nipper

Well then investigate a used tranny for a flip.

I have never taken one of these apart, but all the labor in rebuilding a tranny is taking it down, taking it apart, putting it together and reinstalling it. The kit is fairly inexpensive in comparison. Unless there is a hard part damage, replacing just what is fired is dollar foolish, as there is no gaurentee that the next week reverse or third or forth will go.

2001 H6 VDC doesnt have a center diff, it is a clutch pack (Auto), so everything you said is correct. And of course there is the possability that this was a dying transmission to begin with and thats why it ended up in an auto auction from a dealer.

it is not unheard of for fluids to be changed before a sale to hide problems.

I prefer OEM as it gives me someone to yell at. Also OEM parts will be the most up to date, as HG failures cost subaru money on warrenty claims. Subaru has a interest in getting these things right. For the record SUbaru isnt the only one with iffy HG's. The concern with Six Star, or anyone else for that matter, is that I am not reading anywhere howmuch mileage is on them. Subaru doesnt want the car ever coming back for HG ever again, espeically if it had to be done under warrenty (costs them money). As long as the HG is MLS, it comes down more to the preperation and the source of the part. the more critical the part the more I stay away from ebay. I can't find who makes Six Star, and sometimes I am leery of parts made for NASCAR (as is claimed) as they arent built for 100,000 miles or more, they are just built for one race. My big question, if these six star head gaskets were built by a company that builds "these type" (awkward) of parts for NASCAR, why is the company not named? Some casual reading http://www.aa1car.com/library/gasket_failure.htm

Yup thats a HG. Get the head gasket itself from the dealer so you have the latest design.

transmission is ruined. Anything but a flatbed will destroy the transmission in these cars.

NOO!!!!! And here is where the issue may have come from. You can not flat tow (or on a tow truck) a subaru, or any AWD car without damaging the driveline. There is no rear pump to circulate the fluid while towing to keep the internals cool. How was it towed, i am afraid to ask.

interesting, Foresters don't blow HG as often as outbacks. What makes you suspect a HG, just curious.

Without a roar or whine, i am ruling out a front diff (which is usually an issue on a turbo). Also judder noise etc on a diff would be at startup when the stresses are the highest. This sounds like a clutch is starting to slip.

That was my next question. I think this may be a dying transmission. How is the fluid, when was the last time it was serviced?

Tires are a trade off on wear, handling, traction, noise. Usually the higher mileage tires are harder and louder. What tires are you running? Have you tried rotating the tires to see if the noise moves (indicaiting an individual tire).

Saftey Saftey Saftey. I have had ball joints pop, tie rod end go, half shafts explode. If you do the math the extra 30 bucks in gas is far cheaper then a 3 hr tow, or a short tow and a rental car.

I have the same problem, going from a 87 to a 2005. Mine has 185K on it, 5000 miles ago all struts replaced with KYB, and the rear links for the sway bar have been replaced. There is a long long long long long thread about the rear wallowing, but I would rather see a thread here as most of that thread is me too lets sue or something. I am fearless and there are times when the bounce of the back has worried me. NJDRSUbaru has noticed the same thing on his 01. It seems that wavy road surfaces make it far worse then choppy roads, so I am leaning towards weak springs. An 06 owner on a outback mail list replaced all his springs with King Springs and he said it is much much better. Can your freind (if possible) make a mental note on what kind of road surfaces seem to make it worse? I have seen many complaints on this almost enough to make me think there are a batch of bad springs out there that are not aging well.

Shall I assume it is an outback with a 2.5L engine? What tranny and how many miles? And welcome

What does the tach do during this shudder? Does the shudder change on curves?

One thing that can be said with stock parts on soobys. If the stock part lasted ten gazillion miles, the replacement part will be just as good from subaru.

Sometimes the dealer is not a horrible place to look for older subaru parts. I know with the Justy I have been surprised in a good way quite a few times

Basically you would use a ruler. Sometimes you have to take off the tie rod ends and measure the rack to make sure it is extented equally on both sides, make a refernce mark and go on from there. The steering wheel is actually a very poor reference to use at times.

I dont often say this, but ... Aside from having the heads checked for flatness, since this was a mistake and not something that went bad because of wear, dont do any other machine work. Head bolts do not get replaced on subaru, PER SUBARU and everyone else. Subaru head bolts dont torque to yield so reuse them.

Gary i did not realize it was you Is it the original steering rack? Are the outer tie rods original, oe, replacement or cant tell?

You should replace the gaskets and the bucket seals (plug seals). Get those from subaru, get the valve cover from anywhere. Why did you replace so many parts? Oil contaimnates the sprak plug wires and they swell up and the silicon breaks down, which causes miss fires.

Monroe is not a quality part anymore, so avoid them if you can.

Did you replace anything recently? This is not normal by a long shot. How is the tire wear. How is the ride and handling? How big was the pothole you hit?

On this car I agree, felpro is ok. We all make mistakes, it happens. I'm curious how many miles on the engine?