emurray

There are now three, two in Oregon and one in Texas and all older than the one I've got. Since I'm in New York I can't really consider them. Thanks for the heads up, anyway. Erik

Right, I found it immediately instead of the sensor I was looking for. I was a little unclear there. That's why it was so bizarre that a mechanic would tell me he couldn't find it , knowing I also worked on my cars to some extent. This is the RHD mail car I mentioned in another thread. Before going out with the mail today I was looking at the cable and base part and it looks as someone was there before me. The little clip was not in place and the cable housing end was slightly angled. Taking it apart, the cable housing end is a bit worse for wear but it all seems pretty simple. I didn't see any reason why it wouldn't work *except* for the fact that the cable itself seemed to pull freely from the firewall end. 2 hours later after fussing with this outside in a snowstorm: The cable is fine on both ends. The drill makes the needle move on the dash both direct to cable and with base attached to cable. After a few tries thinking things might not be seated properly I checked the slotted part in the transmission. I turned it gently with a screwdriver and it turns freely. I take it this means something is broken. It does not turn on it's own with the jacked up front wheel going. From other threads I have seen that this is a take apart the transmission job. Is this gear in there something that wears out under normal circumstances? I can't think of a way someone could break it accidentally. Erik

Thank you, I saw one of those threads but not the other and your references to that base piece in various places. I now have some hope of this solving my problems and intended to start there when I get a chance today. I was previously confused by posts about the later model sensors and went looking yesterday to find the speedo cable instead. For some bizarre reason,my (ex) mechanic told me he couldn't find where the speedometer went into the transmission. He was acting really stumped and made some remark, almost joking, that he might have to remove the transmission. I said forget about it, at that point, not knowing about the sensor controlling various things. My fear now is finding that the part that cable base connects to, inside, is damaged. The only sense I can make of the guy's remarks at this point are that he damaged something or thinks he damaged something and has to remove the transmission to fix it and didn't want to eat the labor cost. I may send him a parting gift, for his information, of a picture of the speedometer base in position. Erik

My speedometer is not working. My AWD is not working. I get codes 32 and 33 for Vehicle Speed Sensors. I have searched out the information that these speed sensors are in the dash with the speedometer. There is a mechanical cable from the transmission. Does getting these TCU trouble codes mean the sensors are bad or is it possible they will work if a mechanical problem with the speedo is fixed? I take it I need to pull out the instrument panel, in any case. Can it be a coincidence that both mechanical and electrical parts have failed? Thanks for any knowledge or experience with this anyone could share. Erik

I installed a fuse temporarily with a small hope that things would snap back to normal when I took it out. It didn't work. Erik

I do check through those listings and looking back I wish I had pursued some of them that were reasonably nearby and reasonably priced. E

Welcome to the world of the mail carrier. The right front tire has to dig in and out of the shoulder of the road five hundred times a day. What I did was a tire rotation (on one side, not one new tire). In my experience (ten years with this car and a '95 my wife drove) it's not that sensitive. Periodically, I would get a couple of new tires, keeping the best on the front. The car has been great in all conditions and I've been out in everything the Northeast has to offer. Now it appears the vehicle speed sensors have gone buggy. The speedometer stopped last summer and a snowstorm made me realize I had no AWD. Thanks to this great community, I'm coming out of the darkness. E

For TCU trouble codes I get alternating 32 and 33 for Previous problems, Vehicle speed sensors 1 and 2. The existing problem sequence just evokes "normal" blinking. Do existing problems become previous after checking once? I think this is what happened as I ran through it again because I thought I didn't see it start. Do I replace these sensors now? Where are they? Erik

Thanks Skip, You are helping me come to understand this anyway. I'll look into the codes. E

I went out in the icy driveway and switched a better tire to right front. Also checked rear differential oil and it seems okay, at least in that there is oil in there and it is clean. In the coming week I'll try to get it to someone with the right test tools and ability to read them. Could it be that the circuit that had the Shift Lock/ brake pedal business needs to be complete for the AWD? Or is the dead speedometer related? On getting cars from RHD countries: What are the issues to make them legal here? I saw a website with lots of interesting used Japanese cars but they don't address the question. I bought a new Honda Element last year and learned that they make the RHD versions for Japan, in Canada. Of course no one at the dealership shows any interest in doing any more than asking somewhere and telling me "...not available". I wonder where Japanese Legacys are made and if any of these companies could be prevailed upon to release a car from the system to be used in the U.S. E

In a snow storm last week I realized my 94 RHD Legacy no longer had All Wheel Drive. I've been delivering mail with this car for the last ten years and it was disappointing, to say the least, to find myself with essentially a one wheel drive car. That right front wheel that has to dive into all the plowed up crap just spins by itself. The car has been falling apart as expected, I suppose, at 170,000 miles and not counting (The speedometer stopped working last year). I got it back from my now ex-mechanic with the Check engine light on and flashing Power light codes at me at start up. I was having a problem with it getting stuck in Park. The mechanic got a new solenoid for the shifter but it didn't work for the RHD. I got the car back with that business disengaged, which was fine with me as long as it would go in and out of Park. The mechanic did not know how to fix the speedometer. When he started talking about maybe removing the transmission I told him to forget about it. He admitted to nothing with regard to the Check Engine and error codes and said he would look at it. I have to wonder if something he did has buggered the AWD. He had the car one more time for rear wheel bearings but said nothing of the lights which were still on. Also, when I got it back this time the clock was flashing so I figure he had the battery disconnected in an attempt to reset things. He said nothing about it though. I know. I need a new mechanic. I put a fuse in the FWD spot temporarily and that seems to have reset the power light business but not the drive to the rear wheels. Check Engine is still on. Also, I had wondered if ex-mechanic didn't actually do wheel bearings because noise from the rear was still there. Rear differential? If that's the AWD problem it's shot, right? I haven't heard any noises that horrible though. My guess is the main problem is electronic as opposed to lack of any fluids, though I suspect that differential has been neglected. I plan to go to a new mechanic in the coming week but I'm afraid I may end up finding that I have to invest too much in this car. There's the emergency brake also not working and an impending front axle issue. If anyone is interested further in this mail carrier rant and rave I'll continue with the broader issue, the stupidity of the US Postal Service. Here's the ridiculous position I'm in. As a rural carrier I am expected to provide a vehicle to deliver the route. I get about $18 a day as vehicle allowance. Subaru no longer makes the RHD car available so I can't replace my car except by looking far and wide for a used one. Now the USPS is saying they are going to give us all, eventually, at an unspecified time, the boxy, rear wheel drive GM/Grumman thing they call LLV (long life vehicle). These things are useless in the snow. I'm all for not having to maintain a car for the job but not being able to deliver the mail mainly makes problems for me. Also, the LLV has no radio or air conditioning. They have begun assigning these things to routes, nation wide, but in my area only the shorter routes so far. We are constantly given safety talks and told to drive around all the time with lights and flashers but there are many carriers out there driving left hand drive cars from some other position inside. I have not done that for ten years and refuse to do it ever again. In order for me to have an adequate and safe vehicle for snow conditions I need to provide it at my own expense. Now Subaru and the others don't even offer a RHD and I can't even know when the unsafe Postal owned truck will be imposed upon me. When that happens we cannot refuse it. I know of a RHD Saturn I could buy but no AWD. That seems stupid. Erik