Scruit

The new propshaft solved the whine noise. The bearing was gritty - completely hosed.

It can be done, yes. If you approach this as a PROJECT car, not a daily driver, then it could be a fun project. You may be blazing a new trail in a lot of respects, and you will need electronics and wiring skills as well as physical mechanical skills.

 

 

For comaprison... If my 5mt eats poop today, I'm putting a replacement 5mt in it. Once my Golf R arrives, and my LGT is my winter beater, a busted 5mt would probably get replaced with a 6mt just for the fun an experience in a project car. But NOT because it's a worthwhile project for a daily driver.

 

 

That other car will be your primary vehicle for a long time. And I double-dog dare you to set a deadline... :-) A project like this is a strange beast, and timelines cannot be set in stone, but instead in smoke.

 

 

 

"If you want to hear God laugh, tell him about your plans for the future..."

 

 

 

 

If you truly are doing this as a project thing then go for it, I applaud you. Sounds like a fun project. If you are doing this to save money or hassle, buy a GT.

Just buy a GT. I've been on both sides of this decision. Just buy a GT.

Zombie thread, back from the dead.

 

 

 

 

I've had the classic DS noise since I got the car 12 years ago. During this time I've replaced the center diff bearings due to a road-speed-dependent whine that developed over a couple of months.

 

 

New issue is that the other week I was accelerating through a corner and heard the same rumbling noise that DS always makes, but then a sudden harsh stop of the noise followed by a road-speed-dependent whine that has persisted.

 

 

At first I though the center diff bearings were bad again, same noise, and it doesn't sound like the videos I see of carrier bearing failures. Videos tend to show the carrier bearing after it has catastrophically failed and flops around like a fish.

 

 

I pulled the propshaft last night and found that the carrier bearing is bad - bearings are dry, rough and making a scraping noise.

 

 

 

So instead of doing the center diff I'm going to put a new propshaft on it and see if that is the problem. I'll report back if that was either the rumbling and/or the whine

I did center diff bearings about 70k miles ago. I drove with them making noise until it started getting louder (for at least 20k miles) and I was able to figure out what it was and swapped the bearings myself. Since you are changing them now, you'll probably be fine.

 

 

Finger crossed. The parts just arrived today so the work will be this weekend (starting on the assumption that I'm not replacing the center diff itself, just the bearings and seals/gaskets etc) Fingers crossed...

+1 on the any-mechanical failure to the engine or trans and I'm going electric bandwagon.

 

Have you seen the new Leaf for 2018? They're doing a much better job of styling it like a "car" rather than an "electric car"... I'd keep the LGT, but as a project car, not a DD. Free me up to do some more extreme stuff like 6spd etc.

Well, fingers crossed I don't have the split the case and it's just bearings in the extension housing. I've already decided that a bad trans = new car* for me. Just not worth the time and money any more.

 

* That Tesla 3 looks pretty nice...

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I mean I'll replace all 4 bearings in the extension housing in my shop here. I'll evaluate the actual diff itself while its out, I wanted an opportunity to at least check out the diff before committing to the $500 spend.

Chassis ears confirmed the center diff sounded like an altoids tin full of marbles.

 

Took an hour to get it torn down to a point when I'm about the pull the diff housing off - and the diagnosis appears to be confirmed - the output shaft has a ton of lateral play.

 

Waiting for parts to arrive, then I'll get the diff rebuilt and put back together.

 

Got an hour in it so far, and have the exhaust, heat shield, propshaft, crossmember and shifter linkage removed.

The whine has evolved.

 

First, removing the roof rack (with christmassy tinsel garland!) resulted in the overall sound profile changing a little. The roof rack was causing an unrelated whistling (not unexpected) and was making it difficult to figure out the direction of the sound. Now that is gone it is easier to pinpoint.

 

Now it sounds like the high-pitched sound component from a jet engine, and comes from directly under the shifter. I suspect the center diff bearings.

 

I'll throw my chassis ears on it to confirm before I buy the parts, but I am expecting to have to rebuild the center differential.

 

Luckily I have alternate transportation for the next week or two while I wait for parts.

My turbo has 18k on it, the whole engine was rebuilt a couple of years ago. The whine is dependent on road speed, and the sound does not change even if I push the clutch in and allow the engine to drop to idle while doing 70mph.

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

I'm 99% sure it's not the winter tires. The noise has been getting worse, and the last two days has been really loud. The tires have been on since Thanksgiving.

 

I'll try to get an audio recording if the noise is still happening on my way home. Also, because I love tools, I'll grab a set of chassis ears to help troubleshoot.

All,

 

I'm trying to diagnose a high-pitched whining noise I get at freeway speeds. Has been happening for a couple of weeks.

 

Starts at about 40mph and sounds something between a whistle/whine and metal-on-metal contact, although it seems to have a resonant quality to it, like it hits a point where the noise becomes disproportionately louder because of frequency. The sound cannot be traced by ear to a wheel or the trans - just sounds like it is coming from all around the car. It's loud too, like I can hear it over the stereo easily.

 

I suspected a wheel bearing so I checked and found the front right bearing was a little loose. Installed a new Subaru bearing and the noise is largely unchanged.

 

Sounds kinda like the dust shield is making light contact, but I checked that.

 

I also recently put my winter tires on. Can't tell if that happened before or after the noise as the noise has been growing over the last couple of weeks.

 

 

While driving, the noise is entirely dependent on road speed. The sound does not change with acceleration/deceleration, gear changes, or putting the 5spd into neutral and revving. It does not change with steering, lane changes etc.

 

Opening or closing windows does affect the noise, nor does it help locate the noise (the sound of air rushing is louder than the noise, so I can't "hear the noise through the open window")

 

 

I've been searching for a couple of days, and this is the best I can can come up with for a shortlist of potential culprits:

 

- Other front wheel bearing. Don't think it's this because that bearing is solid.

- Center diff bearings. Don't think it's this because folks have described the noise changing with acceleration/deceleration.

- Center carrier bearing. Potentially, but can't find much on the symptoms for this.

- New tire noise. I've had these tires through a couple of winter seasons and this noise it new.

- Yakima roof rack whistling. Other than putting some tinsel garland on the roof rack a couple of weeks ago (!) I can't see this creating the noise. Still, I have just removed the roof rack and will see if the noise has gone away when I drive home tonight.

- Brake dust shield contacting rotor. I had a scraping noise when turning right on left front after putting the winter tires on, so I bent the shield back a little and that fixed it. That sound was at low speed though, so a different kind of sound altogether.

- Window whistling / gusset seal. I'm familiar with this after having replaced the seal on two different cars. The sound is very different, and that sound would be 'solved' by pressing on the window - this sound is not.

 

Anyone else got an ideas?

At least not in the oil path. From first glance it looks like it could be part of a vane or something, but if that was the case it'd be pretty much impossible for it to make it into the oil pan - it seem to me that it'd either get stuck in the intercooler or cat.

Just saw this thread. I've been calling about this recall since late December and no word on when parts will be available. I'm scheduled to drop my car at the dealer tomorrow and pick up a rental in the meantime.

 

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

 

So does the dealer have the part in now?

 

If not, who is paying for the rental? How long are you going to be in that rental?

I called my dealer as soon as I confirmed the online VIN/recall website - I checked that when I heard here the recall was expanded to cover my car.

 

I waited exactly a month from first call to work being done.

The best bit is Takata have been discussing this internally for years. They have a sanitized phrase for describing the deadly shrapnel explosions.

 

The call it "ED". Energetic Disassembly.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-takata-inflators-exclusive-idUSKCN0VV0L6

 

 

In a 2010 memo, a Takata manager expressed concern about "how to control moisture" in some inflators and worried that the company would not be able to assure the safety of the devices.

 

 

In an email the same year about pre-production quality testing of inflators built at the Monclova factory, a Takata manager expressed confusion to colleague about the causes of pervasive defects.

 

 

 

"I do not understand why we are failing every lot," he wrote.

 

 

In company documents, Takata engineers referred to the failures – when exploding inflators ruptured into metal fragments – as "ED," for "energetic disassembly."

 

If any of you guys find yourself with no A/C after the recall work, let me know.

 

My A/C is not working now. Trying to decide if I should troubleshoot myself or take it back to Subaru. Yesterday was the first day the A/C would have been used in months, so it could just as easily be a slow leak, or my engine swap...

Subaru would not disable the airbag for me, nor tell me how to do it. Just said call Subaru 800 number if I had no other transport for my passengers and see if they can offer suggestions.

 

Do I smell a class action lawsuit for loss of use?

I removed my custom wiring. The tech is already not getting enough time to do the job because it's warranty work - if you make it more difficult for him or her to do the job then it's reasonable to assume that the care he or she will take with your custom wiring will be significantly less than the care you would take yourself.

Just got my car back. No dash rattles or anything, so cool. Back to driving my kid around in Subaru rather than having to use my offroad truck!

Just got the call, and I'm booked in for tomorrow.

Probably a dumb question but...does this defect happen when the passenger airbag deploys in a crash? Or does it deploy randomly?

 

My understanding is that it occurs during a legitimate deployment, and thta it does not cause random deployments.

Had a chat with the local Subaru shop foreman. The work required the dashboard be pulled away from the firewall but not completely removed. This is because there is a crash bar behind the dash that blocks access. Not sure how long it will take but 6 hours per car is not unreasonable. They will get a better idea as they start actually doing them. Parts are on back order, 6mo is not an unreasonable guesstimate.

Installed mine. Just over an hour, no problems. Works great!

 

Feedback on install instructions:

 

- The wire colors for aux switch were red/black/green instead of red/black/white. Didn't slow me down any, assumed green was white.

- The instructions on removing screws were very detailed, but missed the screw that holds the hazard light switch in place.

 

No other issues at all. Very happy!

 

 

 

EDIT: More observations after commuting with the aux-in installed...

 

Love it.

 

- The sound quality of a song playing on Pandora is the same as if it was playing on a CD. Bass/Treble controls on the stereo work.

- The stereo has to be playing *something*, so while the aux-in is active and playing music from my phone the factory stereo is displaying an FM station number, etc.

- If you change the FM frequency while the aux-in is active then the sound will mute fro a split second. Apparently the radio does this to stop you hearing static as it switches frequency or something, but the mute effect happens after the aux-in connection point. Not a problem, just an observation.

 

Had this car for 8 years, and have always wanted an aux-in. Was about to buy the DIN fascia from japan...