rcs914

Thanks for the replies :-) SuBrat, that would be awesome if you're willing to take a look. I've probably seen you around town at times, as I always keep a lookout for SVX's. I love the look of them. I'll PM you later, and hopefully we can find a time to get together to check it out. I know that my car ran for a while on different size tires. I didn't know/didn't RTFM that they had to all be changed at the same time, and had only replaced two of them at one point. The subaru mechanic who had looked at the car measured the tires and said that was likely the cause of the issue. There was also a period before I got the tires that I had been on the donut, and probably had driven 350 miles or possibly even more, I don't really remember. As I've never driven another subaru that was suffering from the problem, I can't say that it's the exact same sensation, but it sure sounds like it is from others descriptions. It just feels exactly like what "bad axels" felt like in my previous car, a "clunk-shudder" in the tight turns. If it's a case of replacing the coupler, my brother-in-law used to be a mechanic, so he can likely help me (I hope). Thanks again, Chris

Ok, I know that "torque bind" threads have been done to death around here, at least regarding the automatic transmissions, but from what I can figure I'm one of the "lucky" ones to own a 1999 5spd Impreza Sport Wagon (95,000 miles) that suffers from rather severe torque bind once the car is warmed up. It currently isn't my primary car, and in fact I want to sell it, as I simply don't need it anymore. I bought it around 80,000 miles, and though I don't remember it having the issue at the time, it did manifest itself shortly thereafter. Primarily this shows up in the hotter months, or after the car has been driven for at least 20-30 minutes, and will get progressively worse the longer it is driven. Either a right or left hand turn will result in the binding "clunk clunks" that sound to me like they are coming from the front end. For a while I thought it was the axles, because it was exactly the same sensation as the bad axles I had in my '88 civic, but unfortunately my mechanic introduced me to the much less appealing concept of torque bind. So what I gather is that it is likely either the center differential or the viscous coupling unit, from what I've picked up from here and other sites. The mechanic had mentioned the clutch packs as being a likely candidate as well. So I guess I'm curious as to what would be my best option: either sell it as-is, stating that this is a common subaru problem, and knock the price down some, or to try and get it fixed before I sell it. I'm sort of thinking that the former is the better option, as I don't really want to front cash into a car I'm not currently using. KBB states that the "fair condition" trade in value is $3500 and fair private party is over $5100. Fair does account for some mechanical defects, but I'm wondering if the transmission is a pretty big one. Do people think that it would be fair of me to ask $4000 in current condition? I don't really have much of an idea as to what it would cost to do the repair, as people have usually said "not inexpensive". Anyway, I thank you all for your help. Chris