CNY_Dave

Oh, you mean the "Penta Spiral Ramp Cut Wheel Retention mechanism"! Manual-speak can be pretty amusing sometimes. Dave

I don't think you have 'new car smell', I think someone cleaned and armoralled the crap out of the interior. My '03 used from the dealer took about 2 weeks to be 'livable' from all the crap they sprayed inside that thing. Dave

Every other dang year (just about) has a plug in the back where you plug-in a commercially available trailer-light adapter box- I would be surprised if the '05 is not the same. An adapter box is required in any case since trailers usually have integrated brake/tail lights. Dave

See if anything from the delayed forward engagement thread looks familiar- http://ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=87708 Dave

There's an endwrench article about recurrent rear wheel bearing failures- outer race holder in the knuckle gets out-of-round, and the tools to do the change had to be altered. Dave

Search for a problem with overly sensitive ABS controllers- don't recall which models, but there was an issue. Dave

If I ever get around to modifying my '03 headlights so that the low-beam filament turns off when the high beams are on, I may need to disable the DRLs. There are times when i would like to turn them off at night (sometimes you have to go stealth, and the brakes drag a bit with the Ebrake on one notch), but in general I really don't care if they're on. Dave

Given other reads on H6 buildups, I guess they must be replacing or strengthening just about everything on those... Dave

FWD, you'd weld the diff, and plug the rear housing. If, that is, the power to the center diff is fed into the ring gear and then power to the front wheels is fed through one 'axle' (as though it's a rear-wheel-drive diff), and power to the rear wheels through the other 'axle'. Dave

A discussion of static vs dynamic compression ratios, cylinder filling, can porting be far behind, alright, this should be good for 7-8 pages! Especially since the H6 has that variable valve timing widget... Dave

If the spark can be retarded arbitrarily far, the octane could be arbitrarily low. The question I guess would be can the computer retard the spark sufficiently far? I think it can, and I don't worry about running 87 (heve never heard pinging or knocking), but I don't because it runs so much better on the higher-octane stuff. Pre-ignition is devastating when it occurs early in the compression stroke, but is not caused by too low an octane, really, it's caused by hot bits in the cylinder igniting the charge early in the compression stroke. It can bend a rod very quickly if it happens early enough in the stroke. The hot bits can be carbon or a plug that's too hot. Spark knock or detonation is the term here. The octane rating of the fuel really has only a little to do with the ignitability of the fuel, if the fuel ignitability was low enough that 10 or 11 or even 12:1 compression were enough to ignite it, we'd all be seeing cetane ratings on gasoline pumps, as opposed to just octane ratings (and unlike a diesel, low cetaine ratings would be what we wanted). Dave

I stopped looking at anything to do with the '10s as soon as I saw it was longer and wider. Not for me. Dave

Lotsa stuff can make noise. It doesn't seem like torque-bind, but your front end may have worn tie rods and/or ball joints or there may be bad busj=hings (front or rear), or bad wheel bearings. Dave

I assume this car is a front-wheel-drive only? Dave

Add a few more ingredients to the ATF mix and you have genuine Ed's Red. I would like to see creepage rates through rusty threads compared, but that's be a tough protocol to set up. Maybe the ones that did best here didn't *lube* the best, maybe they just *crept* the best. "According to Ed, “Ed’s Red” will flow at -65oF and won’t carbonize at 600oF. It has seen use by both the FBI and the Army Marksmanship Training Units." http://blog.captivereefing.com/2008/04/17/eds-red/ Dave

Ain't that just the way it always is. Dave

Subaru's are famous for having no torque steer- as long as everything is set up right and the road is dead-nuts flat. I get no torque steer on a flat road, and sometimes quite a bit on a road where there is a dip where the right-hand wheels go (similar to a road crown but more severe). As soon as one side is compressed more than the other, the subie gets torque steer just like lesser FWD vehicles. Dave

What I would clarify is that no matter how much you torque the nut, you will not increase the force/pressure on the rollers (or balls) (which is what I would call preload). The preload is set by the dimensions of the inner races, and axle nut torque (axle stub stretching) need only be sufficient to keep road forces from separating the two inner races where they meet. Dave

I still say I didn't see a shoulder for the outboard inner race to rest against, even though I know there should be. The inner race was easy to get a hold of to pull from the hub, unlike a toyo I just helped out on where the race was up against a shoulder. This'll teach me not to take pics... Dave

Unless I see a manufacturer document or a DOT doc or a set of alignment specs that are asymmetric, I am going to call BS on pulling right by design. The concept is so damn flawed that it sounds like the stupid kind of thing manufacturers or the DOT would do/mandate, but actual cases where it would help are just about nil. Not to mention the compromise in fuel mileage and tire wear. Dave

That's what I think, but I distinctly remember there not being a step there because there was no hint (on the assembly) on how far to press in the hub. It was easy getting the outboard inner race off the hub because there was a gap between the inner race and the outer edge of the hub. It seemed there was the possibility of pressing the hub in too far and pressing it into the outer oil seal. Well, it's been 10,000 miles or so... Or maybe the axle nut was never fully tightened, but I have to imagine the bearings would not last so long. Dave

The preload confuses me a little bit. I think when properly installed the inner faces of the two inner races are supposed to be in contact with each other, but I can't for the life of me figure out what keeps them in contact other than the inner race friction fit on the hub. When you press the hub into the inner races, you don't drive a wider portion of the hub against the outboard inner bearing, the outboard inner bearing could move further outboard if it was a loose fit on the hub. The inboard inner race rests against the face of the outer CV joint. The only time you set the bearing preload is when you press the hub into the inner races by driving against the hub and supporting the inboard inner race. That is, the friction of the hub to the outboard inner race drives the outboard inner race against the inboard inner race. As long as the 2 inner races are touching, the preload is correct. If the outboard inner race is a loose fit on the hub, it may never be driven against the inboard inner race. Or is there a step in the hub I'm forgetting about that bottoms against the outboard inner race? Dave

My '03 is starting to have problems with opening the hatch. On mine the handle is not returning fully, so if I give it just a little 'push' all the way to the normal (rest) position, it clicks and is good to go. Do you pull the cover off the inside of the hatch to access it, or do you pull the 2 screws that hold the hatch handle/license plate lights? Dave

Hmmm, I'll post to see what location pops up for me...

It might just be loose. Will a regular valve-core tool fit? A quick tap on the end of the valve to let a small bit of gas out might clear the valve, if it's a bit of crud holding it open. Dave