1badmkIrocco

This will be my next move if I can't pin point the noise. When I put the Driver's axle on I did retorque the pass side to 140 ft/lbs though and staked the nut (even torqued the lug nuts to 85ft/lbs), but it's worth swapping if I can get rid of this annoying noise. Other than this friggin noise, I have this car pretty well sorted out, runs great and now rides great that I put 4 new KYB struts on it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/96-99-Subaru-Legacy-Outback-JDM-EJ20-DOHC-ENGINE-REPLACEMENT-FOR-2-5L-EJ25-/221165645274?_trksid=p2054897.l4275 They're on eBay all the time for ~$1,000 most of the time with mileage claimed to be "60,000". I've been curious myself if the NA EJ20 would be an easy swap into a late 90s early 00 Subaru. It's not uncommon to find cars with blown DOHC 2.5s around here for $1,000-$2,000 in otherwise decent shape. I haven't seen many EJ22 cars out there with under 200K on them in a long time. Doing an engine swap will probably take you the good part of entire weekend, and I'd hate to swap in an engine that might be on its' last leg...

Yes! and they actually looked really clean (I didn't know they were called "transverse bushings" I just thought it was part of the lower control arm), I could not get any movement at all by shaking the control arm or trying to move the wheel. I was secretly hoping that I would discover those loose as that is still in the vicinity of where the noise seems to be coming from. After replacing the axles and still hearing the noise my 2nd thought was possibly in the drive shaft but the noise isn't coming from anywhere near where the driveshaft meest the trans or the first u-joint. The noise sounds like it's coming from forward of the firewall on the passengers side of the car. It's a deep steady clunk, clunk, clunk noise and it's only audible at lower speeds, and by the sound of it, it'd have to be a piece with some mass behind it to make this noise. The sounds reminds me of taking a 16oz Ball Peen hammer and repeatedly hitting a steel table from 4" away once every second (but muffled since it's in the engine compartment). I'll see if I can record the noise and upload a .wav file. The trouble is this car has so much wind and road noise it might be hard to make out. I appreciate all the input so far!

Well I got the subie up in the air yesterday and the only thing that has any slop or play is the new axle I put in there (fender liner good, didn't pull the fan motor, all bushes and linkages had zero play). The odd thing is the noise was the same with the old chinese axle and this new remanned axle from FW Enterpirses (Formally MWE); which is why I had been ruling out the axle. The noise does seem to come from that general vicinity (passenger side in the engine compartment) I'll swap that axle out with another I have, in the next week or so, just to verify whether it's the axle or not. When I bought the axle I was told normally only Automatics will hear the noise when stopped.

Nope, can't bounce it to make a noise. I will check the fender liner though. I didn't think it could be the blower fan because the noise is present with the heater off or on. For a few days I actually thought it was the heater because I drove around for a day or 2 when it was warm and didn't hear the sound. Then on a 3rd warm day the noise cam back with the heater still off. The Bushing thing you first brought up got me thinking, to check the bushings on the steering rack. Everything else Suspension related is TIGHT or brand new. Thanks for all the suggestions and keep 'em coming. I'm going to get the car up in the air at some point this weekend and see if I can track down everything loose. Might even pull the blower fan for $hits and grins.

Ok, I've done a bunch of searching but I can't find anyone that's had a similar problem. The car is a 1994 Subaru Legacy Wagon 2.2 AWD 5spd manual, that sometimes has a weird steady state clunking noise that sounds like it's coming from the front end on the passenger side of the car. My initial thought was that it was an inner CV Joint as initially I only heard the noise when I was slowing down. But then I started hearing it under steady driving as well at lower speeds 35-45mph. I replaced both front axles anyway,(and yes they're OEM Green Subaru). I saw that the sway bar end links were worn and loose so I replaced those. Probelm not resolved. Then it was on to the struts, I replaced those and the "hats", aka "strut mounts" aka "strut bearings" as well. Still the noise persists. Checked for loose brake pads as well, but they have the anti rattle clips in place and are solid. I can't shake any of the control arms or sway bars either and ball joints and TREs are tight as well with no play. The noise only occurs after the car has been driven for 15-20 mins and sometimes I can drive for hours or a couple days and not hear it. The clunking seems to be steady state it won't increase or decrease with vehicle speed or engine RPM. It either goes away at highway speed or just becomes inaudible due to road/wind/engine noise. Sometimes the clunk/knocking is worse than others and can even continue for a couple seconds after I come to a complete stop. The only 2 areas that I haven't really dove into yet are the drive shaft or engine mounts. I don't really think it could be the drive shaft as the noise seems to come from in front of the fire wall. But noises can be hard to track down... Has anyone else ever experienced anything like this?

You're in the biggest Subaru Market in the US. Why not find a set of used OEM axles? I'm sure there's plenty to be had used in your neck of the woods. I picked up a good axle from a local subie shop (Super Rupair in Boulder) for $35 and I've also purchased a remanned axle from Marshall Wolf of FW Enterprises for $85 w/core down in Denver. https://www.facebook.com/pages/FW-Enterprises-LLC/503867596304519 or http://www.yelp.com/biz/fw-enterprises-llc-denver

Thanks for the input! Just what I needed, I saw the abudance of discontinued adpaters on eBay but had no clue as to what would fit.

I just did the T-Belt/Water Pump Job on my EJ22 last month. It was time consuming but it's doable with basic tools and paitence. One thing to keep in mind if you decide to break the crank pulley bolt loose by cranking the engine is to either remove the coil wire or disconnect all the spark plug boots you don't want the car starting! All it takes to break it loose is a quick bump of the key. When reinstalling the timing belt just pay close attention when lining up all the timing marks and follow the directions closely. There's a couple other .pdfs out there that outline the procedure in detail. Parts cost for me were Less then $200, I purchased one of the kits on eBay (Tbelt, and Pulleys supposedly made in USA) and then an Aisin Waterpump off of Amazon for about $85 http://www.pra.org/publicdl/engines/overhaul.pdf http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/attachments/problems-maintenance/26812d1357868874-2005-outback-ej25-sohc-4eat-timing-belt-change-endwrench-timing-belt-replace-winter-05.pdf

Ok I have a 1994 Subaru Legacy Wagon with Factory Crossbars which are really wide and my problem is that I can't fit my Thule Ski Rack. My Ski Rack has universal factory crossbar mounts (not the standard Thule Square Bar mount) but they're not wide enough and currently Thule doesn't have anything listed on their website that fits the 1994 Legacy facotry crossbars. BUT I see a ton of adapters out there on eBay which are discontinued, I'd like to know if anyone on here is knowledgable on what might fit? I've done a bunch of searching but haven't come up with much. I know that Yakima Mighty Mounts, may work but have no way to verify whether or not they're wide enough... TIA

Even running Semi-Syn 10W-30 in my EJ22 it cranks slow in the early morning when it's around 0*F and it'll have lifter tick for a couple mins, I just let it idle and it warms up and sounds normal. I wouldn't stress it too much, just don't hop right in the car and drive off, even after a few minute warm up you should take it easy until the engine is up to full operating temp. You could add a couple OZs of Marvel Mystery Oil and it might help out some. My biggest problem is the brake booster doesn't work when it's 0* and below until the temp warms up under the hood after 5-10mins.

I just did a Waterpump and Timing Belt on my EJ22 Legacy and the pump that was ON the car was a Parut. I had purchased the AISIN as a replacemet based on recommendations I found on here and the fact it was made in Japan. When I pulled the Parut I noticed that the impeller on the pump was completely different than the Aisin. The Aisin impeller was a stamped piece while the Parut was a cast piece of completely different design (what you see in the picture), but the Aisin shipped with a completely different design. That's not to say the Aisin is any better or worse, but it's obvious that the newest design is a cheaper one. My confidence was also broken when my co-worker's Toyota 4runner suffered catastrophic bearing failure in his water pump which was an Aisin branded unit from Napa after just under 40K miles. This is what's on the Aisin now compared to the old:

I've wanted a Subaru since I first drove a Girlfriends '95 Legacy about 10 years ago. Never really had the chance or need to get on until recently when I picked up this one for my Girlfriend to use as her Winter car. We never got a chance to teach her to drive it and her Z4 is now stranded on an Island (due to the floods last month) probably until the spring. So I'm driving the Subaru and she's got my Grand Cherokee. We've taken it on a couple local trips over the last couple weeks and I'm really loving the fuel economy ~29mpg. I felt like I paid too much, ($1,900) but it does have a really clean interior and it ran and drove fine and has 4 new Michelin tires, there's a lot of Subarus in Boudler but they command a premium compared to the rest of the country. I did replace 1 axle and have to replace to oil pres switch and the valve covers and plan on doing a timing belt job as soon as I can get back home. This was up at the top fo Pike's Peak last weekend. Tried taking it up Tin Cup but it didn't have the ground clearance.

Nice! Don't see ANY older Subaru's down in New Orleans, heck ya don't even see many Subarus period. When I lived there people thought I was nuts for wanting one.

It wasn't a Subaru but one of the best used car purchases I ever made was on eBay. It was post Katrina in New Orleans and the used car market had dried up (because so many cars had got wiped out in the flooding 250K+ cars) I needed a car with better ground clearance than the slammed Miata that I owned and purchased a really clean grey market Mercedes 280E in Seattle for $1400. The thing was super clean and I commuted in the car for a year and made 2 cross country trips in it. Unfortunately the CIS Fuel Injection crapped out and I was unable to get it repaired so I sold the car for $800 as a project locally.