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Spent some quality time under the Subaru last night squirting things with penetrating oil and girding my loins for the axle replacement. I've got an "early" 04 WRX so male stubs in the trans and female axles with the roll pins. Apparently the only way to replace the axle seals on this iteration of transmission is to remove the "sundial" differential side retainer because the seal pushes in from the inside of the retainer. This blows goats because this retainer also sets the preload for the front differential bearings and the mesh between the front ring and pinion. This is not something I'm willing to screw with if I don't have to so I think I'm going to leave the axle seals alone and hope for the best. The process is outlined here: https://forums.nasioc.com/forums/sho....php?t=1602465
While I was under there poking at things I also discovered that I've got some gnarly *** wear on the inside edge of the passenger front tire so my alignment is knackered. IDKWTF happened there because I was under there a couple months ago changing my oil and things looked fine. On well. I'll move it to the rear on rotation and keep an eye on it and find a shop that can do a 4 wheel alignment. I also discovered the source of the oil I keep finding under the car; the turbo drain and the oil cooler/preheater thing are both leaking oil. Yaaaay! Oil cooler/preheater thing I'm not worried about, its just a $5 o-ring. Turbo drain, however...
What is the best way to tackle this without going crazy? That thing is WAY up there and if left to my own devices I'll end up with a built EJ25 in the car
But really: when you replace the silly catted up pipe (notice I didn't say "if"), you can replace the turbo drain hose too, and if you do it right you don't have to pull the turbo either.
the 2 hoses that are leaking probably finally gave up the ghost. they are in a very hot place all of their lifetime, so this is normal for 140k+
But really: when you replace the silly catted up pipe (notice I didn't say "if"), you can replace the turbo drain hose too, and if you do it right you don't have to pull the turbo either.
Can't drive 3 hours on the busted *** CV, it'll totally self destruct, but I'd love to drive up to Sac and play Subarus with you. And for the record I do have a OEM catless up-pipe sitting in the garage, I just haven't installed it yet. /sadtrombone
Plus you'll make fun of me because the car is now DIRTY AS ****, both inside and out. Its that whole thing where I work in AG so its either dust or mud, depending on what time of year it is.
when you pull the up pipe to replace it, the turbo will have just enough movement to be able to yank the drain tube and replace. win win.
then a cobb dp (or whatever else, but that one is nice cause it will play nicest with your factory exhaust) and a conservative stage 2, and win win win
It sounds like I need to make an appointment with you to do up, down and tune. As soon as I'm done collecting all the parts and gaskets and things I'll get in touch, but its probably not going to be until spring.
Take your time (assuming that leak isn't too bad).
As for the axle seals, I'm sure others had different experiences, but so far I've never seen one leak even with 200k miles on the various scoobs I did clutch job on.
You just gotta be real careful when taking out the axle and putting it back in. Swift but controlled is how I'd describe the way I pry them out, and I usually slam them back in by pushing the knuckle towards trans (lower balljoint disconnected from hub, not LCA). this way you're not damaging the boot or hurting anything else
It does help, believe it or not. Thank you much I'm gonna get busy on this tonight, as all my ancillary parts are finally here.
Also, after my previous failure to completely change the fluid in my 5MT I've decided that while its up on stands I'm going to give it another shot. This time I got the genuine article:
Yes, I know its not Extra-S but that **** does not appear to exist anymore, and the Subaru HPGO seems to be well regarded. Bonus nachos: it was $10 cheaper PER BOTTLE than the Motul 300. If my 5MT is still notchy as **** I'm going to pull some of this out and throw in at least a partial bottle of the Pennzoil Synchromesh at the thing, but I figured I should at least start with the manufacturers recommended fluid and go from there.
And by "go from there" I mean try Motul after spending 3x trying to find something else that works :P
The "UncleScottys Cocktail" thing? Yeah, that just seems silly. The "original recipe" is now old enough that 11 herbs and spices in the component fluids have been changed due to multiple reformulations. At this point there are like 14 variations and everyone claims each one is the best. Hell, there are even people in The Greater Subaru Sphere Of Influence who claim Shockproof will clog up the pump on the manual transmission. (WAT)
The Subaru 5MT seems to be a picky beast, kinda like the Miata 6 speed. I know that Aidan has said that his 6 speed loves the Ford XT-M5-QS Synthetic, but my 6 speed hates that **** and the Amsoil MTG is the only thing that will give me good results.
The Subaru HPGO might be terrible but it was inexpensive enough that I figured it would make a good baseline. I've had good luck with Synchromesh in other applications, so I'm thinking it might help here as well. Some people (even people in that thread I linked) claim that you'd be better off filling your trans with curry diarrhea rather than HPGO, and others claim its the best thing ever. I've read enough of the Subaru forums not to take anything at face value, so I'm going to suck it and see for myself.
Yeah anytime I have to do research on subaru forums I feel like I come out with more questions than I had going in. For what its worth, I tried that cocktail thing back in 2012 in my old WRX and I had pretty good results. I also had to use MTG in my miata 6 speed, I could shift that thing lightning fast but anything else made it borderline unusable.
Wheels, axles, struts, knuckles, ball joints, brakes, lower control arms, swaybar endlinks and rear transverse link bushings are out! No pics because I was busy as frig, but I'm sure you can imagine the pile of parts next to the car with no front suspension. Maybe I'll take a picture tomorrow before I get started. There is CV axle grease ALL OVER EVERYTHING under the car. Brake calipers, downpipe heatshield, subframe, its hideous. The drip from the turbo drain and oil warmer/cooler thing just makes it that much worse. I don't know if I can even clean it all, I wish I had Jeffbucc's steam cleaner, or at least a pressure washer. There is so much grease on the back of one of the brake calipers I damn near dropped it because it slipped out of my hand. Gahhh.
I did NOT touch the tie rod ends or the knuckle to strut bolts so the alignment won't move. Well, not much anyway. Car already needs an alignment so it's not like I'm hurting anything. Surprisingly enough, the inner and outer tie rod ends have almost zero play in them, whereas the ball joints are pretty sloppy. While working on this stuff I realized that if I was ever going to put an aftermarket from swaybar in this thing, or a set of steering rack bushings, or fancy aftermarket endlinks, now would have been the perfect time... Bugger.
Tomorrow:
Pair of Raxle replacement wagon specific axles
New OEM lower ball joints
New OEM wagon control arms (transverse links?)
New OEM front lower control arm bushings
New OEM STI rear lower control arm bushings (because STI)
New OEM nuts and hardware where applicable
Change trans juice.
Question!
How in the name of sweet baby jesus am I supposed to torque the giant nut on the end of the control arm to 180ft/lbs with the GDMF subframe in the way AND the suspension in compression?
For anyone keeping score, the WRX is back on its feet. The turn-in feels soooo much better now, and the whole front end of the car feels that much more put together. A+ and totally worth the effort :-)
Unfortunately I've got a new and totally different noise on my hands. I've got an intermittent grinding coming out of something in the front end. I'm hoping I assed up something in the front brakes when I put it back together. I can hear the grinding causing a resonant ringing noise out of the tin splash shield so I'm hoping it's just one of those silly spring clip things that holds in the pads.
If I managed to hork a wheel bearing while doing all this other work I may shoot myself.
I have an old auto urabus (02 TS), which fulfills daily duty. It's been a bit grumpy lately.
Had a few times where the battery light and ABS light started flashing. Diagnostic found a battery issue, so I swapped it. Went away for a week or two then happened once, but not again since then.
Yesterday there was a misfire for all of a minute and then it just vanished. Hasn't happened since.
01-20-2017, 11:59 AM
This blows goats because this retainer also sets the preload for the front differential bearings and the mesh between the front ring and pinion. This is not something I'm willing to screw with if I don't have to so I think I'm going to leave the axle seals alone and hope for the best. The process is outlined here: https://forums.nasioc.com/forums/sho....php?t=1602465
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