bigeddiespaghetti

I did direct testing at the solenoid when I opened up the new valve body I purchased from Subaru. The FSM states that between the solenoid connector and transmission ground it should show between 10-17 ohms. Mine tested at 13 ohms. I also tested my old valve body and found that solenoid tested at 13 ohms as well.

Not gonna lie, you did make me laugh. All jokes aside though you are very correct in how some dealers go about their business, I was really hoping mine wouldn't do this to me, but they did. You are correct that the TCC doesn't seem to be locking up when commanded to. I have replaced the valve body and swapped the TCM with no change in symptoms. Same code, same behavior. The previous owners did a lot of hill climbing in this vehicle. I know this because the previous owners were my grandparents, and then my mother, and then my uncle. My grandparents lived about 30 miles from my home with a majority of the drive up and down very steep roads. My mother, the same thing, just the opposite direction of where my grandparents lived. A good portion of the drive being pretty steep up and downhill to and from. My mother was also the caretaker for my grandparents before their passing and used this Subaru a lot to drive them around to doctor appointments and what not. Then my uncle would drive a lot of highway miles plus the hill climb and descent to visit and aid in caring for my grandparents after my mother had to become my grandparents full time caretaker. So as far as previous transmission issues I'm not 100% sure. I do know that my mother said the car is gutless going up and down the mountain to her house. That's about it. The car itself has been solid up until just recently. One morning I started it and the CEL light came on and the transmission began acting as I described in my original posting. That and the tachometer was inoperative as well, with the rest of the instrument cluster functioning but I'm pretty sure that has nothing to do with the transmission. I did actually find the FSM for this vehicle, but to my chagrin the FSM seems to show the vehicle as having the phase 2, version 2 valve body. Mine has the phase 2 version 1. So I've been looking at the previous year model but it seems the only FSM I can find is for the Euro model, and the codes appear to much different. All in all I'm pretty lost, hence why I'm here.

Hello everyone, This is my first thread so forgive me if I do this wrong. I have a 2004 Legacy 2.5L, 4EAT phase 2 with 93K miles. It keeps pulling a P0741 code, shifting poorly, very sluggish in town, and indecisive gear selection under heavy acceleration. Once at a cruising speed of 60-65+MPH, the car has zero issues and even more peppy than usual. I did a drain and fill and replaced the filter on the transmission as it had not been done before I acquired the vehicle. Still had the same problem. I ordered a new valve body from my local Subaru dealership and replaced the old one, still getting the same symptoms and CEL with P0741 code. I even found another ‘04 Legacy in a junkyard and swapped TCM’s, but still had the same thing. I brought it to the Subaru dealership for another opinion and the tech claims it’s the valve body. He stated that most likely I pinched a wire when replacing it and the entire valve body is shot. He said he was 100% sure this was the issue but needed to drop the pan for further investigation. At that point I was looking at $800 of labor and if there was damage, another $1200 plus labor to replace the valve body I just did. I was a tech for 7 years prior to my current career and I don’t believe his diagnosis was thorough enough to condemn the valve body entirely. The dealership provided no info on the diagnosis and the path the tech followed to lead him to the valve body besides the service writer stating, “he’s been here a very long time and I trust what he’s saying.” I’m also not saying I couldn’t have made a mistake, but I’m very certain that no wires were pinched or damaged during the replacement nor did I do anything to cause the entire valve body to “seize up” as the tech claimed. My fear is that it’s the torque converter and dropping the transmission entirely is the next step, which I really don’t feel like doing in my garage with very basic tools and equipment. I’m taking it to my old shop I worked at last to get another opinion, but is there anything else I may have overlooked? Is the something else simple that I can check in the meantime that may be causing this issue? Any info is appreciated and TIA.