olivia123

Here is an update. I looked at the brakes on the driver’s side yesterday and found the pads in good shape; the rotors were not perfect but not bad. But when I went to remove the pads the outer pad was very tight in the upper spring guide. I managed to pry it out and cleaned everything up and it all went back together pretty smoothly with no binding. Initial test went well with the condition being gone. But after driving the car about twenty miles at highway speeds when I went to part the car the grinding vibration was there again but not as bad. This morning after a short local drive the condition wasn’t there. So it seems heat related somehow. Also one last thing when I had the brakes apart and the caliper was hanging from the strut my daughter pushed in the brake pedal. I noticed that only one of the pistons came out. Is that normal or should both of them come out and could that be part or all of the problem? Thanks in advance for any further comments.

What I meant was when you turn hard right at slow speed into a parking place with brakes applied as you are easing in you get the noise. If you do the same thing, a little risky if there is a car in the facing space, without applying the brakes you don’t get the noise. I’ll have a look at the spring clips, pads etc tomorrow and see what I find.

Hi, I have a 1998 outback wagon with grinding/vibration problem when turn right slowly with the brakes applied. Perfect example is pulling into a parking place in a shopping center. It doesn’t happen without the brakes being applied. You can feel the vibration in the steering wheel and as best I can tell the source is in the driver’s side front. So I kind of thinking brakes in some form, new pads but not rotors about a year ago. But I thought I would try to get some ideas as to what it might be before I look into it tomorrow. I have read some of the other posts about grinding from wheels etc and most point to a wheel bearing but I don’t think that is what is happening here. Any insight would be much appreciated

First thanks to all who responded, it got me focused on the knock sensor. Anway when I went to locate the sensor I couldn’t find it and came to realize that it was covered with nut shells, thanks to a local squirrel I think. So I blew off the shells with my air compressor blower and got to thinking that just maybe that was causing the problem. So I disconnected the neg bat terminal to reset the code and have been driving it for three days no CEL and the car is running fine. Just a coincidence or is there any possibility that the sensor being covered with shells could cause it to not behave normally?

Thanks for the tip to go to Advance Auto to read codes. They lent me the reader so I was able to use it myself in the paring lot. I found a P0325 knock sensor code and reset it. On the way home the CEL came back on. I have read some posts about the knock sensor and the symptoms seem pretty similar to what I’m having. So I will locate it, run the continuity test and most likely just replace it and see what happens. Any suggestions where to purchase? Third party sensors OK?

My wife has a 98 outback wagon, 2.5 auto trans, so I don’t drive it very much. The check engine light came on about a week ago and was intermittent for a few days and now seems to be staying on all the time. Until yesterday the car still was running normally with the light on. Yesterday, a very hot day, the car seemed to be losing power especially on up grades and was surging when starting from a stop and in general seemed to be missing. When I got home I left it running and opened the hood. I heard what sounded to me like a clicking sound that seemed to be caused by air rather than metal to metal. The AC was still on and both fans were running as they should be I think. I was thinking vacuum leak. I started it up this morning and all seemed normal except the check engine light was still on. I drove it for about 15 minutes including some upgrades and all seemed normal. When I got back that the AC was cycling on and on frequently as it idled and when it was on I could here the clicking sound I mentioned earlier. When the AC came on the driver’s side fan came on first then the passenger. I thought they were supposed to come on at the same time. I don’t have a reader to pull codes. I am thinking about putting plugs and wires on it as I haven’t done that since I’ve had the car, about 40,000 miles. I have read several threads on changing the plugs on the 2.5 and actually decided to give it a go a couple of months ago but I couldn’t even get the tee boot off the front plug on the pass side. So any tips on removing these would also be appreciated. Sorry for the length of this post. This forum has bailed me out many times in the past and thanks in advance for the advice.