Thread: Subaru Guys - Save a turbo, remove the banjo filters!

front lower control arm bushings, and if you take off the intake manifold the duct that runs under the intake to the turbo almost always tears, the lines get very brittle the higher the miles go. but thats about it man. the a/c belt tensioner pulley gets noisy, if that seizes the belt can sometimes get sucked into the timing cover and bend valves.

I think my LCA bushings are torn too, definitely looked it when I was replacing the front bearing.

Here is a list I compiled in my build thread:

the lower control arm bushings will have some fluid leaking out if they are bad, they are like the engine mounts on all newer vehicles. when you replace them, leave the bolts and the large nut just slightly loose and get the vehicle on level ground, an alignment rack would be ideal, and then tightnen them, or the bushings will stress when the vehicles lowered down and will tear prematurely.

the turbo, is hit or miss, like i said the oil changes, and remove those screens. with them gone you should be good.

I have never seen one of the pre turbo cats come apart, ive only seen one that had an issue, it wouldnt boost very well, and pulled some type of rich code i believe. put an aftermarket grimmspeed up pipe, easily solved the issue. if you do this make sure you see if you have an egt sensor and get one that has the port, the tuners removes the egt sensor so you dont need it, but i dont understand why, egts should be a big part of tuning turbos also.

I would get a dimple oil drain plug, these are super sweet, have a magnet on the plug, will pick up more than you think.

the throwout bearing failures are mainly on imprezas, and newer foresters 09 type body style. I have seen a few older ones but very rarely, you will start to hear it make noise before it seizes.

the fan issue with 05-06 legacy gt specific, as well as the recall, in fact it may only be 05, the recall replaces the radiator fan main relay, but if the fans are constantly on, its probably already damaged the ECU, and will need a new one of those as well.

the dual mass flywheels are legacy only as well, and i think, sti's. ill look into this more, but i believe that is it. but even so, you remove this dual mass and for some reason we see a ton of misfire issues afterwards, although these arent like nissans the crank sensor doesnt run off the flywheel.

wheel bearings are fairly common, but I only see them under 100k, on 05+ legacy's and outbacks, they had a extended warranty program for these, as they were hub assemblies and rear only to 10 year 100k.


the stereo issue, also i believe is legacy and outback specific, im pretty sure the foresters have a separate unit for the climate control

EGT is removed because it runs the risk of breaking apart and being sent into the turbo too. Now another reason people don't keep them is because of accuracy, since they are so far away from the heads. I personally still wanted to keep mine, but when I couldn't remove it off the cat (stuck and rounded).

Through out bearing issue is with Legacy's too, plenty of folks on Legacygt.com that have issues, previous owner of my car already replaced the throw out bearing ones.

Some of 06 is under recall for rad fans too, but yeah it's LGT/OXT 5MT issue only

Shame that dual mass flywheel to single mass throws miss fire, I'll look at it in mo detail when I go to replace the clutch.

Wheel bearings on Legacy's was extended to 9 years and 100k miles, mine fell out of warranty this year sadly, luckily Timken was cheap and easy to install.

Foresters do have separate climate control, makes radio install in them a breeze. If you have a non climate controlled Legacy or Outback it's easy too, you just need a new Scoche bezel. It's all of the LGT's and OXT's that got shafted with dual climate control ha.

Finally got around to doing the driver side head banjo filter... it's best to do it while you are replacing the timing belt and cam seals.

Here is a pic of how close the Banjo bolt is to the timing cover, there is simply not enough room to remove it on car without damaging the timing cover. If you grind the hump off, you will have more room to get the banjo out.


This plastic cover is in the way and can only be removed with the cam gears removed. You will need to loosen the dip stick tube to get the plastic cover out.


Finally easy access to the bolt


As expected the filter was in place still


And very dirty, if this was on the turbo feed/avcs line the turbo would be dead due to oil starvation.


I removed the whole hard line, notice that the bolt that goes into the AVCS side itself doesn't have a hump. That hump makes it impossible to remove this banjo bolt with the timing cover on.


I'm going to put the humpless bolt on the head, I also shaved one side of the banjo bolt so that I could squeeze it past the timing cover if I ever have to deal with it again. Do yourself a favor and use new seals on the head it self, you can try to reuse the old seals on the AVCS end, they are easy to replace if they leak.


All done and happy!

nice, how did you get the cam bolts loose without stripping them. we have special tools at subaru, and they still end up rounding or damaging the cam gears. total pain in the ass. and even though im sure you torqued, them due to the way the engine spins, they basically self tighten.

Lots of broken adapters, tears and anger. I finally bought a 1/2" drive 10mm allen socket, which makes it that much easier, though it still strips it if your not careful. There is a $30 adapter that people say work amazing though.

Well it's also on how they tell you to torque it, 22ft-lbs + 45*. Which for exhaust cams gets you over 100lbs! See my full thread about this here.