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Acts like slipping clutch, but not so sure...


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Alright, this one's a bit complicated, so I'll try and explain it as best I can. I have a 99 Legacy GT with somewhere around 240k on it, manual tranny. The other day, I pulled into a parking lot off the street in the city and there's a pretty significant bump going into it. I hit it going up with the front end, didn't feel anything scrape anywhere on the underside, and went to give it power to get up and started having this issue. Now, it acts like a slipping clutch with the high revs and all, but it's only really bad in 1st and a little less in second gear. Also, there's a grinding noise, which is also more noticeable in the lower gears. It made a grinding when I made a sharp, slow right turn as well. There was a smell too that I want to say smelled like rubber, but not entirely positive on that one. I took it for a ride down the driveway later on in the later that sounded like a noise coming from the rear axle as well, but everything else sounded like it was coming from the front. Nothing obviously wrong from a quick visual inspection but I haven't had it on the jack yet. Not really sure where to start looking and don't want to rip my whole car apart if it's something easy. Little help here? Thanks!

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Check the drive shafts and differentials. I've had a couple of Subaru's where the axle popped out of the Diff a 1/2" or so and it feels just like the clutch is slipping. Look at both end of the half shafts and give them a good tug.

 

If you don't see anything, put the brake on and let the clutch out, if one axle is turning, that's the problem.

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I was in the middle of the city at a job site so I had to drive it home. Fortunately, the U joint in the driveshaft was fine and everything seemed pretty solid as far as pulling on things at the diffs. However, after turning my driveshaft by hand, it has a tendency to slip rather than turn the wheels, but only sometimes. So tomorrow I'm gonna pull the plug on the rear diff and see if I get any big shiny chunks of metal out. Oh I can't wait.

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Turns out it was the rear driver's side outer CV joint. The splines on either the driveaxle or the piece it slips into that holds the bearings were stripped. So, I cheated a little bit and welded the driveaxle to that piece. Repacked it with grease and went on my way. Runs great again. :clap:

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