additive on my last gear oil change. Is that something that could've caused this problem or a different problem? I also added Lucas Oil Stabilizer to the gear oil in my transmission and rear diff. Any opinions on whether that also could've potentially caused damage? I'm a bit keener on following OEM specs to the letter these days, so will plan to use what is strictly specified next time. Edit: Just wanted to say that I absolutely swear by putting Lucas Oil in the engine during oil changes. Only because my engine is so old and eats so much oil otherwise. My 235k, EJ251 engine will eat oil about 4x as fast without Lucas Oil, requiring half a quart or more every other fill-up, and that's when I'm using Mobil 1 High Mileage 10W-40. I would've probably had to rebuild my engine at this point without that stuff. Don't know if it's a problem in the transmission and rear diff however. I was so impressed by how it helped my engine that I didn't even think about it when putting it in my powertrain devices. Perhaps it could be a problem by increased viscosity allowing debris in the bottom of the case to be more easily picked up and run through the components during operation?

So I just watched a video video on replacing the input shaft bearing on a 2012 Subaru 5-speed transmission. Link at the bottom since I can't resize the embed. Not the right year but looks similar enough to give me an idea. In the video, the gentleman points out 2 different bearings on the input shaft that could go bad. So perhaps I will need to replace the larger rear bearing? I'm not even sure what is the part name of the second bearing. It also shows a paper gasket at one point that needs to be scraped and replaced. Might be RTV on my model but I'll have to figure that out as well. Here's a photo with the positions of the 2 bearings. I think the front input shaft bearing is the one on the left, but he says the larger one in the back went out on him before in the original transmission: Starting to look a bit involved, but I'm not discouraged yet! What do you guys think, can I do it?

Yes it is noisy in neutral with the foot off the clutch. I think you might be onto something Texan. Please help me out here. I just replaced the clutch release bearing and the noise is still present. Very unsatisfactory result but I was able to reboot the blown CV axle boots while I was at it, so not a total loss. Put some photos below. It appears the issues now must be my transmission. I'm very nervous about this because I know diddly-squat about transmissions, even the manual ones. I suppose I could try to hunt one down but this one seems to be working great except for the grinding noise. I would rather fix it if possible. An issue I noticed when the transmission was dropped was that while I turned the input shaft by hand while the axles and shaft were all uninstalled, there was a click-click-click noise. Some sort of unevenness in the rotation. This and the not-terrible condition of the old release bearing made me very nervous the transmission is having an issue. Is this likely to be the input shaft bearing? Because the transmission works fine other than for this disturbing faint grinding noise. Is this something I could perhaps fix at home or no? Looks like the input shaft bearing is around $40 from the dealer, but the schematic makes it look quite complicated (see photos below). I've got a lot of experience but this might test me. Let me know what you guys think.

Yeah I think you're right. Now the question is which part. Is it possible this is just the release bearing causing the noise? Because I already have a spare release bearing ready to go. I reused the old release bearing because (1) it only had 18 months on it to begin with, and (2) it was an oversized bearing that worked in conjunction with a quill repair sleeve. Perhaps the bearing and/or quill repair sleeve have gone bad and I can get away with just swapping out the bearing? I guess I would need to know what is the most likely component to cause all this noise. I'd like to avoid replacing the whole clutch kit over a glorified squeak. Edit: Based on this video, I think it is the throwout bearing: I think I'm going to try and just replace the bearing. What a pain...

Hi guys. This is my 2000 Legacy Wagon L M/T at 235K. A grinding / rubbing / scraping noise has started coming from my engine. It is most noticeable when first starting the car and running at idle, although it can still be noticed when running the car. Here are 3 behaviors that will probably allow someone to name the issue: - Pressing the clutch pedal to the floor makes the sound disappear completely. - Revving the engine with the pedal to the floor causes no sounds. - Revving the engine in neutral without pressing on the clutch pedal not only causes the noise, but the noise increases in frequency and pitch along with engine speed. Is this most likely some kind of clutch issue with the clutch plate, the pressure plate, or the release bearing? Or could it be engine damage? I'm asking because I discovered my engine oil was very low when the noise first started. Forgot to add Lucas oil stabilizer last oil change so it was eating oil much faster than I anticipated. I was so certain the noise was engine damage that I bought a new 2013 Outback. However I've been driving it for over 3 weeks without performance issues, so I'm starting to suspect this is a smaller problem than I originally suspected, such as an annoying clutch noise. I was overdue for an upgrade anyways so I'm not upset if this turns out to be a just clutch issue. I did the clutch 18 months ago. I used an Exedy 15801 Stage 1 racing clutch kit which has been performing excellent so far. However I did afterwards notice a weird mechanical sound bouncing off the freeway divider when I'm driving fast, which gave my car an almost diesel-engine sound. It was concerning at first but subsided with time and I haven't noticed it for quite a while. So perhaps I did something wrong during the clutch job and it's only started to become an issue now. So what do you guys think? Is this a bad clutch component? I suppose it could be a transmission or engine issue, but both have been performing perfectly. The only problem is this noise. Edit: Here's a video so you can hear and see how the noise behaves relative to engine speed and clutch pedal position. https://imgur.com/tdu5fe2

Thanks for all the great info, Idosubaru! It sounds like I'll be changing out the boots and grease on all my axles in the near future. I want to make those puppies last as long as possible. Glad I don't need to sweat the wheel bearings. I've done one of those on a Toyota Corolla before and it's not easy even on basic models. I'll wait until one of those fails to replace it. The vibration I have is fairly mild right now. I'll take my time greasing the axles and see if that does it. If not, I'll look for that Fairfax thread on the steering rack.

So just cleaning and regreasing them can make them work more smoothly and eliminate vibration!? I'm curious if any of the internal parts are replaceable, in the event I do find wear... But it sounds like you're saying they never really go bad as long as the boot doesn't break. So maybe a rebooting and regreasing is really all I do need. Still wondering about those 20+ year old wheel bearings. I wonder if I can reduce vibration even further by replacing them... Here's a guy who has a great technique for cleaning out old CV joint grease with compressed air and brake cleaner: