gbhrps

I suspect that you have a caliper on the verge of seizing up. What is happening is that the partially seized piston doesn't move when you first apply the brake pedal. It sticks due to corrosion in the caliper bore, and/or crud on the piston itself. After the momentary lack of movement, it suddenly pops free and clanks against the brake pads, hence the noise you hear, even though braking seems normal. You need to either replace the caliper or take the piston out and clean it up, as well as the bore, and reassemble, if the parts aren't scored and beyond cleanup. Then you need to check the other three and then flush the entire brake system and add new fluid, something that should be done every 4 years at least. Good Luck!

pinksock, I highly doubt that you'll find a 15 incher that can clear the front calipers. That was the problem years ago when I kept the winter tires and wheels from my 97 OBW LTD for use on my new 04 OBW LTD. That newer generation of OB's went to a 16 inch wheel, and the old 15's wouldn't clear the front calipers, but did so on the rears. So I sold the 15's online and bought new 16 inch wheels and winter tires for the 04. I now have an 07 OBW LTD and those 16's are on it right now. Stock wheels were 17's, but the 16's clear just fine. So I believe you'll find that 15's are out of the question for an 09. Sorry.

The HG problems were corrected with the last generation in 2005. Rarely do you hear of any 2.5 since then having the problem. I believe the same is true concerning the rear wheel bearings. Both are a thing of the past. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

jclay, If that front sunroof doesn't tilt up but the rear one still slides, the front sunroof lift mechanism is stripped. Either someone tried to open it when it was frozen in the closed position (ask me how I know), or they forcibly (with their hand) pushed the roof open or closed. The end result is that the headliner needs to be dropped and the entire sunroof assembly has to come out of the car. Not difficult, just time consuming. I had to do my 04 OBW LTD at about year 2. The parts back then ran me about $150, and I did the job myself. A dealership will cost BIGTIME. My 04 also did the external HG leak that was minor (at about 23 000 km), but the warranty had it corrected. The dealership did the coolant additive routine afterwards, but who can say whether it would work in your case. As for the hard shifts, I've had a 97, an 04 and my present 07 OBW's and all were/are automatics. None of them shifted hard. Finally, if the rpm's spiked suddenly .... and the tranny shifts hard .... could the spike be the result of the tranny slipping? 1. Expensive sunroof repair ... if you have a dealership do the work. 2. Known HG leak. 3. Possible tranny on its way out. My personal advice is to not walk away from this car ... but run. There are far too many OBW's of this vintage that won't have the symptoms that this car does. Daddy taught me ..."When in doubt, don't". Good Luck with your car hunting!

subsince77, I've owned three OBW's over the years, a 97, an 04 and my present 07. All were LTD's and each one was better than the last. The latest 07 has had not one hiccup since new and is now at 120 000 km. You'll particularly like that the rear seats fold flat without having to flip up the seat bottoms first. And the headrests can stay attached while doing it. You can also stow the cargo shield under the floor in the back where a slot is set aside for it. As well, there is no more piston slap or headgasket issue to worry about. Good luck on your future purchase!

I had a similar experience on one of my cars back a few years. Put the brakes on to start the car and the pedal went to the floor. Odd because I'd driven the car 2 days before with no problems. In my case the car was in the garage and there was brake fluid under the driver's side of the car, below the firewall. The master cylinder had a seal leak. A trip to the auto parts store for a remanufactured master cylinder solved the issue. After bench bleeding the new MC, reattaching the brake lines to the MC and filling the reservoir with brake fluid, I again had brakes. In your case you need to find out where you are losing brake fluid. Its a bad flex hose, a leaking caliper or rear wheel brake cylinder, a leaking brake line or coupling, or the master cylinder itself. Once you've found the leak, then you can make the repairs. Good Luck.

My 07 OBW LTD has no problem at all with the AM radio and static. It works just fine and sounds every bit as good as the FM section of the sound system. I would suggest that the AM tuner section of your dad's unit is in need of repair. In the long run it might just be cheaper to replace the entire head unit with another from a wrecking yard. Any 04 to 07 (maybe 08 and 09?) should be a direct swap. Good Luck!

I'm almost certain that they won't fit. I had a 97 OBW that I kept the snowtires and wheels (15 inchers) when I sold it. When I tried installing them on my new 04 OBW, the wheels wouldn't clear the front calipers. Apparently Subaru increased the rotor size with the 2000 model year and 16 inchers became the norm. (I think that's what I recall being told by the dealership.)

Your symptoms sound like a corroded or loose wiring connection on one of your ABS sensors at one of your wheels. Pull each one of them apart and check them. If that doesn't do it, you may need to have a tech scan your codes to see if the car will identify which wheel has the sensor problem and go from there. Good Luck!

I've never had to do it on my Subies, but on some other makes for sure. I'm guessing that the same bolt thread you have on the front caliper slide pins would be correct. At least is was on my wife's Lexus (rotor, not drum in this case). You could try one of those to see if it fits, but I wouldn't suggest using one of those bolts, as it could get destroyed. If it fits, get a couple of new ones from an auto parts supplier to use for removing the drums. Good Luck!

ShawnW, I agree with you on the difficult factory installed navigation systems. Most are not intuitive at all, unlike the portable units available everywhere. The factory system in my wife's Lexus is about as confusing as it could possibly be, and comes with a manual that is over a half inch thick. We rarely even turn it on, choosing instead to use the portable Garmin unit that usually goes in my Subie. Its a piece of cake to use by comparison! On top of that, the factory installed unit won't let you program it while the car is in gear. Oh, sure, that's to keep the driver from being distracted, but why can't the passenger do the programing? That's how my wife and I do it with the Garmin, she navigates the GPS while I drive. And, yes, there's the $300+ navigation mapping upgrade each year for the factory unit, whereas the portable GPS units can do it for less than a $100, or just over a $100 to buy a new updated GPS unit every 2nd year or so. No contest!

I've owned an OBW LTD from each of the first three generations, and its coming time for me to upgrade to the present generation. What has me concerned is the CVT option. So, you owners with the CVT out there, ......... how do you like it? Would you buy another Subie so equipped? Many thanks for your input!

The rusted metal section is called a stone guard. Its function is to prevent stones/gravel from getting in between the brake pad and rotor. Its not an item that you need to be concerned about, unless you feel the need to have the car 100%. I sure wouldn't be concerned if the car was mine. As for the power steering problem, this is not normal. It may be that the power steering system needs to be properly flushed and refilled, or that there is air that is in the system that needs to be purged. Normally after a power steering service, the front end of the car is jacked up with the wheels off the ground. The steering wheel is then turned full lock right and then full lock left several times to purge the air out of the system. This may be all that your car requires. If not, then you need to have a service technician check the system out. Someone else may have another idea for you as well. Good Luck!

Yup! There are 6 of them, three each side, and you just found the bottom end of the front ones.

If you decide to tackle the job, here are some hints to help out. There may be shims under the front sunroof mounting points. Make note of where and how many. You'll need them in the same place upon reinstallation. Keep your hands clean. The fabric of the headliner marks easily, and cleaning it afterwards will leave marks that will show up. Pull all of the headrests. It'll give you a lot more room when you drop the headliner. You'll need a Torx 55 socket bit to remove the seat belts at the top of the B pillars, in order to pull off the B pillar mouldings. The centre section of the headliner between the two sunroofs has 3 or 4 special fasteners. You can see them from the roof looking down into the car when the rear sunroof is open. They are flat, rectangular plastic push plugs with smaller rectangular centre pins that must be pulled up to release. I seem to recall that the mouldings around both sunroof openings in the headliner must come out. I believe that they hold the headliner to the roof structure when in place. They are easily removed and replaced. Just pull the moulding into the opening of the sunroof. When you go to replace the entire sunroof assembly back into the car, have the system in the closed position. That way the rear sunroof will be correctly positioned in the roof opening with no alignment problems. Once fastened in, then reinstall the front sunroof and centre it side to side. Lastly, test drive the car for wind noise before you reinstall the headliner. The front sunroof may need to be moved side to side, or have shims removed or added. (Ask how I know.) Good Luck!

I've done several of these sunroof fixes on different cars, as well as on my last 04 OBW LTD. It takes a lot of time to remove and replace the headliner. Not hard to do, just very time consuming. Dropping the entire sunroof assembly out of the car is not particularly hard either, just pull the door weather stripping, the A,B and C pillar mouldings, disconnect some wiring, 6 drain tubes, the front sunroof lift mechanism from the rear of the tilt sunroof , about 10 nuts along both sides of the sunroof assembly and its out the back of the car. And yes, if your system is badly damaged, your best bet is to find a wreck that's been hit front or rear and change the entire system over. The front tilt section has two hinges on its front that bolt to the inner roof structure. In your case they're rusted off. You'll need rusted sections cut out and new metal welded in. Once done and the front tilt section is hooked up correctly to the tilt mechanism, that should realign your rear sunroof to open correctly. Just be very careful with the front tilt mechanism. Don't force it up or down. Small plastic parts can be broken very easily. As far as the TSB was concerned, the problem was along the sides of the rear sunroof opening where water was being wicked into cracks in the paint. Then the water found its way down to the overhead maplights. Your rusted area has a different culprit perhaps. Good Luck!

If water is coming in from where you describe, your windshield has lost its seal, and needs to be pulled and resealed soon. The rust damage that will occur will be swift and expensive to fix correctly if left too long. It is possible that the drain tube to the front sunroof is plugged, or has split and come off its steel tube. This drain tube is located right at the front corner of the sunroof, and exits down the inside of the A pillar to empty out below the front fender in front of the door. With the age of your car, I would expect that the plastic tube has shrunk or split and pulled away from the steel drain tube opening. It is possible that the drain hole is plugged and the water is finding its way into the headliner, down the A pillar moulding and out under the dash. Pull the overhead assist strap, the sunvisor, the A pillar moulding, the weather stripping around the top of the driver's door and down the A pillar, and the moulding around the opening of the front sunroof. You'll then be able to pull the headliner down enough on that front corner to see inside with a flashlight just what the problem is. Good Luck!

I'm not sure that this is the cause of your problem, but it sounds similar to the situation that I experienced in one of my cars several years ago. A leaking rear engine seal would deposit a silver dollar sized circle of oil on the garage floor after each run. This was on a 1990 Nissan 300zx, and about 8 years ago. On a similar forum someone suggested changing the PCV valves (that car had 2 of them), figuring that if they were stuck in the closed position, that they would allow internal crankcase pressure to build up and push oil out through the rear seal. I changed them and the leaking stopped immediately. I still own the car and it has not leaked a drop to this day. It saved me from having to drop the exhaust, the prop shaft, the tranny and the clutch to replace the rear seal. It was a very cheap fix.

I stripped the entire rear of the car and no colour code label. As I stated earlier, there is no label anywhere on this car. Anywhoo, I called the dealership where I purchased the car and, yes, they stated it was a 3K3 two tone, 35S being the granite gray opal metallic needed for the lower body cladding. So the bumper was painted this morning, and I'll throw the whole thing back together tomorrow morning. Thanks everyone! Gene

That was my next step, but it'll have to be tomorrow during business hours.

Gentlemen, I have searched my 2007 OBW LTD from front to rear, inside, everywhere, and there is no paint code label to be found. Not on the rad support, the shock towers, the firewall, the inner fenders, the edge of the driver's door, the B pillar, or the trunk under the spare tire. Did this thing get built without the label being installed? The car was brand new when I bought it. I have the rear bumper cover off the car, prepped for paint, and no paint code. The car is the two tone light silver metallic topside and gray rockers and bumpers used from 2005 to 2007. I need only the gray code, and have only been able to find online the code 35S Granite Gray Metallic, but I cannot verify it is correct. Can anyone verify? Many Thanks! Gene

That's where your Christmas lights hook up (red and Green?). Seriously, give us a year and model and maybe someone has the answer for you.

I suspect that you've found the subwoofer.

First, unscrew the chrome nut(ring) an top of the black plastic gasket on the outside fender where the antenna exits. You then have to pull out the rear side panel in the cargo area to access the power antenna. It comes out after moving the floor carpet out of the way, and pulling up the floor left side panel behind the rear wheel. There are screws to undo as well as 10 mm nuts to get that side panel out. Now you'll see the power antenna inside the fender. Undo the rubber drain hose from the bottom of the antenna assembly and just leave it in the bottom of the fender. Don't pull it out. Disconnect the electrical plug to the antenna and the antenna wire that goes to the front of the car. Undo the 10 mm bolt that holds the antenna to its bracket, and remove the entire assembly from the car. Now you can either replace the entire assembly with a new one, or take apart the old one, clean and lube it up (not hard to do if you have some mechanical aptitude and can visualize how it must come apart and go back together), or replace the mast and geared whip assembly and reinstall. Just remember to test the unit out by reinstalling the electrical connections with the unit laying inside the trunk, but with the antenna mast aimed out the opening. Retract the mast assembly and reinstall back into the car in reverse. Good Luck!

Depending on where you buy the parts, the repair is relatively cheap. (I've seen $83 - $210 for the lift mechanism) It is a DIYer for someone who is patient and has done some wrenching, and who can afford to have his car down for the time the repair takes. Been there, done that, on my last OBW LTD an 04. What has gone south is the track mechanism that operates the 2 scissor lifts at the rear of the front sunroof. Nothing else needs replacing. The parts are plastic and attach to the 2 geared whips that pull the sunroofs open and closed. The only way to replace them .... is to drop the headliner and remove the entire sunroof assembly from the car. Its not hard, or even challenging, but it is time consuming. Rather than retype the procedures all over again, search under sunroof, or for my signature, and you'll find several posts explaining the step by step. If you need more help, I'd be happy to oblige. Good Luck!