SubaruFred

I believe you are correct. The switch won't very well work for me as I confirmed again tonight. With the fwd fuse installed I have no TB until the duty C gets hot, then TB appears just as it does in awd mode. The only difference between fwd and awd mode with regard to torque bind are the frequency and severity of the TB. In awd mode the TB symptoms seem to occur sooner and are more severe, however in either trans mode, the symptoms still occur when the duty C is hot. I am unsure how much warm vs hot ATF plays into this but the ATF I drained recently had great color and smell. I think this may be the start of some of the more severe transfer clutch damage that I've read about. If I do not replace the defective duty C I too will probably end up with scorched/damaged clutch plates, grooved baskets, etc. FWD mode won't stop this, at best it might delay it. Are you aware of any complete transfer assy rebuild kits or must I order individual parts from a dealer? I think I'd like to rebuild the transfer assy in the spring.

Okay, so the torque bind still comes back but only when the duty C gets hot after extended driving (1 hour +). I'm pretty sure that I need a new duty C so I'll probably just wire the fwd fuse to a dash switch and leave it like that. Unless someone has evidence that doing so damages the transfer clutch pack after extended use. The sum of my experience thus far has been that adding LSD additive did little or nothing for my TB issues, changing ATF and adding Trans-X had similar effect. The solenoid appears to be weak from age and ceases to function properly when it gets hot. Considering the mileage on the car it doesn't make sense to me to pull the extension housing to replace the duty C without replacing all related wear items.

It's amazing that something so simple can be screwed up so badly. Pep Boys once ruined 4 new chrome wheels and 20 nuts with an impact gun, some oil change shop stripped not one but both drain plugs on my 87 Mustang and my favorite: Got my 68 Camaro SS396 convertible inspected and driving home I felt something wobbling up front. By the time I pulled over one front wheel was held on by only 2 loose wheel nuts. The remaining studs had broken off. /hijack

I wish that I could one day have a set of tires mounted, balanced and installed correctly but I don't believe it will ever happen. I just accept the fact that I have to go behind them and re-torque the wheel nuts and adjust the tire pressures. I'm satisfied if they get the balance right. Shipping varies a lot. I can get 4 tires shipped from Tire Rack for about $40 (NJ to MD) but Tires-Easy cost me $75 (CA to MD). I usually save money buying from Tire Rack vs locally. I paid more this time from Tires-Easy but as I said before, they were the only place I could find in the USA that had the tires I wanted.

I agree. There are a lot of variables when buying tires locally or from the www. I prefer to do business locally but often I can't get what I want locally. My latest tire purchase was 4 Falken Radial A/P in 205/75/14. Sears carries them locally for $70 each ($90 M&B with tax) but was out of stock nationally with no projected availability date. Tires-Easy had them in stock for $80 each plus $75 shipping plus the $40 I paid to have them mounted and balanced. Sears was much cheaper but I still wouldn't have any tires vs 1 month use buying from Tires-Easy. The real beauty of the www stores is when you purchase a mounted and balanced wheel/tire package and save ~20% vs buying locally. On tires alone, it's usually pretty close.

Disconnect the neg batt lead and press the brake pedal to drain any residual current, then re-connect the neg batt lead or skip these steps and clear the code with your scantool and see how long before the CEL re-appears. If it re-appears quickly, check the circuit wiring for shorts. If no shorts are found, check for exhaust leaks before the secondary bank 1 O2 sensor. A leak before the O2 sensor could cause the sensor to read too lean which could trigger a "low voltage" code. My best guess is that you have an exhaust leak before the CEL throwing sensor.

Just an update on the Falkens. I've had a few chances to use them in snow and they performed much better than expected. I climbed a very steep ~100 vertical foot farmhouse driveway covered with 8" of snow very easily. Obviously these are not M/T tires but the mild A/T tread and 13/32 depth make them quite capable for snow or mild off-roading. This combined with their light 23lb per tire weight and $3+ gal gas makes me very happy with them. It appears that I've only lost ~1mpg vs the oem sized Michelin A/S tires they replaced. Tire choice is obviously a compromise. Good dry pavement tires suck on snow, snow tires suck on dry pavement and all-seaon tires are mediocre on all surfaces. FWIW I'm giving these Falkens two thumbs up for dry/wet pavement, snow and light off-road use. Definitely not the tire you want for serious off-roading but if you spend over 50% of your time on paved roads, they're worth considering vs the 30lb per tire BFGs, Coopers, Generals, etc. /review

Well I finally got around to changing the ATF. I had intended to do a full fluid exchange but the rubber hoses that I had to remove to pump put the remaining ATF looked a bit dry-rotted and without any replacements on-hand I decided it best to leave them alone for now. So I simply drained 5 qts and added 15 oz of Trans-X and 4 qts of fresh ATF. All torque bind symptoms are gone. I can do tight figure 8s in fwd or rev with no binding. It's impossible to say whether the Trans-X helped but I've read many positive reviews of the stuff on various car forums (not just certain year Outbacks) and decided to try it. In my experience most additives are more likely to do nothing than to cause harm but I am also aware of some potential risk. I have no intention of adding Trans-X to my 40k mile Scion but I did switch it from Toyota WS to M1 ATF which is like going from thin Dex 6 to Dex 4. My goal there was to increase line pressures, shear stability, film strength and torque handling capacity for the extra 100 whp from the turbo addition. 10k miles later, it's working great. Anyway, thanks for the sound advice. Perhaps I should have followed it but I'm willing to take some chances with a $2000 beater. I'll be sure to post about any problems that may be attributable to the Trans-X, although after 18 years and 172k miles it's pretty hard to blame a trans failure on an additive without a thorough post-mortem examination that shows seals turned to jelly. My current game plan is to change ATF again when torque bind symptoms reappear as long as that doesn't occur too frequently. As the Zen Master said: "We'll see"...

FWIW, I just bought a set of 4 tires from Tires-Easy and had them mounted and balanced at Wally World for $40 total. $5 ea to mount, $5 ea to balance. No complaints. I do prefer Tire Rack but they didn't have the tires I wanted. Neither did any local stores. While buying locally sometimes has some advantages, so does buying from the www. I got the tires I wanted and saved 6% sales tax. YMMV

+1 for a 1st gen bull bar. Cash in hand.

Thanks. That's pretty much the situation I expected but I had a glimmer of hope that some small shop or member might be making them. I guess if I want one it will have to be either semi-custom or full custom. There's a small metal fabrication shop near me that I'll hit up for an estimate.

I apologize if I missed something while searching but I couldn't find any source for a push bar and brush guard for my 93 Legacy. Could someone please tell me what my options are? I'd prefer a direct bolt-on but I'd be willing to have custom mounting brackets fabbed if needed. I'm sure that someone has already been down this road and I'd greatly appreciate your expertise. TIA.

So the oem rails bolt through the roof? Could I re-use my headliner since it's in great condition or will it be ruined when peeling it back? I was hoping for something easier than this. Thanks. I looked at the Thule site today and I see what you mean. They have base rails that attach to the gutter trim but they are pricey. A good option though. I'm gonna keep looking at cheap options for this old beater. If there are actual roof gutters under that trim, maybe I could remove the trim (needs paint anyway), attach universal gutter mounts and then cut the trim around them. It doesn't have to be perfect, just not fugly. Thanks.

I've never bought a roof rack before and know nothing about them. I'm looking for suggestions that would allow me to carry a spare tire on the roof. I doubt that I'll need to carry much else up there. Do I try junk yards for oem roof rails or can I just get some cross bars and maybe a cargo basket? I have a moon roof if it matters. I'm basically unsure about how to securely attach a rack to the flat rain gutter trim. TIA.

Thanks! It looks much better already but you forgot to strip the blue stuff off the white letters on the tires. In addition to what you listed I'd also like to add a roof rack to carry a spare tire. Any suggestions on what fits? BTW, the PO did that 'body work' on the 1/4 panels. I'm embarrassed enough about that without having people think I did it.

Torque bind is back, occasionally. Even with the FWD fuse installed I've now had 3 separate instances of TB. My best guess is that the duty C solenoid is failing. Does anyone think that Trans-X might help or should I replace the solenoid? Where is the solenoid located? Internal or external? I was thinking of draining a qt of ATF, adding Trans-X and running it for a few thousand miles before changing ATF in the spring. TIA.

Thanks guys. I take it that Trans-X won't help with the torque bind so I'll just change the ATF when weather permits. FWIW, the PO took this car to the dealer for everything from 1999-2010. I contacted the dealer and they actually scanned and emailed me all of the service records from 2003 to present. They don't keep records longer than 7 years. Despite having the oil changed there every 5000 miles and even wiper blades installed, there is no record of an ATF change. They checked it at every oil change but never changed it even when the PO complained of TB symptoms. Anyway it was good to see that the timing belt, water pump, etc. was replaced at 145k miles. I'm at 172k now.

Thanks for all your help. Now all I need is some better weather and I can get all this sorted out. One last question... what is your opinion on Trans-X? I've seen some very good arguments both for and against it's use. Normally I avoid these kind of additives but I can also see how it could potentially be beneficial in an old, high mileage trans. I plan to use regular Dex III ATF, not the high-mileage stuff so I wouldn't be doubling up on the seal conditioners. I think you'll miss all the icy fun thursday night. Have a safe trip.

So I would simply intercept or tap this circuit and connect it to one leg of a switch and connect a gnd lead to the other leg? When the TCU sees an open circuit it would be in AWD and when it sees gnd it would be in FWD? I don't think I have any blanks in the dash but I'll find a spot for a switch. I have a decent rocker switch for this but I'm thinking I might prefer a push button type instead. Thanks and I hope you miss the freezing rain we're supposed to get tonight thru Wednesday.

Thanks! Do you know if the 93 wiring is the same as 98? I don't see the FWD fuse holder in this schematic so I'm not sure how to wire in the switch. BTW, the "HI" switch won't work after all. It's a momentary switch but I need a on-off type.

Just an update on the fitment questions. I had my 205/75/14 (26x8x14) Falkens installed a couple days ago and they fit very well, look and perform great. However there is some slight rubbing against the fenderwell at full steering lock. Obviously 27x8.5x14s would rub more without some "adjustments". It's too early to be sure but after one tank of gas it appears that I may have lost roughly 1 mpg compared to the 185/70/14 Michelin Harmonys that I replaced. I can live with that. I was averaging 23mpg but only got 22mpg with the Falkens under similar conditions. The car looks much better with these tires and better suits my intended uses. Pics ASAP.

That makes sense. Thanks. Thanks but I'm not seeing the image.

What a freakin' awesome idea! I could even use my now useless "HI" air suspension switch for it. So I could intercept the fwd wire at the TCU and run it to the switch with a 15A in-line fuse to gnd and have push-button AWD. Brilliant! I've already measured better mpg in fwd mode due to the TB. Anyone know where I can find a TCU pin-out diagram?

If it's easy enough to remove the cooler return line I plan to do a complete fluid exchange instead. Drain, re-fill, start engine, pump out 2 qts, stop engine, add 2 qts, repeat until new fluid comes out. This worked great on my Scion when I switched over from Toyota WS to M1 ATF. If not I'll do the dilution exchange as you suggest. The weather here is too bad for me to do anything now so I'll do as you suggest and only pull the fuse when there's snow on the roads (like today). Thanks. Good point! I don't know what kind of gasket Subaru used. On the Toyotas I've done recently the pre-formed rubber gaskets all came off cleanly but if they used EPDM gasket-maker like Toyota did on my Scion oil pan, it's a royal PITA to get off. I'll see what kind of gasket they used before deciding whether or not to drop the pan. Thanks.