Thrift Store Subaru Trans Issues.

[dvnner]

Hey forum,

Bought myself a 93 Legacy from the thrift store this weekend for the total price of 295$

I've checked my fluids and such and have put about 100 miles on it so far and it seems to be ok for a 300$ AWD car.

 

Why so cheap? The trans slips in full on auto mode. So what I was doing to help prevent most of the slipping was put it in to 'manual' mode and shift when needed.

 

This has been doing fine for the last 2 days until today.

 

Everytime i put it in manual mode and shift down past D it kills the car.

 

I can put it in auto mode and go down to to 1st and it runs decently.

 

What can I do here?

Also my VW had some trans slipping issues and a simple trans flush helped a ton. Would this be similar for a Subaru?

[SuperSub]

I would just get a new auto box. Would expect them to be pretty cheap and if you can install yourself as well then it saves money too.

Should be able to pick a second hand box for a few hundred and will still make it a cheap car.

[wtdash]

Also my VW had some trans slipping issues and a simple trans flush helped a ton. Would this be similar for a Subaru?

 

Does the POWER light flash 16 times @ startup? If so, there's a CODE stored in the transmission, which will tell you WHAT the issue is...or @ least a clue.

 

CODEs HERE.

 

 

I wouldn't do a chemical or power flush, just Drain, Refill, Drive (10 miles), and repeat 3 Times to replace 90% of the ATF. If you're (very) lucky it might help. I wouldn't spend any $ on the Trans "remedies" if the ATF replacement doesn't help.

 

 

The '92-'94 Legacy Automatic AWD (4EAT) are your avl. years to swap in as they had the 3.90 FD Ratio. Anything else from '90-'91 or '95-'98 will require a REAR DIFF swap too (4.11). Also, the '91-'94 Legacy TURBO (SS and TW) trans was the same as your '93....but much harder to find.