HELP ME!! SUBARU N00b

[juice91si]

hey all, i just purchased a 1991 subaru legacy sport sedan.

it sounds like a machine gun, or helicopter while driving, only under acceleration.

when i flip into neutral, the noise stops.

at slow speed (idle) it feels liek the brakes are grabbing a bit.

it was raining, and i just drove it home and i gave it gas and it felt like it was just using FWD. the noise is coming from the front.

ive been reading up for the last two days about these cars, and now i need some help.

this is going to be my winter car, i own a turbocharged civic, which all the work was done by myself. this car will be no different. i need to know if this has happened to others before, what is wrong, and how to fix it.

do i need to source a new transmission? drive axle? diff?

its automatic btw, so is that the 4eat? do non turbo legacys have the identical tranny?


edit: oh yeah, and it was having trouble upshifting, i had it at like 4500-5000rpm, and it didnt wanna shift.

are these trannies hard to rebuild? how much cost wise?

[dropdfocus]

Drop a PM to Phil (BAC 5.2). He works at Andrewtech Automotive and they specialize in Subaru trannies. He'd likely be of some help to ya.

[juice91si]

k, im pretty sure it's not the tranny. its speed related, and DOES do it in neutral when rolling, just not as bad.

[Kelly]

Hmm. The helicopter sound might be normal, if theres an exhaust leak or something. These cars have an unequal header, and sound furthest from a honda possable. It would be more prominate under accell.

The FWD thing is normal too. these cars are FWD, until the fronts start to slip, at that point will only send a max of 49% to the rears. (which might sound kinda gay, but when you learn to feel it, and to use it, can be quite predictable and fun to drive.)

The grabbing, or "drag" could be a stuck caliper if its a turbo. If its an L or regular Legacy, it could be the hill holder missadjusted. But if it is a turbo, if theres a stuck caliper, go drive it on the freeway or something and use the brakes little as possable. Pull over, and feel the rotors. If one is way hotter than the others, it might indicate you gotta caliper binding up.

[juice91si]

heli noise is not normal. it is LOUD. metal on metal banging, grinding, whatever you call it, there is a major, major problem in the drivetrain, i just dont know what it is. i know the 90-10 split until traction is lost, but i was in the rain, and the front tires spun and spun, it never flet liek the rears kicked in (could be wrong) but regardless, there is a serious issue id like to fix.

and to add to my first post, the noise DOES NOT STOP IN NEUTRAL, it is merely quieter.

can i use this car for parts???

http://www.usedwinnipeg.com/classified- ... enger-cars

[juice91si]

ok, my buddy who owns a civic scrapyard informed me that he has two awd 90-94 legacys that he will let go for 400 for the entire car as parts. so i guess ill be swapping over the drivetrain stuff hoping it fixes the problem.

CAN ANYONE GIVE ME SOME INSIGHT??

discussion, comments, tips, suggestions, complaints, issues, ANYTHING!

i dont want to start until i am at least 80% sure i know what the problem is.

[555BCTurbo]

I think if you spend some time using the "search" feature, you will find most all of the answers you are looking for.

[juice91si]

thanks for the "input"

i have been searching, and have not been able to find something like my problem. ive been lurking for a couple days and decided to make a thread because i couldnt locate the info i needed, and thought maybe someone would have some knowledgable experience.

after searching, the problems may be unrelated to each other, so id liek to get rid of the grinding problem first.

[asc_up]

the banging could be from the engine.

and if it is, hopefully it's lifter noise which would just mean you need to put in some oil cleaning additive.




otherwise it could be rodknock....

[juice91si]

FOUND THE PROBLEM! hopefully it's the only one.

drained the AT fluid* and it looked nice and clear, no metal shavings or signs of major damage. yay.

as my brother turned out the drain plug for the front diff, we knew what the verdict would be.** with a loud plunk, something fell into the pan followed by the fluid. at first i thought the plunk was the plug itself, but then i saw it in my brothers hand; we both burst out laughing. we thought it was funny that a shard of metal came flying out, even though it wasnt funny at all, we still laughed.

and so now that i have found the problem, i will be dropping the tranny, and having one of our friends*** to install a pinionshaft/ring gear. my local subaru dealer wants 680.xx for parts+seals etc. online ive found it as cheap as 289.xx+shipping. with the stronger canadian dollar i am happy to not have to worry about an exchange.

*previous owner overfilled it cuz they thought it would fix problem, hopefully it didnt mess up the transmission.

**upon further research being on subaru boards, i began thinking i had a broken ring gear and/or pinion shaft.

***who is a mechanic, who happens to love working on automatic transmissions.

[ericem]

where are you in Canada? I doubt overfilling the diff would mess up the transmission BTW. If it shifts fine and AWD was working then the $289 is a awesome deal. Subaru dealers around here are NUTS. I wanted these clips for a few trim pieces they wanted like $5 each, on the internet its only $0.50, very crazy when you look at our dollar at par.

[juice91si]

im in winnipeg, theres only one dealer in manitoba!

the diff and tranny fluid are separate, the guy overfilled the tranny thinking it would fix the diff.