[X-Japan]

My STI threw me some curveballs today. I have been quite the reserved driver in my STI. It only has 4,000 miles on it in 9 months of ownership and because of winter only gets driven 1-3 days a week depending on weather and road salt conditions. No mods of any kind and hasn't been track raced yet. Well the last few days in N. Illinois have been real nice so i took out the STI yesterday and today. Yesterday i had no problems and did some spirited driving. Shifted at 6500rpm a couple of times and only went 80mph max.

Problem #1 Today i get in the car and start her up. No problems at all. I shift into reverse and accelerate.....the car lurches, won't budge and i stop accelerating. I think that i must have left the parking brake on. I check and i didn't. So i accelerate again and again the car doesn't wanna move....then there is a gross grind/clunk somewhere around the front of car and it jerks back and reverses normally. Now i have read complaints about the front diff being loud. But when someone talks about it they are always moving(and sometimes turning) in the posts i could find on here. My problem involved backing up from a dead stop. Thats not all that happened today.

Problem #2 At a stop sign i rev the engine to about 3-4k rpm to shoot out into traffic. I don't depress the clutch and accelerate cause i decide not to risk it and put on the brakes and put it in neutral to wait. Then a god awful stentch comes into the cabin. Later today when i am shifting around 6k rpm on an empty road the stench comes back and its worse cause i had my heat on.

Problem #3 On my way home i stop at a gas station to get some propel water. I didn't leave the car running. I get in the car, turn the ignition and a very high pitch grinding sound occurs instead of a beautiful ignition and exhaust note sound. I was embarressed cause all the people at the pumps were looking at me. I turn it again and the same sound happens. I take out the key put it in again and this time the car starts. Thus concluded my day.

I am gonna take the car in to service in the next couple days to get all this checked out and was wondering if anybody has any advice. Has anyone had similar problems? If so what did your subaru service dept. say they were and did they fix them? Thanks in advance for all the help. Peace!!

[FT@SGP]

I would not wait for couple of days, it sounds like rear differential to me.

[whiplash306]

Hmmm...you mentioned that you drive the car infrequently and that when you started the car and reversed out, you thought maybe you left the parking break on. There have been a couple of posts by people complaining of their parking brakes "sticking" when released. When it finally released, it could very possibly create the loud noise and sudden ability to move freely. The smell, I would expect, if brake related, is from them being stuck while you were forcing the car to move.....brakes stink badly if burnt. All this is speculation. Have you checked for a belt problem?....any squeeks with reving?....possibly the stench is from a spun belt? Not sure at all on the grinding when attempting to start....sounds a bit weird to me...

[saltypalm]

probs #! & #3 do NOT sound right. have it looked at asap by a subaru dealer. prob#2, i get scents too from time to time. i figure its the new components breaking in... ie.

[4kornrz]

The smell is normal, stinky but normal.

Do you happen to have the DCCD in the upper positions or lock?

If the diff. is locked you'll get horrible noises and grinding/crunching when backing up or turning slowly on non slippery surfaces.

[X-Japan]

So that smell is normal? I wonder why my car waited 4k miles before it started giving me break in smells. This is also the first car i have had make a stentch like that. As far as the dccd goes i have left it in auto since the day i got it. I have never felt like screwing around with it. As for the starter problem i was thinking about it and i can recall one time where i heard the same kind of sound trying to start a car. Back when i had an Integra Type R i heard a similar sound. My Type R was a monster. I had a $17k JUN AUTO crate built engine in it. I also had a Mugen street/race clutch and a JUN flywheel among other things. Anyways the car had a USDM starter in it and the flywheel was JDM. So when i started the car about %20 of the time i got a high pitched grinding sound just like my STI made last night. JUN said it was because the USDM starter and the JDM flywheel weren't spec'd to work together perfectly. They removed the flywheel and did some work on its teeth to make it mesh with the starter better. After that the car never had a problem starting again. Anybody ever heard of something like that before?

[4kornrz]

I would take the car in asap.

[fledis]

#1 Sounds like the parking brake was stuck. This has happened to me, especially after the car sits overnight after being washed or it has rained.
#2 Sounds like the famous clutch smell. Usually happens to me when the clutch is ridden a little long.
#3 Sounds like you may have left the car running and not realised it.
Good luck.

[ValvetrainEngineer]

I've seen problem #1 a few times - what is happening is moisture between the pads and rotors is causing rust, which basically welds the two together (more common with more time without being driven). I've had to seriously slip the clutch a few times to break them free..

[stott]

I have had #3 happen two times in the 6500 miles i have on the car. It doesn't happen often enough that I could get a dealer to replicate it. The starter looks easy to replace if it goes anyway.

Stott

[staticx313]

a loud whine happens in all cars i thought... i thought itwas the fuel pupm turning on or something? I heard the same noises in my Supra... and it was fine... as is my Sti. Maybe its not the same sound, but it sounds like an electrical ground noise when i just flip the ignition on... then it turns on just fine *shrug*?

Robert~

[crashsti]

i think we get alot of "Stink" in our cars because they lack alot of the weather sealing of a more docile car. that and someone mentioned we have a vented bellhousing around our clutch. the parking brake thing sounds right on. if its cold out or been raining i leave the car in first or reverse when i park it if the ground is level, leaving the e-brake off. i have noticed though that the STi does'nt really like to sit, it likes to be driven and i feel like its happier the more you drive it.

[Singletrack]

Originally Posted by fledis

#1 Sounds like the parking brake was stuck. This has happened to me, especially after the car sits overnight after being washed or it has rained.
#2 Sounds like the famous clutch smell. Usually happens to me when the clutch is ridden a little long.
#3 Sounds like you may have left the car running and not realised it.
Good luck.

Those would be my guesses as well.

-st

[FasStAsS_sTi]

whats your dccd set at??? like someone earlier mentioned it might be in a lock position and you didnt mean it to be....?

[X-Japan]

Well i haven't driven the car since that night until this afternoon. I didn't have any of those problems today. I took the car to the dealer to get it checked. They of course couldn't replicate any of my problems. We started the car about 15 times. A couple of the time we wen't for a short drive then turned it off. After a couple minutes we started it again with no problem. So the starter never made that sound again. As for problem #1 i believe the you all hit the nail on the head with the parking brake theory. I am pretty sure its because i park the car for days with the parking brake on. Cause of winter i take her out for a drive on a nice day then she sits with the parking brake on until the weather is nice again. The only goofy thing about it though is my garage is heated so the car doesn't ever sit in the cold that much. Oh well. Thanks for all the help though . I let ya know if any of it happens again. Now i need another favor! Can anybody find me a copy of "Chappelle's Show" Season 1 dvd set. LOL 8) . I searched 9 stores for it today and it is sold out everywhere!!!! Funniest thing was at every place i was told the same thing. "You're the 10th person to ask for that in the last 10 minutes." Peace!!