CNY_Dave

P0420 is almost never a bad cat. Usually it's a completely different problem, such as running lean, a vacuum leak, even an exhaust leak.

I have had a perfectly good cap not hold pressure due to a tiny bit of grit/crud. Bubbles in the coolant could be exhaust, or if not holding pressure, merely boiling coolant. I hate to ask if anyone checked the radiator fans.

The wheel bearing noise does not usually change with throttle, only speed and when turning, but there are no absolutes. Of course it might be very bad and the wheel might be angling a bit with power. The noise can be difficult to hear spinning the wheel by hand and with no weight on the wheel. Best bet is to get both back wheels up, check to see if either is loose, then spin the wheel by hand and listen for noise. Putting a long screwdriver or long socket extension from your ear to the strut spring can magnify a small noise. You may need to pull the wheels and back the brake pads off the rotor to get it to spin quietly and/or freely. Do this after trying it once so you don't miss the chance to hear if the brakes are making the noise. It could also be a bad control-arm bushing, trans bushing, or rear diff bushing, allowing noisy metal-metal contact when under load.

More likely to my mind you managed to suck the pan dry or you were bouncing around enough you splashed oil onto the crank and foamed the oil, or a combination. Or a rod bearing was just not up to the beating.

What year was the trans from? Hopefully an '04 as well, otherwise your AWD will also be acting up... If you try another TCU it must come from an '04 as well, '05 was the all-electronic 4EAT (I think) and from my troubles I know the '03 TCU is unusably different as well. Can you be more specific about the problem? Lastly, if your old trans is fine, you can get a fair number of bucks for it.

Strip the pump and box it up for rapid shipment to sell to the next poor barstard that bolts the engine and trans together without first seating the converter.

Learn from my fail- a 2004 will NOT work as-is (not a legacy/outback trans anyway). In 2004 they reversed the function of the transfer duty solenoid, reversing the signal for the degree of lock-up. You could *probably* swap over the solenoid and spool valve, as they *probably* didn't change the trans main case.

Solved in 11 posts... YOU ARE SLIPPING, PEOPLE!!!

It could be the system has the ability to detect 'a' problem, but can't adequately diagnose the specific problem.

And if those weren't enough, some aftermarket pads don't fit properly, the metal backing is a bit oversize and the pad sticks.

I'm going to try putting the VTD center diff and lockup clutch into my '03 LL bean, 55% to the rear and no stability computer minding my business...

My '03 4eat and the '04 I replaced it with do this on my '03 LL bean H6. It's common on those. Wiping the TCU learning will fix it for a few months if there is no other problem such as bad TPS, etc. Just disconnect the batt for a while and see if there is any effect.

There are some reinforced sections of the underbody that have some holes drilled in them.

I used one similar to that, but not as fancy. More like: I stuck that on the exhaust pipe, and just used springs from the bolt ends (facing backwards) to some holes in the unibody. Don't know what size, I just used a ruler to measure the diameter of the pipe (just eyeballed with the ruler held against the side of the pipe) and got about that size. Only hazard is if you use springs that are too strong, you'll eat the donut gasket in about a year. Upstate NY, I have to imagine rust will find me before you.

Replacing the pinch bolt with a through-bolt and nut is pretty common. As long as it is as large in diameter, and grade-8, I would use the same fix on my car. NAPA usually has a pretty good bolt selection. Bolt that is not threaded all the way down would be preferable, but does anyone carry grade 5 or better all-thread? Dobn't foget, it does not have to be metric... Fastenal always has everything- except what you need right then!

My rear cat flange is all gone (couple years now), I have 2 springs that go from a split-flange repair kit on the pipe forwards to the body. Works well, doesn't seem to transmit noise.

I may have missed it in the replies, but a vacuum leak is a common cause.

I read somewhere (here? outback.org?) people had a problem with some aftermarket replacement external filters in the cooler circuit, and it did cause a problem that sounds a bit like this. It might not be low line pressure, but a similar symptom.

The AWD is engaged by the pressurized trans fluid, so it's feasible.

A 9/35 gives 3.888888888888, is that in the realm of possibility? That's get written 3.889. Not a lot of pinion teeth though, but I do see planty of examples on the net (nissans, toyotas).

Since you have an auto, the clutch plates are a set of fiber/metal disks which clamp the rear driveshaft to the 'front driveshaft', how much they clamp depends on how much hydraulic pressure as applied to them. They are just like a motorcycle clutch. If they 'burn out' or wear out the rear wheels do no pushing, if they get overheated or overused they can 'stick' and give AWD when none is called for, giving torque bind. I have done Ivan's gravel test on dirt, snow, gravel etc and it is permissible if there is a very short delay before the rear wheels start to spin, but only a short delay, and with no large 'clunk' or 'bang'. If everything is working properly if you see a small delay stomping on it in D, you should see a shorter delay or no delay if you put it in '1'. Even in '1' if your foot is off the gas the amount of lockup that is applied is quite small. With any gas applied at all the lockup in '1' is more than in 'D'.

3.889 would be so close anyway I think you could drive pavement all day every day and it would be no nevermind.

Speaking of crud in the solenoid, when I had mine apart I noticed the feed to the solenoid and valve has its own little filter, the black thing to the right in this view. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=7459 BTW this is an existing attachment from another post but I can't seem to get it to display, hence the link.

You were supposed to attach the flex plate to the crank, then the flex plate to the in-place converter, and then you were supposed to assemble the engine around the crank

jeszek, if you want to talk about oddball stuff, - you can pull the viscous unit from the manual trans and use higher-numbered gears in the rear (4.44 instead of 4.11 for example) to bias the torque to the rear - there is a variety of subaru front diff with a non-viscous limited slip and what i am hoping ends up being my oddball - you can put the VDC center diff into a non-VDC 4EAT trans and get an all-the-time 45/55 torque split (no VDC, and maybe a manually lockable AWD clutch)