Northfield

Guys, so how often should this fiber belt be replaced? My H-6 '03 has 151,000 and has never been touched. Running until it finally lets loose does not strike me as a very good idea.

I had the toothed rubber belt pop over a notch (not even break) on an older (1969) Fiat 124 Spyder, twin overhead cam 4-cyl., once at highway speed, that engine is high-compression (I think over 10:1) and it buried a valve deep into the piston. When it went "Boom!" my chum had the good sense to instantly push in the clutch. Basically, was welded in there from the force of impact. After the descriptive from by buddy who I had loaned it to, and who towed it back to my place, I pulled the head off (easy enough to do on those cars), took a look at the damage, and dropped in a spare engine from a wrecked Spyder. A lot easier than attempting to rebuild. They were small engines (I think about one liter). You can do an incredible amount of damage with a busted belt (or chain) on an interference engine. Ouch. I sure would not attempt to turn it over if you plan to rebuild, you risk doing a lot more damage.

SO I drove the 2003 OUtback the 12 miles or so to the garage, I oculd hear a whine out of the center differential, but nothing grotesque. With the car on the lift I looked underneath and the rear differential is without the typical tell-tale bulge that would house a limited-slip clutch pack on one half-shaft output. It looks like Subaru dispenses with these limited-slip differentials altogether in favor of the braking system on slipping wheels to flow torque to the wheel with traction. So all the fuss about matching tires may well be without merit for this particular set-up. Anyway, now have four new Hankook 727 tires on there (727, not 724, big difference), rated to be particularly effective in snow for us up here in Central Vermont! Pulled the engine cover and there was all this oil splattered around the upper front, could either be leaking from the AC compressor or being splashed up by fan drive and belt drive from a leaking timing chain cover. At 150K miles this is discouraging. For the liife of me I cannot understand why gaskets cannot be designed and fabricated to last the life of the installation. I suspect pulling the timing chain cover is a real bear in-situ, although if you pull the radiator and tranny cooler out of there (and the AC condenser) then you might be able to get at it from the front. Any suggestions? As to the valve cover gaskets, sure looks like those are leaking also. Ugh. Pressure-washed everything clean with hot water, we shall see where it is leaking soon enough. I run a hose from the hot-water side of the washing machine connection in the basement out a casement window to my $99 Home Depot pressure washer, works like a charm. Nice hot water to blow off the grease after spraying with degreaser.

Aha! So there is an actual functioing center differential complete with float gears in there! And that explains everything. Yup, so as long as each axle has matched-wear tires, it will run just fine. Good to know. This car only has about 145K miles on it, driven gently by the wife, almost always on dry roads, so those clutch packs inside the axle diffs likely have little actual use, probably have been engaged full-time 99% of the time. I would doubt there is measurable wear in there. And yes, that $2K quote was for a limited-slip differential (just one). Seemed steep to me. Dealers tend to overcharge the customers, in my experience. They figure the customer has no clue. Oh, well. Incidentally that H-6 engine is weeping oil out through the gaskets, I am told the engine has to be pulled (likely with the transmission) to be torn down and re-gasketed. How brutal a job is that? Cheaper to buy a new motor block and go from there, since the labor to pull and install is likely a quite a bill? Or do you just live with it and let her leak? Mechanics tell me it is a common development after about 100K miles. What causes that? A decent gasket should last the life of the engine.

Aha! Thank you, Idosubaru! Yes, this is a VDC model. I have no idea what VDC means but I have seen it in there. Presumablhy there is some mechanism that will automatically allow for the slip, is that correct? My guess is that the differentials a limited-slip, otherwise they would be relatively cheap to repair (I did an overhaul on busted cluster gears once , went easy enough). Dealer tells me it is $2,000 to rebuild the diff in this car. Ouch! So it must have clutches in there. So that leaves a slip device in the transfer case take-off to do the work. I am guessing that "VTD" is shorthand for that slip devis=ce, presumably full-time. Could you clarify?

Yup, Gloyale, the slot is there in that fusebox, and the lid is engraved with the "FWD" on the corresponding spot, but the fuse receptacle itself has no metal receiving spade slots. So it looks like Subaru uses the same fusebox across a range of models but did not provide the feature in this model, there is no wiring to correspond to where the fuse would be inserted. I was thinking that it likely is a 30-amp. If so, and the wiring points can be identified somewhere else, then I owuld wire in a jumper. But where? Or is it not even possible?

Hi, all, Need a little advice. This is a 2003 Outback Sedan with H-6 engine and automatic. One tire in front developed a ply failure and I bought 4 new, all were to the wear bars. I laboriously took off the fronts one at a time and carried them down to a tire shop for mounting, now the front axle has two new and the rears are down to the wear bars. Obviously the twin shafts coming out of the transfer case are going to spin at different speeds and the clutch in there will have to take up the slip. Asking at the dealership and they say do not drive it (only 10 miles to that garage) or I can wreck the clutch pack in there. In looking through the web I discovered a post where there is a fuse spot inside the front fusebox in the engine compartment, marked "FWD," and if you pop a fuse in there then the solenoid engages constantly and disconnects power to the rear shaft, thus converting the car to a front-wheel only. So I go look in the box and there aare no spade contact points ofr that fuse! Looks like SUbie decided not to include that wiring feature in the Outback Sedan. Is there some other way to wire up that solenoid? How risky is it to drive it over to the dealer with both shafts engaged (and presumably the sensors will disengage the clutch, maybe not). Or should I err on the safe side, jack up the car in my driveway, pull off one tire at a time, and do a ferry trip x 2 to finish the mounting? Which latter exercise is a real pain, already wrecked one jack when the car slipped and bent it to a pretzel. Oh, well. And, what provoked Subaru to not install the by-pass wiring into the front fuse box on this model? Sure would make life easier!