Posting for a friend. 1995 Impreza L 2.2 Auto. Over 200k on drivetrain. He had it up on a lift after the first snow and found out that he has nothing going to the rears on the car.(wheels will not turn no matter what) He had felt that it was driving as a FWD in the snow. Now we all know that were only going to have a whopping 20% back there on a good day but what would/could cause this to occour? VC or something ? What are the likely culprates? I know very little about the autos. Thanks, Dan
i hate to ask such an obvious question but is this a AWD impreza? It could be an FWD one. Are there rear axles?
Good call Zak i would not have thought of that. I would next inspect the fuse which is located in the engine bay passenger side byt he firewall. if there is a fuse there remove it. other wise the automatics use a center clutch pack to provide power to the rear wheels. it is possible that either the clutches are all worn out or the solenoid which drives them has died. either of these would give no power to the rear.
Its probably the duty C solenoid. It happens once and a while on older awd auto trannies. That solenoid controls the lockup of the clutch pack, so if it fails, which they do, the car will act like fwd, just like putting the fuse in. The tailhousing, which holds the center diff and the solenoid, needs to be removed to replace the duty c solenoid. Not too hard, but not exactly beginner territory either. Personally, Id rather pull the tranny since you'd be at least halfway there to get the tail housing off with the tranny in the car. Doing that stuff under a car sucks anyways, thats why I'd rather pull it.
lol. Yes it is/was AWD, I guess I didnt put that in there. Thanks for all of the suggestions. What does "The Fuse" do. Part of a testing procedure or something? Dan
yep, could also be the clutch packs themselves.....although that's more common on the SVXs with more torqueses. there's a fuse holder in the engine bay, on the passenger side near the firewall. should have a cover over it that says "FWD". if you put a fuse in there, it'll tell the Duty C solenoid to disengage, so the car can be towed on 2 wheels. you may want to try this trick: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=50264 it does the exact opposite of the FWD fuse, it'll completely lock down the duty C solenoid. if the solenoid is shot, this mod probably won't do anything, but if the clutch packs are worn, it'll put more pressure on them. not a long-term fix, but your not going to damage anything that isn't already damaged.....
