Legacy05 Posted May 23, 2005 Share Posted May 23, 2005 Guys, Check out the picture. Wile waiting for my caliper paint to dry this weekend, I started looking around underneath and found that the front sway bar busings to frame looked like this. What in the world would cause them to die like this? Car has about 3500 miles on it(5mt). I suspect that this is what is causing my clunk. Any one else have bushings that look like this? I'll be calling my dealer monday morning on this! Cheers, dave Let me ask you this, did you only have the one side jacked up when you were looking at the bushing? If so, this is the cause for the big gap, I thought I had the same problem. You can see your sway bar is at a weird angle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbolen Posted May 23, 2005 Share Posted May 23, 2005 Guys, I haven't run over *anything*. What you are seeing is leftovers from dirt/ rain. I live on a partially dirt road in the country. I have othercars(classic VW's) with the same type of suspension/sway bars with 100,000 miles on them that don't look that bad. The other side looked just the same....Gigantic gap between the top of the sway bar and rubber. I have only done about 6 or 7 hard launches since 1,000 mile breakin, and had noticed the "clunk" last week before I took it in to the dealer for some other things. Admittedly, this may not be it, but after I saw those...welll... Yes, I did have only one side jacked up at the time. I will stop by the dealer this afternoon and look at some other legacys to compare. Anyone want to talk about polyurethane bushings? Pro/con or maybe that should be in the suspension forum. Cheers, dave Drive softly and carry big torque! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LawGT Posted May 23, 2005 Share Posted May 23, 2005 Guys, Check out the picture. Wile waiting for my caliper paint to dry this weekend, I started looking around underneath and found that the front sway bar busings to frame looked like this. What in the world would cause them to die like this? Car has about 3500 miles on it(5mt). I suspect that this is what is causing my clunk. Any one else have bushings that look like this? I'll be calling my dealer monday morning on this! Cheers, dave Yep, that makes sense now. The bushing in the driver's side of my car looks just like that...the one on the passenger side does not. Hmmm....it's dealer time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driver72 Posted May 23, 2005 Author Share Posted May 23, 2005 It is most definitely the crossmember. I also just jacked up my car and tightened the 10 (14mm) bolts. 4-5 of them were about 1/2 turn loose, and a couple were 1/4 turn loose. There was only 2-3 that were fully tightened. You don't need to remove the splash guard to get to them. You only need to remove the 1 bolt on the splash guard in order to get to 2 of the crossmember bolts. I then tested my car on a big speed bump in my area that I ALWAYS got the creaking/popping sound on. It was NO MORE...Thank God! ^^ This is the response I posted after tightening the 10 bolts on the crossmember brace, but then today after driving the car, I heard a bit of a creak again after turning into a parking garage with only a mild uneven incline. It wasn't creaking as bad as it was BEFORE tightening the bolts, but I definitely heard two faint creaks. So I'm wondering now if there are other bolts/parts that need tightening as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uberdog Posted May 24, 2005 Share Posted May 24, 2005 Checked the 10 h-brace bolts on my OBXT and found 3 bolts that were not completely tight. Out of those 3, one was 10 full spins on the wrench to tighten. I only get the creaking and popping every now and then. So I don't have an sure fire method to test the fix. Though I *always* feel better with loose bolts tightened... I did not use a torque wrench, I tightened the bolts until they did not turn any farther. I will a little worried I might strip or crack one of the bolts... Hope they are not over-tight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jap_subarulvr Posted May 24, 2005 Share Posted May 24, 2005 I have the same problem. Mine has done this since almost new, has 4500 miles on it now and still doing it. I have stock wheels and tires. Mine will make this popping and clunking sound only in straight stopping and acceleration. Going to the dealership on Fri. 5/27. Think it might be bushings on struts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waterdish Posted May 24, 2005 Share Posted May 24, 2005 I have the same problem. Mine has done this since almost new, has 4500 miles on it now and still doing it. I have stock wheels and tires. Mine will make this popping and clunking sound only in straight stopping and acceleration. Going to the dealership on Fri. 5/27. Think it might be bushings on struts? did you not read the entire thread? Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legacy05 Posted May 24, 2005 Share Posted May 24, 2005 it is a bit concerning that more and more people are finding that the brace has some loose bolts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turingmachine Posted May 24, 2005 Share Posted May 24, 2005 I went in for my 11K oil change last Saturday and had them examine the H-brace and to torque down any loose bolts. Service Manager indicated that a few were loose, and were subsequently tightened. Result -- no more creaking, for the first time in many months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uberdog Posted May 24, 2005 Share Posted May 24, 2005 it is a bit concerning that more and more people are finding that the brace has some loose bolts. No kidding. I find it hard to believe that they are all leaving the factory like this. My guess is that the H-Brace needs thread locker to keep the bolts from coming loose. You'd think there would be a TSB by now, but maybe there have not been enough complaints have to Subaru. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driver72 Posted May 24, 2005 Author Share Posted May 24, 2005 I wonder what the result will be when the first owner (who isn't nearly as acute to the issue as we are) has several of these bolts come totally loose and fall out....at 75 mph going down the freeway???? SOA BETTER, once again, get on the ball! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fbi012 Posted May 24, 2005 Share Posted May 24, 2005 I wonder what the result will be when the first owner (who isn't nearly as acute to the issue as we are) has several of these bolts come totally loose and fall out....at 75 mph going down the freeway???? That would suck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jap_subarulvr Posted May 24, 2005 Share Posted May 24, 2005 did you not read the entire thread? Ok, guilty as charged. I am new to this whole forum thing, and I was under a deadline to get to work. I plan on reading it all now. I am just glad that this whole Legacy forum is here and that I found it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waterdish Posted May 24, 2005 Share Posted May 24, 2005 Ok, guilty as charged. I am new to this whole forum thing, and I was under a deadline to get to work. I plan on reading it all now. I am just glad that this whole Legacy forum is here and that I found it. No Prob, Im new as well. Its a great Forum and alot of smart ppl here. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jap_subarulvr Posted May 30, 2005 Share Posted May 30, 2005 Took my 05 Legacy into dealer Friday. Showed the mechanic my info. that I gleaned from this forum. He was very interested and we went straight to the H brace. Yes, my brace had several loose bolts and after thread lock and tightening, NO MORE NOISE!!! If you have this problem, check the H brace bolts. Subaru needs to hear more about this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdanhires Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 During my oil change yesterday, I checked my h-brace bolts. Two of them were finger tight. After torquing them to the correct spec, the popping noise that happens as I pulled into my driveway has disappeared. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legacy05 Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 After a good week and a half .. still no noise Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbolen Posted June 6, 2005 Share Posted June 6, 2005 Same on mine. Changed oil last week and checked them. 5 ofthem on the drivers side loose, two of them *very* loose. All the rest of them that I could get to were fine. No more poping now! Cheers, dave Drive softly and carry big torque! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jarrod Posted June 6, 2005 Share Posted June 6, 2005 hmm mine sometimes makes this popping sound..guess i need to check those Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squirrel-bait Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 I have another case of the loose crossmember support bracket to report. I had the same clunking noise as others have detailed here. My dealer looked for the problem all day, then called Subaru Technical Support for help. Subaru told them the most likely cause was the rear transmission mount. Saying that replacing that had fixed similar problems for other customers. While waiting for my tranny mount to come in, I did a search of the forums and found this thread. I figured it couldn't hurt to try the bracket bolts, as unlikely as it seemed. I found a few bolts that weren't torqued down, but nothing really loose. I didn't have high hopes that I had fixed anything, but whaddya know? The noise is gone! Would replacing the rear transmission mount involve removal of this crossmember bracket? That might explain why Subaru has success with fixing this problem with their method. When they put everything back together, the bolts get properly tightened, so no more noise. I'm going to contact Subaru to see what they have to say on this. Maybe we can get a TSB on the problem and maybe Subaru can save some money on unnecessary parts replacement. sqrl b8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
91SS05GT Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 Do some research, there is already a TSB for the proper torqueing of the crossmember. My subaru techs were in awe when I suggested the crossmember being loose and they had never seen the TSB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
91SS05GT Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 Let me clarify that, the TSB is on proper torqueing after installing the STS either way it has a torqueing diagram and some cautions. TSB number is 03-53-04. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishingbuk Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 I get the popping noise when I pull out of my driveway in reverse then it does it again when I start to pull forward. Souds like you are banging two steel pipes together. On a side note I'm getting my AP today and can't wait for the results. I've heard that stage 1 is quite an increse in power. Much needed in my opinion. Josh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uberdog Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 Let me clarify that, the TSB is on proper torqueing after installing the STS either way it has a torqueing diagram and some cautions. TSB number is 03-53-04. What is the proper torque for the H-brace bolts? I did use a t-wrench to tighten mine, I just screwed 'em down as tight as I could. Want to be sure they are tight, but not overly so. Anybody with access to TSB number is 03-53-04, can you post the info to this thread? Thx, UD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
91SS05GT Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 Here you go.Transmission Rear Cross-Member.pdfTransmission Rear Cross-Member.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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