turning problems-rear end

[Lisa B]

My 97 Legacy Gt wagon drives straight wonderful, but when turning at slow speed it will jump and totally stop the car unless you quickly accelerate , changed differential fluid still does it. found a fwd fuse missing but put one in and same thing. HELP

[GTEASER]

That would be a bad center diff. Do you have an auto or a 5 speed?

 

Here, look at this thread.

 

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/01-legacy-b4-binding-issue-217289.html

[Headtrauma89]

The FWD fuse is not missing. That is to put it in front wheel drive when you have the spare on. By puting a 20 fuse in that slot your car is only FWD. Only automatics have this.

[Stevo F]

Lisa B.- Welcome to the forum. There are lots of Subaru guru's here and also people like me who know enough to get themselves into trouble. I'm thinking it sounds like torque bind- where the clutch plates in the center differential bind. It can come from running different sized tires on the car if that has happened I test drove a '98 Impreza that had that problem (along with a bunch of others).

[Stang70Fastback]

As others have stated, that fuse was not "missing." Probably best not to mess with stuff like that before finding out what it's for. You should take that fuse back out, as the vehicle is not designed to be driven normally with that fuse in, and FWD mode activated.

 

Your issue does indeed sound like torque bind related to the center clutch pack.

[Spikelangelo]

I recently had this issue with my 95 sedan and it was torque bind. Putting a fuse in the FWD plug in the front (forcing all time FWD) made it go away completely, and came back when I removed the fuse. Apparently there is a part on the transmission that is made of aluminium instead of steal for a few mid 90's year models. I cant remember what the part is called (I'm still a beginner) but basically it wears and the debris messes with the power transfer from the front to the rear wheels while turning. The best long term solution is to have the part replaced with the steal one. A possible alternative (and what I did) is flush the transmission and get the debris out. In my case this made my car turn smooth as butter again while going at low speeds. I live in the city with lots of slow turning and parallel parking, it made a dramatic difference.

[spooln30]

Yes this is TQ bind. What you can try is flushing out the trans fluid and putting in Subaru trans fluid. Once you got the Subaru trans fluid in the car drive for 20 mins to get the fluid up to temp then go to a open parking lot and drive in a figure 8 pattern. Do this for about 5-10 mins. Then drive for another 20 mins and repeat the figure 8's. I learned this from my Subaru master tech buddy and has worked in 3/5 Subarus I've tried it in. I always run the OEM fluid and I found that the Subaru fluid works the best and no other trans fluid should be used. Remember that you must flush the entire trans not just a drain and fill. You will only get out about 2.5 qts with a d&f, when the system hold 9-10 qts total.

[monkeyposeur]

^Do you worry about loosening up gunk that can damage the trans when you do a flush as opposed to multiple drain and fills?

[spooln30]

Yes you are correct and I forgot to mention this.

If the trans fluid is really dirty and smells burnt DO NOT flush the trans and most likely the trans is on its way out. In some cases flushing out bad fluid will only cause the trans to have more problems. Thx Monkey for mentioning this. Now if the fluid looks clean or just a little dirty with no burnt smell then it's ok to fully flush it out.

[Zues Marine]

Omg dude, I forgot to drain my AT when I pulled my drive shaft off this summer... Dumped every drop right onto my driveway. You're right... It. Smells. Horrible.

[spooln30]

Trans fluid on its own doesn't smell that bad. It's when one doesn't change it for like +100k and the clutch material wears off the discs and mixes with the trans fluid. You can tell the difference in the way they smell when one has been fixing cars as long as I have.

I think the two worse smelling fluids for a car is gear oil, especially gear oil that's really old. It's so stank. Also when you disassemble a engine and pull head bolts or main cap bolts, the oil used for engine assembling on the bolts after 15+ years and heat cycles smells pretty nasty.

[johnegg]

What you can try is flushing out the trans fluid

Do you worry about loosening up gunk that can damage the trans when you do a flush as opposed to multiple drain and fills?

i'm not convinced that a flush will cause problems,

even yhough lots of folks have reported it does.

 

but i KNOW that a drain and fill, 3 times, will not cause problems.

 

the reason dirty trans fluid causes TB is that the valve body passages and the duty C solenoid (maybe even the transfer clutch disks) get gummed up.

replacing the old dirty fluid with new clean fluid will help revese the process.

additives are not recommended.

but new fluid is.

 

the best way, safest, to clean a dirty engine is to change the oil often, 1k miles?

the same is true for the auto trans.

after you replace the bad fluid,

maybe do a drain and fill every time you change the engine oil, 3k - 5k miles, for a year or so.

this should help clean up the trans.

 

but simply replacing the old dirty fluid will, may, eliminate TB.

[Lisa B]

Thanks for all the input, I learned more from all of everyone heres comments than the local Subaru dealer who just kept saying he never heard of this problem before and I need to bring it in to them. If we could afford that I would have. DUH

[spooln30]

That's basically what I said. LOL.