usps

No, it's not a heat shield noise, kinda wish it was just that.

I will change and inspect the fluid for glitter, good suggestion. I have checked it several times but not yet changed it. The noise is sorta a whining/growling noise with a maybe a little jingle that is more noticeable when you first drive the car and when it's cold. The noise doesn't seem to change any going uphill, quiets some if you can catch it in no load. The bearings were so bad they overpowered the noise so it wasn't noticeable until I changed them. As for the axles I mostly changed them because the boots were shot and also to eliminate the possibility of them being the issue. I guess I never thought about the bearings being pressed on making it darn near impossible to change in the diff. I may remove the retainer to replace the seal and inspect the race for any noticeable damage as well as change the fluid.

I have checked the diff fluid several times and, your right probably good to change the fluid and inspect for glitter! I will try and do that soon and give an update.

Reading through some posts and searching for info, I realized someone here has the knowledge to help. I have a 2005 Subaru Legacy Sedan with automatic trans. I have been hearing a noise that seems to be coming from the right side of the front differential. Obviously I have changed both front wheel bearings and both front axles to this point (which were bad too). The noise only has to do with diff speed and load whether coasting or accelerating kinda changes sound if you catch it in the middle. It doesn't matter what gear its in, nor rpm of motor. The noise does seem to be more pronounced at first running in cold temps. Another strange phenomenon is the inner axle boot at this location seems to be sucking in, maybe indicating some type of vibration. I have a little gear oil seepage from the retainer at the axle. I have replaced these seals in older Subarus in the past and had success just putting the retainer back to its original position for pre-load purpose. I plan to change this seal but also suspect this bearing may be bad at this location. My question, is this a common bearing to fail and if so can it be changed on the 05 model upon removing the retainer. Also how hard will it be to regain proper pre-load or backlash if I change the bearing? Thanks in advance for your help.

Alright ,First I apologize for the slow update to my problem. I decided to tear into the problem by first checking the timing since to me that seemed to be the culprit. I tore all the covers off the front of the engine and thought I'd check to see if it was actually in time . Upon trying to roll the engine to the timing marks by turning one of the cam pullys, the belt jumped a cog , so there went the idea of checking it first. At this point I just proceeded in completely starting over and also decided to replace the belt tensioner while I was at it since it seemed to jump a cog very easy. I ended up checking the belt , to be sure it was right, repairing a couple stripped holes with helicoils and putting everything back together with the new tensioner . This process seemed to fix the loss of power problem I had , but I can see where the mechanic thought it may be a shifting issue . I had replaced the transmission in the car a couple years back and it has never shifted as well as it had before. Of course I believe this was amplified by the loss of power problem . The shifting issue seems to be a little worse now and i'm not sure if this is because the mechanic focused so much on that and tinkered with everything related to that. The car seems hard to get to downshift when you need it to , you really have to tromp it sometimes to get it to downshift into first. The other shifting issue is that when you take off it shifts through first then second then third then drive almost immediately after third too soon and figures it out and downshifts back to third briefly . All the gears seem to be strong just the radical shifting and the problem getting it to downshift quick enough. Its like it just waits to long to decide to downshift and sometimes I'll pull it back manually. Thanks for all your help this far and if you have any suggestions on this shifting issue they will be greatly appreciated.

Okay so I ran the scanner on the car again and no codes pending or confirmed. I also did a vacuum test and at idle had a steady 19 in. of vacuum. Then at about 2000 rpm it leveled out at 20 in. vacuum. I will try and check the timing again when I get a chance to pull the covers off the front of the engine , may be a couple of days till I get to that. As far as tranny I generally run seafoam trans tune prior to a fluid change and I do change the fluid regularly. I would be glad to change the tranny if I knew there was something wrong with it but I'm not sold on that yet. Also I did not see any ground wires off but I'll do some more looking there as well. Just curious can a knock sensor pick up excessive valve noise ?

Hello looking for some help from the pros. I'll first give you a little run down of how this all started. My wife is a mail carrier and we currently have two RHD Subaru's that she runs on her route . Earlier this summer her 1997 Subaru Legacy wagon 2.2 burnt a valve. I took the car to a local veteran Subaru mechanic and he replaced the bad head and new gasket on the other head as well as it was seeping antifreeze. On the return of my car I noticed a loss of bottom end power , kinda like when a knock sensor goes bad . No CEL , but I changed the knock sensor anyway, no change . It seems the majority of the time to have very little bottom end power until you start to get it wound out then takes off like crazy. I also thought maybe timing so checked that and it is on . Took it back to the mechanic and he feels its a shifting issue , not going into low so he only focused on shifting and transmission related things. I personally think engine , especially since that is what I had worked on originally. To me when I drive it you can pull it down into 1st and it goes in but no power until you wind it out a while . Could valve adjustment be an issue ? Also dropped the Y pipe to be sure there was no restriction at the cat. Any input would be appreciated as I need to get this back on the road before winter. Thanks in advance.

Well I got my fuel pressure gauge and upon checking the pressure my results showed that no matter what I did the pressure stayed at 25 lbs . Pressure didn't change when unhooking FPR at all and it would actually drop a little when revving the engine no change even when pinching off the return line . So I replaced the fuel pump with a new one and retested all tests proved good so I think your right fuel pump it was . So far no more symptoms been about two weeks now . Thanks very much for the advice just end wanted to give some closure on this matter.

I had to order me a new fuel pressure tester so I haven't checked the fuel pressure yet but I have some new info . Up until now the car only acted up for my wife well the other day I got behind a wreck and had to sit idling in traffic for about 30-40 min. After sitting there that long the car developed a miss that started getting worse until I decided I'd better turn around before the car shuts off . About 1-2 miles after turning around and heading up the road it straightened up . I decided to to the same test at home and let it idle till it started messing up then I opened up the hood to look around and shortly it straightened up so I closed hood again and within a few min. it started missing again . So I'm thinking something in the engine compartment is getting hot . I iced the coil and ignition module didn't help do you think the fuel ( filter etc. ) could be getting to hot or does it have to be electrical related ? I did watch my scan tool temp. and it was reading fine and the fan was kicking in and out properly .

I had a similar issue only most of the time it would not completely shut off just fall on its face like you shut it off and then go again but it would shut off at times and then restart right up ,so after changing all your obvious tune up stuff and no help even checking timing and tensioner etc. still no help , I unplugged the front oxygen sensor and it ran fine for 3 months then did it again so I replaced both upstream sensor and downstream oxygen sensors and the MAF all at the same time and that issue has not occurred for over a year .

Thank you all for your posts on this topic , I ran my code scanner again to see the exact code it was P0170 says fuel trim bank 1. And now after this last episode when my wife was about half way through her route it started acting up like loading up and giving it throttle and it just didn't want to go she stopped at one point and it would not restart fired but wouldn't start so she left it there and got help to finish the route . I went out that evening and it started right up run like a top but along with that P0170 code I now have a misfire code for cylinders 1,2,3 which it must have acquired when she was trying to run it. I have been over a lot of the vacuum lines but will do so again as well as check the grounds thanks again for your help.

Hello everyone I have a 95 subaru legacy wagon this is a right hand drive mail car my wife delivers mail and I fix the car when she tears it up . I have been through many issues with this car and resolved most the one I can't get is a fuel trim code . For a little background we currently have 2 right hand subes on the road one she drives on her route (a 97 ), and one I drive to work which is her back up one( the 95 ). I have driven this 95 for six months at a time no problems then when she gets it on the route with aggressive driving and lots of starts and stops it starts acting as though it's loading up won't idle and just won't go this is where I believe the fuel trim code comes in . Keep in mind I have changed of course the simple stuff plugs wires filter ect. but also oxygen sensors MAF sensor TPS , cam sensor , crank sensor,IAC valve ,MAP knock sensor, computer, coil , ignition module probably more can't think of everything and just recently cleaned the EGR valve . Not sure what else to try any suggestions would be appreciated .