el_freddo

That was one of my thoughts but there’s a captive thread in that so where did the nut come from? I’d double check that you do in fact have the ball joint retainer bolt in place on either side and done up appropriately tight. You don’t want one of those ball joints dropping out and letting your hub take its own unplanned trip! My other thought was also the engine pitch stopper rod, I wonder if this was replaced with another bolt from somewhere else… Being that this was a “we” job - as in we did this and we did that… old mate isn’t stitching you up by placing this Subaru looking bolt in the mix of all your other nuts and bolts? That’s something a good mate might do as a prank! Cheers Bennie

The good news is that I can’t see it being a bolt from a major component like a ball joint or hub retainer bolt as they have captive threads, rendering that nut useless. And it’s too short for a suspension arm bolt. I’ve had this many times without issue. Keep the left over bits aside in a labelled container incase you find a missing bolt. While they’re off the vehicle consider the effort as weight reduction. Cheers Bennie

Thanks mate. Got the starting and idle issues sorted it seems. I think the idle mixture was too lean and driving it around hard for a bit may have moved come internal crud. Who knows?! Good news is it’s running well and seems to be returning good fuel economy. Cheers Bennie

I’ll chime in on GD’s behalf. Burn it. Burn it to the ground and get some old school GM gear to drive into the Armageddon. Ok, maybe I lathered that on a bit thick but that’s kind of how I read GD rolling. Cheers Bennie

And then buy what? Another car with someone else’s issues? I’d keep the vehicle you’ve ironed the issues out of. Otherwise trade it in at a dealership for a new vehicle and let them deal with it. Cheers Bennie

Worked perfect before I touched the carb. I didn’t strip any of it down and left it as is since the rebuild. It’s also summer down here atm - not very cold for morning cold starts. Cheers Bennie

Ok finally got an update on this one! I bit the bullet on buying a carb kit - for a DC 306 hitachi carb. This was a HTK-421 kit. Apparently for the needle and seat for the float valve I’d need the one from the kit HT432 but I didn’t bother and didn’t swap this bit as it wasn’t flooding the bowl. All went well with the rebuild. I’ve had to readjust my idle since tuning. Other thing I need to look into is why it’s hard to start when cold. The old double pump and crank trick doesn’t get it started. Once warmed up she fired up no worries! It runs well without any misfiring which I’m stoked about! Cheers Bennie

Email them the link to the YouTube video. That might get them moving with some action. Cheers Bennie

That bar work looks awesome all laid out like that! Good effort creating all of that. Having it painted would have it looking primo! Cheers Bennie

Bugger That second part number is a digit short. I can’t remember if it’s 673 or something else. I learned the other day that what you call a C clamp we call a G clamp over here - because it looks like a G! Thought I’d share Cheers Bennie

I hope you didn’t put the head gaskets on backwards so the oil gallery hole in the HG is on the wrong side! 🤞

Cruise is disabled when you’ve got a CEL. Only fix is to sort out the issue with the CEL, otherwise get used to maintaining your cruise speed with your right foot again. Cheers Bennie

The revving higher than normal and not the usual power sounds to me like it’s an auto issue. I can’t really help out as I’m not into autos and don’t really know how they work. You might be able to get the transmission serviced or overhauled if you’re wanting to keep the old school rolling for a long time to come. That engine is bullet proof if you look after it. Cheers Bennie

That’s an internet fallacy - there’s known tech bulletins posted around that state conditions that head bolts can be reused and when they should be replaced. If you know the engine wasn’t cooked badly I’d reuse the head bolts. GD talks about cleaning them up of any scale and running a tap (or modified old head bolt) down each thread to remove any gunk in there. As NVU says, if they squeak or squeal while torquing at any stage that head bolt won’t be done to proper speck and you’ll end up with the same issue. I’m not 100% sure on what the required action in this situation is - eg: back off all bolts, replace offending unit then restart the procedure or do that ^ and replace the head gasket you just fitted. I hope this helps. Cheers Bennie

Yeah I do! I forgot about that (been too long since driving Ruby Scoo 😢 ). I found out about the kit to refine the diff further after I had the whole gearbox together - I’m not even sure the kit is still available now. Good diff though and I want another one for my brumby build but they’re either hard to find or expensive to land in Oz. I’ll probably try a factory Torsten diff this time around, just need to save some coin. Cheers Bennie

That’s odd that it’s “between” or most noticeable in 2nd and 3rd gears as they’re in the middle of the gear sets and furtherest away from either bearing sets. I’ve not messed with those bearings before as I didn’t have a press back then. Here’s a pic of the dual range gearbox (EA82 AWD but it’s basically the same) opened up: Only other thing I can think it being is not the bearings but 2nd and 3rd gear wearing out/whining. But that doesn’t fit the bill of what you’re explaining either with the noise being there on start up. It’s a good head scratcher! The “ting” noise is an odd one as everything in the 4wd system is rotating when you drive so I’d think you’d still hear it then too, unless it’s a chipped tooth in the 4wd system in which case you wouldn’t hear it until the gears are loaded and this will be speed dependent - usually sounds like a distinct clicking sound but this one could be reverberating to the tailshaft to make the ting sound. If you tap your tailshaft with a metal tool you’ll probably be able to recreate the sound in the garage. Do you have any issues selecting reverse or getting out of reverse? Asking as I’m wondering if the reverse slider gear is *just* disengaging enough to get another gear but still engaged enough that it’s grinding on the other gears. This would be a horrid noise at cruise! Other thinking is you have a gear selector that’s resting on a synchro creating the grinding sound. But I reckon you’d have a very crunchy gear when selecting it and trying to deselect it could be difficult. Gearboxes are fun and not as scary as ppl think they are to work on. I enjoy it when I mess around with them! Cheers Bennie

That’s pretty “awesome” that the clutch dropped its guts in your driveway and not ages away from home! I prefer to remove gearboxes from under the car now and I’m well versed at it having done several and each one was slightly different. The last one I did to replace a clutch the gearbox didn’t leave the vehicle, I slid it back as far as possible on some smooth steel tubes so I could access the pressure plate with my tools etc. Worked a treat! Cheers Bennie

Hahaha… you mean 2wd unless you have a locked front diff you’re not telling us about! The open front diff won’t do anything for power to the ground! RWD drift pig here we come!! Cheers Bennie

I wonder if there’s enough wiring behind each plug to strip the wiring to check for shorts in that 2-3 inches behind the plug that @idosubaru talks about. ^ that could save a pot load of time and money fixing this issue than pulling out the whole dashboard and replacing that bulkhead wiring loom. Also impressed with those notes from the diagnostics. It does borderline on too much info/words that could turn many owners away from actually reading and trying to understand. It feels like a bit of a step forward from my end. Cheers Bennie

Other issue I thought of is the exhaust mufflers or cat breaking down partially blocking the exhaust. Putting a free flowing exhaust on our RX Liberty made it a bit more peppy, improved fuel economy and sound awesome. Win win. And when looking for more performance this is really the only performance mod that’s worth doing on these vehicles unless you head down the NA-t route. But you want to be well armed with knowledge to know the limitations of this setup Cheers Bennie

Good time for a very honest google review, try to remain factual and keep emotion out of it. That’s disappointing about SOA’s response, I thought they’d look into it further or tell the dealership to pull their head in and help you out since you’re obviously quite a regular service customer. I’d definitely be looking else where for the work to be done and put in a written complaint to the manager or top dog of the dealership outlining your treatment and how this left you disheartened at the apparent lack of honesty and transparency - which is something you expected from a Subaru dealership team. I doubt that will do much but if you don’t tell them they’ll never know. Cheers Bennie

That was awesome. Geez that outback cops a flogging! Amazing to see that low range doing its thing, the H6 makes easy work of it and even more importantly is how controlled you were during that climb! Thanks for sharing! Cheers Bennie

Yeah this situation stinks at best. You should have access to your vehicle and they should be accommodating this as required within reason. And this to me is well within reason! All the best with it!

Ah you miss the point of the Lego principle with Subarus there Jonno! While the impreza and forester are based on the same platform, the impreza typically saw drivetrain upgrades before the forester models did. But everything’s interchangeable if you know what you’re wanting to achieve and learn where all the parts reside within the various models - or stumble across them. There are enough foresters around to seek parts from your particular year model if it’s a small or particular part to the foz. Can’t really say the same for the good old L series or MY line up for ease of parts availability. Still Lego if you know what you’re doing My 20c Cheers Bennie

Several things you can do/check: - ensure the cam belt is timed correctly - check the air filter, if ancient or dirty replace it - no exhaust blockages? Hard to tell with this one - all fluids in good condition/fresh? - tyre pressures good? The hardest one of those is the checking of the cam timing belt to ensure the two cam wheels and the crank are correctly aligned. We’ve got a 2000 Gen3 RX Liberty (Legacy) with the EJ251 with almost 500,000km on the original engine and it still pulls like a freight train - it’s a manual which is the difference compared to your Oitback with the auto. Cheers Bennie