dbullen

Ended up being a front axle on the drivers side causing the noise. I live in Canada but am travelling to Maine and nh next week, anyone know of any good subaru dealers in either of those states I could get a decent price on an axle?

Well I did some more investigation. Had someone else drive my car in a parking lot while I listened. Noise is coming from drivers side front suspension area. CV boot on that side has a big hole, also the inner tie rod boot has a hole as well. Wheel bearings were replaced within the last 6 months, so I'm thinking the CV joint or inner tie rod might be to blame? Also rotated my tires, doesn't appear to be an issue, I measured the circumference of all 4 tires, they were within 1/4" of each other. After hearing the noise from outside it's not really a binding but more of a creaking type of noise (again only hear it right when you take off making a hard sharp / fast left turn).

Transmission fluid was changed about 5 months ago. I'm gonna throw those tires on the back today, and have a call in to schedule an appointment with the dealer. Other then the noise when you mark a sharp/quick left off a stop I have no other symptoms, do you think there is anything else in the suspension that may cause this type of noise/ it's almost like a creaking/binding noise. I'll see if the noise goesaway once the tires are switched.

03 Outback H6 Put 4 brand new tires on 3 months ago. Should have got an alignment, but ended up putting it off. Starting to get a binding type of noise when going from a stop making a sharp left turn (only when you give it a decent amount on the throttle), sometimes noise sounds like it's coming from the rear sometimes it sounds like it's coming from the front. When I come to a dead stop and turn the wheel as far as it will go and do a 360 slowly (idling) no noise. Front Drivers Tire is worn a bit on the edges, front passengers side seems to be worn quite a bit on the edges, both rear tires still look virtually knew. Should I get 4 new tires and and alignment? Or should I rotate these tires and get and alignment? (My currently tires are not directional, so I can rotate them to whereever) Also 6 months ago my subaru guy told me I should replace both front and back sway bar links, could this have anything to do with the noise? - As a side note, I had my transmission completly rebuilt about 1 year ago. (not due to torque bind, but was getting a loud grinding noise)

96 Legacy Outback 2.5. Wondering if anyone knows the proper length of the Alternator/PS belt? I picked up what I'm sure to be the corect one (prestone 345k-5) belt and my mechanic tells me this is too short. (It seems to be about 1/2" longer then the one that came off. The one that came off was a Mitsuboshi 5pk877. Is there something my mechanic could be doing wrong when trying to put the belt on and therefor thinks it's too short when infact it's the right size? He doesn't normally work on subaru's

Did some searching in the forum, but still couldn't find anything, the 15" rims I'm looking at putting on (for winter use) are the ones seen in the below pic.

Does anyone know if 15" rims will fit, or will they hit the calipers? I just did an oil change, made sure I primed the oil filter, however when I refilled the oil (using full synthetic) I put in 5w30 (4.4 Litres) and approx 1 litre of 5w50 (by mistake). I'm in Canada, weather this time a year is between 35-50 degrees F. Will the 5w50 cause any issues or should I drain and refill.

I had the same problem with my 03 H6. My mechanic tells me it's forsure the cat. I have 144K Miles on mine. He's the head tech at a subaru dealer so he knows his stuff. He's going to somehow weld a generic Cat in for me for about 150$ + labour. I Guess he's done it successfully to a few other H6's and everything has worked fine and code gone.

I tried putting both front wheels on a patch of ice and back tires on pavement. Came onto the gas just slightly and the front tires just sit there spinning and the back tires don't move. So I would say i'm only running FWD.

I actually tried ordering parts from subarupartsforyou.com before but they would only ship to canada via overnight express, at a cost of $100 for one small part last time I checked. They refused to go UPS ground or USPS. So I usually order from subarugenuineparts.com they will ship any method I want, just sucks because they are on the west coast and it usually takes about 7-10 days to get the parts, but atleast I do save about 50% of the cost of buying it parts in Canada.

Thanks for the info, I usually purchase parts from the US but ofcourse didn't have the time to wait this time around. I bought the Belt from an autopart store before I dropped the vehicle off at the subaru Dealer, ofcourse it was too short and the dealer had to end up using one of theirs. But it's all fixed now atleast.

They were making a ticking noise. According to my subaru guy, they are never done under regular maintenance. He believes the reason they went is because someone changed the oil and didn't prime the oil filter first / or it was low on oil at somepoint. Otherwise they never go. I guess it's extreamly important the oil filter is primed each time the oil is changed in the H6 engines.

I will give it a try, my 2003 is the H6 LL Bean, doesn't have VDC.

Timing chain tensioners was $800 Labour at the dealership. I forget how much the parts were I ordered them from the US (I think maybe $60-$80 per tensioner / guide. Since then though I found a head tech at a subaru dealer an hour away from where I live who works on the side for $30/hr and he really knows his stuff. He rebuilt my tranmission for me for $500 labour and I purchased the parts from the US for $500. Much better price then the $5200 the dealership quoted me for a reman transmission. So I use him for all my work now, except ofcourse if the car breaks down to the point where I can't drive it there.

140,000 Miles now (Picked the car up about a year ago in NH at an auction) Had to rebuilt the tranmission and new timing chain tensioners when I got it back to Canada. I bought the car at 120,000 Miles and don't have any history on it prior to that.

That's what I'm hoping. I actually drained and topped up the fluid about 1 month before I stored the car. I already purchased an ABS sensor just waiting for my mechanic to put it on.

The tensioner bearing was just a GM 6603 bearing. I found a local bearing supply store here in the town I live in. (Halifax, NS Canada). That had them, but I wasn't given a part #.

It's actually a 2.5 Auto. It's the switch that tells the car what gear the shift lever is in (with it out my backup lights also do not come on, and I can currently start the car in any gear).

I had my 96 Outback stored for about a year, just pulled it out and the neutral safety switch is toast so it's currently removed while I'm waiting for a new one, also one of my ABS Sensors needs replacing (ABS light on). I put 4 brand new snow tires on it. Drove it in a storm yesterday, and it almost seems like i'm running in only FWD. I took my 2003 Outback out in the same storm with All Seasons and it had way more traction/less slipping, easy getting up hills, the 96 was slipping all over the place, hard to get up hills (I don't remember it driving like that a year ago) So that's why I'm thinking it's only working in FWD, but I can't see how either of the above would cause that. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Sounds about right, I'm in canada so I pay a bit higher price, If I had time I usually order from parts from the US. I paid $80 for the pulley and $105 for the tensioner, I already had the belt, and they charged me $160 for labour. Which sucks because if the car had of been driveable I could have got it done for about $40 labour. I found out today ofcourse a place where I could have gotten the $8 bearing for the tensioner, but tensioner had already come in.

Just had a major snowstorm so instead of attempting this I dropped it off at the dealer. They said I need a new idle pulley and the tensioner. As the Idle pulley broke and damaged the tensioner. My normal mechanic (Who happens to be a tech at a subaru dealership a few hours from where I live (not the one I took the car to) Told me that if the tensioner goes I can replace it with a GM 6603 bearing (as that's what subaru use's) However I've called the GM dealer and they don't know what I'm taking about. Does this make sense to anyone else?

The drive belt in my H6 let go. From what I can tell it runs the alternator / ac compressor and power steering pump. Can someone confirm for me whether the water pump is driving off this belt as welll or if it's done via the timing chain? Just want to make sure it's okay to drive the car about 15 KM to get it repaired (I just need to charge the battery up and hopefully should be able to make it that far before it dies).

Not sure what you mean by chain clearances? The exact diameter on the stock tires is 26.62 inches, where as the 215/65's would be 27.00 inches. Has anyone run 215/65/16's on there outback before?