pamike Posted May 8, 2012 Share Posted May 8, 2012 my buddy is looking at this 93 legacy at a local car lot. they told us they bought the car with a bad trans. they replaced the trans and we were told they got a bad replacement. they then found another 93 trans that they claim ran good in the car they pulled it from. after installing it they said it doesn't want to upshift. i'm thinking they said it would only go to 2nd gear. i'm pretty sure their are trouble codes but i didn't pull them. from what i observed they don't have a clue about working on subaru's. so what are the chances that the problem is somthing they did and could be an easy fix? do the trans computers ever go bad? basically what we are trying to do is get an idea of the problem so he could possably buy the car very cheap and fix it without sinking alot of money into it. the only reason he's considering it is it has a good body with minimal rust and he is limited to $900. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted May 9, 2012 Share Posted May 9, 2012 I don't usually say this, but unless they are giving the car away walk away. best case scenario is that it only needs a transmission. Worse case scenario is there is something else going on that becomes a money pit. If still thinking about it, it MIGHT be in limp mode, but that is usually 3rd gear limited to 50 mph and no AWD. It is possible that they just have busted VSS sensors, damaged harness. CXheck the condition of the fluid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted May 9, 2012 Share Posted May 9, 2012 I've seen the occasional bad TCU. Had a bad one in a '90 Legacy - torque converter wouldn't go into lockup and was throwing a duty A (or is it B?) code.... turned out the solenoid was fine and the driver circuit in the TCU was bad. Easy fix. GD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pamike Posted May 9, 2012 Author Share Posted May 9, 2012 I don't usually say this, but unless they are giving the car away walk away. best case scenario is that it only needs a transmission. Worse case scenario is there is something else going on that becomes a money pit. If still thinking about it, it MIGHT be in limp mode, but that is usually 3rd gear limited to 50 mph and no AWD. It is possible that they just have busted VSS sensors, damaged harness. CXheck the condition of the fluid. i do know the fluid is new. thats the first thing i looked at. and i'm pretty sure it's not stuck in 3rd gear. so i guess i'll just pull codes and see if they let me drive it. also check the wiring connectons. he was only considering getting it if the price was cheap enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pamike Posted May 9, 2012 Author Share Posted May 9, 2012 I've seen the occasional bad TCU. Had a bad one in a '90 Legacy - torque converter wouldn't go into lockup and was throwing a duty A (or is it B?) code.... turned out the solenoid was fine and the driver circuit in the TCU was bad. Easy fix. GD was it still driveable? would it upshift? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted May 9, 2012 Share Posted May 9, 2012 Will it manually shift? If it can then can rule out the mechanicals and go with GD's thoughtg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivans imports Posted May 9, 2012 Share Posted May 9, 2012 is the speedo working ? its needs the speed signal from speedo to tell tcu when to shift any speedo problems will directly relate to when it shifts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivans imports Posted May 9, 2012 Share Posted May 9, 2012 default on a 4eat is only 3rd gear and reverse any problems and this is what you will have Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pamike Posted May 9, 2012 Author Share Posted May 9, 2012 i'm supposed to go back down with my buddy later this week. i'll look to see if the speedo works and try to manually upshift it and see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eulogious Posted May 11, 2012 Share Posted May 11, 2012 was it still driveable? would it upshift? It was totally driveable, just wouldn't lockup the TQ, so my gas mileage was crappy. But it shifted fine through all the gears, just went down the freeway at 70 mph at around 3500 RPM instead of 2900 RPM. I have personally seen 3 bad TCU's, and I have fixed 2 of them. The TCU's do go bad, and it happens more often than you think. If this is the 3rd trans for the car, and they are still having issues, I would check the TCU. It's the only thing common between the trans besides the wiring. I would not buy the car until I tested it with another, known working TCU. If it's not the TCU, it's probably got wiring issues, and I would not just walk away, but I would be running away in a full sprint if it has wiring issues! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.