legacycentral bbs

So, please bear with my general lack of mechanical knowledge. I'm going to explain this situation as carefully as I can, but I'm not a mechanic.

I have a '90 Legacy, AWD, auto trans. It has worked fine up in the couple months I've owned it.

I was driving along the highway this past weekend, when I looked behind me to see a thick plume of white smoke. Odd, since there was no snow or dirt. I pull over, and immediately upon slowing down I can smell burning. So I turn off the car and get out, and see red fluid all over the snow.

Transmission fluid of course.

It was gushing pretty good while the motor was running.
I can see it dripping out, but it stops shortly after. The smoke came fromt he fact it was burning off on the exhaust pipes. Convenient, because I got no warning lights, nor did I notice any transmission issues.

So I get a flatbed to the transmission shop, and they tell me that the main transmission seal near the torq converter blew out.

So, the question here is, is this a normal occurance for the 4EAT?

The mechanic explained that it is a high pressure location in the transmission, and that could have caused the seal to burst due to its age, etc.

But could this be caused by a major issue - an issue that would make any of you not spend the 600 dollars on dropping the tranny and replacing hte valve?

Or, could it just simply be an old tranny with a seal that just happened to give up on me.

I'm on a limited budget here, so if I'm going to find out my tranny has major issues, I'd rather it didn't involve spending 600 bucks.


(Too long, didn't read version: Transmission leaking by torq converter, what caused it, should I fix it?)

Mileage of the transmission?

Sadly, 4eats do not have a high lifespan.

It has 217,000 kilometers on it. I've had it for 10,000 kms of that. Its been running just fine for me.

The maintenance records I have shown the fluid was flushed as recently as 2 years ago. Prior to that, I'm not sure of maintenance.

Yeah, I've heard nothing but bad things about the 4EAT. I'd love to do a five speed swap, but I need the car on the road sooner than later, so I can't take the time now to locate all the parts.

Unless there is somebody in southern Ontario with a five speed swap they are selling cheap

I bought my tranny from the junkyard for $175 plus $25 core. I would never spend $600 on an automatic transmission. Or even a manual one for a 1st gen legacy.

Definately not worth it. But that was with me doing all the work. So if you're not up to the task then I guess it might be worth it, I dunno.

for $600 I'd get a junkyard trans with a warranty and have it installed rather than trying to fix current one.

I just got a trans from pick a part for $86 with a 30 day warranty, lucked ot and it looked fresh inside, and is driving very nicely.

You guys would swap the whole tranny rather than just fixing the seal? I'm confused, because my tranny is fine, just blew the seal. The seal itself is 50 bucks.

Its 450 dollars just to drop the tranny, not to fix it. We're talking a lot of labour here.

I've never dropped a subie trans, but usual around here for most transmissions is $250.

Dropping the AT is not fun.....$450 seems a little high though. See if they can give you an hourly breakdown of the labor.

Legacy777 wrote:Dropping the AT is not fun.....$450 seems a little high though. See if they can give you an hourly breakdown of the labor.

Hourly labour is 89 an hour. They said approx. 5 hours.

I'm going to get a second quote before I have the work done though.

Royson wrote:You guys would swap the whole tranny rather than just fixing the seal? I'm confused, because my tranny is fine, just blew the seal. The seal itself is 50 bucks.

Its 450 dollars just to drop the tranny, not to fix it. We're talking a lot of labour here.

I'm guessing you didn't notice the part where I said if you're not up to doing it yourself, it may be worth paying someone else to just replace the seal.

I would have swore the trannies had a recall because of some sort of breather getting clogged and it causes the seals to blow out. IMO just find a good used low mileage tranny from a japanese auto parts place. I have went through repairing my transmission and after spending $3000 after a $1200 original quote it definitely did not go well and to this day still does not operate correctly (delayed awd, messed shifting, I give up anyway). After i spent that $3000 a JDM shop told me they could have swapped in a EJ22 motor and 4 EAT from a 93 Legacy with only 50,000km and 1 year warrenty for $1200 installed. That really hurt.

So I've decided the car isn't worth repairing, due to economics.

Just so the thread has closure to anybody searching for answers in the future.

And thus ends my tenure on the Subaru board. Sigh. For now

It only took me about an hour & a half to drop the trans, and another 2 to put the new one in and have it running. Front seal isn't that bad if you've ever changed a trans in an older american car.

If you do it, the easiest way to get the torque converter back in and lined up is to stand the trans up on the tail so the convertor can drop straight in.

Good luck on whatever you do.

wow this is the same thing that just happened to me. iv tryed to look on here is that a difference between the turbo 4eat and the non-turbo 4eat? i found a non-turbo 4eat with 10k in it that i want to put into my turbo will it work ok, is it strong enough?