jeelanik

My car steering got hard. I took it to a mechanic and he said the harmonic balancer is missing. Is it so fragile that it can just fall off. He is charging $250 for the part. Is this for real. What is harmonic balancer and how I can pro-actively maintain it in the future.

Thanks for your inputs. Very useful. I was told by a friend that Subaru does not support synthetic. Is this true. Based on Chip's reply - this seems to be a rumour. Question for Chip. Did you change your differential too. Any idea's on the cost for Mobil synthetic/good place(stores?) to buy it

have a 98 Legacy that I am thinking of buying. I am used to driving Toyota and Honda and am spoilt by the smooth gear shifts (auto). While driving the subaru, I noticed not so smooth upsift only from the 1st to the 2nd shift - a slight jerk pushing forward. This does not occur during down shift. The rest of the shiftsare smooth. I took it to a transmission shop and he said the transmission looks ok. I have noticed though that upon accelaration, if I accelarate more - the slightly hard upshift is not there. This upshift occurs only when I start slow. Also, when I let the car to be idle on start up to 20 minutes, the upshift becomes slightly better. I like this car apart from upshift problem. I have a whiplash problem and just do'nt want it to reccur as I fear it might if this upshift is present. If I get rid of this upshift, all is well. Thank you.