99 SUS. Torque converter not releasing

[Numbchux]

Trying to flip this car and it's giving me problems....

 

Occasionally, when the transmission is not up to temp, the torque converter will lock up and not unlock for a while. It will even stall the motor if you stop.

 

If I were still driving it, I'd put some sort of test light in line with that wire to try to narrow that down, but the car is on a used car lot.

 

The transmission works great otherwise. Any ideas?

[Legacy777]

How does the trans fluid look?  Have you changed it recently?  If not, I'd suggest maybe draining and refilling it to see if it helps.

[Numbchux]

Looks great. I have not changed it, but I've only had the car for about 1k miles. I looks like it's been recently changed.

[torxxx]

Chux - Do you have an early or a late 99?  Basically what I'm asking is Phase 1 or Phase 2 4EAT.

 

isnt there a way to get to the lockup wire to the computer and either power it or ground it?  Should be able to mod it like I did for my center diff lock to keep the TCU from spitting codes.  I'm getting my SVX FSM out right now, to see about disabling my lockup.  Pm me if you wanna go back and forth via text, might be easier than doin the forum thing

[Numbchux]

It's a phase 2.

 

The fact that it's dependent on the temperature of the transmission, I don't think it's related to the TCU at all, I think it's either a sticking solenoid, or the converter itself.

[torxxx]

Yea, I'm not too knowledgeable about the Phase 2's, other than that they are a hell of a lot easier to service solenoids since they bolt up between the pan and the valve body 

 

 

 I just read over my FSM tranny section and from what I can see, Duty B is the one that controls it.  The circuit is setup very similar to the Duty C but it uses 2 power (communication wires) and and a 3rd resister wire.  But then again I'm sure Subaru had to completely change the system/wiring.

 

Oh btw after I read ur post yesterday, the SVX did the lockup stall 2x leaving work.  Since I added my center diff lock button, im wondering if a lot of these tranny issues people have is from bad grounds? 

 

 

Sorry if this dont make sense, its 6 am and I yet to have my morning coffee and 2 smokes

[ivans imports]

check main engine ground on intake also the ground wire from body to ground have seen it try and ground thru the shafts of tranny makes for intermitant problems also check if pans dented is very close to soiliniods if dented mabee soiliniod damage

[Numbchux]

Well, since I hate it when people don't follow-up when they have issues....I suppose I better follow up.

 

2 drain and fills (about a gallon of new ATF each time) didn't help.

 

Replaced the TCC solenoid (another gallon of fresh ATF), nothing.

 

 

So, again with the knowledge that it's temperature-related, we decided it had to be mechanical. It just happened that my friend who's helping me fix and flip this car just parted out an 01 2.5RS with a 4EAT, and that trans was sitting on the floor of the garage. We didn't want to do it, but it had to be done.

 

Long day on Saturday, a few issues, and a few surprises (3 new greaseable u-joints in the driveshaft!), but the transmission is swapped. We re-resealed the oil separator on the back of the engine while we were at it, as it was seeming to leak a bit. The problem has gone away.

 

 

 

Long story short, I think it was the converter itself having a mechanical problem causing it to stick on when the fluid was not up to temperature.

[Legacy777]

Thanks for the follow up.

 

Sometimes there's just not much you can do for an auto trans other than rebuilding it or swapping in a different one.