idosubaru

Well done Larry. Enjoy another job well done boss.

How confident are you/him this is an axle noise? Maybe it's the CVT making the noise? Let's assume his diagnosis is correct for a moment: Excellent. A dipstick check isn't very conclusive or condemning. Change the fluid, have the fluid dumped into a clean container and inspect the fluid. Blackstone labs I think can test the particulate matter of CVT fluid and tell you what it is and whether it's more indicative of wear or worse issues. If the noise is an axle and there's no transmission noises then there's a reasonable chance of not having any issues either. CVT's aren't very good at failing quietly. You didn't ask but do not use any parts store axles. They all suck no matter what rando review you read on line. You will not find the holy grail you, or others, think exist. They all suck. Regrease/reboot your original, or install a rebooted/regreased used Subaru axle. Aftermarkets are total trash. All of them. Unless you like gambling with insanely high failure rates and wasting your time swapping axles multiple times. Install a Subaru axle or reboot/regrease the original. They typically last the life of the car. The ones I've regreased/rebooted the old grease just pours out and is absolultely trashy...or it's mostly empty/dry. I've never rebooted a noisy/clicking Subaru OEM axle that didn't drive like new afterwards. I of course avoid ones that have eggregious issues, I don't blindly regrease ones filled with sand (which I've seen before)

car-part.com for used trans pricing and availability. 2013-2017 Outback CVTs are interchangeable even though that database says they are not. I’ve never checked into 2011 comparability but you might have more options than it lists. He’s wise for installing new - saves him and you the headache of used parts issues. And Any aftermarket rebuilt AT for Subarus should be avoided. The glaring omission here is why was he looking and how did he check? ”presumably” - does this mean you just got the car? If so, there’s a good chance you just bought someone else’s problem after they got the same quote and sold it to you. I see this happen all the time. Enough of that Sherlock Holmes talk - back to the omissions: If he checked via the dipstick I wouldn’t consider that a reliable diagnosis. Drain the fluid and check. If it was drained, why was it drained? Or did you have symptoms that promoted looking for issues? Transmissions can have debris in them - the magnetic rings always have built up debris on them over time in the pans. So you’ll need to describe this “shavings”. But yes - “shavings”, in the way I’d use that word is absolutely catastrophic for an AT. That said - I could envision plenty of scenarios where I’d fill it with new fluid and see what happens. As annoying as those are to fill. 2017 CVTs work in 2013s, not sure if they go back to 2011 but that might expand your used options if you need that route

How much/how quickly is it leaking, is it external or internal leak, is it the original gaskets? If it's a slow, external leak, on the original gaskets then you have a really good chance of it working. I wouldn't try if you suspect a reasonable amount of internal leakage. If it's leaking a lot or the gaskets were previously replaced - chances aren't great. If it's an internal leak - it has zero chance of working. This is when I think it can cause problems. This might not be 100% accurate but for example - Normally coolant conditioner is suspended in solution and doesn't "react" until it's exposed to a leak. So it doesn't do anything to cause issues. In an improperly working cooling system the conditioner may be exposed to air pockets, exhaust gases, pressure/temp fluctuations that may encourage it to react internally where it's not suppose to. This may or may not matter or it might take more than one bottle to cause issues, I haven't tried that enough to say. But I'd probably try to diagnose how much/how quickly it's leaking and if it's internal or external before attempting it.

Stateside they're in the $50's from Subaru, that's where I get them. I think they were $40 last time I did it.

Hmm there is that. We have all be there before! not wanting to make it worse or ruin a chance of it being flaky enough to work right again.

Any uncertainty on how long it ran hot, or if turn around time is critical: JDM. If turn around time isn’t critical, or it overheated on someone’s watch that I know: repairing is a reasonable option.

interesting feedback. someone posted earlier about repairing the sensor does that look doable? Do the testing instructions give clues to how to bypass it? GD mentioned ohms… As already stated removing the entire seat is 4 bolts and disconnect the plugs. They drive fine without the seat, ive driven subarus without any front seats at all LOL. So you could remove the passengers seat for testing purposes and still use the vehicle. A second person might help keep the lower metal tabs of the seat from scratching anything inside or outside. They are awkward to wiggle out. But I’ve done gobs by myself and it only takes a few minutes.

Buy a used lower cushion and swap it out. I have one but it’s not worth shipping or rendering my parts car without a seat. Good call - you should be able to mimmick the sensor to always be “on” rather than “off”. I don’t know the functioning of the sensor to say how to do it though. But it’s probably a simple toggle mechanism or limit switch somewhere just on/off. there’s no circuits, ICs, or code embedded in the seat. This sounds like a great solution Im not sure why this feature exists, maybe it’s so the bag doesn’t go off with a short person or pet in the seat who might get injured worse by the bag? But that doesn’t seem likely since it doesn’t take much to trip it and a pet can’t be restrained by seat belts. Or maybe it’s to avoid the passengers side airbag blowing? I just rebuilt a totaled 2017 ans every single bag in the car went off except the passengers side airbag. Even the drivers wheel and passengers side curtain and passengers seat went off but not the passengers bag. That replacement block scenario is bizarre. I don’t know why that’s been so complicated but it seems like it’s gotta be something beyond Subaru Corp going on behind the scenes.

It's listed mileage is 105,000. That's the exact mileage, 105,000, that subaru requires the timing belt to be replaced. So it may be the case that he's listing it for sale because he just got an estimate for the timing belt job. So that might suggest a reason for being sold. I always want to know why a car is being sold. Not just the reason someone gives, but the real reason they're getting rid of it. There's some reason they don't want it - why?

Avoid. A decade old turbo with no known history. I'd suggest an outback as they're larger and heavier and safer because of it. There's no substitute for size and impreza's are small. The highest risk for accidents is 16-19 year olds so safety isn't a bad consideration. Scour the wrecked auto auctions and look at totaled Subaru's - I buy from those places and it seems to me outbacks fare better as the weight suggests they should. There are turbo Outbacks and they come in H6's for a little extra power without the turbo's maintenance, repair, and failure horror stories. Any turbo gas engine is one small failure away from $5,000+ in repairs. My buddies 30k mile cream puff turbo blew up a a year or two ago - $10k repairs. And more. It happens. But let's be realistic - if the kid is looking at this and it's even remotely possible for his parents to be entertaining it - then practicality and finances are obviously of little concern. This kid obviously has free reign to get some sporty aesthetic he's after. That car is nothing remotely close to a good financial or safety decision, so those things probably don't matter much beyond just talking about it. If that's true, let's mitigate all the heat/synthetic oil/intervals/mods/maintenance issues possible with a turbo. I would want documentation on timely synthetic oil changes. Those engines are extremely unforgiving. Non-turbo's - who cares, don't let it get low and change it sometimes and they're fine. Turbo's...they like to blow up if you give them a reason. Get the VIN and pull all the data on it - VIN check, carfax, ask owner for maintenance history, and call the local subaru dealers to see what's been done to it. Pay particular attention to the oil changes and oil/cooling/turbo related work/repairs/modifications. At a minimum it needs a timing belt job ($1,000 at a dealer if it's done properly with Subaru belt, pulleys, tensioner). Mileage doesn't matter, it'll well past the age limit.

Who replaced the headgaskets?

Did you see signs it was worked on before? If so then your guess is highly likely - they had parts in a bag and mix and matched when reassembling.

Good question - I’d rather walk 50 miles barefoot while brushing teeth than pulling those in a yard. The H6 shims I’ve done have always needed reduced, not increased. So I just do it the easy way and grind down the backsides to gain the clearance instead of doing that baffling shim matching voodoo.

Usual culprits are front diff or front axle. If you mimic the same conditions that cause the noise but do it while 1. Going straight 2. Turning left and 3. Turning right 4. Uphill, are there any differences? A free test, or waste of time, would be to swap both front axles left to right. This reverses the loading and will change the noise if it’s axle related. But if they’re old and may need new grease or boots this might not be a total waste of time. Is either axle a non OEM replacement? Those are highly problematic when new and with age. Or They can also just need grease - the grease gets old and will just pour out like liquid. Cleaning and regreasing can quiet them up Change diff fluid and look for any signs of metallic particles or chunks in it. Driveshaft ujoints or carrier bearing and potentials but I’d expect

absolutely. I pour it through a cheap cabin filter or whatever you have laying around. As to the clutch issues I imagine you'll know what's wrong when you take it apart but probably a decent change the fork or pivot have failed.

You said 30 ohms - how did it compare to the others or did you look up specs? Bad ECU's can cause injectors not to fire, though I haven't heard of them causing one to fail. I'd look up the FSM procedure for testing the circuit. ECU is easily accessible in passengers side footwell under carpet/dash if you need to trace wires from injector to ECU. I don't have it memorized but I don't think injector wiring is too complicated, can probably just test resistance/continuity from one side to ECU and the other to ground.

Get a new Subaru block with 3 year 36,000 mile warranty ( I think I heard they even bumped the mileage component up higher). https://www.ebay.com/itm/SUBARU-GENUINE-LEGACY-FORESTER-IMPREZA-SHORT-BLOCK-ENGINE-EJ253-2006-/283726043624?_trksid=p2349526.m4383.l4275.c1#viTabs_0 (Resurface the heads first - like $150, no need for a full valve job. And use Subaru gaskets) If you're buying used get a 2008-2009 legacy or outback engine. There are ways to get other year/engines to work. You do not have a JDM engine and federal/CA shouldn't matter for just replacing the block. You're not replacing the electronics or converters.

Baja turbo rear springs offer minor improvements decent for many OBW situations. They can stay level or better with a couple hundred pounds of two average/light rear passengers and gear in the rear and towing…depending on weight distribution and tongue weight of course. For really high loads, heavy passengers and gear, heavy towing and zero tolerance - then king springs.

You should just need a standard non turbo EA81 axle. Rockauto only lists one variation: https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/subaru,1985,brat,1.8l+h4,1267747,drivetrain,cv+axle,2288 You can reboot yours. I've done this with 100% success rate and it always works though I'll avoid ones trashed with south georgia pecan tree access road sand or mountain coal field aggregate. I wouldn't be confident of axle parts interchanging, the axles/splines/ball/cups aren't all the same.

Did you ever have a client have that issue while you were working on them!?

Subarus (and probably others I just don't know) are well known for passing any wheel bearing test. There's no one test that positively identifies all failing wheel bearings.

2 years - wow, that's got to feel good to be done with that! With those extra parts replaced maybe you can keep those annual PA inspections at bay for awhile (if those are state wide?) If the title didn't say front, we would have landed on rear wheel bearings first since that's by far the most common issue on 2006 Outbacks. 05-06's have an extended 100,000 mile/8year rear bearing warranty because of it. Very well known. The title saying "Front" steered us wrong. Otherwise this would have been easy for folks very familiar with Subaru's due to that issue. I say all that because it would be good to keep that in mind for the other side. Even if they've already been replaced after 15 years if they were aftermarket, that's just as bad, if not worse. I just replaced the same exact part number as yours in a 2008 rear. It was already replaced with aftermarket 14 months ago and already failing. And that's not the first time I've seen that. I've never seen a replaced Subaru bearing fail. May have had multiple issues - the title said "rumble", now described as "screaming", and it says front when it was rear. That's really odd to mistaken front/rear for a noise. I don't have good hearing, usually working on older/noisy cars and we have horrendous roads and i still never even remotely confuse front/rear. You may have had one failure, the wheel bearing, and maybe some other noisy components too.

Probably too small and tedious of a procedure for a bra and a curved surface but I’d look into heat and razor. There’s a few options: Prolonged direct sunlight, heat gun, plastic razors or metal razors. I’ve had some adhesives peal off surprisingly easy (relative to how bad I thought it would be) with copious heat.

That's unfortunate. I'm in a similar boat wondering if the trans is hosed: I just rebuilt a totaled 2013 outback that had the lines severed from the wreck, so I was assuming the trans could be hosed. I'm done the body/welding and now have to wonder if the trans is shifting poorly and noisy for some other reason or it just needs replaced. I've already bought the transmission. 1. Do you have any check engine light codes or is the AT flashing 16 times at first start up? 2. Drain and refill the pan for two reasons. You'll get a look at how much debris/metal/swirls are int he fluid (or none at all). And if there's any significant debris that's in the pan and obstructing the pick up screen you'll get that out. Although if that's the case I'd guess that's horrible news for a trans. Also consider replacing the filter if this debris is a concern. I would guess a new transmission is in your future. If rust and bushings are in reasonable shape it's worth considering to keep. Those two things can start long drawn out maintenance. I would buy a JDM or used transmission locally. Those H6's are very reliable transmissions. I have a JDM trans with low mileage I haven't installed yet I'd sell but distance is a killer. Just drove to atlanta last month I could have popped that in the back of my forester.