Good morning. I'm having trouble troubleshooting an ongoing problem with our 2012 Legacy 2.5i 6mt.
We have what seems to be a relatively common set of symptoms: pronounced thumping (that can be felt and heard) when turning, but only after the car has been driven for a few miles to warm it up. No sounds when driving straight at any speed. The sound is equally loud when turning in either direction. It is more severe on tighter turns, less so on wide turns. No sound during the first drive of the day, or anytime the car has not been driven in several hours.
Mechanic thought CV joints. Had them replaced. No improvement. We live overseas and there are no Subaru dealerships or Subaru specific mechanics that we can look to for a second opinion. We took it back to the mechanic (who has been very reliable diagnosing issues with others cars for us) and he was stumped after putting it on the lift and checking everything he could think of.
After doing some research online, it seemed that a failed viscous coupling matches our symptoms and is a common problem in Subaru's. However, after contacting some parts suppliers it appears that there are not readily available viscous couplings for 6mt. Even speaking with some part departments at Subaru dealers in the states didn't really clear things up for me. I've gone over some mechanical diagrams and I'm still stumped.
If anyone has experience or knowledge that can point me in the right direction I'd really appreciate it. I do most of the basic maintenance and repairs on our cars myself - but this is outside my comfort zone. What I'm hoping to do is go back to the mechanic and give him some guidance that might help him confirm the issue and come up with a list of everything I'll need to order for the repair.
Thanks!