SteveHeinz

Just wanted to let Wayne know this one has a happy ending. We scheduled an appointment with the best foreign auto repair folks on town which didn't happen until today. My son had been driving the car on a daily basis for the last 10 days. I drove it about 15 miles to the repair place, and checked the torque binding symptom when I was almost there. No bucking, in fact, no shudder even when turning and accelerating normally into traffic. Had the repair place check it out, and the technician could get it to shudder with the wheel full over and accelerating. We put it on the lift, and I had him change the transmission fluid. It appeared that this had never been done, as it came out very dark. It had not looked so bad when I had checked it before. We went for another test drive and you had to have the wheel full over and really get on it to get any kind of shutter at all. Based on what you told me and what I read on the boards that you referred me to, I think the bucking was caused by a combination of the car being driven infrequently - and then with the breaker in for 2 wheel drive - along with old transmission fluid. He's going to drive it, and at his next oil change have our normal mechanic use his equipment which can take out all the old transmission fluid, and then replace that. Thanks for giving me a chance to deal with this one intelligently.

Just helped my son buy a 96 Legacy wagon 2.2 automatic. 121K miles, runs great, body in fine shape, no problems with the test drive - paid $3750. Seemed too good to be true. After driving the car awhile, we realized that the car bucks if you accelerate and turn at the same time. It's an intermittant problem, usually it does fine if you really start off gently even while turning. The problem feels like it's in the rear differential. Found some post here describing this problem as 'viscous binding' whatever that is. The car dealer who sold us the car said that they all do that, and that he had driven it wih the fuze in that disables the rear differential, but that's a little much to swallow. Dad's feeling kind of bad about this one after doing the standard transmission ckecks and not seeing the problem. We're on the local Subaru dealer's schedule for next week, but would appreciate any ideas on what we might expect to hear problem and repair cost wise. Any good questions to ask while we're there?