Muskiefshr

I’m fairly sure that Subaru reversed the wiring only for the 2004 transmissions. That’s what most of the subaru guys have been telling me. I know the 2002 and 2003 transmissions I have are wired the same.

So an update. I have messed with the car this week have have no fix yet for the issues. One of the things I did was unplug the resistor under the hood. When I did that, the AT fluid temp light would blink, and it would only shift in first and second gear. I also replaced the resistor with one from a 2004 3.0 car…no change or improvement. I then started swapping TCM’s. I have one from a 2004 3.0 non-VDC sedan, a 2003 2.5 4 cylinder, and a 2002 3.0 VDC car. Tried all of them and there was no improvement on my issues.The only thing I swapped when I changed transmissions was the center diff and I had to swap the trans wiring harness because the one on my replacement trans got a little scorched in the fire. I’m starting to wonder if there is an issue with that wiring harness or the wiring harness in the car. Going to continue to investigate those avenues. But the car is really starting to frustrate me.And in case anyone is curious, I did swap the VDC TCM into my non-VDC car and tried it. The non-VDC TCM has 2 plugs versus the 3 on the VDC car. You can plug the two into two of the connections. However when I started the car, I had a CEL, AT fluid temp light, and both the P light and 2 light were illuminated. As soon as I would shift out of park the car would die. It did not like that TCM obviously so I disconnected that one right away!

I’m pretty cheap as far as service goes, so I will do absolutely everything I can before I take it somewhere. Plus most of the shops near me are rip off places that don’t have very reputable reviews.

No dents in the pan. Pan is pretty much like brand new. And filter and filter screen are new as well.

So a few things I can answer right away. 1. I’m 99% positive the final drive matches the rear diff. Both cars are H6 3.0 cars and as I understand, Subaru always ran the 4.11 in all H6 cars. The only difference is my car is a 2003 and the donor car is a 2002. I am not getting any weird torque binding or noises from the rest of the drivetrain as well. 2. The MPT center diff that I swapped onto the VDC trans looked like it was practically brand new. The clutch pac had virtually no wear and the bearing spun smoothly. I doubt the center diff is my issue but I can’t completely rule it out. 3. not sure why miles are so low. I ran a car fax and it seems legit. Also the rest of the car looks like a low mile Subaru. The car fax showed that the car only did 26k miles up until 2018. The rest of the miles were put on after that with a different owner. 4. I wasn’t able to pull any codes with my scan tool, stored or current. No warning lights illuminated as well. 5. If I manually shift, it’s not nearly as bad with the bang shift. But it still isn’t great. The 2-3 slip is still there with manual shifting, which leads me to believe that is in the trans. The bang shift is my big concern. I am going to try swapping the TCM from my parts car, but I don’t think it will work. The parts car is VDC and mine isn’t, which I believe the VDC was a totally different TCM. If I can swap it just to see if it remedies my bang shift, that would be a plus though! I’m still in the dark as to what that resistor does but I’ll mess with that too… it’s certainly easy enough to get to.

So I’m surprised this hasn’t mentioned this yet, but how are the idler and tensioner bearings on the serpentine belt drive? They are notorious for failing and making noise on the H6’s. Pull the seep belt off and start it to see if the noise goes away. If the bearings are bad, you can replace just the bearing in the on those metal pulleys.

Okay…so I’m starting to get at wits end with this car. The car is a 2003 Outback 3.0 H6 non-VDC car with only 68k miles. Being a forest green color car and such low miles and clean, I really want to get the car sorted out. My problem is a Violent 4-3 bang shift. Bad enough that if your going over 45 mph and you 3/4 throttle to floor it to pass/accelerate, it feels and kinda sounds like I got rear ended and will actually chirp the tires. I can’t live with this out here in the mountains in Utah as I’m afraid the trans will kill itself going up a grade one of these days. Here’s what I have done so far to try to remedy the bang shift. I changed the trans fluid and added trans x to the new fluid…no change in performance. Did the battery disconnect thing to clear the TCU…still no change. Replaced battery and tested alternator(tested good, 13.9v steady)…no change. Replaced the TPS sensor with a brand new Subaru OEM sensor…no change. Then, I found a 2002 OB H6 VDC car that had an interior fire with 160k miles on it. I pulled the trans from it, swapped the center diff on the VDC trans from the VTD one to the MPT one, installed into my 03 with new ATF fluid and a half bottle of trans x, and still no change with the bang shift. On top of that, the ‘new’ trans I installed now slips on the 2-3 up shift. I’m guessing the used trans I installed is probably not healthy due to the 2-3 slip, but for both transmissions to have the same violent 4-3 bang shift seems unusual to me. I’m wondering what your guys thoughts might be. My girl literally wants me just to part the car out but it’s hard to give up on a clean, low miles Outback. I know it’s uncommon, but could I have a bad TCU? I get no codes or lights with either transmission. Also I’ve been reading about the resistor on the passenger side strut tower…what does that control in the transmission? Could that be an issue?

Yeah, pretty much the same stuff I’ve been reading. I think what I’m going to try for the sake of getting a running driving car with the parts I have is swap the MPT center diff into the VDC trans to hopefully get a working trans. I know it won’t be as good as the VDC diff, but it will work and still have AWD capabilities. I haven’t pulled the pans yet to compare electronics on the valve body, but everything I read online and looking at the external wiring says that it should be compatible. I’ll keep all the VDC parts on the shelf and try to salvage as much of the VDC components out of the burned car as I can. Maybe one day I’ll tackle a full VDC swap.

So I did a little more work in the shop last night on the transmissions. The extension housings are different but have the same bolt pattern on both transmissions. The main shaft coming out of the trans is actually a short, splined stub shaft that pops out with some gentle prying. I can definitely swap the entire center differentials. However, I’m curious if there would be an advantage to keeping the VDC center diff.

The downshift flare was worst at around 40-50mph. It basically slips on the 4-3 downshift. I can see the revs go up higher for about a second or two then actually go down when it bangs into third. It would also take around 5-7seconds to actually go into gear when shifting from park into drive or reverse. I did the battery disconnect and replaced the TPS sensor with a brand new OEM Subaru one. Did not help. I believe that there is something either going on with the pump in the trans or the torque converter. I know the 6-cylinder 4EAT is a bit of a sloppy shifter, but this one definitely has some bigger issues. I’ve had a couple of these 3.0 OB’s and while none shifted great, none of them shifted this bad either.

So what would happen if I installed the VDC trans with the VDC center diff in my non-VDC car? It appears the the speed sensor and reluctance wheel are exactly the same on both transmissions. Not sure what the sensor on the center diff is, but it also looks the same. And as far as I can tell, all the other trans electronics are the same.

Okay folks, this is my first post here. I’m pretty familiar with 2nd gen outback’s but automatic transmissions are not something I’m super familiar with. Here’s what I’m trying to do…I have a 2003 OB 3.0 H6 non-VDC car that has 68k miles on it. Even with the low miles, the transmission has a violent 4-3 bang shift, bad enough it will chirp the tires. As I live in Utah, this isn’t something I want to live with in the mountains. I did a service and added trans-medic but had no difference on the performance. I found a 2001 OB 3.0 H6 VDC car with 165k miles that unfortunately had an interior fire. I got the car super cheap and it ran and drove well and had a lot of good parts on it. So here is my questions…is it possible to swap the center differentials out? What activates the VDC on that transmission? I took the tail housings off both transmissions and they are quite different. It appears that there are parts to each different system pressed onto the transmission main shaft.What do you guys think I should do here? I don’t want any weird flashing lights on the dash…just a working trans and AWD.