I recently put a fuse in my daughters 96 imprezza (to make it fwd) for a short term fix till she could afford new matching tires. Reading through all the older posts regarding awd and mismatched tires, I'm not sure if I'm causing more damage or not by doing this. Does using the fwd option help avoid damage to the transmission or does it cause damage by being used iappropriatly?

Thanks, Bob

Don't do it forever. If you have to do it until you get the money together for new tires, it outta be ok.

Over extended use of the FWD fuse can possibly lead to premature failure of the duty c solenoid. You should be alright for now, but I would try to scrape together the money for tires as soon as you can.

How do you do this? Where is this fuse?

On the older models the fuse holder is next to the passenger strut tower in the engine bay.

 

On the newer models I believe it's in the fuse box in the engine bay.

Was visiting a friend in Ft Myers Beach about 4 months ago and his 97 Outback has the torque bind issue. Been thru the dealer thing about 4 times and it just returns. When I was there, I did some reading on the board here and the opinions were somewhat mixed as far as exactly what "long term" is and what type of damage will result. (was concerned about him driving it back to PA with the fuse in)

 

Regardless, I put the fuse in for him and he was RELIEVED to have it stopped. Shortly after that, he moved back to PA to his summer home driving I95 the whole way and has been driving with it in for at least the last 2 months with NO problems or issues to speak of. When I went to visit, just to see what would happen, we pulled the fuse. Torque Bind was obviously still there but after about 20 miles of driving, was clearly no worse than when we originally put the fuse in. He is leaving for his annual trip to Thailand in a couple of days but I just spoke to him and he now has his eye on the Tribeca.

On his 97 Outback, it is easy to find. Looking under the hood, look just right of the passenger side strut tower. Sticks up out of no where. Black with white writing, FWD. Pop the cover and stick in the fuse. (15 amp I think)

Over extended use of the FWD fuse can possibly lead to premature failure of the duty c solenoid. You should be alright for now, but I would try to scrape together the money for tires as soon as you can.

 

but wouldn't mismatched tires cause that as well?

but wouldn't mismatched tires cause that as well?

 

No.

No.

 

but unmatched tires may be different physical sizes which would cause awd problems.

but wouldn't mismatched tires cause that as well?

 

Mis match tires can cause torque bind due to wheel speed differences. Torque bind when left alone I think is more likely to cause issues to the clutch plates, rather then the duty c solenoid, but I can't say for sure that the duty c solenoid wouldn't be affected by driving extended periods with mismatched tires.

Mis match tires can cause torque bind due to wheel speed differences. Torque bind when left alone I think is more likely to cause issues to the clutch plates, rather then the duty c solenoid, but I can't say for sure that the duty c solenoid wouldn't be affected by driving extended periods with mismatched tires.

 

 

so i keep rpetending that know what the duty c selonoid does...but i don't

 

 

 

 

 

 

and no.. i havn't done a forum search for it.

Basically it controls the amount of lockup on the rear clutch plates....so essentually controlling AWD.

 

Check out these scans, they may explain it better.

http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8080/subaru_manual_scans/FSM_Scans/AWD_transfer_system1.jpg

http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8080/subaru_manual_scans/FSM_Scans/AWD_transfer_system2.jpg

http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8080/subaru_manual_scans/FSM_Scans/AWD_transfer_system3.jpg