hoosierdaddy

You were experiencing "Torque Bind", which the 4EAT transaxles are prone to. Old fluid will gum up the works and eventually fry the Duty-C solenoid that is responsible for shifting power between the front and rear axles. It sounds like you got to it before it caused any serious damage.

 

Did you just drain and fill, or have the whole transmission flushed? If you just drained it, then do it again 2 more times in the next month-or-so to have as much clean fluid in there as possible, and your OB will love you for it.

The previous owners had tried for about 3 years to solve the torque bind problem... various mechanics had suggested and done various things, but the ATF hadn't been changed for almost 100K km (60K miles). I guess it never occurred to them that the ATF might be the problem, cuz they sold it to me thinking that it needed CV joints. After I checked the CV joints and found nothing apparently wrong I figured changing the ATF was worth a try, and it sure did make a huge difference. Hopefully the problem that you mention about the Duty-C solenoid won't be an issue, although it seems the car had been run for quite a while with the torque-bind problem and dirty ATF. Other than that, it seems the car was regularly serviced and repaired.

I just drained and refilled, adding Lubegard... and plan to do it again in a couple of weeks. Thanks for the confirmation that this is a common issue with the 4EAT transaxles.

Thanks lekmedm, LongHiway and eVoMotion... I'll check out those links. I did the change of fluids today and the new ATF made a HUGE difference in how the car drives... no more binding on low speed turns, and the shifts are so much smoother. Feels like a different car.

I'm starting to appreciate the elegant and rugged simplicity of Subaru engineering and design. I'm guessing this old '96 OB has a few years (decades?) of life left in it yet!

Cheers!

I just picked up a 96 OB for use as a "winter beater"... although now that I've cleaned it up a bit it looks like new. It has 178K km (about 110K miles) and came with a complete service history. I'm going to change all the driveline fluids this week as it's been a while since the tranny (4EAT) and diffs were drained. I'm feeling a bit of binding/ jerking in low speed turns so I'm hoping the new fluids will smooth things out a bit.

My summer car is a Porsche Cayman, and this Subie is my first ever Japanese car (well, a US built Japanese car). I guess I'm building a collection of boxer-engined cars!

This forum has already been a useful source of info... looking forward to participating. And my user name refers to the car... being from Indiana and all...