cegli

Thanks for the help! Sadly, getting new parts in Canada is pretty much not an option with the prices here. It's an extra $147.95 to ship those struts to Canada! Everything is all fixed now and the car is driving! Here's what happened: I went back to the junkyard and grabbed another strut. The one I first grabbed was definitely frozen. I compressed the spring on the new one, pushed down on it with my hands and it decended (probably needed about 100lbs to get it to go), and quickly went back up. Seems like a sign of a good strut to me. In contrast, the other one wouldn't budge an inch, and dead ones can stay down when compressed. The good junkyard strut I pulled was a KYB strut, which was interesting because it was 1" longer than the OEM struts. Luckily once installed, it has roughly the same ride height. To get the longer strut in, I had to use all of the tricks you guys listed. Here's what I did: 1. Put the top in and did the 3 bolts loosely. 2. Undid the end-link. 14mm bolt, should come out pretty easily. Gave me a lot more downward room. I definitely recommend doing this to make your life easier. 3. Put two spring compressors on and tightened them most of way down. 4. Put the jack upside down between the trailing arm and the body and jacked it a bit to give me extra room. 5. Muscled the bottom part into place. Had to stick a screw driver through the bottom holes at one point to help me twist it. 6. Now the two bottom bolt holes were roughly 1" off, so I used a jack to jack up the whole assembly, which compressed the strut about 1". 7. I put two jack stands with a beefy wrench across them so it would catch the bottom of the strut when I lowered the jack. 8. Lowered the jack. Now the strut was held compressed an inch against the wrench held by two jack stands, while the rest of the rear lowered down into place. 9. Used a big C-Clamp to push the strut and drum together, because it wouldn't move with all the strut compression force. 10. Bolted it all up, and drove it! Thanks so much everyone, couldn't have done it without all the extra suggestions. I also learned this seems like a much easier job with rear discs. Practiced a bit on a junkyard car with discs, and it was super easy. The junk-yard car with drums was just like mine, such a pain to get it in place. One last question! Rear-alignment? I really don't know anything about how it works. Everything looks and drives pretty good, but the back left tire (the one with the new strut) looks like it's tilted slightly inward. Is there an adjustment for this, or is this just a consequence of the longer strut?

Thanks for the info! Back to the junkyard I go... Luckily there was one more Legacy there, hopefully its struts are in better shape...

Awesome, you guys have been super helpful. I think I've gleaned the following: 1. I should be able to move this strut with the spring compressed, so my junkyard strut is junk. 2. Putting a tire iron through the mounting holes and twisting might let me muscle it the last 8 degrees into place. 3. Removing the end-link/anti-roll bar might give me some more room. 4. Putting a jack betwen the frame and the rear trailing link might give me some more room? Is that what you meant "1 lucky texan"? My friend was also mentioning it's possible I twisted the strut mount a little bit when trying to put it in, and that's why it's about 8 degrees off. He said I could use a spring compressor and rotate it back into place. Then maybe everything would fit. Seems like another good idea.

Hi John, Luckily, I pulled the strut myself, so I'm sure it's from the correct side. It's not way off, it's almost as if I could twist it ~8 degrees it would be there. The fit is really tight. If I could give myself a bit more room to work in there, I feel like I could get it in... Could removing the end-link help give me some extra room? Interesting to know it's hard to compress a good strut. Maybe the junk-yard strut is fine, and something in my car is just a little bent? Anyway to test the health of a strut that's been removed from vehicle?

I was driving a very rough 250km logging road last weekend, with my rusty beater '99 Legacy and my back left strut literally exploded. The boot ripped apart, the part where it plunges in and out came apart, so it was lying at an angle almost touching my tire. I managed to get it home and remove the blown strut. If anyone else is doing this, watch out, because there is nothing keeping the spring compressed once you undo the strut! I had to use a spring compressor to keep the spring from shooting out at max speed. Old Strut: http://imgur.com/7tm3QX1 I live in Canada, so buying all the new parts would cost about $200.00, as opposed to $40.00 from Amazon. The shipping also takes forever here. I pulled a decent looking one from a junkyard for $30.00, fully assembled and tried to put it in yesterday. I think there are two problems: 1. I think this junkyard strut I got might be frozen. If I compress the spring with a spring compressor, I can't get the strut itself to move at all. Should I be able to push down on it hard when the spring is compressed and get it to move? 2. If I put the strut in and do the top 3 bolts loosely, I can't get the bottom to line up sideways with the bottom bolts. It looks like this (sorry for the poor drawing) Drawing: http://imgur.com/niqNlv6 ^The bottom of the strut is too far to the left. If I try and squeeze it in there to line up with the bottom bolts first, I can't get the top bolts to go quite right into their spot. It's a bit too tight, and the angle seems off by a degree or two. Do I need to remove something else? Am I right that the junkyard strut might be frozen? Was thinking of getting a different one tomorrow. Any help would be amazing! Oh yeah, I have drums in the back, if that matters.

Fixed it! I just went to a junk yard, grabbed another TCU for $50.00 from almost the same exact car (99 legacy 30th anniversary, mine is a brighton se). Cleared all check engine codes, and plugged the new one in. That was it, good to go from there! Just took a 45 minute drive with no issues, smooth shifting. Haven't taken it on the highway yet, but so far so good. So my advice if you get an "AT Oil Temp" code would be to double check the solenoids resistance from the TCU plugs. If it is within range, try replacing the TCU first. It's way cheaper and it's only 2 screws and 2 bolts away! Edit: As a side note, I did pull apart the original TCU, which is quite easy. It is relatively user serviceable if you know your electronics. It looks like a standard double sided PCB, with a big row of transistors, and the main chip in the center, etc. All of mine looked good, but if you blew out a transistor, would be easy to replace if you knew your way around a soldering iron.

Ugggh, I am now officially going crazy. The voltage to the dropping resistor is perfect with the accelerator pressed, and depressed. The voltage to the solenoid measures perfectly from the tcm. The resistance of the whole loop of for the solenoid is perfect, the ground is also correct (<0.03ohms). So basically, the solenoid, tcm and grounds measure correctly in the full loop. That leaves me with two possibilities? 1. The TCM is broken and is detecting the circuit incorrectly, causing it to shift into safe mode (only gears 1 and 3) for no reason. 2. The solenoid is actually broken, but it's resistance is still fine. Can this even happen? 3. The TCM is putting out the wrong code and something else is broken. I guess I should measure all the other solenoids again too... Anyone have any ideas? I'm losing my mind. Wish I had a TCU to swap in quick. Anyone in Vancouver, BC have a 99-04 subaru that I can do a quick swap with?

Okay, thanks for the help guys. Scratch everything I've said above. It looks like the FSM is showing the pinout for the wrong end of the plug... That's why it was so confusing. I found a "DIAGNOSTICS SECTION" on the internet that my manual didn't have, and it has been incredibly helpful. It has a full schematic of the connections from the TCM to the transmission: I checked the connections at the TCM: A17 -> A8 = 13ohms (dropping resistor) b19 -> a8 = 3.6ohms (solenoid) uh oh! They both measure correctly! Now I definitely have doubts about the TCM! Good call johnceggleston. I am going to check the voltage from the TCM to the solenoid after this. The diags say it's suppose to be 1.5v-4v with no throttle, and 1v with throttle. I feel I may find it is 0v, thus showing that the TCM blew out a transistor. If I'm really lucky, I will be able to see the bad transistor and replace it. Anyone know what the TCM looks like under the silver case? Is it worth pulling apart? johnceggleston, you sound like you may have looked at one before on the inside, considering you said you've seen scorch marks? I'm not sure how user serviceable they are, but will keep this thread updated. Thanks for the help everyone!

I've checked all the current/past codes and all I've got is the "Code 76", which is the same as the one solenoid I measured that was shorted. I checked the transmission pan and it looks fine. The TCU under the dash could be a good thing to check. I haven't been through any high water, but I do think I might have a leak somewhere, because the floors are damp. That was my next thing to check out after this... The one thing that gives me a bit of confidence in the TCU is the fact that it is correctly outputting the code for the blown solenoid, and the fact that the car still drives if I ignore the fact I'm missing two gears. If the TCU were to blow, what would be the symptoms? I would think the car wouldn't drive at all, or give off a bunch of codes, but maybe I'm wrong... Thanks for the help!

I'm a car noob, but have been learning a bunch about them in the past month. I'm a computer engineer, so I like to mess around with things, and have done so since I was little. Anyway, I have a 1999 Legacy Brighton SE. It has a 4EAT and right now has a constantly flashing "AT Oil Temp" Light, that came on randomly on the highway. I've left it parked since then. Whenever I turn the car on, it starts flashing again and never stops. I noticed while driving it home, it seems to go straight from 1st to 3rd gear, and never go into 4th/overdrive. Besides that, everything feels fine. I did the magic handshake to get the code off (found here: http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/99-do-yourself-illustrated-guides/44383-199-2004-how-read-diagnostic-trouble-codes-dtcs.html), and it's a code 76, which means " 2-4 brake duty solenoid. Detects open or shorted output signal circuit." I pulled off the air intake duct/chamber, and unplugged the transmission control unit's plug, and did some quick tests based of the factory service manual. Here are the two things of interest from the fsm: One thing I noticed was that there are 3 pins missing on the male end of the plug. 2 are listed as not connected in the FSM, but the other is listed as the "Torque Converter Turbine Speed Sensor". There is not even a wire running to that spot, so I can only assume my model does not have one. Edit: Removed most of my incorrect troubleshooting. Would just confuse people in the future There are two typos in the FSM. First off there are two pin 6's on the manual. The ground should be labeled "16". Second off, the picture makes it look like you can measure from the female side of the harness. This measures back towards the TCU and won't work at all. You want the male side (which is incredibly hard to reach). It's much easier to pull the plugs out of the TCU and probe from there. The TCU plugs are b54 and b55 in the DIAGNOSTICS section of the FSM.