My subie broke again :(

[Spazz698]

Actually it's kinda been heading this way for a while but today the rattle got horrible. There's been a rattle, usually when I start up, that eventually either goes away or quiets down to the point I cant hear it. Ive been thinking it's the exhaust, it's all original and it sounded like it was coming from the cat so until now I assumed it was just the cover coming loose since there was no power loss or other problems.

Now today I was coming back from a junkyard and on the last mile or so the rattle just got loud, so I decided to take a look at it since today's my day off and lo and behold, it seems like it's coming from the tranny. I swear on the last leg home I heard something that sounded similar to clutch grinding, but my car's an auto and I know it cant be the clutch packs on the car since it shifts damn near perfect. My dad looked at it and thinks it may be the torque converter or the flexplate (like a tooth or two broke, it sounds like a piece of metal is flying around in the housing) I dont want to drive my car cuz I dont want it to get any worse and Im having one hell of a time tracking down the flexplate (Im stopping by my school in a couple hrs to find out for sure, but if it's the flexplate I wanna get it replaced asap as I need my car first thing in the morning) Subaru would have to order it from out of state, and no one in a 50 mi radius has the damn thing. I might feel a little better if my other car was done but of course, it's not

 

So anyways what other things can this be? I'm almost 100% its coming from the tranny. I dont really want to tackle this one but a few people so far have told me replacing the flexplate should only take a few hrs.

[lmdew]

Pull the plug at the top of the engine just behind the IAC and you can see the flex plate and 4 bolts. You could also grab the fwd drive shafts and see if you get a lot of movement at the output shaft of the fwd diff. I could be a diff problem, but sounds like a flex plate.

 

 

I've tossed a few of these already. Check with someone that has done the auto manual swap.

[Spazz698]

yeah its the flexplate. Apparently there was some work done on it and the bolts are halfassed if you can even call it that. There's your choice of the stripped head or crossthreaded then forced into place til it wont move in either direction. There's a good chance the flexplate never sat up against the torque converter snug like it's supposed to, I like to think it was clinging for dear life lol. Anyways its cracked and I need to find a place (for cheap as humanly possible labor wise) who can fix it like...now... I found the 2 plates avail in puget sound sitting at the carter subaru dealership and now I have to hope my car will make it there before the flexplate completely breaks into pieces.