Sharp turn thumping feeling and noise

[Xavium]

My 03 WRX makes a very noticable thumping noise/feeling when I make a sharp turn, like when I'm going to park. It seems to be coming from the front wheels or suspension, but I can't be sure. I took it to a mechanic, and he said he couldn't see anything that was wrong with it, no blistering on the tires or anything. It tends to get worse the more I drive, so I figured it might be fluid related and changed out my transmission fluid and rear diff, but that didn't help at all. Any ideas?

[Xavium]

Well took it to the dealer, turns out the center differential is bad. I forget the exact numbers but $800ish for the part, $700 for labor. FML. Luckily I have some 3rd party warranty, but they're making me take it to AAMCO to get it taken apart to figure out what's wrong with it, than maybe they'll pay to fix it. Nightmare.

I seldom pushed the car, never took it to the track, never launched it...I guess all that about glass trannies is kinda true, or I just got unlucky.

[erksplee]

I had the same situation about 4 months ago. I haven't heard the problem in a few weeks. So hopefully it was nothing. I really don't want my differential to be bad. =( Mine's an '05 RS btw.

[EvoEatr]

My 03 WRX makes a very noticable thumping noise/feeling when I make a sharp turn, like when I'm going to park. It seems to be coming from the front wheels or suspension, but I can't be sure. I took it to a mechanic, and he said he couldn't see anything that was wrong with it, no blistering on the tires or anything. It tends to get worse the more I drive, so I figured it might be fluid related and changed out my transmission fluid and rear diff, but that didn't help at all. Any ideas?

Quite a common problem...Either the Viscous coupler wears out and can no longer shear fluid smoothly or the transfer clutches start to bind...How many miles are on the vehicle?...I'm assuming you have a 5spd standard trans so..yes that is correct the Center Diff (Viscous coupler) is replaced as a unit and do run around 700-800....Most important thing with these cars is tire pressure/size....if you dont rotate your tires enough and dont keep up on air pressure (as in all are set to spec) ...you will damage your "center diff"....Do a search here on "torque bind" or something to that nature and there should be tons of info on it....

[Xavium]

Quite a common problem...Either the Viscous coupler wears out and can no longer shear fluid smoothly or the transfer clutches start to bind...How many miles are on the vehicle?...I'm assuming you have a 5spd standard trans so..yes that is correct the Center Diff (Viscous coupler) is replaced as a unit and do run around 700-800....Most important thing with these cars is tire pressure/size....if you dont rotate your tires enough and dont keep up on air pressure (as in all are set to spec) ...you will damage your "center diff"....Do a search here on "torque bind" or something to that nature and there should be tons of info on it....

Yeh it's a manual with about 78000 miles. I've been pretty good about tire pressure, however rotation may have gotten skimped on a little. My subbie dealiership refused to open the center differential saying its a "closed unit" however they said it sounded like there was a lot of loose metal in there . I have a piece of crap 3rd party extended warranty, which wants me to tow the car to AAMCO, and let them open it up, and see if they can fix it for cheap. I hope they just let me replace the whole thing (on the extended warranty dime), but I always seem to get messed over with that sort of thing.

[EvoEatr]

Yeh it's a manual with about 78000 miles. I've been pretty good about tire pressure, however rotation may have gotten skimped on a little. My subbie dealiership refused to open the center differential saying its a "closed unit" however they said it sounded like there was a lot of loose metal in there . I have a piece of crap 3rd party extended warranty, which wants me to tow the car to AAMCO, and let them open it up, and see if they can fix it for cheap. I hope they just let me replace the whole thing (on the extended warranty dime), but I always seem to get messed over with that sort of thing.

Oh man! I'm sorry to hear that...Not to pat my own back here But I do work for Subaru and never have I seen anyone there open up the Viscous Coupler (center diff) unit. Actually I don't even think you can purchase separate parts of it...