Lawsonmh15

Nevermind. Found that the item causing the the rattle was an errant spark plug my dad lost between the engine and frame beneath the back right of the engine. It found a nice little cavity to be trapped in between the frame and back of the engine (could see some sort of gear ). Got out the telescoping magnet and pushed that S.O.B. out of there and not a rattle since, following bumps that USED to reproduce the noise. Thanks for the good info though.

Bump.

Recently I've noticed a rattling which is only audibly detectable from inside the cabin with the doors closed. I can also feel it in the pedals and steering wheel and becomes far more pronounced when going over bumps and cracks in the road. It can be detected when idling, but does not change with increase of RPM. It seems to be coming from the drivers front-end but I am hoping that someone knows of this and can advise me in resolving this obnoxious problem. TIA.

303-442-6508

That sucks man. As you may have read, I have recently fallen victim to the Crank Pulley demons. It's more than likely not that the mechanic torqued it down improperly... Well possible, but not likely. You said you took it to a mechanic when all your warning lights came on, i.e. battery and brake. You're pulley's busted more than likely. There is a disc on the front of the pulley that the bolt snugs against. All that holds that disc there is glue. Once the glue dies, you no longer have a solid mechanical bond, so each time you have an abrupt change in RPM you will be able to duplicate the loss of belts, the need for a new pulley, and a possible re-keying of your crank shaft. STOP DRIVING IT. Tow it to a shop and have them take care of it. Don't risk screwing up your crankshaft.

I was afraid of that!

Don't have a part # for you. But I just ordered mine through Super Rupair in Boulder for $40. I didn't have anything for them but my year, model and engine code. Willing to bet they could do the same for you. Also, are you sure you FUBAR'd the crank? I was responsible about stopping after the belts came off. Apparently I ground off the woodruff key, but the cranks can be re-keyed pretty cheaply. 1.5 hours of labor according to my mechanic.

Damn Carl!!!. You sound excited. I'm Happy for you:grin:. But... Could you tell me anything about the bars?

Now that my pulley situation is in resolution, I can get back to thinking of mods with my gub'ment cheez. So, if I want to stiffen up my suspension, should I be looking at Front or rear sway bars, or both and why? I've been looking at the Cobb bars, but if there is some enlightened soul knows of a better product for a 99 Legacy SUS, I am open to suggestions.

Well, towed it to a friends shop. The mechanic worked at a Subaru dealership for 10 years, so I feel comfortable trusting him. He said I ruined the crank-pulley (which I had already ordered:brow: ) and the woodruff key. However, he said the crankshaft looks fine and he will be able to re-key it . THANK GOD!!! I was fearing a $1000+ bill. Given the recent luck with Crank-Pulleys and the need for new Crankshaft, I was pretty worried. However, any time the belts kicked off, I pulled over and shut down quickly. The weirdest thing is that the co-worker who guided me to Super Rupair got his sisters Legacy due to the same ailment. His buddy noticed that he had "lost" his power steering, and then a week later:rolleyes:, on highway 36, his car died. He then told my co-worker it was his if he wanted to go get it. Don't know if the camshaft could have been salvaged or not after that type of abuse, but either way, my buddy bought an engine for $1200 and got an otherwise nice car. Lucky for me, I do custom electronics and my mechanic is repairing my car for free in exchange for some gear at cost:clap:. Other than the inconvenience, I don't feel totally bad about the whole ordeal.

Took the bolt as far out as possible without hitting the fan shroud and looked into the area. I see no semblance of a key on either the pulley or shaft. When I rotate the pulley, I don't feel anything that would indicate a key was ever there.

What would I need to do to remedy that situation?

As you may have guessed... My main crank pulley is indeed-a-wobblin. I don't know if it's just that the last person who worked on it, was a moron, or if I'm the moron who's causing it to do that. I recently tightened my AC belt in response to a detectable squeek. Since then the squeek became louder, but not dead belt loud, and then when I was replacing the plugs yesterday, I was returning wrong set of plugs to Checker when my battery and brake lights came on and I lost power steering. Pulled in at checker to discover the AC belt walked over and knocked the serpentine off. :-\ Upon further inspection, I realize that pulley was loose with a good inch of play and could be finger tightened. The guys at Checker were nice enough to allow me to use some tools to tighten it (I thought). Everything was fine for the rest of the night. I drove about 30 miles south to my lady's place. Pulling out of her place and find that the pulley was loose again!!! Went to Autozone. Dropped $40 bucks on a friggin' ratchet (which NONE but ONE of my sockets will fit) and 22mm socket. This time I loosened the belts completely and tightened the pulley. I put as much tension on it as possible without having it turn the crank. Attached and tightened the belts and put counter-force on the power steering pulley and tightened some more. Started it up and the belts didn't kick off. No problems coming home and checked it at a taco bell near my house and everything was still tight, but the pulley seems slightly off-balance. Is it fine as long as it's good and tight, or could something be jacked up? It seems to be running fine so... TIA for all good info:brow:

The manual wants the NGK PFR5B-11, but I didn't want to drop another $45 on plugs. CEL hasn't come back yet. Now I have to figure out why the hell my main Crank Pulley has been prone to coming loose and kicking the belts off. I'm getting a good chunk dough from uncle sam soon and plan on replacing/modding some things, but I think I'll start with a pulley, belts, anti-sway bars, battery...

2.5L DOES Suck!!! The washer tank, battery and holder, and airtake took about 10mins to remove. A MUST when attempting. Took all types of socket attachments to do the rears. Took ALOT longer to put in than take out.

Bosch SUCKS!!! Purchase: Bosch Platinum +4 = $45 Affect: PO301, PO302 + ***************ty gas mileage + One REALLY pissed off cracker. Resolution: NGK BKR5E-11 (VPower) = $8 Affect: Disappearance of CEL's and resurrection of power. + One REALLY tired, yet satisfied, cracker. I WILL NOT EVER do my own plugs again. The ONLY put the plugs on myself because I'm low on dough and could not justify spending ANOTHER $80 having plugs installed less than 8,000 after the last set. On a personal level... I would like to stomp a 6 foot mudhole in the the owner of Boschs' @$$ and walk it dry. I can't believe that before purchasing the Bosch plugs I searched the forums, read that people had issue with the Platinums and Platinum +2's and reasoned that since I hadn't read anything about the +4's that they would work. COMPLETELY MORONIC. Good people left me the map to the buried treasure and I said phuckit; I know a short cut. MORAL: Search the forums before making purchasing decisions. Also, NEVER EVER run a plug other than NGK. Sorry for shaming the family. It won't happen again.

I have looked around for a while now, searching for a thread that COMPLIMENTS honest shops and parts suppliers. Needless to say, I have not found one. However, I did find quite a few on NEGATIVE experiences. For the most part, it is human nature to not talk about a positive experience because afterwards you feel eased and relaxed. You generally talk about, or here about, bad experiences because you felt cheated, screwed, etc... Well, lets start a thread that COMMENDS the good guys. The purpose of this is two-fold. 1.) We help other enthusiasts make educated decisions about who to see for service, and where to go for parts. 2.) We will be helping to seed out all of the shysters who capitalize on those who are not mechanically inclined. (Not me :cool:) Although the purpose of this thread is to commend the "good guys", feel free to mention the factors that lead you to your allies in the Subie racket. Example: I hit a deer. I needed to do some upkeep on my 99 legacy and was looking for a grill, headlight, passenger weather stripping... Online and in-town dealers wanted $205+ for the headlamp, $100+ for the weather stripping, and $188+ for the grill. Co-worker turned me on to Super Rupair in Boulder http://www.superrupair.com (303) 444-7473 or (888) 442-6508 Grill=$50 Headlamp=$70 Passenger Side weather stripping = $35 On top of the unbeatable prices and GREAT condition parts, Dave (the used parts dude) stayed late to help me because I got stuck in TREX traffic and wouldn't make it there by closing time. These guys did NOT NEED my business. They just simply share the passion for Subies as I am sure the bulk of you do. Oh. My hood. Hit a deer at 45ish and bent the sway bar and crumpled the hood. Needed a NEW hood with scoop. Most dealers wanted $475+, but Flatirons Subaru Matched an online price (of an OEM hood:grin:) and sold me the genuine for $378. So, there you have my "props" for the day. Let admiration commence.

Don't know what you're paying for your headlights, but I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that these guys are cheaper. http://www.superrupair.com I met with a deer going through the Cuchara mtns and broke the ONE of the fiberglass mounting brackets. Found out that online I could "Cheaply" pick one up for about $175. Super Rupair (had I not utilized ingenuity) would have sold me a replacement for $70. Grill $50. Passenger side weather stripping $35. MAF sensor filter for FREE. I love that place. Good luck. Oh. As far as installing it goes. There's like two screws holding it to your front sway bar. There are also two (or four?) silver retention clips to remove.

I have a calibrated arm too. But it's calibrated for mid-stroke speed.

You have a short. If it makes you feel any better; some rump roast wired my passenger side in parallel. So, if I want to roll up both windows, one has to wait in line. Sometimes I feel as though mechanics need to stay WAY the hell away from wiring.

Thanks man. I hope to move to Kona in a couple years, maybe we can hook up. Just another point I've learned. Olnick got a code. I've heard of alot of people NOT getting codes, or false positives. I've heard of people running with the o2 sensor disconnected (rectifying their rough idle/ bad MPG and resulting in MUCH better performance) but never got a CEL even though the O2 WAS bad and was disconnected. Computers are great for A/F calculations and many other binary functions, but nonetheless, it is NOT infallable.

You don't by chance have slack on your throttle cable do you?

You said yourself that it smells too rich. Is this just on startup, or does it lug down until about 3,000 then take off like a rocket? What plugs are you running. If you chose, or were sold , plugs that were a "step colder" that may be your biggest problem. I was going to purchase some NGK Iridiums but couldn't afford to wait for them, and bought the Bosch platinum +4's(No probs whatsoever). But I have heard horror stories of people purchasing colder track plugs expecting high RPM. The other thing I was thinking of, and you may have already alluded to this, but what is your idle after warm up and in traffic. On start I am at 1500-1600, then rev to 2500 and drops to 1000-1200. Put in gear I go to 800 (Which I don't like because of the sound when putting into gear) but after cruising for a few, I stay at about 350-400 W/O AC on in gear at a full stop. I have heard people say that normal idle is 600-800 warmed up, but I don't believe that's right for the 2.5. I experience NO shudder whatsoever. So, If you are always idling high, I would imagine that the ECU is not recognizing that the engine is warm. The other thing is that you might want to check the tension of your throttle cable. I fiddled with mine until I got smart and let run after warmed up and adjusted until I heard the idle raise, then backed off until drop to normal. I know people are offering alot of opinions about unrelated items, but it's been my experience that you need to look at direct connections. My final offer is power. Proper voltage out of coil pack? Proper current on alternator? I know it sounds nominal, but you should check the grounds from battery, to chassis. If you notice an increase in headlamp brightness under increasing RPM, you may have dirty/bad grounds. Also, if you have alot of thumpity stereo gear being run, you may not be providing enough current for all other electronics to properly function. This is also true of a poor ground. From the factory, I noticed that the ground points on the chassis were painted?!!! That's useless. I spent about 20 minutes scraping paint around ground points in order to get a TRUE ground. It sounds like you've tried ALOT of things, and I understand your hesitation to want to go out and continue trying other things, but everything I have mentioned is either free, or under $50 to try. I would advise you try the quickest and easiest things first, but If your idle is constantly high and your throttle cable doesn't make any difference when adjusted, or has obvious slack, then I would be inclined to believe that it is the sensor that tells your ECU that your engine is warm and to cut the idle. Also, is your throttle sticky? If so you may just need to hit the coils, pivot points, and cable itself with some lithium grease. Lastly, what vehicle is this exactly, and where do you live (elevation). Good luck my man.

Bump

Hmmm... You sound like you've tried quite a few things. I would talk to the Subie genie in the magic jellybean field and request better gas mileage. Strange that the mileage has been that way from day one. You stated that you had gas in your oil? My reasoning says that it's not being fully detonated. Have you checked to see if you have oil in the second resonator air intake? If not, you should. You could be gumming up your injectors and farming gremlins. I run semi-synthetic and have never experienced anything but a smoother feel and improved gas mileage, so I have to imagine that a full syn wouldn't cause this issue. I am not a mechanic by any means, but have an aptitude for researching, following diagrams, and figuring ************ out. It sounds like you may exhibit the same traits. I don't know that I would trust many others opinions or inclinations than my own... Neither should you. It sounds like you'll figure it out. Good luck.