89Ru

Ouch. How bad did it freeze up? Is there a glaze on the timing belt from trying to drive a frozen water pump? What mixture did you use? Once I used maybe 60:40 or even higher and I had a small leak at the water pump. When it cooled down diluting the coolant down closer to 50:50 made the leak go away (I know, makes no sense) or perhaps the sealing surfaces just mated better after the cooldown. Temperature cycle the engine a few times and see if the leak seals up. Hopefully it wasn't this bad. http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1712093

to limit google searches to a specific site: head gasket retorque site:ultimatesubaru.org

guessing at some ideas here. if you have a set of tiny dental mirrors and a good light try to figure out what the wrench is hooked on. perhaps a lever to apply a bit more tension on the wrench will help extract it. you'll need another person for this, maybe 2. maybe the hood will have to come off first. get a long 2x4, maybe 6 foot. place the 2x4 across the strut towers. tie the middle of the 2x4 to the wrench using a rope or coat hanger. tighten up the crank pulley bolt. have a buddy move the crank slightly while you lift up on the wrench. vary the extraction angle of the wrench by using wedges on the strut tower end of the 2x4. try to pull the wrench straight out, i.e. the angle faces slightly back toward the trans. maybe even a third person could use a screwdriver to adjust the position of the stuck wrench. the more the merrier, just find people who have a good sense of humor and have gotten in fixes like this one. you know it can come out the same way it went in, just have to figure out the right undo mechanism. another way is to find a come-along and tie it to rafters overhead and behind the engine to yank on the wrench.

sorry about the unreliability. if the only exhaust problem is the flange, a shop should be able to easily put a new flange in, for around $50 unless its too close to the cat for example. I've had it done at least twice. For some reason the flange steel seems to rust 2-3 times faster than the pipes.

Doublecheck first but WRX wheels are 55 mm offset, at least the ones I am using. 16" WRX wheels should work. All my '95-'97 outbacks (two legacies, one impreza) have WRX wheels, no known issues although I did have one rear wb slowly fail on a legacy out of 12 wheels upgraded. As a bonus, WRX wheels have less corrosion around the bead surface than the stock outback wheels which is why I switched them all over, was frequently topping off the tire pressure due to flaking wheel coatings from salt intrusion. Look for the "55" molded into the wheel inside surface to be sure the offset is right.

a lot of what you list are normal wear items. what part of the exhaust? y-pipe or downstream (cats, resonator, etc.) 1 qt. in 3500 miles isn't a bad oil leak. on the other hand, what are you considering replacing it with?

exactly. a bull pin makes a nice wedge.

i'm no rocket scientist but I can connect two dots together sometimes...change out o2 sensor see if it helps

i would think so but i haven't tried it with the hf 3-jaw in principle the force translates down the threaded shaft to the axle. axle will give and loosen tension on the jaws. tighten it and hit it again. repeat. if the axle gives too much the jaws loosen their grip and fall off. for really stuck axles this will work very well http://www.ntxtools.com/network-tool-warehouse/OTC-6574.html

i broke a set of three-jaws too, makes for a loud bang and then everything falls off except the axle is still stuck. you may have magnetite on the splines. its very brittle and hammering is necessary to break it up. the combination of pressure and hammering seems to be the best as has already been mentioned. kroil works great on rust but not on magnetite. neither will pb blaster. did an experiment for several months and the only solvent i have found to work on magnetite is liquid wrench but i don't bother to use it anymore. i have berkbile carb cleaner, do they make rust solvents? 50-ton press just makes the axle nervous but it still might not give it up. As has been mentioned, use the otc-7208A tool to wrench-hammer-wrench-hammer-etc...seems to work the best or otc makes bigger tools than that. air hammer works good too. you need something to hammer against so leave the ball joint mated to the control arm until the axle is loose. lots of repeating here but don't touch pinch joint, there is may be so much rust built up on the ball joint head its ridiculous to try to get it out unless the boot is torn and that's easily done (been there) if you use an unfriendly tool. even if the pinch joint bolt is out, ball joint could still be really stuck. have fun, you'll get it out.

dealer sells sets of lugs for around $20. mcgard's are cheaper. tone ring has four bolts, 5mm allen bolt head. if you are close to a junkyard go and get a set of tone ring bolts and wheel lugs.

torque spec on the cover bolts is around 4 ft-lb, bolts might bottom out less than that though. eight bolts under the cover spec at 10 ft-lb.

Here's a thread that discusses it, no special tools but the cover may have some glue holding it in place. pull the cover straight up iirc, there is a strong (and brittle) magnet that wants to fight that. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=98281 Here's what the IAC looks like with the cover off http://i444.photobucket.com/albums/qq166/89ru/EJ25/P1040145.jpg

worth a look under the IAC cover. my 1997 legacy outback had a cracked magnet. cold starts would result in high idle maybe 2000-2500 which came down after a few minutes. will wear on the clutch.

I won't be surprised if mine turns out that way as much as I don't want to repeat this job. Subie engineering changed the process mid-stream in response to an increased failure rate. This is my first wb failure amidst many quiet miles. One of the pleasures of keeping Subarus alive into old age is that they last long enough to see some interesting failures, and they have a high enough margin of error that they still can limp to the grocery store with broken parts on board. I used to work for a company that made torpedoes among other things. One of my coworkers who worked on the torpedo job was asked how many torpedoes did they make before they got the process down right. He said about 50. Do enough wheel bearing jobs and you'll learn enough tribal folklore to get it right.

Bearing is pressed in and seals are in. some question on seal depth for the two inner seals. End Wrench has a tool set the first seal depth, so that's a guess. Some pictures online show the second seal fairly deep but End Wrench says the second seal should be flush with the housing. Will know more when it mates up with the axle. Now have to find a lateral link bolt and bushing.

Glad it worked out for you. My favorite u-pull yard (selection-wise) here doesn't guarantee parts, they might work, might not. They usually have around 8 subes for the picking. I have seals and bearing on hand. Been preparing for this job for a while...better yet working up the nerve to finally do it. Next time I'll be a little more selective in donor parts.

Thanks for the idea. I was going to go the bolt-on route initially. That's how I came across the donor (shipped from a yard in NJ for $50). But turns out they sent me the wrong side, with a seized lateral link bolt, hanging onto two cut off lateral link ends. Seized parking brake cable and ABS sensor to boot. Real gift it was Its worse (rust-wise) than my '95. But by tearing into the donor hub I learned some things, namely how not to destroy my ABS sensor, those things are somewhat fragile in contrast to the carnage on the rest of the hub...and also how to press out stuck bushings, minor victories in the battle.

'95 legacy outback wagon, 180k About 13k ago the noise started. finally got tired of the growl in the left rear so its up for a new wheel bearing. pulled the knuckle to work on it off-car. maybe won't do that again. more on that in a minute. Heard that if you leave a bad bearing in for a long time you'll need to replace the hub or worse. my hub is scored a little near the outside end, two small scratches but no discoloration. wb cone probably spun on the hub a bit. good reason not to wait. but maybe i'm still ok. ok time for some boring measurements. hub OD measures at 38 mm +/- 0.02 mm on both my hub and a donor. wb outer and inner races are heavily pitted about half way around on one side with signs of discoloration (from heat). all that noise just from some pitting. one would think that the bearing would be metal powder by now with all the racket. With the hub still in place, the bearing had no play in it, just noisy from the pits. End Wrench tolerance on the wheel bearing housing in the knuckle is 0.02 mm x-y. My housing tolerance is 0.05 mm and a donor housing I have specs out worse .10 mm and its wheel bearing was good, no pitting at all. can I go ahead and use either of these hubs and knuckles or are they out of spec? I have pictures, might post them eventually. Now to touch on grease controversy. Bad wb was jam packed full with grease (causes overheating and seal failures so I read) which was black. Seals didn't look that good, outer seal on the hub was the worst. Good wb from the donor (I think from a '98) had very little grease which was not discolored (extracted the hub for practice thinking I would need it). i'm going to leave the new wb untouched as is, even though i have read that some people repack it going against the advice from End Wrench. The inevitable tool discussion. End Wrench doesn't recommend using a press because the forces involved can deform the housing. For next time I have read that folks use the FWD kit from HF. http://www.harborfreight.com/fwd-front-wheel-bearing-adapters-66829.html dumb question: does this kit work on rear wb also? For the rear it seems like the lateral link bolt has to come out either way whether you do the job on-car or off. had to cut it, rear lateral link bushing sleeve was seized to the bolt. still, not having to fuss with the ABS sensor (mine is still stuck in place even after an hour of wiggling, finally gave up and pulled the cable from under the bench seat) seems like a reason to do the work on car.

all good advice above. my 2 cents for a new subie owner. diy job difficulty: easy --> harder valve cover gaskets cam seal / water pump CV axle replace baffle plate while the maestros may pull an engine to do these jobs, its only needed for the baffle plate (do when the clutch wears out). rough estimate of parts costs: diy newb job time valve cover gaskets $80 online dealer: 2-3 hours seals, water pump, oil pump reseal, timing belt $130 ebay: long day, maybe 2 if complications CV axle $80 no parts store axles please: long day, maybe 2 if axle seized baffle plate: cheap part, lots of hours for engine pull doing these yourself is possible, build up a base of tools searching this board to figure out what you need. go slow, ask for help when you get stuck. hire mechanics for jobs that you aren't ready for...yet. doing the clutch in a shop might set you back $650-800. timing belt half that or less. cv axle maybe $250, don't bother fixing the boot. shop around find a place that knows subarus. like others have said, coolant leaks could shut you down. oil leaks are less of an issue except that leaking cam seals can hurt a belt but engine is non impact so some might not care until it breaks. if axle isn't knocking around corners you could leave it for warmer weather.

seeing patterns here, some redundant so i agree with what has been posted ** broke first time or not strong enough for the job three piece three jaw puller set - broke pushing an axle out, ok for small jobs 14 piece gear puller - shaved off edges of the tool while pulling a wheel bearing inner race off a hub ** good tools imho digital calipers IR temperature gun impact sockets 8000 lb cable winch puller - "come along" tool 3 lb copper hammer cylinder compression tester heat gun and shrink tubing tie rod and pittman arm puller - only used for pushing out stuck bushings from the lateral links 2.5 ton low profile floor jack - good valve control, doesn't drop a car like other jacks i have used 20 ton shop press - comes with plates that help with odd shapes like knuckles large bearing separator - with press, removes remains of wheel bearing off hub ** some problems leak-down tester - quick connect missing a ball so they sent me another, had to use a third party adapter to fit my air hose clicker torque wrenches - low settings don't always trip the clicker piston brake bleeder - can't hold a seal on the reservoir without grease

on my '95 wagon the snap ring is visible in the knuckle only when the hub is pressed out, it sits behind the outer wb seal against the outer wb race. to press the wb out of the knuckle the snap ring has to come out first. since it takes tons of force to remove the bearing, perhaps the snap ring is an extra measure of safety but i wouldn't leave it out. if the new wb isn't pressed in far enough, the snap ring slot may be partially covered up.

what it seems like they are doing is making a 25% overlap front-end collision be more energy deflecting than energy absorbing through crumpled metal. notice how the firewall is angled much like the blue deflector shield, so the deflector is an additional shield put forward of the tire added to the firewall deflector behind the tire, both protecting the driver. in either case the crumple zone does not appear to enter the cabin so the driver's left foot isn't injured. i wonder at what speed the deflector prevents cabin intrusion. the deflector will cause a sharp twist in the car's direction, which could cause injury (spinal rotation) however its unclear to my non-German speaking brain whether the unmodified cars have less or more twisting forces on the occupants.

Interesting article. It suggests that higher end pads can deposit material unevenly onto rotors. The rotor is not really warped, it just has uneven pad material stuck to it (they call it pad-imprinting). If not corrected, the pad material can morph into something hard, baked on, that only gets worse. The article suggests that changing out pads to semi-mets can fix the problem if its not too far along. It also suggests a bed-in procedure to help avoid the problem in the first place. Some pads are sold "burned in." I think this might be the same as "bed-in." It seems like this is only half the solution since a properly bed-in rotor has a thin layer of pad material evenly deposited on it. Perhaps pads and rotors could be sold together, already bed-in, but that jacks up the cost, inventory, and if done after the point of sale, could delay the shipping time and is probably not the best idea. One solution is to learn how to bed-in a set of rotors and pads and have a back-up set of abrasive pads. Or just run abrasive pads in the first place and live with the dust and higher temperature fade (probably not advised for mountains or towing).

Depends on the frame of reference. I was used to Legacy road noise then I drove a '96 impreza 5-speed that had been broken into and dash components stolen. The noise from the transmission even at idle was noticeably louder. Then I realized the open dash port from the missing radio funneled gear train noise into the cabin. On the plus side I don't mind not having layers upon layers of plastic, foam, and insulation to sift through in getting a radio out. I'm used to the whine in reverse, its like music.