Kilroy

Give us the dirt! Details man, details!

I'm in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Shipping would be costly and I am pretty sure the transmissions are not interchangeable. I am looking for a transmission as my TCU is throwing the error codes for the Duty B and C. I had one about 15 minutes from being dropped at the wreckers, but couldn't get the tower nut off the end of the halfaxle. I came back the next day with the appropriate socket and they had crushed the car about an hour before that!

ROFL!

I am once again looking for a transmission at the wrecking yards for my Subby. What year/models are compatible with my '90 Legacy 4eat? I've read that a problem with the transmission was fixed in '97, would a post '97 transmission work?

Sounds like what my car was doing, putting in another MAF from the junkyard seemed to fix the problem. The original MAF that was in there was spotlessly clean and none of the wires were broken, this sensor is too damned picky!

I'm not sure if the Impreza halfshaft is the same removal procedure as my Legacy, but it must be close. I have never removed a halfshaft before and I had to do it while removing a transmission/front diff at the wrecking yard. It was really quite a simple procedure, one should be able to do it without any previous experience in well under a couple hours.

Damn! My Carfax account expired 3 days ago. :-\

He doesn't have to justify his purchase, it's his cash and he can purchase whatever he likes with it. Until we see the sales figures next year, nobody can really say who is going to be left in the dust. With new designs usually come all new features that the consumer may take a liking to and Subaru may have to incorporate them into their redesign to stay with the market trends. Time will tell.

Does it squeal/squeak while idling as well? If so, you may have a loose belt. I realize you mentioned the belts were replaced 2 years ago, but that is plenty of time for one of them to start slipping. Also, what Matt said.....

I paid $1700 for my Wagon and it has 165,000 km on it. It is in fantastic condition and if you look inside you would think it is new. Where are you located ericem, you are quoting CAN $$ so I am thinking you are a Canadian such as myself. DOH! Nevermind, saw in your sig you are in Ontario.

I was kinda figuring around 10 seconds. My '90 Legacy Wagon feels like about 10 seconds.

Sweeeeet! I love the growl that thing puts out, you pretty much just idled up that hill.

Forgive my ignorance, but is the valve body the part on the rear of the transmission that can be removed?

Ok, after reading the following post I decided to hook up my multimeter to the TCU as well to get voltage reading from Duty C: -------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=7084&page=2&highlight=duty+b+diagram Ok, here is what I have done. I wired my volt meter positive to #3 (duty soenoid 3) at the TCU & negative to #10 (ground) at the TCU. Here is what I have found. With the fuse out, I start the car & the voltage is about 6volts. By time I get to the corner, the voltage has dropped to .003volts. Essentially 0V. I am getting a lot of torque bind while all this is going on. If I put the fuse in, I get about 11-12volts at startup & it settles doen to 11.6volts as I drive. At this point I get no torque bind. All of a sudden shile I am driving the volts will just drop to .003v. When that happens the bad torque bind comes back. What is going on? Thanks. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The readings I got were from 0V to .15V, so basically nothing is happening. I put the FWD fuse in and the reading never changed at all, still varied from 0V (usually when stopped) to .15V at max, but it usually stayed in the .05-.07V range. I tried corners, different speeds and matted it once to see if it would change. NADA! I also noticed that the shuddering only happens at VERY slow speeds (backing out of the driveway speeds) with the steering wheel turned VERY slightly. Once I turn the wheel (even cranked over all the way doing 360's) past that point everything is very smooth. I hooked it up to the Duty B and started the car, no change at all. It stays at 0V. nipper, my email is Kilroy@telusplanet.net if you have some info you can send me.

Awesome info, thanks!! Will a rear housing from a '97 or newer match up with an older transmission?

If the Duty C is working, why would it be throwing a code? Would you happen to have a diagram (or link to one) of where I find the Duty B and how to get at it? I have found one for the Duty C. I installed another MAF sensor and it fired up STRONG and it idles nicely without dying. I haven't taken it out yet as I want to get the selenoid issue fixed first and I am afraid of tearing up my clutches. Just backing out of the driveway now and turning the steering wheel a little bit makes the car shudder.

ROFL!!

Keep asking questions! I am reading with great interest as I seem to have a similar situation. I didn't know I could just remove the rear of the transmission to get at the Duty C selenoid, this could save me some work.

WOW!! That's a serious snorkeling job!!

You may want to check out the Elmscan-5 diagnostic tool if you want to go with the PC setup. It's cheaper than a hand-held (unless you get one of the REALLY low quality ones) and gives you real-time diagnostics. The software you get with it will do the job as well. After checking around, I found this to be the best deal I can find... http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ElmScan-5-Automotive-Diagnostic-Scan-Tool-OBD-II_W0QQitemZ170005118073QQihZ007QQcategoryZ43998QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem They include the cables necessary to connect to the vehicle and your PC as well.

This sounds exactly like the window regulator that died on my RL. They used a plastic gear in it that broke quite easily and once it did it made an awful sound and I could only get the window up about 90% of the way. Take it apart and have a look, they are quite easy to replace yourself if it comes to that. You can usually find rebuilt regulators for 1/3 the price of a new one.

Take the car out for a little drive and get the engine warm and then park it on a clean spot. Check it in the morning for any oily spots on the ground beneath the plug. I don't think you will have any troubles, you put teflon tape on it to seal it. I'm wondering what happens to that tape once the threads are inside the tranny though. Will it break down in the hot fluid and come off the threads?

Oh, this is just ducky! I get to the wrecking yard where I spent 3 hours on Monday getting the tranny and diff ready to drop and head over to the car. "Hmmm, I don't remember these cars here. Hey, where's the Subby?" BAHHHHH! They crushed the car this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can get another tranny from a guy just outside of the city who pulls the parts for you, but he wants $800 vs. the $80 if would have cost me for the one today. *sigh* Tires are all equal and inflated properly, what are the odds a tranny flush would help as opposed to tearing it all apart? My only concern is that I am still getting the noise from what I think is a cracked flexplate, which would require me dropping the tranny anyways.

nipper, there are no codes coming from the ECU. Legacy777, I have another MAF sensor I got from the wreckers. I'll put that in as soon as I get a chance and give it a shot. I figured the Duty C was working fine as the rear wheels didn't move at all with the FWD fuse in, but I am still getting a Duty B&C TCU code. I've tried to reset the codes as per: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.surrealmirage.com/subaru/engine.html To completely reset the ECU (TCU as well) you can use one of the following methods. Note: Resetting the ECU does erase the codes in memory. The first method is commonly referred to as the "battery dance". The second method is to remove the EGI/TCU fuse (fuse 14). Both methods essentually do the same thing, the only difference is that the fuse method only works on the first gen legacies, and you don't loose your radio presets. You want to perform both these procedures on a "cold" engine. Leave it sit for a while, or overnight and do it in the morning. 1. Disconnect the negative battery terminal cable for 30-45 minutes. Or pull fuse 14 labeled (EGI/TCU) from the fuse panel at the driver's kick panel for 30-45 minutes. 2. Reconnect the negative battery terminal cable, or re-insert fuse 14. 3. Turn off all your accessories. 4. Start the car, but DO NOT touch the throttle at all. 5. Let the car idle for 10-15 minutes, or until the car is at normal operating temperature. Again, do not touch the throttle. 6. Turn the ignition key to the "OFF" position. That's it --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unfortunately, the car would only idle for about a minute before dying, so I have no idea if the codes reset or not. Is there another way to reset the codes that doesn't require the vehicle to idle? I'm heading to the wreckers in about 20 minutes to finally finish removing the tranny from the '93 Legacy. I grabbed a few large sockets from work to get the nut off of the end of the front axles, but it's a crazy 33C out there now and I'm not looking forward to this. Farmer's tan, anyone?

The car was dieing at low RPMs and I thought it might be from a faulty sensor so I changed the throttle position sensor today as I had a spare from the wreckers. I took the car for a drive and it didn't die, so I took the plunge and drove the car to work today (50 mile round trip) to see if anything had changed. I noticed a small shudder while doing some turns out of the area and figure I have torque bind, but I am going to be dropping the tranny very soon so I'll look into that at that time. I never noticed the shudder before this. The drive to work is mostly straight highway and I never noticed it again. Although it was 32C outside today, the temperature guage stayed below the halfway mark. Twice it seemed like the transmission went into neutral for a second as the RPMs spiked when I depressed the pedal just before reaching work, but after backing off and then back on it was fine. I started the car about an hour ago to leave work and the POWER light didn't flash to indicate a TCU error code. Huh!!? Oh well, don't look a gift horse in the mouth. I got about 5 minutes away from work when the car died. No warnings, just dies! I pulled over, turned off the key and fired it right back up, this time with the POWER light flashing, and away I went. About 3 miles from home on the highway it died again, this is the first time it has done it on the highway. I punched the throttle pedal a few times and it picked up for a second a couple of times then completely died. Fuel pump dying? I fired it up and got about a mile and it dies again. Pull over, turn off, fire up and away I go again and make it home with no more troubles. There are so many conflicting issues with the car now that I have no idea where to start with the car dieing, but the tranny is at the top of my list. I brought home some large sockets so I can finish dropping the tranny at the wreckers tomorrow. Hopefully nobody has grabbed it as it is sitting there with about 15 minutes of work left to complete the job. The really perplexing thing is that the ECU is throwing no codes at all and I'm not sure how the tranny could be causing the engine to die like that.