Clutch shudder problem and rubber seal for door window

[KORy]

Hi

I was wondering if anyone has these issues.
I drive a MY05 Subaru Liberty (Legacy) wagon.
Recently i noticed that the car would shudder when taking off on first
gear. If i give it more revs, then i get less shudder. Is this common
with Subaru's?

Also, i need to slam the driver door to get it shut properly. All other
doors are ok.
I assume its something to do with the rubber seal that meets the window
when the door shuts.
Has anyone experienced this too? Is this matter of replacing the rubber
seals to fix?

thanks

Kory

 

[BD]

If i give it more revs, then i get less shudder. Is this common with Subaru's?

I had this problem with my 02 WRX. It was pretty bad. It only happened
when the engine was cold, and at that, it did not happen all the time.
But when it did happen, it felt like the whole tranny was going to
shake apart.

There was an active service note on this problem, so it was covered
under warranty. The solution was to use a heavier flywheel, I believe.

In my case, it took 4 clutches before I got one that did not have some
kind of problem: the first one had the cold shudder, the second one had
a very annoying resonance at certain RPMs, and the third one just
_broke_. The throw bearing gave out on me. On the highway, no less.

As to the door - what's the symptom? Is it that the door does not
close, or is it a problem getting a good seal? Do you hear air passing
through the crack between the window and the seal when you get up to
speed? In my case, the I hear air moving. - I'm used to it at this
point; all I do is drop the window a tiny bit, then close it again to
get a good seal. I've wondered if putting some kind of lubrication
around the seal might help, but I really haven't taken the time to
figure it out as it's really not a _big_ deal for me.

BD

 

[Larry Van Wormer]

Hi

I was wondering if anyone has these issues.
I drive a MY05 Subaru Liberty (Legacy) wagon.
Recently i noticed that the car would shudder when taking off on first
gear. If i give it more revs, then i get less shudder. Is this common
with Subaru's?

Pretty common. And usually only a very minor nuisance. I have it on my
MY02 Impreza, the first time I start the car on days that are cold and
wet. All I do is slip the clutch a very little bit (couple of seconds at
most, under light load) to warm it up. The problem then is gone until
the next cold wet day. I now have about 100k miles on the car, and the
problem has never gotten worse.

Some people evidently have a worse problem, though I've never witnessed
that myself.

Also, i need to slam the driver door to get it shut properly. All other
doors are ok.
I assume its something to do with the rubber seal that meets the window
when the door shuts.
Has anyone experienced this too? Is this matter of replacing the rubber
seals to fix?

Unlikely to need the seal replaced with an MY05. I think you just need a
door/lock adjustment, probably at the dealer.

Larry Van Wormer

 

[Michael Pardee]

Hi

I was wondering if anyone has these issues.
I drive a MY05 Subaru Liberty (Legacy) wagon.
Recently i noticed that the car would shudder when taking off on first
gear. If i give it more revs, then i get less shudder. Is this common with
Subaru's?

Also, i need to slam the driver door to get it shut properly. All other
doors are ok.
I assume its something to do with the rubber seal that meets the window
when the door shuts.
Has anyone experienced this too? Is this matter of replacing the rubber
seals to fix?

thanks

Kory

Not focusing on Subarus, I've had similar experiences with several cars when
the engine was starting to run a little ragged but not enough to notice it
otherwise. If the tune-up parts are old, now is a good time to catch up.
Otherwise, a bottle of injector cleaner in the tank is a cheap thing to try.

Mike

 

[Jerra49]

Apparently this is a mighty common Subaru problem...like the HG problem so
many of us have faced. We're on clutch #2 & it shudders just as much as
clutch 1. Especially pronounced when my wife drives.

 

[KORy]

I had this problem with my 02 WRX. It was pretty bad. It only happened
when the engine was cold, and at that, it did not happen all the time.
But when it did happen, it felt like the whole tranny was going to
shake apart.

There was an active service note on this problem, so it was covered
under warranty. The solution was to use a heavier flywheel, I believe.

In my case, it took 4 clutches before I got one that did not have some
kind of problem: the first one had the cold shudder, the second one had
a very annoying resonance at certain RPMs, and the third one just
_broke_. The throw bearing gave out on me. On the highway, no less.

As to the door - what's the symptom? Is it that the door does not
close, or is it a problem getting a good seal? Do you hear air passing
through the crack between the window and the seal when you get up to
speed? In my case, the I hear air moving. - I'm used to it at this
point; all I do is drop the window a tiny bit, then close it again to
get a good seal. I've wondered if putting some kind of lubrication
around the seal might help, but I really haven't taken the time to
figure it out as it's really not a _big_ deal for me.

BD

Hi

After having said all this.. today, the problem with shuddering wasn't
too bad.
I changed my driving position, that is pull the seat closer to the
steering wheel. That way i get to press the accelerator sooner. I dont
know if its just my driving style or if its just wear and tear (but
being 1 years old... and i drive very conservatively, cant see the
clutch wearing out in a year).. but today i didn't have too much
problems. Probably be a different story tomorrow.


With the door seal... with the same force i use to close all other
doors... the driver door wont shut. It just semi-shuts. So i have to
give it more force to completely shut the door. It seems the seal is
sticking out too much or something. The way to prove this was to open
the window and shut the door.. and it shuts beatifully. Well, im taking
it into servive next week... see what the dealer says. I tell you
what... 12Month warranty will cost me $320 (Melbourne). *GULP*

Kory