I'm sure someone has brought this up in the past. I had to recently replace the left rear wheel bearings on my sister-in-laws car and I had a *itch of a time with it. The lower long bolt that holds the 2 lower trailing arms was seized and I tried everything to remove and could not.  I ended up cutting it off with a torch and ruined one of the rubber mounts. Then I found the same problem with almost all of them at the wrecking yard in trying to get a new bolt for the one I had cut. After about 6 tries I did find one that was not stuck and got it fixed, but now my outback it starting to make rear wheel bearing noise and I really don't want to go through the same nightmare I had the last time. Is the any secrets to doing this without pulling the bolt or somebody figured out how to remove it without ruining the parts? It would seem to me that Subaru could have fixed this poor design with just a little anti-seize on the bold and bushings.

Edited February 6, 201511 yr by Fish-N-Fool

soak that bolt in penetrant for days ahead of time - PB Blaster, Liquid Wrench, YIELD.  (not WD40).  soak it for days or a week
ahead of time and even set a soaking wet rag around it. Torch it.

areas with significant rust it's not going to come out no matter what you do...except a torch and liberal application of heat.

 

I'm sort of surprised there's no way to do this on the car without removing that bolt.  Even the standard hub tamer tool doesn't allow doing the rear bearing without removing that bolt.

 

If the rod that attaches to that bolt is easier to remove at the body side - you might be able to swap in a used knuckle assembly from the junk yard yard.  that might be easier to remove than that lower knuckle bolt.

Hey Fish; Was the in-laws car an impreza? Was the bolt  oh 6-8" long ? What year is your outback ? Is it a legacy outback .. or impreza outback ? 

Hey Fish; Was the in-laws car an impreza? Was the bolt  oh 6-8" long ? What year is your outback ? Is it a legacy outback .. or impreza outback ? 

 

soak that bolt in penetrant for days ahead of time - PB Blaster, Liquid Wrench, YIELD.  (not WD40).  soak it for days or a week

ahead of time and even set a soaking wet rag around it. Torch it.

 

areas with significant rust it's not going to come out no matter what you do...except a torch and liberal application of heat.

 

I'm sort of surprised there's no way to do this on the car without removing that bolt.  Even the standard hub tamer tool doesn't allow doing the rear bearing without removing that bolt.

 

If the rod that attaches to that bolt is easier to remove at the body side - you might be able to swap in a used knuckle assembly from the junk yard yard.  that might be easier to remove than that lower knuckle bolt.

I tried soaking them in PB Blaster the last time for days and got nowhere So I don't think that will ever work on these.

 

Hey Fish; Was the in-laws car an impreza? Was the bolt  oh 6-8" long ? What year is your outback ? Is it a legacy outback .. or impreza outback ? 

They are both Legacy Outbacks hers is a 95 and ours is a 96

For what it is worth, in my experience, I have found it much easier to replace the bad bearing with a used knuckle assembly from a wrecking yard. Going through the hassle of having the bearing pressed swapped out at a shop, or using a shark tamer, is just not worth the effort. I have been lucky that used knuckles I have bought continue to work well. 

For what it is worth, in my experience, I have found it much easier to replace the bad bearing with a used knuckle assembly from a wrecking yard. Going through the hassle of having the bearing pressed swapped out at a shop, or using a shark tamer, is just not worth the effort. I have been lucky that used knuckles I have bought continue to work well. 

Yah but you still have to get this dammmmmmm bolt out

The dealer I go to has that long bolt and nut in stock. Makes me think they replace it a lot.  I think I paid around $27 for the combo.  I have removed two before and the nut broke in the process.  For me its about time.  If I were to do this again I would buy the parts before hand and cut the bolt.  Total removal time would be 5 minutes.  Just my two cents

Edited February 9, 201511 yr by msmithmmx

The dealer does stock this bolt and replacing it with new is definitely the way to go! However it will still be stuck even after cutting , usually in the rubber bushings on the links. No good way i've found to remove it but twisting , heating (carefully) swearing loudly, bloody knuckles  it is a piss poor set up that they changed on the 2000 up obw but not on the impreza ??? WHY !!!!!