Banjo1928

Everything helps and I will check around I have heard others comment on the 8k for a transmission so at least on a new one that seems to be what they are.

Thought I would update this thread even though it has been a while. Shortly after I took it in to the dealer the noise and binding got worse so I took it back and had the dealer and just said fix it. They replaced $1,650.00 worth of parts in the transfer case. That was in May of 2016. It ran great until August 2016 just about 90 days when it started doing the same thing again. This is with all new parts and brand new clean fluid I took it back to the dealer and the mechanic who did the work the first time said no, he couldn't hear anything and it wasn't binding it was fine. So we lived with it. Then in December it seemed to get worse so we took it back in. This time a different mechanic drove it and said "Damn man I can feel that, its the transfer clutch and sounds like its frozen. Don't worry the work we did is still under warranty just drop it off Friday morning and come back Friday at 4:30 to pick it up." Friday at 4:30 the mechanic said I can't figure this out I don't know what's going on the transfer clutch and I quote "won't engage". Comeback Saturday afternoon. Saturday afternoon they said a different guy would have to look at it Monday. Monday at 4:30 they called and left a message "we need to talk to you about your Outback." I call them they say "Ah yeah, it needs a whole new transmission, everything and we don't work on 'em, nobody works on 'em we just replace 'em if they fail and yours has failed." How much? Oh, $8,000 for a new one with a one year warranty or $7,100 for a rebuilt one with a three year warranty. I thought they couldn't be rebuilt? Oh well Subaru can't rebuild them but someone can. Okay But they are both back ordered the new and the rebuilt one so not sure how long it will take to get one in. Can I still drive it? For a while I guess. So we took it home It has not made a noise or had a binding issue since they looked at it and said no hope you need a new tranny. Is it just me or is this a big deal like the burning too much oil thing are the CVTs having trouble or did my not changing the oil for 20,000 miles past 105,000 miles destroy it? Any chance Subaru of America will have mercy and help a guy out as I'm sure it is just a matter of time before it starts acting up again? It seems like they can't figure the problem out so their solution is just to replace everything. It seems insane to put EIGHT THOUSAND DOLLARS into a transmission that the manufacture will only warrant for a year. Why would a rebuild have a longer warranty than a new one off the shelf? Any thoughts or comments would be much appreciated.

Sorry, not very clear, when we first felt it binding my wife had taken it to a Subaru mechanic and he had written down that it binds in forward and reverse but does not with AWD disabled. That was before I'd read anything on it or had even heard of putting the fuse in the FWD slot. I thought from what he had written that he'd pulled an AWD fuse to disable it. In truth I don't know exactly what he did. He was not particularly helpful. He just said $1,995 would fix it. Another dealer told me 90% of cars with this problem are fixed by a fluid change and others have recommended I do that so I think I will take it in and have that done first. I'm new to the CVT and the idea of sealed transmissions that can't be checked or filled by the owner.

I just watched a couple of videos on it. I shall check but it looks like all of them have an empty slot marked FWD where you place a spare fuse and that does it so hopefully my 2012 is like that. Thanks for the reply.

While I'm figuring this out can I pull the AWD fuse and drive it in front wheel drive only so I'm not binding the transfer clutch?

Yes, good point, all tires are the same brand and have nearly identical wear. That is the two on the front may have just a slight bit more tread than the two on the rear. I don't think there is enough difference to be a problem.

I know this has topic been done to death so no need to go too deep into it as there is a lot of good info on this in several threads. I have a 2012 Subaru Outback and the transfer clutch is binding during slow turns both forward and reverse but reverse is more noticeable for some reason. If all wheel drive is disabled the binding goes away. So from what I have read here, probably not the fluid or the clutches but likely it is the solenoid (Duty C Failure). If I do this myself (can I do it myself?) on a 2012, can I refill the case or is it part of that whole sealed transmission deal? I’m pretty handy in an old school sort of a way, pulled motors and transmissions rebuilt many do my own clutch jobs on manuals. But the 2012 has so many whistles and bells it scares me or at least makes me nervous. Plus it's the wife's car and she heard the service rep say the transmission was not serviced at 105,000 miles so I need to dig myself out of this. The car has 125,000 miles on it and I have to admit here in front of everyone yes it's true I had not serviced the transmission or any of its systems she put way more miles on it than I thought possible. The dealer said, "ah there’s your trouble you didn’t do the 105,000 mile transmission service so at 125,000 it's probably toast so you caused all of this and it will be $2,000 worst case, have a nice day." Maybe I did cause it. I’m hoping I can buy the part and put it in myself. I have access to a lift. Any input on this would be much appreciated.

Received the crankshaft pulley holder and removed the crank bolt. It was definitely way off time thanks to me. As an experiment I took the old timing belt off put the new one on correctly then turned the motor both ways. I could not duplicate it jumping time. I spoke to a mechanic who works on Subarus and he did say if you spin it backwards it can jump but now that I have the timing cover off and can see everything it would not do it for me. The old belt looked good as did all the parts so I don't know how I managed it but I did. nipper, you were correct I did not move it far enough out of time to bend the valves. Put it all back together no issues. I cranked it and it fired right up and ran so in spite of myself it appears I dodged that bullet. Thanks to all who helped me through this.

The holes in the crank pulley are smaller than most I have seen I found an old 1/4 inch extension that would fit in one but no other extension would fit. I measured the diameter of the one that fit and its shaft was 8mm so I took an old screw driver with an 8mm shaft and cut two pieces out of it (pins) and they fit nice and tight into two of the holes in the crank pulley. I then put a pry bar between them, wedged it against the center motor mount and cranked on the 22mm pulley bolt for all I was worth until it looked like I might be damaging the holes in the pulley where I'd place the pins and the bolt was starting to look a bit beat so I said I'll stop and get a proper tool to hold the pulley. Now, I totally agree with you grossgary, the motor should not know or care. I watched a YouTube video and a guy did the job on a 2007 and he rotated stuff both directions no problem. But, on this 2012 when I was setting it up to find the perfect spot to brace the pry bar on and get the pins up tight against it I rotated the motor clockwise from my perspective looking at the bolt from the front and it made a pop or thump. I thought I'd pushed the pin into the hole on the crank pulley so far that it was dragging on the plastic timing belt cover. I moved it again and confessed to nipper in a PM that I moved it enough to hear that pop five times. The farthest thing from my mind was that I was making the belt skip on the gear. Turn the motor counter clockwise from my front perspective and the engine turns over no noise, turn it the other way and pop. Someone said with variable valve timing and water or oil pumps you can't turn em that way anymore. It makes on sense to me, crazy if you turn it the wrong way it jumps time. I hope you are right, I really do because pulling heads and replacing valves is not going to be a lot of fun for me. Thanks for the response and any and all thoughts are appreciated.

Well, I er um, I heard the noise, thought it was just the pins I put in dragging on the plastic, heard the noise again, okay okay I may have heard it four times I'm such an idiot. So if you try and turn the motor backwards bad things happen? Everyone knows that but me, if I could have found a manual it would have said WARNING DON'T BE AN IDIOT AND TURN THE MOTOR BACKWARDS don't cross the streams Venkman. Thanks nipper

New to this Forum but have had several Subaru's over the years. Yesterday I decided to replace the timing belt on my wife’s 2012 Outback. The car has over 120,000 miles on it so I figured it was time. I couldn't remove the bolt in the crank pulley, tried several times to place 8mm pins in two of the holes and wedged a pry bar in there and just could not budge the bolt. I decided to order a tool to hold the pulley and just put it back together and wait. So it wouldn’t be a total loss I changed the oil, put new plugs in it. Went to fire it up and it would crank just fine but not start. I checked and rechecked everything nothing lose all electrical connected. I had disconnected the battery so the car had no power for maybe 24 hours or so. Now here’s the thing. During my little adventure when I was turning the engine over with a breaker bar on the crank pulley I turned the engine the other way (backwards) and by that I mean as if I was tightening the bolt and as I did it there was a popping noise. I thought I’d pushed the pins into the crank pulley too far and they were dragging on the plastic timing belt cover behind the crank pulley. Now I’m thinking maybe you can’t turn the motor on a 2012 Outback backwards and maybe the popping noise I heard was the timing belt jumping off the crank gear pushing the thing so far out of time it won’t start which then brings the 2,000 dollar question could I have got it so far out of time I damaged the valves? I’m actually sick to my stomach thinking about this. At first I thought maybe I used the wrong plugs or maybe some security system was wiped by having the battery disconnected for so long. I’m an old shade tree mechanic and probably had no business trying to replace a timing belt on a 2012 automobile but I figured it’s a mechanical job not electronic just nuts and bolts. It never occurred to me you could only rotate the engine forward by hand. Hopefully it’s something else but I had to get up the courage to ask. Sorry this post is so long but I’d be interested in anyone’s thoughts on this.