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Aging Legacy Mail Car, AWD gone


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In a snow storm last week I realized my 94 RHD Legacy no longer had All Wheel Drive. I've been delivering mail with this car for the last ten years and it was disappointing, to say the least, to find myself with essentially a one wheel drive car. That right front wheel that has to dive into all the plowed up crap just spins by itself. The car has been falling apart as expected, I suppose, at 170,000 miles and not counting (The speedometer stopped working last year). I got it back from my now ex-mechanic with the Check engine light on and flashing Power light codes at me at start up. I was having a problem with it getting stuck in Park. The mechanic got a new solenoid for the shifter but it didn't work for the RHD. I got the car back with that business disengaged, which was fine with me as long as it would go in and out of Park. The mechanic did not know how to fix the speedometer. When he started talking about maybe removing the transmission I told him to forget about it. He admitted to nothing with regard to the Check Engine and error codes and said he would look at it. I have to wonder if something he did has buggered the AWD. He had the car one more time for rear wheel bearings but said nothing of the lights which were still on. Also, when I got it back this time the clock was flashing so I figure he had the battery disconnected in an attempt to reset things. He said nothing about it though. I know. I need a new mechanic.

I put a fuse in the FWD spot temporarily and that seems to have reset the power light business but not the drive to the rear wheels. Check Engine is still on. Also, I had wondered if ex-mechanic didn't actually do wheel bearings because noise from the rear was still there. Rear differential? If that's the AWD problem it's shot, right? I haven't heard any noises that horrible though. My guess is the main problem is electronic as opposed to lack of any fluids, though I suspect that differential has been neglected. I plan to go to a new mechanic in the coming week but I'm afraid I may end up finding that I have to invest too much in this car. There's the emergency brake also not working and an impending front axle issue.

If anyone is interested further in this mail carrier rant and rave I'll continue with the broader issue, the stupidity of the US Postal Service. Here's the ridiculous position I'm in. As a rural carrier I am expected to provide a vehicle to deliver the route. I get about $18 a day as vehicle allowance. Subaru no longer makes the RHD car available so I can't replace my car except by looking far and wide for a used one. Now the USPS is saying they are going to give us all, eventually, at an unspecified time, the boxy, rear wheel drive GM/Grumman thing they call LLV (long life vehicle). These things are useless in the snow. I'm all for not having to maintain a car for the job but not being able to deliver the mail mainly makes problems for me. Also, the LLV has no radio or air conditioning. They have begun assigning these things to routes, nation wide, but in my area only the shorter routes so far. We are constantly given safety talks and told to drive around all the time with lights and flashers but there are many carriers out there driving left hand drive cars from some other position inside. I have not done that for ten years and refuse to do it ever again. In order for me to have an adequate and safe vehicle for snow conditions I need to provide it at my own expense. Now Subaru and the others don't even offer a RHD and I can't even know when the unsafe Postal owned truck will be imposed upon me. When that happens we cannot refuse it. I know of a RHD Saturn I could buy but no AWD. That seems stupid.

Erik

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Eric,

Please let the power of the Pleiades work for you.

 

The ECU for the fuel injection

and

the ECU for the transmission (TECU)

both will yield error codes for you

to diagnose your problem

 

Josh, aka Legacy 777, has an excellent web page set up

which will be of much help in this endeavor.

He is the Guru on these cars

http://www.surrealmirage.com/subaru

 

 

Hopefully this will get you back on the road

until

you can find a newer Legacy RHD

 

Skip - owner of a 94 Legacy X-mail carrier

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I went out in the icy driveway and switched a better tire to right front. Also checked rear differential oil and it seems okay, at least in that there is oil in there and it is clean.

In the coming week I'll try to get it to someone with the right test tools and ability to read them.

Could it be that the circuit that had the Shift Lock/ brake pedal business needs to be complete for the AWD? Or is the dead speedometer related?

On getting cars from RHD countries: What are the issues to make them legal here? I saw a website with lots of interesting used Japanese cars but they don't address the question. I bought a new Honda Element last year and learned that they make the RHD versions for Japan, in Canada. Of course no one at the dealership shows any interest in doing any more than asking somewhere and telling me "...not available". I wonder where Japanese Legacys are made and if any of these companies could be prevailed upon to release a car from the system to be used in the U.S.

E

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E,

 

The shift lock does not have to do with the problem but

the speedo very well could.

If you can find the time, please read my response in this post

 

it will show you the front VSS may be the problem.

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=28198

The TECU codes may reveal this.

 

You do not need any tools to check these codes.

 

Sorry I couldn't help.

 

Good luck with your problems.

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E,

 

The shift lock does not have to do with the problem but

the speedo very well could.

If you can find the time, please read my response in this post

 

it will show you the front VSS may be the problem.

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=28198

The TECU codes may reveal this.

 

You do not need any tools to check these codes.

 

Sorry I couldn't help.

 

Good luck with your problems.

Thanks Skip,

You are helping me come to understand this anyway. I'll look into the codes.

E

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For TCU trouble codes I get alternating 32 and 33 for Previous problems, Vehicle speed sensors 1 and 2. The existing problem sequence just evokes "normal" blinking.

Do existing problems become previous after checking once? I think this is what happened as I ran through it again because I thought I didn't see it start. Do I replace these sensors now? Where are they?

Erik

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For TCU trouble codes I get alternating 32 and 33 for Previous problems, Vehicle speed sensors 1 and 2. The existing problem sequence just evokes "normal" blinking.

Do existing problems become previous after checking once? I think this is what happened as I ran through it again because I thought I didn't see it start. Do I replace these sensors now? Where are they?

Erik

They are on the top right side of the transmission. Click on the link above for a thread that has pictures (or links to them at least)

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It bothers me that you put a better tire on the right front. All the tires should have the same tread depth. Failure to adhere to this can damage the AWD system.

Welcome to the world of the mail carrier. The right front tire has to dig in and out of the shoulder of the road five hundred times a day. What I did was a tire rotation (on one side, not one new tire). In my experience (ten years with this car and a '95 my wife drove) it's not that sensitive. Periodically, I would get a couple of new tires, keeping the best on the front. The car has been great in all conditions and I've been out in everything the Northeast has to offer.

Now it appears the vehicle speed sensors have gone buggy. The speedometer stopped last summer and a snowstorm made me realize I had no AWD.

Thanks to this great community, I'm coming out of the darkness.

E

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Emurray, I am also a carrier here in Tx. I ran a 97 Legacy for nearly eight years on my Rt. before losing the engine due to Idle pully coming apart and valves getting bent by pistons. I was at 287,000 miles on mine. Have you looked in the national rural carrier magazine their is sometimes a good selection of right hand drive Subarus, Saturns, and Jeeps in there. A lot of the carriers are selling them because they have had the LLV's put on their routes.

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Emurray, I am also a carrier here in Tx. I ran a 97 Legacy for nearly eight years on my Rt. before losing the engine due to Idle pully coming apart and valves getting bent by pistons. I was at 287,000 miles on mine. Have you looked in the national rural carrier magazine their is sometimes a good selection of right hand drive Subarus, Saturns, and Jeeps in there. A lot of the carriers are selling them because they have had the LLV's put on their routes.

I do check through those listings and looking back I wish I had pursued some of them that were reasonably nearby and reasonably priced.

E

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Maybe I have missed something here, but if you installed a fuse into the AWD fuse holder located in the engine compartment, you have disengaged the AWD feature. You now have a front wheel drive car. Removing the fuse is supposed to reactivate the AWD, but with the other issues your having, I don't know if it will. Give it a try.

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Maybe I have missed something here, but if you installed a fuse into the AWD fuse holder located in the engine compartment, you have disengaged the AWD feature. You now have a front wheel drive car. Removing the fuse is supposed to reactivate the AWD, but with the other issues your having, I don't know if it will. Give it a try.

I installed a fuse temporarily with a small hope that things would snap back to normal when I took it out. It didn't work.

Erik

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Welcome to the world of the mail carrier. The right front tire has to dig in and out of the shoulder of the road five hundred times a day. What I did was a tire rotation (on one side, not one new tire). In my experience (ten years with this car and a '95 my wife drove) it's not that sensitive. Periodically, I would get a couple of new tires, keeping the best on the front. The car has been great in all conditions and I've been out in everything the Northeast has to offer.

Now it appears the vehicle speed sensors have gone buggy. The speedometer stopped last summer and a snowstorm made me realize I had no AWD.

Thanks to this great community, I'm coming out of the darkness.

E

You should probably rotate tires every week. Should only take a few minutes with jackstands.

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There's at least one RHD Subaru Legacy listed on eBay right now.

 

In a snow storm last week I realized my 94 RHD Legacy no longer had All Wheel Drive. I've been delivering mail with this car for the last ten years and it was disappointing, to say the least, to find myself with essentially a one wheel drive car. That right front wheel that has to dive into all the plowed up crap just spins by itself. The car has been falling apart as expected, I suppose, at 170,000 miles and not counting (The speedometer stopped working last year). I got it back from my now ex-mechanic with the Check engine light on and flashing Power light codes at me at start up. I was having a problem with it getting stuck in Park. The mechanic got a new solenoid for the shifter but it didn't work for the RHD. I got the car back with that business disengaged, which was fine with me as long as it would go in and out of Park. The mechanic did not know how to fix the speedometer. When he started talking about maybe removing the transmission I told him to forget about it. He admitted to nothing with regard to the Check Engine and error codes and said he would look at it. I have to wonder if something he did has buggered the AWD. He had the car one more time for rear wheel bearings but said nothing of the lights which were still on. Also, when I got it back this time the clock was flashing so I figure he had the battery disconnected in an attempt to reset things. He said nothing about it though. I know. I need a new mechanic.

I put a fuse in the FWD spot temporarily and that seems to have reset the power light business but not the drive to the rear wheels. Check Engine is still on. Also, I had wondered if ex-mechanic didn't actually do wheel bearings because noise from the rear was still there. Rear differential? If that's the AWD problem it's shot, right? I haven't heard any noises that horrible though. My guess is the main problem is electronic as opposed to lack of any fluids, though I suspect that differential has been neglected. I plan to go to a new mechanic in the coming week but I'm afraid I may end up finding that I have to invest too much in this car. There's the emergency brake also not working and an impending front axle issue.

If anyone is interested further in this mail carrier rant and rave I'll continue with the broader issue, the stupidity of the US Postal Service. Here's the ridiculous position I'm in. As a rural carrier I am expected to provide a vehicle to deliver the route. I get about $18 a day as vehicle allowance. Subaru no longer makes the RHD car available so I can't replace my car except by looking far and wide for a used one. Now the USPS is saying they are going to give us all, eventually, at an unspecified time, the boxy, rear wheel drive GM/Grumman thing they call LLV (long life vehicle). These things are useless in the snow. I'm all for not having to maintain a car for the job but not being able to deliver the mail mainly makes problems for me. Also, the LLV has no radio or air conditioning. They have begun assigning these things to routes, nation wide, but in my area only the shorter routes so far. We are constantly given safety talks and told to drive around all the time with lights and flashers but there are many carriers out there driving left hand drive cars from some other position inside. I have not done that for ten years and refuse to do it ever again. In order for me to have an adequate and safe vehicle for snow conditions I need to provide it at my own expense. Now Subaru and the others don't even offer a RHD and I can't even know when the unsafe Postal owned truck will be imposed upon me. When that happens we cannot refuse it. I know of a RHD Saturn I could buy but no AWD. That seems stupid.

Erik

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