Hello, I am the owner of a 2004 Legacy. My wife complains about poor gas mileage, a friend of mine told me that by removing a fuse you can trick the transmission into "2wd" fwd mode...

 

Has anyone else heard of this and will it hurt anything? We live in Syracuse NY so we need the AWD in the winter, but in the summer the MPG is killing us.

 

Thanks Very Much,

 

Eddie

actualy it's puting a fuse in and it's in the engine bay in the fusebox in there but that is sat up for so that mechanics can run it in 2wd for testing some stuff but I don't know if it will harm the system or what but hopefuly someone more knowledgable will post soon

Prolonged use of the 2WD fuse has the potential to cause problems. Additionally, the mileage gains are slim to none. This has been a pretty constant discussion on the board.

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=33533&highlight=2wd+fuse

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=16339&highlight=2wd+fuse

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=12485&highlight=2wd+fuse

if left in 2wd, which is for towing purposes, it will eventually fry the solinoid that controls the center diff and make the car fwd for good. i dont reccomend driving far with it like that. there are a few that have done it and not had any issues, but it is more likely to burn out. putting the fuse in puts the solinoid into 100% or somthing like that, basically turnes on the center diff all the way an disconeects the rear out put from the tranny. something like that anyways.