just wanted to share an unexpected solution to the issues I was facing in my wife's subaru.

 

like the title states, the 4eat in her 03 legacy with 100k on it was performing terribly. it would shift up into 4th while driving up hills and many times bog itself into a higher gear and run just over 1000rpm when you would need power out of it.

 

well, I went down to rick's shop (general disorder) to buy a new battery as it was having trouble starting and the clock and trip odo were resetting by themselves. when I pulled the battery out, Rick saw that the neg. battery terminal was cracked. he soldered in a new one and the car runs perfectly now. stays right at 3000 rpm when climbing hills and no more random upshifts.

 

just thought I'd share as I hear people complaining about shifting problems in the 4eat every so often. in my over 10 years of driving subarus I've always had a 5mt, so I was just gonna drain and fill a few times with high dollar ATF and replace the filter. glad I didn't and hopefully this may help someone out in the future!

Yeah, having good ground cables is pretty important.  I helped a friend out with an AT code he was having on his first gen legacy.  The ground strap from the chassis to the trans was broken.  We fixed it, and the code went away.

Load, Ground, Power.  The three keys to a good electrical circuit.

 

Check out the Load Pro.  www.brighterideas.com

 

Dan has some great electrical troubleshooting videos on youtube as well.  Search LoadPro.

 

Larry