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97 Legacy Postal Vehicle with Problem!!


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Wife loves getting the mail out, but the car has a new twist I can't figure out. We started getting an AT TEMP light blink at startup, 16 to be exact. The car is used 6 times a week for mail delivery and is well used and well maintained with regular service intervals. She stops and starts over 400 times a day and the vehicle has never missed a beat!!(Lots of brake pads!)

We have now developed a problem about 1 hour into the route. When the car is stopped at a box, it dies, but just before it dies, the AT TEMP light blinks. The Car will start right back up with the same 16 blink light and will idle in a radical fashion, like your turning the key on and off, then die again. If the car sits for about 5 min. it will run fine until put back to work, then repeats the problem. Reading some of the previous post, it sounds like I have a definite Trans. problem, possibly solenoid and clutches, but will this cause the car to DIE???

Don't want to throw parts at it. NEW FUEL PUMP, FILTER, IGN RELAY, AIR CONTROL VALVE.

Only code is a Knock Sensor.

 

ANY IDEAS????????

 

She goes to a private shop on Wednesday for the tranny.

 

Thanks!!!!

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I dont know if Subaru is the same as my Automatic trans. 92 Buick, but when I stopped at a stop sign it would die like it was a standard with the clutch not pushed in. the transmission shop replaced some valve in the transmission that fixed it.

I also have a 97 Legacy postal wagon 337,000 miles and yes many many brake pads and I just put my third drive shaft in it last week so that makes four counting the one it came with.

The more I read, the more I think that I have at least torque lock. But will torque lock cause the car to stop running?
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The more I read, the more I think that I have at least torque lock. But will torque lock cause the car to stop running?

 

here's your 100% answer:

 

the 16 AT TEMP blink at startup indicates that the last time the car was on there was no power to the Duty C solenoid which controls the AWD.

 

1. check your connections (if you want)

2. get a new one.

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the 16 AT TEMP blink at startup indicates that the last time the car was on there was no power to the Duty C solenoid

 

Not exactly, it indicates an associated Duty C failure, it may be the solenoid, it may be the spool that the solenoid controls (causing improper feedback to the TCU by inproper Duty C operation), it could be a wire/connector between the Duty C solenoid (internal/external to the transmission) and the TCU, it could be the housing assembly as described here:

http://legacycentral.org/library/torquebind.htm

 

The first thing to do is verify when the transmission was last serviced.

 

will torque lock cause the car to stop running?

 

Not that I have ever seen.

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here's your 100% answer:

 

the 16 AT TEMP blink at startup indicates that the last time the car was on there was no power to the Duty C solenoid which controls the AWD.

 

This is wrong. 16 blinks is just the number of times it flashes when there is a code. The code must be output or read with a scanner. The code could be for one of anywhere from 11(first gen 4eat) to15 or16 different sensors and solenoids through the years and incarnations. You'd still get 16 flashes, even for code 5 or 7 or 10. There is a sequence of turning the key off and on with the shifter in different positions in sequence to output the codes, but I don't know it for a 97. Look around for the proceedure thought. They can also be read by a dealer and maybe others.

 

If you have a torque bind issue, it is possible that the code is for the C solenoid. But even still, you could have torque bind, not have a C sol. code, yet still have other problem in transmission. In fact the stalling indicates there may well be another problem, because I don't see how the C sol. could cause this.

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LosDiosDeVerde86 16 blinks does not mean any specific fault. All it is indicating is that the last time the car was operated a electronic fault was detected in the transmission.

 

You need to pull the codes to see what the fault is. There are some things that can throw a tranny code that are engine related, like a bad TPS.

You may have a failed lock-up torque converter solenoid, another possability.

The TCU can detect failed solenoids ans stuck solenoids.

 

Also its not torque lock, its torque bind. Now when was the last time the tranny was serviced. Do all the tires match. Does the car move evenly at idle through tight turns. TB will not make the car stall or run rough. If you have TB this test will show it. Next put the FWD fuse in the holder and see if it goes away, if it doesnt you have a failed Duty C solenoid. The more you drive the car like this the more your tearing up the AWD clutch pack.

 

Do a search here, try tranny codes, it tells you what the codes are and how to pull them.

 

The knock sencor should be fixed as it can be making things worse.

 

DOes the car go through all the gears? What happens when you start off in low and shift manually?

 

do NOT go to a tranny shop if you can avoid it, Go to a sooby dealer, as they will just fix what needs to be fixed and not sell you an entire tranny. Most dealers dont like selling transmissions.

 

 

nipper

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Hi Nipper,

The Tranny was serviced 10 months ago and all the tires match. When you idle the car around a tight turn, it will stop and require power to continue. This is true in both forward and reverse. I did put a fuse in the FWD fuse holder and the problem still exists.

The car does shift manually in all gears; however, it is hesitant to downshift while climbing a grade.

I did drop the car off yesterday to a reputable service technician and he mentioned a possible spline problem along with all the other possibilities we’ve talked about in the transmission. I’ll find out more the afternoon.

As for the stall, I came up with another possibility. This winter we lost an interior heater hose that runs to the heater core. The wife said it was spraying everywhere when it let go. It was shortly afterwards that we started having the stall problem. Spraying Antifreeze+Electrical Components = TROUBLE.

More to follow-------------------

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Hi Nipper,

The Tranny was serviced 10 months ago and all the tires match. When you idle the car around a tight turn, it will stop and require power to continue. This is true in both forward and reverse. I did put a fuse in the FWD fuse holder and the problem still exists.

The car does shift manually in all gears; however, it is hesitant to downshift while climbing a grade.

I did drop the car off yesterday to a reputable service technician and he mentioned a possible spline problem along with all the other possibilities we’ve talked about in the transmission. I’ll find out more the afternoon.

As for the stall, I came up with another possibility. This winter we lost an interior heater hose that runs to the heater core. The wife said it was spraying everywhere when it let go. It was shortly afterwards that we started having the stall problem. Spraying Antifreeze+Electrical Components = TROUBLE.

 

 

More to follow-------------------

 

TB with a failed Duty C solenoid is one culprit.

 

The interior heater hose is ugly, but i dont think that would cause an issue as long as things dried out. You may want to look for connectors and take them apart and spray them with contact cleaner.

 

Stall we will wait for the tech to chime in and see what he says.

 

nipper

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Here's the scoop.

the service tech advised me that the reason for the random stalling is a faulty mass air flow sensor. Does this sound right?

He also told me that the code from the tranny was being caused by TB. (Which I already knew). I didn't get a chance to talk to him directly, he left a message on my phone and I'll call him this a.m. for the rest of the info.

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