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1 hour ago, idosubaru said:

You weren't satisfied with it by your last two posts - what was the final fix here?

i dont know what the fix was exactly i replaced the transmission and the tcu. this is the longest its gone without the light coming back on thogh in the last couple months

 

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glad to hear that its working out for you!  I actually think i fixed my problem as well as this weekend as i was going over my wires and noticed that my knock sensor plug looked a tiny bit crooked.  so i unbolted the sensor and it looks like my sensor wire wasn't fully plugged into the sensor on the engine.  Only one half was clicked in to the sensor, so i clicked it totally in and so far so good.  I cannot say for sure that that was it but the light wasn't on for awhile and it's still not on...so fingers crossed that i'm still going good.  I hope your problems continue to be a thing of the past as well.

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  • 8 months later...

its back. ive changed the transmission 3 times now and the tcu a few times as well. im thinking i may have a wiring problem. would the engine/dashboard wiring harnesses from a 2001 legacy gt work in my 2001 outback? would i need to use the legacy ecu with the legacy harness or could i just use all of my cars computers with the gt's wiring harness?

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Can you trace each wire at the trans harness engine compartment passengers side? If it’s giving a code jt shoud narrows down which wire it is  

If it’s wiring, Presumably it’s bad from the connector to the TCU. From the connector to rhe trans can’t be bad since that was replaced three times with each trans swap

I’m suspicious that maybe it could be bad around where the connector plugs - somewhere that was disturbed when you did the trans swaps since it “seemed to get better” after the job. Maybe moving it around changed it?

and that area gets a lot of abuse during engine pulls headgaskets and in MTs trans clutches, I know that’s this isn’t a MT just examples - etc  it’s prone to have misplaced and damaged wires more so than other areas.

check the top harness where the engine trans mates on the passengers side. Look for signs of rodent damage or pull the plug and check for vent pins. 

Look for signs of prior accident or flooding issues or moisture issues etc where the TCU or wiring resides  

I’d try to look for obvious damage. In my experience stuff like this is often related to some prior incident. 

i had a bunch of codes on an 02 outback.  Tracing lead me to wires under passengers seat feet carpeting - Pulled the passengers side carpet and what do you knkw - mouse droppings and chewed wiring. spliced and done.    And there was no signs of mice in this car otherwise and damage was one small area  
 

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i just dont know what to do or where to look. wires dont appear to be near the steering joints inside or out. im just kind of thinking the only way im going to fix it is to just swap all the wiring. i supose could try to run another wire from the tcu out to the engine bay and connect it to the transmission. i just have doubts because this car has been a pain the whole way trying to get everything working correctly.

 

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17 hours ago, sirtokesalot said:

79: Transfer duty solenoid. Detects open or shorted output signal circuit. same code it always gives and i have tried changing solenoids on previous transmissions without any long term results.

Splice in a new wire from the body side trans connector harness for the Transfer solenoid to it's destination, which I think is the TCU.  It's only one wire I believe.

You can even use those little "clip in splices" that don't require cutting any wires just for a test run.  Then make sure to properly do it and tape it up to protect it.

 

 

17 hours ago, sirtokesalot said:

i just went out and ohmed the yellow with green stripe wire on both the legacy and the outback i get similar readings from both cars. of course on the outback the light stopped blinking after driving it home in fwd.

Ohmed it from where? 

I think you want to wait for the light to be on and symptoms present and test for continuity of the transfer solenoid wire from the body side harness to the TCU.  Of course the issue may be so intermittent that it won't fail the test. 

Edited by idosubaru
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10 minutes ago, idosubaru said:

Splice in a new wire from the body side trans connector harness for the Transfer solenoid to it's destination, which I think is the TCU.  It's only one wire I believe.

You can even use those little "clip in splices" that don't require cutting any wires just for a test run.  Then make sure to properly do it and tape it up to protect it.

 

 

Ohmed it from where? 

I think you want to wait for the light to be on and symptoms present and test for continuity of the transfer solenoid wire from the body side harness to the TCU.  Of course the issue may be so intermittent that it won't fail the test. 

yellow wire with green stripe at tcu. meter on ohm setting and everything connected. on startup both cars show around 15 to 16 ohms in park in reverse both cars show around 60 ohms neutral ol drive 3 2 and 1 around 60 ohms and park only shows an ohm reading when first started that reading goes to ol after a little waiting or after shifting out of park and back to park. readings are within 1 ohm of each other between the 2 cars.

Edited by sirtokesalot
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3 hours ago, sirtokesalot said:

yellow wire with green stripe at tcu. meter on ohm setting and everything connected. on startup both cars show around 15 to 16 ohms in park in reverse both cars show around 60 ohms neutral ol drive 3 2 and 1 around 60 ohms and park only shows an ohm reading when first started that reading goes to ol after a little waiting or after shifting out of park and back to park. readings are within 1 ohm of each other between the 2 cars.

Awesome, good find. How positive are you it was exhibiting the issues at the time of testing? 

It may have just not had a bad connection during testing.

I wonder if there's a way to monitor that wire during driving so you can see what's happening when it has issues and when it doesnt?

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3 hours ago, idosubaru said:

Awesome, good find. How positive are you it was exhibiting the issues at the time of testing? 

It may have just not had a bad connection during testing.

I wonder if there's a way to monitor that wire during driving so you can see what's happening when it has issues and when it doesnt?

the light was not flashing so i asume it was working at the time i tested it. wiggling wires did not make it drop out ither.

 

Edited by sirtokesalot
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well heres my current plan. i just de pinned the tcu connector and the transmission connector from a scrap harness i have in the attic and stole the pins from it. i am going to depin the yellow/green wire from the tcu side and the transmission side and re pin it with a new wire. hopfully this will fix the issue and if not im sure ill be back again. will update in time.

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45 minutes ago, sirtokesalot said:

well heres my current plan. i just de pinned the tcu connector and the transmission connector from a scrap harness i have in the attic and stole the pins from it. i am going to depin the yellow/green wire from the tcu side and the transmission side and re pin it with a new wire. hopfully this will fix the issue and if not im sure ill be back again. will update in time.

that's fantastic.  Definitely wondering what you get from this.  

You've already replace everything - TCU and trans 3 times - the only thing left is the harness or a ground causing fuzzy signal.  I ignored that though - I can't imagine that impacting only that one sensor. 

Those 00-04's transfer system seems too simplistic for the transfer solenoid to be impacted by any other sensors. 

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had a scare last night with it. apparently the passenger ball joint nut dident like being off and on multiple times over the past year and the nut was compromised. went around a corner and the nut popped off the ball joint and it separated. ended up jacking it up there and re assembling the ball joint using a lug nut for the ball joint to get it home. i swapped the lug nut for a standard castle nut with new cotter pin. it had one of those lock nuts on there before. even found the old nut with the threads tore out of it. i read the torque spec for the ball joint is 29.5 ft pound i put it up to 40 ft pound with new nut and a little more for the cotter so im prety sure it should stay put now. so far no at temp light but i havent really driven it far yet.

 

Edited by sirtokesalot
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Ball-joint failed! Going around a corner! Horror of horrors!

I had a similar failure once, a long time ago, and the thought still haunts me.  But it was on an old car, a 1934 Austin, and the ball-joint stem sheared off at the top of the ball, also when going around a bend.  But times have moved on since then, and there have been huge advances in metallurgy and in manufacturing techniques since then.

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