Yes that is typical if you don't have undercoat protection or don't keep underneath your car clean. When I lived in Milwaukee from 2003 to 2007, I went through the car wash at least once every two weeks when they treated the roads.

very nice. mine really needs a bath and even then, it looks like yours has faired better even with more miles.

but i've been pleased with my close to 10 years of ownership. still enjoy driving it and now that it's older and has a few scuffs and door dings, i don't care as much about minor things happening and yet still enjoy it as if it were new. hopefully i can get at least another 5 years out of it. (i'm only at 95k miles)

Thanks. It's been garaged kept until this year. Yeah, the door dings don't bother me like they used to. I'm hoping to keep this a few more year too.

I reached 95K miles in May 2016 so the warranties didn't last long. B2B lasted less than 2 years and PT less than 3.

I wonder how many miles SubaruLee made it up to, if he still has it. I'm where he was 3 years ago.

I had my car parked outdoors in an offsite airport parking lot for 5 days recently, got home and it was about 5 degrees out, gave the car 5-10 minutes to warm up before leaving because I didn't have an ice scraper and had to have the defrost vent melt the ice on the windshield. But anyway, the CVT sounded HORRIBLE above about 3500RPM until I accumulated about 15 minutes of freeway driving. Horrible, awful grinding noises. First time that's ever happened but I think it's also the first time my car has been parked outside in an unsheltered parking lot for days and started up when it was nearly 0 degrees out.

My car has never been in temperatures that cold but even at 25 degrees after the car idling for a few minutes, the CVT does sound like the chain is about to jump off. I can hear it when I make the first few turns but then it's good after that. It holds over 13 quarts of CVTF, so some driving time is needed for that amount of fluid to warm up.

I think I have a bunch of CVTF still from that crazy sale Amazon had like a year ago or whenever that was. I hadn't done another drain and fill yet because I don't have a good pump to transfer fresh CVTF back in, I was kind of tempted to get one of those pumps from amazon that you hook up to your car battery, but reviews were hit and miss and I was worried thick CVTF might be a bit much for one of those. I've used one of those hand pumps you screw onto the fluid bottles before, but man those are slow and get tiring really fast.

Had been having issues with bluetooth on a new phone. Finally figured out what the issue was that it wouldn't auto-reconnect.

I was using the radio (premium base radio) to pair the phone, and after a restart, the car wouldn't auto-pair with the phone. After poking around for a bit, a couple places said to use the hands-free pairing mode. While in there, I noticed all previous phones I've had (2 prior) were still in there even if the select menu didn't show them when not using the hands-free mode.

Similarly to how you can't have more than one phone paired, I suspected something was confusing things with multiple phones in the "bank" and went through the process to delete all previous phones then pair my new phone using the hands-free setup. It's also possible just setting it up with hands-free setup, as the 3rd phone in the list, would have worked as well, but I figured it'd be good to clean out the old items.

It works now, and auto-reconnects on each restart.

Yeah, the way to bypass subaru's bluetooth issues is generally just to use the voice commands to pair your phone after deleting all existing devices. It makes no sense why using voice commands to pair works fine but manual pairing has so many issues but... car radios also aren't exactly known for having well-thought-out firmware that works well in my experience. They range from acceptable to unusable.

Should I be looking into a high output alternator for a total ~1250W audio system in my car? 1000W Class D amp + 250W Class A/B? I don't tend to listen to music at or near max volume for more than a couple minutes at a time, if that, and I don't do that often, if that makes any difference.

I know ideally I should just upgrade it to be safe, but taking into account that it's $500 and I'd probably have to put another at least $100 into wiring a big 3 upgrade, is it that necessary for 1250W total?

Update:

I installed everything, install went well but when the sub is playing within a few notches of max volume and playing something with heavy bass the headlights dim quiiiite a bit. I guess I need to start with a "big 3" upgrade as everyone always suggests in these situations. I'm not sure if that will help, but if I end up needing to upgrade the alternator, that will be necessary anyway.

I think a higher output alternator and battery is needed for your setup. In the 10 years I've had this car, I've always thought the alternator was weak. This is the only car I've owned where pressing the door locks or power windows at idle cause the engine rpm to drop and then raise back up. My ground wires are good (not corroded) so it must be the alternator.

Sounds like the perfect setup for a capacitor on the amp line.

Update on that situation:

So my battery was getting up to about 5 years old and I figured it was a decent time to replace it, I saw Walmart has AGM Group 24F batteries that fit with a very easy and quick mod to the battery "cozy" and tray, just a snip on the end of the tray because the 24F battery overhangs about an inch, and cutting the 2 fender-side corners of the cozy, then taping it back with an extra inch or so of slack of course. Group 24F batteries are usually the same price as group 35 but higher CCA and significantly higher reserve capacity, in the case of Everstart Platinum AGM I think it was 50 or 55Ah for 35 vs 70 for 24F.

I had enough 4AWG power cable and terminals left to do a battery to body ground upgrade, these 2 things actually helped quite a bit with the headlight dimming. I'm waiting on extra cable (and a fuse holder) and terminals to come, and I'm going to see if I can maybe get by with the "big 3" and this AGM battery which seems to handle the music better.

Like I said I don't tend to play music at high volume very often or for very long, with the battery able to handle temporary spikes over the alternator's limit I think this should work. At least 90% of the time when I'm driving it's definitely far under the alternator capacity, the rest of the time it's usually genres like hardstyle or hard trap with kick drums and not a constant droning bass drawing a consistent 1000W on the sub amp like you'd get with say some rap/hip hop.

Can't confirm though they're coming up on my replace list. My rears were swiss cheese and full of rust. Did my best to grind/sand/and high temp rustoleum them to get a little longer out of them, but I'd still have rubbing on cornering for the first couple turns as the nightly rust wore off. Ended up needing 2 new rear bearings. Brought to mechanic and I can verify the cost of the shields they were pitching. I Argue for a good 10 mins about not wanting them installed, I got the straight up "safety about braking" line from him about brake shields. I ended up doing it, but cost was def wild.

Costco for batteries is the way to go man.

Linking from the battery finder site, but Check the results, including the AGM option:

https://costco.interstatebatteries.c...419&Country=US

Unfortunately don't have a membership there but I did get the Walmart AGM battery, worst case scenario it has a 4 year free replacement warranty but hopefully I don't have to use that.

Hey Guys - Subaru Dealer replaced my rear wheel bearing 18k ago. Bearing is already bad. Took to private mechanic and bearing was crossthreaded and slammed into the axle. Bearing is bad, axle is shot.

Anyone using any aftermarket axles? OEM are really hard to find right now and pricey ($580) - I have 176k on the car and in awesome shape. Thoughts on NAPA? etc? Other recommendations?

A/C compressor gave out at 134K miles. It seized up and stalled the engine while idling in a parking lot. I figured it out and turned off the defogger for the ride home.

Apparently, we have a rotary vane style compressor, but I ordered a piston type replacement for it:

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=11317604

I noticed the other day when I was driving that my AC compressor doesn't come on anymore. The clutch doesn't engage or attempt to engage. I took the AC relay out of the fuse box and probed the terminals that the relay connects to, there's not even a voltage between any 2 of the relays when the AC should be on (defrost on, fan speed turned up to 2). I'm guessing: evaporator temp sensor is dead, HVAC control panel itself is broken (the AC light still turns on but that doesn't mean the voltage to turn on the AC is actually being sent I'd assume), or the worst possible option - the entire car's wiring harness is starting to corrode for some reason and this is the first sign of failure.

Where should I start?

edit - I should add, when the ignition is ON but the engine is not running, the condenser fan(s) still come on when AC is commanded. What could this mean?

Could it be something as simple and fixable as the refrigerant being low, and the pressure switch I just discovered in the service manual is open?

Yes. The pressure must be within a certain window for the compressor to engage.


Having a manifold is useful. Harbor Freight sells them.

I made an appointment for this week with a dealer service center, this one has treated me well in the past even though I haven't been there in probably 7 years. I figured with their SSM they are somewhat likely to be able to just find the issue in an instant, and hopefully it's something small like a switch or refrigerant fill and not a "we need to replace your compressor and multiple sensors" thing.

Getting an AC manifold gauge does sound tempting. My friend who works on Subarus a lot told me a quick rough way to check the pressure was to press the valve for a split second, and there's definitely still a decent amount of pressure on the low side for what it's worth.

Here's what our compressor looks like:





The replacement piston unit and TXV arrive tomorrow.


I did a complete flush of the rest of the system and the result looked like used gear oil, but thinner.


I'd definitely recommend a flush when changing the compressor, especially since our systems don't have accumulators.


Many compressor warranties require it along with a new TXV.

Yes, there is an accumulator. it is made as part of the condenser. Subaru and most manufacturers make them like that now since you can't effectively flush a condenser that has shrapnel from an internally failed compressor. Most parts warranties require replacing the accumulator for coverage of the compressor.

An alternative is a 1-800 Radiator kit. Choose your level of warranty. Top line comes with Compressor, condenser, expansion valve, all O-rings, oil and flush. Usually costs less than OEM compressor. And they do honor the warranty with no hassle - I have used them on many customers cars.

Image below shows accumulator on left of 2012 Impreza condenser.

Thanks, good to know. I couldn't find the accumulator as a standalone part, nor any mention of it in the service manual.

Edit: Found one locally, going to pick it up.

I couldn't find any per-component oil capacities in the service manual.

The compressor comes pre-filled. The rest of the system is dry and I plan on adding 4oz to it.

Is that about right?

Changed the condenser, compressor, TXV, o-rings, added 4oz oil, vacuumed and charged.

The new compressor is larger and nearly silent aside from the clutch.

There's none of the buzz and chatter that the vane style made, even when new.

If it holds up, I'm happy with it.