I talked with a nice lady who is selling a Legacy. She has driven 8K miles with one new tire and 3 tires with 24K+ miles on them. What are the chances she toasted the tranny?

I talked with a nice lady who is selling a Legacy. She has driven 8K miles with one new tire and 3 tires with 24K+ miles on them. What are the chances she toasted the tranny?

 

Assuming the new tire wasn't shaved down, it's better chance an auto tranny cold have worn center diff clutch parts than a manual would have any issues. Also, there is a specific MY where they switched to a steel liner in the tailshaft. The older tranny may be close to needing a rebuild even without the tire issues.

 

maybe someone will reply that remembers when the AT got the steel liner.

 

Carl

I talked with a nice lady who is selling a Legacy.

 

What year? What tranny? How many miles? What color is it? Details, details, details!

1995 Legacy, 154K miles. Haven't seen it. 3 hour drive from my house. Trying to decide if worth the drive...thats 3 hours each way! They say they haven't done a tranny service any time in the last year or two. Not sure when last done. automatic, obviously.

So the 1996 has a steel liner in the tailshaft?

Midwst,

 

Daddy said it best...."When in doubt..don't." There have been enough threads on this topic to convince the wary that you should look for another car, unless you can absolutely steal this one. Its not worth taking a chance IMHO.

My tranny was toasted by running for 14K miles with mismatched tires. I think 8K is enough to do damage...especially if only one is mismatched

I'm not telling you to run out and buy this car, but buying a used car is always a gamble- even if you know the exact history of the car, that doesn't mean you'll know the future of it either.

 

My wife bought a new imprezza back in 96. every 12-18 months, that car seemed to have an unrepairable flat. at one point, it had 4 different tires, with 4 different tread depths. The only time it had 4 tires the same was for the first 10k miles. we sold the car at 75k miles without knowing the implications of tire circumference- but no problems at all with the car.

 

Our 00 forester has had a mismatched tire for the past 10-15k miles or so (I've lost track) and so far so good. Take this story for what it is- a story. Either we're lucky, or there's more to this tire spec than meets the eye.

 

If you like this car, I'd explain the tire spec and the possible damage and negotiate some discount. Consider the discount you get on the car an insurance policy if transmission damage should occur. if you knock $1000 off, that's $1000 towards the repair if/when it should occur. IF not, it's a $1000 windfall.

I'm not telling you to run out and buy this car, but buying a used car is always a gamble- even if you know the exact history of the car, that doesn't mean you'll know the future of it either.

 

My wife bought a new imprezza back in 96. every 12-18 months, that car seemed to have an unrepairable flat. at one point, it had 4 different tires, with 4 different tread depths. The only time it had 4 tires the same was for the first 10k miles. we sold the car at 75k miles without knowing the implications of tire circumference- but no problems at all with the car.

 

Our 00 forester has had a mismatched tire for the past 10-15k miles or so (I've lost track) and so far so good. Take this story for what it is- a story. Either we're lucky, or there's more to this tire spec than meets the eye.

 

If you like this car, I'd explain the tire spec and the possible damage and negotiate some discount. Consider the discount you get on the car an insurance policy if transmission damage should occur. if you knock $1000 off, that's $1000 towards the repair if/when it should occur. IF not, it's a $1000 windfall.

 

This is a good suggestion print out some of the scarier threads about the issue, then explain that you wouldn't expect to get the entire cost of a repair taken off. I bet they'll go for it.

 

Carl

Car is a long way from home. Not sure I'm williing to do the 6 hour drive to find out....