Finally finished the clutch on my '95 Legacy L Outback wagon that I purchased for $450. Running full synthetic oil and with a good coolant flush, there's no lifter noise or anything and it seems to be running great.

 

EXCEPT.

 

1. The tranny seems floppy. The stick (manual) likes to move around when you accelerate and decelerate. Tranny mounts?

2. There's a real prominent whooshing sound coming from the engine bay; it sounds like a stream of compressed air that increases the more you rev it. Fox (Miles Fox) diagnosed it as air rushing through the heater hoses. Eh?

3. The rear struts are blown. When at lower speeds, there's a weird noise coming from the rear of the car that almost sounds like a bad wheel bearing, except it disappears at speed and seems to appear when the car bottoms out going over ************ty pavement. Could the gone rear struts make that noise?

1. Shifter bushings I think

2. Loose vacuum pipe

3. I'd still go with a wheel bearing on this one. Blown struts just make the car flop around a lot.

Noted. Where is this vacuum pipe?

I think I would check the engine mounts, being the transmission is mounted to it also.

Finally finished the clutch on my '95 Legacy L Outback wagon that I purchased for $450. Running full synthetic oil and with a good coolant flush, there's no lifter noise or anything and it seems to be running great.

 

EXCEPT.

 

1. The tranny seems floppy. The stick (manual) likes to move around when you accelerate and decelerate. Tranny mounts?

2. There's a real prominent whooshing sound coming from the engine bay; it sounds like a stream of compressed air that increases the more you rev it. Fox (Miles Fox) diagnosed it as air rushing through the heater hoses. Eh?

3. The rear struts are blown. When at lower speeds, there's a weird noise coming from the rear of the car that almost sounds like a bad wheel bearing, except it disappears at speed and seems to appear when the car bottoms out going over ************ty pavement. Could the gone rear struts make that noise?

The whoosing sound that sounds like compressed air - I got that exact sound and it was sucking air around a couple of the injectors, so it could very well be some sort of vacuum leak.

 

I couldn't tell at all where the sound was coming from, but a mechanics stethescope made is super easy to pinpoint the exact source of the sound.

take a hose with the car running and wet the engine compartment in sections. Once you get it narrowed down to a section, take a spray bottle of water or carb cleaner and spray hoses and anything that looks like a gasket area. The engine will stumble when it sucks in either.

Also look for a loose vacume line first, it ma be obvios. Another thing to check is the snorkle hose, if that is loose or the air cleaner cover is loose, it will make a wind noise too.

 

nipper