Fairtax4me

Kinda sounds like what my car is doing lately. Sometimes has a hard time moving out of its own way under 2500 rpm. Other times its fine. Power is good under light throttle, bogs down under heavy throttle. Very random though, never consistent. Thought plugs and wires (plugs were overdue) but no change. Have had a long term CEL issue, has been on for 3+ years. Never had a real running problem until recently so kinda thinking my ECU is about to dirt nap. Have swapped MAF, MAP, Knock sensor, ECT, fuel injectors, checked fuel pressure, compression a little low in one cylinder but still within FSM spec. Not sure what to think of it, if it were a continuous problem I would probably dig into it more but it's too random to know if its fixed for several days sometimes.

If it seems to good to be true it probably is! Glad you turned that Impreza down. Ditto what 88 said, new airbags... it was wrecked and repaired. Probably a back lot deal that will never even show up on a vehicle history report. You'd probably be surprised how often that happens. Congrats on getting the Foz! Hope it serves you and yours well for many years.

Yeah if you have another set of wheels & tires to try swap them on just for gits and shiggles. I know those tires and they are known for making noise. Pretty much if it says Goodyear on the sidewall they make noise, and cost a fortune.

Ash fouling could just be a small amount of oil or coolant getting into the cylinder. I would lean more towards oil if this has been a long term occurance. Sticky/worn rings, or a scratched cylinder wall. It hasn't progressed to total oil fouling so its only so bad. Compression/leakdown results would be interesting to see. Timing is easy to check. Remove the two side covers, set crank at TDC, there is a small notch in the outer section, (hard to find sometimes but it's there) line the notch up with the 0 on the timing scale on the center cover. Big Arrows on the cam sprockets should be straight up. Very easy to tell if one is off. If you can't find the mark on the crank pulley you'll have to remove it and remove the center cover to see the notch on the crank sprocket. Standard timing lights don't work on these wasted spark systems. They count too many pulses and get confused. There are lights that work but they cost a fortune. Ignition timing is not adjustable on these anyway so there's really no point in even bothering to check it. It really doesn't tell you anything.

Tire noise at that low speed would either be really aggressive tread, or very obvious cupping or feathering of the tread.

Struts can be done pretty much any time. Tie rods plan on doing an alignment after. If you need the car in the meantime, use large pliers or vice grips to clamp the tie rod end down to the knuckle so you can tighten the nut.

You'd be surprised at how loud some tires can be. It could also be the carrier bearing. What speed does the noise start?

Loosen the bearing housing bolts then put the weight of the car on it? How is the tire wear? What kind of tires? Done any research to see if they are noise makers?

Wasted spark systems tend to wear the center electrode of one plug and the ground ground electrode of the opposite plug. Ground electrode is quite a bit larger than the center electrode on a platinum tip plug. Even though platinum plugs are supposed to last longer they don't work as well as plain copper plugs in wasted spark systems. Ash fouling could be oil or coolant, or it could have something to do with fuel quality. Being on only one cylinder might indicate a dirty injector. Could mean a sticking valve as well. Try new wires and some good injector cleaner first. If that doesn't help I'd check compression and maybe do a leak down test.

Probably a wheel bearing or tire noise in your case. These don't show much if any play until the bearing is completely shot. Uneven tire wear will cause noise of a similar fashion.

Is it just the lighting in the cluster or do all of the dash lights go out? (HVAC, stereo, etc.) Does it matter which way the signal stalk is moved? (Up/down) Have you checked fuses for bad connection? The hazard lights are powered by a different source since they have to work without the key in the ignition. I would suspect a bad connection powering the dash cluster. The big question is, do the signal lights outside still work properly after the dash lights go out?

If you can find a way to attach the stethoscope to the diff housing you could run a long length of tube up into the car and just put it up to your ear.

My 96 was making the same noise when I got it at 165k. Trans made it to 190k and it could have gone longer but the bearing was making so much racket I couldn't deal with it anymore.

The Input shaft double roller bearing is a very common failure part on these transmissions, and it usually starts to exhibit signs of failure around 175-200k miles. Check the color of your fluid on the dipstick against a white rag/paper towel. The fluid will have a grey tint if the bearing is starting to fail. New gear oil will not prevent failure but it can delay it. The most obvious sign of a bad input bearing is to listen carefully to the sound with the engine running, trans in neutral. Push the clutch pedal down, the sound should go away. Release the pedal and the sound will return. This will also produce a whining or thumping sound that increases with engine speed when driving. Usually most evident in 1st and 2nd gear. The noise will also change on acceleration or deceleration. If your synchronizers are in good shape replacing the bearing is a good idea, but it can't be done without some big tools or a press. Somewhere here I have a picture of the 16" jaw puller I used to remove one of these bearings, and that still barely did it. It was a LOT of work to hold the puller still and turn the forcing screw at the same time. A press would be ideal.

Ever drained the gear oil out of a manual trans with a bad main shaft bearing? It comes out greyish black and full of silver swirls. It's not aluminum, the particles are so numerous not all of them get attracted to the magnet. Most of them end up settled in the bottom of the case like metal sludge. Magnets are useful, but the magnetic field only reaches so far, they can't pick out everything.

Junkyard.

There are wired ear kits where you basically wear headphones and use a switch to pick which sensor you want to listen to. The wireless kits are just easier to use( no wires to get hung up). And cooler. :-p Oil analysis won't tell you much more than what you can see with your eyes in this case. For engine oils there are many more sources of contamination and bearing particulate can be so small you can't see it, but analysis can detect it, along with water content, fuel dilution, etc. Very dark fluid with lots of silvery particles pretty much means there is severe wear of some component in the diff. As far as I know Subaru stopped using clutch type LSDs in the late 80s early 90s, so we should be able to rule out clutch material as a source of contamination in the fluid. Limited slip additives are either clear or amber colored from what I've seen and will not have an effect on VLSD units because the VLSD is sealed and uses its own silicone based fluid. It does not share the gear oil used by the outer parts of the diff. I would expect there to be more noise from the ring and pinion at higher vehicle speeds as well but the road noise may be enough to cover it. But with that much metal in the fluid I think we can safely say there is so e definite wear going on. I'd try changing the fluid again in a few hundred miles or at least remove the fill plug and check the fluid condition with your finger. New fluid may help limp it along for some time, but eventually it'll give up the ghost. Problem with the manual transmission cars is when either diff fails (front rear or center) you basically get no drive in either direction.

This is where it's nice to have a "Chassis Ear" kit. It's a set with a couple transmitters that you can stick on various parts under the car and a receiver that you take in the car so you can drive and listen to the noises that the transmitters pick up. You can track anything down in a matter of minutes. Very useful for diagnosing noises but not economically practical for an occasional DIYer. How dark was the fluid that came out? Did you drain it into a clean catch pan and save it? If you put about 1/2" in a small cup (solo cup) is it still transparent or is it completely opaque? I noticed you said the sound clip was amplified, but was the whole clip amplified or did you pick out just that frequency range? Some noise from the R&P is considered normal, and the fluid (if not completely dark with metal flakes) could have just been overdue for a change. If the R&P are worn excessively the new fluid will probably look nearly the same as what just came out of it in a few thousand miles.

You can get a whole used diff for the price of a new ring and pinion set and all you have to do is put it in the car. Ring and pinion replacement is a lot of work and a lot of measuring and checking to make sure you get the depth and backlash right. If its off by even just a tiny bit you'll be replacing them again in no time.

You probably won't see any big rough spots worn into the ring gear, but there are markings that will indicate excessive wear. Lots of glitter probably means there is a fair amount of wear. This could be due to improper fluid but I'd guess water contamination to be a good possibility if the vehicle was used offroad. Heavy offroad use also contributes to excess heat on the ring and pinion gears and can cause the oil to deteriorate. This means it needs to be changed more often to prevent wear. Plan on getting a new rear diff soon.

That's always been my experience with aftermarket head units at least. Perhaps some are different?

The "memory" power is actually the main supply power for the head unit. The switched power just tells it to turn on, just like the remote lead on an amp. I'm a week away from finishing my first semester in automotive technology at a local community college. Of the classes in my first semester the one I've been the most surprised by is the electrical class. I had a pretty good understanding of electrical stuff before taking the class but there were a lot of things that were still fuzzy and it really cleared those up. One of the websites we use occasionally is http://autoshop101.com/ This site has a TON of great info and tech articles on electrical diagnosis. It has a great tutorial section with loads of info from the most basic fundamentals of electricity to how to use a multimeter and goes on into some intermediate electrical topics. Then there are hundreds, or probably thousands actually, of tech articles on components, hybrid systems, wire diagrams, all kinds of great stuff. And the best part is its all free! Definitely worth spending some time there to help get a solid understanding of electrical basics.

I was gonna say, wow I guess you cant get much luckier that that (remembering the thread about the spark plug), then realized how old this thread is! Too bad the spark plug fix didn't last. Almost seems a shame to put it to rest just shy of 400k. If I had the money/space I'd make a project out of it, but I already have too many cars. Seconding Gary's comments, seafoam won't fix an oil leak. The typical Subaru oil leak is the separator plate which just needs to be replaced. No amount of additives will fix that leak.

Cheap fixes are the best kind! Remove the new bulb and coat the socket and bulb contacts in a generous helping of dielectric grease to prevent further corrosion.

The Franken-bible is on NASIOC somewhere. Pistons can be changed but the interference is still there. Even without the clearance over the deck the design of the piston crown would still make the engine interference. The only way around it might be to use dished crown pistons, but they would lower the compression ratio and that really just defeats the purpose of building a franker in the first place.