afterbang

just wanted to share an unexpected solution to the issues I was facing in my wife's subaru. like the title states, the 4eat in her 03 legacy with 100k on it was performing terribly. it would shift up into 4th while driving up hills and many times bog itself into a higher gear and run just over 1000rpm when you would need power out of it. well, I went down to rick's shop (general disorder) to buy a new battery as it was having trouble starting and the clock and trip odo were resetting by themselves. when I pulled the battery out, Rick saw that the neg. battery terminal was cracked. he soldered in a new one and the car runs perfectly now. stays right at 3000 rpm when climbing hills and no more random upshifts. just thought I'd share as I hear people complaining about shifting problems in the 4eat every so often. in my over 10 years of driving subarus I've always had a 5mt, so I was just gonna drain and fill a few times with high dollar ATF and replace the filter. glad I didn't and hopefully this may help someone out in the future!

all wheel drive auto is in Kirkland. I've never used them, as I live in Portland, but my sister lives in Kirkland and has had a good experience with them.

I cannot find anything out of the ordinary. I was able to get the service records from the previous owner since they bought it new at the Subaru dealer I buy parts from and had all work performed there. Never missed a service and the transmission was serviced at 60k. They did a flush and fill with a new filter... The only thing I did before the tranny started acting up was switch the oil from 5w-30 conventional to 5w-40 rotella t6. When I first got it, since the dealer only replaced the timing belt when they replaced the head gaskets because they were leaking, I put in a new timing belt kit because the idlers and tensioner weren't done. The service records note that the head gasket on the passenger side was weeping, but they didn't feel like it was a big enough deal to replace them. Hasn't acted up since that one time, but I do notice that the tranny seems to run in too high of gear when going up hills. I just tap the accelerator to get it to downshift, but nothing else feels out of whack. I was thinking doing a drain and fill a few times with Amsoil ATF. Do you all think that's warranted at this point? I have had my Outback with a 5MT for like ten years and another 93 legacy with a 4EAT, but it never gave me problems. I have absolutely no experience with these things so any advice is very much appreciated!

No CEL or flashing lights at start up. Once I get the car back home, I'll get back to you guys with more info. The car has a perfect maintenance history through the dealership since new from its previous owner and all I've done to it is a timing belt kit... I'm just hoping it's nothing too serious.

Hey guys, So I just got a call from my wife and she is telling me that the transmission in her Legacy keeps shifting back and forth from 3rd to 4th gear every 3 seconds or so and will not stay in a single gear on flat highway. Already being out 15 miles when it started doing this, I told her to put it into 3rd gear manually and just take it easy, but she's saying the car is pretty much undrivable when you put it in D. The car has 96k and there are no transmission warning lights on at all. I have driven the car many times and while on hilly terrain I wish the transmission was more responsive, I haven't felt like anything was functioning out of the ordinary. Any thoughts?

My 98 Outback squeeked/creeked pretty bad right before I replaced the clutch. I used plenty of grease on the push rod on the slave, as well as the clutch fork.... almost 3 years later, it's now starting to squeak again. It just seems like it's inevitable after the grease breaks down.

This is just my experience but, my P0400 was solved by just replacing the BPT and the 3 small tubes that run to it. When I removed the EGR valve, there was very minimal carbon build-up and my 98 Outback has 190k on it. Don't let anyone charge you $600 dollars to do that work on your Legacy. Clean yours out and if that doesn't solve it, grab a couple BPT valves out of some junkyard cars to try out. The actual EGR pipe could clogged too but you can clean that out yourself as well. It can be a pain to reinstall the EGR pipe but all of these jobs are fairly minimal. Good Luck!

About 30k on NGK Laser Iridium plugs, 20k on NGK plug wires, 4 rebuilt fuel injectors about 10k ago, battery is about 2 years old. Umm, fuel filter has about 15k on it and air filter has probably 10k. Valves were adjusted 30k ago when complete timing belt/WP/seal job was done. Knock sensor has been replaced, PCV valve is good, only non Subaru part I've used lately is NTK o2 sensors, I get an occasional CEL for that fuel solenoid valve thing that's mounted under the intake manifold on the passenger side... hasn't popped up in a while. Oh, and another symptom that popped up around the same time is what I believe is the alternator bearing making some noise. I rebuilt the PS pump not too long ago and put in a new bearing so I don't think it's that and also, when I loosened the belt a bit, the squealing went away but now it's back all the time. Ran a little rough when I was getting an EGR code but replaced the backflow transducer with a used one and that fixed it. It starts and runs completely normal when warm but I drive my car only every other day and when it isn't parked in the warm garage, it starts to act up. Car has 180k, I've owned it for 10 years. I am pretty OCD about car care and since my commute is 90 miles round trip, I really don't want to break down somewhere random. Thanks for any and all insight!

Hey guys. So lately with the cold weather, my outback wagon has an intermittent rough start. It sounds like the starter is doing that winding up sound and also takes a few extra cranks to start like when I had to replace the contacts. However, now when the car does start, I can tell it's having a tough time for about 5 seconds. My mind tells me it's time for new starter contacts again but I never got the rough start thing before. maybe a fuel pump that's starting to go bad? When the car is running rough for that brief moment, the piston slap when cold is more pronounced too but then the high initial idle at start up kicks in and everything is fine. Sorry for the mash-up of symptoms but that's what I'm facing. I just don't want to get stuck somewhere up in the mountains this winter so any advice is much appreciated. Thanks, Matt

The VVS that you need to look for, the #2 one, is on the passenger side of the transmission. If you look back behind your axle, on the side of the transmission you will see the sensor. I remember on my 98 there was no place to put a wrench on and it was seized pretty good so i just use some vice-grips to get it out. I am pretty sure you can get a wrench on yours. nothing will happen if you rotate the cable the wrong way. at least in my case nothing happened on my 93 and i haven't read anywhere that says otherwise. if the cable is broken, you will have more than just a sensor to replace. I would just try to find a few sensors at junk yards to replace yours... that's what i always did. I really hope this ends up being your problem, all the symptoms lead me to believe that the sensor or you cable is the issue.

oh, and also, the VSS is driven by a cable on your car. you can take the end of the cable and put in a power drill and use it to rotate the cable. if the speedometer magically starts working, there's your problem. i don't remember if it has to be rotated clockwise or counter-clockwise so try the other way if the speedometer doesn't register with your first try.

are you sure the vehicle speed sensor doesn't just need replacing? that would throw a check engine light. plug the diagnostic plugs together under the dash and see if you dont get 3 long and 3 short blinks of the light on the dash. code 33 would be what you're looking for. i've had them go out on my 98 legacy and my 93 and both times the odometer stopped working along with a check engine light.

I've had some jugs of conventional Valvoline that I needed to blow through but now I'm switching to rotella t6 15w-40 in my 98 legacy outback with about 180k on it. GD just helped me in a purchase of a very nice 2003 Legacy sedan w/ 87k that I'm also planning on running that same oil in. I was weary about the heavier weight being an issue on cold start ups but from what I've read it's a non-issue and I let my cars idle for a bit before taking off anyways. It's cheap and it seems like even the tuner guys have been happy with the wear protection in their WRXs and STis. By the way, I recommend any one that plans to buy a Subaru from a dealer bring Rick just for the entertainment factor. It was absolutely hilarious to watch him school and call BS on the sales people and service department at wentworth Subaru in Portland. The lies were trying to throw at us were just astonishing. They replaced the headgaskets because of the usual leaking and while they changed the timing belt, they didnt touch any other components, even though the waterpump had signs of a light leak. They claimed that waterpumps are good for over 200k and cost 1000 dollars to replace and the idler pulleys don't ever need to be touched. There definitely is a reason that TB jobs are under 300 dollars there. As you could probably imagine, Rick had an opinion about car maintenance that wasn't in line with their recommendations and he sure let that be known. It all worked out in the end as the amount we paid for the car had he thoughts accounted for. They couldn't get us out of that place fast enough :-p

Found a resolution! I sold the car today for $10,000 dollars

thanks guys for all your input. I haven't been so strict on the premium fuel thing as the manual says regular is fine for temporary situations where premium is unavailable. Well, maybe I need to heed that advice a little better. I'm trying to sell the car. It's a very nice vehicle but I only have it because a family member gave it to us for just the cost to pay off the loan, which was a couple thousand dollars. The dealership freaked my wife out by telling us the transmission is probably on the way out but I've never read anything about premature failures on these and I have never had any transmission warning lights, ever. She wants it gone ASAP but I don't want to make any hasty decisions. The plethora of TSBs is ridiculous for hard shifting, delayed engagement, and shuttering for both the TriBeCa and H6 outbacks with this transmission and I'm hoping something is just exacerbating a more common of a problem. I did the trans-x deal on an older legacy that was lazy getting up and going and it worked well. The thought crossed my mind but wasn't sure if it was suitable for this situation or could possibly cause any damage. I am not sure if this transmission requires any special ATF but it was given a tune up and had all fluids changed by my aunt before she gave it to us. Anyone have any ideas on transmission fluid brands to try out??? Thanks guys so much. I have a family friend that's interested in buying but I would only sell it to him if I know the car isn't going to self destruct. I'll keep you all updated. - Matt

There is just conventional ATF in there now. My wife put regular arco gas in it instead of premium, any thoughts on that being an issue?

We drive 90% freeway driving and we're posting a 19mpg average on it. One of the reasons why I would like to do away with it :\

This is an auto, not a manual. The car gives a jarring feeling when downshifting into first gear from second when slowing down. It shakes the car pretty good some times. I don't know what to do at this point. The fluid has been changed and the reprogram didn't do anything so I'm not sure if taking a lower deal on the Tribeca is better in the long run as even a used tranny will be at least $1500 without installation. This is a new sensation and I know it's not normal, I just don't know if it's the nature of the beast or something that I should run away from the car because of.

Hey guys. I've read that this is fairly common but our Tribeca with 135,000 miles on it is exhibiting a hard downshift into 1st gear when slowing down. I paid the dealership $90 dollars to hook it up to the SSM and reprogram the trans with the newest update that is supposed to "reprogram for shift shock" but it didn't do anything. In fact, I think it may be more pronounced since it reset everything on the TCM. My question is, is there any advice on what I could do to minimize this? I would like to sell the car for better gas mileage but I don't want it to be a deal breaker with a potential buyer. Also, does anyone know if there's a way to totally reset the TCM to default and erase any update that they did so I can have the car relearn its shift patterns without the software? The service writer made it seem like my transmission is going to explode but I've read quite a few stories of this on both Tribecas and H6 Outbacks with this tranny. They offered to buy the car for $8500 dollars or trade for a 2001 Forester with 100k on it w/ $1500 dollars on top but the car Blue Books at $11,000 and I just couldn't do it. There was a 5800 dollar difference in value and I asked for half of that but they didn't wanna do it. Any help and/or advice is much appreciated.

you should take the time to research how straight forward removing an axle is if you're looking to keep costs down. i'd always rather put new tools in my toolbox than hand it over to a mechanic. the only special tool you need is this... http://www.amazon.com/Lock-Technology-LTI730-Subaru-Removal/dp/B002YKK2HU and some jackstands. if you're a more visual learner, here's a decent youtube video on how to do it.

and I would really like to know how anybody is getting 30mpg in these things. I have a really relaxed driving style to the point where I piss people off taking off from red lights. Maybe I need to do a full tank down I-5 and see what happens.

From my experience of owning one of these for 9 years.... About the best you're going to see out of the older 2.5 outbacks is 25mpg highway. If you're driving down a long stretch of flat interstate, maybe 26-27. The EPA hwy rating is 25 and that's what I get each time I do a fill-up and I do like 85% highway driving. My car has NGK Laser Iridium plugs, NGK wires, NTK o2 sensors, I keep all my filters clean, and I actually even put in brand new fuel injectors. None of it has done much to improve mileage above that number. It's the nature of the beast, I guess.

Thanks guys for all the advice, awesome as usual. I couldn't pass these up for $75.00 so I'll just see how it works out. If there is any bounciness in the ride, I'll just take her car in to get the tires rebalanced. They are Les Schwab tires so it would be free anyways. I'll check out that centric rings if worse comes to worst. Still would be less than getting new steelies.

Hey everyone. A friend of mine attempted to put 2003 WRX wheels on a Volkswagen and the center hole was too small. He ground it would with a dremel tool about 1/16" in diameter bigger, squeezed them on, and then they ended up hitting the shocks. My sister-in-law is in desperate need of some wheels/tires on a budget for her 1993 legacy sedan and I was offered these wheels for $75.00. Cosmetically they are perfect but yeah, he ground them out on the back side. Would this cause a problem at all when installing them on the Legacy? I figure the bolt holes really keep them in place but I just want to make sure it won't be a safety issue. Thanks for your help.

if you're claiming that the new impreza is bigger than my 98 outback, i definitely need to go into the dealer and check one out. size was my main concern as i have a one and three-year-old. i swear that my outback, other than roof height, is bigger than our b9 tribeca.