Update: Lots of maintenance/repairs to document
-Haven't received my new starter brain back yet unfortunately, but Forester hasn't failed to start once in the -30 and colder days
Piston slap is loud though when it's that cold.
-After cleaning up my Foz interior at the parents place I was heading back into the city on the Henday, when I suddenly had serious shaking/vibration through the shift knob and steering wheel. As it's happened before, I assumed it was a bunch of snow/ice packed in my wheel well/inside my rims as I had been driving through some very deep snow at the parents.
Took the first exit to Gateway/south common and pulled into the Wendy's parking lot. At this point there was decent rattling/scraping noise from wheel well. I think "maybe a CV as it's dependent on speed and had heard some terrible noises during turns". So I crank the wheels all one direction in the parking lot and take a look. No visible grease that I could notice, not a lot of snow anywhere (but I cleared it all out anyway by hand). Here's a pic of the CV in the parking lot there:
Figured I'd take it to the carwash and blast the underside to ensure there was no ice blocking axle or something at the transmission/steering linkage. As I was pulling into my stall at the husky carwash on 91, loud bang and front wheels instantly lock. I pulled out the jack and took off front right wheel to see my hub-end of the axle sitting at the back of the wheel well, with the outer cv torn in half. The ball bearings where sitting on the ground along with the mangled retainer ring.
So yeah... I cranked the wheel all the way left enough to slip the loose axle end into the hub so that the car could at least roll (it couldn't come out until wheels went all the way left again), rolled it onto my dad's trailer, and brought it home
.
The next day I put her on the lift and checked out the damage. This photo was after I moved the axle back into the hub. When it had come out, it grinded up part of the caliper (more on that later). Nothing other than axle was damaged though, luckily.
Insane how fast these CV's can fail after getting a small crack, especially with all the sand on the road for de icing.
So the next day I priced out some new axles from Subaru with seals: $250 each!!!! So I headed to Napa on Cgy Trail and 64ave and picked up new ones for $120 ea with the corresponding seals (I decided to get the front left axle as well as the inner boot on that side was starting to leak). Anyone need part numbers let me know and I'll dig up my receipts. All parts were for a 1998 Forester 5spd, so I can confirm that axles, wheel bearing, hub, etc are all identical
.
It's super easy to replace axles with subarus, just make sure you have a method of removing ball joint and a 7/32" drill bit, punch, etc to pop out the axle pins. I could post up a DIY of changing them but honestly there are decent guides online and it's not too complex.
Be CAREFUL with the ABS ring (more on that later
) when removing hub.
Technically you don't need to remove hub, but when I had brakes and everything off and tried playing with the hub, I felt a small amount of notchiness in some directions, so I said F it I'm already in here, might as well do the front wheel bearings as well (Again, bought for both sides in front).
Be sure to mark camber bolt before removing:
This side went great, everything went according to plan until I got main bolts torqued and was reinstalling the top piece of caliper that covers the pads (the 2 14s at back). Bottom one would not start threading, and after removing the piece I saw the axle had grinded up the caliper when it jumped out from cv. So I put this piece in the vice and grinded/cleaned up and finished the job.
-After that fiasco, Foz was handling good but I had it in my mind to do the other side soon as there was a slow leak at inner cv (not as critical as less motion and road grime and no clicking yet). If you'll recall (and if I posted it in this thread?) I've pulled my starter motor before to disassemble and clean up due to it not wanting to disengage easily (dragging). Well, a few times when I was starting it I would hear either a grinding noise (starter not sticking all the way to flywheel) or just a whirring (starter not even reaching the flywheel) so out it came again.
Again, the starter is stupid quick to remove/reinstall on subarus. In an hour I: removed tmic, unconnected and unbolted starter, put it in vice, hooked up power, saw how gummed up it was compared to my wrx starter I had on the table (didn't want to extend), so I sprayed the itshay out of it with WD40 and continuously engaged/disengaged, and finally I had it moving freely in and out all the way (TWSS), reinstalled in Forester and reconnected/reinstalled tmic. So that problem was solved, starter didn't make a peep now.