[sperry]

Originally Posted by ArthurS

Well 3 out of the 4 things that happened to you are from aftermarket parts. So I think your actual subie has held up pretty good from being a daily driver and autocrosser. If your clutch and CV have been the only problems in the time you have owned it, thats not to bad at all. And it is tight that whiteline and vishnu will replace their faulty parts. Excellent job for both companies.

More on this subject... I finally got everything all fixed up!

The leak from my axle/diff junction is due to a known defect. In fact it's listed in the current issue of EndWrench, Subaru's technical magazine that goes out to the dealers, and is available at www.endwrench.com

Originally Posted by Summer 2003 End Wrench

Grease Leaking From Inner Axle Joints
If you encounter a 1998 Subaru that has grease leaking out of the inner axle joint along the transmission splined stub shaft, the situation can be repaired by doing the following:
• Remove and disassemble both inner axle joints.
• Clean the grease from the joints.
• Inspect the “freeze out” plug that covers the splined shaft area in the base of the inner joints to be sure that the plug has not fallen out.
• If the plug has fallen out, it may be possible to reinstall it. Make certain you do not block the air bleed hole. This air bleed hole is located at a point around the outer circumference of the seal plug. If the air bleed hole is blocked, then there is a possibility that the axle boots may be damaged.
• Install new grease P/N 28093TA000. (This grease is used on 1997 model year vehicles).
• Reassemble.

Guess, what... the '02 WRX has the same type of DOJ's, filled with the same high viscosity grease that occationally works its way out of the axle seal. So $150 in labor, and $4 in grease later, both my CVs are repacked.

And the clunking? Well, that was a loose bolt on my lower control arms. This was actually my fault... when I removed my ALK, I had to tighten this bolt to a whopping 180+ ft lbs in a space that my torque wrench simply can't fit. I used my longest crecent and tightened it as tight as I could. This is exactly how I installed the ALK and had no problems. Turns out it's not tight enough on the stock parts, and it loosened just enopugh to click when the car pitched under power. All it needed was a half a turn.

It's a crying shame that Carson City Subaru had to go and whine to SOA for a known defect and half a turn of a bolt. It's even more pathetic that SOA's 1st reaction is always "deny 1st" when it comes to warranty questions. If Carson's mechanics were competatent, they would have diagnosed the problems before biching about and exhaust and stickers, and realised the problem was not the axle, it was bad grease and a loose bolt. And even then, if they had called SOA and told them "I have a customer's car with the wrong CV grease from the factory, but he's got an exhaust, can we work on the car" I'd hope SOA wouldn't try to deny that.

Bottom line: Subaru makes some fucking cool cars, but SOA is a pathetic company to deal with. SOJ needs to bitch slap their American wing around a little, or the US customers are going to start buying elsewhere. No wonder it took so long for SOJ to bring the real deal Subaru's to the states... they must not have had much confidence in the company that sells 'em in the States... I know I don't.

BTW: The guys over at Independent Automotive are awesome!! (Tom worked on my car, and he knows his Subarus! Aparently he's the ex head tech of some sort from Lithia before it was Lithia.) Not only were they straight forward and upfront about what they were doing to the car, they also let me get under the car with 'em and help diagnose the problem. You'll never get that kind of communication from a dealer. The only thing that sucked was the amount of time it took for us to figure out the deal. Since we didn't know what was wrong, Tom went ahead and repacked the CV's, and that didn't fix anything but the leak. It was really pure luck that Tom and I were looking that the control arm and bullshitting about the ALK that we thought perhaps it might be loose (it's not obvious even when you're looking at it).