lagwagon

On 8/18/2022 at 1:38 PM, seanyb505 said:

Try wrapping the bar itself with Teflon tape. I've heard that's helped a bunch. 

There's also a guy on/near here that was selling his own bushings - screen name "traildogck" . If he doesn't offer a greaseable version, he might have additional insights on minimizing noise. 

I forgot about trying the teflon tape. Thanks for reminding me.

traildogck = CKE. If the teflon tape doesn't work I'll reach out to him to see what he can do. Currently he doesn't have any 22-mm bushings listed on eBay.

Any ideas?

My front left sway bar bushing is constantly creaking. I had older yellow Whitelines in there so I replaced them with the newer grease-free black ones and the noise went away. Fast forward 5,000 km and it is creaking again. My mechanic greased it and now less than 1,000 kms later it is creaking again. What could be causing just that bushing to creak, over two sets within the year?

Can somebody link the bracket with the grease fitting? I can't find that thread.

Are any other brands better? CKE, Superpro (premium Whiteline?), ES, Prothane? These would be for the 22mm Whiteline bar.

Mine are at 96mm and 97mm, but that was for a whiteline sway bar and lowered on Bilstein B8s and STi pink springs. Sounds like what you found will work.

On 7/1/2022 at 8:54 AM, Max Capacity said:

I'm not an automatic guy, but you say, Put fuse in FWD holder. Problem seems to have completely disappeared!

 

Why would you drive without that fuse in place. It seems to me you caused the issue by removing that fuse.

 

 

If your front tires are wearing, have an "alignment shop tell you what's wrong".

The fuse is for diagnostics only (or if you need to put a different sized tire on the rear, like after a blow out). Putting the fuse in makes the clutches disengage and the car is FWD only. Some people used to do this for fuel economy as well but the rear driveline is still spinning, just not directly from the drive shaft anymore, so savings should be negligible.

If putting the car in FWD solves the problem, there is an issue with front to rear tire wear, or an issue in the driveline from the center differential (planetary gears/transfer clutch) back. A worn front suspension component causing uneven tire wear should be easy to figure out (which it honestly sounds like the OPs case from the description of one tire wear more than the others). It could even be a really bad alignment on good parts causing the tire wear issue.

It could be the transfer clutch or rear diff locking improperly (vlsd). I would not expect a front axle to be related if adding the fuse solves the problem since they are still being driven and a worn CV joint or damaged front diff would still click or pop.

The swaybar should be close to horizontal when at ride height. A little angle up is ok. Take one end link off, check the bar angle, adjust the link that is still on the car, then add the other link, adjusting it to avoid any pre-load (should fit in easily without having to angle the studs or bolts). I would pick one side to be the "adjustment" side and plan on only adjusting pre-load from that side. The other side can be cranked down tightly once the bar angle is set.

Some end link angle, both vertical and horizontal is ok as it tends to keep the bar centered and stop it from shifting much, but too much angle can cause wear on the end links, or noise if the end link reaches it's range of motion. Poly bushings squeak or creak when this happens, and get permanently deformed, ball joint style links can break when they hit their end of range of motion (although they often have a huge range of motion), and the boots can rip sooner.

I can measure a set of adjustable links that were setup this way when I get home (they are off the car currently). They were setup for a lowered car though so they may be shorter than you need if you aren't lowered.

Jacked up my car about 5 times try to identify a pretty bad squeak from the front left corner. It's not the swaybar (only thing I know for sure). I greased the strut tube (bilsteins) to see if maybe the seal was dried out. There is some very minor checking on the chrome so possibly the grease below the seal is gone but greasing had no effect, may oil would've been better. Cleaned and silicone sprayed the spring and perches to see if maybe it's a worn out isolator (they look new still). Sprayed the top of the mount to see if anything would seep through and stop the squeak.

Nothing worked. There is also a very odd noise when checking the ball joint/tie-rods by pulling on the wheel, that can actually be heard regardless of which wheel you check, but the noise is always from the FL corner. So any lateral loading creates that noise.

There is also a clunk/pop coming from the RR that is also not the swaybar. I've had this noise for a while but my mechanic couldn't figure it out last time I checked. Now that it's louder and can be replicated by bouncing the RR corner I think they should be able to find it. Possibly diff mount bushings or subframe bushings, or a problem with an axle.

Also gave it a nice hand wash and dry in the garage and it's looking pretty good for its age.

I had what I believed to be a bad tank of gas and my feedback knock correction sky rocketed to the minus teens and fine knock learn was in the -4 to -10 or -12 range depending on the cell.

I would drive gently, pull timing manually with your AP, and fill up at a different station for a few tanks and see if it corrects itself.

What I was told was that every time DAM changes, fine knock learn resets so -1.4 at a DAM of 0 is not that same as -1.4 at a DAM of 1.

Drove the 2007 a bit more since getting the axle replaced and other than the aftermarket idle shake (5EAT) it is driving the best it ever has (in my 4 years of ownership). Even acceleration is smoother, I would even say extremely smooth.

I also filled it up with gas, which cost over $115. According to my calculations, after all conversions, this is about 2% cheaper than California and about 19% more expensive than Colorado. Variation in cost across Canada is about 10% but in the US it is over 20%. Kind of interesting.

Regreased my GNP front swaybar end links, was hoping to replace them with the Whiteline HD end links but one of the boots was torn (new out of the package yesterday). Decided the creaking noise in the front end is probably coming from the Bilstein strut (~25,000 kms, probably dried out grease on the damper body/housing seal.)

Also found the passenger side outer CV boot has slipped off the axle. This is a rebooted axle with only about two years on it, which sucks.

Gotcha, I'll check that when I get the car home. They replaced the hoses with generic bulk hose while the Subaru molded hoses are on order so I'll have a few days to check over the routing. I'm wondering if they put the rear hose on the front since it would actually fit, even old and hard.

So I got the car back on Friday and there is smoke coming out of the hood scoop and cowl. I knew some oil spill/spatter occurred when the hoses popped off but they said they spent time cleaning it and the smoking isn't going away.

It seems to be coming from near the turbo but it's hard to tell, and the smoke smells so bad that I don't want to keep my head in there to look around. Way worse smell than burning axle grease or engine oil.

I'm worried that whatever was pressuring the PCV system caused another seal to fail, worst case, turbo seals if there is still too high pressure in the crankcase. I haven't had a turbo smoke externally though so I'm not sure how likely that is and due to the type of seal I would think as soon as the crankcase pressure is brought down the smoking would stop.

Should I pull the dip stick and see if it goes away or something?

Bump from the dead. Car was alternating between A/F Learning 1A at +15 and -10 over the winter, with stalling pulling up to stops. I adjusted the idle to +200 rpm to compensate for the stalling.

I finally had the rebuilt and flow tested injectors installed, along with the PCV hoses from both valve covers. A/F Learning 1A is now at ~0 and I've backed down the idle to stock. One of the hoses was completely plugged with waxy residue.

I haven't had a chance to data log yet but I'm thinking that the increase in pressure in the head could've caused issues with the OCV solenoid opening properly. This depends on the oil circuit and the direction the valve moves to open - with, or counter flow. It will be interesting to see if there is still lag in the left advance or if it has evened out.

When in doubt, check for blocked hoses!

One set goes to plastic pipes then to turbo inlet. The other set goes to metal pipes and then the block.

 

I was more talking about the connections at the valve covers since they would be removed to change the gaskets. The diameters at the valve cover are different sizes so it really shouldn't happen but if it did, you would be pressurizing the intake and that could pop a hose off.

Gotcha, I'll check that when I get the car home. They replaced the hoses with generic bulk hose while the Subaru molded hoses are on order so I'll have a few days to check over the routing. I'm wondering if they put the rear hose on the front since it would actually fit, even old and hard.

This shouldn't be possible but do they have the two hoses switched (they are different diameters)? One set goes directly to the block breather and the other to the inlet/intake.

If I remember correctly, both hoses go to the plastic PCV cross-over pipes, and end at approximately the same location but can't be interchanged since they are molded hoses and old and hard. One is a straight hose at the plastic pipe and one has a 90° turn down at the plastic pipe so they can't really be swapped.

There is another connection on the cross-over pipe that doesn't connect directly to the PCV valve but I don't know where that hose goes. Possibly that is the one they got mixed up, but again, old, hard, molded hoses don't bend that much. Maybe that's the one that goes to the inlet. I haven't touched that one before so not too sure.

Had my mechanic do valve covers, oil pan gasket, and killer b pickup tube on the 2007. Did not get the car back. It’s buttoned up but every time they drive it the pcv/breather hoses on the right valve cover blow off.

I’m thinking a vacuum line was accidentally attached to a boost line, or the pcv valve got jammed shut. Is there any possibility that this could be caused by air getting sucked up by the oil pump? I can’t imagine anything other than low oil pressure (and associated damage) happening as a result of that but figured I’d ask you guys.

Having never done those gaskets and seals I’m not sure what needs to be removed and if a hose could’ve been swapped.

Any suggestions on things to look for that specifically get removed for valve cover gaskets?

On Saturday both cars got new wiper blades and the 2005 got a new PS pump o-ring (the upper supply line from the reservoir), which seems to have stopped the leak, and also had the nut on one wiper arm tightened.

Ordered three more PCV hoses this morning to be replaced when the left valve cover gasket and injectors get done. I think all the larger PCV hoses will then be new and only smaller vacuum lines are original.

I run the IAG, I don't know if it does any good or not...my intake is clean as a whistle. As to whether or not you need one....who knows, but it can't hurt if you want to spend the money.

Running an AOS can absolutely hurt your engine if you live in a cold climate. Lines can freeze up and cause the crank case pressure to skyrocket and push out seals. I had a freeze up push out cam seals and I lost all oil and oil pressure. I was lucky that I didn't end up with a spun bearing.

There is a reason that Crawford has various revisions to their AOS, people had issues with them freezing. They still sell the unheated version for race only but even with a heated can you still need to be very careful in the cold. Other companies only sell unheated versions and claim there are no issues but people have had issues with them, and likely will again.

I'm not saying that cold weather automatically means you shouldn't run an AOS, or that you will have problems, but it is not as easy as saying throw it on your engine and all will be good. As long as you understand the risks and know what to look for and how to deal with it, you should be ok but the risk is still there.

Reviving this because there's an interesting one on BAT right now. Ends in a couple of hours. Using "interesting" loosely, here. Definitely not my thing, but apparently it's someone's.

 

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2005-subaru-legacy-gt-7/

Was this not listed for sale here as the CUSCO SEMA build car? Feels familiar.

EDIT: https://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/sema-built-cusco-2005-legacy-gt-wagon-socal-282112.html

The Hipermax S replaced the GTs, but they didn't have an LGT specific model, so I just went with the 2.5i coilovers (AF005).

https://www.hksusa.com/news/hks-new-coilover-series-hipermax-s

 

When doing a make/model search, the AF005 does return for the LGT models: https://www.hksusa.com/products/80300/AF005/4003 and when I looked thru their previous application charts, the coilover PNs were the same for both turbo and NA models.

 

I never had the GTs so I can't give you the comparison:icon_cry:. What I can tell you, however, with great certainty that these are definitely better than Raceland Coilovers by far! To be fair, I don't do any track days, but am always trying to build my car with the "maybe I will eventually" mentality.

From the description these sound like they are more digressively damped than the GTs. The GT A specs were much more digressive that the GTs, based on their previous damping force/speed charts so it looks like they simplified their offering to something more along the lines of the A specs. The comparison chart shows 2.5i but I can tell you that the Japanese website had the same PNs for BP5 through BPE and BL5 through BLE.

Sounds like a nice setup. The 6 month wait is why I have Bilsteins instead of GT A specs. Good on you for the patience!

So I didn't install these today, but better late than never!

 

[ATTACH]295989[/ATTACH]

 

Took 6 months from the time of purchase for them to actually arrive at my door. According to HKS the drop is -1.4 in up front and -1.3 in the rear for the Sedan. These ride amazingly comfortable! Although I did set my dampers for more "comfort" orientation.

So these replaced the GT model line? I don't see an application for BL/BP anymore for the GT, or GT A-spec. Did they tell you how they compare to the GTs?

Are the maps specific to 5EAT or 5MT? I have (I think) all the OTS maps for 2005 MT, if they are specific to transmission. I have a V2, not a V3. I don't know if that makes a difference. I can't see why it would but I'll let somebody else chime in on that.

I have some maps in different versions as well, like stage 1 V3.5 and 4.0, maybe even earlier versions.

The at fault driver can't collect under his own liability policy. (Imagine a world where you could do that, I would get a $2 million policy and go crash my car tomorrow).

Wait, what? You can’t collect on your own policy (ignore insurance fraud for a second)? How do you get your car fixed if you are at fault? What happens in a single vehicle accident? You’re just SOL?

I am all kinds of confused, and feel sad for you guys.

No. Only the liable party's insurance pays out. Some states have joint and several, but the other parties have to at least have some liability for that to factor in. A chain reaction rear end accident only has 1 at fault party.

 

The minimum policy limit in Mass is $20k per person/$40k per accident on BI. $250k isn't the minimum limit anywhere as far as I know. That would be absolutely insane. Commercial trucks have a minimum limit of $750k, but that's a different animal.

 

If the tortfeasor (at fault party) has minimum limits than their insurer is going to cut a check for their limits and close their file. Getting an attorney will not change this fact, it will only entitle the attorney to a check for 1/3rd of $20k. I'm hopeful that Box has UIM as that's really the only way he's going to get a decent recovery on the claim.

I am in Alberta (Canada), I just rechecked and the minimum is $200k, so I was wrong on that. The insurance board says over 98% of people here have at least $1MM.

Here, everybody but the first car in a chain reaction would be found at fault for the car they rear-ended (possibly additional damages to any car/person in front of them), and not at fault for their car being rear-ended.

What about all the COBB customers that don't live in the USA and aren't bound by CARB or DOT or "Federal Emissions" regulations? I guess we get the screw job. I really hope I don't keep getting a code for TGVs not opening since I can't get replacement parts, or delete them now.

I guess the tuners around here are going to have to suck it up and use open source finally.