DupermanDave

After about 20 minutes, or 30 miles of driving, we begin to smell a burning, smokey, transmission fluid smell. In this previous post, http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=101514 I had issues refilling the transmission fluid properly. Got all that solved. I drained and refilled the transmission fluid, and drained and flushed the gear oil from the front differential. After so long of driving, we get this strong skunky/transmission fluid smell, and it goes away after about 10 minutes. I know I still have a leaky oil separator plate and that oil is still dripping onto the exhaust and smoking, but this isn't an oily smell. This is a burning rubber/skunk/transmission fluid smell. Definitely transmission fluid. But it's not leaking anywhere below. I checked and double checked leaks from the transmission and differential. What's going on?

Yup. there's some precious metal in there that they recycle. I've had a few friend's cats stolen on their toyota trucks. Not pretty stuff. I'll check ebay for the cats, that's a good suggestion. Bolts shouldnt be a problem, since when I had the exhaust system out for the oil plate, I removed the cats and O2 sensors to check and clean them. I think during the removal I might have broken it up more. We were getting the check engine light before for "catalyst efficiency below threshold", wich is why I checked and cleaned them.

Eeek. Straightpipe may not be a good thing then. I hear in the next few years they may start doing emissions again. I'll see what the options are from here. There's a local shop that could probably do the work for cost of parts only.

Our subaru is the california model with 2 cats. We live in colorado, and where we live there's no emissions testing required. Out cars may be going bad, so I want to replace them. Can I replace one converter and hollow the other one out? Or is there some other filler I can put in place of the old cat? I just dont want to replace both units if I only need one, especially at the price of $800 per cat for a california model.

I already heard about that for the tires. Tread wear has to match on all tires, otherwise you could screw up your differentials. So if a tire goes bad and needs replaced, you need to do all 4 tires or have the replacement tire worn away by a shop to match the other 4.

ive worked on front wheel drive cars and 4x4s, so im still getting used to the AWD subarus. ive also never messed with auto transmissions, nor do i want to ever again, lol.

so i went out last night and checked everything over. Found the real transmission dipstick and filled the transmission up. This got it working. I rolled it up the driveway and put it back into the garage and drained the atf/gear oil i mixed together and refilled it with 80w90. Everything works great again. Now i can drive it to a shop to have the oil plate fixed. I think from now on ill leave the transmission work to the pros. This wont keep me from messing with the engine, though. Im still learning, so cut me some slack.

I bought 4 qts of ATF and 4 qts of gear oil. So I'll try installing those tonight. Hopefully they'll go into the right places this time.

Yeah. I took a bath in it once when we were changing my clutch on the suzuki. We didn't expect any fluid to come out of the driveshaft as we removed it from the transfer case, and *woosh* out comes this Niagra Falls of gear oil all over my shoulder and neck and head.

YESSSS. The aluminum finned block. I know where that is, and I thought that was it.

Subaru manual is supposed to be here today (that's when shipping estimate was.) Where's the differential drain plug? I *THINK* i know where it is and see it, but I *THOUGHT* i knew where the transmission fill spot was. I SWEAR the manual says to fill the transmission where I did. I can even get pictures. In fact, I *WILL* get pictures. I'm not saying you guys are wrong, I certainly trust you guys more than the manual now.

I filled the dipstick on the passenger side, so according to this thread it's the front differential. Transmission wasn't trashed originally, but could be now. We didn't run it that long. I just put it in neutral, backed it out of the garage by letting it coast, and then tried putting it in gear. That's when I noticed it wouldnt engage and I played around with it very carefully, because I didn't want to damage or melt anything if it was a low fluid issue. So transmission should still be fine. (im hoping)

Uh oh. my memory is coming back to me. Perhapse I did make a boo boo. Only way for me to be sure is to check the car, which I can't do until tonight. Hopefully it's an easy drain and fix. Now that both have to be drained, how much of each fluid should I use? How many quarts does the differential use and what weight is recommended? How many quarts does the transmission use?

When I follow the dipstick hole, it has a metal tube leading back to the driver's side of the engine and back to the transmission and plunges into the upper part of the tranmission fluid pan. I'm hoping it is a stupid simple mistake and not something complicated. I'll take another look this evening, but I never saw any dipstick by the starter. Why does the manual even say to refill it in that area? I doublechecked and I was NOT reading the differential section, I'm 100% sure it was the automatic transmission fluid section. I drained the transmission. Never touched the drain bolt for the front differential.

It's actually on the passenger side. The oil filler is on the driver's side. The passenger side is deep down under the engine, so I had to use 2 funnels to fill it.

Nope. Doesnt blink. No check engine light either. What do you mean the plugs arent connected? I didn't really mess with any plugs, just the O2 sensors and I snapped those together until they clicked. If they were unplugged, shouldn't I surely get a check engine light? I added the ATF through the dipstick on the top of the transmission (through the engine bay).

I did not get any gap between the engine and transmission. That's where I got stuck. I didn't begin to pry it apart, so I did not gain access to the torque converter or flex plate. Transmission stayed attached to the engine. Really, the only thing I did was remove the exhaust, drive shaft, and front CV joints. Transmission was never messed with, other than draining the fluid. I didn't even mess with the shifter cable or anything else. Even if there was something wrong with the drive shaft to the rear differential, shouldnt the front wheels work to pull the engine? What why would I not feel the transmission engage a gear? -edit- I'm reading over the manual again. It says, "when replacing the automatic transmission fluid, usually from 2.6 to 3.2 US qt (2.5 to 3.0 litres) are required." Then, below that, it says "Fluid capacity: 8.3 qt. *This is total capacity. Do not attempt to refill this quantity when changing the fluid." http://action.publicbroadcasting.net/cartalk/posts/list/1799409.page ^^^ Very similar to this guy's post, only no one posts a solution to the issue.

So I tried replacing the oil separator plate and decided to stop halfway through the job. Got to separating the tranny and engine and decided to put everything back together. I filled the oil (4.5qts) and the transmission (3 quarts). I read the subaru manual and it said 2.75 quarts of ATF fluid. Now whenever I engage any gear, it doesnt clunk like it used to, but it doesnt drive well either. I have to give it a load of gas and rev it up a LOT to get it to slowly crawl forward or reverse. It feels a lot like a clutch slipping, only this is an automatic transmission. Is there not enough transmission fluid? I checked the tranny dipstick and the fluid is at the top and the dipstick is wet. I find it hard to believe the transmission only needs 2.75 quarts, and I put 3 full quarts in.

So the entire back of the pads? I know not to get the front (duh!). Otherwise braking will be a little greasy (pun intended). While the wheels are off, I used PB blaster and liquid wrench and was sure not to spray any on the brake pads.

While trying to remove the engine and transmission, I decided to check on the brakes since they squeak when we stop. They dont squeek when we press hard on the brakes, just when we press lightly on them. The pads look find and have lots of life left, but should they be replaced anyway? Also, on previous trucks I've had, I've had to grease certain busings or springs in the brake assembly. I don't see that here on this 96 legacy outback. Is there anything that needs greasing to stop it from squeaking?

Doesnt the wiring just disconnect below the seat?

Yeah, I just now thought about that. If it's really stuck on there, it may start to drag the car back with it. I'll just tie the strap to my dog and have him pull it. He's strong enough. On my suzuki when we had this problem it turned out there was a dirt shield connecting the bell housing to the engine. Nowhere in the manuals did it mention this. We eventually just shreded the metal around the bolt holes and pulled it free. So for this project I made sure there was nothing else connected. No plates or hidden bolts. There was one support bracket at the very top of the transmission that holts it to the firewall. What is this for?

methinks I should have left the transmission bolts off and sprayed the crack with pb blaster and let it sit until sunday. Maybe gravity would have worked on it just letting it sit. Would it be bad if I just hooked a tow strap around it and hooked it to the bumper of my truck and slowly let the truck creep down the driveway and have someone watch the transmission and see if it will pull apart?

That's what my uncle does. He has a shop in california. I've been running on some tips from him (though he recommended I lift the engine...shouldve gone that route.) I decided to go through the transmission because I'm more familiar with this since I've done 2 clutch jobs and I'm less comfortable with the ej22 than I am with my Toyota engine. (22re). That one 19mm bolt is still on the strut, lol. Every other bolt on that side is off but that one. It's solid on the strut. I got the passenger side off. It's just that one devilish bolt. I even borrowed my friend's dad's wrenches (he was a pit crew working for a race crew). Could not get the sucker off. I used pry bars, chissels, air wrenches. The Hulk would have a hernia trying to pull this one loose.

grrr. It's hard for me to just stop at 49.9% of the job. I want to finish it myself so bad. Maybe I'll tackle it again sunday. What are some good ways to separate the engine/transmission? Any areas to pry against? I remember when changing the clutch on a suzuki sidekick I had, we hooked some tow straps to the bell housing and tugged it back. Would hammering it apart help, or would it crack the block?