DerFahrer

BEFORE YOU DO THIS: Be forewarned that you can damage your wheel bearings by pounding the studs out. Pounding the studs out and pulling the new ones through with the lug nuts is super-easy to do, but replacing wheel bearings 6 months later is definitely not: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=39430 Me personally, I'd say just drive around with 4 lug nuts, the wheel won't fall off or anything.

It is my belief that engine braking is GOOD for the engine, and a very important part of initially breaking the engine in. I'll show you. When the engine is accelerating, there are forces that cause the engine internals to move relative to the block. In this case, specifically, we'll talk about the rings being forced against the cylinder walls. If the engine is accelerating, then the side of the rings that corresponds to the clockwise-direction of the engine will have the force on them as such: The lines are the side of the cylinders that are getting the force (this is looking at the car... left is pass, right is driver), so the rings are wearing on those sides of the cylinder walls more. Now, if you are using engine braking, that transfers the force to the OTHER side like so: Now the rings are wearing into the other side of the cylinder walls more. So, if you are breaking in a new engine, it would be 100% ideal to brake with the engine as much as you accelerate with the engine. This is pretty much impossible in the real world, but the best way to do this in the real world is to vary your engine speed, so that should explain how that phrase made its way into break-in instructions. That will cause the rings to break-in on all 360º instead of only 180º that would be used if you were to be accelerating or sitting at the same engine speed the whole time. Even if your engine is old, I feel that it helps you wear your engine down evenly. We all know an engine will not last forever, even if it is a Subaru , so by doing this, you're wearing it down evenly and keeping your compression healthy. This is the way I see it, but I'm no engine builder. So if someone who has a lot more experience disagrees with something, feel free to correct me.

I say stick with the Michelins. Michelin makes the best tires in the world in my opinion. I have Symmetries on my 91 Legacy, and even though that's one of their more comfort-oriented all-season tires (you can find them on new Cadillac Devilles), they still handle and grip pretty friggen good. With your auto tranny especially though, you need to follow a strict tire rotation schedule. Plan on rotating your tires every 5,000 miles. If you don't, you will start experiencing 'torque bind' which is a bucking and jumping that occurs when you take a very tight turn at low speed. This is not only annoying, but does damage to the transmission as well. You can always use www.tirerack.com for tire pricing and comparisons. Good luck and welcome to the Subaru community!

Don't forget the sludge issues with the 3.0 too. I like the Vibe/Matrix, including the basic one, although I would insist on a manual. The XRS/GT is a lot of fun but only if you go above 6k :-\ And rweddy is right. Chains aren't necessarily better, they do stretch over time and still need to be replaced. And they're much noisier.

Hey, I'm in Florida for Pete's sake and I can't convince myself to get a FWD Subaru! AWD is good for waaay more than snow. In the rain, or even in the dry, you still get much better cornering capabilities than most 2WD cars. And you have absolutely nothing to worry about with interference engines if you routinely change the timing belt... I hear ya on the mileage though. Subarus of late have never been exceptional gas-sippers. I think Subaru tunes them a little rich from the factory, which keeps detonation down and helps the engine last longer, and the trade-off is that gas mileage suffers.

Don't use my cost as an estimation for yourself, as I did a whole bunch of other stuff that wasn't really related to the bearings themselves. I also replaced my struts, replaced both my outer tie-rod ends, replaced all my wheelstuds, fixed my loose tranny crossmember, rebuilt my parking brake, etc. etc. Don't use my timeframe either, as I get discouraged very easily and there were actually times when I didn't touch the car for 2 weeks. However, I don't see how the stingiest person in the world could do just the bearings for less that $500 or in a couple days. Plain and simple, this is the last big project I'm doing with hand tools. I'm already looking at air guns and compressors and all that. Not only is it much, much, MUCH more difficult, but it's impossible to get some stuff tight enough with hand tools (like the nuts on the strut rods that I had to have the guy at my job hit with the impact wrench). The best thing I can tell you, is BE VERY CAREFUL when removing wheelstuds. I do not in any way recommend pounding them out with a hammer, as that's what ruined my old bearings. If you can find a way to press them out hydraulically or some such way, I recommend that.

Since we all know Subarus have Jell-O for wheel bearings, I thought I should post my experience with replacing all 4 of my wheel bearings on my 1991 Legacy AWD. It was a difficult, expensive, and frustrating project, but I finally finished it and am happy with the results. Warning 1: There are plenty of pics, so 56k be warned Warning 2: There is some colorful language in this thread, all mine http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=21223

Speedlines = h0ttne55... Hehe, when my friend comes to my house with his 91 Legacy Turbo, and my 91 Legacy L, my granpa's 93 Legacy wagon, and my 88 XT, we always say we have the biggest Subaru meet in FL

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=6467&item=4559344327&rd=1 http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=6467&item=4559264742&rd=1 http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=39405&item=4558725434&rd=1 For the lazy folk The 2dr sedan is indeed beautiful. Had I the time, money, and space, I'd grab it no question.

Yes, it could damage something if the concentration gets high enough. Conversely, that means 80W90 is probably mixing in the ATF in the transmission, which would be worse The diff needs to be separated from the tranny, and the seal between them replaced.

If you have a Legacy GT in Sydney, then I'm sure you have the DOHC EJ20 turbo engine. In that case, the spark plugs are right smack-dab in the middle of the heads. You probably have coil-on-plug ignition, so you should look for two coils right in the center of each head. Yes they're quite a pain to replace, I've never done plugs on a DOHC Subaru, and I wouldn't look forward to it either.

One more thing I wanna add about the Tribeca... Anyone notice the e-brake pedal on the floor (which in and of itself is totally un-Subaru)? It looks like it came straight out of a Ford parts bin...

Huck369 had an Outback I think that he ran the FWD fuse in for a whole year or something like that, just for the sake of experimentation. He said it worked fine the whole time, even after he took it out.

Anything you have or haven't done that might have allowed them to last all this time, while others have had them blow at 50k?

Capman, you've basically restated my exact opinions

No HG problems???

Thanks for the thoughts SuBrat, but I don't think it's brake related, since it doesn't matter whether I have the brakes applied or not. Any other thoughts?

The interior is a mess. I dunno what you people are talking about. Here's some pics for reference: That center design is... just... weird. I don't find it useable. I'm one of those purists who likes how everything was in the 90's: packed-together and organized. Okay, but I like the new Legacy dash much better. I don't see much of any more space in this car that I don't see in my grandfather's 93 Legacy Wagon. My problem is I'm pretty much the antithesis of the average car buyer. Stuff other people hate, I love; and stuff other people love, I hate. I just hope that new grill is a disaster for the new Impreza and consequently doesn't spread to the rest of the Subaru line.

Running very low boost will just cut your power as expected. And if you have almost no boost on a 8.5:1 CR engine, you will be dog slow. But you won't damage anything. Knock yourself out.

Sorry, xt6.net people for the repost, but this being a 4-lug Subaru, I thought you guys could help me out too. I have this horrific dragging sound coming from the front left wheel of my 88 XT 5MT 4WD (EA82 MPFI N/A). It's repetitive, speed-dependant, but here's the thing: it only happens when I coast. It doesn't matter if I'm in gear or not, it doesn't matter if I have the brakes on or not, it only matters whether I'm accelerating or coasting. I did change the front axles about 8k miles ago, and I did it the ghetto shadetree way: pound the old ones out, then pound the hub against the new ones to force them in. I hope I didn't damage anything that way. Anyway, in case my description wasn't clear enough, I made a vid: http://www.thawa.net/gallery/albums/Videos/000_0216.mov Right click, save as please. It's a MOV file, so you'll need Quicktime to view it. You can hear it very clearly at the end of the vid. Thanks in advance for any help!

72R2, you have the best collection of cars evAr!!! There isn't a car in there I wouldn't give an arm and a leg to own.

I believe the Ti was one of the 1994 "outdoor" models, that also included the GT wagon and the Sun Sport wagon...

Well! Glad to see you're so enthusiastic about the car! In all honesty I hated my 91 Legacy when I first got it and then grew to love it. You'll definitely wanna check out the BC/BF Legacy Forum which is dedicated exclusively to first-gen (90-94) Legacies.

That much huh? I didn't think it would be that drastic...

You are correct. But we're only talking a mile up. I would think the post-turbo pressure would be negligibly affected.