coryl

What is the scheduled maintenance of this car? I race mine (Subaru and Evo) and have changed my dif oil frequently. 144,00 miles seems to be very high for a Subaru basic maintenance, but that said I don't do basic.

Bring it back to the dealership and see if they will give you a deal since they replaced the gear oil and now there's a leak. They might do a deal.

Looks like the gasket to me. Changing the gear oil will break up the gunk at the seals causing leaks. Is this the first oil change in 144,000 miles? That's got to be the problem I'm thinking.

I went in to see my friend, and did a bit more research. My Potenza pole version tires are asymmetrical and not directional, so as long as all 4 tires say outside on the outside they are correct and they are. The confusing part was the arrows going in different directions on either side of the car and the sips not symmetrical in direction. Clearly the design arrows are there to confuse people. Almost all of my tires, Blizzacks, Re71r, Dunlop Z's, have all been directional, so I believed the Poles were too and especially with what I felt were directional arrows. Anyways, I'm glad you figured out that your tires were installed incorrectly so you can get them fixed! I am now much more informed about asymmetric tires thanks to you.

On all tires. Appears not in my case.

I sent my friend an email and I'm waiting to hear back. The tires should all read outside and the direction arrow should all be facing the direction forward as the wheel turns.

I just went outside to look at my tires and I'm back in confusion with even mine. I don't think mine are right as I initially thought they weren't. The pole position tires I have are directional and asymmetric. Ffs I'm looking at them closer tonight and they are all outside yet direction is not correct. The crazy part is that the direction appears as a fancy design so is confusing. Omg I'm so pissed. Going to speak with my friend tomorrow. I'll keep you posted. Thank you Craigmcg for bringing up this thread.

I can't believe it still but I'm so happy. If you can believe it, even when the tech said he knew the problem was in the door, I initally thought to myself that this must be a secondary problem. Once we believe that it's a problem with the suspension, etc, and especially when there was a car accident, you keep focused on that belief unfortunately which would have cost me a bundle of money to figure out had it not been for my friends. I bought pizza and bought presents to thank everyone at the dealership. That would have been a huge cost for me I know to Figure it out. I so thank them!

I have the performance Bridgestone Potenza "reverse pole" tires on my Subaru and they are confusing on an AWD vehicle to rotate and it's taken me a bit to figure things out. I was so confused initially that I contacted my expert tire friend to confirm that they had been installed correctly because they didn't look like I'd expected in direction yet they were. I'd definitely call/contact the manufacturer for information.

Problem solved and I can hardly believe what was the problem... I get to the dealership and my friend takes the car for a test drive and he can hear nothing. So I get in the car with him and eventually he can hear the ping sound but very faintly yet can't distinguish where it's coming from. Next, one of the girls at the dealership gets in the car with me on my request, because I read somewhere that women hear things differently than guys do, and she hears the pings from the back seat but thinks it's coming from the front of the vehicle and not from the back where the wheel was hit and so as I'm listening to it closer I now agree with her. Next, a tech gets into the back seat and he can hear the pings too and thinks it's coming from the front wheel too, so now we are all in agreement it's coming from the front drivers side area. The car is put up on the hoist and the front wheel won't make the ping noise when turned and nothing is looking like it's catching on anything. The tech then brings the car down and gets into the front seat and takes the car off on his own. He comes back with a big smile on his face saying that he's figured it out and it's "coming from the door" and starts to swing open and shut the driver's side door and something's banging around inside so we take the door apart. The metal rod connecting to the lock mechanism had come apart, so when taking fast left turns it would hit once against the metal inside the door but couldn't hit anything metal when swinging in the opposite direction taking right turns. I'm so happy that it wasn't anything major with the suspension. I'm also very happy that the problem was figured out before the fob stopped working or the car alarm went off and then the key in the driver's side door wouldn't work to open the door or to shut off the alarm which would have undoubtedly been at minus 40C in winter!

A poorly calibrated, sticking or failing brake light sensor can also play with ABS/traction control when braking and set off codes. Have you checked the codes when this happens? Clearly a code will be detected when there's a fault like this so that's where they need to analyze when you get to the shop. It will be fairly easy to figure out the issues when they check the codes. Good luck and let us know what you find out.

One thing about buying a car that's been a trade in to a different dealership is that they'd really like it off their lot, so the deals can be much better. Most running cars are worth at least $1500 unless there's any major work to be done, ie, engine, transmission. The dealership is selling the car at a higher price than you can get from a local seller, yet there should be some warranty at the dealership verses none when you buy it from someone else. In Canada, there's a 30 day warranty on all used cars sold from a dealership and IMO it's well worth a bit extra to have that peace of mind. That said, I also bought my Subaru from a Toyota dealership and have since learned a few things that I would now do in the future since there were dropped leads and head gasket problems that cropped up after. I would offer a close price for the car that they are asking, and I'd have them do an engine analysis and a 100 point check for leaks, brake/tire wear, etc, etc, etc. Costs them really nothing to do this (the techs are all there), yet they would be obligated to tell you of anything that they found and any dealership isn't going to risk reputation for not disclosing something for a car of this price. It would make more sense if the car was of higher value to take it elsewhere to have things checked out, but IMO not in this case because it will cost you for the full analysis of it. Take the car out on a test drive and check out the things others have said on this thread as a final decision and negotiate further depending on what's found. As just mentioned...rust would also be a big deal breaker for me too. Good luck!

Just a quick question before I take the car in. I was listening for noises after the car was hit and I heard nothing until after I had the wheel alignment done. Is it possible that one of the bolts didn't get torqued correctly during the alignment process?

Idosubaru, yes, this is the wheel that was hit. I've checked the brakes and cleaned everything and still the single ping/tick when taking corners at over 30kms/hr. The tick/ping sound only comes when taking corners faster and not from a slow start. The sound comes regardless if I'm braking or not. 1 Lucky Texan, the strut wasn't replaced/rebuilt in this case. CNY_Dave, this is a good possibility. Something definitely could have been loosened during the accident. I checked into what you said about the bearing/mount and found a video with a guy having the same problem. People are telling him by the sound that it's the bearing/mount after he'd just replaced his struts and he's not believing that's the problem. The sound coming from his car is identical to mine, so I'm going with you and the majority on that site. I'll take the car in to my friend this week and let you know. Thank you all for your help.

It sounds like you like your car so may have had it for a while? Call Subaru and see if they will "participate" in the repair. Subaru definitely knows their head gasket issue. They participated in my repair and my dealership participated in the other half. Never hurts to ask. Whatever you do, definitely have the engine removed and heads resurfaced or you'll just be back at the same problem. Timing belt do it even before due if you're going to do this.