Subaru Outback Vibration

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boooya said:
Also they balance drive shafts with welded on weights, many times on higher milage vehicles they end up falling off and can cause vibrations.
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Subaru's are flat 4 engines.. there's no balance weights on the drive shaft.

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Subaru expert here! There's a few things that can be checked.

1. Your rotors might have deposits on them from the pads or they might be slightly warping. You'll notice the steering wheel shake more when you brake if this is the case. Does it?

2. Your tires are really old and hard and can't be saved. The best way to find out is to get them balanced. Even though they might balance perfect, as others have stated, if the rim is bent then no balancing can save that.. so a combination of old rims and tires may be the culprit.

3. Your engine probably has really ****** grounding, as most Subaru's do. There's a few threads on www.sl-i.net and www.toronto-subaru-club.com how to ground the engine for smoother acceleration and to lesson vibrations.

4. Your engine mounts are dying, replace them with polyurethane ones.. not too expensive and there's only two of them.
 
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jay-d said:
Subaru's are flat 4 engines.. there's no balance weights on the drive shaft.
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He's not talking about the crankshaft. The half-shafts that run from the transmission to the wheel hub. They balance these with welded- weights. They do the same with driveshafts.
 
invictus43 said:
He's not talking about the crankshaft. The half-shafts that run from the transmission to the wheel hub. They balance these with welded- weights. They do the same with driveshafts.
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Fair enough. And again, Subaru has symmetrical all wheel drive, meaning that the passenger side and driver side drive shafts are the exact same length so there's no weights on them either.

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jay-d said:
Fair enough. And again, Subaru has symmetrical all wheel drive, meaning that the passenger side and driver side drive shafts are the exact same length so there's no weights on them either.
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They may have weights on them..it has nothing to do with length..it has to do with production variations. It's like balancing a tire. They're rarely 100% in balance. The weights aren't huge, about the size of a dime. But enough to cause harmonic resonance without them.
 
invictus43 said:
They may have weights on them..it has nothing to do with length..it has to do with production variations. It's like balancing a tire. They're rarely 100% in balance. The weights aren't huge, about the size of a dime. But enough to cause harmonic resonance without them.
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I know what you're referring too.. I've owned Subaru's for a long time and have worked on them countless more times.. there are no weights on the drive shafts. Weights are only installed to counter the differences in length with asymmetrical drive trains. With Subaru, they proud themselves on their symmetrical all wheel drive and this is one of the many benefits to it because the shafts are identical in length.

My Eagle Talon had huge weights wrapped in rubber.. so ugly.
 
invictus43 said:
That was a harmonic damper..different thing..
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Hmm.. well jee golly.. I stand corrected.

I'm going to get under my car this weekend and have a look! TIL: I have no idea what I'm talking about!
 
jay-d said:
I know what you're referring too.. I've owned Subaru's for a long time and have worked on them countless more times.. there are no weights on the drive shafts. Weights are only installed to counter the differences in length with asymmetrical drive trains. With Subaru, they proud themselves on their symmetrical all wheel drive and this is one of the many benefits to it because the shafts are identical in length.

My Eagle Talon had huge weights wrapped in rubber.. so ugly.
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Dude.... he means to balance them as they spin. take a closer look next time you pull one. Same thing as the welded weights on the drive axle.

And please, for the love of god don't reference TSC as a technical forum. :rolleyes:

It's the biggest collection of Subaru stupid owners on the planet.
 
jay-d said:
Fair enough. And again, Subaru has symmetrical all wheel drive, meaning that the passenger side and driver side drive shafts are the exact same length so there's no weights on them either.

AWD-Sub.gif
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How bout the drive shaft to the rear axle? That will have weights.
 
Sea Foam
 
Ask Pegassuss to come over and grease your axle sticks. :lmao:
 
one other thing i forgot to mention, if your tires are almost done, tread is getting low or they are pretty old from long life, or some folks only have one set of rims for two different tires (winter/all season), then the tire can warp over time, they just ain't round as they used to be, this will also cause the different speed vibrations...

i think the other issues when concerned with balanced weights and so forth in the engine will be noticed at different rpms and not speed...and probably not the problem you are having...but i ain't no pro, just lots of years and miles on a subura, mine was 275K before selling and ran awesome...it's still running today with almost 500K and beat the snot out of that poor car...

one other issue may be wheel bearing, but they will see that when they pop the tires off for balancing, i had to replace a few of those on my car...
 
can you take a pic of the ujoint? depending on which style it is i probably have the special tool or at least know how to do it without.

drop the shaft and check the other noint. it might not be loose but check and make sure it is not binding in one direction or the other
 
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