jomo12

I was about to ask if everyone was crazy, paying $9k for an 11 year old Impreza. This has been an epic thread bump. Congratulations, I think.

I would point you to this comment on the linked thread: I for one always trust these MotorTrend type sketches. I'm off to go pour my life savings into Subaru based on this drawing. There is no way this can go wrong. Now I've got to go buy some lottery tickets, I got a great tip by some gypsy fortuneteller in the subway. Finally: some sober analysis of a chalk drawing.

My wife's 97 Legacy wagon, 2.2 auto, 210k miles seems to get 26-29 mpg no matter what. Impressive. My '02 is a total pig next to the '97.

2002 legacy wagon 5 MT. Best I've ever seen is 28 on the highway. Worst is 15 in town.

I didn't have another theory, I just don't understand, likely a failing on my part...I'll keep poking around. Thanks for the advice.

Hmmm....if it were engine or trans mounts, why would it not affect 1 & 2?

Thanks EVO. It shifts about as good as I would expect (as in, it's no Honda, but it's fine). It's not popping out. Really no drivability issues yet.

Right, exactly as you describe. The shifter moves toward the rear of the car on acceleration, forward on deleceration. First and second gears do not have this problem. I know that this is a clue but I don't know what it means. I guess...is this an internal or external transmission problem? I'm hoping external, but I doubt that's it. Also, will this fail totally catastrophically or will it eventually just start popping out of gear?

My 2002 legacy 5-speed has that thing where the shift lever jumps back and forth on acceleration and deceleration, respectively. This is only in 3, 4, and 5. Mostly in 3 and 4. One and two are solid. It doesn't jump out of gear, and seems to roll down the road just fine. I know something is loose somewhere in there...is this a fix-it emergency? As in, will this leave me walking all of a sudden? Or maybe I should just wait until the HG goes bad and get it all done at once?

This makes sense. Timing belts get tighter the faster the engine is running, so the timing might self-correct if you're able to get up above idle far enough. Sometimes you can hear tensioners clacking at low engine speeds if it gets really worn.

this thread is made of win. so, if a fella owned a 2002 legacy, would he rather have the 01 or the 03 manual to muddle through with?

So I have a question too about gear oil. I have a 02 legacy, 5speed. The transaxle was just replaced by with a unit that has (so they say) 27k miles on it. It was replaced due to a bad center diff, had hell of torque bind. Now, the new transmission shifts much harder than the old one. It's not like bad syncros, it's just notchy as all f-out, it's even chunky pushing it into 1st or reverse from a dead stop. This was a ford dealership who did the work, and they put in Motorcraft 80-90 oil -- from the part # I can tell that Ford sells this as "premium rear axle oil". Should I change the oil? (and to what, of course?) This thing is no fun to drive.

I had posted on an earlier thread that I had the torque bind on a new-to-me used Legacy, 5-speed. Turns out the mechanics agree, and the dealer is putting in a newish transmission. While they've got the transmission out, I asked them to take a look at the clutch & rear main seal (~90k miles on this specimen). I've also noticed while poking around here that there is a little problem with clutch judder, which I had noticed intermittently on my car as well, but thought that it was just me having not driven a manual in a while. Think I ought to ask them to put in the clutch kit from Subaru while the car's apart anyway? I'm guessing that I should ask for this kit, genuine subie part Use Clutch Kit: 32098AA020 as referenced here: http://www.scoobymods.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1836 Does this typically cure the problem for good?

No idea. Right now, this is the problem of the dealer (Chev) I bought it from. They had me take it to a Subaru dealer, who AFAIK checked neither. I moved from Washington state recently where every third person has a Subaru, and I've never heard of this. That whine at speed, again, it sounds exactly like a part-time 4wd vehicle when you run it in 4x4 on a dry road -- you get a little scrubbing because the front and back are locked. It only starts after some incubation period of driving, that's why I'm hoping it's just the differential I hear. Is the front diff contained in the transmission housing too? The Chev dealer is going to bring in another transmission guy tomorrow morning to look at it. The Sub service manager warned me that Subaru transmissions aren't like other transmissions. Huh, I don't know about that. If they decide it's too expensive to repair, they'll may try to buy me out of that car (or really, give me DealerBux for another car on their lot ) I'd really rather have the Legacy since I went looking for it. Although, it sounds like the head gasket is a time bomb waiting to happen...87k and counting.

I hate to start a new thread on my first day so I thought I'd jump in here. I read through this and I'm in a similar situation as Dave. i bought a 2002 Legacy wagon, 5-speed last weekend, and right after I drove it off the lot for about ten miles, the problem starts. You can hear a low (not too loud) howl, like gear whine, that goes as vehicle speed, and then this binding phenomenon at low speed and turning, right or left, forwards or backwards. Sounds exactly like the problem that is described as viscous coupling failure. This car has been to a subaru dealer, and they drove the vehicle and put it on the lift. They describe it like this: "found noise coming from rear of the transmission, noise is coming from transfer case and extention, will have to remove rear part of the transmission to determine what we have to replace. explained that the transmission may need replaced if it cannot be rebuilt" Basically, the service advisor told me that it's the transmission, not just the diff. And, it's a $5500 transmission (!). Is this crazy? Could that whole transmission be bad?