bluedotsnow

balls to the fixed but no viable info..... HERE IS A TIP, after dealing with my GF's 95 lego and junk yard cars I can say that they had a problem with melting headlight wire harness! I can't tell you how many I have seen at picknpull that have half or completely melted connectors this only causes independently intermittent lights on her car. soon to be fixed just got done with my 4eat after a shop !#$% it up BAD!!!!!!

GET AN OEM CAP!!!!! and if your checking the overflow as a reference to the total amount of coolant in your system your WAY OFF BASE, I learned this the hard way! if the radiator cap isn't functioning properly its not going to let the reservoir drain and fill properly. so like me at one point you could have a nearly full overflow tank and nearly no coolant in your block and or radiator. if you can check the thermostat when we bought my girlfriends car it had a weird under cooling problem on warm days it would get to half and generally stay in the ball park on cold days it would stay at the c..... on inspection the previous owner or possibly a shop had cut the main part of the thermostat from the round metal housing so water would always flow through unregulated. test your thermostat by boiling some water and dropping it in. WATER MUST BE BOILING and you have to wait a few minutes for it to open if it doesn't budge get a new one. you can alternatively submerge the thermo in a plastic cup of water and microwave it BUT I'm not one for metal and microwaves even if it is fully insulated. also check your over flow tank's hose if it isn't sealing it wont draw coolant into the system. as well as the heater bypass hose! these will leak where they are clamped (if old) only on the road and such a slight bit that by the time you pull off to check it the coolant has dried and shows no signs of leaking.

I can't imagine someone not knowing the test connector was in place the bloody fans kicking on and off alone are enough to make me pull over to see whats wrong. a note about the cheater.... IMO if you use a shiny new one you should paint it or dirty it to match the cat and O2 sensor. I can just see a tech catching a gleam from a freshly chromed cheater and scream tampered. a friend of mine who has an ford escort gt, yes I know, he is trying to retire for the cal caps program for a cool grand failed smog for not having a piece of plastic pipe before the MAF. technically that tech should have been shot because a snorkus is not emissions related that starts at the MAF.

white smoke usually indicates coolant in the combustion chamber black is usually oil. check for any mixtures or oil film in the the coolant/engine oil. lack of power? when I bought my lego it needed head gaskets but now runs great. have you ever used subaru coolant conditioner? its essentially a sealant made for the ej25s that have weeping head gaskets and it works wonderfully on SMALL problems in the cooling system. cheep too about a buck seventy five from the dealer.

no kidding to say the least I'm going to get my money back and if winters auto has any lip to give me I'm going straight to B.A.R. they are lucky the lack of fluid didn't fry my clutch pack! at many points many shops had the opportunity to help me figure out what was wrong STARTING WITH THE DEALER! when I first called and got the cold shoulder the should have told me to bring in the parts that came off the vehicle, they should have known that backing plate should have gone back into the car and saved me time and money. several independent trans shops had the opportunity to fix this but had no clue and washed there hands of it before ever putting my car on a rack. it really floors me that I needed help was willing to pay and no one had answers but junk yard cars.....

I take great pleasure in saying for now I have a working AWD 4eat. I purchased a tail housing from an impreza at picknpull and after getting it home and comparing with the one on my car I could see a small but extremely significant difference. the backing plate for the duty c valve body was missing, it had been left on the old solenoid when replaced by winters auto, CLEARLY NEGLIGENT! I hooked my air compressor up and tested the pathways. I could clearly see where pressure was blowing off on my original and not actuating the valve body. as opposed to the picknpull valve body that moved and routed pressure to the clutch packs locking them against the snap ring. after testing in a small patch of faux mud and tilled soil on a farm I can say it feels more like the AWD I am accustomed to riding in 5mt and does not have any front wheel spin from a standing start. I will update with much more info and pics as they become available I tried to take some today but my phone battery was to low and i just wanted to get it done.

the vacuum lines are in the engine bay. locate your engine air filter, after the filter you should see your mass airflow sensor sitting on an intake pipe that runs to your throttle body. my vacuum lines originate from the intake pipe and go to various parts of the metal intake manifold and pcv system. I have a 96 legacy so I'm sure there are differences

more testing on jack stands! seems that without the TCU connected I have SLIGHTLY more rear wheel drive , I'd say it takes around 5 more pounds of pressure to stop the rear wheels than with the TCU connected. at all times the front spins faster than the rear could a combination of old ring seals and 1mm play in mpt clutch be enough to cause the limited amount of rear wheel spin? when the TCU is connected and in (1)st gear I get LESS rear wheel spin than when in (D)rive.

if a new mpt clutch was installed dry and only got atf when the trans was refilled could it cause ware of the friction material and burn it up before its fully lubricated? I noticed that the FSM states atf to be applied before instillation and I don't remember winters auto putting atf on the mpt before installing it

can anyone tell me if the tail section is supplied atf pressure from the main valve body or at oil pump? would blowing out the supply line to the tail section with compressed air do damage to anything?

are you talking about the valve body in the tail section? I'm talking about the main valve body that controls fluid pressure to the main trans cavity and clutches as well as the tail section and duty c.

thanks for the tip ivan when I install the new ring seals I will crack the drain pan and drop my valve body to take a look at the transfer pipe, the pipe in my trans tail section is brand new and firmly in place.

nope no grooving other than whats supposed to be there. ie the machined grooving on the aluminum.

fyi the import experts wanted $100 more than auto rocker for the same gates timing belt and bearing kit. oem water pump on the way! with plump new tail housing gaskets that might fix some of my wowes.

tube is held firmly in place my bolts no play. I know about the ring seals and will address those tonight when I have it apart but they looked good maybe tired but in tacked. at this point I'm thinking its a stuck valve in the valve body or a blockage between the valve body and clutch packs. i hooked up an oil pressure gauge and didn't get ANY response not even a twitch.... when I disconnected it I only saw ATF on the lip of the gauge fitting ie there was no pressure to force atf into the gauge fitting. so some atf was flowing through but no pressure built up not even 1psi..... off to picknpull for a valve body and another cv axle!

ROFL I'll call that a Freudian pun

I think there is a blockage in or between the control valve and the rear line pressure port for the mpt clutch. a new control valve assembly costs about $800 from subaruparts.com..... I hope I can clear whatever is blocking pressure, there is some fluid in the line but the oil pressure gauge remains at zero even at stall speeds..... what really grinds my gears is that subaru dealerships will not tell you what they will do to your car. you just have to give them money and prey WTF!!!!!!

I put all the parts back together with an oil pressure gauge in the proper port. I got SOME movement out of the rear wheels for the first time but could easily stop the drive shaft. the gauge remained at zero. so now to clear a line blockage? will call Subaru tomorrow.

subaru master tech said 1mm gap is fine and to check solenoid pressure first

I took feeler gauge apart and can only get 1mm of gap allowable is 1.6mm normal is 0.2mm to 0.6mm. I think I might be missing the ring seals.... are they embedded in the tail housing? part numbers would be much appreciated I'm looking now and will post if I find any also a point to a picture would be cool too. found ring seals they look tired but ok line pressure line pressure line pressure.....

that grooving looks gnarly if I can find a picknpull with less grooving would that be better than smoothing out the grooves? found test port on tail housing its at the far end of the fluid transfer pipe from the solenoid.

BAM I think its the pressure plate, I hope! the drive hub is connected to the front end and nothing has play, turns properly! I think the gap is around the 1.6mm allowable limit I can get a little more than 1mm of feeler gauges in between the snap ring and the pressure plate but its at a slight angle as the feeler gauge housing is bulky. hope I can get a larger pressure disk tomorrow W007! does anyone know what fitting size and where the pressure test port and gauge port are for checking fluid pressure to the clutch pack? I'm having trouble finding it in my FSM. Thanks

but first the transmission!

I hope so x.x why go to the machine shop? feeler gauges aren't that expensive tricky part is using a sub par straight edge that wobbles around but there are ways. does anyone know of a mechanics straight edge for under $50? I bet something like this would be fine its for snowboards but still precise and under $50 http://www.tognar.com/blacklight-true-bar-14-358mm/

is your brake fluid filled to max? I found that my calipers stick if I fill the reservoir all the way. I remedied this by filling it 3/4ths full and resetting the caliper pistons(pushing them back with a vice), no more light drag and an extra couple miles to the gallon, especially in the city I have also been thinking about cleaning my caliper pistons I have the time to take them off the car and sand out the innards with high grit goodness so its factory smooth again. I watched some net videos recently of people doing this and if properly put back together and bleed this looks like a win to me. rebuild seals run $5-10 for this job per caliper.... new calipers run about $50 so $40 and some elbow grease or $200 and some time saved..... depends on the person I guess. if I had the money I would just go get quality oem remans but I'm sure those run more than the $50 autozone/pepboys/oreilly specials.