uniberp

Check the exhaust shields. The sometimes vibrate in resonance with the engine.

The front end is still in the air with the suspension fully extended and the axles at maximum angle? Maybe set the toe-in to zero (straight forward) and see if the clunk changes. If one control bushing was shot, maybe there is another. Is there any indication of any flat spot on one tire? I had a car once with loose bushings that skipped every wheel rotation and created a flatspot on the front right. I also have a 99 forester with 200k.

Rotate your tires, see how the sound changes. Could be the rears overrunning the fronts.

Or a rod bearing. Replacing pistons is a lot of work only to hear it knock again.

More on the longbolt... Here's how you extract the longbolt. Sorry, but you have to cut the head off, and it's a special size, but I think I paid $16. It's an old pic, but I think I remember how it was done. 1. remove strut pinch-bolts, caliper, axle nut, etc. 2. Remove "longbolt" nut. 3. HAMMER the longbolt out of the front arm and knuckle. 4. At this point you are kinda stuck, if the bolt is rusted to the inner bushing of the rear arm, and no amount of twisting or hammering will free it. 5. One way is to remove the entire arm, but that inner bolt may be rusted even more badly. The bolt is still stuck in the arm. There just is no way to get between the bushing end and the bolt head. 6. Cut off the bolt head. 7. With that arrangement shown, a washer that just fits the bolt, an open end wrench, and a pitman arm puller. 8. This method saves the rubber bushing. With a new bolt you can just bolt it up and go. 9. Cutting the head off a hardened 16mm(?) bolt takes some doing. Sawzall 10 minutes, or a couple cutoff wheels and that nast smell. 10. It is not pretty, but it is done.

The rear "longbolt" type knuckle would be a reason to have a way of doing it on the car. That bolt may make removal of the knuckle impossible. A screw type press might be the trick there. Getting it square enough to pop would be the trick, I can see. Tiighten it, tap opposite with a hammer, hit to align until it starts to move. Torch heat doesn't seem to help much, too localized and constrained by colder regions. Maybe longer term electric heater fan might.

Do you live in the mountains? I used to belong to a "brake-life bragging club" in BC.

When you suspect you have a bad wheel bearing: droning noise, scraping sound occurring randomly or on turns, before you jump to any conclusion: CHECK the AXLE staking nut. If it comes loose, the bearing will behave as if failing. The staking nut on my 2008 is torqued to 160 ftlbs. It had come loose after a year, for some reason. If I had tried that early, I might have been able to just tighten it, saving the seals and myself a whole lot of learning. Instead, after seeing the wheel wobble, I "knew" it was a bad bearing. Having been thru a couple legitimate bad/burnt bearings before, I decided I should buy the press and bearing pusher tool. The 12 ton press was more than sufficient. The 2 Youtube videos on Forester/impreza gloss over a critical point, that when you are pressing out the old inner race, you need to use the undersized tool, (65mm I believe), and although it does not fit correctly, it works. DO NOT USE THE 72MM TOOL. My excuse is that it was late Saturday night and I was tired, but the way it fit so well let me press on the casting 'way too hard, expecting the 'pop', and feeling stupid. I was just pressing on the knuckle casting. I went inside and sat down. It was at this point I realized the possibility that the stake nut was just loose, and the whole thing was probably a mistake, but now I had it in pieces. I heated the knuckle in the oven the next morning, when my eyes worked, and using the 65mm tool, the press slid out easily. It DOES require a press. I seriously doubt you could tap it out with a chisel. I used the skf hub kit, which DOES NOT COME WITH SEALS, and got new seals, and it all went back together nicely. You need a "bearing separator" if you want to reuse your old hub. I piece of 1-5/8 id exhaust tube slotted up the side works well for setting the inner race on the hub. Don't forget the outer seal first. I torqued the stake nut, went for a drive, then torqued it again and staked it. I had to take the wheel off once more to bend the scraping backing plate, after the brakes warmed up. Apparently the disc expands a few mm when hot. The seals were probably damaged by the wobble, and maybe the bearing also, so ....whatever. Oh yeah, 2008 Forester NA 4EAT

How much work would it be to cleanup the surfaces and slap a new gasket on it?

The idemitsu is available by the case on ebay for about $6 quart. Typically I replace 3.2 quarts every third oil change or so. That is the amount that drains from the trans pan. There really is not a way to drain the complete tranny and torque convertor, so periodic maintenance with a partial atf change makes sense to me.

New plugs and wires? I was surprised to learn that plugs are only good for about 50k on my 2008. A marginal condition can be exacerbated by changes in load/heat/atmosphere/humidity.

The parts listed all seem to be wear/age parts, so I question that they will correct any damage. If they did the collision repair to makes the car drive straight down the road, it might be at the expense of the tires. I would suggest you get sa full alignment measurement (camber, caster and toe-in) and see how far those are off from spec. Then you might know how much actual damage was done to the unibody or suspension mounts, before you throw parts at it. If the frame or suspension mounts are tweaked, it's doubtful that parts will correct the tire wear issue. Control arms are stamped steel, can be bent and are available aftermarket.

Idemitsu ATF Type HP

I know I'm way late .... If the bolt doesn't initially move with normal pressure, predrill with a .125 bit the thread end of the pinch bolt from the back side, about an inch deep. This seems to reduce the thread pressure and it breaks loose pretty easily. This has worked for me a couple of times, but then I also am (was) clueless about spark plugs.

"Oops" should about cover it. My 97 S10 4.3 was my first new car, and the spec on plugs for that Chevy was 90k miles. I guess I thought that changing plugs was as old-timey as zurks. I've replaced more engines than plugs on subarus, none, thankfully, due to old plugs. So this is what original plugs look like at 100k. #1 is on the left. Idk what the others are. And the new driveshaft for the S10 has zurks. Oh well, we'll all have self-driving cars soon.

This is the second time it's happened. Bucking, backfiring, eventually going smooth as it gets warm. Code P0301. Some thread mentioned something about O2 sensor. It's quite humid here, lots of wild temp swings with rain off and on. Parked outside. 2008 Forester auto 99k miles.

Linkage?

I've had trouble with wheel bearings. It seems the brand makes a difference. There are several suppliers. I used SKF (the only brand I recognized and most expensive that my machine shop offered) this last time, and although I doubt that it's other than "Washed card syndrome", I think there is less running noise from that side now. "National" I will no longer use. Prices on rockauto range from $11-$45 for my 08 Foz. That might indicate a difference in quality.

I think the only 2 things that really make a car not worthwhile are rusted spring seats and bent subframes. If it cannot stand up on it's own or go down the road straight (without a lot of compensating fooling around), it's too much trouble to bother. That and a smoker's car. I would buy another 2.2 interference Legacy wagon in a minute if I needed a car. Parts... Walker exhaust and cats - $500 Tires - $500 Brakes - $200 Outback KYB struts - $200 + spring compressor. Timing kit - $150 If you need to commute at 80mph it may take a bit of work to bring it up to snuff.

Check the battery ground connection.

Install new plug wires, and put a can of techron (or other injector cleaner) in the gas tank when it's <1/4 full. Heat may also be affecting your coilpack, but do the other stuff before you start to diagnose that.

Can you loosen those bracket bolts? They may be frozen in place, but not tight enough to hold the bracket tightly to the "frame" rail.

and use the marks not the arrows on the crank pulley.

Maybe it was 2 failures. with at least a year inbetween. 1 I may have id'd the wrong side. Machinist say the hub and knuckle are round and parallel. If anything the torque was below spec, but when I took the hub off the bearing was tighter than new. It only vibrated two days so I didn't cook it brown. Bought the car new. Got this one done now. This bearing is an SKF. First was OEM and National. At any rate see you in a year about this I hope not .

These are cartridge bearings, fixed race spacing. I don't think you could distort that inner race with 1000 ft lbs of torque. All Subes are pretty much the same that way I think. 137 pounds is just safety so you can use right hand threads all around. I took the hub off, the bearing is stiff. I have a new cartridge, it is not as stiff. The only other thing I think I may have done wrong is use too much antisieze on the spline, and a small amount got into the bearing and cooked. I'll ask the machinist tomorrow. I should say, each time I do this I remember why I hate it: It's separating the balljoint tapers. That sukz.