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Yea well....your right....but I'd prefer to keep my oil non-sparkly😅

] Don't worry, the gears will grind the circlips into dust in no time.

I don't see how the axles could come out either.....I was more concerned about the unknowns surrounding whether or not the circlips have seated in properly.....or if they have broken or had been pushed through into the centre of the diff ready to go for a ride through the gears.

Dealer techs aren't going to be the greatest source of what is normal, usually, because as you highlighted, 99% of the cars they see are the "ordinary" ones, whereas obviously a place like ClubSub or some niche Subaru guy is going to have a concentration of "weird" Subarus. As you have clearly discovered there's a pretty enormous list of possible variations of axle+diff centre+diff housing, each possibly having a unique configuration. Don't overthink this one. If you can think of a way your rear axles could come out during normal operation without there first being a catastrophic failure of some suspension component I'm all ears.

Just thought I'd let you guys know that I have been in touch with 4 Subaru dealer technicians, two qualified mechanics and the Subaru tuning specialist to tunes my car. I have got a variety of different responses, the mechanics think the clips should NOT be left in the diff...the dealership technicians have contradicting opinions, some say they should be left in the diff, some say they shouldn't and one guy reckoned there shouldn't be any at all!?. The Subaru specialist was absolutely adament that the clips are supposed to be left in there (on a R180) and he had many colourful things to say about the dealership technicians as he thinks they should know better. Another thing I learnt is that the front axles ALWAYS has clips that come out the "normal" traditional way. My research told me that there are varying different varieties of Subaru diffs that use both methods (clips staying in is a bit rare and niche though I believe), therefore I decided that because they were both left in the diff it is more likely to be by design than by something going wrong....and the tuning workshop guy really convinced me as he deals with the older performance Subarus opposed to the dealership mostly doing new stuff.....and the qualified mechanics wouldn't be super familiar with niche Subaru things in particular. So I popped them back in with a tap of the heavy hammer....applied some pressure with a prybar to confirm they were locked in....they were......then I pulled them out and looked at the circlips to make sure they were still in the same position as I first saw them and hadn't sheared off or broken......I put them back in and repeated about 3 times until I felt comfortable about them. I haven't put oil back in or driven it yet ....but if anything goes wrong I'll be sure to post about it here! Also when I pryed to make sure they were locked in I noticed there was a bit of side to side play in axel when applying pressure to confirm the axles were locked into the diff.....probably about 2 or 3mm of movement? Is this normal? It made me a bit uneasy as I don't understand how it can have play if the circlips have locked it into the grooves? None the less the axles required quite a lot of pressure to pop them out so I assume they are locked in properly? Has anyone got an opinion about this? many thanks to all..... I'll be sure to let you know when I have a whining rear end and grey pastey, sparkly diff oil 😅

There are different R180s too... I only have direct experience with the GC8 Type R/RA diffs that have clutch packs... the circlips are internal with these. Some of the later STis have a viscous rear R180...pretty sure the axles are the same though.

Damn that's some good economy. I'd be lucky to get more like 500-550 from a tank in the Legacy at best

Range has never been an issue with the Legacy wagon (BP5) thankfully. 720km is the most I have done in one tank in the North Island over summer. I think it was New Plymouth to Taupo, some shagging about and then to Paraparaumu. I suppose with all fuel being imported these days there's no strong reason for there to be supply issues on the premium grades. Compression ratios are going up too for dat fuel economy.

Yea you will have the r180. Can't actually comment on axle types though. I only ever pulled the front ones on my old one. They are an oddball axle though, r180 sized inner with r160 outer to match the hubs for the rest of the lineup

Upon a bit of research I believe I have an R180 diff. Even pulled axles out of these in particular?

Yea okay that's a good thought. The Clips are MOST DEFINITELY still inside the diff. Looking through one axle hole I can see all the way through to the other side and there is definitely a clip on each side. They are still seated in their grooves.

It should be pretty obvious by the depth of the groove. A deep groove on the axle stub will probably mean a circlip is supposed to be present. A shallow groove probably means the circlip is inside the diff. You can also put your finger in the diff and see if you can feel the circlip... should be easy enough.

Any idea on how I can confirm whether or not they should be in there? Because they are left behind it would be likely that they are supposed to right?

There are quite a few different rear diffs on these. Some have circlips on the axle stub, and some have them internal to the diff. Some have equal length axle stubs, and some have different lengths. Something only one side has a circlip on the axle.

I'm about 95% sure that when we did the diff on my STI the circlips stayed in the diff.

Hey all, I'm sure this has been asked before but I've been browsing the web and have been finding very conflicting information about whether the rear axles are supposed to have circlips on them, or whether the clips stay in the diff. On the weekend I dropped my whole entire rear subframe to replace the diff bushings on my 2006 Legacy GT. This of course included popping the axles out of the rear diff and removing the diff. I did the normal method of prying the axles out of the diff and they popped out without too much of a struggle, however I couldn't help but notice that there were no circlips on the ends of either of the axles. After not much investigating I did sure enough find that BOTH circlips have been left behind and are still sitting in the grooves in the diff! (Would like to upload photo but max upload size is only 200kB). I started getting really worried because axles on a front wheel drive Nissan I once pulled out came out with the circlips.... I read on some random forum that this is normal and that the axles will push back through the middle of the circlips when you reinstall.... I've ALSO read that this is not supposed to happen and that I must somehow fish the clips out, put them back on the axles and install the axles with the clips already on them! I've read that the rear axles leave the clips in the diff.....and the front axles come out with the clips? Can someone who has done this a few times please clear up my confusion and let me know whether ... A. Everything is fine, it's normal for the circlips to get left behind in the diff by design. To reinstall the axles they will simply click back in. Or B. Something has gone wrong, the circlips should be in the groove at the end of the axles when you remove it. I will have to somehow fish these clips out of the diff without them falling down the middle. Once I have them out of the diff I have to put them back in their grooves on the axles and then they are ready to be pushed back into the diff. Vehicle is a 2006 EJ20Y turbo legacy with the 6 speed manual. Any advice is greatly appreciated, many thanks for your time🙏.

Cheers for the update! Awesome to see 98/100 becoming more common eh? My WRX may almost make it from Wanaka to Hoki on a tank of 98

It has been a few years.... I see earlier in this chat that the Queenstown/Wanaka area was a big question mark for 98 but they now have it at Wanaka at the new BP just before the township. I didn't see it in Queenstown. I visited both for the airshow. Currently sitting at $3.32 before 6c loyalty card discount. Cromwell reports having it as well on the website. Wanaka does not, but I gave them a call before I travelled down and filled up there twice. I also saw two NPDs in Cromwell and Frankton with 100+ Octane Greymouth also has 98 at their Mobil as well as their BP.

No idea off the top of my head but I always just use the specs for a 257 from one of the GR/GV service manuals, pretty sure there are a few 2.0 4th gen ones floating around too. But i’d be highly surprised if it was any different for roughly the same age

Hi all. Doing a cambelt and wpump change tomorrow, found some old notes of mine that I just wanted to confirm with others that they are correct before I write them in my new "Subaru cheat book" of torque specs😀. Can anyone help confirm that these torque specs for the EJ20Y (I assume all EJ's) are correct! Large cambelt idlers including the hydraulic tensioner - 39Nm The singular small cambelt idler - 25Nm waterpump - 12Nm, starting at the 2 O' clock bolt and moving clockwise. Do two 12Nm passes all the way around the six bolts. Thermostat housing - 12Nm main crank pulley (Harmonic balancer) - 44Nm followed by 45° (should equal approximately 130Nm) I also add a small amount of Loctite Blue to all idlers and the tensioners....what are your opinions about the Loctite Blue? Does anyone oppose my torque specs? many thanks everyone! 😀

Did you ever get to the bottom of this? My 5th gear in my Legacy has done this for years but it got louder when I changed my Transmission mount and Pitch mount for STi items last year. I have a broader range of speeds from 85kph up to maybe 110. It only gets so loud for me and my driving style means that I don't really boost much in 5th.

Hi Dunno whether you are still updating the SVX registry which I just found today? Seems to date from 2019.... I have a red/black SVX (NZ new, 1993) which I've owned since 2005. Happy to provide details if you have a format you could send, or something? How do you beat the max total size of 200kb for photos? That's kinda tiny. Maybe email me or otherwise offline? Earlier I had a Jap import SVX (metallic graphite colour) around 1999 which I sold after about a year to some guy who had no idea about them - it was WW6616 I recall.

Sorry not much help but thanks for the updates aye someone else might run into this in the future etc best of luck

Small update. Had it within Winger Greenlane to see if any memory initialisation or frimware updates might do the trick. No joy, both failed. I confirmed the memory initialisation myself. Just hangs and doesn't really execute. Options seem to be: a) take it out and goes to Wellington for an attempted repair. I presume there is a specialised shop there. Via google aslautomedia.com.au in Australia seems to offer a repair. b) currently hunting for a second hand unit c) factory replacment. Lets just say I'm probably better investing in a new car .. If b) doesn't come through I'll explore a). Hunting around at aftermarket units. Apart from the idoing most seem to be challenged to hook into the Harmon Kardon speak system. Apparently the rear amp uses the CanBus for controls, and idoing atleast offers an adapter.

2016 WRX Premium - FV231KS Fujistu-Ten head unit. Seems to now freeze after a couple of button clicks. Needs a car turn off on again to get functions again for a couple of clicks. In isolation everything workds. Just suddenly started. Thinks beep but the screen won't refresh with the matching menu, but for example the radio will turn on. Or the reverse camera will engage, if the screen hasn't locked up by touching. Any one experienced this before? The diagnostic menu checks (home, 5 clicks of tune) all pass. Battery pulled over night made no difference. Smacks of a software glitch but not way to reset. --- Might be a dealer visit I think. Any suggestions on good aftermarket units that keep all the factor features, particular inbuilt-nav (not carplay stuff), steering controls, and reversing camera. I really like the manual on/off switch and volume but nothing really seems to have that now.