99 OBW, squeaky, creaky, rear end corner

[Rooster2]

I started hearing a squeaky, creaky sound, that is now sounding like a mild grinding sound. My first thought was bad brake pads creating noise from metal on metal. But no, I pulled the road wheel, inspected the pads, regreased the pins, and reinstalled. The noise is still there, when I spin the road wheel, when up in the air. It has a creaky, creaky sound. I now suspect a bad wheel bearing.

 

I did a search on rear wheel bearing replacement. Most of what I read talked about front wheel bearing replacement. So, I came away from the sight confused. From what I could read, the rear bearing needs a puller to remove it from the hub. Did I read and understand that correctly?

 

If I search for a replacement from a wrecking yard, what Subie models and year range would have a rear hub that would fit my 99 Leggie Outback?

 

Thanks for any advise.

[Legacy777]

Yes, you would need a puller to get the bearing out. If you get a new hub, anything from a 90-99 Legacy and 93-01 and possibly 02-06 Impreza should work. I think the newer Impreza stuff should work, but I'd probably suggest sticking with something closer to your model year.

[Rooster2]

I had a mechanic, who is a buddy of mine, check out the squeaky, creaky, rear end corner. Using a mechanics stethoscope, he was able to figure out the noise is coming from the parking brake inside the rotor. There is no looseness found when pulling the road wheel left/right, or up/down, so the wheel bearing is still good.

 

The parking brake seems to work okay, but something must be rubbing, or lightly grinding, within the parking brake mechanism to create the noise. I will take the rotor off the next nice day, when I have time off to see what is going on. Anyone ever have trouble with the parking brake like this?

[Legacy777]

It may just need to be cleaned or adjusted so it's not so tight.

 

When you pull up on the parking brake handle, do you have to pull up a lot or a little amount of "clicks"?