nipper

Ooooo nice to know about the honda transmissions. Welcome. nipper

If it went away, it could be the road surface is slick and allowing for the tires to slip a bit. The only things that make it go away is what you said or replacing the clutches. nipper

Aftermarket tranny coolers are good, just dont buy cheap. nipper

well the easiest way to damage a tranny is to overheat it, IE trailer towing. i tell anyone who is going to tow to instally a trannny cooler and a tranny temp gauge. Watch the gauge, change the tranny fluid once a year depending how often your towing, and you should be fine. nipper

heheh im not sure how mechanical the poster is, so i kept it simple i figured anyone can handle squirting water on a belt. nipper

First thing First. Under the hood you have a fuse holder marked FWD on the passenger side toward the firewall. PLace a fuse in there (this deactivates the AWD) and see if it goes away. Yes it can happen more on one turn then the other in the very begining. My OBW was like that for some reason. Do the fuse thing and reprt back nipper

its a sort of traction control. It holds the car in gear, may be 2nd or third, as im not sure. It keeps the wheels from spinning. Best way to find out is to press the button and take off from a dead stop and see how the car performs.nipper

i assumed he meant the universal joint in the steering shaft, but that would happen in all conditions if it was that. GM had a HUGE problem with steering racks that would bind in cold weather untill the PS fluid warmed up the internal of the racks. What is happening is that the seals inside the rack are shrinking or are brittle in cold weather. This is allowing the PS fluid to leak pass the seals, and esentially, you have manual steering. Once the seals warm up and become pliable, you have full boost. i bet the binding feels the same as if you were trying to turn the wheel with the car off. nipper

Go to the yellow pages and look up driveshaft shops. I had the universal replaced in my driveshaft for 125.00, so i am sure they have a way of fixing this. May take a few phone calls, otherwise your going to have to go to a junkyard. nipper

Try the following (since i cant be there to hear the noise) If you can get the car to start, look at all rotating parts in the front end. Check your PS fluid level first. Turn on the AC and make sure everything is rotating at the same speed as the belt driving it. Next Spay some water on the belts to see if it has any effect on the noise. Take a long screwdriver and carefully put the handle to your ear as you put the other end to the alternator housing, AC compressor housing, and PS housing. IF you cant hear the noise out of any of these three this way, you have to assume its deeper in the engine. Waterpumps rarely make a noise before they go, and if the do usually it means they are going to self destruct in the next 5 minutes. If all the other tests pass, i would agree with the others as it being a timing belt drive issue. How many miles are on this car? nipper

If you mean a dead duty c solenoid, you basically are going to or have fried the AWD clutch drive and possibly the case that holds it together. The duty c solenoid has to be energized to shut off the AWD. Whats going to happen is not going to be pretty inside the tail end of the tranny. Why do you think the Duty C Solenoid is dead? nipper

Look up torque bind, but the first thing they are all going to tel you is flush the tranny, 90% of the time it fixes it. nipper

i think your buddy is dead on and the dealer is yanking you. O2 sensors are replaced all the time, the trick is to have the exhaust warm and be careful you dont burn yourself. External leaks if its not pouring out dont sweat it. You know you have it and understand how to deal with it. Just add premix AF and youll be golden. nipper

Altenators get VERY hot from power generation. This is normal. They can get 200 degrees f or higher. A hot altenator is a working altenator. Heat is a waste product of power generation. Here is an example http://www.delcoremy.com/Alt24SI.aspx Also i am seeing over temp shutdown on the altenators set at 225 degrees F. Alot of mechancial parts run hot, water pump, oil pump, your engine, the trannny can have incredibly high spot temperitures for seconds when clutches engage. Your brakes get incredibly hot too. nipper

er um hate to give you bad news, but that is a typical sign of a bad rack. Its dangerous and needs to be fixed. Does it do it when its warm out? nipper

im not clear on whats not turning, the spedo drive gear in the tranny? if thats what not turning, they are easy to replace as they are nylon gears and do sometimes strip. nipper

Physically inspect the knock sensor. i bet it is broken, and i would just replace it anyway as its not that expensive. i dont condone repalcing parts for the sake of replacing parts, but thats what i suspect. The knock sensor's job is to keep that from happening. nipper

a PS ... the subaru exhaust system is suprisingly easy to work on. At that price they arent talking a cat i dont think, it sounds way too low. They mautsbe talking other pipes, which again you can get alot cheaper at an independent (non chain) auto parts store, and get walker pipes. Another solution is to get all the parts yourself and have somone put them in for you, that will cut down the bill by 1/3. nipper

Replace the radiator yourself, its easy and alot cheaper then what the dealership is quoting. i get mine from www.radiator.com . i never heard of replacing the radiator and HG unless the is oil in the antifreeze. How many miles are on the car.

Just ruling out a computer problem. Manually shifting the car overrides the computer. Have you checked the tranny fluid level and condition?

Does the car act the same if it is shifted manually? nipper

The good boots doesnt rule out the cv joints totally. Its still posible that a cv joint is going bad, but less likely. With the front wheels off the ground, turn the wheel to the point where you would here the noise. Now turn each wheel by hand. They should feel the same (im not sure if it will be a smooth movement.. i think it should be) Listen carefully, but more so listen with your hands .. see if you can feel a differnce. Another thig to try is to have the tires rotated and see if it moves. nipper

Damn no reson to be so testy about it ... not all of us own subarus with that button, some of us have to make educated guesses. So all your saying is that the manual button locks out 1st gear. Thats not hard to say. The button does what starting off in D2 does in other transmissions. Now hearing this, instead of recaping what a button does, i am getting the feeling that the transmission computer has an issue. Since engaging this button, all works fine, and this button is electrical, and has no effect on the manual operation of the transmission, but seems to have an effect on the computer. i would still get my hands on a manual first, and take an ohm meter and make sure all the solenoids work. If they all work then i would replace the TCU. nipper

Check the tires for broken belts and inspect the front wheel bearings and cv joints. Could be a cv joint starting to seize. nipper

Some people are so paranoid. I think its the ignitor. The ignitor can drive you up the wall with something like this, i know i had it happen to me, then i just said screw it, let me try it (everything else checked out). The problem went away. nipper