SSpeed

Thanks for the reply, I think that's the same problem I have. I noticed someone had tried to pull the grill at one time. That seemed to be a big part of the rattle.

I have a 2009 Outback with the Harman Kardon sub in the rear cargo area. I've been searching like crazy on here and subaruoutback.org, but not a lot of detail on the Outback version of the sub, or at least I can't find it. I see a lot for the Legacy rear deck sub.

 

When I bought the car, two door speakers were blown. I replaced them with Subaru OEMs from ebay, they work fine now. The rear sub rattles now like it's blown. Don't know if I did that with a new headunit or if it was blown before.

 

I see a lot of threads on it's 2 ohm, but then some say 4 ohm, I see some sizes and mounting depths, but they seem to be for Legacy rear deck. Anyone have any Outback specific info before I tear into this? I guess it could be interior panel rattling, but it sounds like the sub itself.

I've been through the search on this awesome thread many times and come up empty. Has anyone done a 3d print blanking plate for the ash tray? I'd like to run the stereos USB done there, as well as a small voltage LED.

Thanks Max, I'm going to run a smoke test on it. I also ordered the bottom grounds and bolts to redo those as well.

So I understood*this CEL wrong, at WOT it doesn't throw*a light, but at about 70-80%*pedal and kickdown it will throw a light for cyl 1 and 2 misfire.* Go easier (even with kickdown) or go WOT and it doesn't, so weird. And it's very intermittent, I went around beating on the car yesterday while logging, and it wouldn't throw the CEL no matter how much I tried.

The place I got it from did all new plug wires and coil by the looks of them. Seeing the history and seeing the engine was replaced, to no avail, has me going down slightly different paths than I normally would. It also has been injector cleanered to death from looking at the Carfax.

 

I've been pulling all the grounds, steel wooling them and hooking them back up with dielectric grease. So far since doing that I can't recreate the CEL. Not confident that fixed it, but cautiously optimistic. Would be crazy if they replaced the engine and ultimately sh*tcanned the car over a bad ground.

I thought about pulling them and having them cleaned. I'm starting with cleaning up all the grounds.

Ugh, the tire shop inflated the tires to 40psi. Let out some air and it's driving perfect again.

Everyone likes a good mystery to solve right? Picked up a nice 2009 Outback 2.5i with 95k miles for a great price. Drives smooth, in great shape, the only problem, it throws a CEL for cylinder 1 and 2 misfire, but only at WOT near redline. It's also a pending fault, so the CEL doesn't stay current once out of WOT. The rest of the time it drives normal and smooth. Luckily I don't take the NA to redline much.

 

Incidental findings: The TPS sensor reads 14% at pedal up, and only 78% at WOT. It's the drive by wire throttle body and not adjustable that I know of.

 

Talking to the previous owner and looking at the Carfax, things seem to start to piece together.

 

7/2008 - 12/2011 - Only normal stuff reported, oil changes, title, etc

 

12/21/2011 - 26,000 miles - Minor accident to driver side fender

 

1/21/2012 - 26,248 miles - Fails emissions (pretty low mileage to fail emissions, a rational person could reason the CEL problem started here with the accident, although in Colorado you can fail emissions pretty easily for dumb stuff)

 

1/25/2012 - Passes emissions

 

2/29/2012 - Car sold to owner #2

 

6/2/2015 - 52,448 miles - Fuel injection system flushed at Grease Monkey

 

6/9/2015 - 52,630 miles - Induction system service at Subaru dealer (seems odd to do two fuel system services within a week, but then no more records for 4.5 years)

 

2/17/2020 - 82,952 miles - Car sold to owner #3, who purchases extended warranty

 

3/20/2020 - 83,467 miles - Engine is replaced for cylinder misfire, does not fix the issue (not listed in the Carfax, found this out by calling around). Also don't know if this was a shortblock with the rest swapped, or a full long block.

 

1/17/2021 - 95,000 miles - Owner CarMax's car with "major engine issues"

 

It seems this has been fuel system cleaner'ed to death, plus they replaced the engine with no change (crazy!). So what's left?

 

1) Voltage? Reading 13.8 with the car running, haven't looked at WOT.

 

2) Bad grounds? - I've pulled each and cleaned them, I'm going to replace the bottom two.

 

3) Fuel pressure? - haven't checked

 

4) Coil? - Have a spare I'll try, but it looks like someone may have put a new one on from how shiny the brass standoffs are. I can always check resistance on it. Has new plug wires and plugs.

 

5) MAF - I did pull it and clean it.

 

6) Damage to the bundle of wires in the driver's side fender during the accident? - I would think I'd see it more than just at WOT, but this seems plausible?

 

I guess I could also hook it up to a datalogger and log a pull when the CEL happens. I'll have to see if the cable for my '05 LGT works for this car too with the CANbus. What am I missing?

Hmm, so I brought it to a local Subaru shop who looked at it for free. They said tie rods are fine, front struts look good, ball joints are good, rear struts were replaced with cheapies, and wheel bearings are ok (starting to go like all Subarus, but very mild). They drove it and said they couldn't feel anything out of the ordinary.

 

Beyond my imagination, the only thing I can think of is the front struts look 95k original. They probably feel and look mostly fine, but odds are they are allowing excess spring rebound and maybe that's what I'm feeling over bigger bumps?.

Seems like this is probably the inner tie rod. I locked the steering wheel and rocked the tires, the driver's side has a lot of movement. I could be doing it wrong.

I have an '09 Outback. Drive pretty smooth, but hitting a certain bump just right it has an unsettling steering wheel wobble.

 

I looked underneath and the ball joints all look "OK". I jacked the car up and shook the wheel, up and down it's solid, but side to side both front wheels rock back and forth. However it doesn't seem to be the tie rod ball joint, it's actually moving all the way back to the steering rack, like I'm wiggling the steering wheel. I called a Subaru repair place and he said it was probably the tie rod on the rack side? Sorry, paraphrasing there.

 

I also noticed the driver's side front tire has subtle wear on the inside of the tire, the camber looks ok.

 

I checked my LGT and I can't move the wheel at all when one is up and the other is down, of course the tire height is a lot less, so no sidewall flex.

 

What should I look at to narrow this down?

bump

296,500 miles on the four that came on the car.

 

Impressive!

How long do stock coil packs last? I have 154k, modded for well over 100k of that, bigger turbo, e85.

 

Just had a terrifying situation where the coil pack cutout at WOT, put me in limp mode and gave a cylinder 4 misfire. When I pulled the coil pack, cylinder 1's coil pack bolt was actually starting to back out and I could rock the coil pack around. 90% sure that was my problem, but I swapped 1 and 4 anyway, tightened them down and started back up.

 

Running perfect again, but got me wondering how long coil packs last and if I should swap them all out as preventative maintenance. It looks like it would be about $320 for the set.

SOLD

 

Cobb SUBARU SF INTAKE + SF AIRBOX FOR '05-'09 LGT

 

Brand new, never installed, all parts present.

 

$270

 

Brand new this is $345 before tax and shipping, and they are out of stock right now.

 

Will ship for $35.

I put this in another thread, but thought I'd make my own as the information is fascinating and could be useful for people trying to interpret their own dyno results...

 

I helped a friend install his Mustang dyno so we used my car as a test pig on his Mustang and on a Dynojet and Superflow, just to get comparisons.

 

I'm at altitude in Denver, which is HUGE power suck...

 

MAC (Dynojet) - 1.24SAE, 70deg day, corrected - 391 ft lbs, 361hp

Carz (Superflow)- 1.24SAE, 85deg day, corrected - 360 ft lbs, 336hp

Cryotune (Mustang) - 1.19SAE, 55deg day, corrected - 352 ft lbs, 292hp

 

Those look wildly different. I decided to plot the uncorrected (taking out accounting for altitude and temperature) for fun and that's where things start to look a bit different.

 

MAC (Dynojet) uncorrected - 315 ft lbs, 291hp

Carz (Superflow) uncorrected - 290 ft lbs, 270hp

Cryotune (Mustang) uncorrected - 295 ft lbs, 245hp

 

This is where things get even more fun, I tested the same dyno on different temperature days.

 

For reference, there was a 2017 STI on the MAC dynojet 62deg day before me, he had intake, full exhaust and a couple other things. His graph corrected was 352 ft lbs, 294hp. So we know the Dynojet torque reads high, again, just look at the changes vs the final number.

 

MAC Dynojet corrected at 1.24SAE (70deg) - 391 ft lbs, 361hp

MAC Dynojet corrected at 1.23SAE (62deg) - 444 ft lbs, 373hp

Carz Superflow corrected at 1.24SAE (85deg) - 360 ft lbs, 336hp

Cryotune Mustang corrected at 1.19SAE (55deg) - 352 ft lbs, 292hp

 

Now for the uncorrected numbers....

 

MAC Dynojet uncorrected (70deg) - 315 ft lbs, 291hp

MAC Dynojet uncorrected (62deg) - 362 ft lbs, 304hp

Carz Superflow uncorrected (85deg) - 290 ft lbs, 270hp

Cryotune Mustang uncorrected (55deg) - 295 ft lbs, 245hp

 

On the exact same dyno with the exact same tune and exact same parts, my car picked up 47 ft lbs and 13hp on a Dynojet by just an 8deg change in ambient temp. Damn... Corrected the number was even bigger, 53 ft lbs and 12hp.

 

The knowledge I gained from this is that you can't really compare dynos from one place to another, as I've heard so many people say, it's a tuning tool for your car specifically to see how changes affect your powerband. It's great when someone prints you out a sheet, but without context it doesn't mean a whole lot.

 

The other thing I learned is if all you want is a big number to impress your friends, seek out a Dynojet in the winter.

Yes I believe it is for standard ambient temperature and barometric pressure.

 

Those numbers aren't crazy for a dynojet. Dynojets will always read higher than Mustangs or Superflows, I think my torque was 100 ft lbs higher on a dynojet than a Mustang. I helped a friend install his mustang dyno so we used my car as a test pig on his Mustang and on an dynojet and superflow, just to get comparisons.

 

I'm at altitude, which makes a huge difference...

 

MAC (Dynojet) - 1.24SAE, 70deg day

Carz (Superflow)- 1.24SAE, 85deg day

Cryotune (Mustang) - 1.19SAE, 55deg day

 

MAC corrected - 391 ft lbs, 361hp

Carz corrected - 360 ft lbs, 336hp

Cryotune corrected - 352 ft lbs, 292hp

 

Those look wildly different. I decided to plot the uncorrected for fun and that's where things start to look a bit different.

 

MAC uncorrected - 315 ft lbs, 291hp

Carz uncorrected - 290 ft lbs, 270hp

Cryotune uncorrected - 295 ft lbs, 245hp

 

This is where things get even more fun, I tested the same dyno on different temperature days.

 

For reference, there was a 2017 STI on the MAC dynojet before me, he had intake, full exhaust and a couple other things. His graph corrected was 294hp, 352 ft lbs. So we know the dynojet torque reads high, again, just look at the changes vs the final number.

 

MAC dynojet corrected at 1.24SAE (70deg) - 391 ft lbs, 361hp

MAC dynojet corrected at 1.23SAE (62deg) - 444 ft lbs, 373hp

Carz Superflow corrected at 1.24SAE (85deg) - 360 ft lbs, 336hp

Cryotune Mustang corrected at 1.19SAE (55deg) - 352 ft lbs, 292hp

 

Now for the uncorrected numbers....

 

MAC uncorrected (70deg) - 315 ft lbs, 291hp

MAC uncorrected (62deg) - 362 ft lbs, 304hp

Carz uncorrected (85deg) - 290 ft lbs, 270hp

Cryotune uncorrected (55deg) - 295 ft lbs, 245hp

 

On the exact same dyno with the exact same tune and exact same parts, it picked up 47 ft lbs and 13hp by just an 8deg change in ambient temp. Damn...

 

So it looks like they bumped your numbers by 4% on the last run, and 3% on the first. I assume because they are "correcting" your numbers to assume it's a 60deg day?

To hit those numbers in the summer would be nearly impossible... In the winter on a dynojet with e85 maybe. Is that pump gas or e85? Do you have a scan of the dyno sheet? Did they add any SAE correction factor? What brand dyno?

Curious to hear your spool impressions. I run a 440xt 10cm which is a bit laggy for my taste, with full boost not hitting until after 4k. I know this is a bigger turbo but wondering if the smaller hotside and bb's make for a more responsive midrange torque

 

Sadly I never got to run it. From the charts I compared though spool wasn't going to be much different than my 16g, with a lot more top end.

I still have my little BNR 16g on e85. I kind of had the realization that with 146k on my original motor I should leave well enough alone.

Nice Blouch Dominator 1.5 XT-R. Comes with two oil lines, new water and oil drain pipes. In perfect condition. Estimate about 10k miles on it at lower boost. 8cm2 $850 shipped - SOLD

This thread kind of cracks me up, I drive many of the same roads as you. I have a '17 3.6r Legacy. I don't feel anything of what you describe and I've been driving all sorts of different cars for 34 years, the Legacy is stable AF. Do you still have the tires that came on the car new? If so, they are very thin sidewalled tires and did make the car feel not very confident, especially while braking.

We are saying the same thing I think. A turbocharger pressurizes the intake tract when it overcomes the vacuum of the engine, so in that sense I see what you are saying. The actual compression happens in the compressor housing though, in the tiny little diffuser section that's after the impeller and before the snail portion of the housing, right? If the engine uses more volume than the turbocharger is providing, or there is a boost leak, the compressed air dissipates rapidly. Same thing happens when you open a hose on an air compressor, the compressed air dissipates rapidly to atmosphere, but pressure it still there prior.