Recently, my 96 Legacy Outback (140,000 miles) started making clunking noises while making sharp turns (usually only at slow speeds, and though it seems to happen less if I'm just coasting). The noises seem to be coming from the rear of the car and alternate sides. The noises were faint at first but have become much louder in the last few days. I took the car to a shop and they're diagnosis was a bad bushing, specifically the R. (right? maybe rear?) End Bushing that is part of the Rear differential support bus. Is this a reasonable diagnosis given the symptoms? Also, the shop said that the bushing couldn't be replaced on it's own, meaning that the bushing isn't sold separately. They said the whole rear differential support bus is sold as a single (rather expensive) unit. Is that really true? Where does someone check-up on something like that (besides a 2nd opinion which I'll get tomorrow). Lastly, has anyone seen this sort of problem before? I looked through all 171 threads in the problems and maitainance website and didn't see anything that would suggest that this is peculiar to 96 Outbacks. What would cause this sort of failure?
Thanks,
Curtis
Thanks,
Curtis