johnceggleston

how did the car drive with the wiring harness unplugged.? i gues i forgot to mention that you need to drive tight turns on dry pavement to see if it has torque bind. what do the observers report when they are watching the wheels on the snow and ice?? how do you know it is working for 60 seconds?? what changes?

so swap it out. it could maybe be in the wiring, but not the wiring on the engine. so unless you see something obvious swap the gauge.

you might shop around a little. any parts seller that misses a 96 radiator that badly ............ double check, or the one you get may not be right.

i'm not either, but running with the fuse in for a day or two is no big deal and if it does not change any thing you have less to worry about. if something does change with the car then you have more info to work with.

95s probably had the same wierdness, but they were not required to be tested in the same way. 96 was the OBD2 year and the start of 'whatever' testing, i think.

96 legos are never emissions ready. everytime you turn the car off it resets something and so it never shows ready. but the good news is they, 96s, get a pass on readiness. the inspectors should know about them. or at least be able to look it up.

passenger side under the hood near the fire wall, where the engine and trans meet. they are attached to the trans with some sort of bracket. there are 2 connectors, one is for the trans, the larger one i think, but i could be wrong. however, regardless of the cause, swapping in a known good rear extension housing should/ could cure the problem. typically the dealer charges 900 - 1200$. look for all of the 'ragular' test lights on the dash when you turn the key to on. a missing light may indicate a hidden problem or cause. look for FWD, AT Oil Temp, CEL etc.

when in 'D' the computer decides, based on front and rear speed sensors, when to engage the transfer clutch. in 1 or 2 (or R for that matter) the computer is forced , or supposed to be, to engage the transfer clutch. disconnecting the trans wiring harness will force the trans into 'limp' mode and it will "lock" the trans in 4WD causing torque bind in tight turns. you might try that on a test drive just to see if the mechanical parts are in there.

did you look under the car to see if the rear drive shaft was there? did you try it with the trans in 1 or 2?

nipper, thanks for the explanation, it's appreciated, as all ways. but you missed my point, i thought he complained of the car vibrating at a stop light, and the dealer claimed it was the AWD unit. my point is, at a stop light sitting still there is nothing turning in the trans except? the input shaft, so the AWD unit cannot be a part of the problem since it is sitting still at the stop light. the fwd fuse in should tell a lot. probably 2 different issues. earlier he mentioned "backfire" in regards to rough idle. i didn't know cars did this any more, timing belt jumped?

this does not make sense to me. i wish some one could explain it. for auto trans, the AWD unit takes power off the rear of the trans. the place it takes power from has a mechanical hard connection to the front wheels. if the AWD take off point is not turning, the front wheels are not turning. at a stop light, how can these not turning parts cause a pulsing in the AWD system. when stopped at a stop light, the only parts of the trans that are turning are in side, before the AWD take off point. what am i missing??

swap the whole unit, spring and strut from a used parts yard, 50$ each.

when you manually shift into 1 or 2, the trans is forced into AWD, try that.

the tire shop i went to spray painted the inside of the rim at the bead in an attempt to slow the return of the corrosion. this is easier to do, grinding and painting, with the wheel mounted on the spin balancer or something similar.

regular trans fluid. i wouldn't be too optimistic but it can't hurt. some one should have a link to the repair thread with the pics of smoothing out the grooves. the dealer will repair this for 1000$.

sound like the gauge would be a good guess. unless a previous seller tampered with it or the wiring to hide an over heating engine condition. not likely but check the wiring maybe. i don't even know if it is possible to to tamper with it. did you run the previous engine enough to see the gauge go to hot?

i don't know what they sell for but it seems to me that the asking price for RHD legos is way higher than LHD legos of equal miles and years. i'd like to try one for fun, but i don't know how i would feel driving "close to the edge" on a mountain road. usually the postal cars tend to have trans trouble, i think.

when i got my 2006 ford f350 dually to haul my 8000 lb trailer, the ford owners manual describe how to set up the brake controller. basically you want the brakes of the trailer set right at the point where stomping on the pedal will lock them up. actually they called for a little below the lock up point i think, but in my case with the weight of my trailer, i could never get the trailer brakes to lock up. they recommend testing this procedure in an empty parking lot, set controller low drive across the parking lot and hit the brakes. work your way up until the trailer brakes lock. i tried a couple of low settings and then moved it to the max, still no brake lock. side note. on wet / slick pavement, the ABS will operate the car brakes, but the trailer brakes will lock up and do what ever trailers do, fishtail?, with locked up brakes on wet pavement.

what if the towed item exceeds manuf. recommended limit??

timing belt, idlers, even water pump from the importexperts on ebay, they also have a front seals version w/ cam, crank, oil pump, valve cover, etc. w/ all of the above for about 200$. other folks have mentioned mizumoto, or something like that, on ebay they have gasket kits but i know nothing about them. search ebay for "subaru legacy timing kit" i think. maybe buy the head gaskets separate.

my guess would be the drums on the transfer clutch has wear spots in it/them which keep it from engaging and forward wear is greater then reverse wear. try unplugging the wire harness to the trans and test driving it that way. you'll be in limp mode, 3rd gear only, and should have torque bind in tight turns since the awd should be 'locked' in 4wd. you can try new fluid that is usually the first fix .... but may be looking at repair, smoothing / grinding out the wear spots on the hub/s or replacement of the parts. there is a very good thread w/ pics on how to do it, if that is your need .

are you familiar with the correct timing marks on these engines? check the links in below to see if you got it right. was the key way boogered? how did you hold the the crank when tightening the pulley bolt? what did you torque it to? in a nut shell, have you ever done a 2.2L belt before?

it depends on if the 3.5 is a correct number and what the hourly rate is, 3.5 hrs X 80$= $280. plus they will charge you for anything else they do, drain and refill, fluid, adjust whatever, exhaust pipe gasket, swap over parts. and they may try to tell you it is a 5 hour job, but if you tell them bob's auto repair quoted the book as 3.5 hours then may be you get that rate.

i think the book time to R & R a trans is 3.5 hours, so if you have 300$ it might be worth it to have a shop do it. but if not, i would think the hard part is lifting and lining up. is a manual trans lighter then an auto trans?? good luck.

the wheel hubs are the same so the bottom of the strut will fit. the mounts may have to be rotated or swapped or something but a search will fill that in. i'm pretty sure it will work.