Here's a good story for you guys out there:

 

So I have a 96 OBW 2.5 w/ 4Eat.. notice foreshadow of the capital E. There's about 130k on the car.. The trans developes the typical torque bind stuff... no biggy... a couple of days later the trans decides its going to down shift when it wants too even under no throttle input. I'm thinking this is getting interesting.. another couple of days pass by and the trans decides its not going to up shift when it wants to.. only does it at like 4k RPM or so.. OK something is F'd up I say to myself... Trans fluid is nice and red .. doent smell bad

 

The so I make an appointment at local Sub dealer...they tells me,,, oh yeah ,, trans is smoked.. you got to get it rebuilt.. they didnt try to pull any codes or check pressures or anything like that,, a 2 min test ride and they new it all.. They estimated 2k-3500 at least!!

 

I call up my buddy who is a top rate mechanic and ask him if he can look at this for me to get a second opinion.. After a 2 min test ride and a good look to the trans fluid.. He says it's electronic... I park the car then proceed to D/L just about the whole Subaru Technical Info Site... Which was very helpful.. I read every thread in the board about transmissions, lots o good info!! I fealt confident we could rip the extension housing and valve body apart and fix this thing...

A few days later when I was able to book some time with my buddy,,,, 15 minutes goes by and he finds a bad ground on the motor (loose) he tightens the 12mm bolt and says that might be it... Sure as sh*t... I have the car backing out of the garage before he's got the hood closed... Transmission was back to 100% !!!!! With these electronic transmissions,, connections are key as I have found out the hard way.. Being an electrician I should have known.... Once again so much for a dealer

No torque bind.. no d/s or u/s problems.. I hope this ordeal can help someone else out down the road!

[...]After a 2 min test ride and a good look to the trans fluid.. He says it's electronic... [...]15 minutes goes by and he finds a bad ground on the motor (loose) he tightens the 12mm bolt and says that might be it... [...]Transmission was back to 100% !!!!! With these electronic transmissions,, connections are key as I have found out the hard way..

Thanks for that info; whenever someone mentions 4EAT troubles, I first suggest checking the fluid level, or considering a flush if it's been a lot of miles since the last change. I also remind people what the "E" stands for, and it's good to hear that sometimes the "electronic" fix is simple.

Could you perhaps point out where this ground was attached? I'm beginning to experience intermittent torque bind myself, tried the flush to no avail.

 

Thanks

 

 

Here's a good story for you guys out there:

 

So I have a 96 OBW 2.5 w/ 4Eat.. notice foreshadow of the capital E. There's about 130k on the car.. The trans developes the typical torque bind stuff... no biggy... a couple of days later the trans decides its going to down shift when it wants too even under no throttle input. I'm thinking this is getting interesting.. another couple of days pass by and the trans decides its not going to up shift when it wants to.. only does it at like 4k RPM or so.. OK something is F'd up I say to myself... Trans fluid is nice and red .. doent smell bad

 

The so I make an appointment at local Sub dealer...they tells me,,, oh yeah ,, trans is smoked.. you got to get it rebuilt.. they didnt try to pull any codes or check pressures or anything like that,, a 2 min test ride and they new it all.. They estimated 2k-3500 at least!!

 

I call up my buddy who is a top rate mechanic and ask him if he can look at this for me to get a second opinion.. After a 2 min test ride and a good look to the trans fluid.. He says it's electronic... I park the car then proceed to D/L just about the whole Subaru Technical Info Site... Which was very helpful.. I read every thread in the board about transmissions, lots o good info!! I fealt confident we could rip the extension housing and valve body apart and fix this thing...

A few days later when I was able to book some time with my buddy,,,, 15 minutes goes by and he finds a bad ground on the motor (loose) he tightens the 12mm bolt and says that might be it... Sure as sh*t... I have the car backing out of the garage before he's got the hood closed... Transmission was back to 100% !!!!! With these electronic transmissions,, connections are key as I have found out the hard way.. Being an electrician I should have known.... Once again so much for a dealer

No torque bind.. no d/s or u/s problems.. I hope this ordeal can help someone else out down the road!

Thanks for the tip. I'm not shocked by the dealer's response.

They don't call them stealerships for no reasons...

The ground is attached to the intake. Looking at the motor its the LR mounting bolt thats its attached to. I am pretty sure this is due to the head gaskets I had done awhile ago,, I dont know if that is the original mounting location for the ground, but judging by the way the wire hangs,, its pretty close if not the exact location.

Assumptions are generally bad but interestingly this thread brings up two assumptions that are always safe to start with.

 

1. Auto-trans repairs shops are rip-offs.

2. Electronic problems on cars are bad connections.

 

If those rules don't work, then move on to the exceptions.