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Disaster in my 2005 OXT

2K views 12 replies 8 participants last post by  XTMGS 
#1 ·
I've searched and come up with nothing. I'm wondering if anyone can help me out and give me a idea what happened with the car.

Last night, coming home from work, I was driving down a city street. Suddenly in 2nd gear under load there is a extremely loud clucking/clacking/banging coming from the car. At first I wasn't sure if I had run over something so I pull over to look around the car. First thing I notice is that when I ease off the gas the noise goes away. I leave it idling, get out, look around/under/pop the hood, nothing looks out of whack. No lights on the dashboard. No rough idle. So I get in and start driving again. Same thing, under load horrific clacking noise. I'm thinking that perhaps there is a hole in the exhaust up near the engine or something, but again at idle the car sounds perfectly normal. I decide to pull over and look around again. I go to pull into a parking spot and when I put the car in reverse, it starts to back up and suddenly stops. It almost felt like I hit a curb and bounced off it. SO i decide to call AAA and tow it home.

Skip to home, the tow truck driver tips the bed up to lower the car off, and same thing happens. Car is in neutral, starts rolling backwards down the ramp and then suddenly stops. I have to get in, put it in gear and really kinda force it to come off the ramp, the car is making that banging noise the whole time. We get it into the garage and the driver says the noise sounded like it was coming from the rear axle. Anyone else experienced this? I'm wondering if the diff tore itself apart, an axle broke, the clutch is FUBAR, or any other number of things that I can't figure out but I'm imagining are going to cost me thousands of dollars to fix.
 
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#2 ·
Not an expert, but have had similar experiences. Did all of your wheels roll freely when the car was moved? Did one seem to turn a bit, like a quarter of a turn, then freeze up? Can you jack it up and put it in N and see how they turn?
 
#4 ·
This sounds like a failed CV joint your axles have two joints in them each axle has them. When a joint fails or even completely breaks you could in some cases end up with a loose axle flopping around as it turns.

This typically does not happen given CV joints are crazy tough and very hard to break but things do happen and they can break for a number of reasons.

But your description sounds like a typical CV joint failure- stick with OEM axles make sure all your other axles have intact rubber boots covering the joints - a broken boot causes loss of joint grease and this can cause failure over a pretty long period of time typically people notice a very loud clicking noise in parking lots as they turn etc and end up discovering the torn CV boot and damaged axle joint before they ever come close to breaking.
 
#6 ·
Just as a precaution - mileage on your XT and your oil change history - the XT's eat turbos and that typically ends up as a engine replacement due to broken turbo bits down the intake on the engine. You did the right thing and got a tow but as a precaution some checks on the engine status and timing belt age / mileage and history would be wise from this forum. There is another XT owner here just learning he needs a new engine for this exact reason.
 
#7 ·
Just as a precaution - mileage on your XT and your oil change history - the XT's eat turbos and that typically ends up as a engine replacement due to broken turbo bits down the intake on the engine.

This was my first thought.

When the rod bearing went out on our FXT (a stop-sale Forester that slipped through), it had the exact noise as the OP described...clacking on acceleration, quiet at idle/low speed, no CEL. But there was a definite lack of power after a about ten more miles.
 
#8 ·
It made the noise coming off the flat bed, I assume totally off, no key, in neutral. That points pretty clearly at an axle/driveshaft/diff problem.
 
#11 ·
As it turns out, the rear diff chewed itself completely apart and seized up. Now in fights with the warranty company to get this covered. I'm thankful for the 3rd party extended warranty, but what a PITA to get them to cover any problems.
 
#12 ·
Interesting
I wonder how long it had been since the diff gear fluid was serviced? You may want to have your front diff serviced can't recall if you said it was a MT or AT either way it might be very wise to have the AT Front diff gear fluid replaced or in the case of the MT the transmission gear fluid replaced given they all take the same fluid and will have a similar life span.


Side note
An Automatic transmission Subaru has a front diff that requires the same gear oil the rear diff has. (Not the same thing as servicing the Automatic transmission)
A Manual transmission Subaru the front diff and the transmission share the same gear oil - so if you change the fluid in the Manual Transmission your also servicing the front diff.

^ These all have the same gear oil used in the REAR diff.
 
#13 ·
It's a manual. Warranty is covering repair, thankfully. The shop is not yet certain the front diff is not making noise as well as the car is undriveable until they install the new rear diff.
 
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