Rear suspension problem? Strut sitting on tire?

[MagicBus]

Hello, all...

I need to pick your brain. I have a 1995 Legacy L Outback AWD wagon. Stock struts on all four corners. 2nd generation, but should be the same as a first generation car for purposes of this problem.


Over the past few days, I noticed a rubbing sound at low speed. Today, I finally noticed that the driver's rear corner is sitting lower than the other three and the strut seems to be resting on the tire, causing the noise.

Took the car of the road and jacked it up. The rear suspension carrier (which is what I originally suspected was the problem), looks OK - nothing broken.

The strut is still mounted to the wheel carrier, and to the shock tower. The coil spring does not appear to be broken.

Nothing obvious is broken, so I'm puzzled. I'll probably pull the strut out of the car, but otherwise, I'm at a loss as to what's going on here.

[Legacy777]

What are you calling the "suspension carrier"?

Is the side of the tire touching the body of the strut or is the tire hitting the strut perch?

I would check to make sure the tire is still mounted correctly to the hub, the hub & bearings are ok, and that the strut mounting bolts are still good. If all that is good, something changed on the geometry and may have been bent.

[MagicBus]

What are you calling the "suspension carrier"?

Is the side of the tire touching the body of the strut or is the tire hitting the strut perch?

The black subframe piece - in the photo above - underneath the rear drive axles and rear differential (this piece is mounted directly to the unibody when in the car). That's what I'm calling the suspension carrier.

As best I could tell, the tire was touching the bottom spring perch. At the moment, the car is jacked up and the wheel is off.

I would check to make sure the tire is still mounted correctly to the hub, the hub & bearings are ok, and that the strut mounting bolts are still good. If all that is good, something changed on the geometry and may have been bent.

1. The tire was definitely mounted correctly to the hub.

2. Did brakes on all four corners a few weeks back. Didn't notice anything odd with the hub/bearings.

3. Strut mounting bolts - as in strut to wheel hub? They're on there solid.

4. I suppose that's possible, though nothing was obviously bent. Not sure how I'd check that.


At this point, I think I need to get the strut out and get a better look at it, which I won't be able to do until tomorrow. The top strut nuts came out easy (I wanted to pull off the cover plate and see if anything was obviously amiss up top). The bottom ones look pretty solidly in place, but I should be able to remove them. The only real issue is the brake line. The tab holding it to the strut will NOT come out. I may need to slice the bracket off the strut just to remove it.

I'll report back with my findings. Thanks for your help.

[Legacy777]

Ok, those parts are typically called the rear subframe and rear trailing links.

Yeah, it'll probably just be best to cut the bracket. You could try just cutting a slot in the metal so you can bend the metal and get the brake line out once the clip has been removed.

Keep us posted on what you find.

[MagicBus]

I just cut the bracket, but am pretty much out of time for the day (I think...) Strut should come out tomorrow.

But. I compared against the passenger side rear strut, and the passenger side lower spring seat seems to sit higher on the strut body.


Current working theory - I have a bad rear strut. Will try to confirm when I remove it tomorrow. If so, I'll try to source a decent used pair to drop in. Not sure it's worth doing more than that for this rustbucket.


Thanks again. I'll report back with more into tomorrow.

[MagicBus]

I just got the strut out. Hard to be 100% sure without taking it apart (and I'd need to borrow a spring compressor to do that), but I'm almost certain the strut on this side is the problem. Will see if I can source some used ones and if that'll clear things up).

If nothing else, I was able to determine that the strut seals were completely blown out. I think that somehow the strut body deformed, causing the rubbing I've had.


Will update with final solution to this. Thanks.

[wtdash]

for this rustbucket.

^This. When I saw that AND you're from the NE, U may find a rusted out suspension piece that may be the end of your OB's life.

I've seen too many of these - not just Subies- over the years.

GL,
TD

[MagicBus]

for this rustbucket.

^This. When I saw that AND you're from the NE, U may find a rusted out suspension piece that may be the end of your OB's life.

I've seen too many of these - not just Subies- over the years.

GL,
TD

Yeah. In this case, I think age and rust toasted the strut itself. I have the strut out, and it appears to be the problem, I think...

Looking into finding a used pair. I have a short commute and am realistically trying to keep this car on the road another year or two at minimal expense.

[86BRATMAN]

Your 95 outback sits on basically the same suspension as and 95-99 legacy wagon. Should make it easier to find parts, only the 96-99 outback were lifted versions. I've seen the rear struts rust out before down here in VA, caused the same thing as you're describing. But I've seen some nasty rust from the northeast and if the strut isn't visibly fubar'd I'd pull the interior panels from the hatch area and make sure your strut tower isn't rusting away from the car.

[MagicBus]

Your 95 outback sits on basically the same suspension as and 95-99 legacy wagon. Should make it easier to find parts, only the 96-99 outback were lifted versions. I've seen the rear struts rust out before down here in VA, caused the same thing as you're describing. But I've seen some nasty rust from the northeast and if the strut isn't visibly fubar'd I'd pull the interior panels from the hatch area and make sure your strut tower isn't rusting away from the car.

Well aware that the '95 is the "fake" Outback, and of the differences between the models in general. I didn't buy an Outback on purpose. But, I like the Outback styling paired with 2.2L Legacy L goodness Thanks for the tip, though.


Anyhow, I couldn't find used parts locally that were a bargain. I don't have time to go to a pick and pull, and all the salvage places I talked to quoted me almost as much to ship a pair of used strut assemblies as new parts would cost.

So, I ordered new KYBs for the backside of the Outback. The old one came out easy enough, I suppose. I borrowed a spring compressor from Advance Auto, swapped the spring, and installed a new KYB strut, the old spring, and a new strut mount. I just got the car back on its wheels a few minutes ago. The weight of the car is no longer sitting on the strut. Ride height looks normal again.

So, it turns out I was right about the strut.

I didn't have time to do the passenger side, so I'll drive my other car to work again for the next few days until I have the rear passenger strut swapped.


When the two were next to each other, it was obvious that the old strut body and lower spring seat had deformed. The strut was 100% completely dead. I wouldn't be surprised if it was original to the car, from the looks of it.

But, it's nice to have confirmed this was the problem. Thanks for the help, everyone!


To clarify - it looks like the damage was limited to the strut itself. All other suspension components and strut tower look intact and functional.

[MagicBus]

Well, the car is done...

...and not in a good way.


I changed the rear driver's strut two nights ago. I had a hell of a time lining the strut and rear wheel carrier up for reinstallation, but otherwise, the job went fairly smoothly. After dinner last night, I decided to do the passenger side.

It didn't take too long to get the passenger side strut out (which looked visibly newer and in much better shape than the driver's side (which looked original), suggesting that the rear passenger strut had been replaced on its own at some time in the past before I owned the car. When I was wrestling it out of the car, it knocked around inside the strut tower a bit, knocking out some large rust flakes.

Once the strut was out, I started picking at the damage, and opened up a pretty big hole in the upper, outermost portion of the strut tower. I did some Googling, and this looks to be fairly common to the model (I've driven first and second generation Legacies since 2006 and have done 99% of my own repairs, yet this comes as news to me).

I can't safely or effectively repair this. I can do some basic welding, but not in that location. I wouldn't even be able to get in there to clean out existing rust to prep for welding. The strut tower still seems strong enough, but I now consider the body to be very much on borrowed time.

As such, I decided that since the existing rear passenger side strut seemed to be in much better shape than the driver side, that I would reinstall the existing strut and return the passenger side parts. The strut still works, and since I no longer plan on keeping the car on the road a long time, it makes sense (to me) to just patch the car up at this point.

I test drove it with the one new strut and one old one last night. The car seems stable. I also drove it in to work this morning - everything feels back to normal. But, now I've had a look at a portion of the car that was hidden to me before, and it's not good.

Incidentally, before I left for work this morning, I reached up into the driver side strut tower and discovered similar rust damage that I didn't notice a few nights ago.


The car is back on the road now. I doubt the rust will progress much if at all through the summer, but I wouldn't want to chance another winter's worth of salt on those strut towers. I'm going to keep driving the car and start looking for a replacement. Once I find a decent replacement car, I'll sell the Outback for parts. If there are no takers, I'll probably send it to the junkyard.

I consider this a (potential) major safety issue and basically a ticking time bomb. The strut towers are strong enough for now, but will only continue to deteriorate faster and faster. I'm glad I found this out now.

[Legacy777]

Well, that's too bad to hear about the strut tower rust, but I agree with you about the assessment.

[allnines']

My '91 parts car had the rear crossmember pull from the body-My '91 AWD wagon's crossmember has rotted thru (300k)-I hope to have good luck in R&Ring it-I love this wagon so much better than my 99 wagon!