Tom Sloan

Unfortunately, Subaru's are not that common where I live (can you say "die hard Chevy fans"?) So I'm having to get a fresh one from a dealer. I like fresh parts though, even though it might not really be necessary.

Fairtax4me's diagnosis appears spot on. PB Blaster loostened the steering up fairly well, but even though this symptom only started recently, I get the feeling by driving and bylooking at the coupler that it is on it's last leg. I'm looking forward to your installation thread and I'm going to be looking for a new coupler myself.

Hi guys. I've had my Subaru Outback for a little over a year now and I'm pretty damn happy with it. I've had to fix a lot of stuff on it and I'd like to keep fixing stuff on it as these issues come up. This latest thingy has kind of stumped me though. At some some places in the steering (as in, degrees of steering-wheel turn) the steering gets really stiff, like there's something in the way. Then, I'll move passed that tough spot, as though it were some sort of soft click. And these places in the steering will kind of move around over time. I've checked for leaks in the power steering hoses, I'm not seering anything hung up or loose in the mechanisms. I'm not hearing any of the noise that people discribe when their power-steering pump is going out. I won't put a failure passed the pump though. I think it's entirely likely that I need to bleed the PS system or replace the pump. But I was hoping for suggestions on what else might be going wrong before I really delv into it.