Subaru - Steering - Alignment - Outback - Wheels :: 2003 - Shudders At Low Temp?
Feb 26, 2011
My Outback gets the DTs in the steering wheel. 2003 with 300K highway miles. New tie-rods, brakes, brake master cylinder, alignment & balance (all from great shop with great rep) have failed to eliminate the problem. It comes on suddenly at highway speeds, usually in cold weather (below 20); but not necessarily in snowy conditions. Slowing down to 30/20 mph does not stop the shudder (though it slows and reveals itself as a fierce twitch to the right). Eventually the shudder is accompanied by a rhythmic scraping sound somewhere in the left front wheel well, which maybe is there all along but inaudible at higher speeds.
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I have a 2003 Subaru outback and sometimes when I go to back into a parking space or straighten out after pulling into a parking space my steering wheel becomes incredibly difficult to turn. It used to only do this when I was backing into a space but now it has started doing it when I pull forward into a space as well. This happens most often when I am driving to multiple places and have to park several times over a period of a few hours. I've monitored my power steering fluid and the power steering pump was replaced not too long ago. What's causing this?
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I have a 2000 Outback, 80K, and I've been having brake issues. The first thing I noticed was a burning brake smell. I pulled over and found that my two front wheels were very hot. I pumped the brakes a few times and let them cool down and drove on. Pulled over in a bit to check them and they were fine. Took the car to the dealer who said, "We can't really find anything wrong with the fronts, but the backs are sticking a bit and we fixed that." So, off I went. Of course, it happened again. Left front seemed the hottest, but this time I noticed that the rear wheels were warm as well. Took it in again. Again, "We don't know." "Could it be the calipers or the lines or the ABS chip," I asked? "Well, yeah, maybe the front calipers." So they replaced the front calipers.
Picked it up and noticed two things of interest on the print out: "Rear brakes hanging up," and the front pads are a 8mm and the rear at 3mm! Hm... Seemed fishy to me. I had all the pads replaced a year and half ago. The last set lasted 75K, so this is odd, as is the discrepancy between back and front. I had the dealer pull the service record. In May the rear were at 5mm. Two weeks ago they were at 3.5mm. Yesterday they were a 3mm. I asked, "What would cause that?" They said, "Well, probably whoever did your brake job didn't clean the brakes up well so they are getting stuck and wearing down." I took the car and drove 60 miles, mostly on the highway. Fronts wheels were cool. Rear wheels were warm to hot.
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Have a 2000 subaru outback 2.5l, automatic, with about 245k, I replaced the thermostat,water pump, the radiator and the car is still overheating. both fans are working. no leaking coolant. Maybe this is related- over heats mostly when driving on the highway. But if a shift the gear to neutral and coast for a minute the shift back to drive the temperature gauge goes down. Whats wrong, running out money fixing the car, but love it driving it in the snow.
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I am having an engine temp issue when climbing steep hills. The gauge goes from normal to the red line but not into the red. The VDC OFF light is on but the CEL is not one. Once I reach the top of the hill the engine begins to cool off and returns to normal. Yesterday I had the radiator flushed and the thermostat changed. Am I looking at a water pump or head gaskets?
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I bought my outback a few months ago from a dealer/mechanic who had fixed the car after it was totaled. So it has a reconstructed title, but it was hit in the back, so all the engine parts were unaffected by the crash. Since I have had the car I have experienced intermittent loss of power steering ability. Sometimes it's nearly impossible to parallel park or turn a corner gracefully, and other times, within the same short trip, the steering will be completely fine and smooth. I have had the issue looked at about three times now by different mechanics. Each time they have either replaced or tightened the belt, which temporarily fixes the problem. But within a few weeks it always comes back. Is there something not keeping the belt tight, or could the issue actually be in the power steering pump?
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Whenever I am driving my Subaru Impreza, the steering wheel shakes above 60mph and is a violent shake at 65mph making it unbearably frustrating to drive to school each day. Recently I had slipped on ice and hit a curb with the tires on the right side of the car. I took it to a shop to get the rims looked at, and ended up replacing the back right. The mechanic said nothing about the front one however. My question to you is; could it be that the front rim is also bent? Or that it could just be a buildup of ice. It is cold here, snows often and is never above 20F.
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A new issue has cropped up with my 2001 H6 Subaru Outback (which I believe is technically a Legacy). We've put so much work into this thing to keep it running and this might be the last nail in the coffin. However, what's going on...
My wife reported to me yesterday that the vehicle was turning itself off while driving. I was not in the car to verify any of this, so this part is anecdotal. After 45 minutes of driving, she said the engine was "hiccuping" and the gages were dropping to zero and then bringing themselves right back up to the current RPM and speed. She said the ABS light came on. The first time the vehicle did this, she reports that it did it many times in rapid succession. She described it as "the gages were going crazy". After turning around to come back home this happened once more, though not in rapid succession. It was a single occurrence of turning off and back on again. She indicated that the vehicle did not require a restart with the key. I suspect that this was because she was driving at highway speed at the time.
She brought it right to the mechanic and - as is the case with all intermittent issues - they were not able to repeat the failure in any way. So, being an engineer, I decided I wanted to experience it for myself and do a few tests.
Today I drove 45 minutes to work, 10 minutes of small town driving, 25 minutes of highway driving, 10 minutes of small town driving. Lucky for me (!), in the first five minutes of driving, the radio cut out, power steering died, and I heard fuses or relays clicking as I was gently braking and gently taking a right turn. I continued the right turn off into a parking spot on the side of the road and stopped the car. I turned the key to the off position, put it into park and restarted the vehicle right away. No problems. All was fine.
The vehicle did not do this again for the entire trip. However, I did perform some tests to see if I could repeat a similar failure with the ignition alone.
1) Turning the ignition off and quickly back on again by hand while rolling at highway speed (~55 mph) will cause the vehicle to kick back into a normal running mode.
2) Turning the ignition off and quickly back on again by hand while rolling at lower speed (~30 mph) will require a restart by turning the key all the way to the "start" position and not just the "on" position.
3) Turning the ignition off with the key (as in 1 and 2) DOES NOT cut out the radio. Note that when the intermittent defect occurs, the radio will cut out and then come back along with the engine and instrument panel.
4) Wiggling and stressing the keys to put strain on the ignition switch doesn't seem to cause anything to happen.
5) The battery is only a few months old and a general inspection of the battery terminals, cabling, and fuses indicates that everything appears to be in tact and clean.
I'm not the most experienced car person, so my terminology is probably a little off and that's all I have for now. I feel like this is a common ground issue and if I could only identify which ground services the instrument panel and radio and spark plugs I could inspect it and clean or replace a connection. My limited research reveals that there are many grounds throughout the engine compartment, though.
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Our 2000 Subaru Outback has just over 200k. We want a vehicle that is safe, but do not want to put a lot of money into this. At the last service the dealership said the left ball joint boot and power steering rack boots need to be replaced and the rear differential bushings are broken or loose. All of this would be > $1000 to repair. They said that the ball joint could get dirty and fail catastrophically and be a safety issue. Is that right or will the steering start to feel rough beforehand? Can we drive it safely?
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I have a 2009 Subaru Outback with 60K miles and this problem has been present since I purchased with 30K miles. When turning left or right over uneven surfaces (like washboard dirt road, potholes, or strips of Botts' dots in a parking garage) there is a loud, audible rattle coming from the front end. It sounds like to metal pipes hitting together. The noise does not happen when driving straight.
Subaru and another garage have inspected. Front struts and sway bar links have been replaced with no effect. CV joints, ball joints have all been inspected with no issues found.
I read on a forum that it may have something to do with the power steering fluid, that when turning there is uneven pressure on both sides and it results in the noise. Possible at the steering column universal joint.
I assume since it only happens to some Subarus that replacing the correct parts will resolve the issue.
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My 2004 Outback power steering was growling and squealing, but it was working ok at the time. I decided to replace the power steering pump before it completely failed and 3 hours later I was done. the growling and squealing was gone. However, when I backed the car out it was hard to steer at first. When I got going it all worked great, until I turned at the corner... hard steering again. When I got around the corner and up to speed everything is great again. The problem did not go away with time. Every time I turn at idle there seems to be no power steering. What is going on?
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I have a 98 Subaru Legacy Outback with 133K miles. It was leaking from the power steering pump and valve cover gaskets. My husband replaced the passenger-side valve cover gasket (which involved removing the air box) and the power steering pump (which required removing the alternator). When we put the car back together and reconnected the battery, it no longer starts! It "clicks" once but won't turn-over. The car does not have an alarm system (but it was an option on this model). We've tried jumping it. The battery is about 14 months old. The alternator is about 10 months old and the starter was replaced about 10 months ago too. We've double checked the wires that were disconnected and don't think we've missed anything.
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I'm about to replace my 2008 Subaru Outback's power steering pump. Only question is: How do I adjust the belt tension? Looks like the pump is stationary, and I suspect the alternator is the key, since the belt turns that as well.
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My outback has 57k miles on it and already needs the front struts and rack replaced (diagnosed today at the Subaru dealership). The car has been making a whining noise in the engine and has been clunking when making turns for the past week. I have also noticed it hasn't been taking bumps as smoothly. They told me that both ends of the rack are leaking and both front struts are leaking. My husband did admit to hitting the curb on the driver side front tire pretty hard while making a u-turn about a month ago, but all other driving is pretty standard. Yes, we drive on dirt roads in the mountains a few times a year for hiking, but don't drive in a manner that I consider wrong. Did the u-turn incident cause this? (hard to believe that would affect both sides of the rack and struts).
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I own a 2003 subaru outback. Tonight when I took my keys out of the ignition my car kept running. It took several turns to get my car to shut off. I don't know if this is related but about a month ago a friend of mine started my car after dropping my keys in the snow and the next morning I found ice in the ignition. What caused my car to run without keys in it? Or how to fix it?
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I sold my older 03' Subaru Outback a few months ago and bought a 2013 Outback, 2.5 premium model. I really like a lot about the car, everything, except....the seats. When I test drove it, I noticed right away, that the seats were different, harder, a bit shorter. I thought, well, I'll get used to it. I haven't. I am always playing with the buttons to adjust the seat, and there are lots of ways to do so. I just don't feel comfortable.
I drove it for about 2 hours straight, and came out with a cramp down my entire driver leg. I am quite frustrated, I feel like maybe I should just sell the car, and get something else, but there is no guarantee that the new car will feel better. Is there anything that I can do to make the seat more comfortable. It's hard, and short, and I feel if there was not this hard cushion behind me, and the seat was about an inch longer, I could live with it.
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I have a Subaru Outback '03 wagon. About 4 months ago, I had a new driver side front axle installed. Right after that, when my car was stopped at a light, and my foot was on the brake, the car would have a vibration from the front end, I took the car back to the place that did the work, they checked the work don, and also the engine mounts, and bearings, and anything else they could check. They couldn't find anything wroing at that time with the car. I then took the car to another dealer who said the same thing, although he did not do a thorough inspection of the care.
I just had my oil changed, and took the car back to the orignal mechanic, and he checked the car out again as a courtesy, with the same outcome. They can't find anything wrong. The care still vibrates when I am stopped and in drive, but when I take my foot off the brake, the vibration dissipates a littel, and when I put the car in neutral or park, it goes away completely . I am hesitant to take it to the dealer and spend lots and lots of money to diagnose. The previous two mechanics said I should not be worried about the car's drivability, just wait and see what happens, although this vibration bothers me.
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I have an "03 subaru Outback, with 164,000 miles on it. I have had a bad cat convertor for one and a half years, but up until a week ago, the car ran fine. My mechanic(s) said not to fix it until inspection, and then decide whether to ditch the car, or repair it. One week ago, the car was very infrequently lugging and missing, but only for a few seconds. It only for about 6 times, smelled like gas coming out the rear of the car.
I don't know what to do about it. I took it to the mechanic, who said it could be many different things, but not the convertor causing symptoms . He said: fuel injectors, gas coils, plugs, all sorts of stuff. I am concerned now, because I just put a lot of money into it, and would like to keep it, but don't want to spend tons more on it. I LOVE my subby, but maybe enough is enough? Also the smell. I am concerned driving it because of the missing.
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Subaru Outback 2003 4 cylinder runs ok first several minutes then starts to skip. Appears to be maybe EGR related? Plugs/wires/dist ignition are ok. The car was double filled with oil the started, smoked. Could that affect the ECR or PVC? Could this damage the fuel injectors?
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I'm looking for a car that is cheap to maintain. I have to have something that allows for interior cargo space.So far, I can find either of these two models for under $8k in clean condition.
I like the Subaru Outback (H6 engine), but I know that more parts can likely equal higher priced maintenance. AWD involves a front and rear differential and a transfer case that can go bad anytime and it has a more complex set up than a basic truck. Then, there's the computery crap that can go wrong.
The Xterra, if I can get a basic 2 wheel drive should, I'd guess, be fairly cheap to maintain, no? Sure, I loose out on the driving advantages offered by the Subaru Outback and gas will cost more.
I love driving the Subaru, but I'm guessing that once a bunch of rattles, leaks, and other issues start cropping up that I might not be so happy with it. The vehicles in my price range are all sitting at 100k - 120k miles. The Nissan Xterra is a truck. It drives like a truck. I might be happier with it, knowing I won't have to pay for high priced repairs. I drive rather conservatively with the intention of keeping my vehicle in good condition. It would be a daily driver for the next 18 months.
Even with higher fuel costs (Xterra will likely get 16-19 mpg), I'm thinking I'd be better off buying the Xterra than the Subaru, yes or no?
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I bought this Subaru outback with 100,000 miles- clean car fax, etc, did the timing belt, water pump, thermostat at 102,000. Now at 116,000, the head gasket is leaking ($2,200 estimate) so the repair shop is working on that and they called today to say the #2 cylinder is scored and the engine needs to be rebuilt. ($4,000 estimate). I'm not sure if I should have them proceed with he work- that's a bunch of money or look for another engine, or what to do !! Its a great little car- but geez- what to do-
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