Randomly bouncy 2006 outback limited

[Legback]

At first I thought it was the spring roads. I'm realizing now that there is no obvious pattern in why it happens. The whole car is shimmying up and down or bouncing at random. It has 94000 miles on it and ive had it for under two months. And no hydraulics are present in my suspension:). It would drive anybody batty! Have any experts experienced this?

Thanks, trev

[idosubaru]

first thought is struts though the age and mileage is low for such a bad failure of one, they are wear and replacement items.

 

can you describe it better?

 

random - do you mean that sometimes it rides perfectly fine?

 

does it bounce when you hit a bump or while turning, only straight, any particular speeds, any speeds/straight/turns?

 

any noises associated with bouncing?

 

does the rear seem worse than the front?

or front worse than back?

[1 Lucky Texan]

yeaah, more specifics on how it is felt;

 

is it worse after the car is warmed up

 

is it worse when turning or maneuvering in parking lots

 

does it only happen during or after a turn

 

is vibration felt in the whole car or just in the steering wheel

 

are there noise when it happens

 

does application of brakes have any effect

 

what is the condition of the tires (same brand and amount of wear?)

 

what is the condition/history of the car?

[Legback]

Ok. It bounces evenly 35 mph and above going straight. Other times over the same stretch of road it rides flawlessly. One of the wheels has a whole pile of balancing weights on it but the tires are equally worn. I don't have a lot of history on the car as I just got it used but from a reputable Used Subaru place. They did a lot- hg's and all associated parts when I bought it before I picked it up. It so random,I'm reluctant to call it to their attention.

The steering also has a random shutter. If I stop and put it in reverse and spine the wheel quickly it will get very hard to turn for a second and then to go a pulsey/ shuttery feeling. Maybe they're related. I'm hunching the driveline is making me bounce at random.

[Legback]

It bounces enough to make pant leg shake about. It will happen cold or

Warm. I'm experimenting to see if it happens with the heater/ ac off to help isolate its origin. Could a bad rear differential cause this?

[idosubaru]

bouncing is suspension - heater/ac, differentials - none of that matters.  definitely not differential...unless what you're describing as "bounce" isn't what we're interpretting...when you say bounce i'm thinking up and down as if you're sitting on a large ball and bouncing.

 

bouncing almost has to be struts or springs.

 

doesn't seem worse in front or rear?

[idosubaru]

here is an extreme example of a subaru with really bad struts.......and someone further abusing them....LOL

 

[Legback]

How would you describe the feeling associated with a loose driveline or bad rear differential?

[1 Lucky Texan]

first, I'd swap tires front-to-back and see if the problem changes.

 

Also, there can be vibration from bad u-joints and maybe carrier bearings.

 

maybe someone can recommend a shop near Portland. I think we have 1 or 2 gurus near there that frequent this Forum as a matter of fact.

 

perhaps a mechanic will be needed to actually pin this down. If you can take a tech or service writer for a test drive and demonstrate the problem, that would be ideal.

Edited April 24, 2013 by 1 Lucky Texan

[fishy]

I've recently just gotten a 2005 Outback and have been doing some reading about the suspension on that generation. The 05 seems to be notorious for having rear suspension made out of marshmallows. This leads to plenty of rear end bounce and shimmy. Perhaps your 06 is tuned the same way from the factory so that once the struts get some good wear or them they don't really dampen anymore. In the same research I've read that rear struts for an 04 outback wagon will bolt directly in and they're valve more stiffly because the previous generation Outback was heavier than ours.

Also the alignment was out of whack when I got the car so it acted really wandery on the road. And pretty worn tires too. Combined with the sloppy rear end(nobody wants a sloppy rear end) it wasn't much fun to drive.

I've got some newer tires on it and had a 4-wheel alignment. Still haven't tackled the rear struts yet but the car is 70% better to drive already.

Edited April 24, 2013 by fishy

[idosubaru]

How would you describe the feeling associated with a loose driveline or bad rear differential?

 

i already addressed the rear differential:

 

bdefinitely not differential

 

 

I'm not sure why you're asking questions that were already answered and not answering questions that are asked? 

like does it seem mostly front or back or both?

 

it will be very hard to help you if we can't see the car and you don't tell us anything about it.

 

he brings up a good point - search for "ghostwalking" via google and see if those symptoms sound familiar.

Edited April 24, 2013 by grossgary

[Legback]

I'm really telling what I know. I used the term evenly in my second post to describe that the bounce was not from the rear or front. I asked you to describe these things because my word " bounce" wasn't getting my point across and I needed a new word. It feels to me like the carrier bearing is worn and the whole

Drive line is slightly bouncing. I would love to know what words would describe that feeling. Thanks for help. Looks like its a not a super easy common thing and a pro should see it. I figured if we're a real easy thing a real easy answer would fall out. Thanks for your time!

[Legback]

I'm really telling what I know. I used the term evenly in my second post to describe that the bounce was not from the rear or front. I asked you to describe these things because my word " bounce" wasn't getting my point across and I needed a new word. It feels to me like the carrier bearing is worn and the whole

Drive line is slightly bouncing. I would love to know what words would describe that feeling. Thanks for help. Looks like its a not a super easy common thing and a pro should see it. I figured if we're a real easy thing a real easy answer would fall out. Thanks for your time!

[idosubaru]

great, now we're getting somewhere.

 

you have a failing Ujoint (as far as i can tell)

which is not that hard to repair.

 

a failing ujoint or carrier bearings, vibrate and when they get really bad start knocking, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM.    the rear view mirror will shake and speed dependent is typical.

 

ujoints fail far more often than carrier bearings and there are 3 of them and only one bearing per driveshaft, that's the only reason i guess ujoints, but it could be the bearings.  failure of either of these for a 2006 with such low miles is odd.

 

one simple test you can do is to crawl under the car and grab (or pry) the driveshaft and see if it has any play in it.  if it does then there's your problem.  sometimes they can "seize" though and feel tight on the car, so if you don't feel any play that doesn't mean the ujoints/carrier bearings are good.

 

both are really easy to fix, the only option is to replace the driveshaft. it is not available aftermarket so your only options are $ubaru or used.  they are easy and cheap to do and don't fail often enough to warrant the cost of new so used is a great option here. probably $50 used  - www.car-part.com.  only an hour or so labor so that's not much either.

 

if you have a 4 cylinder 2.5 liter automatic transmission then you can install the FWD fuse and this might alleviate some of the vibrations, not sending as much power to the rear.  another option would be to install the fuse and disconnect the rear half of the driveshaft....that would also likely reduce vibrations and buy you time to source parts, etc.

 

technically you can replace the ujoints but it's a non-traditional repair and requires more than what most mechanics/hobbyist dig into.  iRockford sells the ujoints for $40 a piece or so and then they have to be installed, which is again a different process than most are used to.

[Legback]

The drive shaft is firm at the rear diff connection. At the support bearing its very squashy and easily move able. At the tranny connection I can feel play up and down and side to side as well as front to back.

[idosubaru]

excellent, glad you figured it out and cheap too and no down time.

 

lucky texan was on it when he said to rotate the tires front to back!!