I'm going with Nipper on this,why destruct a fully functional car when you could part with it modestly and use that money on a Honda or something more efficient.

the cheapest car is the one you own.

 

for me personally, i want a subaru for a number of reasons, but not because they get the best gas mileage. but that doesn't mean i can't entertain the thought of 35 - 40 mpg or the best gas mileage i can get out of said poor gas mileage soobs.

 

one reason i won't go honda, i can't buy excellent late model honda's with low miles for $500, but i can subaru's. also i don't know honda's nor have the time to learn now. if anyone wants to pay the bill for me to quit work, learn honda's so i can buy them and play with them, then email me!

yep it won't make a difference. i've done it on manual and automatics before and zero difference. not worth the trouble. but the answer to your question is "no" it won't hurt anything in my opinion. but i would also say you're better off keeping the car running as it was designed verses like that.

 

have it converted to FWD 5 speed if you want better gas mileage.

I have a 5 speed legacy outback and the rear dif is bad I've pulled the CV axles and drive shaft yet it has half the power how would I make it fwd with the same power I don't want to weld the center diff I want to put the new rear end in eventually.

you can't do that.

the car would not drive unless the center diff is locked up.

 

how do you know the rear diff is bad.

they rarely fail.

is it binding it tight turns?

a bad viscous coupling in the center diff is way way way more common.

Okay, seriously here.  Most people I know that own Hondas, Neons, etc... don't get much better gas mileage than I do.  So you gain 2 to 3mpg for a loss of AWD and handling?  I've driven and owned Honda's and Chrysler cars none of them have handled as well as the Subaru's I've owned (even the FWD Legacy I had).  

 

And if you drive "nice" you can pull 30mpg out of a Subaru....................

 

The biggest things you can do to improve MPG is keep up on maintenance/repairs which you are going to have with "ANY" car you purchase.  

 

Besides, unless you drive like 5,000 miles per month your not going to see enough savings to validate the cost of replacing the car.

As far as it goes I have a 1997 legacy awd wagon I removed the rear CV axles in it for a flat track race but it lost all power (will mive foward and backward but has half the power of awd) with the CVS and drive shaft out it did not change the only way to make you awd if its a manual trans to a fwd you have to weld the center differential its a process but it can be done. And when I removed the drive shaft the grinding noise stopped so I'm sure the rear diff is bad

Edited July 21, 201510 yr by bmxer507